Colonialism in Achebe, Orwell, and Forster: A Comparative Study

Introduction: Language, Colonialism, and Achebe's Challenge

Language is a marker of difference and, by extension, of culture. That Chinua Achebe writes Things Fall Apart in English is less a statement of personal identity than it is a challenge to earlier works written about colonial Africa. The use of English to describe the colonial stories of Africa is a pointed affront that Achebe takes head on. An apparent goal of his was to articulate the complexity of his culture and society with clarity — reaching the wider audience that English would provide while simultaneously making a political statement.

Since the clash between the white colonial government in Nigeria and the traditional culture of the indigenous people is the primary theme of Achebe's work, his imperatives are clarity and juxtaposition. The Igbo people in the 1890s were still deeply engaged in their social institutions and cultural imperatives. The situations that Okonkwo faces are very much those of his people, with pressures from the white colonists originating from the margins of his — and his people's — existence. That is not to say that the colonial force is insignificant, but rather to observe that the Igbo people are able to carry on for some time in a manner that only occasionally brings the threat to the foreground.

Things Fall Apart: Cultural Collision and Tragic Transformation

When the locusts come to their villages, the Igbo people at first treat the insect invasion as bounty; since they consume the locusts, their perspective is quite different from what it will be when the numbers grow too large and begin to impact their environment in ways they cannot ameliorate. In the same manner, the movement of white colonists into their homeland brings an intrusion they cannot easily address. The early contact with Mr. Brown lulls the Igbo people into a wary acceptance that they will come to understand — once they encounter the zealousness of Reverend Smith and the District Commissioner — as misguided.

The story in Things Fall Apart is complex and deeply tragic, as the native characters are engaged in a transformation they do not understand and that does not promise to end well for them. The role of the Christian missionaries adds a deep layer of complexity, underscoring the failure of colonial institutions to add genuine meaning to the lives of the natives — or, for that matter, to position the indigenous people more favorably, at least until many decades had passed. Perhaps, then, the deep-seated, imposed cultural and social changes can eventually be reshaped by the native people themselves.

Burmese Days and A Passage to India: Friendship, Race, and the Colonial Club

In the manner of A Passage to India, George Orwell's Burmese Days focuses on the friendship between an English colonist and a native physician, and on the circumstances surrounding a white woman newly arrived in the colony who quickly finds herself in a dire situation — becoming engaged and then breaking the engagement. Moreover, both A Passage to India and Burmese Days expose the cross-sections of colonial society through the context of a private club, and both make the prevailing racial attitudes of their characters central to the action. It is notable that A Passage to India was published while Orwell was working in Burma.

A key difference between the two stories concerns the strength of personal relations between British and indigenous characters. In A Passage to India, those personal relations are sufficiently strong to redeem, at least partially, the failures of the colonists. This is not the case in Burmese Days, where Flory is cast as a tragic figure — as much a victim of imperialism as many of the Burmese people themselves.