Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

¶ … Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe before referencing

Things Fall Apart: Still relevant to Africa today

The postcolonial classic Things Fall Apart by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe shows both the cruelty of British colonialism and the folly of oppressed African peoples' inability to unite with one another across tribal lines. In the novel, the tribal patriarch Okonkwo of the Umuofia tribe attempts to exert total control over his entire village and family. He is rich and prosperous, and dominates his father Unoka, who represents the sensitive, artistic side of African traditions.

Okonkwo, because of his desire to seem masculine and authoritative, rejects the children who actually show promise to lead the tribe into the future. He kills his foster son Ikemefuna, because this is in accordance with tribal law, even though he and the boy are both Africans, although they are rival clans. Although his daughter Ezinma is far more of a leader than his son Nwoye, Okonkwo only wishes that she was born a boy, he does not attempt to invest greater authority in the figure of a daughter. Okonkwo's carelessness with Umuofia's future is exemplified when he accidently kills a young boy, and is exiled for seven years as a result. Okonkwo bitterly resents having to go to his mother's tribe, reflecting once again his lack of respect for anything having to do with maternity and gentleness.

When the British colonists come, they come to a land that is torn by tribal divisions, where killing a young boy of a rival tribe is acceptable, and where tribal leaders like Okonkwo cannot recognize the value of the past, of music, of motherhood, and other elements necessary for the spiritual survival and integrity of tribal culture. Thus, the missionaries that come have easy ideological prey in the form of Nwoye, who has been castigated since he was a young boy for being weak. Nwoye enthusiastically embraces a religion that celebrates weakness, at least in its rhetoric if not its reality.

Okonkwo's old ways of asserting power, like his physical and military strength, are no match for the newly installed British judicial system, government, and military. The Christians refuse to live side-by-side the old tribal leaders, customs, and clans, for the new Christians there can only be one, good way to live. When Okonkwo tries to resist the British by tearing town a church, he is imprisoned, and when he kills a white man, his tribe is too frightened to take up arms and follow him in attempting to drive the outsiders from their midst. He commits suicide as a result, realizing that his old way of life is no more, and he no longer has the authority amongst the Umuofia tribe as a leader.

On its surface, it might seem as if Things Fall Apart is ambiguous about the injection of the British into Africa. After all, the Christian message of faith and forgiveness seems less harsh and judgmental than Okonkwo's swaggering masculinity. However, the presence of gentler tribes, like his mother's tribe, his father's evident gift at music, and other signs that Okonkwo is not representative of an entire culture, show that Achebe's real purpose in writing is to condemn the inability of Africans to identify the true enemy. The enemy is the British who despise and attempt to eradicate African culture, not other African tribes who live in different ways. Okonkwo's masculine selfishness results in the destruction of Africa's future.