REFERENCES
THINGS FALL APART, originally
written in English and published in 1958, "Things Fall Apart" was one
of the first novels by an African author to garner worldwide acclaim. Though mostly
fictional, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe claims that the book documents
Africa’s spiritual history – the civilized and rich life the Igbo lived before
the arrival of Europeans and the ruinous social and cultural consequences that
the arrival of European missionaries brought. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as
a sharp criticism of imperialism, or the European colonization of countries
outside of the European continent (especially Africa and the Americas). The
novel also critiques Joseph Conrad’s famous novel, Heart of Darkness, which
documented the African natives from an imperialist’s (or white colonizer’s)
point of view. Achebe followed Things Fall Apart with two other novels, No
Longer At Ease and Arrow of God, both of which also depict the African experience
with Europeans.
Generally, in his novel "Things
Fall Apart", Chinua Achebe tells the story of how an Igbo village in the
Niger region first encounters Christian missionaries and British colonial
governors. He tells this story mainly from the view of the colonised, though in
the language of the colonisers. “Things Fall Apart” is dedicated to the
depiction of the way of life, the cults and traditions, beliefs and social
rules of the villages of Umuofia, and Mbanta before the coming of the white man.
Although the events related in the novel are fictional, they represent the real
happenings of the time in Igboland. “Things Fall Apart” is history transformed
into literature. Therefore it is worthwhile to take a closer look at its
historical background and relevance, which is what I will do in this paper,
with a special focus on the role and effect of the Christian missionaries. In
order to do this, I shall deal with the 19th century Igbo culture in comparison
to the Christian world view, the relation of mission and colonisation, and the
missionaries’ impact on the Igbo society. Achebe surely draws a different
picture of the matter.
Achebe portrays the following
feutures of the Umuofia and Igbo societies before the coming of whites;
Traditional practises, the condemnation of osu (outcasts), who are
compelled to live separated from the village and wear “long, tangled hair” as a
“mark of forbidden caste” (p. 111), and the throwing away of twins shortly
after their birth, Ikemefuna is killed
because “the Oracle of the Hill and the Caves has pronounced it” , a child’s
dead body is mutilated when it is suspected to be an ogbanje, a child that
keeps dying and returning to its mothers womb to get born again (p. 54).
Their beliefs dedicated to the Osu
where an osu is “a person dedicated to a god” (p. 111). Moreover, lawsuits are
brought before the egwugwu, the masked spirits of the ancestors and the
ancestors are also prayed to with the breaking of the kola nut (p. 5). There
seems to be a religious background for almost every paradigm of the Igbo
society. A deep religiosity permeates
all aspects of their life social, cultural, and political. Devotion to gods and
ancestors is taken for granted, and no one dared question the decree of the
gods as pronounced by the high priests. While the ancestors play a role in
prayer and social rites, the Igbo belief in gods (and God). Along with belief
in God (Supreme Being), the Igbo believe also in a multitude of minor deities
which are subordinate to this supreme being.
Proverbs and Stories, another significant feature of the Igbo
society is the importance of proverbs and stories. As the narrator from “Things
Fall Apart” eloquently remarks: “Among the Ibo, the art of conversation is regarded
very highly, and proverbs are the palmoil with which words are eaten” (p. 5).
Umuofia is a community in which mastery of figurative language is the core to
social survival and control. Stories, too, play an important social role. In
the evening, “each woman and her children told folk stories” (p. 70). Stories
manifest the special relationship between Ekwefi and her daughter Ezinma, and
stories mark a difference in the socialisation of boys and girls (p. 67).
Furthermore, it is often by stories that otherwise inexplicable things are
accounted for, for instance the success of the market in Umuike (“They made a
powerful medicine”, p. 79) or the scale pattern of the tortoise’s shell (p.
70). The Igbo’s deep respect for stories shows
is no story that is not true.
Polygamism, Unoka had many wives,
Okonkwo with three wives namely Eznma, Ekwefi and Ikemefuna, even Okoye had
three wives, the society was characterised with polygamism (p. 2 and 5)
Tolerance and Notion of Truth, the
Igbo in “Things Fall Apart” show a striking awareness of the diversity of
cultures for instance Obieriku’s eldest brother (p. 51), accompanied by the
insight that there is no simple and absolute truth: an Igbo saying goes,
“Spirit, your secrets are never completely known”. An idiom from the ritual
morning prayer also illustrates the ideal of tolerance and hospitality.
