Another facet required for harmonious interactions between contrasting cultures is the awareness of differing customs. The majority of white missionaries did not understand nor aim to become educated on the Ibo customs. Not only did missionaries bring in an alien judicial that the Ibo were completely unaccustomed to, the judicial system also did not adhere to their traditional customs or laws. It is blatantly obvious that the Christians had no intentions on respecting Ibo tradition, as Obierika explains when Okonkwo questions him about the white man’s judicial system “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” while Obierika responds “how can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad…” (Achebe 176) According to Ibo tradition there are certain customs that must be followed for specific situations, such as land disputes. In an Ibo tribe if there is a land dispute the egwugwu, who govern the tribe, will give both …show more content…
The Christians were very disrespectful and inconsiderate of the Ibo, eventually causing the Ibo to retaliate angrily. After so many instances of the Christians disrespecting the Ibo religion and having no regard for their customs, the Ibo decide to serve an ultimatum. In spite of being given another chance, the missionaries still decide to remain in the Ibo village, therefore the Ibo burn down their church because they believed it brought evil to the area. Naturally the missionaries interpret their actions as savagery instead of a method of protecting the tribe and they base their judgements of the Ibo solely on their personal views, instead of looking at the situation from all perspectives. The Christian justice system is almost the exact opposite of the Ibo justice system, the Christians did not appeal to the Ibo at all, and only benefits the more preferred
He displays it through the conversation Mr. Brown has with Akuma, in which he “learned a good deal about the religion of the clan” and made the conclusion that “attack… would not succeed” (Achebe 181). Unlike Mr. Smith’s quick and dramatic reaction to the clan, Mr. Brown makes it his duty to interact with the tribe and understand them. Mr. Smith’s refusal to understand the Ibo culture makes him interpret all of their actions as a culture to be violent, such as the burning of the church (Achebe 191). Because of his impatience for comprehension, Mr. Smith sacrifices the harmony that could coexist between the two cultures. Mr. Brown, on the other hand, makes an effort to understand the universal themes and similarities that run through each of their religions, like the importance of an absolute deity. Despite the differences, Mr. Brown chooses to accept the culture, even though he may not agree with it. His acceptance is what truly allows the Ibo to coexist with the missionaries without conflict for a short period of time, proving that with communication, conflict can be prevented. However, the lack of communication once Mr. Smith takes over is what causes the clash between him and the Ibo because he jumps too quickly to conclusions rather than trying to understand why the Ibo do what they do. The depth of the culture that is shown through the conversation between
The Europeans used their power of law and order to subdue and control the indigenous. They wanted to instill their beliefs, culture, and values onto the natives and used agents of directed culture change to influence the people. Missionaries played a major role in transforming the native communities. Missionaries believed they were helping the inhabitants by “converting and civilizing” the indigenous. They also used their power to exploit any resources they could find to benefit the church and their home land. However, while they worked with authority to take over land and culture, they often had conflict with the brutal treatment that authorities inflicted on the native people. Missionaries had many views on converting. Some thought “that indigenous people were subhuman and should be controlled… others assumed that indigenous people were … capable of intelligent thought and reasoning” (Bonvillain 2013). Missionaries claimed they were enlightening the people and used economic and political arguments to convert them. If the natives were to convert they awarded them with favorable trading and provided guns for their use. Missionaries also encouraged Christia...
The Spanish and French push for conversion among the Native Americas was a major mark in early American history. The missionaries came to convert the pagan Indians and bring to them the laws of Jesus Christ. Some of the missionaries had success and others had the very opposite, which lead to war. Some natives were eventually accepting of the French and Spanish and some were not. Just like some views that the Spanish and French had about the Indians differed depending on the circumstances. Overall this paper discussed a few of those differing views and how the missionaries’ tactics were used to convert the Indians.
“The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages”, (142). The Europeans made the Igbo’s life crumble around them by turning each other against one another. Europeans took many people into their church including outcasts. The Igbo’s would stand no chance in rebelling against European colonization if they didn’t unite. They need someone to stan...
At first the people of Mbanta and the Christians could live in peace together because the Christians were looked at as harmless. It was not until the Christians allowed the Igbo outcasts into their church, which really angered the clan. Okonkwo wanted to act out against the Christians in violence, but the people of Mbanta decided against that by making the Christians an
If the ibo culture would have learned more about the white men then this wouldn’t have been such a problem. Both groups could have compromised. The white men could practice their religion and the ibo could practice theirs. Since the ibo didn’t like the idea of one god they became angry with the white men. The Ibo didn’t like the idea of one god because they had always believed in several god and practiced their religion for their gods not just one. The ibo needed to learn more about this one god before they made decisions on what to believe in. It also didn’t help that the white men told the Ibo that the Ibo religion was not true. The
Firstly, the church disproves many of the Igbo superstitions ,which encourages the Igbo to break the traditions that they had followed for many years. Therefore, slowly destroying their society. For instance, when the white men who brought Christianity to the people of Umuofia speak to the clan of the village about their new religion. They request a piece of land to build their church on. The clan decides to give them a piece of land of the Evil forest and let them stay. To the clans surprise this happens ”At last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died. But they were still alive, building a new red-earth and thatch house for their teacher, Mr. Kiaga. That week they won a handful more converts.(151)”. The Evil Forest was known as a forest where people go to die, and the clan members thought that by allowing the missionaries to build their church in the evil Forest they could easily get rid of them. Since, the white men didn’t die but lived, this made the Ibo people question their own beliefs. When some of the villagers noticed that they were mislead by their gods they decide to convert to Christianity. Either because Christianity seemed stronger than the ...
