Things Fall Apart Christianity

Achebe’s View of Christianity and the Suicide of Igbo Culture

In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, the struggle of the Igbo culture to remain true to its values while the onset of Christianity is in full effect is examined through the eyes of an African, providing a vulnerable look at how the spread of Christianity in the 1850s affected other cultures. Chinua Achebe provided the first widespread view of this struggle in Africa from an African. Chinua Achebe was raised in a Christian household, but his neighbors who also happened to be his extended family, chose to continue to practice traditional Igbo religion, leaving Achebe to admire from afar. (Brucker, C., 1992) While a young man, Achebe was raised to believe his extended family

(Jermiriye, T., 2006) “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…” is the only thing the protagonist, Umkonkwo’s, confidant can say to the missionaries to describe damage they have done to Umkonkwo’s legacy, which symbolizes the Igbo culture, in the conclusion of Things Fall Apart. It is the culmination of all culture shocks that the reader has observed throughout the spread of the Christian missionaries though the fictitious Umuofia tribes. In order to grasp the full negative affect Christian missionaries had on the Igbo culture, both the differences and similarities between Igbo religion and Christianisty must be examined as well as the positive and negative affects Christianity had on not only Umkonkwo, but also the entire fictitious village of Umuofia. Achebe provides an excellent background and up-close look at the tribal traditions cultures of the Igbo tribes prior to introducing Christian missionaries in his novel, therefore allowing readers to understand, possibly for the first time, why African cultures were

Unlike Christianity, Igbo people perceive their God as a person with God-like abilities, specifically represented through nature whereas Christians perceive their God as an Almighty force that cannot actually be seen. (Jermiriye, T., 2006) This causes initial difficulty in persuading the villagers to actually believe in this new God they cannot see and results in a strong disbelief in validity of the new religion among the tribesmen. Igbo people have an almighty God, Chuku, like the Christian God, but they also believe in other, not as powerful deities like Chi. Chi is a personal god or guardian spirit similar to the idea of Christian fate in that the Igbo’s chi have their future already decided for them based on what Chuku has decided to be the way. (Okonkwo, C. 2016) Unlike Christianity, Igbo people pray directly to their Chi and other dieties in addition to their Supreme Being. (Okonkwo, C. 2016) With both similarities and differences rooted deep within the structures of these religions, the introduction