Things Fall Apart

“When two cultures collide is the only time when true suffering exists.” This was once said by Hermann Hesse, a German-Swiss poet. His insight was true wisdom when it comes to the collision of culture. In relation to this thought, when two cultures collide and they ignore eachothers values it results in destruction of these cultures and consequences as seen through Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, slave trade in Nigerian history, and the Indian Ocean Trade. In Achebe’s text, two cultures colliding resulting in the destruction of those cultures is shown throughout his novel. The Igbo clan clashes with the christians and they will not agree on anything causing major conflicts. The first seen example of the refusal to accommodate the Christians

Beginning in the late 1400’s, Europeans, specifically the Portuguese, set up slave ports in West Africa and began capturing and trading slaves for valuables such as gold. This monopoly set up by the Europeans presented an obvious disrespect of the Africans by the Europeans. Namely, the Africans endured “physical and sexual abuse by the sailors” (Atlantic Crossing, par. 14) when on the ships and “the weak and frail were quickly broken both physically and mentally” (par. 15). Other than torturous abuse, but were dehumanized by being exchanged and sold for items such as “textile imports from India; European-manufactured articles, including tools and weapons” (The Slave Trade, par. 2). In addition, slaves were broken and “ captives already weakened by the horrors of the voyage committed suicide” (Atlantic Crossing, par. 17) and had to experience the horrors of the process known as seasoning where they were forced to assume the status of servants. This horrific treatment the Africans faced resulted in even more tragedy. After many Africans were captured, agricultural production decreased causing famine. Along with starvation, disease was a big problem as “Nigeria was ravaged to a large degree, by diseases and illnesses arising from heavy malnutrition and undernutrition of the vast populations” (Understanding Nigeria, par. 21). In the long term, the population of West Africa was affected by the slave trade. The effects of the slave trade would continue to exist for centuries. This demonstrates the collision of cultures between the Europeans and Africans caused major long term