Cosmopolitanism In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, presents the result of colonization of the Ibo people by the European missionaries. The Ibo culture is threatened to change by the European influence. Villagers are divided between resisting a new lifestyle or embracing it for better opportunities in society. The struggle to keep Ibo traditions alive is reflected in Okonkwo and Obierika’s relationship to one another. Okonkwo represents the resistance of change by keeping traditional values in high regard while, Obierika signifies the openness to opportunity by questioning the current Ibo values. The arrival of European missionaries persuades the exchange of traditional Ibo methods, customs, and community for Christianity, resulting in the community to fall apart.

Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures-national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s sense of identity into question. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there is a cultural collision that takes the form of the missionaries coming to Umuofia and forcing their religion upon the people. Different people react differently to this clash of cultures, ranging from simply conforming to going as far as killing somebody.

Culture collision is not something that you hear about everyday. Culture collision is the clash of cultures or values. This can be triggered by many things and the way we react to it is due to our personality. When this does occur it can impact our lives in such a great way. It can have an affect on who we are and what we stand for. In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe we take a look at the character Okonkwo and see how he is affect by his Culture collision and see that his personality is the the factor in the way he reacts to it.

More and more villagers were falling under this new idea of a single God, not only villagers from Umuofia but from surrounding villages. The locals were no longer against the new religion. Okonkwo was one of the few who still was. The local villagers were sort of thankful for what the white men had brought to Umuofia. “The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he has also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia.” (Achebe 178) The white men had slowly convinced the local people that what they were doing was productive after all. The arrival of the white men in Umuofia allowed for larger flow of commerce. This is yet another effect of imperialism over the African villages, though it isn’t negative. The next effect however, is indeed negative and

Secondly, the Christians unite the converts, but this unity does not prevent the new converts from demeaning others because of their religion or beliefs. When Mr. Kiaga, the missionaries’ interpreter, persuades the converts to accept the osu, or those who are cast out of the clan, Achebe writes, “‘Before God,’ he [Mr. Kiaga] said, ‘there is no slave or free. We are all children of God and we must receive these our brothers’”(136). The people are guided by Mr. Kiaga’s words as he teaches that they are all children of God and are, therefore, equal. One might think that converts would subsequently show the other religion in Umuofia an equal amount of respect as before, but they do not. While the church is still new to the village and does not perish in Evil Forest, Achebe says, “Three converts had gone into the village and

Post colonialism deals with cultural identity in colonized societies and the ways in which writers articulate that identity. Things Fall Apart is a good novel that serves as a reminder of what Nigeria once was. It shows how a society can deal with change, how change affects the individuals of that society, and how delicate a change can be; so much so that the people themselves are surprised at the change.

In Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Mr. Brown, the first missionary in Umuofia, was a kind and respectful man. Not to say that Reverend James Smith was not, but his degree of kindness and respect were present in a whole different level. They both wanted to convert the lost, all those in Umuofia that were not in the church. Mr. Brown made friends with the clan and “trod softly on his faith,” (pg.178) while Mr. Smith told them how things were in a harsh voice and tried to force his religion on the people of Umuofia. The impacts the two had on the people and the church were exact opposites.

The fact that these missionaries have started to really make an impact was unprecedented by the Ibo people; their continuous misunderstandings of one another contribute to make this situation frustrating to both the Ibo clansmen and the Christians that view their religion as superior. Okonkwo returns back to his home village of Umuofia after his exile to Mbanta, and he arrives to see missionaries have overtaken the village, created a government, and many Umuofians have joined the church. As Okonkwo and his friend Obierika are talking, Obierika says of the missionaries and their impact, “He says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us?...He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (176). The white men and missionaries have been successful in coming in and gaining power. They believe the customs to be “bad”, showing their disregard of Ibo culture, and how their motives for infiltrating Ibo life is based off of selfish ideas- only to gain more followers to their religion. Furthermore, by actually being successful in drawing Umuofians into their religion, they have turned

In the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, we are able to read about the social changes the white missionaries had on an African tribe. Mr. Achebe describes the way of life before the missionaries arrived and then records some of the changes, which occurred due to the changed belief system introduced by these missionaries.

