Things Fall Apart

For the 1999 hip hop album by The Roots, see Things Fall Apart (album). For information about the West Wing episode, see "Things Fall Apart."

Things Fall Apart is a seminal novel written in 1958 by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the nine villages of Umuofia, his three wives, his children (mainly concerning Nwoye and Ezinma), and the influences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his traditional Ibo (also spelled Igbo) community.

Note: Published in the United States in 1959. 2 million copies sold. Over 8 million worldwide.

Plot summary

Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was a failure and, after his death, Okonkwo works hard to attain wealth and respect in his village. This is how he comes to take care of Ikemefuna, a boy that was sent to Umuofia as a result of an ultimatum. That boy was to be sacrificed to the goddess of the earth and even though Okonkwo and his family know that they, especially Nwoye, become very attached to him. After Ikemefuna has been sacrificed, Okonkwo accidently kills Ezeudo's son at a funeral and thus he is exiled to his mother's homeland for seven years. When he returns, he finds that his clan has changed with the coming of colonialism. Okonkwo's story ends with his suicide - which is, to his culture, an abomination. It's this ironic twist at the end of the book that leads to the issue of negative effects of colonialism. Okonkwo had been a symbol of his culture's values and beliefs; essentially, his culture as a whole. In reality, this book's African culture could not hold up under the onslaught of the domineering European culture, and its values and beliefs had to be pushed aside for those of the white culture. Okonkwo's suicide represents his culture's inability to resist the European culture and then his culture's subsequent demise.

Things Fall Apart is considered one of the major works in African postcolonial literature because it presents the life, culture, and complexities of a traditional African people with honesty, dignity, and humanity. The story of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart has been compared in western countries to Greek tragedy, as the very characteristics that make Okonkwo a great leader in his clan (strength, inflexibility) lead ultimately to his death.

This book provides significant value to the understanding of African history and human nature. Achebe fiercely resents the stereotype of Africa as an undifferentiated "primitive" land, the "heart of darkness," as Joseph Conrad calls it. Throughout the novel he shows how African cultures vary among themselves and how they change over time.

The title

The title of the book comes from a poem, "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats, and is quoted in the frontpiece of the book:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer

Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Literary significance

Things Fall Apart is considered by many to have been a milestone in African literature. It was followed by three sequels, No Longer at Ease (1960, originally written as the second part of a larger work together with Things Fall Apart), The Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People (1966), all featuring the descendants of Okonkwo and the problems they face under colonialism.

As in his other works, Achebe attempts to counter the common Western belief and view of the traditional African society. Things Fall Apart, which has sold millions of copies, is by far his most famous and award-winning work.

