things fall apart post colonialism essay

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Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel | Effects of Colonialism

Literature that deals with the people who lived once under colonialism, is called postcolonial literature. Countries of almost every continent went through colonialism. Africa was the most affected continent as colonialism and imperialism caused major changes in the lives of Africans. Things Fall Apart is a novel that deals with postcolonial literature, in which Chinua Achebe portrays theme of colonialism and its demerits. He proved that colonialism either sieged cultural development of Igbo society or entirely replaced it with the new culture. He was not the only one who managed to write novels on colonialism. Heart of Darkness is also an example in which the writer described the miserable condition of Africans when they suffered under British rule.

History is not enough to believe and categories Things Fall Apart as a postcolonial novel and to understand the theme of colonialism in it. Being students of literature, we must gather some evidence from the book to prove that it is about the people of that continent, which was colonized the most. In order to do this, we have to divide the novel into three parts. In fact, Chinua Achebe already completed this task for us. Hence, he divided the novel into three parts; in first part, he portrays life of Nigerians before colonialism; in second part, he depicts the disturbed life of people when whitemen entered in their society; thirdly, at the end he elucidates the miserable condition of the people along with protagonist of the play after colonialism.

Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel

It has become obvious from the summary of the novel that Chinua Achebe hit the cultural lives of Nigerian people in his play Things Fall Apart to show the postcolonial condition of the people and to paint colonialism as its major theme. He shows the effect of imperialism through cultural conflicts ; therefore, we must stick to the cultural clashes to understand that the play really is a postcolonial novel and we should add it in the list of literature with the effect of colonialism.

Condition of People Before Whitemen

We must know how Igbo people were living before whitemen entered their country. It is necessary to acknowledge the lifestyle of those people to know how colonialism affected them.

People of Ibo society had different beliefs; they had their own customs. They used to believe in myths. People had their own beliefs about the earth and about the sun. Death played a vital role in their lives. They had stories about stars, moons and about the sun. Their beliefs on ghosts were very strong. They did not question any evidence from their forefathers about the folk tales they told them; instead they believed them blindly. Men were symbols of masculinity and they did the earnings whereas women were considered weak and were bound to household activities. A man could have more than one wife. People had an earth goddess, whom they worshiped. At the end of novel, we realize that all these things vanish from Ibo society due to which we call Things Fall Apart a novel that deals with theme of colonialism, hence, falls in postcolonial literature.

In addition, the yam season was full of festivals. A person’s wealth and wives were dependent upon the production of yam crop. They did not have kings, instead they had their own tribal customs. Every tribe had their own head, who decided the matters between people of his tribe. Okonkwo along with other characters of Things Fall Apart is a good example of it. Thus, these were the main customs and beliefs of Igbo society that were really sacred to them. In the novel Things Fall Apart , the writer shows us through this major theme that before colonialism they were living happily while following these traditions.

Interference of Whitemen in Ibo Society

In Chapter-15 and Chapter-16, the readers realize the interference of whitemen at Abame village. A whiteman enters the society on a bicycle, which the people call iron-horse. When they consult the oracle, it is prophesied that the whiteman followed by others would cause destruction of the village. People of the society kill the whiteman and ties his bicycle to a tree; however, whitemen who follow him subsequently discover it and angrily destroy the village Abame.

Obierika tells the whole incident to Okonkwo. He calls the people of society foolish as they committed murder of an innocent person. Chinue Achebe very skillfully compares the incident with Okonkwo’s thinking. On one hand, protagonist of the play shows sympathy on murder of an alien but on the other hand the writer shows destruction of the city from the hands of whitemen. Meaning thereby that the whitemen instead of conducting an inquiry and finding the responsible person of the incident destroy the whole village.

Chinua Achebe, in this way, sketches a theme of colonialism and shows cruelty of whitemen in his novel Things Fall Apart during postcolonial period. Colonialism was not for the welfare of the people, instead whiteman came there to create fear in their minds. The incident shows that they went there to make them slaves.

Acceptance of whitemen

It is also noteworthy that some people open-heartedly accepted colonialism. Nwoye’s example in this regard is in front of us. When missionaries preach Christianity and tell him about the new God, he accepts it. Their new method of worship and believing in only one God really impresses him, resultantly, he changes his mind regarding traditional concepts of Igbo society. In this way, somehow we see the writer expressing his impartial opinions. He shows two types of people in the novel. In the first group are those who reject the idea of a new religion whereas the people who accept the interference of whitemen fall in group two. In this way, the writer sincerely expresses his unbiased opinions.

Postcolonial Condition of Igbo Society in Novel Things Fall Apart

Tragedy starts when the whitemen interfere in the society. It is too late when Okonkwo returns to his home. Numbers of people have already accepted colonialism. He resists but it is in vain . As the customs of Igbo society were entirely interlinked with the religion and whitemen entered there with a new religion; therefore, it was impossible to take the christianity alongside their own beliefs. Moreover, believing on christianiy was meant to accept that their forefathers told them lies. As a Result, Igbo society’s culture faded day by day. It also caused chaos among them. Brother went against brother and father against son. It is evident from the relationship between Okonkwo and his son in the third part of the play.

Theme of Colonialism in Novel Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe was against colonialism. It is, therefore, he tried his best to present an anti-colonial ideology in his book along with other themes of Things Fall Apart . Some of the critics, however, are of the view that Chinua Achebe was not against colonialism but against the conduct of whitemen towards the African people. They further argue that in his novel, he does not talk about the social issues but about the nostalgic customs under which every African lived once. Indeed, there is no doubt that Things Fall Apart is a postcolonial novel and colonialism is its major theme but it can also never be ignored that Chinua Achebe laments on the customs and lifestyle that were entirely changed due to the interference of whitemen in Igbo society.

Definition of postcolonial literature is not the literature that was written after colonialism but the literature that deals with it. Every novel in which the writer talks about the effects of colonialism should be called a postcolonial novel. In view of the definition, we can safely say that Chinua Achebe elucidates impacts of colonialism on his society, hence, his novel Things Fall Apart definitely interpret this theme due to which it falls in the category of postcolonial literature.

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Colonialism in "Things Fall Apart": a Complex Exploration

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Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe’s first book, “Things Fall Apart” , was released in 1958. It shows life before colonization in the southeast of Nigeria and the European invasion in the late 19th century. The story centers on Okonkwo , an Igbo man who is also a champion in wrestling in his locality. The book is divided into three sections: before colonization, during colonization, and after colonization. The first section introduces Okonkwo , his parents, and the larger Igbo community while the second and third sections discuss the impact of European colonialism and Christian missionaries on them.

Table of Contents

“Things Fall Apart” as a Post-Colonial Novel:

“Things Fall Apart” is widely critically praised for being a postcolonial narrative. The Igbo cultural complexity has emerged as a motif in Chinua Achebe’s writings, opening out a historical narrative of the collision of two cultures. A new culture introduced by the white missionaries teaching the gospels of Christianity threatens Okonkwo , a highly well-known public figure in his society.

The division that results from the introduction of Christian culture first manifests itself at the individual and then social levels. It causes uncertainty and commotion in the society when several Igbo individuals, including Okonkwo’s son, leave their faith. The Europeans are unable to comprehend the Igbo people’s established way of life. They disregard the Igbo people’s cultural traditions because of this. Achebe shows in the novel that Africans are not barbarians and that their communities are not dumb.

Why do things fall apart?

As a result of Okonkwo ‘s failure to return his people to the unified culture they previously all shared, things fall apart . The attitudes that white people have toward black people regarding Christianity are reminiscent of how black people have historically been treated as slaves by white people. Achebe demonstrates that the depictions of Africans in literature and histories are not accurate; rather, they reflect the views of Europeans. Okonkwo hangs himself as a result when he discovers that his created laws and orders have been utterly disregarded by his own people and when he observes that Igbo is losing its reputation by falling apart.

The significance of the title:

The novel’s title itself is significant. In his well-known poem “The second coming” Yeats wrote, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer, Things fall apart, the center cannot hold,” from which Achebe derived the title of his novel. These sentences allude to the idea of “modernity,” which illustrates how individuals let their animal instincts run wild. This bestiality of a modern man is also shown in Achebe’s masterpiece “Things Fall Apart” . Chinua Achebe laments, like Yeats, the decline in religious faith as well as the senseless deaths of members of the Obi tribe.