Having a new perspective with new ideas can change a person. This is true and can be applied to many different people and events, including a character in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. In the novel missionaries come to a tribe, Umuofia, and convert some of their people. However, a convert by the name of Enoch creates tension and unrest between the tribe and the missionaries. If this character were to be more cosmopolitan, one who is familiar and accepts other cultures and ideas, and followed ideas presented in Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Cosmopolitanism his actions would have been vastly different. When one applies Appiah’s cosmopolitan ideas, in Cosmopolitanism to the character of Enoch in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the character of Enoch changes to become an individual of more respect, which in turn would prevent the unrest between the missionaries and the Umuofia people in Things Fall Apart.

In the village of Umuofia, the Igbo people worship a religion of many deities. Their polytheistic religion consists of gods related to nature such as rain, sun, etc. The most important deity is the goddess of the Earth; Igbo people frain from committing sins against the goddess of the Earth in fear of complete genocide. The European missionaries introduce Umuofia to a monotheistic religion, Christianity. The Igbo people fear what they can’t understand, such as medicine. Igbo people feared the “white man”, however, missionaries successfully convert some Igbo people into Christian, causing them to be shamed by the hierarchy of men in the village. The conversion caused changes in Igbo culture and influenced the Igbo people to behave in a way that was unheard of before the European missionaries arrived. Enoch, a recently converted Christian, committed one of the worst crimes in

Reverend Smith was dehumanizing and inconsiderate towards the Ibo people who remained strong in their faith. Reverend Smith only cared about the people who were educated, had converted to his faith, and he looked down on everyone else. When the elders of Umuofia came to ask the Christians to leave Reverend Smith did not try to argue against the District Commissioner when he locked up the elders of Umuofia. Instead he took part in it because he saw the Ibo people as sub-human. Reverend Smith was not constructive, he was destructive.

A question someone would more than likely not ask themselves is what they would do if they invaded a culture or had their own culture invaded. For most, this question seemingly does not apply to them because of the “civilized” world in which they live in at that moment; however, it is that specific mentality and cause-effect consequence that author Chinua Achebe explores in his novel Things Fall Apart. This novel follows the main character, Okonkwo, of an Igbo tribe, through his life’s story. A major theme that presents itself at the end is the consequences of not caring for another’s culture regarding colonialism. So, the question is set: what would someone do if they were trying to invade a culture or had their own culture invaded? In the novel Things Fall Apart, one possibility is explored, and that is the people whose culture is being threatened will act violently which causes the perpetrators to act violently as well. Kwame Appiah discusses a cosmopolitanism’s view of the world and uses common ideas such as do to others what you want done to yourself, and pursuing conversation with people who are not like oneself. These two ideas will be used to explore an event in Things Fall Apart, so that an alternate view can be offered on a situation if it were in the context of a cosmopolitan’s world. In a cosmopolitan world, the people of Abame would have had conversation with the colonialists to try and negotiate a mutually beneficial setup whereas the colonialists would have

The fight for peace and understanding of the common man is an ongoing battle that has gone on throughout the ages. These fights usually happen between different cultures of people, but sometimes it can even happen within cultures. They all have one thing in common, however, they are a result of the misunderstanding of one another as human beings. One of the core principles introduced in Kwane Anthony Appiah’s Cosmopolitanism is the acceptance and understanding of people in different cultures. This book goes into extensive detail about the assimilation, understanding and respect for different cultures and by extension the people that are a part of the culture. The absence of this mutual respect can and will only cause conflict, grief and pain. Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart is subject to an environment that perfectly demonstrates how destructive people can be without this mutual respect for other people, including those that are a part of your own culture. One character in particular, Okagbue Uyanwa, performed practices that would be considered completely taboo or simply insane in today’s American culture. The actions and the role that he plays in the story are both a result of his cultural beliefs and the opposing beliefs of people in different cultures. If Uyanma followed the cosmopolitan way of living the life of his patients and by extension the entire tribe would have been completely different and heavily altered.

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of masculism is “an advocate of male superiority or dominance in social rights.” Masculism is one of the main theme shown throughout the book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. In the novel, women seem that they do not have any equal rights as men. Also, they have little power in their society and are often mistreat by men. However, women play key roles throughout the novel diversely. Through the main character, Okonkwo, women’s role are well described in the novel. Women represent a symbol of wealth and education, and in the other hand, they represent both weak and strong.