Chinua Achebe’s renowned story, Things Fall Apart, details the life of a Nigerian man (Okonkwo) and his small village in the late 1800s as they experience the effects British Imperialism, such as changes in culture and religious life. Achebe wrote his novel to highlight the “Nigerian side” of the story to disprove and shed light on the unbelievable bias and outlandishness of European depictions of African people and cultures throughout their imperialistic exploits.
Within his story, Achebe gives light to many culturally significant ceremonies and religious beliefs held by Okonkwo and his people. For example, the novel dives deeply into the spiritual lives of the Igbo people, citing their gods Chukwu (a Supreme God) and Chi (Personal God) on multiple occasions to highlight the great significance in moral and political life that these gods play. This is seen when the Oracle of the village tells Okonkwo that his adopted son, Ikemefuna, must be killed as it was the will of the Gods. After hearing this, Okonkwo accepts her words and kills Ikemefuna himself, using the words of his Gods as a justification of his actions (Achebe, Chapter 17).
This Igbo religion, where the Gods speak directly with the people as Divine entities and tells them what actions must be committed, clashes heavily with the British Christian faith brought to them. The British Imperialism seen within Achebe’s novel is one that mirrors other examples of British control across the world, which often end in religious clashes. Such rebellion against colonizers and their religions was seen across Central America, as Hernan Cortes attempted to “cleanse” Native American religions. This was met with resistance as well, as seen when native Cholulans refused to burn and give up their idols to adopt Christianity after they had been massacred by Cortes’ hands.
Struggles faced by the Igbo people against Christianity and the agents of it are highlighted by Achebe through their burning down of a Christian church within Okonkwo’s village by the native people. With this, we can see the Igbo people rejecting British rule and their “true” God. It is important to recognize these struggles as throughout European literature, Nigerians and Africans in general were described as “savages” and “beasts” that lacked society and culture, when the exact opposite was the truth. These people simply wanted to preserve their way of life and the culture that had guided them for generations from a tyrannical foreign power.
Sources:
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Publishing Group, 2019.
“Religious Conflicts in the Conquest of Mexico: AHA.” Religious Conflicts in the Conquest of Mexico | AHA, www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/narrative-overviews/religious-conflicts-in-the-conquest-of-mexico.
“Tradition vs. Change in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart.’” GRIN, www.grin.com/document/23478#:~:text=of%20the%20novel.-,1.,European%20portraits%20of%20native%20Africans.
This is just another case of the that example Adichie used at the beginning of this course in knowing “the full story,” in order to have complete knowledge and power (in relation to the people of Nigeria and Africa being described of as savages and or beasts, when that was not the truth).
This ties in to many topics we have talked about in class up to this point. This is about as good of an example of “Self” vs the “Other” as you can get. It is no secret that the British thought themselves superior to the people of Nigeria. They felt they were the most important people in the world, and anyone who believed something different than them was automatically thought of as wrong and inferior.
I agree that this ties into many concepts we have discussed in class. What immediately came to my mind was the ‘Single Story’ from Adichie. In this case the British colonizers had the power to control the narrative, thus the Nigerians in this time were labeled as ‘undeveloped’ and ‘savages’ when they actually had their own society and cultural beliefs.
wall.233 I defiantly agree with your comment and how it is a great example of “Self” vs. the “Other,” it really was seen and made of reality that the British were to hold higher power of the people of Nigeria. I also thought of the single story from week one as an example, that the people of Nigeria were held to a lower standard because of the British but when you tap into the cultures you can see different sides of both stories.
I also agree that this story is a very exemplary representation of the Self vs. the Other idea. Additionally I think it’s important to point out that in Aijaz Ahmad’s Rhetoric of Otherness, similar to this story, the English see themselves as the one, but are instead colonizing India. This further verifies the English people’s self-identification as the “One”, with not one but two societies they view as others.
Before reading the entire story of Things Fall Apart, I think that this is a great underlying historical context to grasp what problems are going on between the people of Nigeria and the British and how their religions combat with each other. Knowing of these religious conflicts can really help have a better understanding of what is going in in Achebe’s story and the concept of domination and different societies. Great post! I would like to learn a little bit more about what the Igbo religion is like.