Conflict between Igbo culture and Christianity:

In “Things Fall Apart” , Achebe depicts a serious sort of conflict regarding the impacts of Christianity introduced by White people, which mostly go against the ideals of the Obi tribe’s people. The book includes proverbs, a form of storytelling, and the traditional ideals that are brought to life in the novel. African folklore is communicated through a few traditional songs as the children say: “The rain is falling, the sun is shining, and Alone Nadi is cooking and eating,” (p 25). Furthermore, the members of the Obi tribe practice a type of religion together with its teachings, which are centered on what their ancestors did. This is the belief system that the Obi tribe’s members generally adopt verbally. Contrarily, the new Christian belief system starts to disprove this notion, especially among the younger generation and the anxiety of a looming danger from western Christianity permeates the whole village of Umuofia.

The new belief does not align with the principles that Okonkwo and his people hold in their heart. While the District Commissioner believes that the new religious culture they have introduced would lead to a stable administration in the area, Okonkwo claims that “the white man has indeed brought a lunatic religion” . In another way, this new religious culture represents a new generation’s beliefs. Okonkwo regards the Christian faith as “peripetia” , the precise opposite of what Aristotle describes as a transition from one condition of circumstances to its exact opposite, that is how he interprets the religious ideas.

As a result of a post-colonial affair of the white missionaries, Achebe has observed that a rich indigenous culture is lost under imperial rule. Due to mounting stress and the sense of disgrace, Okonkwo kills himself at the end. Therefore, the novel demonstrates how the African experience and the modern culture that is influencing the younger generation are in conflict with one another. When Nwoye begins attending church and his father objectifies it, this contradiction tenses up more. “Answer me before I kill you” , his father yells as he snatches his kid by the neck. (p 107).

Language as an important aspect of post-colonial novel:

By presenting the imaginative, frequently formal language of the Igbo, Achebe stresses that Africa is not the quiet or unintelligible continent that novels like “Heart of Darkness” made it out to be. Instead, by sprinkling the novel with Igbo terms, Achebe demonstrates that the Igbo language is too difficult for straight translation into English. In the same way, Igbo culture cannot be acquainted within the framework of European imperialist principles. Achebe also emphasizes the diversity of languages spoken in Africa, citing how the Umuofia people tease Mr. Brown’s translator because his language differs somewhat from their own.

On a macro level, it is immensely essential that Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart” in English; it is obvious that he meant for the West to read it at least as much as his own Nigerians, if not more. His intention was to criticize and improve the picture of Africa that so many colonial-era writers had presented. English, the language of those colonial writers, had to be used in order to do this. Achebe succeeded in capturing and expressing the rhythms, patterns, cadences, and beauty of the Igbo language through the incorporation of proverbs, folklores, and songs that were rendered from the Igbo language.

The democratic nature of Igbo culture:

It is simple to understand the Igbo tribe’s democratic nature. They have a unique system of law and order in which no one is permitted to exploit social standing to avoid punishment. As we learnt from the book, Okonkwo received two sentences for his error or crime. In contrast to the harsh punishments found in the European legal system, such as the death penalty or life in jail, everyone is treated equally in Igbo culture. They thus reside in a more cultured and humane society than the white men.

Superstitions of Igbo culture:

Achebe has highlighted both the positive aspects of Igbo culture and the superstitions that some Igbo people hold sacred. The Igbo’s predominantly superstitious beliefs provide the Europeans a chance to disrupt their sense of community cohesion. The white man makes the most of this attribute for his own profit.

They will take a person who is dying of disease and cannot be saved to die in the evil forest, for example Unoka.

They avoided naming a snake a snake because if they called it a snake it would hear them and not whistling at night for fear of evil spirits.

Conclusion:

Achebe uses the tale of Okonkwo to revive African culture while also discussing colonization more generally and its negative repercussions. With his storytelling techniques, Achebe has created Okonkwo’s world that is well-organized, well-ordered, and civilized. Pre-colonization, colonization, and post-colonization are all seen to exist at the same time in the three sections of the novel. Therefore, we can say that “Things Fall Apart” is a key book in the field of postcolonial literature.

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Things Fall Apart

Chinua achebe, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Things Fall Apart: Introduction

Things fall apart: plot summary, things fall apart: detailed summary & analysis, things fall apart: themes, things fall apart: quotes, things fall apart: characters, things fall apart: symbols, things fall apart: theme wheel, brief biography of chinua achebe.

Historical Context of Things Fall Apart

Other books related to things fall apart.

Full Title: Things Fall Apart
When Written: 1957
Where Written: Nigeria
When Published: 1958
Literary Period: Post-colonialism
Genre: Novel / Tragedy
Setting: Pre-colonial Nigeria, 1890s
Climax: Okonkwo's murder of a court messenger
Antagonist: Missionaries and White Government Officials (Reverend Smith and the District Commissioner)
Point of View: Third person omniscient

Extra Credit for Things Fall Apart

Joseph Conrad: “A Bloody Racist”. Chinua Achebe delivered a lecture and critique on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness , calling Conrad “a bloody racist” and provoking controversy among critics and readers. However, Achebe's criticism of Conrad has become a mainstream perspective on Conrad's work and was even included in the 1988 Norton critical edition of Heart of Darkness .

Achebe as Politician. Achebe expressed his political views often in writing, but he also involved himself actively in Nigerian politics when he became the People's Redemption Party's deputy national vice-president in the early 1980's. However, he soon resigned himself in frustration with the corruption he witnessed during the elections.

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Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart : A Critique of Post-Colonial Discourse

All African writings, specially novels, are at once literary pieces, a social protest and a medium of political reassertion. The African writings portray the post-colonial African reality in all its varied colours and texture. Writers like Chinua Achebe, in their works, have delineated the characters of their fictional heroes as leaders of the struggle against colonial and neocolonial forces stubbornly obstructing the process of social regeneration and political nativization. Literature occurs under the glow of certain socio-phychological impacts upon the author. Chinua Achebe confirms the validity of this observation most forcefully in the sense that his novels faithfully mirrors the post-colonial colours that shadow the hopes and aspirations of the community that he belongs to. The present paper attempts a critique of post-colonial discourse of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The cross-currents that enrich the texture of the novel consists of the emergence of neo-colonialism along with the lingering shadows of old colonialism, the resistance of the post-colonial struggle of maintaining the native originality on the one hand obsessional hand washing of the old tyranny on the other, the agony of the exile, the longings of diasporic looking back into once own native past, the emotional trauma of being a witness to the structure of one's own dream falling apart and, above all, the agony of one's being misunderstood by one's own kith and kin. The post-colonial milieu of the novel Things Fall Apart finds a poignant treatment by Booth James, in such a way that the readers feel the true spirit of the post-colonial ways of life. It is relevant to reproduce the observation of Booth James regarding the post-colonial shadows that cover the efficacy of the Nigerian progress and development ; With the six years of independence Nigeria was a cesspool of corruption. Public servants helped themselves freely to the nation's wealth … Elections were blatantly rigged… The national census was outrageously stage-managed; Judges and magistrates themselves were manipulated and corrupted by foreign business interest. 1 The literary construction of post-colonialism within the force of a novelistic discourse produces the necessity of fore grounding of the quests for identities, the voices of resistance and the conditioned mind of the subjugated swinging between it's innocent individual learning and the compulsive obligations of the social expectations. To set the thesis initially, it would be proper to quote the following conceptualizations of post colonial conditions by Homi Bhabha ; … a range of contemporary critical theories suggests that it is from those who have suffered the sentence of history, subjugation, domination, diaspora, displacement-that we learn our most enduring lessons for living and thinking. There is even a growing conviction that the affective experience of social marginality… transforms our critical strategies. 2 Achebe views the novel as an exercise in self discovery. It is through writing, he believes, that an African can determine and establish his identity by exploring and rediscovering his roots. This reflexing and self defining nature of the novel is singularly important to post-colonial writers who have been confronting an erosion of their traditional values owing to the overpowering exposure to European culture which has already made insidious advances upon the native way of life and local customs, modes and habits in many countries. Things Fall Apart is a typical Igloo novel which describes Okonkwo's rise and fall. He was well known throughout the 'nine villages and even beyond.' 3 (p.3) His greatest achievement at the age of eighteen was 'throwing Amalinze the Cat.' Amalinze, the great Wrestler was called the cat because his back would never touch the earth. But Okonkwo threw the cat at last. It was said that Okonkwo never used his words, when he was angry he used his fists instead. His father Unoka owed every neighbor some money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts. In the first part of the novel various ceremonies of the triables are narrated. From the very beginning of the first part, Okonkwo's place in the Iglo society is highlighted. It is Okonkwo's will, determination and boldness which take him to the rank of one of the lords of the clan. He is a prosperous man, one who is acclaimed by the nine villages as a great warrior. In one year the harvest was unsatisfactory A farmer committed suicide in Okonkwo's village but Okonkwo tried not to lose his head. His

