Things Fall Apart Essay

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Set in a pre-colonial Nigeria, Things Fall Apart author Chinua Achebe illustrates the viewpoint of a Nigerian man, Okonkwo, whose village begins to experience aspects of colonialism, the influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people, with the arrival of missionaries in the fictional village of Umuofia. However, with the end of colonization in most African countries, like in Nigeria in the 1960’s, the negative effects of western influence began to rise. Territorial disputes became a common issue that arose in areas such as Nigeria. Events such as the Nigerian Civil War, reigning effect of territorial disputes in Nigeria, are due to the neglectful placement of borders during colonialism and is concurrent with events in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Natural resources, a main factor for the economic success of African countries, have become the center of modern disputes due to the borders placed during colonialism that were for European benefit. Crops such as yams could be valued in villages as much as oil to modern African countries: “Yam, the king of crops was a man's crop” (Achebe 23). Yams …show more content…

In a similar fashion, the influence of colonists has certainly remained with over half of the population in modern day Nigeria being Christian with an Islamic minority: “A trend of “encouraged” separatist movements [have led to groups such as Boko Haram] as Africans [were] willing and interested in pursuing borders that... reflect [Nigeria’s] diverse...religious...lines.”(Fisher) The Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram, wants to remove all Western influence from Nigeria by all means necessary. Recently in Nigeria, the kidnapping of nearly three hundred schoolgirls in Chibok reached international coverage. Due to the extreme nature of this kidnapping, the UN added the group to its sanction

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