Paper on Things Fall Apart and Colonization

Colonization: The Killer of Cultures Nigeria was an organized society. British rule turned it upside down. Achebe is using his novel to show the true Nigeria that the rest of the world doesn’t really know. Chinua Achebe writes Things Fall Apart before Nigeria gains independence from Britain. Achebe wants to show the rest of the world a real Nigeria. “[The British] believed they could atone for the horrors of slavery by saving the souls of the Africans” (Encarta para. 1). Saving the souls of the Africans was the reason first given, but it soon changes to ruling the people. Colonizing Nigeria causes the destruction of a native culture. Things Fall Apart shows how British rule deconstructs an organized culture and society. At first Achebe shows the thriving African culture of pre-colonial Nigeria. The village is connected like a large family. The whole village will gather for events like wrestling matches (Achebe 46-47). This shows how an organized society is developed in Nigeria allowing large cultural gatherings. The natives in the novel also have advanced farming techniques and celebrations involving agriculture. Every year the Igbo people held the Feast of the New Yam to thank the earth goddess (Encarta para. 3). This proves the importance of yams and advanced agriculture in the Igbo society. “Yam, the king of crops, was a very demanding king. For [it demanded hard work and constant attention]…” (Achebe 33) The Igbo have many advanced farming practices used to grow food more effectively and plentifully. These concerns with agriculture show how a settled civilized culture is present. Not only do the Igbo have a superior agricultural understanding but also a developed religion. “Each man had a personal god or chi…A strong chi meant a strong person…each man kept a separate hut…for his personal god and ancestral spirits” (Encarta para. 2). Many times chi is referred to in the book. Okonkwo gives sacrifices to his chi and ancestors. He offers up prayers for himself and his family (Achebe 14). Every person has strong religious faith to the gods showing thoughtful ideas and belief systems. The Igbo take their religion so seriously that when the oracle tells the villagers to kill Ikemefuna, the villagers kill him immediately (Achebe 57-61). The Igbo peoples furthermore have a system of justice. Any person accused of a crime or breaking custom is sent to the egwugwu (masked spirits). These masked spirits settle disputes similar to a modern day court (Encarta para. 4). This presence of a legal system proves the Igbo people have a very well planned society. Achebe describes many cultural traits in his novel to show the thriving lively culture before the touch of the British. He uses this presentation of cultural traditions and activities to allow the outsider to see Nigeria before it is taken over. The novel then slowly introduces the white men with a dramatic scene. The scene foreshadows the brutality to come. A white man comes to the Abame village on a bicycle. The villagers kill the man and hang his “iron horse” to a tree. Later that month on a busy market day more white men come. The white men pull out guns and kill every man, woman, and child in the market. Almost everyone in the Abame tribe is killed (Achebe 137-140). Sadly this event becomes very common in colonial Africa. The British became involved in many tribal conflicts. The British actually kill entire villages just because one missionary is hurt or injured. In 1912 this practice became legalized (Encarta para. 1b). One example can be found from 1915. “…British troops killed more than forty natives in retaliation for one dead and one wounded solider” (Encarta para.1b). These incidents show the first uses of fear to control natives. The next wave of white men are the missionaries. They come and offer education and a new religion. At first the Africans only accept the education the missionaries offer. The missionaries usually only convert lower class people from villages, the title less and poor come to the new faith. The missionaries preach how the tribal gods are false and people begin to join because of the acceptance the new faith offers (Encarta para. 2b). The village of Umuofia gives land to the Christians to build a church in the Evil Forest. The natives expect the white men to die from evil spirits, but they did not (Achebe 148-150). The villagers thought that the gods would kill these men for their foolishness in building in the forest. After the men did not die the church gained its first members because the villagers thought the white men had evil magic. The allowing of land use is the beginning of a downfall for the Igbo people. Soon many churches and buildings had been constructed. After much time had passed, even people of high and notable rank joined the new faith. Even the son of Okonkwo, Nwoye, lowers his higher class ranking to join the new religion. “…his son’s crime stood out in its stark enormity. To abandon the gods of one’s father and go with a lot of effeminate men [that] was the very depth of abomination” (Achebe 152-153). Okonkwo’s son left his home and family to join the Christians. This loss of young people in the old ways began an irreversible path to the destruction of their own culture. After the church became well established, the forced abandonment of cultural values began. “[Mr. Kiaga] ordered the outcasts to shave off their long, tangled hair… ‘Unless you shave off the mark of your heathen belief I will not admit you into the church…The heathen speak nothing but falsehood. Only the word of our God is true’” (Achebe 157). This forceful speech by the pastor of the church shows how the missionaries began to use fear as a way to convert the natives from all cultural values and beliefs. The white man, after building his religious foundations, built his places of judgment and laws. “The [natives] were seized and beaten until they streamed with blood…the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government…[The