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Chinua Achebe and the Historical Context of Things Fall Apart

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Chinua Achebe and the Historical Context of Things Fall Apart

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"Things Fall Apart is set in 1890, during the early days of colonialism in Nigeria. Achebe depicts Igbo society in transition, from its first contact with the British colonialists to the growing dominance of British rule over the indigenous people. Literary works about this period often painted stereotypical portraits of native Africans as primitives...Achebe's novel is a response to these colonialist works of literature—Things Fall Apart is a postcolonial novel that strives to revise previous stereotypes by portraying both cultures with a neutral eye, focusing on the complexity of Igbo traditions" (LitCharts 2020).

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“The novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community, from the events leading up to his banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman, through the seven years of his exile, to his return, and it addresses a particular problem of emergent Africa—the intrusion in the 1890s of white missionaries and colonial government into tribal Igbo society. Traditionally structured, and peppered with Igbo proverbs, it describes the simultaneous disintegration of its protagonist Okonkwo and of his village” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017).

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KP- The part of the book that has got me so far when it comes to a conversation about personal choice vs fate was the situation with Ikemefuna. This has been the hardest part of the story for me, it was truly heartbreaking. To see that the elders came to Okonkwo and told him he is raising this boy only to then have to tell him the boy must be killed because fate has decided it has been a hard pill for me to swallow. No one seems to take personal responsibility for their actions in this society. They only act in response to the elders and their gods. It is an extremely frustrating dynamic!

CM- Agreed! I found it interesting that Achebe portrays Okonkwo's character as a symbol of strength and aggression but even within this powerful image, he is illustrated as powerless against the importance of fate brought by religion and choices made by the Oracle. I feel like the struggle of balance between personal responsibility and fate is a very apparent reoccurring theme from start to finish. We have a man who feels that it is his inarguable fate to kill Ikemefuna and does so unquestioningly. Yet we see him break this resolve too when he follows Ekwefi's disobedient act of following the Oracle when she took Ezinma and of course, with his suicidal death which shows him taking personal responsibility of his life even when suicide is perceived as a religious "no-no."

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The Portrayal of Spirituality in the Story

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The Portrayal of Spirituality in the Story

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KP- The spirituality in this story so far has been very new and different for me personally. I have not had much experience with the idea of priestesses and gods in the manner they discuss in the book so it has been eye-opening. Although I know these are fictional characters, I would be interested to know if there are times where the spirits and traditions touched on in the book are ignored due to discomfort or flat out refusal due to the harm it causes. They do mention when Chielo takes Ezinma away from the village that her mother follows the priestess when she has been expressly forbidden so I do see seeds of rebellion I just wonder how often that would happen in such a spiritually dependent society similar to this one.

CM- Neither am I all that familiar with the cultural religiosity portrayed in “Things Fall Apart” and perhaps this is something we can continue to dive into understanding. However, it is truly obvious that the importance of the religion is very present in this text. I felt like my understanding of this grew when we see the colonist arrive in the villages as a contrast. When the convert Okoli “killed the sacred python” and immediately fell ill and died afterward, the clan seems to see this as an act of protection from their gods and choose not to contest for the act (Achebe 1994, 160). I also found comparable notes from Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” when it came to using religion as a means to “Divide and Rule” the Umuofia people (Freire 2000, 141). Between the example of the Oracle and struggle with Fate we talked about above, it is clear that religion is the guiding principle of the clan’s culture. However, the clan is conflicted at times in fighting the new religion as they see this act as the clan fighting with itself, their brothers. This brotherhood-like bond posed as an equal to that of religion when it came to the actions of the Umuofia people. Obierika enforces this conflicted thinking in Chapter 20 with, “our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold his government. If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy. There are only two of them. But what of our people who are following their way” (Achebe 1994, 176).

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KP- I find the roles of women in this book to be fascinating. While it is obviously a completely different time and culture, I still could feel my discomfort with the way they are treated. Men in this society have multiple wives which the concept itself doesn't really bother me as much as the way the wives are treated. The main character, Okonkwo feels that in order for everyone in the village to respect him, he must always keep them in line. Should they speak out of turn or even not have his meals ready, they will be viciously beaten. Even his favorite child, Ezinma, is not loved as much as she should be because she is a girl. Okonkwo even tells others that she should have been born a boy. It is heartbreaking to hear Okonkwo's thoughts on how he loves his wives and his daughter but can't treat them with anything but disdain and anger.

