Chinua Achebe manages, in a highly entertaining and educative way, to present the theme of collectivism in the Nigeria before the merciless yet highly effective occupation of the British in Nigeria. The Ibo society that forms the setting of the book is a microcosm of not just Nigeria but also the rest of the Eastern countries. Chinua Achebe tells the story of the people of Igbo land of Eastern Nigeria before and immediately after their contact with the Western culture. The story revolves around the life of Okwonkwo, a tragic hero, depicting his birth, how he rises from a peasant to a self-made elder but ends his life quite tragically. Having inherited nothing from his very lazy father, Okwonkwo resolves to work extremely hard and make up for that which he did not get from his father. He becomes something substantial. However, with the advent of the white man, tragedy seems to follow him; right from his exile to his eventual suicide (Achebe, Things Fall Apart). The fact that Achebe chooses the precolonial period to set his story is significant because he can give us a juxtaposition of the lives of the Africans before the advent of the white man vis-à-vis their lives after the contact (Cook 6).
The community of Umuofia is depicted as highly stable, self-content, proud and dignified and, most importantly, highly unified. The people are governed by an accepted system, forged and administered in line with their traditions and customs. The community is highly contented and the richness in their folklores, proverbs, rituals, songs and myths tell it all. The community is depicted as some kind of heaven where peace and spirit of oneness reigns (Killam 44). This picture is tragically shattered with the advent of the white man and, like the life of Okwonkwo who had been in his prime, having worked his way up to become a village elder, the lives of the Igbo, Eastern Nigeria, Nigeria and the whole African continent, by extension, comes crumbling down.
True to the title of the book that is derived from Yeats’ poem The Second Coming’ things fall apart, the very centre that held the people together; their values, virtues, rituals, songs, folktales, proverbs, folklores, and religion, have all been contaminated, and others obliterated having been dismissed as primitive. With that, the initially highly composite world falls, tragically. Just like the hero of the story. ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot holdmere anarchy is loosed upon the World’ (Yeats 3) this poem introduces to the reader the main theme of the story, the clash of two civilizations; the struggle between two very different but equally strong civilizations: the Western civilization versus the Eastern civilization. It is the struggle of the Africans to retain their traditions while at the same time adopting new aspects from the Western culture.
That, contrary to popular belief, Africans were not languishing savagery; that they had their working systems, religious, judicial and legislative. When the people of Mbaino murder a daughter of Umuofia, they hold a meeting of over ten thousand men and there, they decide on the course of action. ‘An ultimatum was dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between war on one hand and the other to offer a young man and a virgin as compensation.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 4) Achebe, in his highly rich language and an objective standing demonstrates without boasting or being simplistic that the African society was far from savagery. He gives a deep demonstration of the panoramic African society ruled by order, consensus and cohesion making the destruction that came with the occupation of the white man all the more poignant.
Despite his insider perspective, Achebe can remain objective, neither explicitly glorifying the African culture, nor explicitly demonizing western civilization (Brown 21). That he takes pride in his African culture, there is no doubt, but he does not boast about its superiority or illustrate the western culture as inferior. His, however, is an unbiased representation of the clashes between these two civilizations and the detrimental effects that result. This is not unlike in every other clash of civilizations. Like in a war, blood must be shed; compromises have to be made, and only the strong willed or strong bodied and tactical survive. Most people are overwhelmed and, like Achebe’s tragic hero Okwonkwo, they are left disillusioned.
