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Things Fall Apart
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THINGS FALL APART
Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things fall apart is a chronology of the life of a leader of the
Igbo community named Okonkwo. It elaborates on the different occurrences that lead to the
community banishing him for exile after he killed a clansman accidentally, his exile, his return,
and it is seen to address problems in Africa particularly the intrusion of the missionaries and the
white colonial government in the Igbo community. The book was written in the late 1950s and is
seen to be a response to the writings of European suggesting how Africans were considered a
dark continent from superstition and savage. The Europeans dehumanized the Africans with
negative images to shape the thinking of other parties. in the different colonial schools, Africans
were offered education and mainly the European languages. This novel focuses on the chronicles
of the tradition, the native culture, and how colonization has affected the African land. It shows
how the natives greatly suffered at the hands of the colonialists. Their mindset and religion were
changed, the way of doing things and their beliefs were altered. Some leaders thought like
Okwonko were repellant and did not embrace change.
Things fall apart was written to counter all the flaws that had been represented about the
Africans by the European missionaries. The main theme was the misinterpretation of Africans by
the whites. The writing in European perspective denied the Africans their perspective on the
stories and Chinua Achebe's book answered the need for stories about Africans to be addressed
with their perspectives to reduce misinterpretations that the Europeans had caused. The African
culture had been diminished by how the representation that the Europeans had created. The
Europeans had termed the Africans to be primitive, backward, and simple and Chinua announced
the need for giving the Africans a voice on the miss told stories about them by the white
missionaries. The Igbo culture is unique and with different rituals and customs. The Igbo culture
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promoted the polygamous culture with high respect of the men by women and children. The
culture believed in their gods and offered sacrifices to appease their gods. The government and
political systems of the Igbo community are compromising of some tribal systems and they
believed the gods worked in favor of the righteous and the wicked are punished.
Racism is seen to be portrayed by the European writers, the works focused mainly on
representing Africa as a dark place with whom its inhabitant’s primitive and impenetrable. This
though does not discourage Africans from reading or boycotting the western writings but rather
reading them to get a better understanding of the racism that is being depicted from the writings.
The book is also seen to bring the African culture concurrently with religion and government, the
artistic history, the judicial system, and the system of money. Western writers like Cary and
Conrad created stereotypes and flat characters of the Africans. On the other hand, Chinua wrote
on the rigidity, and imperialistic intentions of the Europeans and elaborated on the Igbo society
as comprising of individuals with open-mindedness and can accommodate new ideas.
The book elaborates on how the reality and prospect of change are seen to affect the
different characters in the community. Personal status is a much-detailed state and this addresses
the change and how it affects one's tradition and the need to either allow change overwrite the
current tradition. The fear to allow change by Okonkwo is mainly based on the fear of losing
status in society. the sense of self-worth of Okwonko was dependent on the traditional practices
and in case of change in the religious and political orders, his status would diminish. The sense
of masculinity and respect by Okwonko was of a great deal. He believed in manliness as a way
of being heard and gaining the respect he deserved from the Igbo community. His main fuel was
to beat his father's legacy as a leader. Before the invasion by the missionaries, the people of the
Igbo community practiced unique religious practices. Once Christianity was introduced by the
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Europeans it was used like a weapon to control the native Africans. They focused on changing
their mindset and Christianity became the main tool. Colonialism is seen to have started with the
adoption of western ways of worship or Christianity. The democracy and ways of leadership in
the community were changed and a government was formed by the Europeans.
The book is seen to shed some light on the different generations in Igbo society. it
elaborates on the different generations. The divide is first evident from the separation between
Okonkwo and his father. Okonkwo unlike his father is a warrior and has distinguished himself as
a man that can represent the community which is different from his father. he not only divided
from the father but also the eldest father. a leader should be able to represent the people on the
battlefield. This is evident in the Igbo community as Okonkwo tries to fight for tradition and
fight against the changes by ensuring the Europeans do not succeed with colonialism. The fight
for maintaining the traditional culture among the natives though became hard as the white
missionaries penetrated and overthrew the social cultures in the community.
Hard work is one of the major attributes the people of the Igbo community were believed
to have. Laziness was considered a shameful act and a great disgrace to the goddess of the earth.
They cultivated crops or consumption and with the strong belief of their god sacrifices were
made before the start of cultivation. Even before the coming of the Europeans to the land of Igbo
seers had warned they will come to the land like a locust after harvest and eat all the grass in the
field. This meant that the Europeans would come to the land and interfere with the community
belief and cultivate change. to spread Christianity for instance, the missionaries identified those
people who were victims and had been a disadvantage in the traditional system and use them to
change the beliefs of others. This was easy because by targeting the tribal beliefs they could
easily change the social order.