CM- In reading Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," I found myself uncomfortable with the treatment of women in the Umuofia culture myself. I was trying my best to remain cognizant of the respect for the society's culture but could not seem to agree with the abuse that the female characters of this story endured. We see this in Chapter 7 where it states, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) we was not really a man" (Achebe 1994, 53). This reasoning is mentioned in reaction to Okonkwo's influence on Nwoye, showing that this poor treatment of women is taught and can potentially be passed down generationally. Past the multiple occasions of physical abuse witnessed in the text, we see women treated as objects: where a sufficient price to pay for tribesman's wife's murder is interchanging her presence with another women or how brides are presented as tradeable goods for marriage when passing brooms. Moving forward, I certainly want to unpack this theme especially in light of Uchenda's contrasting view of women mentioned in Chapter 14: "It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in the motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme" (Achebe 1994, 134).

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Lessons of Awakening from Things Fall Apart

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Lessons of Awakening from Things Fall Apart

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CM- From Pedagogy of the Oppressed we learned that the concept of “conscientizacao” or attaining “critical consciousness” is an important first step of understanding social and political implications (Freire 2000, 35). In our journey toward narrative listening, understanding the social and political implications embedded within Things Fall Apart provides a foundation for the first step of Awakening for us. In Chinua Achebe’s text, a personal major discovery was the strong influence that masculinity has on the sociopolitical structure of the Umuofia culture. As readers, we are made cognizant of this basis when Achebe describes our primary character, Okonkwo, in Chapter 2. “Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion – to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness” (Achebe 1959, 13). Through this scene, we are awakened to the setting and narrative listening is critically noting and being conscious of the cultural implications of agbala and the place women have in this society in relation to this description. We learn that in this culture, this is a notion that is instilled and influenced at a young age considering Okonkwo learned this concept from a playmate as a child. Continually, we are awakened to the present theme of masculinity in the Umuofian sociopolitical structure.

KP- Furthering the connection between Freire’s work and this text, we can identify that the women in this society are the oppressed. If we look at their place in these tribes, we can see that they are, at no time, really interested in lifting themselves out of this oppressive position. Additionally, you can see echoes of Freire’s words in the relationship between the missionaries and our main characters and can see that even though some of them leave the traditional ways of life to join this new religion and these new people with different ways of life, they are turned into oppressors themselves and aren’t really truly granted freedom. Due to the way Christianity is presented to them, however, I don’t believe they would see themselves as such. They are trained and end up believing that what they are trying to do is capital r Right and they are just trying to show people the “truth.” What they do not see is that they are helping the oppressive missionary class take control over the African people and destroy every way of life they have had. It continues to fascinate me how you can apply Freire’s way of thinking to situations both now, 50 years later, and others that were centuries ago. IT truly proves the power in his ideas.

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Lessons of Awareness from Things Fall Apart

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Lessons of Awareness from Things Fall Apart

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CM- With the secondary step of Awareness, we as observers are moved into a place of learning and unlearning what we consider as facts from our own world. Regarding the theme of masculinity in Things Fall Apart, it is simple to personally draw contrasting concepts from our world to the world of Okonkwo. For instance, as a female in a modern American society, I am understood as legally equal to my male counterparts and have the ability to hold the same positions of leadership and titles. While there is a mentionable and apparent struggle for true equality in our American society, we can see that based on our previous discussion of the treatment of women in Things Fall Apart, that our situation as American females dulls in comparison to the situation shared by the females in the Umuofian culture. When reading the text from a lens of awareness, it is best to let go of our personal understanding of what it means to be a female influenced by American society, and begin observing the facts of the reality of the women in the Umuofian society. From a pragmatic approach, we are exposed to a culture that is congruent with polygamous marriages, with males holding primarily leadership roles within the household and the political hierarchy. Additionally, we are made aware of the importance of yams as the life source for the Umuofians as they are referred to as the “king of crops…a man’s crop,” illustrating the masculine symbol of this life source produce (Achebe 1959, 23). Another personal awareness lesson stems from observing the process by which titles are earned by men in the Umuofian cultural. Letting go of personal understanding of titles or statuses being earned by education or mental capacity, readers are exposed and made aware early in Chapter 1 of society whose hierarchy is based on physical capabilities in “throwing” or fighting, a measure of masculine strength (Achebe 1959, 3).