Achebe is so objective that he does not attempt to sugar coat the not-so-flowery aspects of the Igbo. Even in his demonstration of the African traditional culture as a panoramic life, he does also illustrate the weaknesses of the Igbo. We see people that can kill on an impulse. Even Okwonkwo, the hero of the novel, is not afraid to kill, and this culminates to a tragic fall not just for him but the entire society (Prasad 13). Okwonkwo plays an integral role of killing Ikemefuna, a boy he had raised as his own and one who still called him father.’ My father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okwonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 40)
Achebe uses the life of Okwonkwo to tell a story of the changes that arose as a result of imposing a culture alien to the Igbo whose main agenda was to thwart the people’s values and, eventually the traditional society fell apart. The centre that brought them together; the values, the language, the beliefs, stories, songs, proverbs, witchcraft, medicine, religion among others had been replaced with aspects of the alien society, and there was nothing to hold them together again (Yeats 3). The traditional society that was, up until then, self-sufficient, well endowed with knowledge and wisdom, secured and inherently coherent, a highly composite society was shaken to the very core. The dignity and beauty that characterized its existence were tainted by western beliefs that were highly capitalistic (Prasad 31). The people led an easy and comfortable life, and even those who were lazy and unambitious like Unoka, Okwonkwo’s late father were able to live their full lives. With several wives to take care of him, he could not die of hunger. In fact, the reader cannot help but admire his generosity even with his meagre earnings. ‘If any money came his way, and it seldom did, he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine, called round his neighbours and made merry.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 3) The fact that he owed so many people money and more kept lending him more money is a clear indication of the generosity of the people of Igbo.
The generosity of the people of Igbo continues to pervade throughout the story. Every time Okwonkwo receives a visitor, there is kola nuts reserved for the guest. Generosity for them is God sanctioned as illustrated by the response Unoka gets when he tells his friend Okoye to sit down and break a kola. Okoye says ‘Thank you. He who brings Kola brings life.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 4) When the people of Mbaino offer the people of Umuofia a young man and a virgin as compensation having killed their daughter, Okwonkwo raises the young man, Ikemefuna as his son.
Okwonkwo, in a flashback, remembers how as a young man who wanted to venture out on his own and outgrow his father’s laziness went to Nwakibie and asked him for some yam seeds to plant on his already cleared farm, and the response was. ‘Go clear your farm; I shall give you twice four hundred yams.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 12) As Okwonkwo later explains, share-cropping was common in the village. Those who had no seeds to pant would get from those who did have, and they were all ready to help each other. That is before the white man came and in place of the communality that governed the people of Igbo, he planted discord. Those who subscribed to his beliefs were pitted against those who were adamant about their traditions. Neighbour was pitted against neighbour and sons against their fathers. None could go to the other to ask for seed.
Chinua Achebe uses proverbs as a way of demonstrating the richness of the Igbo’s culture. All these proverbs are endowed with the wisdom of the people, and they provide solutions to most of the problems that the people may encounter. It is the proverbs that carried the societal coder, norms the conduct that gave the society a collective meaning for their existence. These proverbs regulated the lives of the Igbo and educated them, urging them to foster cordial relations amongst themselves and the ancestral spirits. Generosity was highly encouraged, and those who gave to others even something as mundane, and commonplace as kola were equated to having given life. In the absence of these proverbs and folklore, following the white man’s imposition of his purportedly superior language, the people of Igbo lost meaning and significance of living (Brown 32).
No Igbo proverb, however, was sufficient to provide a solution to the community’s disintegration that was ignited by the white man. It has been argued that the Umuofia community was self-disintegrating with its numerous flaws like the killing of twins or even Ikemefuna but, these practices were not new to the African society. The very beliefs that they subscribed to required them to adhere to such inhumane practices. What is of significance here is that none of these practices were conducted by individuals. When Ikemefuna was to be killed, a group of men was mandated to carry out this task. In fact, if Okwonkwo had heeded to the wise words of Ezeudu ‘That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 16) The tragedy that befell him could easily have been evaded.
The proverb used by Okoye says ‘He who brings Kola brings life.’ Is significant in illustrating Igbo life as one that is highly unified. The lives of the Igbo is neither extremely spiritual nor overly material. There is an undeniable synthesis between the two, with the Kola nut as the unifying factor. The kola is reserved for gods, guests and ancestral spirits (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 80).The society enjoyed an easy communication with the spiritual world, always remembering to thank the spirits for watching over them and offering libations to appease them. When Okwonkwo was exiled, for example, his great friend, Obierika was thrown into a state of confusion, and he sought peace and consolation from the spirit world. ‘When the will of the goddess had been done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend’s calamity.’
