Animism In Things Fall Apart

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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe offers a detailed contrast between a society prior to the direct influence of colonial rule and a society coming to terms with a new reality of colonial leaders. The novel details the life of Okonkwo, a strong and respected man making a living in the Ibo village of Umuofia, located in present day Nigeria. Things Fall Apart details the clashes between traditional culture, tribal rule, and animism with a central government and Christianity. Nigerian born, Chinua Achebe published Things Fall Apart in 1958 and since this time he has won numerous awards for his writing depicting African societies.
For most of Okonkwo’s life, Umuofia does not feel the presence of a central state. Instead, the village and clan is mostly by institutions of religious beliefs and customs and environmental management, however at times methods of coercion appear. The village and clan lack one central leader. Instead, the ways of the clan are governed by well regarded men in the clan who masquerade as the governing spirits and by the village elders. Together the spirits and elders maintain the rule of law. The people of the villages fear the spirits greatly, and so they uphold the rules and customs even when it brings them pain. For instance, according to the spirits twins are an abomination and must be cast into the an Evil Forest reserved for the bodies of lepers, small pox sufferers, the infants of women who frequently have children die, and twins. It is told that the spirits of these bodies will linger in the forest. In the book, women mourn for their twins and several characters inwardly question why they must be left to die but none dear voice these questions out of fear of the spirits. Another instance of...

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...nd saving the souls of those they converted.
However, in the eyes of Okonkwo and others in Umuofia, the white men brought nothing but harm to their culture. They lost many men to their religion, including Okonkwo’s own son causing Okonkwo to fear that no one will offer him sacrifices after his death. The relationship between the village leaders and the church reaches a boiling point when a zealous convert murders the village’s python god. As a result, the leaders representing the spirits destroy the church and are imprisoned until a fine and a bribe is paid. When Okonkwo kills a government messenger out of anger and in the hope that war will ensue, he flees and hangs himself representing the impossibility for the two cultures to merge cohesively. Things Fall Apart examines how fragile a society and a culture is and creates a strong argument against imperialism .

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