KP- Trying to remove our personal ideas of womanhood and equality from the observations about this culture is difficult. Context is key to remember where these people were in the time and place, they were in. No one could say that they were treated fairly in the way we think of fairness today. Husbands having multiple wives, women being beaten for mundane “mistakes,” and being tossed aside for merely upsetting their husbands or not pleasing them in the ways they deserve to be pleased in their eyes. It is unfortunate that these situations happen because I do think, deep down, the men in these cultures want to appreciate the women in their lives and just aren’t permitted to in any real way. Women are bargained for in this culture. Women are sought after beings who keep the house afloat. How could you not appreciate that? It speaks to a certain level of insecurity that I think is commonplace with some men even today. They think that if they show deference to women, they are less than. If they really took the time to think of what women are in their lives, and realize their manhood isn’t threatened when they show appreciation, it would go a long way. One of the biggest examples of this in the book was Okonkwo’s daughter, Ezinma. Okonkwo mentions many times that he wishes she were a boy. This just shows that he sees that she has everything he could ever want in a strong child he just can’t acknowledge it because she is female. The only thing missing here is the bridge between seeing these strengths and seeing that women/girls should be celebrated for having them.

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Lessons of Assimilation from Things Fall Apart

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Lessons of Assimilation from Things Fall Apart

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CM- When listening to the narratives of other cultures, the final step involves us putting the pieces back together again to form a new, uninfluenced, and observant understanding of the culture at hand through assimilation. As the reader, we move to a place where we are able to synthesize and critically engage with the world presented to us through Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Regarding a personal realization through the reoccurring theme of masculinity, assimilation allows us to understand the larger picture of how the influence and importance placed on masculinity shapes the narrative, ultimately resulting in Okonkwo’s final act of suicide. Leading up to his death, Okonkwo is filled with hate toward the colonists who have impacted his world. He responds to a court messenger through the violence he has understood as a solution from his experience of masculinity. Okonkwo’s existence is based on his position as a powerful male in a society that upholds traditions. Through his death, while it goes against the religious implications, he rather hold his power in taking his own life better than losing an inevitable war and submitting to colonial power. Through the lens of assimilation, even in death we develop an understanding for the negative actions and choices made by the characters of this society based off the factual evidence presented by their sociopolitical structures, ultimately understanding their narrative. To top this off as the ultimate lesson and reason for Achebe sharing this story, he even shows how a non-assimilated observer can misconstrue the significance of this society and ultimately use it for misinterpretation when mentioning the Commissioner’s future book and its ignorant title of “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” (Achebe 1959, 209).

KP- The act of Okonkwo performing suicide at the end of this book spoke a lot about the idea of being overwhelmed to the point of being out of control of your actions and then taking control by ending the only thing you have left, your life. We see this reflected in signs of toxic masculinity in today’s society as well. Today’s men/boys are obviously in a different place than Okonkwo and his tribesmen but you can draw parallels between the two groups. They are both expected to maintain an emotionless existence and to act as the pillar of their tribe/family in order to keep the status quo. The pressure comes from the tribe or society as a whole but also from religion and an internal fear of “disappointing” others. When you’re not able to work through these conflicts with yourself or express your feelings appropriately, as we saw in this book and as we see with some men in modern times, it often results in violence. As much as we have “evolved” as a society, we still haven’t gotten to a place where it is ok for men to cry or be emotional. Men who aren’t the breadwinners in their households are sometimes made to feel emasculated. It is important to note how these themes are not new and they must be addressed if we want to prevent a repeat of this behavior. Although this is a fictional story, it is not an uncommon one.

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Achebe, Chinua. 1958. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin Random House.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. July 2017. "Things Fall Apart." Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. Accessed January 29, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Things-Fall-Apart.

Freire, Paulo. 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

"Historical Context of Things Fall Apart." LitCharts. Accessed January 26, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/things-fall-apart.

Images Resource:
"Character Infographic." Shmoop University. Accessed January 30, 2020. www.shmoop.com/things-fall-apart/chart-okonkwo.html.

Quinn, Annalisa. March 2013. "Chinua Achebe and the Bravery of Lions." National Public Radio. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/03/22/175046327/chinua-achebe-and-the-bravery-of-lions.