Related Papers

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When it comes to defining Postcolonial literature the instant thought which comes to our mind is that it addresses the various crisis and consequences of the decolonization of a country or of a nation. The purpose of this paper is to throw light on one of the major theme taken by the Post colonial authors-Lost Identity. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart made a prominent mark in describing this theme. This paper involves discovering how the main protagonist loses his identity after a series of events in the novel, Things Fall Apart. The author has revealed how Okonkwo, the main character, faces a loss of identity. The paper here proposes to study how people live in a continent before colonial invasion. They lived in a complex, diverse and fruitful relationship with the African environment but as colonization comes in action, all hell breaks loose. The main character suffers a gradual loss in his honor, male power and sense of duty. This paper attempts a reading of Things Fall Apart from a point where it shows how the simple humans behave when they suffer a crisis in identity. It also intends to indicate the height of the damage in the relationship among the people of the Igbo society. The author attempts to analyze the different cultural elements such as language and religion in Igbo society and how it changes because of the colonizers. It indicates how the simple villagers cannot escape the pervasiveness of colonialists' and finally the Umofians with all their complexity and integrity fall down. The paper goes through the Igbo society before and during the coming of the colonizers, the Europeans and represent how they fall apart. The very first thing which comes to your mind after reading the novel " Things Fall Apart " is that the Igbo people have created a world around themselves which holds ancestral believes and hierarchy. They have a democratic government which consists of different councils, Council of Elders, Council of Masquerades, the Oracles and they even link up people and gods with their Chief Priests. They have a set of laws, rules and regulations that are mandatory for everyone. Those who don't follow these rules or anyhow break the laws are subjected to severe punishments. Their wealth status is measured by the number of wives, children and, most

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Chinua Achebe's classic novel Things Fall Apart, clocks 50 in 2008, and, expectedly, the global literary community is celebrating this great African masterpiece, a permanent staple of the academic curriculum of most tertiary institutions of learning around the world. As part of the commemoratives in honour of the work and its creator, I have chosen to do a reappraisal of a tiny aspect of the numerous interpretive interest which Things Fall Apart continues to generate, namely, the subject of heroism. Mainstream or conventional readings of Things Fall Apart ascribe the hero of the novel to the novel's protagonist, Okonkwo, and, consequently cast Unoka, Okonkwo's father, and Nwoye, Okonkwo's first son, in a bad light. We are constrained to reexamine these positions, and, thereby contest their apparent validity. We also use various literary theories to evaluate Okonkwo's claim to heroism as we profile his tragic, grace-to-grass career.

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This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles in Achebe’s narrative: the myriad phrases that are repeated throughout the first part of the work; and the formative shift, the poetic volta, that takes place between parts one and two of the novel. Drawing on Achebe’s assertion that “anyone seeking an insight into [the Igbo] world must seek it along their own way”, the article shows that in the novel’s final section, the European colonizers have neglected to engage with African culture, and that this leads to a palpable failure. Achebe deprivileges and mocks the colonizing perspective that can only make sense of African customs in terms of the European conflation of print and the public spheres. The conclusion uses Wolfgang Huchbruck’s term “textual otherness” to argue against critics who maintain that the shift from communal to urban life, from oral to print culture, means the destruction of traditional culture. Achebe preserves Igbo speech culture by constructing a “fabricated reality” that suggests the timelessness of oral literature amid the struggle for control of the means of communication.

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Colonization in Chinua Achebe’s Novel “Things Fall Apart” Essay

Speaking about colonization and missionary movement of Europeans across Africa, it started at the end of the 15 century but its strongest influence occurred at the beginning of 19 century. For centuries Britain was taking slaves out of Africa and was selling them. Later Britain had outlawed the slave trade and started colonization by the means that they are saving Africans.

For the first time, Africans were pleased with the colonists and missionaries because they were friendly and gave the tribesmen education and trade opportunities. The tribesmen didn’t want to give up the new trading society to fight for their independence, that I why they had accepted the confines of the white man’s rule. Soon they started to convert people into Christianity. Some of them have joined the movement and some haven’t. First conflicts were noticed as the mission expanded, hey led to a division of a clan. But besides making a positive impact on a tribe, Colonization brought violence to the tribe. The tribesmen started to do things that their ancestors deplore, some of them started to think that they can kill their own brothers. Pitting brother against brother and father against son became a regular thing.

As the result of European’s colonization, Africa became divided at least into fifty nation-states. The Africans lived according to European political restrictions, so there was no chance to remain a unique society with a common language and traditions. Many ethnic groups were divided and spitted which led to stress, misunderstanding, and sometimes violence. The cohesiveness of the historical society was gone.

Speaking about colonization, we can’t but mention its influence and cultural impact on an object of colonization. The story of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is a vivid example of such influence. Achebe’s story takes place at the end of the nineteenth century, this is the first time when Europeans began colonizing this region in Nigeria. The main purpose of Achebe was to establish a parallel between the heartrending destruction of native African cultures and Okonkwo’s personal tragedy.

One of the worst aspects of colonization is a cruel cycle of mutual confrontation as the two cultures conflict. Referring to the story, this cycle began when Okonkwo was exiled from Umuofia and was seeking protection from his mother’s kinsmen in the nearby village called Umuofia. The most significant misunderstanding occurred when the British men destroyed the village Abame. The reason for this was the murder of a white man who came to Abame. The inhabitants of Abame were just scared of him and couldn’t communicate with him. This is a vivid example of how one incident can be interpreted from two points of view. Christian missionaries had also played an important role. They were holding debates with the native inhabitants to gain converts. They had converted several people including Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son. Okonkwo’s reaction was simple, he becomes enraged and disowns Nwoye. But the tensions between the village inhabitants and the missionaries were growing as none of the cultures tried to accommodate another one. The converts had killed a sacred python and the tribe retaliates by ostracizing the Christians.

There was a moment when Umuofia seemed to be ready to lash out against the colonists, the court messengers step in to break them up. Okonkwo didn’t want to follow the orders, that is why he had killed the head messenger. He was surprised to see that the people let the other messengers, the henchmen of the white government escape. It was understandable that his people are not ready to raise up against the colonists. Okonkwo was a witness to changes; his home tribe has changed a lot. The warlike Ibo became more peaceful and start praying to a God that they couldn’t see. This was absolutely incomprehensible for Okonkwo.

The end of the story is completely unpredictable, the colonists’ influence became so great that Okonkwo was not able to oppress it or to stand it anymore. He just can’t live under foreign rule anymore, hear a foreign language and see foreign traditions.

So, rather than bear the yoke of colonization, he hangs himself.

So, reading this story we can observe how much people can change. Trying to reach a higher social status they join a foreign religion rejecting their own customs and traditions, so easy refusing what they believed for centuries. We can also observe that there were people, like Okonkwo who did not want to accept foreign traditions, he wanted to honor the traditions of his tribe. He understood that race equality promised is just a myth. All his soul and all his inside were strongly protesting against colonization. But he could change nothing, it was too late. That is why he preferred suicide rather than seeing his tribe’s degradation.

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IvyPanda. (2021, September 23). Colonization in Chinua Achebe's Novel “Things Fall Apart”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/colonization-in-chinua-achebes-novel-things-fall-apart/

"Colonization in Chinua Achebe's Novel “Things Fall Apart”." IvyPanda , 23 Sept. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/colonization-in-chinua-achebes-novel-things-fall-apart/.

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IvyPanda . "Colonization in Chinua Achebe's Novel “Things Fall Apart”." September 23, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/colonization-in-chinua-achebes-novel-things-fall-apart/.

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Themes and Analysis

Things fall apart, by chinua achebe.

Chinua Achebe sought to rediscover pride and dignity among Africans by rehabilitating their image damaged by the humiliating effect of racist portrayals. In 'Things Fall Apart' he does this with grace and clarity.

