Researchers: Ateeqa Atia Ul Musawar (09)

Muhammad Ahsan (13)

Syeda Sania Javed (14)
Yumna Tehreem (33)
Course: Postcolonial Fiction
Course Instructor: Dr. Aamir Aziz
Student Level: Masters (Replica)
Due Date: May 10, 2020

An Analytical Study of Socio-Cultural fall of Igbo society through the lens of Post-
colonialism

Achebe in Things Fall Apart presented Africa as a crude and socially retrograde nation.

He portrays the world of a man whom his own rules come into a direct strike with the values and

rituals of his nation’s established culture. There is a depiction of the flaws and unfavorable

practices of Igbo’s culture; for instance, the habit of throwing away newborn twins, killing

innocents like Ikemefona, beating the wife which is a common habit among Umuofian’s men

and banishing clan’s member for unintentional mistakes etc. Women in the novel are portrayed

as unequal. Certain Igbo’s customs, even before the colonizer’s arrival, were questionable for the

young and elderly as well, like Obierika and Nwoye.

The things that fall apart with the arrival of the colonizer to Umofian society are the Ibo’s

society, culture, religion and unity. Adding that their traditions and customs were dishonored and

devastated. Therefore, the root of a cultural upheaval is almost there long before the colonizer’s

entrance. Life takes turn dramatically for the Igbo society and Okonkwo with the arrival of

British colonizers and missionaries (also known as the white man). The series of crushing blows
which are leveled at traditional values by an alien and more potent culture causing the traditional

society to fall apart, in the end.

Things Fall Apart is about the fall of the African tribes with the colonization of

Europeans. Cultural Conflict has been depicted in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. African

black culture represented by Igbo tribe comes into dissonance with the white one imposed by the

British imperialism. With the arrival of the whites, came new laws and religion, thus a cultural

conflict. The conflict has two aspects; an internal which can be traced within the same culture

among its members and sometimes inside a specific character, on the other hand an external

conflict took place between two cultures the African and the British one. “The things that

ordinarily would probably not happen in the African cultural society begin to happen with the

arrival of the Whiteman” (Adegbite, 83) With the advent of the white man there was a loss of

native values such as communal harmony, placing society above self, respect for the aged, and

reverence for achievers, which resulted in the absence of self-analysis and a stable code of ethics

in the society. Some of the conflicts contained religion, social life, education, and others. The

Igbo people have a very different religious concept than the British people. The Igbo believed in

polytheism, the worship of many gods. The Igbo god that created the world and others is

Chukwu. The Ibo had a group of nine ancestral spirits, which they called Egwugwu. The women

of the Ibo people were monogamous believers. “‘Every year’…’before I put any crop in the

earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land’” (Achebe, 17). He writes, "Let the kite

perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break" (Achebe, 21-22).

The things that ordinarily would probably not happen in the Africa.

Cultural society began to tremble with the arrival of the Whiteman. People began to

disregard elders who were not Christians, spiritual norms were being broken (the killing of the
sacred python) and younger male started to resist elders by contradicting their directions,

therefore challenging senior African masculinity. Ironically, one of the many differences

between the two cultures was the degree of allowance to kill. In fact, the British almost kill off

an entire village in vengeance of the murder of one white man (Achebe, 129). The Western

tradition condoned people to fight each other over religion but the Ibo tradition forbade them to

kill any present clan member. This was an abomination. Christians accepted villages from

outcast an untouchable castes. Polygamy was disapproved by Christians and this often proved as

an insuperable stumbling block to converts. There is no doubt that the white missionaries

believed themselves to be superior in comparison to Igbo, this is because they had some of the

converts of Christianity be their messengers.

What really falls apart in Things Fall Apart is Okonkwo, the protagonist of the novel.

