Chimamanda Adichie’s book, Half of the Yellow Sun, takes place before and during the Nigerian Civil War (Biafran War). This story follows the viewpoints of five main characters: Ugwu, Odenigbo, Kainene, Olanna, and Richard. In Chimamanda’s novel, she uses the experiences and relationships of the characters to represent the war and violence, interaction of cultural differences, and betrayal during the rise of the Biafran War. The story starts in the viewpoint of Ugwu, a young village boy. Ugwu leaves his family and village to become the houseboy of Odenigbo, a university professor, this is a huge opportunity for Ugwu. Odenigbo doesn’t do much, but he does have guests over regularly to talk about the Nigerian government and politics. Eventually, …show more content…
Just in our five main characters important social cleavages in Nigeria are shown. Olanna and Kainene are upper-class and London educated, Odenigbo is the educated middle-class, Ugwu is a poor village boy where being uneducated is normal, and Richard is a white, educated, journalist. Through this story, we see how those differences affect the way they are treated. Richard goes through the most since he has the greatest cultural difference, people expect him to be like his ignorant peers, and Nigeria just got out of British control. Nigerian people act surprised when he is able to eat their spicy food, speak Igbo, and even Kainene had trouble believing that his interests in their culture were for a positive reason. The one social cleavage they all have in common is that they all identify as Igbo. Igbo is one of the three major ethnicities in Nigeria the other two are Hausa Fulani and Yoruba; they all have their own regions in Nigeria too. This ethnic difference is an essential cause of the Biafran War. It started with the coup within the government, then the Hausa blamed the Igbo and began to kill them, the Igbo didn’t feel apart of the country, formed their own country and tried to leave …show more content…
Betrayal during this time period was mainly ethnicities fighting against their own country without noticing. When the Hausa started killing off the Igbo people, they forgot they were apart of the same country. In a way, Igbo people also betrayed Nigeria by creating their own nation and trying to leave. All this disloyalty translates over to the characters cheating in their relationships. It starts off with Odenigbo sleeping with Amala, his mom’s helper. Then, Olanna ends up with Richard and not only cheats on Odenigbo, but both of them betray Kainene. In the end, they work out, but of course, they won’t forget it happened. Just like the
As wise John Berger once said,“Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one”. A “single story” is the story of a culture that we learn from stereotypes and conspiracies developed throughout time in our society. In “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe defies the single story of African culture while still tying their native language in to show the importance between a physical differentiation of culture, and the similarities with morals and values they have in common. Through gender roles and proverbs used in the language of this book, we have a cultural insight of Nigeria through a new set of eyes given to us by Achebe that detures us from the single stories that we were taught to by our society.
During the late nineteenth century Christianity is introduced to Africa, which brings conflict and unrest. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, he portrays a cultural and religious struggle between the native Igbo people and the Christians. When the Christians become involved in the Igbo community things change. The Igbo and Christians have different beliefs about the spiritual world and this causes tension between the cultures. The differing spiritual customs of the two religions break them apart even further. Finally the destruction of the Igbo culture happens as a result of contradictory beliefs based on kinship ties within the religions. The differences between the religions are the ultimate downfall of the Igbo culture and both religions contribute to this demise equally. Understanding the dissimilarity between the Igbo religion and Christianity allows the reader to fully apprehend the reason for the eradication of the Igbo culture.
The story is set within the Ibo tribe of Umuofia, which is one of the nine villages that combine to make one large clan in Nigeria. These tribes are ones that hold courage, strength, tradition and customs extremely high. The theme of tradition is examined by
...at shocked me through all these articles is how there weren’t a single positive story about Nigeria. I had to get to the third page before I found something that was “kind of positive” about Nigeria. These definitely illustrate what the speaker was saying about single stories. Also 8 out of 10 stories where related to Boko haram. Therefore it won’t be a surprise for me to hear that people believe that Boko haram is the daily cup of tea. I didn’t really found anything that was directly related to the chapter because most of the stories were about BOKO haram crisis. The only thing that I found related to the chapter was how the Biafra war that has opposed the three major’s ethnics groups: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausas is still reflecting on the actual Nigerian crisis. In the north were these crisis are occurring, only certain ethnic groups or religious groups are attacked.
Nigeria has a rich culture stemming from the many civilizations that inhabited the land. In the novel Thing Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe brings light on to the great Igbo people, a society Nigeria hosted for centuries. The tale follows a man named Okonkwo as he tries to make amends for his father 's failures and a name for himself within his village. This path leads Okonkwo to become reckless and unreasonable. Through this, readers are exposed to the village’s judicial system, revealing that the clan’s laws based off sexism, superstitious nature, and deep religious ties.
This quote exemplifies the image of Nigeria presented in Chris Abani’s shocking novel Graceland. Based on Abani’s own experiences in the conflicted, war-torn country, this narrative tells us both the coming-of-age-tale of Elvis Oke and that of post-colonial Nigeria – an oppressed nation exploited by the US, European, and Middle Eastern markets. The modern novel is reminiscent of Chinua Achebe’s own bildungsroman, as they are both set in post-colonial Nigeria and showcase the effect of globalization on the conflicted country. The interplay between the American and Nigerian cultures shows that with globalization, there may be a back and forth trade economically and socially between cultures, but the more dominant culture may impose its culture upon the other in ways that are asymmetrically skewed toward the dominant culture.
Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life of an African man called Okonkwo. The setting of the book is in eastern Nigeria, on the eve of British colonialism in Africa. The novel illustrates Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs, and his eventual downfall, all of which basically coincide with the Igbo?s society?s struggle with the Christian religion and British government. In this essay I will give a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help understand that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos.
