culture collision

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Recommended: Impact of colonization on indigenous people

When the Europeans arrived in Africa during the late eighteenth century the culture and the lives of the people of Africa are altered. Colonialism and Imperialism in Africa has adversely changed the way of life of the African people, and changed their culture, that had developed for so many years, unscathed by any distraction from the outside world. This dominant European influence has led to poverty in the African continent for the next 100 years, because of the institutions that were put into place by Europeans. In Things Fall Apart, it becomes clear that the Ibo culture responds in a distinct way to the European colonization; when compared to other villages and ethnic groups in Africa. These foreigners had such an enormous effect on the Ibo tribe that many of the clansmen decided to abandon the traditional ways or were too afraid to rise against the takeover of their tribe by the Europeans since the natives lacked the adequate technology to fight off the Europeans. The culture collision between Europe’s culture and the Ibo culture causes Nwoye’s sense of identity to be challenged and causes him to distance himself from his family and his tribe because of the introduction of Christianity and western ideals.
Nwoye is the person most effected by the culture collision in Things Fall Apart, prior to the white men’s insertion Nwoye is basically what would have been considered a favorable child in Ibo society; he is loyal to his family and he listens and respects his father. Okonkwo also believed that he was developing into an acceptable young adult, "Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son's development... He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father's household when he was dead and gone."(Achebe 52) Pr...

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...nvert them to the new faith.”(Achebe 152) Nwoye still wants to keep his family together and he is still loyal to his siblings and his mother because he felt that there was hope for them when it came to converting them to the new faith. He really does strive to keep his honor, but he defines his honor the way that he chooses to; not the way that Okonkwo and the other clansmen of Umofia do.
When the culture collision occurs in Umofia, Nwoye's identity is challenged and he gives into the new system of ideas and religion. While the culture collision did spark the transformation of Nwoye; did it really ever change his identity or was he already this type of person, could the culture collision just have served as an opportunity for Nwoye to free himself from the foundation and the rules that his father and the rest of the tribe was enforcing and expecting him to follow?

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