I liked what martin.3793 and colyer.16 talked about in their comments. I personally felt a connection to the part in your presentation where you discussed the Native American “cleanse.” Being a descendant of the Cherokee Native American Tribe myself, I liked being able to learn more or encourage other people to have an understanding of what this was. As you mentioned the tyrannical powers taking things like their way of life from them, I think this was a great piece to bring in to really understand how other people would be feeling and make us, as individuals with different backgrounds, think about what role we could have played in that situation and how we would have felt. I liked what colyer.16 was saying about religion being able to sway people in different ways and I think this ties into bias a lot. People have these preconceived notions that what they do is right and many don’t like to admit they’re wrong so we hold these biases to other people and it frequently leads to some kind of turmoil. Understanding the events of the time and the history of it all gave me a greater understanding as I read the book for this week.
Because we live in America and we are all allowed to practice different religions, I have seen instances where religion has influenced decisions and other don’t always agree. For example, some of the most controversial topics in politics have had decision made by those influenced by their religion when not everyone understands or agrees. This seems to tie into what happened when Okonkwo killed his father because his god wanted him to. Of course this isn’t ethical, which brings up another discussion, but overall religion tends to sway everyones thinking whether you believe in it or not.
I agree, and like what colyer.16 mentions in their comment. Religion has a way of swaying and influencing decisions based on reasons that may not always be ethical. Before finishing the reading this week, it seems as though religion has a strong influence on many choices throughout this story. It also seems like a good time to bring in the reference of the “danger of a single story” we may not know what else is going on in this situation or why the decision has been made which is why we should know all sides of the decision.
It’s very interesting to see the perspective of those who have been colonized rather than the perspective of the colonizers. It was refreshing to read about this certain groups story with colonization. We usually focus on the United States and their colonies when talking about this era in history. It’s important to see how no matter where these people were whether it was in the U.S or Africa, they had their own culture religion before the British colonized.
I think this perspective and, frankly, any perspective that isn’t eurocentric in nature are really valuable and so different than the perspectives often shared in educational literature. I personally struggle with reading fiction, but found this novel really was able to not only hold my attention, but push me to assess my own boundaries of what is “normal”. Reading this, I had to really keep focus on the culture differences and similarities which would influences how I was viewing certain characters. I found it interesting that Unoka was viewed so negatively because he was seen as lazy and weak, but someone could easily find themselves viewed in a similar light in 2021 within the United States. Of course aspects differ, but in general, US culture derives worth from wealth and contribution–if you cannot contribute and thus cannot obtain wealth, you are seen as having diminished worth. All that is to say that, like Adichie shared, there is not one story of Africa–and in many ways there is cultural overlap that can be disregarded if one assumes that Africa is nothing beyond the stereotypes and assumptions often taught to us in the United States.
This novel was such a great way to show perspective on instances that occur around the world. Especially as Americans, we are only taught to understand our side of imperialism and how we are the “good guys”. When in reality there is always two sides to one story, and we in fact are not the people we are taught to think we are. This relates to the previous weeks readings in the idea of the “other” and with the TED talk. We have steer clear of the “single” story concept and by reading literature like this we will understand all the stories provided to us on every side. This is so important so that we can be further educated and fully understand our past, so that in the future we are shaped to make better decisions.
The novel is written to help get out a Nigerian perspective during the British colonization. Adiche’s main point in her ted talk was that a single story can be dangerous. The British may have spread lies and rumors during their colonization. I liked how Hilmer.10 brought up the point that this novel highlighted the Nigerian side of the story disproving bias. Well done
I took a film class last semester in which we watched a Brazilian film called “How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman” and it reminds me a lot of this story. HTWMLF is also set during European colonization/imperialism and the film includes transcripts of French and British colonizers who termed the Brazilians savages and “beasts with human faces” because they had some different traditions. Ancient Brazilians practiced cannibalism as a spiritual and ritualistic imbibing of their enemies and their powers and while this seemed “savage” to the British and French, it really just showed that the Brazilians had a rich culture with traditions and beliefs that are different from ours. Similar to the Nigerians, the Brazilians also experienced a fading out and eventual extinction of not only many of their beliefs and practices, but their native language was also lost over time due to the presence and control of the Europeans.
I think it is important we take in other perspectives of history since we were taught with a western bias. We are always taught the white people are the heroes when in most stories they are the enemy. It is not often we get to learn about religious ceremonies from other cultures. This background will definitely give me some context knowledge on this upcoming story.
