Starting with "A"

I got through the first couple of rows of the "A"'s until I got snagged by a couple:
Chinua Achebe, "Things Fall Apart" and James Agee, "A Death in the Family". I read Achebe's slim now set in Nigeria about the beginning of the time of colonization and missionary work in a few nights. I felt like I was sitting next a camp fire and someone was telling stories. There was rhythm, repitiion, and cadence - that made a beautiful melody about the life and culture of some villages in Nigeria before their introduction to the white man and his ways. Okonkwo, the protagonist, is a strong, proud, stubborn and ultimatley flawed leader of his village who spends his whole life trying to be someone different than his father. His father was weak, lazy and a debtor who earned no titles or status in the village throughout his lifetime. Okonkwo tries too hard to be seen as fearless and strong. This becomes a weakness and a liability as he tries to hide his feelings and vulnerabilities, ending up in him participating in killing a child from another village who, after living with him for 3 yrs he had loved as a son. This also marked the time that his son became alienated from him, blaming him for his friend's death.

It was sad to read about the arrogance of the missionaries and white people and how this had an effect on tribal culture. Ultimately this resulted in K feeling such despair over the changes in his village that he took his own life and had to be buried by strangers rather than by clansmen.

Africa mystifies me. Someday I would like to visit, especially South Africa. The description of the land, the wild animals, the plains, lakes, rivers and mountains sound beautiful and also frightening. It seems so teeming with life, dangerous life - poisonous snakes, ferocious animals, different cultures - so foreign to what I have experienced in my life.