It was the habit of the people of Umuofia to consult the spirits and the gods before they made any major decision. Sometimes they would consult the spirit of their dead relatives. Even lazy Unoka knew that the spirit world could help lift him from his misfortune although when he does consult, the priestess assures him that his misfortune is not because he has offended the spirits nor his fathers and ancestors but it is the weakness of his hoe and machete that has plunged him into poverty. The Kola nut is highly symbolic because it represents the unity the people of Igbo enjoyed before the coming of the white man (Brown 34). On his return from exile, Okwonkwo notes with immense sadness how the white man has managed to break down the Umuofian society. As a way of explanation, his life time friend, Obierika infers to the kola and says that the white man has managed to separate the two lobes that make up the kola
"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together, and we have fallen apart" (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 140). The white man had used the knife of language, material values, and technology to pierce and punch holes on the unity of the people. The white man brought the people of Igbo a religion they did not understand and in a language they had never heard before. Similarly, the white man did not understand the language of the Igbo, and so, the services of interpreters were always sought after. Ironically, the interpreters were themselves of Igbo origin and therefore their grasp of the white man’s language was limited and could hardly be relied on. Usually, they gave distorted information and created chaos in the process. According to Llyod W. Brown, language is not just a technique but an embodiment of people’s civilization, representing or dramatizing the perceptions of their culture (Brown 38).
With the introduction of Christianity, the collective unity of the Igbo was threatened. That Christianity required one to be conversant with the language it came in, the language of the white man, meant that those who wished to be converted must learn this language first. The implication here then is that they had to go to the White man’s school, thereby alienating themselves from their socially assigned roles, traditional ties and their royalty to the ancestors. It became impossible to rouse the people of Umuofia into the collective responsibility of protecting their value and cultures and as Obierika states
‘Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. Okwonkwo mourns not only for himself but for the lost unity of his people
‘Okwonkwo was greatly grieved, and it was not just personal grief, he mourned for the clan which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the war like men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women. (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 144)’
The western religion advocated for individualism, with an emphasis on the individual need to personally get converted. This emphasis shook the very core foundations of Umuofia that had been deeply anchored in unity and collectivism (Cook 45). The climax of this disintegration, this triumph of the western individualism over Eastern collectivism came when Enoch, an ardent follower of Christianity and under the guidance of a tactless and dogmatic Mr. Smith crossed the line by committing the worst kind of sacrilegious act in the History of Umuofia. Enoch had become such a strong convert that the villagers dubbed him the outsider who mourns louder than the bereaved. On this particular day, during the annual ceremony that Umuofia held in honour of the earth deity, which, coincidentally fell on a Sunday, the same day that Christians went to church, Enoch tore off the mask of one of the Egwugwu-masked spirit- in utter contempt. By so doing, he had killed an ancestral spirit and thrown the people of Umuofia into an abyss. The people of Umuofia were not so oblivious as to imagine that the Egwugwu was a spirit ascended from the ancestral world. Far from it. Most of them knew and could point out who among them was masked to represent the Egwugwu.
‘The Egwugwu house into which they emerged faced the forest, away from the crowd who only saw its backif they imagined what was inside, they kept their imagination to themselves. No woman asked questions about the most powerful and most secret cult in the clan’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 142)
The essence of this ceremony, therefore, and the reason they allowed that mystery to persist and surround them was because the Egwugwu in their powerful position formed a solid base for the people to hold onto. The sharing and believing in a common spirit was key to the clan’s very existence and its people’s worldview. When the white men occupied Africa, the Africans’ traditional religious faiths were forced into degeneration as the Africans were made to question and doubt some of the truths they previously held (Brown 51). Okwonkwo’s wives express their doubts about the Egwugwu with a springious walk like Okwonkwo and although they manage to convince themselves that he is one of the clan’s ancestors, the doubt is evident, and it speaks volumes.