Things Fall Apart is about the tragic fall of Okonkwo our main character and the Igbo culture. Okonkwo is a respected leader within the Igbo community of Umunfia in eastern Nigeria. He first gets respect within the village by defeating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. Okonkwo is determined to become a powerful and wealthy man unlike his father who was weak. Within the community, Unoka was considered a failure and a laughingstock he was looked upon as a woman who had no property to call his own. He eventually died a shameful death and left numerous debts. Okonkwo despises and resents his father gentle ways he decides to overcome the shame that he feels for his father’s weakness by becoming what he considers to be “manly”. He dominates his wives and children by being insensitive and controlling. Over the years, Okonkwo becomes an extremely volatile man. For example beating his youngest wife Ojiugo for accidently forgetting to prepare the afternoon meal for his family. Things begin to fall apart soon with the arrival of Christian missionaries who spread their religion and culture throughout the land and. Colonialism is a theme that’s constantly addressed throughout the book and is to blame for the fall of the Igbo culture and Okonkwo.
Africa has always been the centre of colonization for many European countries. With its colonization came stereotypes of African’s being inhumane, primitive and savage in comparison to the humanity of the civilized Europeans. The tradition model simplifies the stereotypes into Africans are bad and Europeans are good. Fortunately, it is not as clear cut as this. In Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, both the Igbo of the Umuofia and the British of Europe have good sides and dark sides of their respective races revealing that traditional perceptions of these races are not entirely accurate. Through their systems of government, court systems and religion both parties have the positive and negative effects on each other.
To adapt one of Isichei's claims, Nigeria's “confrontation with an alien culture, its conquest, and the experience of an alien rule, created … [crises]” (180). There were many riots and conflicts between the Nigerians and the British, although most of the uprisings were eventually subdued by the military power of the British. Riots were common—from the culturally rooted Yoruba riots in the West and the religious skirmishes with the Muslims and Hausa in the North, to the confrontations with the naturally ‘rich,' yet stubborn Igbo and Delta states. Apart from encompassing all the major ethnic groupings and regions in Nigeria, amazingly these conflicts also covered the three most explicit British inculcations: cultural, religious, and economic.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, Achebe did a excellent job portraying how the life of Igbo was before they were forced to oppose their own culture. To support this theme, Achebe included detailed descriptions of social rituals within each family, the justice system, religious practices and consequences, preparation and indulgence of food, the marriage process and the distributing of power within the men. Achebe shows how every man has an opportunity to prove himself worthy to achieve a title on the highest level, based merely on his own efforts. One may argue that the novel was written with the main focus on the study of Okonkwo’s character and how he deteriorates, but without the theme that define the Igbo culture itself, we would never know the universe qualities of the society that shaped Okonkwo’s life. The lives of the Igbo people was no different to the actual lives of the Ibos people back in the early days of Africa. Just like in Things Fall Apart, in actual African tribes there was never a ruler. “Very interesting thing about these villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the population. Decisions are made by including almost everyone in the village” (AfricaGuide). Using the theme, Achebe educated readers on by mirroring real African life in her
Consequently, the native traditions gradually disappeared and in time the whole local social structure within which the indigenous people had lived successfully for centuries was destroyed. Achebe spends the first half of the novel depicting the Ibo culture, by itself, in both a sophisticated and primitive light describing and discussing its grandeur, showing its strengths and weaknesses, etiquettes and incivilities, and even the beginning of cultural breakdown before the introduction of the missionaries. The collapse of the old culture is evident soon after the missionaries arrived, and here Achebe utilises two of the primary missionary figures, Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith, to once again depicts both sides of the Ibo culture between them, with Mr. Brown depicting the sophisticated and Mr. Smith depicting the primitive aspects. The main focus in this novel is on one man, Okonkwo, the protagonist who symbolises the many Nigerians, or Africans who were struggling against the white missionaries, who brought their religion and policies and imposed them on Okonkwo’s and the other surrounding tribes. Achebe also shows how great the effect is when something seemingly un-invasive, such as a church, is set up in a Nigerian or African culture.
The novel Things fall apart depicts the cultural battle between the Igbo and the British: one was trying to keep its tradition, and one wanted to change those traditions by replacing them with a new religion. Finally, the British won because of they could figure out the falsehood in the indigenous people’s degenerate customs and attack it. Nothing in this world is perfect, and it is hard for a culture to be perfect. However, if a culture wants to develop and thrive, it should respect the value of its entire people. That was the reason why the Igbo culture was destroyed, because of its conservativeness, gender differentiation and superstitiously killing of the innocent.
While the outside world considered Nigeria to be a united and monolithic entity, even the British colonial administration was wary of the reality of Nigerian politics; the nation was not so much a “country” as it was more than three hundred different groups coalesced into one.4 5 These tribes were divided between three main spheres of influence: the Yoruba, the Igbo, and the Hausa. Historically, their interests were often opposed, and their cultures did not come into regular contact with one another until the British occupation. In spite of the differences British administration a...
Colonization in Nigeria affected the Igbo culture and its people in many different ways. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the author portrays events in the novel that reflect real experiences that he had. Many of the events in the novel deal with the act of colonization and how it affects different members in society, an idea that Achebe has experienced for himself. The author 's first hand experience with colonization allows the story to depict how colonization affected the Igbo people more accurately. Chinua Achebe creates an accurate representation of colonialism with his use of real events that occurred.