Igbo Society In Things Fall Apart

The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe discusses the rise of an Igbo chieftain who came from great poverty to power and the eventual loss of Igbo traditions, rites, and the influence of his clan through his eyes due to western imperialism and colonialism. The intended audience for this novel is very broad, but if we tried to define it would primarily be people who have not experienced the Igbo culture and westerners or people who speak English. In this essay I will be focusing on the last six chapters: chapters 20 to 25. These chapters highlight the loss of power and customs of the Igbo people who have succumb to colonial rule. I fell Achebe is rhetorically effective and

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.

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

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.

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people” (“Mahatma Gandhi Quotes” 1). The culture of a certain tribe, clan or group of people is not found written anywhere but it is found in the knowledge of its people because that is what they’ve grown up to learn. To them that is the only way they know. In Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, the people of Umuofia keep their culture close to what it was when it was discovered by their ancestors. The only changes that they made were made to fit the community as time had changed since their ancestors had been alive. However, their beliefs and morals remained relatively the same because that is what they have been taught for as long as the Ibo tribe has been around. These beliefs are all they know and they all live by them. Throughout Achebe’s piece, it is evident that he wants to emphasize the distinct Ibo culture in this book. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe stresses the importance of culture to a community by using cultural aspects such as, the Ibo language, their religion, and the traditions of the Ibo people.

Before investigating how Igbo culture was changed by the Europeans, the novel uses the Umuofia tribe to exemplify what the established Igbo

Before the arrival of the missionaries, the Ibo religion was highly significant to the government and its people. “While many countries have adopted a system of the separation of church and state, the Ibo people base their governance on the gods,” (Vees). With their religion having

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe the Igbo people encounter the “white man” who brings forward change. He brings with him the religion of Christianity to the clan. Up to this point the Igbo believed in natural spirits and their egwugwu and their oracle provided everything they need to do. The church was becoming appealing because it offered redemption from being ostracized, didn’t require the murder of others, and offered a less punishable god.

People around the world have been taught for many years that men should be strong, big, superior to women, and show no emotion to be considered a man, but over the years this has changed. Now in day men and women are considered equal, but there's a tribe in Africa where these rules don't apply, this tribe is called the Igbo tribe. In the Igbo culture men have roles that women are not allowed to do and these duties define them as a man; for example, in the book "Things Fall Apart", the main character Okonkwo portrays the perfect example of what a men should do and how to act, the importance of how a man should provide for his household, and the importance of leadership as a man in the Igbo culture.

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

The women in the book Things Fall Apart are terribly mistreated and also they are viewed as weak they receive little to no respect outside as a mother and a wife.The people in the tribe of Umuofia and the people of the society which are called Igbo use a word called “Agbala” which means that whenever a person is called Agbala he is compared to a woman who is weak and worthless and has no respect. An example is when Okonkwo went with the other men in the tribe to participate in the killing of Ikemefuna (Who is a fifteen-year-old boy from another clan that is called Mbaino he was given up to Umuofia as a sacrifice for someone killing one of the women of Umuofia). Okonkwo participated in order to show the people that he is

In the novel Things Fall Apart it looks like women are not valued and do not have any power but if you look closely into the story, it shows how Ibo women are actually an important aspect to the culture and is needed. In the Ibo village is Women are usually known as priestess, and that in itself is consider as a High title name and they are looked up too. During Okonkwo’s childhood, “the priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. She was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared” (chapter 3 pg 14). One of the priestess is Chielo, “the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the hill and the Caves” (chapter 3 pg 13).

Look at what it has come to, a ruined society. All of the Igbo stand before me, yet diminishing by the hundreds. With the introduction of christianity our society is falling quickly. I shelter all but those who tread beyond me shall be cursed along with all damned souls who have dared. My mantle is in jeopardy now and without the faithful we are sure to be replaced with an extremest faith. Perhaps it is a blessing that i have not my village, for they have proven to myself that they are not worthy to stand below

In the Encyclopedia of World Culture it says, “In the late nineteenth century, mission Christianity and colonialism interest worked together for the colonization of Igboland,” (Amadiume). When the missionaries arrive it has a long lasting effect on their culture. This is when their culture first began to change, when they started to convert and stray away from their traditional beliefs. In the novel Things Fall Apart, the book reads, “And so nobody gave serious thought to the stories about the white man’s government or the consequences of killing the Christians. If they became more troublesome than they already were they would simply be driven out of the clan,” (Achebe 94).

In things go into disrepair Achebe battle religion reproduces the contention amongst European and Igbo societies at the turn of the twentieth century by concentrating on the destructive changes presented by the strengths of expansionism and Christianity. In the book all Things Fall Apart,