Wealth and Manliness, age was
respected but achievement was revered (p. 6) among the Igbos, so the narrator
of “Things Fall Apart” reports. A man’s success in farming, the number of wives
and children he has, and the size of his obi are crucial to his esteem and
influence in the clan. The man of repute wears title as signs of the authority
and power that comes with prosperity. In the agricultural society of Umuofia,
the basis and epitome of wealth is the yam(p. 23). “Yam stood for manliness,
and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very
great man indeed” (p. 26). Wealth and manliness mutually imply each other, and
both rate high with the Igbo.
Unity, in “Things Fall Apart” Achebe
depicts the Igbo way of life before the contact with the Europeans from an
inside perspective, in a narrative voice imagines to be that of a sympathetic
elder who has witnessed time and time again the cycle of seasons, and to whom
the rules and rituals of this society are perfectly self-evident. This voice is
also a “communal” one, that provides “eye-witness account of Iboland in the
1890’s in which the emphasis is on experience that is shared rather than as it
appears to any individual consciousness.” (p. 76) The idea of community is
indeed a basic value of the Umuofia (and Mbanta) society: “We are better than
animals because we have kinsmen” (p. 93), Uchendu says at Okonkwo’s feast, and
another man adds: “We have come together because it is good for kinsmen to do
so.” (p. 93-94). Also the breaking of the kola nut is primarily a
community-rendering ritual.
Mission and colonisation is relevance for the story told in
“Things Fall Apart” as one of the subtle and open ways used to corrupt the mind
of Africans as follows;
Mission of course goes back to Jesus’ order
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (The Holy Bible. Mt. 28, 19), and seeks to win over converts
for the Christian faith.
Colonisation is the taking of control over an area
(dominion) for economic purposes.With a definition of culture as “the customs
and beliefs, art, way of life and social organisation of a particular country”
(Oxford), we find that both mission and colonisation inevitably affect culture:
Mission is about beliefs and religion, and colonisation concerns not only trade
customs, but also local law and government, since the colonisers in Africa
established their own government and judicious system, and declaredly wielded
power over the native people. Consequently, the villagers of “Things Fall
Apart” oppose this oppression almost from the beginning: “the District
Commissioner judged cases in ignorance” (p. 122); the song about “Kotma of the
ash buttocks” (p. 123) also expresses their contempt for the white man’s
government and its supporters. With mission, in contrast, there has always been
the idea of accommodation, a type of evangelism that is considerate of the
native culture and seeks to adapt the Christian belief to the local traditions
and world view. Even the first missionary, the apostle Paul, said that “unto
the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews” (The Holy Bible. 1 Cor.
9,20). In “Things Fall Apart”, Mr Brown is a representative of this moderate
approach to mission.
The Missionary Characters, at his
first appearance in Mbanta, Mr Brown is accompanied by an Igbo interpreter, Mr
Kiaga, who asserts that “he was one of them, as they could see from his colour
and language”, and that “the white man was also their brother, because they
were all sons of God” (p. 111). This declared fraternisation mirrors both a
Christian world view and the missionary’s intent to associate with the
villagers on an equal footing; and that he lets Mr Kiaga speak first (and not
only translate) may be taken as a sign of respect for the Igbo and their
customs of communication. Mr Brown is also described as “very firm in
restraining his flock from provoking the wrath of the clan”, and he “came to be
respected even by the clan, because he trod softly on its faith” (p. 126). He
even “made friends with some of the great men of the clan”, and in his
discourse with Akunna, he adopts the Igbo name Chukwu for God (p. 126). On one
of his “frequent visits to the neighbouring villages”, he is even “presented
with a carved elephant tusk, a sign of dignity and rank” (p. 126).
Also his name gives a significant
hint: Brown being a compromise between black and white, Mr Brown is indeed a
character that mediates between the natives and the Europeans. His
considerateness and diplomacy become evident also in juxtaposition to the
methods of his successor Reverend Smith, who “condemned openly Mr Brown’s
policy of compromise and accommodation” and “saw things as black and white” (p.
