Posted by By Uduma Kalu on
In the United States, Things Fall Apart, the classic novel written by Nigeria's novelist, Chinua Achebe, has recorded another milestone.
In the United States, Things Fall Apart, the classic novel written by Nigeria's novelist, Chinua Achebe, has recorded another milestone. It has inspired 20 high schools in Nassau County in New York State to participate in the Cornell Cooperative Extension and the 2005 New Student Reading Project at Cornell.
This number of schools, the Cornell University Press says, is "the largest number in any county. "
According to the statement made available to The Guardian, 5,000 students from 59 high schools in 17 New York counties, New York City and 24,000 Cornell University alumni have signed on for the annual reading of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
The classic novel is part of a state-wide pilot programme coordinated through Cornell Cooperative Extension and the 2005 New Student Reading Project at Cornell.
A statement further said that the 24,000 Cornell alumni would "join what has become a yearly rite of passage for incoming freshmen and transfer students at Cornell."
The state-wide pilot project reaches high schools from the counties of Erie to Suffolk and Jefferson to Westchester. At Kildonan, a private high school for dyslexic students in Dutchess County, 15 compact disc recordings of Achebe's novel have been prepared. In Schuyler the project has inspired the founding of an advanced reader's club for students who wish to participate. County-based cooperative extension educators are facilitating the outreach efforts with their local high schools.
Things Fall Apart was written in 1958 and depicts the rise and fall of Okonkwo, a Nigerian "whose sense of manliness is more akin to that of his warrior ancestors than to that of his fellow clansmen who have converted to Christianity and are appeasing the British administrators who infiltrate their village," said the statement, quoting The Library Journal.
Determined not to repeat the mistakes of his idle, debt-ridden father, the stern, hardworking Okonkwo is at once "a quintessential old-order Nigerian and a universal character whom sons of all races have identified as the figure of their father."
According to the statement, the Cornell reading project was the brainchild of Provost Biddy Martin, who saw the initiative as a way to encourage intellectual as well as social rapport among incoming students. The project is sponsored by the Provost's Office, with assistance from the office of Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy.
It went on to say that new Cornell students and their professors would discuss, criticise and evaluate Things Fall Apart at required campus events during the university's orientation week in August, including a large-group symposium and small-group discussions. A faculty member will lead each small-group discussion with the assistance of an upper-level student. When classes begin, many new students will also have opportunities to write about some aspects of the novel in their first-year writing seminars.
"The response from high school teachers has been phenomenal," said Nancy Fey, communications coordinator for Cornell Cooperative Extension, referring to the response to Things Fall Apart. "Many have written e-mails expressing their appreciation for being able to take part in the reading project."
Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for undergraduate education, said, "The pilot project is an expression of Cornell's land-grant mission and its obligation to the intellectual enhancement of the people of this state." He went on to stress the unprecedented growth of alumni involvement.
He explained that the "Outreach has been an important part of the project since it was established with the reading of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel in 2001. Town-gown and alumni elements grew exponentially during a community-wide reading of Frankenstein in 2002, setting the pace for continued growth.
Last year 23 alumni classes ordered 19,500 copies of Franz Kafka's The Trial. Eight more classes have come aboard for this year's reading, and 24,000 copies of the special Cornell edition of Things Fall Apart await shipment.
"Cornell's alumni love getting the book," said Tina Gourley, alumni officer in class and reunion programmes. "They love being intellectually engaged with what's happening on campus."
Things Fall Apart is also a key text in Harvard University, United States.