Okonkwo, who is looked highly upon by his people, is unable to conform the changes that

accompany colonialism. He tries to live the traditional Ibo life, nevertheless the arrival of the

white man into his society causes him to fall apart. By studying his conducts before and after

killing Ikemefona, it reveals that his mortal sin parts him beyond the limits of his cultural

conventions, in the process of gaining his individual purposes, which later leads to his downfall.

Killing himself is a representative of “an ultimate expression of the compound effects of his own

experiences in his unflinching desire to become a hero”. (Nnoromele, 48) Okonkwo’s fall has

been linked to his obstinate firm, rigid, and self-interested personality. We cannot help

comparing him to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who also placed great faith in supernatural forces, and

was brought to a tragic end by his ambition and arrogance, Okonkwo is a sort of selfish character

that put Ibo culture and belief at risks .Okonkwo is blighted for committing many sins as he is

moving against the rules of the clan and nature as well. It is argued that Okonkwo represents the
embodiment of Igbo culture and his destruction portrays the end of it (Sarma, 69). His fatal

mistake, according to his culture (the murder’s soul) renders him a plagued and doomed man.

Achebe exposes, through his characters’ words in the novel, their disturbing feelings towards the

intolerable oral rules:

Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed

inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer. He was

merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife’s twin children, whom he

had thrown away. What crime had they committed? (Achebe, 125)

It appears that Ikemefuna’s ghost does not leave Okonkwo at rest since then, as ordered

to the corps “Do not allow him a moment’s rest” (Achebe, 123). He at times exceeds beyond the

limits of his cultural norms in the fear of losing his value and statue in which depend on the

cultural standards. Consequently, he lost his connection with his son, wealth, status, and dreams,

yet he kept on following his own principles in life and ended with his suicide. And as a good

transaction of analytical response to the novel advocates, this theory of reading, at least in terms

of Things Fall Apart, seems relatively accurate.

The Igbo people's patriarchal society has a strict system of behavioral custom according

to gender. “The Igbo women are playing a significant role in the facilitation of this learning,

which is vital to their children's ability to function within the Igbo culture.” (Purwarno, 6).

Ekwefi tells the story not only for entertainment but also to give them some moral values that

they can apply in their daily life. It is through storytelling that the children learn significant

lessons about the human condition which taught the Ibo creation myths, such as the birds and the

tortoise story, and master the art of communicating by retelling the stories themselves. In Igbo

culture, women are seen mainly as child bearers and help mates for their husbands. Due to the
phallocentric notion that women must produce many male progenies to be valued within their

cultural milieu. A woman is honored if she could bear strong sons to carry on a great family’s

name and honor.

Women usually had domesticated jobs and complimentary positions to men that really

depicts the fall of culture and communal values. They were expected to take care of the children,

clean and have the meals ready by the time their husband at home. If they are unable to do all of

their responsibilities, it was fair game for their husbands to beat them. Wife beating was viewed

as a common solution to disobedience of women and was allowed by the Ibo tribe. Achebe

describes two instances of wife beating in Things Fall Apart. The first instance is when

Okonkwo beats his wife, Ojiugo, and another involves a tribesman, Uzowulu. Okonkwo beats

his wife first as a punishment for not having dinner prepared for him and for plaiting her hair

instead of cooking dinner for him and his children. Throughout the novel, the theme of weakness

rise up often, and always in comparison to women. Okonkwo is afraid to ever look weak and that

is his tragic flaw. In reality, the Ibo women rioted in the early 1900s after the white men started

their takeover of Nigeria. Okonkwo's dealing with his wives, from beating them to ignoring

them, also represents the brutal way the white man colonized Africa. The British missionaries in

Things Fall Apart seem harmless but they are bringing a new way of life that will someday wipe

off the way of life the Ibo people know during the novel. British imperialism in Africa was all

about money and power and millions of people were cast off their lands and forced to give up

their rural ways. Some of the Ibo see this coming and are afraid of the white man's invasion. El-