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The traditional culture of the Igbo community is seen to be structured under different
gender roles. The life of the Igbo people is generally gender-centered. This is seen from the crops
that men and women grow to how the crimes are characterized. The female gender is considered
a weaker gender but despite that, they are given qualities that make them worthy in the
community and be worshipped. The ability of the women to bear children is one of the
responsibilities that makes them worthy in society as much. The main role of women that is
dormant in the community is to be a pure bride, be submissive and bear as many children as an
honorable man. An ideal man on the other hand participates in the battlefield and provides for
the needs of the family. In the novel, there is extreme praise for masculinity and a devaluing of
the feminine sex. This leaves the gender views and roles rather unbalanced. Gender conflict in
things fall apart is one of the main themes that are prominent. It elaborates mainly on the clashes
that are between the men and women in the Igbo community. The Igbo women were shown as
weak in Things Fall Apart. In Igbo society, the women were treated with little respect and were
abused frequently. The novel, is driven by the continuous theme of gender conflicts, which
elaborates how women are vital to men yet do not receive the attention they deserve.
Colonialism in the novel is an important theme, it not only causes the flourishing of the
society but also the fall. The Igbo community functions best with itself without competition from
other communities. This makes it a disadvantage because, with the nature of small scale,
colonialism can easily cause it to fail. In the novel, Achebe discusses how the main reason for
the failure of the community is mainly colonialism since it entails many effects that are harmful
to the culture and the society. by dividing the people in the Igbo community, it is the main reason
that resulted in its downfall because it was quite easy to swat the community by the Europeans
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As westerners enter the hamlet, the author continues to infuse elements of the Igbo
language and tradition to bridge the cultural difference. Conversations and the use of the Igbo
language are prized by Achebe in all of his works. Among the Igbo, the skill of speech is highly
valued, and proverbs used like the palm oil are used to emphasize. As the whites started to
colonize Igbo society, some natives are objected while others assume that the missionaries would
come and go back, little did they know they are mistaken. The Europeans soon started to
popularize the concept of "white man's religion. The new religion was opposed to the native
tribes and their previous beliefs. Indigenous beliefs were transformed to Christianity, and many
of them left their families, beliefs and their cultures and became followers of the western beliefs.
The locals had previously been extremely superstitious, but with the new religion spread
throughout the peoples, their superstitions started to fade away, and so did their belief in the gods
they used to previously worship. Family relationships were shattered as natives converted to the
new faith. In Igbo society civilization before colonization, families were important and was very
unusual for a man to give away his son for any particular reason, families though, were forced to
give up their children and even their wives as a result of the Europeans coming to teach new
faith. Christianity, also had an impacted how some Igbo practices were done. One of the freshly
converted Christians, for example, murdered the highly revered serpent.
With colonialism and the coming of Europeans, the fall of the Igbo community was very
evident and the deaths of people caused by the Europeans were very rampant. On the arrival,
many deaths were caused. Christianity interfered with the culture and the beliefs the people of
Igbo had. Most of the people were not happy with what was going on but there is nothing that
they would do because the Igbo people were incapable of fighting with the Europeans since they
had powerful weapons as compared to the natives. The social culture of the natives was highly
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affected by the intervention of Europeans. The society existed in a parochial state where man as
the head of the family was respected and the omen was in submission and the children respected
their elders. This was also the same with the natives in the Igbo community. The people
respected the leaders and put much effort into their religious practices to appease their gods.
Mixing with other natives was forbidden in the culture.
The Europeans who came to Africa had social, political, and economic motives when
they came to Africa. They had a different perception and they consider the European culture
more superior to that of the native people in Africa. They were centered on the racist perception
that made Europe a consideration of civilization and the center of humanity. The Igbo society
was changed to the worst by colonization leading to its destruction. The novel elaborates how the
Europeans perceived the African culture and their artifacts as inferior. Although the community
was reluctant to the changes from the colonialists, the changes made by religion, education, and
colonization played a major role in the transformation. In the novel, it is argued out how the
interaction that was between the native people in Africa and the European missionaries brought a
lot of changes, there were both positive and negative impacts brought by the whites. The Igbo
culture was altered wit by the Europeans exerting their western lifestyle. Several factors led to
the ultimate destruction of the Igbo society; colonization, ignorance, judicial system alteration,
and the language. The work by Chinua Achebe tries to elaborate on the different cultures of the
Africans and how the Europeans altered and colonized the communities.
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