Obierika In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

There are countless local heroes and famous war generals. But how many philosophers are remembered and revered? It is actions, not thoughts, that are admired throughout time. That’s why people like Obierika from Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart always play second fiddle in times of great change. This is exactly what happened to Obierika when the colonists came, when he did nothing besides prove that just thinking about things won’t change anything. Obierika had multiple moral qualms about his native Igbo culture. They would kill or exile innocent people in the name of pleasing their land’s gods. This first showed when Okonkwo, his best friend, asked Obierika why he had not come along to kill Ikemefuna, the sacrifice boy from another village. “Because I did not want to…. I do not [question the Oracle]. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision,” Obierika replied snappily (66). Obierika did not come along to see the boy killed, even though everyone expected him to, as was the custom. He did not want to see any innocent blood spilled, even though the Igbo often went to war for small reasons and mutilated dead children they believed to be

When the colonists came, he became actively against them. They imposed enough of a threat to him to make him change slightly, something that even his own children’s deaths and his friend’s exile had failed to do. He didn’t like them, Obierika wasn’t only calm and confined anymore. He began to take action and vocalize his opinions. This made people see and hear him. Finally Obierika could be remembered for something more than twiddling his thumbs in the background. He made things happen. While he only thought about things, nothing changed; but when he acted on his beliefs, great strife followed. The end of his story may not have been told, but his legacy proves that just thinking about things will not change anything in the