130). Reverend Smith does not seem to care about understanding the Igbo’s way
of thinking; instead, he sets great store in “such things as the Trinity and
the Sacraments” (p. 130), which are exactly the things that the natives find
incomprehensible and awkward. He is tough on those who have not entirely given
up all of the old superstitions, whereas the “over-zealous converts” now
“flourished in full favour” (p. 131). The substitution of missionaries also
marks a general change in the Europeans’ behaviour towards the natives,
shifting from supercilious yet benevolent to intolerant and aggressive. This is
a turning point in the novel. Under Reverend Smith’s leadership, a “great
conflict between church and clan in Umuofia” gathers and is finally touched off
when Enoch unmasks the egwugwu (p. 131). When the elders of the clan eventually
burn down the “church which Mr Brown had built” (p. 135), it is not only Mr
Brown’s church that turns to ashes, but also his policy of accommodation.
Intertwining of Mission and
Colonisation, although pursuing a basically different aim, the missionaries
often depended on the support of the colonial power. In the protectorate
treaties between local indigenous governments and the British administration
there was usually a stipulation that guaranteed the protection of all white
clergymen of the Christian religion. Note that in “Things Fall Apart”, the
Umuofia elders are imprisoned by the District Commissioner for burning down the
church.The missionaries also depended on the financial aid the colonial
administration granted them. Hence they inevitably wore the stigma of being
allied to imperialism. The colonisers certainly profited from the missionaries’
efforts: their educational work not only enabled co-operation between locals
and Europeans, it also prepared the soil for the establishment of a colonial
government. Achebe’s missionary Mr Brown is aware of these connections when he
says “that the leaders of the land in the future would be men and women who had
learned to read and write” (p. 128). The Christian faith, despite all efforts
to adapt it to the Igbo culture, was chiefly perceived as the white man’s
religion. In “Things Fall Apart”, the white man’s religion and the white man’s
government always belong together in the eyes of the Umuofians.
The encounter of an Igbo society with Christian
missionaries, as it is depicted in “Things Fall Apart”. the subtle and open
weapons used to corrupt the mind of
Africans and actual effect of the missionaries on the societies of Umuofia and
Mbanta as follows:
The Christians religion dominates
where people believes in salvation through Jesus Christ and do not worship
their ancestors or any spirits of nature. However, the Igbo, despite their
ancestral cults and fear of spirits need no one to tell them that without God,
not even the best ‘alusi’ (spirit) can do anything. This God, Chukwu, is not
only generally acknowledged to be the ultimate recipient of every acts of cult,
he also shows some strikingly Christian features is the supreme head and
creator of all things, a benevolent and just God. Nevertheless, the Igbo think
it more courteous and more within man’s range to appeal to the spirits to
obtain requests from God, whereas the Christians exclusively worship the one
and only God, according to the Biblical Commandment. In “Things Fall Apart”, it
is at this point that the tensions turn to conflicts: the killing of the sacred
python (p. 112) and the unmasking of the egwugwu (p. 131) are both affronts
against the belief in spirits. Christian missionaries convert the people from
their old ways and religious beliefs and practises by sheer force of an
obtrusive dogma cannot hold. Instead of an ‘obtrusive dogma’, it is the
attractiveness of the new faith to all those who found themselves disadvantaged
in some way or other under the old one; later on, it is also the attractiveness
of the mission school, due to its connection with the colonial government. Now
it is “the poetry of the new religion” that attracts Nwoye and gives him a
feeling of relief, despite the “mad logic of trinity” (p. 104). The novel
relates little about how the stories of the Bible were received in Umuofia or
Mbanta. But at least for Nwoye they are highly important: “He was already
beginning to know some of the simple stories they told” (p. 106).
Proverbs and stories, the people of Mbanta
have probably never heard anything like this “gay and rollicking tune” (p.
103), which stands in contrast to the tunes of “sorrow and grief” (p. 6) Unoka
used to play on his flute. Moreover, the story told in the song conveys
something unknown, or at least neglected, in the Igbo religion: that there is
comfort in the love of God. In the Igbo religion, a man’s only comfort is in
his own strength, or at best in that of his clan (p. 17). This song and story
especially captivate Okonkwo’s sensitive son Nwoye, who has a special relation
to stories, as he has always preferred his mother’s animal tales to his
father’s bloody war stories. When the missionaries first address the people of
Mbanta, their speech surely does not strike the villagers as eloquent. Mr Kiala
speaks plainly, without proverbs or figurative expressions; worst of all, he
has a “dialect was different and harsh to the ears of Mbanta” (p. 102). In this
respect it is emblematic that the villagers’ first reaction is punning on the
missionary’s dialect (“Your buttocks understand our language”, p. 102).
