Missionaries Are to Blame in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
The burden and calling to reach out and help others, enfold many people in society throughout the world. Rich or poor, young or old, black, red or white, the motive is helping those with a need. As Chinua Achebe points out in his book, Things Fall Apart, though there is the aspiration to lend a hand, it can sometimes become deadly, and even fatal to the lives of people. Although the missionaries try help convert the Ibo village of Umuofia to Christianity, their presence in Africa is harmful to the lives and culture of the Ibo.
The men that come to Umuofia destroy the cultural balance of faith and religion that encompasses the native people in Africa. People in Umuofia depend strongly on the ancestors and gods in their culture. It is their tradition and their beginning, from which they govern their lives. Even the priestess that serves the god Agbala, "...was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared" (16). Without the stronghold of customs and traditions, only chaos exists. Peace, trust, and knowledge are thrown off when the new religion of Christianity is introduced. When the missionary explains that:
"All the gods you have named are not gods at all. They are gods of deceit
who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent children. There is
only one true God and He has the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us" (121).
Decisions, opinions, and beliefs become uncertain and doubt appears. Cultural values, that ware held for generations, are pitted against the missionary's sermons. Although the missionaries come with the desire and intention to help the underdeveloped Ibo village reach its pote...
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...e senseless and heartless government, which ruthlessly destroys the peaceful atmosphere in the villages. Africa will only reach its potential when everybody realizes the importance of preserving the cultural traditions.
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Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.
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Okonkwo, Juliet. "The Cultural Rape of Africa." African Quarterly 15.1-2: pages.
With a socially imposed and personal devotion to attain a highly regarded status in his clan, Okonkwo’s life was one that valued traditional authority, customs, and kinship. As a protagonist, Okonkwo’s story exemplifies the altering role of the state as the marching boots of colonialism enter his village, Iguedo. In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, he illustrates the societal life of the Umuofia clan prior to the arrival of and the encounter with early colonizers - offering an Igbo account of the transformation of local institutions. Once wielded by elders and the spiritually divine, the power of control fell into the hands of foreigners. Worship of ancestors, the supreme deity Chikwu, and other Earth gods transferred to the God revealed in the Bible. The interactions between the institutions of rule, belief, environmental management, and trade are each delicately reliant on each other, so that in Iguedo the ability to rule fails to exist without belief, religious believes are derived from the environment, and the mercy of environmental conditions dictates agricultural trade. Through the life and death of Okonkwo, the novel presents how the experience of the Igbo and their interaction with the state witnessed unquestionable change.
“He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.” This quote by Chinua Achebe describes the self-inflictions when a person purposely goes after another. This goes hand-in-hand with the Nigerian author’s magnum opus, Things Fall Apart. For the duration of the book, Achebe uses subtle events to create amplifying changes. He uses Okonkwo’s relationship with others, his learning about the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. Achebe also uses Okonkwo’s fear of change for the Ibo regarding to the missionaries and their spread of Christianity through the region. Creating universal and relatable characters, Chinua Achebe warns people of rash actions and their effects over time.
Imagine if you would, to be in another culture, and someone who is unwanted, unwelcome has come into it and has caused it to crumble. You and your family are plunged into failure and your life is falling apart. These people, the missionaries, arrived from England to colonize Africa during the colonial period. There were many problems faced by the native people, most of whom were not about to drop all of their beliefs to adopt a foreigners customs. Such beliefs existed in the protagonist, Okonkwo, and are the roots of the challenges faced by Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, in which the author, Chinua Achebe, writes of the challenges to Okonkwo's sense of identity. Western ideas have clashed with his sense of family, his ideas of gender, and position of leadership within the clan, which influences and forms the meaning of the book.
Large-scale education and social consciousness may not be enough, though; even when the government becomes involved and offers a scholarship for Babamukuru and Maiguru to pursue higher education in South Africa, the missionaries feel a sense of entitlement to the natives’ bodies and minds and later coerce this same pair to continue their education in England. This lends itself to a description of “missionary goodwill as a form of benevolent tyranny” that works to alienate individual natives from others and prevent them from taking any sort of united stand (Paustian
The novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe highlights the many important historical events that happened during the period of colonialism, spread of religious fervor to Africa from Europe, and the importance of the native religion among African societies. Achebe shows that religion holds a major influence in many African societies and influences the daily life of the natives. Furthermore, the novel introduces a major event that happen during pre-colonial Africa, the spread of the Christian faith, which forever changed and affected the natives in Africa, more specifically the Igbo society located in Nigeria. Things Fall Apart vividly describes and explains how the Christian faith that arrived in Africa changed both the individuals in the Umoufia and society. To add on, the novel shows how the spread of Christianity ultimately leads to the destruction of the many native African cultures, and shows what redeeming qualities that arise from the destruction of their culture. Achebe describes how the Christian faith acts as a guide to the Igbo society and at the same time acts as the inevitable downfall of the Igbo society.
