Things fall Apart is novel written by a Nigerian Author Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe paints a picture of pre-colonial Africa to the people who had no direct information on traditional African societies. This novel highlights the clash between the Nigerian traditional culture and colonialism. In the novel, there are a number of themes and background but the major themes in the novel are struggle between change and traditions whereby there is the Igbo culture and civilization and the expansion of the Europeans into Africa as from the 1880s.
Chinua Achebe through his book Things Fall Apart portrays the clash between the Igbo people’s traditions and culture and the Nigeria’s white colonial government. The British colonization of Nigeria brought Christianity to the people. This destroyed an intricate and traditional way of living of the people as they were forced to change their way of life. There was tension on whether change was to have a privilege over tradition as the Igbo people valued their traditions more than anything else. One of the characters who resisted change was Okonkwo by rejecting the new political and religious orders by the Europeans. He saw them as not manly and he could not tolerate them. In addition, the villagers were caught up in a dilemma on deciding whether to embrace change or not. They found the new opportunities and techniques from the missionaries very exciting but they were torn between accepting them and embracing their tradition (Okpewho 102). The techniques threatened their traditional mastery skills and they feared that if they abandon their traditions, it would lead to the eradication of their traditions and language. The missionaries’ main aim was to civilize the Igbo people. Things fell apart in the novel when the Europeans challenged the Igbo people’s traditions and culture and introduced their own culture to them.
Another major theme in the novel is the expansion of the Europeans into Africa as from the 1880s. In the 19th century, many European states migrated to Africa and other parts of the world and established colonies. Nigeria was one of the countries which received missionaries on a colonizing mission who introduced their culture and religion which was later imposed on the Igbo people. Colonialism had a lot of effects on Nigerian civilization as the Igbo culture was immensely threatened by the missionaries’ changes. The missionaries did not value the Igbo people’s local religion and culture and they dismissed it terming it as inferior to Christianity (Achebe 78). To the Igbo people, culture norms played a vital role in their lives and the Europeans were taking this away from them. Things Fall Apart articulates a new vision of the African world after the expansion of the Europeans into Africa. The book expresses a new African experience that was more penetrating than what the Africans had before the European expansion. The European expansion to Nigeria fragmented the Igbo culture as it threatened to change every aspect of the Igbo society from traditional gender roles, and relations, family structure and even religion. The Igbo people depended on their language and culture but the European expansion challenged their culture forcing them to abandon their way of life and follow what the missionaries had introduced. However much the Igbo people were not happy with the colonialism of their society, they had no choice but to adapt to the changes.
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.
Okpewho, Isidore, ed. Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart": A Casebook. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
