Chinua Achebe

This is the story of Okonkwo, an Ibo man who lives in the village of Umoufia, in Nigeria. It shows the traditions and culture of the Ibo people, while also telling Okonkwo's story. This miniseries is an adaptation of Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name.

When Obi Okonkwo completes his studies in England and returns to Nigeria, he finds himself in a country marked by rapid industrialisation and deep political change. In a time of social upheaval, Obi represents modern Nigeria. Through his gaze, his own expectations, those of his environment and the woman he loves become visible. And the disappointment of these expectations. Obi experiences the spreading corruption, the dominance of the Europeans and the conflicts with the values of traditional societies. In flashbacks, his struggle is interwoven with that of his grandfather Okonkwo. The latter experiences the first foreign influences in his village of Umuofia, from the arrival of the Christian missionaries to British colonialism.

Renowned Black writer James Baldwin retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, reflecting with his trademark brilliance and insight on the passage of more than two decades. From Selma and Birmingham and Atlanta; to the battleground beaches of St. Augustine, Florida, with Chinua Achebe; and back north for a visit to Newark with Amiri Baraka, Baldwin lays bare the fiction of progress in post–Civil Rights America, wondering “what happened to the children” and those 'who did not die, but whose lives were smashed on Freedom Road'.