Dessouky considers that the woman's treatment by the Ibo men is same as the Ibo treatment by

the whites “they serve as a reminder by the author that there are always weak and strong in a
society, and the weakest members may not be the most obvious, or the most vocal”. (El-

Dessouky, 103)

Thus, the women in the novel are a symbol of outdated beliefs, such as women are

subservient to men. The women of the tribes in this novel displays how women all over the

world have been treated in the past. They are seen as less than men, fragile, weak, and only good

enough to work in the fields and take care of the house. Yet, women are the backbone of any

society as not only do they perform much of the work, they bear and raise the children, and keep

the society feasible and successful. Many of the men in this novel, like Okonkwo, are foolish,

and are not strong enough to bear up to their new lives. The women of the novel are strong, and

it is clear they will survive, no matter what.

Language is also a very significant element to Igbo. Language is the very first link

between people as it is their identity. It gives them a sense of belonging and they also use it as a

means to preserve their culture and heritage. Therefore, proverbs can be regarded as discursive

devices in the hands of Achebe to make for “illusion of cultural proximity” so as to deal with the

non-Igbo readers presumptions about the “otherness” of the culture. And although language is

important to Igbo, it too ultimately leads to the fall of their society. The Igbo depend on their

language to differentiate them from other cultures. They also rely on language to define their

social rank in their society. Salami writes about Achebe that he has “provide a discourse capable

of portraying the positive aspects of hybridity, alongside with its negative repercussions which is

tantamount to providing an alternative to the colonial text … which may find hybridity against

homogeneity of language”. (24) The Igbo already have their own judicial systems that are based

on the knowledge that their forefathers have given them about their culture. Their courts are

supervised by the oldest men of the village, whose wisdom and knowledge is trusted in the
power of their ancestral gods to direct them to give fair and unbiased ruling. However, one of the

first things that the whites do when they arrive in the village is to replace Igbo courts with theirs.

Their culture or their system of justice has been split up as a result of colonialism. The action by

the missionaries in not considering Igbo laws and customs in their hostile takeover shows that

they have no concern about Igbo tradition or culture. Without culture and tradition Igbo society

is as good as dead, hence the significance of Okonkwo’s death in the end. Based on the

discussion held, it can be concluded that Achebe's s novel is by and large an attempt to provide a

record of what the colonizers brought about to the Igbo people by denying the chance of cultural

negotiation and suppressing their voices. Their cultural beliefs, values and traditions have been

fall apart as both societies cannot agree on these views.

 Works Cited

Primary source:

Achebe, Chinua. 2006. Things Fall Apart. London: Penguin Books.

Secondary sources:

El-Dessouky, Mohamed. (2010). The Cultural Impact upon Human Struggle for social Existence

in Chinua Achebe’s "Things Fall Apart.". English Language Teaching. 3.

10.5539/elt.v3n3p98.

Hajo, Suhair Fuaad. “What Actually ‘Falls Apart’ in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart?” Journal

of Garmian University, vol. 5, no. 4, Jan. 2018, pp. 452–465., doi:10.24271/garmian.426.

Nnoromele, Patrick C. "The Plight of a Hero in Achebe's ‘Things Fall Apart.’" College literature,

vol.27, no. 2, 2000, pp. 146-156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25112519. Accessed 7 May

2020.

Purwarno, Purwarno. (2017). THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS

FALL APART. https://osf.io/z4wc5/. 10.17605/OSF.IO/Z4WC5.

Salami, Ali & Tabari, Bamshad. (2018). Things Fall Apart and Chinua Achebe’s Postcolonial

Discourse. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature. 6.

10.20431/2347-3134.0603004.

Sarma, S. Krishna. "Okonkwo and His Chi." Rao, A. Ramakrishna Rao and C.R. Visweswara.

Indian Response to African Writing. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1993.

Tobalase Adegbite O.. “Masculinity and cultural conflict in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall

Apart.” International Journal of English and Literature 7.6 (2016): 81-87.