It is common knowledge that Africa has always been represented as a continent that is full of wild savages. It is perceived as fact that the people within this continent are running around with spears and live in small huts. The people who actually believe this are ignorant to the truth that Africa is a very large continent. It has many different cultures that deserve to be respected in their own right. These different cultures have their own laws, their own religion, and their own art. In Things Fall Apart, Umuofia is explained extensively. The whole first half of the novel goes into great detail of all that makes the culture so great. These people have a well developed religion, rules that they all follow, and even their own justice system. These people are very civilized in their own individual way. The disconnect comes in when, even though they have all the same elements as western civilization, they are are so different that those difference are considered unworthy. In the novel, the missionaries that visit Umuofia constantly ignore the people’s custom and consider those customs savage. One of the missionaries blatantly makes this clear when discussing their religion and says, “that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone” (Achebe 145). From the outside, yes, it does look like all these people worship inanimate objects. What Achebe tries so hard to show is that the religion that the people of Umuofia followed is way more complicated than that. Their religion, along with their whole culture, is very complex and needs half a book to just scrape the top layer of it. Many of their beliefs even mirror many early Christian ideas. These people pray to their ancestors who will in return talk to the Gods they worship. This is parallel to how Catholics pray to saints as an indirect way to speak to God. The core of
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.
In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, the protagonist Okonkwo struggles between tribal tradition, his internal conflicts with his own beliefs, and the arrival of European missionaries to Africa. Okonkwo’s own perspective is limited to a heavily masculine praising mindset, driving him to be rash and violent at times, but his own tribe has a variety of traditions and personalities. Immediately, Okonkwo sees these missionaries as a threat to his place in society, their beliefs are frowned upon by most of the tribes and people of power. Missionaries see African tribes as animalistic and primitive. Okonkwo’s perspective was valid considering all the damage missionaries would eventually cause in the long run. A loss of culture and the
The Effect of Temperature on the Rate of Reaction Between Sodium Thiosulphate and Hydrochloric Acid
many brutal wars, such as the Crusades, yet also founded many hospitals and charities, proving it difficult to categorize religion as a positive or negative influence. Author Chinua Achebe acknowledges this debate in his novel Things Fall Apart. This novel takes place in Nigeria during the late 19th century and shows the Ibo tribe’s transformation after Christian missionaries arrive. Achebe suggests that Christianity can guide a society by including outcasts but can also destroy a society by breaking family values and establishing schools.
On arrival, the missionaries barely understand the tribe. They have very little knowledge of the cultural beliefs or rituals that the tribe revere. It seems inappropriate that they are willing to declare that the villagers' beliefs are false. "He told them that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone." They don't even acknowledge that this too is a successful community, which works well under its method of religious law. They take it upon themselves to change the religion or `make it civilised', not respecting the fact that maybe the villagers were already content with what they had.
There are many different religions in the world but they are all capable of doing similar things. Religion plays a significant role in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. In this book religion is important to the people of Umuofia ,which is the village where the protagonist, Okonkwo lives. The people of the village believed there was only one religion ,and when another religion was introduced to them they would not believe in it. This religion was Christianity. During the novel the power of religion both guides and destroys the society of Umuofia.
Polsgrove, Carol. Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause. Manchester University Press, 2009.
Throughout Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, struggle between change and tradition is one of the most relevant issues. The Igbo villagers, Okonkwo, and his son Nwoye all experience this problem in many different ways. The villagers have their religion defied, Okonkwo reaches his breaking point and Nwoye finally finds what he believes in. People have struggled to identify and cope with change and tradition throughout history, and will continue to struggle with this issue in the
Schipper, Mineke. "Mother Africa on a Pedestal: The Male Heritage in African Literature and Criticism." Women in African Literature Today. Ed. Eldred Durosimi Jones. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1987. 35-53.