he human condition. Such a man is Chinua Achebe, a contemporary Nigerian writer whose work addresses the complexities of post-colonial Africa with an insight and humanity that transcend cultural and political boundaries.
             Part of what makes Achebe's writings so appropriate to the current conflicts is that they are themselves a unique amalgam of British literary style and African cultural perspectives (Nnolim 163). In his best known novel, Things Fall Apart, he gives the Western audience an insider's appreciation for traditional Igbo culture while maintaining a certain objectivity that allows him to criticize aspects of both colonial and indigenous society. As a retelling of the story of the European missionaries in Nigeria from the perspective of the natives, this book is an important historical document, despite the fictionalized characters. However, it is also much more than that. With this book Achebe combats the image of Europeans as the bringers of civilization and culture to the primitive tribes. Despite their simple agrarian way of life, he demonstrates that Igbo society is just as complex as any European community. Significantly, Achebe also resists the Rousseauistic temptation to idealize the "state of nature" as a utopian Garden of Eden, free from the conflicts and injustices of modern life. In the process of dispelling stereotypes of traditional African culture, he also touches on some of the most universal issues that face any society. The conflict of the younger generation with the established conservatives, the relativity of moral judgments from one society to another, an
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