About the Book

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In ‘Things Fall Apart ,’ Achebe details Western colonialists’ impact on African societies. This impact is outlined in a very simple manner, but within this simplicity, there is a rich and inventive use of language. The plot might move irregularly for large sections of the book, but this pacing represents a deliberate attempt to conform to an essentially African literary tradition and style. ‘Things Fall Apart ‘ contains themes that reflect the richness and sophistication of African cultures as well as the debilitating impact of outsiders on this culture.

Themes in Things Fall Apart

The humanity of african societies.

Achebe was motivated to write ‘Things Fall Apart’ because he wanted to re-tell the story of the Africans who European imperialists and their enablers in the arts had depicted in unfair one-dimensional representations. Achebe creates a fairly sophisticated and self-sufficient society with organized institutions. His aim was not to create a perfect society, but one more true to the facts of the situation. In Umuofia, we see disputes settled between members fairly, as seen in the case between Mgbafo’s brothers and husband before the Egwugwu . The temperaments of people in the community are not uniformly animalistic or primitive as depicted in the works of Joseph Conrad. Rather, there is a wide range of personality types, ranging from the extremely chauvinistic and aggressive Okonkwo to the sentimental and gentle Unoka and Nwoye. In between them, we have the likes of Obiereka and Ogbuefi Ezeudo, who do not lose their sense of sentiment and passion while subscribing to the patriarchal tenets of their society. Within individuals, there is much complexity, as Okonkwo himself isn’t innately evil but rather forced into that way as a result of childhood trauma and pressure to meet the expectations of society. This complexity of the African individual and society marks them out as ordinary, rather than exciting or exotic.

Clash of Cultures

‘Things Fall Apart’ chronicles the great tragedy of the displacement of traditional African societies by encroaching Westerners with imperialist ambitions. The community of Umuofia had ruled itself and observed its customs, and preserved its institutions for years. The worldview every community member learned from birth, all systems and institutions they came to accept without question, were suddenly threatened by the arrival of the white man with his religion and political system. The British came with a fundamentally different value system, power structure, and religion. Disputes were no longer solved the old way, under the overarching goal of maintaining communal cohesion over everything else. The people of Umuofia, who had lived without rulers, now have to deal with colonialists exerting uncommon power and authority over them. With the coming of the Whiteman with his process and sense of justice that took no cognizance of the customs of the people, the people of Umuofia essentially faced the erosion of their traditions and values.

Umuofia’s society is highly patriarchal, and Okonkwo’s behaviors and motivations are, in part, informed by his society’s gender roles and expectations. Okonkwo measures his success according to the fulfillment of his society’s ideal of masculinity. He strove to be a valiant wrestler and a hard physical laborer on his farm because these activities represent peak male performance and demonstration of physical strength. Okonkwo’s desire for an unquestionably dominant status in his family often motivates his physical violence when he perceives some challenge to his authority from his wives. The patriarchal ordering and gender expectations in the community extend into farming, with Okonkwo focusing on cultivating the supposedly manly yam while leaving other less important crops like cocoyam to his wives to cultivate. Women also have some importance in society. For example, the goddess Ani is one of the most powerful and important deities within the Umuofia religious system. She has a huge influence in day-to-day life as the goddess of fertility and has an entire week devoted to honoring her, within which feminine attributes like peace and tolerance are encouraged.

Class Struggle

‘Things Fall Apart’ sees the construction of Igbo society in a pristine and undisturbed form, including its class system. As is typical of the Igbos, the Umuofians valued and respected wealth, placing the wealthy firmly at the top of the social hierarchy even though theirs was essentially a democratic system without clear rulers.

Titles, number of wives, number of yams, and size of one’s compound, as well as the number of huts inside, are some of the physical and symbolic evidence of wealth, and the absence of all these was clear evidence of an individual’s failure in life. The less fortunate are not exactly marginalized or excluded, they are still carried along, and we see evidence of this when public opinion swung against Okonkwo when he tried to shut a fellow villager up in a meeting by implying this individual’s opinions weren’t needed as he has not taken any title. Nevertheless, the people of Umuofia valued wealth and thought of the wealthy as better than the poor. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was derided in the village for his poverty, and the existence of the insult of ‘Agbaya’ and the popularity of its usage suggests the presence of societal consequences of poverty in this society.

Wealth is also not the only marker of status. Within Umuofia’s religious system, there are two classes of people; the freeborn and the Osu . The Osu are descendants of people who have been dedicated to the lifetime service to the gods of the land. This permanently separates them in many ways from the freeborn, and they are thus seen as an inferior stock. With the coming of the Christian missionaries and British overlordship, these marginalized groups were accepted by the church and consequently gained a gradual ascendancy in society, upturning Umuofia’s normal hierarchy.

Within the inclusive tenet of Christianity, the Osu were judged to be equal to all other humans in Christ. The “poor” and otherwise “worthless” gained a new sense of purpose and importance. The church’s propagation of supposedly “feminine” qualities like love, tolerance, and acceptance stands at variance with traditional patriarchal Umuofia values. Meanwhile, the stock of those who hold uncompromisingly to traditional Umuofia values continues to fall. Powerful villagers, including Okonkwo, were captured and humiliated by the British when they tried to challenge the growing boldness and authority of those elements of the community who had joined the church. The failure of the Umuofians to stamp authority on this group of people who would have been powerless before them before the arrival of the missionaries and colonialists signified a demolishment of traditional Umuofia systems and a transfer of power away from the usual power brokers. Those who still further resist this new state of affairs meet an ignominious end, like Okonkwo, who was forced into suicide. So, throughout the novel, we see the colonialists function as both oppressors and liberators of certain groups within Umuofia’s society.

Analysis of Key events in Things Fall Apart

Okonkwo throws Amalinze the Cat and establishes himself as a man of talent and strength.
Okonkwo comes to care for Ikemefuna, the gesture marking his status as one of the leading men of the community.
Okonkwo participates in the killing of Ikemefuna, demonstrating his fear of being seen as weak.
Okonkwo is banished from Umuofia after accidentally killing the son of Ezeudo.
Obierika visits Okonkwo in exile and informs him about the arrival of the White men.
Nwoye leaves his father’s hut to join the Christians in Umuofia.
Okonkwo returns from exile with his family to meet a much-changed Umuofia.
Men of Umuofia destroy the church building in retaliation after Enoch commits a sacrilege.
The District Commissioner arrests Okonkwo and other leaders of the clan as punishment for destroying the church and forces the community to pay a fine for their release.
Okonkwo beheads the chief messenger and commits suicide afterward

Style, Tone, and Figurative Language of Things Fall Apart

‘Things Fall Apart’ is divided into three parts, with the first part being much longer and slower-paced than the remaining two parts. The first part employs a circumlocutory narrative technique that shifts between the present and the past. This represents the Igbo rhetorical technique of initially skirting around a subject before directly addressing it.

The progression of the plot is often halted to regale us with bits of Okonkwo’s backstory and information on Umuofia culture. This arrangement lacks the narrative linearity that is typical of classical European fiction. The structure helps in portraying African culture as comparatively developed, sophisticated, and self-sufficient. The considerable treatment of crops, the festivals attached to them, marriage and funeral ceremonies as well as the convening of the Egwugwu judicial process are not necessarily central to the immediate plot but exist to paint a rich cultural texture around the story. All these gradually build up a picture of the culture in which Okonkwo inhabits as well as illuminate Okonkwo’s character.

By the second part of the novel, when the White missionaries and colonizers had arrived in the picture, the novel picks up the pace and continues with the plot almost without interruptions.

‘ Things Fall Apart’ is written in a very accessible manner. The sentences are simple enough, and the words are uncomplicated, save for a couple of Igbo words that warrant translations. Achebe’s writing is very effective. The sprinkling of Igbo proverbs all around the work helps to enrich the narrative and dialogues as well as accord them a measure of authenticity. Although written in English, Achebe maintains a strong local cultural flavor in the language. When we read the dialogues or follow the narrative, the English language used does not interfere with the authenticity of the dialogues and narrative because Achebe’s writing transmits as accurately as possible the original Igbo contexts.