With the unmasking of the Egwugwu, Enoch’s rashness reduced the immortal prestige of the Egwugwu in the eyes of the people of Umuofia and the doubt that had simmered since the advent of the white men became full-blown. The confusion and discord that plagued the Umuofia community were of unfathomable magnitude. A man by the name of Okoli had killed a python in the village of Mbanta and Enoch, in addition to unmasking the Egwugwu had also killed and eaten a python. A python was so central to the community that is killing one, let alone killing and eating it was never heard of. No one, not even the ancestors, had ever foreseen such an occurrence and for that reason, no form of punishment had been fronted to be meted on such culprits. The people of Umuofia could no longer be prompted to come together, as they had done when one of their daughters was killed in Mbaino and devise an appropriate redress.
The individuality of the white man’s culture was starting to take root. When the agitated people sought for retribution by demolishing the church which they believed was the cause of all the evil, and quite justifiably so, the elders of the clan were arrested and greatly humiliated. It is important to note that they were not arrested by the Whiteman. They were arrested by people from their clan whom the Whiteman had singled out and bestowed upon administrative authorities. These are the people that Okwonkwo refers to as ‘our brothers who have taken up his religion and say that our customs are bad.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 143) The Whiteman, using the divide and rule method of administration, the epitome of individuality had managed to turn clansmen against fellow clansmen.
The district commissioner seems to highlight the individualistic nature of his people in his speech to the six leaders of Umuofia, who were arrested for destroying the church. ‘We have a court of law where we judge the cases and administer justice just as it is done in our country under a great Queen.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 150). Here, he introduces a new concept of the justice system which they seek to impose on the people of Umuofia and Africa by extension. Their judicial system is headed and presided over by a few administrators and judges who determine the fate of the accused. This is in sharp contrast to the pre-colonial Africa where cases were determined by all and sundry, and the kind of punishment to be meted was only arrived at by consensus.
‘In the morning the market place was full. There must have been ten thousand men theremany others spoke and in the end, it was decided to follow the normal course of action.’ (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 4)
It is the individualism of the Whiteman that gives rise to vices never before witnessed in Africa (Achebe, Morning Yet on Creation Day 10). Vices like corruption and bribery as Obierika narrates to Okwonkwo about a land ownership dispute that was determined by the White man’s court.
‘The White man’s Court had decided that it should belong to Nnama’s family who had given much money to the White man’s messengers and interpreter. (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 160)’ The White man seems to be threatened by unity of the people of Umuofia. Okwonkwo’s final act of defiance against the White man- Okwonkwo’s initial proposition was to kill the White man-, comes when he calls for a meeting of the clan elders but the White man’s messenger is sent to stop it. Okwonkwo realizes that his efforts to get rid of the White man are doomed to fail. The White man’s beliefs have pervaded his community. Even the elders who he thinks ought to stand with him and reunite his people seem divided. Okwonkwo, in isolation and utter loneliness, chops off his head.
The clan’s defender realizes that the centre cannot hold, the unity of the clan cannot be regained, the world around him has become disintegrated and being the hero that he is, he cannot bear to live in a world he does not understand. He cannot bear to live in a community that glorifies individualism and unity are treated as defiance. He cannot live in an alien world. He cannot live in the White man’s world.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Morning Yet on Creation Day. London: Heineman Educational Books, 1975. Print.
—. Things Fall Apart. New Delhi: Arnold Associates, 1987. Print.
Brown, Llyod W. Cultural Norms and modes of Perception in Achebe's Fiction. London: Heinemann, 1999. Print.
Cook, David. African Literature: A Critical Overview. London: Long man group, 1989. Print.
Killam, G D. The Writings of Chinua Achebe. London: Heineman, 1994. Print.
Prasad, Madhusudan. Colonial Consciousness in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. ABS Publications, 1991. Print.
Yeats, W B. The Second Coming. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1964-2002. Print.
