THINGS FALL APART by CHINUA ACHEBE
When the novel was
released in 1958, it marks the beginning of an era for African fiction, and it is still the best selling African novel. The book is a fictional story of a united clan,Umuofia in the Ibo speaking part of Nigeria ,set in the mid 19th century, before the advert of the white men. The
missionaries came and broke the unity, with their strange customs, leaving the clan and the hero of the novel, Okonkwo, trapped in a dance of shame. The novel is divided into three parts.
Part one opens at the height of Okonkwo fame, who at the age of eighteen brought honor to his
village by throwing Amalinze the cat. He was a wealthy farmer, with three wives and many children. He had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars and was highly revered among his people. But inside the highly feared man great strength lays a heart possessed by a terrifying fear of failure and weakness caused by his resentment of his own father’s contemptible life and shameful death. This had motivated him to rise slowly and painfully, to be one of the lords of the lord. It also contributes to the way he rules his household with a heavy hand, with his wives and children, most especially his first son, Nwoye, living in perpetual fear of him.
Tragedy struck Umuofia when one of the women of the land was killed in a neighboring village, Mbaino. Okonkwo was chosen by his village to carry a message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up a young man and a virgin to atone for the to carry a message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up a young man and a virgin to atone for the murder. Because of the great fear their enemies had for Umuofia, they hurriedly accepted their request. The virgin and the young lad was brought to Umuofia, and the boy was put under Okonkwo’s care.
Although the young lad, Ikemefuna, missed home, he quickly adapted to Okonkwo household, making him to be loved by all, including Okonkwo who became especially fond of him. Ikemefuna lived in Okonkwo household for three years, and became a kind of mentor for Nwoye, Okonkwo first son and a ‘David and Jonathan’ kind of affection developed between them.
After a while, the oracle of the village demanded a sacrifice and the elders of the land decided to use Ikemefuna to appease their god. Prior to that, an old man had secretly warned Okonkwo not to have a hand in the boy’s death. The following day, the boy was lured out of the village by Okonkwo and some other men and was macheted to death, with Okonkwo (he was afraid of being thought weak) striking the final blow. Nwoye, like every other villager, couldn’t comprehend why his adopted brother should be used as a sacrificial lamb began to resent his father and the custom of the land, inwardly.
After sometime, an old man died in the village, and Okonkwo committed a manslaughter of the deceased son which carried a penalty of banishment for seven years and the destruction of every thing he has ever worked for. He had flee the land with his whole family to his faraway mother’s land.
The second part of the book opens to Okonkwo’s life in exile among his mother’s kinsmen. He was well received and they helped him to resettle, yet his heart still lies in Umuofia. His friend Obierika, do come to visit and to inform him of the latest happenings in Umuofia. Among the shocking developments is that white men (missionaries) have invaded their village and has established a fledging church with Okonkwo’s runaway son, Nwoye, as one of the few converts. This made Okonkwo grew restive as he develops hatred for the missionaries and their new religion.
In third and final part of the book, Okonkwo returns back to Umuofia with great hopes, one of which is cleaning his village of the new scourge brought in by the Christians. To his amazement, he met a transforming society governed by the white men, with schools, courts, judges and taxes and where the age-long customs of the land have been discarded and the numbers of converts were increasing daily. Christians were the superior beings, dominating their heathen kinsmen. Enraged, Okonkwo tries to rouse his kinsmen to act and resist the missionaries, but he fails as nobody, could have the courage to follow him. Humiliated, he goes on to commit suicide.