Achebe can induce great emotions through seemingly innocuous actions. For example, before Ikemefuna was killed, as he walked in front of the Umuofians who had been tasked with this job, Achebe chose this time to write about Ikemefuna’s excitement and hope at seeing his mother again. Achebe sets up a powerful moment when Ikemefuna breaks into a childhood song and walks in sync with the rhythm, deciding that if the song ends on his right leg, it will mean his mother was still alive, but that if it ends on his left, his mother would be dead or ill. This mood of great optimism and innocence sets up a stark contrast with the horrific murder that follows. Ikemefuna’s death, just at the point when we are getting to know him far more and relate with his hopes and fears and even root for him, makes the entire scene all the more powerful and emotional. Ikemefuna’s superstitions are only part of a large corpus of myths or other religious injunctions or ancient wisdom preserved through songs, folklores, mythologies, legends, aphorisms, and proverbs, which constitutes an important part of Umuofia culture. Achebe utilizes all these to great effect through the interlaying of these cultural vestiges and artifacts within the narrative to provide a rich texture and foundation.

All these properly secure the novel’s ties to Igbo culture and leave no one in doubt as to its authenticity and status as a legitimate representation of Igbo sensibilities. ‘Things Fall Apart’ utilizes the Third Person’s point of view, but this narrator’s perspective switches between a participating actor and an external observer, a “we” and a “them” at different points in the story. Sometimes the narrator seems to be intimately in the know and involved with the actions and the customs of the people, other times he seems like a detached observer.

Analysis of Key Symbols in Things Fall Apart

Yam is the primary crop in Umuofia society. Called the king of crops, it is associated with manliness and is an important status symbol. Okonkwo considers yams to be the only crop worth personally growing, leaving the other crops for his wives and children. The number of yams in a man’s barn is a definitive indicator of his level of success in life. Yams symbolize wealth and abundance.

Egwugwu Masks

The Egwugwu masks symbolize the villagers’ ties to the spirit realm, or rather to the land of their ancestors. The scary nature of the designs and carvings on the masks as well as the secrecy and anonymity with which its wearers operate, allows certain individuals to act on behalf of or with the unquestionable authority of the clan’s gods or ancestors.

What does Okonkwo’s death symbolize in ‘Things Fall Apart?’

Okonkwo’s death in ‘Things Fall Apart’ symbolizes the futility of the struggle against change as brought about by European colonizers. The moment the British came to their doorstep, the people of Umuofia were fated to lose their independence and way of life.

Why did Chinua Achebe write ‘Things Fall Apart’?

Achebe wrote ‘ Things Fall Apart’ mainly to challenge racist and uncomplimentary portrayals of African societies at the point of contact with colonizing Europeans.

Did Chinua Achebe present a perfect traditional African society in ‘Things Fall Apart?’

Although Chinua Achebe sought to challenge racist portrayals of traditional African society with ‘Things Fall Apart,’ he did not go the other extreme by presenting a perfect society. Instead, he presented an African society with all of its strengths and faults, asking not that people idolize or dismiss these societies, but instead view them as essentially human.

Is ‘Things Fall Apart’ popular internationally?

‘Things Fall Apart’ has sold over 20 million copies all over the world, making it one of the most popular African novels of all time. It is used widely in schools across the world.

About Israel Njoku

Israel loves to delve into rigorous analysis of themes with broader implications. As a passionate book lover and reviewer, Israel aims to contribute meaningful insights into broader discussions.

Cite This Page

Njoku, Israel " Things Fall Apart Themes and Analysis 📖 " Book Analysis , https://bookanalysis.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/themes-analysis/ . Accessed 12 April 2024.

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Colonism in Things Fall Apart

This essay will examine the theme of colonialism in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” It will discuss how the novel portrays the effects of colonialism on Igbo society, focusing on cultural conflicts, the impact on traditional values, and the clash between indigenous and colonial systems. The piece will also consider Achebe’s critique of the colonial narrative and his portrayal of the complexity and richness of Igbo culture. At PapersOwl too, you can discover numerous free essay illustrations related to Chinua Achebe.

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Nigerian author named, Chinua Achebe, authored a novel which was entitled as Things Fall Apart,’ which was published in the year 1958. The novel was an attempt by the author to present the true image of the African society, through the literature, which has always been depicted as an uncivilized and backward society in the literature of the foreign languages. The author included the story, as well as the transition of a Nigerian tribe from the traditional society to the colonialist society, after the arrival of the English men in the area.

Colonialism has been one of the major themes in the story of Chinua Achebe, as he attempts to show that the Nigerian society had its own distinct culture, which was declared as uncivilized by the Englishmen. The colonial era, depicted in Things Fall Apart,’ may have attempted to show the changes in the Nigerian society; however, it highlights the fact that white men robbed the natives from their traditional practices, religion, and political and economic supremacy.

Chinua Achebe, in his novel, depicted the Nigerians society which had it won traditional practices; however, colonialism put an end to them. In Things Fall Apart,’ Achebe has described the story of an old man, who worked hard in his whole life, to show to his society that he was strong enough to take major decisions for the supremacy of their traditions and society. To prove his masculinity and strength of his character to his tribe, he even killed his adopted son; however, it resulted in his exile from his land. The people of that area believed in several gods and goddesses, however, when he came back to his land, the people had forgotten their traditions and were being influenced by the practices of the white men. Achebe described the arrival and influence of the white men over the native people in words, 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 (Chinua, 73).

He described that the white men started interfering in the daily life of the native people and stopped them from practicing their traditional beliefs, as it did not match with their beliefs. It is also one of the major reasons that they declared the people of African region as uncivilized because they were unable to understand them due to the communication barrier and lack of understanding of language. Due to their unique ideas and belief, they attracted the local community and made them act against their own people by following the commands of the white people.

Colonialism impacted the religious practices of the African society and made the people convert to Christianity. Achebe has shown through his novel that the white society looked down upon the African people because of the differences of their religion. African tribes worshipped several gods and offered their sacrifices to them. On the other hand, the white people became the part of the African society and started preaching their religion of believing in one god. Achebe included the description that “New churches were established in the surrounding villages and a few schools with them. From the very beginning, religion and education went hand in hand (Chinua, 75). The white men were not able to understand the value and importance of the native people, due to lack of understanding of local language, so instead of trying to know their religion, they declared it wrong and started preaching their religion and educating the people from their perspective. The religion which was a binding force for the na??ve people became a dividing factor, causing havoc in the society.

Colonialism also impacted the political and economic situation of the African tribes. Instead of supporting the traditions, culture, and practices of the local people, the white men criticized them and declared them as backward. Achebe mention in his writing, “The white man, had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had 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 (Chinua, 73). They changed the political and economic practices of the native people and gradually took control of the society in their hand, by dividing the local people over the conflict of religion. In one of his articles, Achebe mentioned that the white society wanted to prove the African societies as savage and uncivilized, just because they wanted to capture their land and resources. He mentioned that, Quite simply it is the desire — one might indeed say the need — in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest (Achebe, 14).

The west wanted to explore other areas of the world and declare its supremacy in the whole world. If they would have tried to take control by force, it would have wasted their own resources, so they used the strategy of trading and creating conflict based on religion and became rulers by dividing the public. Although, the white men created conflict, however, some native people also supported them as described by the author, The destruction and crumbling down of Igbo life is not totally due to the intervention of colonizers through their religion and government. Many Igbo willingly join the religion brought by the colonizers as they find that some certain customs prevailing in their society are irrational evils (Purwarno, and Suhendi, 674). The native people, who killed the twins to get rid of evil, started accepting the beliefs of Christianity that life and death are in the hands of God. The religion which had united the people played an important role in dividing them and roots of conflict were sown by colonialism in the African societies.

Colonialism is an important theme of Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart,’ in which he has shown that the western societies which considered the African communities as uncivilized, played an important role in making them so. The African communities were well-organized and had their own religion, beliefs, traditions and political as well as economic structure. The western societies wanted to establish their supremacy, and that was possible through their rule on the native people. So, they used religion and traditional practices as the source of creating conflict among the local people and became the master of their political and economic structure, by capturing the rule. They negatively portrayed African society, to increase their gain and show to the world that they were trying to civilize an uncivilized and savage society. Colonialism provided more harm to the African communities because it snatched the unity of the native people and made them fight with each other.

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Lesson Plans
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Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

A spiral stack of copies of the 1994 Anchor Books edition of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart.

Wikimedia Commons

"The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. … This continued until the Africans themselves, in the middle of the twentieth century, took into their own hands the telling of their story." —Chinua Achebe, "An African Voice" )

Nigerian Chinua Achebe is one of the world's most well-known and influential contemporary writers. His first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), is an early narrative about the European colonization of Africa told from the point of view of the colonized people. Published in 1958, the novel recounts the life of the warrior and village hero Okonkwo, and describes the arrival of white missionaries to his Igbo village and their impact on African life and society at the end of the nineteenth century. Through his writing, Achebe counters images of African societies and peoples as they are represented within the Western literary tradition and reclaims his own and his people's history.

