Igbo Culture In Things Fall Apart

In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, religion, an indispensable tradition is celebrated within the Igbo people. The Igbo people, hosts gatherings, worship, and celebrate their ancestors. They are polytheistic, in other words, they believe in many gods. The Igbo people also believe in sacrifices to their ancestors and crimes are considered as sins. Their ancestors and gods serve as a role model, or a sculpture, to whom they worship and sacrifice in Igbo society. However, the arrival of the European Missionaries not only brings tremendous changes to Igbo religion and culture, but also creates conflicts among them.

They believed that civilized meant white Christians that behave like Europeans, are literate, and have a European style of government and social structures. The Igbo were not British or European and did not fit model which colonizers believed to be the ideal to be civilized. The Igbo recognized cultural differences and the diversity of different peoples, as seen when when Uchendu states, “The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others” (Achebe 130). This shows the understanding of different values between different cultures. Even though the Igbo were not civilized from the narrow viewpoint of the British in this novel, the Igbo had their own civilization, with their own religion, customs, societal norms, and their means of communication through a complex language. Thus, The Igbo were a civilized society. The breakdown of Igbo civilization as a result of colonialism shows how the cultural collision can be extremely painful and destructive when the colonizers are close minded and

Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart, is a story of a traditional village in Nigeria from inside Umuofia around the late 1800s. This novel depicts late African history and shows how the British administrative structure, in the form of the European Anglican Church, imposed its religion and trappings on the cultures of Africa, which they believed was uncivilized. This missionary zeal subjugated large native populations. Consequently, the native traditions gradually disappeared and in time the whole local social structure within which the indigenous people had lived successfully for centuries was destroyed. Achebe spends the first half of the novel depicting the Ibo culture, by

Women have always been partly equal to men in pre colonial Nigeria, having equal but separate roles politically and shared authority in the home. Colonialism changed this form of life of the Igbo culture by imposing Christianity and the idea of the man being the head of the village and the women inferior. Women were also stripped of their rights to have or not have children and forced to be in abusive arranged marriages. Colonialism then ended because the natives felt that self-determination had to replace colonialism and the colonizing nations were bankrupt from World War I resulting in small investment to the colonies. Decolonization was not an effortless trouble, but rather arduous and extensive, especially to women’s rights. Women’s roles in the Igbo culture changed drastically from equal, to less than men and to struggling to get by in each stage of colonialism within the work force, family and rights.

The language barrier between the colonists and the colonized enables critical misunderstandings to take place. The idea of someone vilifying certain customs and traditions in which he is unfamiliar is very laughable. The District Commissioner was therefore very misguided when he called the Igbo as a primitive tribe. .His statement contradicts very much with the fact that the Igbo people have their own complex language and a highly organized mode of living.

The most populous country in Africa with a population of more than 160 million people is Nigeria. Nigeria is home to more than 300 tribes, one of the largest tribes being the Igbo tribe. In the novel Things Fall Apart the igbo culture partly consists of the practice of Polygyny and father-son inheritance. The Igbo tribe are still considered to be harmonious to land through festivals and are famous for their culture around Yams.

The novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe centers around a man named Okonkwo, and it explores Igbo culture through two tribes that Okonkwo is a part of, the Umuofia and the Mbanta. The novel demonstrates a number of core aspects of the Igbo culture which include religion, tradition, discipline, and unity. After exploring these aspects of Igbo culture, the novel shows how they are affected and changed by European colonialism. Achebe specifically uses interactions between Okonkwo, his tribes, and European missionaries to portray what happened to Igbo culture once European colonialism was introduced.

They needed something that stood out. The government that set the rules and the laws that they follow and the root that they stand on. The white men needed to change the way the Igbo society were running the land. They need to make a change to the society by the way they are going to rule. “But apart from the church, the white men had also brought government. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance” ( Achebe 174) The District Commissioners were the ones that judges the cases, unlike Igbo government the elders took control. While the British made their decisions with ignorance they were more strict, more harsh similar like the Igbo. Making decisions in land that wasn't theirs was a way of making the Clan see that the British is taking control and getting what they came for they were not going to leave empty handed but to colonize the land and accustom it as theirs. Civilizing the Igbo society by shrinking it and making it theirs to rule as one whole society without division. In the other hand the Igbo kept working with their government they each other were being judged by one another.

Throughout the reign of the Missionaries, the Igbo religion became lost. Clan members no longer worships their sacred gods and goddesses. “To abandon the gods of one’s father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens was the very depth of abomination,” (153; pt.2, ch.17) Okonkwo says in regards to his fellow clansmen converting to Christianity. At first, many members of the clan did not notice the changes around them. They became oblivious to the missionaries and what they had brought with them, “the white men has not only brought a religion, but also a government.” (155; pt.2, ch. 8) The changes brought by the white men, occur slowly and cautiously, until it becomes too late for the clan members to react. Members of

Missionaries have had a profound and resounding effect on southeastern Nigeria that remains today, missionaries still playing a significant role in the culture of the Igbo. Although missionaries were initially synonymous with colonization, European coloniasts enforcing Christian ideals on the ‘save’ natives in an effort to civilize them, missionaries remained in Nigeria even after it gained its independence on October 1, 1960 through a series of constitutions legislated by the British government. Despite the abolition of British colonial forces, missionaries remained, exerting extensive influence on local culture. Missionaries promoted western education, which was widely popular among the Igbo and viewed as a method to move up the social ladder.

The Igbo community is developed because they have fair ideology practice. For example, when Okonkwo shot his gun on accident and hit Ezeudu's son who’s father the clan was burying it says “The only course of action was to flee from

Family plays a big role in everybody’s life. Some families are good and some are bad. But all families are important. In the story Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, family is very important in the lives of the Igbo. The gender roles of the Igbo family are very important. The father, the mother, and the children of the Igbo family all have different roles. They all do different tasks that help the family and support each other. The gender roles of the father, the mother, and the children are important very important to a Igbo family.

Because the Whites knew more about colonization, and government, they successfully brainwashed a number of Africans to assist them in claiming power over Umuofia.

This paper reflects the novel “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe in 1958. Achebe gives an overview of pre-colonialism and post-colonialism on Igbo, detailing how local traditions and cultural practices can “fall apart” in some scenarios through some introduced, externally created hassles elevated because of colonization. The protagonist named Okonkwo mentioned in the story is a proof showing the lifestyle of the tribe. My main objective and focus is to lay emphasis on Africa specifically the Igbo society, before and after the arrival of the Europeans in Umuofia community; the results of their arrival concerning Igbo culture, thus leading to the clash of cultures between the two categories. I will also draw on post-colonialism with respect to globalization.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was wrote in 1958 as a response to European Literature viewing Africans as savages who were then enlightened and found peace and safety by the Europeans. Chinua describes the Igbo people and showed the culture and showing the way of life of the Igbo people. This book shows this powerful and eye opening look into the complex society of these tribes and villages and how law and order is run. The major theme that is I will focus is that traditional development of the Igbo tribe alone and with the influence of the Europeans.