I believe the novel is able to help an outsider to understand a Nigerian point of view while British colonization was taken place. In this point of history it is common to view a white person as one to be pushing humanity forward but in the talk it is clear that they were slowing down progression together. Whites oppressing others instead of accepting them caused division socially and progressively. While the white world progressed those around them couldn’t. Instead they held them down whether if it was through enslaving them or denying their cultural norms they chose to leave them in the dust or build off their work.
If I had to recommend a historical narrative for someone to hear about the unnoticed “other” side of a culture, the perspective of Okonkwo is certainly one of them. From our history books, we mostly learn from the successful British voyages into new territory. From this following narrative told by Achebe, we learn about the sinister experience of a community having their religious freedom potentially stripped away and replaced by a more power-oriented group and their preferred religion. This story also shares the meaning behind the “single-story” concept and how having a different perspective can paint a completely different picture for understanding.
I agree with you that Chinua Achebe’s renowned story, Things Fall Apart, draws attention to the Nigerian culture and lifestyle. Throughout many chapters in the book, the reader can visualize what life must have been like living in Igbo. I liked how Achebe described the compounds in a way that I can picture it in my head, I also have a good idea of how the village is set up with numerous farms, barns, and other people’s compounds. The readers can also see and feel the struggles that they went though. In chapter 7, when Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, the pain and suffering from Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, can be felt by the reader (Achebe p.98).
Like many of the stories we have read thus far, the Igbo religion and the Igbo people are an example of the dialectics we have explored. Many people posit that history tends to repeat, and although that assessment holds a lot of truth to it, the way that history repeats tends to center around the various abstract themes which are central to how the events of history play out. In the context of this class, the idea of colonialism, which was a method by which various empires throughout history managed to expand by taking advantage of the labor pool and natural resources of the indigenous communities in every corner of the world, lead to many of the ideas about group structures we know of today.
It became quite clear that at the beginning of this class, the discussion surrounding topics like Hegel and the Master-Slave Dialectic were a primer for reading assignments like “Things Fall Apart.” Although it seemed somewhat unrelated at first, these readings gave me a solid foundation on the ideas surrounding power dynamics, differences in power, systemic injustices, and the ways that the “Master” maintains control of the “Slave.”
Therefore, the culture shock that occurred immediately after contact between the Christian missionaries of the colonizing nation and the indigenous people follows these power dynamic relationships. Simple reading the writings from people who have lived through the eras we study gives us the best, most accurate window into how these power dynamics played out and the disastrous results that ensued.
After reading, Things Fall Apart, I believe that it brings a light to the lifestyle and the culture of Nigeria. It goes in to such good detail that makes you feel like and imagine what it was like living there. Every struggle they faced, you could feel it and feel their pain. It also helped me grasp the idea of a single story and a subaltern more. These people were living in a completely different way than we are today.
I think “Things Falling Apart” is very meaningful. First of all, I learned about Nigeria’s lifestyle and culture. The author portrays every plot in detail as if I can really feel it. And he also taught me tenacity. The characters inside are very pitiful and have to face various difficulties, but none of them admit defeat. This kind of unwillingness to admit defeat is very touching.
“Things fall apart” is a very interesting novel. There are many different and poor characters in it, and they are different from the life that most of us enjoy now. Through the vivid descriptions of the author, I can deeply feel their difficulties. At the same time, I think they are very powerful because they are constantly overcoming difficulties.
Before reading the novel, I think this presentation provide me a very good historical background about the story. I’ve learned the life style and culture of Nigeria and how they struggle with British. Also related to what we learn earlier about “single story” and subaltern. It gives me more perspective about how Achebe is trying to express from “Things fall apart”. The character is very different from each other which reveal a big comparison. They are pitiful but somehow strong and always fight for themselves.
“Things fall apart” is a meaningful novel. There are many pitiful and miserable characters. I felt symapthetic to many characters. Especially Unoka, he was a trouble boy. He spend much money on alcohol regardless of his family, but he also is optimistic and imaginative. As the saying goes, nobody is perfect.
I think this novel depicts the true interactions between local people and the white people. Igbo people have thier own culture and religion, and it is difficult to force them to adopt the foreign “God”. I think the influence of belief is the most important part of colonization. It is always hard to fundamentally change the minds of people in colonies, and that is the reason why colonization always results in failure in the end.