Primitives and Sophisticates; Two
cultures in Things Fall apart
Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart is a response to novels
like Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ which treat Africa as a primitive and
cultureless foil to Europe. Africa has been portrayed as barbaric, savage and
socially inferior place, with no history or culture to boost off! Achebe sought
to convey fuller understanding of African culture and in doing so, he is giving
voice to underrepresented and exploited colonial subjects
Portraying the viability of Igbo traditions in a world
without Europeans, Achebe gives a sense of beauty of Igbo art, poetry and music
by showing how it is interwoven with the most important institution of the clan. Language used by Achebe shows the complexity of Igbo culture, as he uses Igbo
words in the novel without bothering much about their translation into English
language. In this way he symbolizes the entire notion of understanding and
mocking the European audience and forcing them to understand the Igbo language
in order to understand their culture. He has used
words like ‘chi’ ‘obi’ ‘egwugwu’ ‘agbala’ ‘ayi’ etc but has left them unexplained.
Words like second burial, share cropping, evil forest, are translated into
English but there concept are left unexplained. Proverbs like ‘’the lizard that
jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if
no one else did’’ are translated but only partially explained. By using Igbo words without translation in the
novel Achebe shows that Igbo people do not hear of culture for the first time
from the Europeans, but were very familiar with it. The explicit use of
proverbs and rhetoric shows the vastness of Igbo culture. Achebe plays a double
game through the Igbo vocabulary. He tried to contextualize the language by
which a certain distance is maintained between the two cultures. Achebe wants
his readers to understand the Igbo
language in order to understand the culture of his people. His message to them
is clear, and his incorporation of Igbo vocabulary is a response to justify the
validity of his own culture which till then was underrepresented.
The rich religion practice is also something which Achebe has
shown in his novel. In the first part of the book
Achebe describes the custom of Igbo culture. It was a culture where all men get equal chance to achieve success
through hard work and bravery. Cultural habits like breaking of ‘kola-nuts’, drinking
rituals, respect to elder people of the community is a comparison of them to
the Europeans who claimed them to be barbaric savages. Achebe has not
romanticized or idealized his own culture but he is foresighted enough to show
the cruel side of his culture at many instances. Killing of Ikemefuna,
treatment of women in the society, superstitions, throwing of twin children in
the evil forest, are few examples to be taken.
Igbo people have highly developed system of religion which
works as affectively as Christianity. To Christianity, it seems crazy to think about worshiping dead
spirits, and for Igbo’s it may sound equally crazy to worship a God with a son
but no wife. Igbo religion though have marginalized a selected few in the
society, Christianity bought reprise to these selected people who were suppressed in the society. Achebe clearly points it out that
it is the poetry and not the rationality of Christianity which won people.
The British in their arrogance looked down upon the
traditions of these people. They denied the Umofians to exist as sovereigns and usurped their
freedom. Christian missionaries criticizes
the Igbo society that they kill people in the name of God and their God tell
them to go on war, but it was they, who actually killed people, whereas for the
Umofians it was a sin to kill their own tribesman. Achebe portrays the dignity of Igbo
village life; and makes it clear that the Igbo people did not need the white
man to carry them into the modern world. Change was in progress in the Igbo
culture. Okonknwo’s not so severe punishment on breaking the sacred ‘week of
peace’ as compared to the punishment of earlier time when the man was dragged
on his back until he was dead is an example of the ongoing change. People like
Obreika who thought about things such as ‘why a man should suffer so much for
an inadvertent offense’ and ‘why twins are thrown in away’ were the agents of
these changes in the society. It has to be noted that Igbo people were
controlled by the Brits through fear, trade and education, the tribesmen fear
them for the massacre at Abame and their superstition make them believe the
thought that the “ability to stay at the evil forest of white man suggest that
the white man’s medicine is strong.”
Although Achebe depicts the treachery, ignorance and
intolerance of the Brits, he does not represent the Europeans as wholly evil.
People like Mr Brown have been shown with great sympathy by Achebe who try to
understand the culture of Igbo society and try to find a neutral way for the
betterment of it. Education is a big gift by the Brits to the people of Umofia
and they developed the skills and intellect of people for whom education is
only to “name a bird” or “to make flute out of bamboo.”
Things Fall Apart shows that before the European colonial power
entered Africa, the Igbos had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty,
that they had poetry and, above all they had dignity, which is symbolized through
the death of Okonkwo at the end of the novel.
Achebe reveals that the European ideas of Africa were mistaken.
Perhaps the most important mistake of the British is their belief that all
civilization progresses from the tribal stage through monarchy to parliamentary
government.