The story of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart takes place in the Nigerian village of Umuofia in the late 1880s, before missionaries and other outsiders have arrived. Time and place are impeccably chosen by Chinua Achebe. The moments before the arrival of white influence gives him the opportunity to explore and present a traditional lifestyle of the Igbo villages. It also helps readers to gain a keen insight into the arrival of external characters as experienced by the Igbo communities. It highlights that actions undertaken before and after the imperialist presence may have different consequences and that long held traditions can be abandoned overnight. It also displays that justice and education systems, once implemented, will have a profound effect on the new hybrid community.

The physical setting is a clear parallel to the events that will unfold. It begins as an almost mystical place of fertile but moody farming patches and the Evil Forest. This connection to the natural surrounds supports the development of the traditions of the Igbo communities. It gives rise to the prominent belief in gods and spirits such as the earth goddess who must be continually appeased if the citizens of Umuofia are to have peace. The descriptions of weather and the interconnected nature of land, weather and farming give the reader a logical understanding of cultural practices. It is of note that the physical environment changes with the arrival of colonists and missionaries. A church is erected in the sacred Evil Forest and a courthouse built between the village of Umuofia and its water supply.

The action of Things Fall Apart centres on the fictional village of Umuofia, which is part of a larger political entity comprised of nine villages. The villages are gendered depending on where a person’s parents were born. Umuofia is Okonkwo’s father’s home village, which makes it Okonkwo’s fatherland and Mbanta, his mother’s village and where Okonkwo finds exile, is Okonkwo’s motherland. The irregular location of the villages helps the reader to understand that families and clans are interconnected and have brokered peace under a shared set of common understandings. This mutuality is considered necessary even though relations can break at times. When a young girl from Umuofia is killed by members of a neighbouring village, two children from that village are sent to Umuofia as compensation and to mend ties. After Okonkwo is involved in an accident in Umuofia, which results in the death of a child, he flees to the village of his mother. This strata of villages gives rise to a more civilised understanding of the African people than has been proffered by European authors.