This lesson introduces students to Achebe's first novel and to his views on the role of the writer in his or her society. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the related lesson Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart": Oral and Literary Strategies .

Guiding Questions

How does Achebe see the role of the writer/storyteller?

In what ways does Achebe use fiction to teach history?

To what extent is Things Fall Apart successful in communicating an alternative narrative to the dominant Western history of missionaries in Africa and other colonized societies?

Learning Objectives

Examine a piece of African literature to identify distinguishing literary features and traditions.

Examine how Achebe discusses and differentiates cultures and languages with a change over time approach.

Evaluate the effectiveness of presenting historical events and eras through fiction.

Differentiate between historical accounts and fictionalized accounts of history.

Assess narrative perspectives as culturally-positioned (i.e. Afrocentric and Eurocentric perspectives).

Lesson Plan Details

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

To gain background knowledge on the history and culture of the Igbo people and to help students understand Things Fall Apart within the historical context of the novel's events and the time of its writing and publication, you can refer to the following EDSITEment-reviewed resources:

For information on Igbo traditions, Nigeria, and Africa, see the Igbo Information page from the People's Resources and the Nigeria Information page, which provides a map and general information, including descriptions of the four main ethnic groups – Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Hausa, both located on Art and Life in Africa Online . See also the essay " The Berlin Conference " available through the Internet Archive.
For maps of and information on the many languages spoken throughout Nigeria, see the Languages of Nigeria and Languages of Nigeria Map pages.
Two interviews in which Achebe discusses the origins and purposes of his writing are " Chinua Achebe: The Art of Fiction CXXXVIV, " interviewed by Jerome Brooks in The Paris Review , Issue #133 (Winter 1994-5) and "An African Voice" Interview in The Atlantic Online (August 2, 2000). You may wish to assign students the interviews or excerpts to read online or in printed copies.

Lesson 1 uses maps to introduce students to the African continent and countries. Before teaching this lesson, view and/or download copies of the following maps from the periods before, during, and after the colonial period:

Maps of Africa from 1688 and 1909, taken from the Map Collections 1500-1999 .
Maps of the many languages spoken in African countries today from the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Ethnologue.

In Lesson 3, if you choose to assign Heart of Darkness to students to read and compare with Things Fall Apart , background information about Joseph Conrad can be found in the Biographical Essay on the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Victorian Web .

Activity 1. Mapping the Changing Face of Africa through History: Pre-Colonial, European Colonization, and Independent Nations

In his essay " Issues in African History " located on the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online , Professor James Giblin of the University of Iowa Department of History writes about the European "Scramble for Africa" (1880-1910) and the Berlin Act of 1885, which created a set of European-controlled nation-states that arbitrarily combined into one country diverse African ethnic groups, on one hand, and divided linguistic and ethnic communities, on the other:

"Africa's integration into a European-dominated economy has shaped its history since the 1880s. During the last quarter of the 19th century, Europe became increasing interested in exerting direct control over the Africa's raw materials and markets. European heads of state laid down ground rules for the colonial conquest of Africa at the Congress of Berlin in 1884-5. Over the next twenty years, all of Africa except Ethiopia and Liberia was violently conquered, despite many instances of African resistance. The British and French established the largest African empires, although the Portuguese, Belgians and Germans claimed major colonial possessions as well."

You might point out to the class that the cultural, religious, linguistic, and other historical divisions among ethnic groups have continued to challenge and blur the colonial borders of many African Nation-States, during colonization and especially after Independence.

Things Fall Apart takes place during Europe's violent partitioning of Africa at the end of the 19th century, and Achebe wrote and published the novel towards the end of the colonial period, during a time of burgeoning nationalism across Africa:

"African frustration was compounded by the inconsistency between, on the one hand, universalistic Christian ideals (for Christianity spread widely during the colonial period, as did Islam) and liberal political ideas which colonialism introduced into Africa, and, on the other hand, the discrimination and racism which marked colonialism everywhere. This discrepancy deepened during the Second World War, when the British and French exhorted their African subjects to provide military service and labor for a war effort which was intended, in part, to uphold the principle of national self-determination. Post-war Africans were well aware that they were being denied the very rights for which they and their colonial masters had fought. This deepening sense of frustration and injustice set in motion the events which would lead to national independence for most of Africa by the mid-1960s" ("Issues in African History").

To give students an idea of contemporary African geography as well as of the cultural and political changes that Africa has undergone as a continent over the past two centuries, provide the class with maps of Africa before, during, and after colonization, and assign the following activities:

Download and distribute to each student a copy of the African Continent Map.Gif located on the Multimedia Archive, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource African Studies WWW . This map indicates the outline of countries in Africa but is blank inside. Have students identify as many African countries as possible, filling in the names of the countries on the map. Ask them if they can identify any languages spoken in specific countries, and have them write these down on their maps as well. Write down the names of the countries that students were able to identify. Which countries are they? Where did they get their information, from school, their families or acquaintances, the news? Ask the class what they know about the countries they were able to identify on the map and from which sources they received their information.

Using a computer projection, individual or small group computer stations, or printed out copies, use the maps of Africa from 1688 and 1909, which you can find on the Map Collections 1500-1999 at the EDSITEment-reviewed resource American Memory Collection by conducting a Search by Keyword for "Africa."

For both of these maps, you can select the desired zoom level and window size to increase the detail of the displayed image and the size of the map, respectively. If you click in the Zoom View window and then click on the image, the display will be centered on the selected part of the map. You can select an area in the small Navigator View map so that the red box on the Navigator View will indicate the area of the image being viewed in the larger Zoom View.

Another pre-colonial map, The Continent of Africa from 1707 by Tobias Lotter, is located on Hemispheres, Antique Maps and Prints , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library.

Show the class the Map of Africa 1688 or 1707, before colonization by Europe, and the Map of Africa 1909, which shows the continent divided up among British, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish Colonies, the Belgian Congo, and Independent African States. Ask students to compare the maps: What differences do they notice? What similarities?

A map of post-colonial Africa showing the different countries, updated in 1998, is available on the Countries Resources page of the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online . A larger version of this map is available at Africa.gif , from CIA Maps , located on the Multimedia Archive, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource African Studies WWW .

Have the class compare the contemporary map with the two earlier maps and discuss the changes in the geopolitical divisions of the African continent. Then ask students to look over their original maps and fill in the names of the countries that they missed in their first mapping activity. You can note to students that African ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups have resisted the geopolitical boundaries of many Nation-States created under colonization; for instance, the borders of West Africa set in place under colonialism are often contrary to the area's cultural and political reality (See Robert Kaplan, " The Coming Anarchy " Atlantic Monthly Feb. 1994 Rpt. Atlantic Online , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library.

To give students an overview of Nigerian history and cultural geography, locate Nigeria on a map of Africa from the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online: Countries' Resources . Then present a map of Nigeria itself on the Nigeria Information page, and point out the Igbo area. This page provides a map and general information about Nigeria, including descriptions of its four main ethnic groups: Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Hausa, and the Igbo Information page from the Peoples Resources section of the site offers information about the ethnic group described in Things Fall Apart .

You can point out the vast ethnic (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani among many other peoples), religious (Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, African religion 10%), and linguistic diversity (515 listed languages, 505 of which are living languages) of present-day Nigeria using the Languages of Nigeria and Languages of Nigeria Map pages available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource African Studies WWW . The Languages of Africa map provides a graphic depiction the many different languages spoken across Nigeria, with individual dots representing the primary location of a living language.

In an August 2002 interview " An African Voice ", published in The Atlantic Online, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library, Achebe explains the fundamental and far-reaching disruption of African societies and social orders through European colonization:

"The society of Umuofia, the village in Things Fall Apart, was totally disrupted by the coming of the European government, missionary Christianity, and so on. That was not a temporary disturbance; it was a once and for all alteration of their society. To give you the example of Nigeria, where the novel is set, the Igbo people had organized themselves in small units, in small towns and villages, each self-governed. With the coming of the British, Igbo land as a whole was incorporated into a totally different polity, to be called Nigeria, with a whole lot of other people with whom the Igbo people had not had direct contact before. The result of that was not something from which you could recover, really. You had to learn a totally new reality, and accommodate yourself to the demands of this new reality, which is the state called Nigeria. Various nationalities, each of which had its own independent life, were forced by the British to live with people of different customs and habits and priorities and religions. And then at independence, fifty years later, they were suddenly on their own again. They began all over again to learn the rules of independence. The problems that Nigeria is having today could be seen as resulting from this effort that was initiated by colonial rule to create a new nation."

