Things Fall Apart by Achebe - Essay Example

? Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart is a story that speaks about two related stories that focus on the main character Okonkwo who lives in Ibo village in Nigeria. The tale of an unforgettable fight among society and its people, features Okonkwo’s struggle with the village, while the second, is about the culture clash and Okonkwo’s world destruction with the arrival of the missionaries from Europe. These clearly harmonized stories are supported by an awareness able relate at once human history and nature’s life, therefore, the novel is partly a tragedy and partly a documentary. The novel tells Okonkwo’s story and his tragic death following the missionaries’ arrival as the fiction there in documents a world destroyed by the missionaries. Achebe’s novel seems to digress to understand the Okonkwo’s with the arrival of western missionaries’ gravity therefore; the viewer should see Okonkwo within his world’s context. Set in both the colonial and pre-colonial era, Things Fall Apart highlights differences between traditional African and Christian belief system. It depicts the lifestyle of the past traditional culture among the Nigerians and its clashes with the introduction of colonialism. It stars Okonkwo, a resilient who strived to renounce his unsuccessful father in character and way of living. Unoka who is the father of Okonkwo offered no attention to his family and he finally died poor leaving many debts to be paid while Okonkwo toiled to become a wealthy and powerful man among the people of his village as a leader, warrior and a wealthy and courageous traditionalist with three wives and had many children1. Due to these, qualities Okonkwo was elected to become the guardian of Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna is a boy given to Okonkwo by a neighbouring village, he lives in the hut of Okonkwo’s first wife, and he developed a close relationship with Okonkwo’s oldest son. Shortly after the death of Ikemefuna by Okonkwo’s blow, things went haywire for Okonkwo. However, Okonkwo’s gun misfired at a salutation funeral killing Ezeudu’s son at his father’s funeral. For several years, Okokwo and his family were exiled as a way of appeasing the offended gods and while they were away, the missionaries came into Umuofia and introduced Christianity plus a new government system. When Okonkwo came back to Umofia, he revolted against destroying a local church. They were held prisoner by the white administration for a while and released after payment of a ransom. The native leaders felt humiliated and greatly insulted and brought up a great uprising. Well known as an adamant warrior, Okonkwo advocated for war against the whites killing a native messenger from the colonial administration2. Realising with despair that his community will not fight to protect themselves, he ultimately committed suicide rather than be tried in a foreign colonial court. It is against the traditions for an individual to commit suicide, thus in death, he ruined his reputation and legacy. This clearly shows how the political structure of the white men and the Africans vary as the white men had court system through which they ensured justice was done by having the grieved compensated by the trouble maker and did not allow the tit for tat approach used by the Africans. Mr Brown and Reverend Smith are white missionaries who greatly affected Christianity to the people of Umuofia. Mr Brown was a western missionary who was succeeded by Reverend Smith in Umuofia. This happened as Okonkwo was away on exile, an exile that was brought unto his due to misfiring of his gun killing the son of the elder Ezendu during the Ezendu’s funeral. The exile was meted upon the Okonkwo family to appease the gods that were irritated by the death. Brown and Smith were marvelled at the acceptance of Christianity in the village. This was due to the equality gospel they preached. Among the traditions he was against were blatant killing of some of the villagers regarded them as outcasts. Smith was a critic of the previous masses teachings of Mr Brown. He came in with more intense and inner understanding of the church requirements. Among his first actions were to chase away a woman for mixing new wine into the old wine. He is man non-tolerant to the people who were against the Christianity he came with. No one could be admitted to the church unless he disowned some of the extreme cultures the Igbo people still upheld. The Igbo people have a saying 3 but in this regard, Smith danced a different step and the drums went wild. There was much ignorance among the flock when it came to trinity and sacraments. As the parable of the sower goes, much of Brown’s teachings fell on rocky soil. He was critical of traditions such as mutilation of dead children, and those who did such were not worthy of the Lord’s Table. It was under the watch of Reverend Smith that an uprising under Okonkwo arose and destroyed the church that was built by Mr Brown. This emanated from a clash of traditions of the Umuofia people and the teachings of the missionaries. They revolted as one of their own, Enoch was under the protection of the church as he was an extremist. Achebe here brings out the two extreme ends of the evolution of Christianity and traditional beliefs, a balance between the two need lots of compromise and open-minded attitude. Achebe brings about the question whether the sacrifices made at the expense of traditional beliefs are worth, Okonkwo having undergone hardships. He is successful in demonstrating the rich cultures though uncivilised in the nature of their