Torelance, by the derogatory and ignorant way the
missionaries talk of the Igbo deities, they evoke resentment as well as
amusement. So the Mbanta elders do “not really want them in their clan” (p.
105), but remain polite in offering them a piece of land in the Evil Forest. A
little officiously states: “a stranger who turns unbearably presumptuous and
arrogantly insulting automatically forfeits his welcome”, notwithstanding the
Igbo custom of “hospitality and effusive generosity to strangers” (p. 85).
Notion of Truth, the missionaries
also challenge the philosophy of co-existence. ‘There is no story that is not
true’ also means that there is no belief that is not true, but the missionaries
claim that the gods the people of Mbanta worship are “false gods, gods of wood
and stone” (p. 103). In Umuofia, the clan’s tolerant attitude prevents
bloodshed after Enoch has desecrated the egwugwu, when the elders allow Reverend
Smith to stay and worship his own god (p. 133). It is their awareness of
otherness that allows them to be indulgent: “We say he is foolish because he
does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not
know his.” (p. 141)
The ideal of wealth and manliness,
is one to which Christian teaching is clearly opposed. Jesus himself expressly
turned towards the weak and the poor. Hence it is not surprising, that in
Mbanta, those who fail to meet the Igbo standard of success and hard work are
the first to convert to the new faith: “None of them was a man of title. They
were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu, worthless, empty men.”
(p. 101) In the argument about whether or not the osu should be admitted in the
congregation, Mr Kiaga stresses that “we are all children of God and we must
accept these our brothers” (p. 111). That the church accepts the unworthy makes
it look weak in the eyes of the clan, but it turns out that it is rather the
weakness of the clan, being incapable of integrating all of its members.
The polygamy ( p. 2), practised by
the Igbo who saw wives also as a kind of status symbol. That the missionaries
in Igboland struggles to root out polygamy from the beginning, such instance is
mentioned in “Things Fall Apart”.
The laws, in Umuofia the laws
governing the punishment of individuals are community-enhancing, geared as they
are to the maintenance of the whole society. In the dispute between Odukwe and
Uzowulu (p. 64-66), it is the supreme and only criterion that the disputants
should be reconciled in a way that makes for the peaceful continuation of the
tribe rather than to punish the offender according to his crime.
Generally, the role of the
missionaries and coloniser in “Things Fall Apart” is a complex one. First of
all, the changes they bring about are mostly predetermined by the way the Igbo
society is constructed. From this follows that those aspects of Christianity
that are neglected in the world view of the Igbo must be of special importance.
These are the love of God that includes every-one without difference, and the
disbelief in the power of spirits and ancestors. Yet Achebe tells the story
rather from the Igbo point of view, and therefore one must allow that the
missionaries at least set the tone for these changes. There is a certain
antagonism of clan versus church from the beginning, but under Mr Brown’s
policy of accommodation, the situation remains tense but calm. That the
conflicts that flare up under Reverend Smith’s policy of confrontation soon shift
from religious to political is for a good deal due to the church’s close
relation to colonial government. The eruption of violence towards the end of
the novel and Okonkwo’s death are in direct relation to the change in the way
mission is carried out. The coming of the white man’s missionary Christianity
is only an indirect influence, as much a symptom as a cause. Every civilisation
gives way to another due to “its inability to contain all human impulses within
one enclosed scheme of value”, and will consequently be replaced by all that it
overlooked or undervalued, all that its own heritage had incapacitated it from
understanding.
Now that the historical-critical
analysis has led to the result that evangelism and colonisation are merely the
occasion, not the cause, for things to fall apart, it must be noted that the
novel also presents the opposite point of view. It is the point of view of the
protagonist, Okonkwo. In his eyes, everything was perfectly in order before the
missionaries came and undermined this very order.
REFERENCES
Chinua, A.(1958).Things Fall Apart. London:
Heinemann
Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary.(2000) (6th ed). “Culture.”
Oxford: Oxford University Press,
The Holy Bible: King James Version.
New York: American Bible Society, 1999.
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