Ask students to note places in the text that foreshadow this disruption, this replacement of one reality with another, as they read the novel. For example, Achebe's first reference to the character Ikemefuna as "ill-fated," at the end of Chapter 1, foreshadows the boy's death and Okonkwo's son Nwoye's troubled response in Chapter 7, which in turn foreshadows Nwoye's conversion to Christianity and joining the missionaries in Chapter 16. In Chapters 16 through 18, Achebe indicates the ways in which the Europeans separated Nigerians of different clans and ethnic backgrounds and turned them against their own people and villages through their appeal to the village outcasts and by "teaching young Christians to read and write." Another example of how Achebe foreshadows the alteration of indigenous society is the replacement by "the white man's court" of the clan's customs with their own laws, discussed in Chapter 20. Obierika explains: "He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

Activity 2. Telling One's Own Story: Differing Perspectives

One theme that appears over and over in Achebe's writing is that our perceptions and the stories we tell are shaped by our social and cultural context, and he emphasizes that, "those that have been written about should also participate in the making of these stories" (" An African Voice ").

Achebe writes his own history of colonization in order to present a perspective different from those taught in the Western literary and historical tradtions. However, the text of Things Fall Apart provides a range of perspectives through its narrator and many characters. To create a framework for interpreting the conflict within and between values and cultures that Achebe addresses, engage students in a discussion of perspective/standpoint, and provide them an opportunity to analyze and then take on the perspective of one of the characters in the novel.

Ask the class, "Who is the narrator/speaker in the novel? Do the narrator's position, perspective, and identity remain constant or change throughout the narrative? What other characters' views are represented and used to convey the novel's insights and to give readers a certain viewpoint on Igbo society and the class with the British missionaries?"

Ask students to take up a character in the novel, such as Okonkwo, Obierika, Unoka, Ekwefi, Ezinma, Nwoye, or Ikemefuna, and rewrite a scene from his or her voice and position. To help students approach this activity, ask them why they chose a certain character, what role the character plays in the novel, and which scene would be appropriate to rewrite from this character's perspective. (The confrontations between the white men and the Igbo people are good incidents to use for the rewrite, as they can reinforce the colonialist/native point of view issue of the lesson.)

Use the character's actions, observations about the character made by other characters or by the character him- or herself within the text, narrative description, and your own impressions to describe the character and infer a point of view. To aid them in recognizing and adopting the point of view of one of the characters, have students fill out the Character Traits Chart , available in .pdf format.

Activity 3. Revising History Through Writing

In an interview in the 1994-95 issue of The Paris Review , Chinua Achebe states that he became a writer in order to tell his story and the story of his people from his own viewpoint. He explains the danger of having one's story told only by others through the following proverb: "until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Critics and Achebe's own essays have portrayed Things Fall Apart as a response to the ideologies and discursive strategies of colonial texts such as Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness .

While reading Things Fall Apart , students should reflect on the proverb and ask themselves in what ways Achebe's novel subverts the themes and techniques of colonial writing and constitutes a different story or counter-narrative to the European texts. Ask the class to note the ways in which Achebe represents African culture and the African landscape, and to give textual examples of ways in which he employs narrative techniques that contest colonialist discourse. (Some examples are Achebe's use of simple, ordinary prose and a restrained mode of narration; the omission of exotic descriptions; creation of a subjectivity for his major characters; inclusion of a specific cultural and temporal context of the Igbo and Umuofia; presentation of the complexities and the contradictions of a traditional Igbo community without idealizing; introduction of white Europeans into the story from the Igbo population's perspective.)

In order to introduce students to colonial writing and thought, assign one or both of the following texts for them to read and analyze in relation to Things Fall Apart :

You may choose to assign Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness (1899) , available online at the Electronic Text Center, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Center for the Liberal Arts , to your students to read. In conjunction with the novella, students can read the essay, " Achebe on Racism in Heart of Darkness ", available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Victorian Web .

After reading Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart , students can respond to the following questions about themes and literary techniques on the chart comparing Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart provided in .pdf format:

What is the moral dilemma presented within each work?
How do the two texts represent Christianity versus African religious belief and practice?
How do they approach the relationship between the community and the individual?

As an alternate to Heart of Darkness , Rudyard Kipling's poem, " The White Man's Burden ," (Click 'Some Poems' then 'The White Man's Burden.') located on The Kipling Organization , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource The Academy of American Poets , constitutes a brief but significant example of colonial literature. Note that Kipling is writing about India rather than African countries, but that both situations are examples of nineteenth-century British Empire and colonial relations.

A few months after Kipling's poem was published, H.T. wrote a response entitled "The Black Man's Burden" (1899).

Ask students the following questions about the poem in comparison to Things Fall Apart : What is "the white man's burden" within the poem? What is "the black man's burden"? How does the poem portray non-white peoples? Why is Johnson's response important to understanding history and writing history? What is the narrator's attitude towards Empire and colonialism? How does this attitude compare with that of the narrator in Things Fall Apart ? How are the Europeans' views of Africans and the Africans' views of whites represented in the novel? What contemporary examples were written with a similar purpose as Johnson's poem?

Debate the aims and outcomes of writing in African languages versus colonizers' languages.
To extend the notion of rewriting history from previously excluded points of view, have students analyze the way Achebe represents women in Igbo society within Things Fall Apart , and ask them to and write a paper discussing women's roles and status in the novel.
An interesting comparison to the women in Things Fall Apart read the essay by John N. Oriji, "Igbo Women from 1929-1960" in West Africa Review1 (2000), and write a paper comparing the role of women in the novel and the historical role that Igbo women played in the Aba Women's Revolt in Nigeria during colonialism.
Have students complete an at-home project or an in-class essay on The Role of the Writer in Society. In addition to publishing many novels chronicling the history of colonial and post-colonial Nigeria through the lives of fictional protagonists and their communities, Chinua Achebe has spoken out and written several essays on the role of the writer/storyteller within his or her society.
Write on the board or distribute to the class the following quotes that Achebe uses to describe his mission as a writer: "Here is an adequate revolution for me to espouse – to help my society regain belief in itself and to put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement. And it is essentially a question of education, in the best sense of that word. Here, I think, my aims and the deepest aspirations of society meet" (Quoted by George P. Landow in "Achebe's Fiction and Contemporary Nigerian Politics", available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library). "The writer's duty is to help them regain it [dignity] by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost.
There is a saying in Ibo that a man who can't tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body. The writer can tell the people where the rain began to beat them. After all the novelist's duty is not to beat this morning's headline in topicality, it is to explore in depth the human condition. In Africa he cannot perform this task unless he has a proper sense of history" ("The Role of the Writer in a New Nation"). Have the class discuss what these statements say about Achebe's view of the role of the writer/storyteller in society. As a final project, ask students to write an essay that analyzes the ways in which Achebe fulfills his role as a writer according to his definition through Things Fall Apart. For additional information, see the essays "Africa and Her Writers" and "The Novelist as Teacher" in Chinua Achebe's Morning Yet on Creation Day : Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1975.
An alternate assignment would be a comparison of Achebe's views on the role of the writer with those of the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in his Interview on writing, role of writer, and political activism, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Conversations with History.

Recommended Websites

African Studies WWW

K-12 Resources

What Do We Know About Africa? Curriculum Guide
African Continent Map.Gif
Nigeria page
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Academy of American Poets
"The White Man's Burden" (Click 'Some Poems' then 'The White Man's Burden.')
Map Collections 1500-1999
Issues in African History
Countries' Resources
Nigeria Information
Igbo Information
Heart of Darkness
Chinua Achebe
Achebe in His Own Words: Quotations, Interviews, Works
Postimperial and Postcolonial Literature in English (George P.Landow at Brown University): Chinua Achebe
" An African Voice "
" Chinua Achebe: The Art of Fiction "
Victorian Web
" Achebe on Racism in Heart of Darkness "
" Kipling's Imperialism "
" The British Empire Kipling's Day "

Print Resources used in this Lesson Plan

Achebe, Chinua, "The African Writer and the English Language." In Achebe, Chinua, Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1975. 91-103.