British] had built a place of judgment in Umuofia to protect the followers of their new religion. It was said they hanged a man for killing a missionary” (Achebe 154-155). Many innocent Nigerians conformed to new British laws constricting the culture and life they once knew. Towards the end of the novel the District Commissioner tells the tribal warriors that he has brought order to Nigeria and that the Queen of England now controls the land (Achebe 195). This statement leads one to think, did the British really bring a culture to Nigeria or disassemble a better one? “‘…A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors… I fear for you; I fear for the clan’” (Achebe 167). This was spoken by one of Okonkwo’s kinsmen. The kinsman’s statement gives the grim state the clan is bound to face. The man recognized that the white men where tearing apart the culture and lives of his people. He understood that the young people of the clan were leaving the traditional ways. The kinsman stresses this in another speech. “‘[The young people] do not understand how strong…the bond of kinship [is.] You do not know how to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abdominal religion has settled among you’” (Achebe 167). All of these things would have horrible effects. “As the missions expanded, the clan divided, discontent simmered, and conflict arose” (Encarta para. 2b). The quote shows how as the white man’s rule grew the clan split and fell apart. This idea can be noted by Obierka’s ideology. He realized that the British had split families and made those who still believed in the traditional cultural beliefs were pitted against their fathers and brothers. If the men true to the old ways fought the enemy, they would be fighting themselves (Achebe 203). Obierka’s ideas demonstrate how men began to realize that they enemy was really becoming themselves and that no matter how useless they had become they were still family. Obierka understands how the mission is taking the people of the clan, and the clan cannot kill fellow brothers and fathers. Okonkwo even noticed the clan splitting and the attitudes of the people turning to less resistance. “[Okonkwo] mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 183). Okonkwo looked at how the clan was dying and becoming less willing to fight and exposes his true weakness, a desire for a cohesive clan. This recognition of the splitting of the clan shows a major effect. The converting of Africans to Christianity caused the breakup of communities and cultures (Encarta para. 2d). Another major effect was the splitting of Africa into over 50 nation-states. “One of the most important results of [the colonization of Africa] was the division of Africa into nation-states. Rather than [living in a society] determined by common language and livelihood, Africans lived according to political boundaries. The divisions often split ethnic groups, leading to tension and sometimes violence. The cohesiveness of the traditional society was gone” (Encarta para. 2c). This was the effect that still hurts Africa to this day. From the splitting of cultures and peoples through political boundaries, Europe created a never ending problem for Africa. Another effect of colonization was the education given to the Africans. One might ask how this educational experience could be bad. Children were taught European history and literature, completely ignoring traditional culture and history (Encarta para. 3d). Similarly, in the novel Mr. Brown threatens the people to send their children to school or be ruled by a stranger (Achebe 181). This shows yet again how the colonizers used fear to control the Africans. The Europeans thus created a generation well educated by European standards but without cultural values, beliefs, or history. A sometimes less noticeable effect was the killing of a part of culture, language. An extinct language is one no longer spoken by a large group fluently (Alagona, Marsh 126). Nigeria has the largest amount of currently extinct languages coming in at seventeen (Alagona, Marsh 126). During colonization many native languages were replaced or killed (Alagona, Marsh 126). These effects come together to create a much greater one, the death of a native culture. “Things Fall Apart is a riveting and penetrating dramatic [novel] about how white Christian missionaries cleverly invaded Nigeria communities only to strip and conquer the Africans of their religions, customs, and their humanity” (Dais 1). This quote tells the true, sad story of Africa, a story of death, pain, and suffering written to show a real Africa. This was written as a postcolonial view of Africa as it was hidden to the outside world by Europeans (TCG para. 1). Achebe masterfully uses the slow transition to Nigeria under British rule to prove his point that African culture existed in an organized way before European colonization. This book also shows how the Europeans then made this culture and society fall apart. Achebe uses his descriptions of the culture of the Igbo people throughout the novel to show how the culture fell apart. The Igbo people watch as their way of life and families fall apart. This novel was meant to show the world that Africa is a continent of real people.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. United States: Anchor Books, 1959. Algona, Peter and Meredith Marsh. How to Prepare for the AP Human Geography Examination. New York: Barrow’s Educational Series, 2003. Dais, Risasi. “Things Fall Apart Illuminates Nigeria’s Colonization.” GALILEO. 25 April 2006. <http://search.ephet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=1610075>. “TCG’s Literary Criticism + Critical Theory Page.” 2005. TCG. 25 April 2006. <http://www.usd.edu/~tgannon/crit.html#poco>. “Things Fall Apart” 2005. Encarta Encyclopedia. 25 April 2006. <http://encarta.msn.com/<.debar_701509530/Things_Fall_Apart.html#543>.

External links

• Teacher's Guide at Random House
• Study guide