practice4. The frustrations caused by the shift from tradition to Christianity shows that European sentiments towards Africans are mistaken. Regarded as primitive, cultures such as drawing the spirit of the gods using masks, is unreal to the missionaries. The complicated cultural Nigerian history always played a significant role in the day-to-day Umuofia people’s life. A gradual shift in understanding the rituals and taboos would have been a rather successful attempt in the instilling Christianity in the residents of Umuofia. However, Mr Brown and Smith are of the notion that Christianity is of far much greater value than the traditions. A drastic shift from African tradition to Christianity is unrealistic; this can be observed from all the African societies that welcomed missionary activities on the vast continent of Africa. There is a struggle between tradition and change is constant up to date and individual personalities too react differently to change; the Umuofia community evidences this when they could not unite with Okonkwo in striking down the white man’s messenger. Chinua in his texts on the missionaries’ activities, he expresses the changes they brought to the African community. The changes were unacceptable and resulted to a lot of commotion among the African communities in cases such as where the church embraced twins and the community outcasts.5 As a counter reaction to the missionaries’ activities, the villagers frustrated the Easter holiday preparation activities of the church by denying the women access to the water stream. In addition, the women are also denied the access to the red soil supposed to be used in preparing the church for the celebrations. This shows just how the missionaries despite the African’s resistance on the Christian religion strived to pass across the Christianity message. In addition, the missionaries opened up Umofia village by introducing trading stores and palm oil and kernel attained a high market price.6 The village enjoyed money inflow as a result of the trade involving the two primary products; palm oil and kernel among other things. Mr. Brown’s restrain activities on the Christian converts had been very essential in preventing conflict between the church and the clan men in the village. He used friendly interactions to approach the villagers and from that he learned a great deal about the African religious beliefs. He also devised a way through which to approach the Africans and succeed in converting them to Christianity. For example, he built a school and a little hospital in Umofia and then visited all the villagers’ families requesting for the children to be taken to the school. Here they would be taught of the new religion in a friendly and understandable manner as well as merged with the African religious beliefs. Mr. Smith, on the other hand, had a different approach to the conversion of the Africans to Christianity7. He openly criticized and condemned the Africans religious beliefs and practises. He encouraged the coverts to follow his footsteps; an action that lead to a huge conflict between the clan and the Christian religion. For instance, when the ceremony of the earth god collided with the Christians Sunday worship, the Christian women were unable to go home and hence requested the clans spirits to fall back to allow them get home. However, Enoch a Christian intervened by confronting the spirits and unmasking them publicly; a forbidden move among the earth god worshipers. In retaliation, the clan’s army in furry attacked Enoch’s house and reduced it to ashes and matched on to the church to destroy it. They believed that the church had brought to the community and abomination and that its shrine needed to be destroyed for the best of the community. Mr. Smith did not cower as expected but stood on his ground, the clan’s army was unable to touch or harm him despite the furry and determination. Things Fall Apart allows readers to examine the influence of the missionaries and the colonialists from a new perspective. As an African, the author has succeeded in exposing the Umofia society life to the readers from an African man’s perspective. In conclusion, therefore, what Chinua Achebe is trying to portray the cultural clashes between the white colonial administration of Nigeria and the Igbo’s ancient culture and the novel shatters the stereotypical portraits of the indigenous people by the European missionaries. Achebe is careful to show the complicated, sophisticated nature Umofia society and culture before the coming of the European missionaries. Achebe gives different depictions of the missionaries for instance, Mr. Brown is viewed as benevolent and Mr. Smith as Zealous and a ruthless DC. Emphasizes on the different approaches the European missionaries used on the African communities and the resultant actions of the Africans. For example, Mr. Brown’s peaceful and friendly approach on the Umofia villagers saw a great impact on the community without clashes between the two groups. His successor Mr. Smith ruthlessness brought conflict and tension between the clan and the church, and a promise of expulsion from the village. Thus, the different approaches greatly influenced the spread of the Christianity belief in the African societies. References Achebe, Chinua, and Peter Francis James. Things Fall Apart. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 1997 Achebe, Chinua, and Abiola, Irele. 2009. Things fall apart: authoritative text, contexts and criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Booker, M. Keith. The Chinua Achebe Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003. . Read More