-----, Things Fall Apart . New York: Ballantine Books, 1959.

Materials & Media

Chinua achebe's things fall apart: teaching through the novel - character traits chart, chinua achebe's things fall apart: teaching through the novel - comparing heart of darkness and things fall apart, related on edsitement, chinua achebe’s things fall apart : oral and literary strategies, chinua achebe’s 'new english' in things fall apart, edsitement's recommended reading list for college-bound students.

IMAGES

Colonialism in Things Fall Apart Essay
Colonialism in Things Fall Apart Essay
Things Fall Apart And Colonialism
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Summary & Analysis
⇉Colonialism in Things Fall Apart Analysis Essay Example
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VIDEO

Post Colonialism Literary Theory
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COMMENTS

PDF Things Fall Apart: An Analysis of Pre and Post-Colonial Igbo Society
Post-colonialism expresses the opposite idea of colonialism. Hence, post-colonialism literature is a consequence of colonialism. Through literature we understand the primary focus of Achebe's Things Fall Apart: a novel written by an individual who grew up under
Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel
Chinua Achebe, in this way, sketches a theme of colonialism and shows cruelty of whitemen in his novel Things Fall Apart during postcolonial period. Colonialism was not for the welfare of the people, instead whiteman came there to create fear in their minds. The incident shows that they went there to make them slaves.
Colonialism in "Things Fall Apart": a Complex Exploration
The impact of colonialism in Things Fall Apart is a recurring theme that shapes the trajectory of the novel's characters and the Igbo society they inhabit. Chinua Achebe's masterpiece serves as a poignant exploration of the consequences of European colonization on indigenous cultures. This essay delves into the multifaceted portrayal of ...
Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel : Thinking Literature
July 11, 2022 by Shyam. Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's first book, "Things Fall Apart", was released in 1958. It shows life before colonization in the southeast of Nigeria and the European invasion in the late 19th century. The story centers on Okonkwo, an Igbo man who is also a champion in wrestling in his locality.
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
The novel is written by Chinua Achebe. Chapters 13-25 result in the advent of white colonial administration that Achebe correlates with Christianity. These chapters enhance the theory of Post-Colonialism. This is a literary supposition that critically analyzes various colonial, cultural, and politically related insurgences of citizens in a ...
Colonial Intrusion and Stages of Colonialism in Chinua Achebe's Things
Chinua Achebe's first novel, Things Fall Apart, has continued to offer—perhaps much more than his third novel, Arrow of God —the most vivid account of the process of early colonial penetration in Africa. This study examines Things Fall Apart through an analytical and conceptual framework that illuminates the five stages of colonialism in Africa.
The Post-Colonial Reality in Chinua Achebe's Novel Things Fall Apart
The novel Things Fall Apart describes the Igbo people at a truly seminal stage in their history and culture: as colonial forces apply pressure, their entire way of life is at stake. These looming colonial forces basically declare the end of everything they know, representing huge changes to the way they exercise religion, their family unit, the ...
Re-reading Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Postcolonial ...
The things fall apart because Okonkwo fails at the end to take his people back to the culture they all shared once. The sentiments the whites show to the blacks regarding the Christianity clearly recap the slave treatment the blacks were used to receive from the whites in the past. ... Post-Colonial & World Literature eJournal. Subscribe to ...
Things Fall Apart: A+ Student Essay: The Role of Storytelling in Things
With this novel, the Nigerian Achebe straddles the two opposing modes of storytelling he depicts within the plot, employing both the looping, repetitive style of the Igbo's oral culture as well as the written English of the Europeans. Just as the Commissioner's decision to write down the Igbo story signals the conclusion of that story ...
Things Fall Apart Study Guide
Full Title: Things Fall Apart. When Written: 1957. Where Written: Nigeria. When Published: 1958. Literary Period: Post-colonialism. Genre: Novel / Tragedy. Setting: Pre-colonial Nigeria, 1890s. Climax: Okonkwo's murder of a court messenger. Antagonist: Missionaries and White Government Officials (Reverend Smith and the District Commissioner)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Exclusively available on IvyPanda. In analyzing Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", the main theme in relation to post-colonial theory is the identity of individuals at a personal and community level. This theory seeks to understand how an individual's character affects their surroundings. We will write a custom essay on your topic.
Things Fall Apart Essays and Criticism
Instead, Achebe presents a remarkably balanced view of how all cultures encompass both good and bad dimensions. In addition to reinterpreting African culture and history from an African ...
Things Fall Apart Critical Essays
Topic #1. Discuss the significance of Things Fall Apart as a social document and a novel dramatizing traditional Igbo life and its first encounter with colonialism and Christianity at the turn of ...
(PDF) Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart : A Critique of Post-Colonial
The post-colonial milieu of the novel Things Fall Apart finds a poignant treatment by Booth James, in such a way that the readers feel the true spirit of the post-colonial ways of life. It is relevant to reproduce the observation of Booth James regarding the post-colonial shadows that cover the efficacy of the Nigerian progress and development ...
Colonization in Chinua Achebe's Novel "Things Fall Apart" Essay
The story of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart is a vivid example of such influence. Achebe's story takes place at the end of the nineteenth century, this is the first time when Europeans began colonizing this region in Nigeria. The main purpose of Achebe was to establish a parallel between the heartrending destruction of native ...
Things Fall Apart: Mini Essays
Of all Okonkwo's children, Ezinma best understands how to handle her father's anger. One example of her sensitivity to his needs is her comforting of him after he has killed Ikemefuna. Ezinma can tell that Okonkwo is depressed but, not wanting to upset him, she doesn't address his sorrow directly. Instead, she brings him food and urges ...
Things Fall Apart Themes and Analysis
In 'Things Fall Apart,' Achebe details Western colonialists' impact on African societies.This impact is outlined in a very simple manner, but within this simplicity, there is a rich and inventive use of language. The plot might move irregularly for large sections of the book, but this pacing represents a deliberate attempt to conform to an essentially African literary tradition and style.
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
SOURCE: "Culture and History in Things Fall Apart," in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1969, pp. 25-32. [In the following essay, Meyers discusses Achebe's presentation of ...
Colonialism in Things Fall Apart by C. Achebe
Things Fall Apart was written by Chinua Achebe in 1958. The novel is set in Umuofia, a small village in Nigeria. The main character of the novel is Okonkwo, a man determined not to be weak or lazy ...
Colonism in Things Fall Apart
Colonialism is an important theme of Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart,' in which he has shown that the western societies which considered the African communities as uncivilized, played an important role in making them so. The African communities were well-organized and had their own religion, beliefs, traditions and political as well as ...
Things Fall Apart: Literary Context Essay: Achebe, European Modernism
When Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s, he was responding to centuries of European writing that had portrayed Africa as a "dark continent," plagued by savagery and superstition. Negative European representations of Africa functioned in multiple, contradictory ways. They situated "darkest Africa" in contrast to an Enlightened Europe, which affirmed both the ...
"Things Fall Apart": Post-Colonialism in Chinua Achebe's Book
Grade: 5. Download. The impact of Orientalism and Ambivalence on Chinua Achebe's book is explored in this "Things Fall Apart" post-colonialism essay. The essay delves into the struggles of the African people who faced mistreatment by colonizers and the conflicts between tradition and new customs. Through the use of four key aspects, Binary ...
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
An interesting comparison to the women in Things Fall Apart read the essay by John N. Oriji, "Igbo Women from 1929-1960" in West Africa Review1 (2000), and write a paper comparing the role of women in the novel and the historical role that Igbo women played in the Aba Women's Revolt in Nigeria during colonialism.

Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel | Effects of Colonialism

Things Fall Apart as a Postcolonial Novel

Condition of People Before Whitemen

Interference of Whitemen in Ibo Society

Acceptance of whitemen

Postcolonial Condition of Igbo Society in Novel Things Fall Apart

Theme of Colonialism in Novel Things Fall Apart

Colonialism in "Things Fall Apart": a Complex Exploration

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Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart: Introduction

Historical Context of Things Fall Apart

Extra Credit for Things Fall Apart

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Guiding Questions

Learning Objectives

Lesson Plan Details

Activity 1. Mapping the Changing Face of Africa through History: Pre-Colonial, European Colonization, and Independent Nations

Activity 2. Telling One's Own Story: Differing Perspectives

Activity 3. Revising History Through Writing

Recommended Websites

Print Resources used in this Lesson Plan

Materials & Media

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VIDEO

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