Things Fall Apart Religion

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Recommended: Impact of European colonialism on Africa

Nelson Mandela famously lived by the African concept of “Ubuntu” (Lesser, 2010) meaning "I am because you are,” instilling the notion that humans cannot thrive in isolation (Robb, 2017). In a society plagued by “otherizing,” people distinguish themselves and group everybody else as “the other,” creating trenches that divide the different groups composing society. Whether the difference be race, religion, sexuality, or political beliefs, society groups itself in a way that often provides “the other” with negative connotation, preventing a genuine unification of society. Ubuntu, on the other hand, calls for connection, a shift in how people perceive themselves and others. Fiction provides the medium to achieve Ubuntu through its infinite perspectives, …show more content…

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart delves into an African village afflicted by a colonial presence, revealing the racism, depletion of culture, and personal detriment caused by white colonialism. With the novel predominantly revolving around Okonkwo, a former powerful figure in his village of Umuofia, the reader is exposed to the frustration and anger experienced by someone deeply rooted in his beliefs and culture as foreigners attempt to strip them away. Okonkwo’s eventual suicide demonstrates his despair; he would rather kill himself, an evil act in the eyes of his religion, than live in a world where he cannot freely act upon his beliefs. Okonkwo’s despair was caused by the lack of acceptance from the white missionaries, in which they publicly denounced Umuofia’s polytheistic religion, and essentially all traditions associated with it. In essence, an environment existed in which there was no acceptance from either group. For example, when snapping at converts about their former tribesmen, Mr. Kiaga states, “The heathens say you will die if you do this or that … The heathens speak nothing but falsehood” (Achebe, 157). In regarding the tribesmen as “heathens,” Mr. Kiaga is otherizing, refusing to respect their ways and beliefs, and indicating himself and his religion as

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