Cultural Collision In Things Fall Apart

Culture collisions are in our everyday lives here in America in our own little towns.  We might not notice our culture changing because it is a part of our everyday lives.  Culture collisions cause some people to triumph and some people to fail.  In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the Ibo tribe did not see these culture clashes everyday until the “white men” showed up and influenced the Ibo to change their ways.  Achebe shows how many of the characters react to this culture shock.  Obierika is one of the main characters that shows his sense of identity through this culture collision.  
Before the culture collision came into play, Obierika was an intelligent man.  He thought through all of his problems before he faced them

and was welcoming to changes in society.  In this novel, Obierika’s main role was to try to help guide Okonkwo through some of his problems.  Even though Obierika’s advice was thoughtful Okonkwo did not listen to him.  
Obierika knew that Okonkwo was a soft man on the inside and that Okonkwo needed help so that he would not self destruct.  After Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, Obierika tried to give Okonkwo some advice of how he could have reacted differently.  “If I were you I would have stayed home.  What you have done will not please the Earth.  It is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families” (Achebe 67).  With this, Obierika is just trying to protect Okonkwo from mistakes he has already made.  
Many of the thoughts of the Ibo people were very different from their clansmen, but they all thought the same when it came to their culture in the village.  Obierika’s thoughts on other Ibo villages before the colonization began was that the other villages were believing in the wrong things.  “All of their customs are upside down.  They do not decide bride-price as we do, with sticks.  They haggle and bargain as if they were buying a goat or a cow in the market” (Achebe 73).  Obierika shows his opinion throughout the beginning of the novel until the British arrive in Umuofia.
While Obierika was trying to help change Okonkwo’s ways, the British were on their way to convert the Ibo people to Christianity.  Obierika had no idea what was going to happen but he knew it would not be good for their culture once the British invaded Abame.  With the invasion, it drove Obierika to go and visit Okonkwo in his motherland, Mbanta, and make sure that he was ok.  “During the last planting season a white man had appeared in their clan” (Achebe 138).  Obierika is very fearful for not only the new culture that has rolled in but also how Okonkwo will react to the new religion.  “ ‘I do not know how to thank you.’  ‘I can tell you...kill yourself’ ”(Achebe 142).  He basically told Okonkwo to completely change his personality and how he thought of things before his anger got the best of him.
Two more years passed and Obierika saw Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, is with the christians.  This worried Obierika because he had no idea if Okonkwo had changed from his old ways or not.  So he decided to then pay another visit to Okonkwo to see if he had changed his ways.  When Obierika tells Okonkwo what he saw, he noticed that Okonkwo had not changed and Obierika knew that it was too late for Okonkwo to change by this point.  “It's already too late,” (Achebe 176).  
Obierika was effected by the cultural collision because he began to see the other side of the collision.

He saw that the British had the same thinking as the Ibo on how their own culture is correct but all others are wrong.  While Obierika was recognizing this his friend, Okonkwo,  committed suicide.  This was the turning point where Obierika realized that everyone needs to be able to change and this event was definity change.  He betrayed some of his traditions and decided that Okonkwo should have a good burial even though it was against their belief to bury someone who committed suicide.  “We he has be buried we will then do our  duty by him.  We shall make sacrifices to cleanse the desecrated land” (Achebe 208).  
Throughout the novel, Obierika was known as Okonkwo’s guide or the complete opposite of his personality.  Obierika did not have any big consequences when it came to the culture collision because he was not like Okonkwo and things did not fall apart for him.  Obierika was one of the people that triumphed when it came to this culture collision.  He was able to be flexible and think before he took any action.  As for the rest of the Ibo tribe they had lost the battle.  The white men have “put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe

176).