The villagers of Umuofia are accustomed to their gods, and their beliefs. When missionaries began to invade umuofia and and their religion, things began to completely change. For instance, “The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages” (Achebe 143). Christians would interpret this as the salvation of Umuofia, they would agree with the missionaries on trying to lead these villagers to god’s path. Although this might be true to Christians, atheist would view this as enforcing a religion upon the villagers. Christianity is said to be a religion where nothing is forced upon you, and what the missionaries are doing contradicts this statement. The missionary known as Mr. Brown expresses his opinion on the beliefs of the villagers, “He told them that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone” (Achebe 145). Atheist would feel aggravated by this, Christians are not supposed to enforce the religion on people, specially offend their religion. Christians on the other hand would see this as knowledge being shared with the
The character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was driven by fear, a fear of change and losing his self-worth. He needed the village of Umuofia, his home, to remain untouched by time and progress because its system and structure were the measures by which he assigned worth and meaning in his own life. Okonkwo required this external order because of his childhood and a strained relationship with his father, which was also the root of his fears and subsequent drive for success. When the structure of Umuofia changed, as happens in society, Okonkwo was unable to adapt his methods of self-evaluation and ways of functioning in the world; the life he was determined to live could not survive a new environment and collapsed around him.
When people try to force their culture onto an already flourishing culture, that creates harsh conflict and is very immoral. When 2 cultures try to overcome each other, let’s say America’s culture and Saudi Arabia’s culture, thing start to get mixed up and very confusing. Weddings start to change, living styles will change, etc. When the Christians brought their culture, it severely messed up the culture of Okonkwo’s clan, and bringing the downfall of Okonkwo’s life. “It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land.”, unlike Christian culture, where
In many ways the changes that the missionaries brought upon the Ibo were unavoidable. The rituals and cyclic view the Ibo had of time held their culture together. The Ibo did not hold on to their ideas of interdepenence and community. Therefore, they were more suspetable to surcoming to the ways of the white man. The colonial infiltration caused the Ibo to not only loose their cultural identity, but their voice. The missionaries alterations brought silece among the native dialect of the Ibo. Achebe states at the end of the novel "even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering." From this quote it is apparent that there is little left of the Ibo culture. The colonial infliltration caused the Ibo to fall apart, and break the vital cycle that once held their culture together.
There were many changes that occurred when the white explores came to Niger. Umuofia Mbanta, and the other local clans have been living in a remote society and culture for generations giving them plenty of time to alter and live in their environment efficiently. They had developed many different religious beliefs that were different from the Christian culture that settled the area. "You say that there is one supreme God who made heaven and earth," said Akunna on one of Mr. Brown 's visits. " We also believe in Him and call Him Chukwu. He made all the world and the other gods." (Achebe, 179). Although the missionaries did not intentionally try to cause conflict, that is exactly what they ended up doing. The missionaries, in my opinion, took a wrong approach which ended up causing rebellion. Things Fall Apart shows that the power of religion can both guide a society and destroy it.
Also, as many of the natives ran to the new Christian faith, many family bonds were broken. Before colonialism took place, family was an important thing in the Igbo society. It was not often that a man would give his son away for any reason, but because of the English coming in and teaching a new faith, many families were forced to give up their sons, daughters, and even some men were forced to give up their wives. The new religion also affected the way certain customs took place in the Igbo society. An example would be when one of the newly converted Christians killed the highly honored snake.
Overall, Christianity can guide and destroy Ibo society by welcoming outcasts, tearing families apart, and building schools. In his novel Things Fall Apart, writer Chinua Achebe uses his novel to describe the positive and negative effects of religion.. The effects of Christianity on Ibo society can serve as a lesson to us to recognize religion as a powerful force that is both ruinous and
To colonize the land of Nigerian tribal people or any other lands in the world, the British wisely used religion as a tool of invasion. Though the process of spreading Christianity took longer time than war and killing, the attack on belief and spirituality made the native people completely submit to the new government which generated and supported the religion that those people followed. In fact, the British missionaries succeeded in convincing the Igbo people of the new religion despite the Igbo’s conservativeness and extreme superstition.