Igbo Traditions In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
Have you ever read a novel about African cultures and traditions from African point of view? The novel Things Fall Apart, a tragedy by Chinua Achebe, centers on one tragic hero in Igbo village of Umuofia in Nigeria and the effects of European arrival on his life and Igbo clan. Throughout the novel, Achebe introduces Igbo customs to the reader by creating several occurrences and how they react on them to claim that the Igbo is civilized before the Europeans arrive. The significant difference between Igbo and Western cultures is the way wisdom is passed on: Igbo oral traditions transmit values and knowledge orally by allegorical tales, while Western literary traditions educate people through generations by written texts, just like the novel itself. …show more content…
Achebe has written the novel in the hope of providing the reader a deeper understanding of Igbo customs and removing the stereotyped view of African tribes shaped by Europeans. Even though Igbo cultures and traditions are civilized, Westerners in the novel view the Igbo as savages who are violent and kill people for no particular reasons. However, practically, when there is a conflict between Mbaino and Umuofia in Chapter 2, the villagers in the novel “would not go to war against it without first trying a peaceful settlement. (Achebe, 12)” This clearly suggests that the Igbo do negotiate first when there is a conflict between two groups and start a war only if the former does not work. Without understanding the real Igbo culture, the District Commissioner in the novel decides to title his book “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.(Achebe, 209)” As Nick Knudsen mentions in his Prezi, Irony in Things Fall Apart, this shows the Commissioner’s ignorance of how culturally sophisticated the Igbo are, and demonstrates the fact that Europeans are clearly in the wrong, without passing judgement on them. Throughout the novel, Achebe suggests that just because Igbo society pass on knowledges orally, does not mean that they are primitive. By using Western literary tradition, the author implies a message …show more content…
What makes them interesting in the novel is that the author, who is an Igbo man educated in Western culture, presents these two traditions in the novel Things Fall Apart, and portrays similar stories from each tradition to suggest that they have the same outcome. By having these two traditions, the novel exposes the reader to a unique perspective and unfamiliar cultural
Things Fall Apart And British Colonialism
889 Words | 4 PagesThe novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, defines an important literary example of the historical conflict of European colonialism in Nigeria during the
Similarities Between Igbo And Things Fall Apart
396 Words | 2 PagesIn Igbo and Hispanic culture there is a huge emphasis on family and community. In Hispanic culture family is incredibly important for example, Día de los Muertos is a cultural holiday in which families honor their relatives who have passed. This is comparable in Things Fall Apart by how there are large families through polyamory which is exemplified by Okonkwo having multiple wives, “…and had just married his third wife” (p 8). His family and many others in the Igbo culture is like Hispanic culture because it is a very family-oriented culture. Another similarity is that both cultures have rituals that are crucial to the community.
Social Status In Things Fall Apart
1027 Words | 5 PagesThe tripartite novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958 focuses on the changes taking place in Nigeria, as a result of colonization during the 20th century. Chinua Achebe’s pragmatics when writing the novel focused on changing the perspective of Western readers with regard to African society. He mainly wanted to falsify the assertions in books such as “Heart of Darkness” which he claimed gave people of African descent a dull personality. Social status is one of the novels’ main themes. Chinua Achebe successfully incorporates the importance of social status, giving readers the impression that for the Ibo society, social structure consists mainly of a hierarchy of both skill and strength.
Stereotypes In Things Fall Apart
1145 Words | 5 PagesMany stereotypes of African culture have emerged due to western literature and media and first hand accounts of explorers. Things Fall Apart offers a view into the truth and reality of African cultures, which are often misconceptualized by these stereotypes. Acebe shows how African society functions well without assistance from foreign travelers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by keeping certain words in the Igbo language, as opposed to translating them into English, to fight back against the spreading western culture and to embrace their own way of life. He also counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by using Igbo proverbs to show how their culture values many of the same things that western
Balance In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
881 Words | 4 PagesThroughout Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the authors' claim of "balance" within the Igbo tribe is invalid. Although one may view that women and men existing in this society as balanced due to the fact that both the men and women have a particular part in the general public; The men hunt for dinner, while the ladies prepare the meals and care after the kids. However, through close reading, the society is actually imbalance. While the women are living oppressed, the men are holding positions of high power. The women in the tribe not only being socially oppressed by men of high authority, but also physically and emotionally abused by men in their home who likewise holds power.
The Igbo Mask In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
642 Words | 3 PagesThe Igbo Tribe design mask to represent and symbolize important roles during rituals, celebrations, and counsels. The history of the Igbo tribe beginning the tradition of mask began with the tribe absorbing other arts and beliefs from neighboring tribes. A big thing that the mask symbolize are the women 's funerals. The mask symbolize their beauty and represent the dead women. The mask also have a big role in their community.
Annotated Bibliography Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
1600 Words | 7 PagesWe were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” In which achebe’s purpose was to condemn the white colonists for altering the Igbo culture, religion, "Igbo." - Introduction, Location,
Book Report On African American Culture
679 Words | 3 PagesI had first heard about Achebe a few years back while doing a report on African American culture, but I never thought I would read any of his work myself. When I saw the book for myself I was surprised that a well-known novel like that could be so short in length. As I started reading the story of Okonkwo, an Igbo warrior in West Africa who is a hero amongst his village, I was shocked at the differences between pre-colonial Africa and the world today. Okonkwo’s people are farmers, their way of life is greatly influenced by their past ancestors and is a democratic-like society.
Igbo Religion
1330 Words | 6 PagesIgboland is an area of land in Southeast Nigeria that has its own unique culture which currently has a population of over five million (“Igbo”). Okonkwo is a highly honored patriarch of a Nigerian Igbo village whose story is told in the postcolonial fiction novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Exiled from his village for seven years, he loses all of the success he has worked for. As time passes by, his culture and religion struggle against the influence of newly arrived Christian missionaries as they attempt to change Igbo views and traditions. Throughout the story, the concept of chi is brought up, and it is regarded as a “personal god” in Igbo culture (Achebe, “Chi in Igbo Cosmology”) and is significant because it can guide a man to success or failure.
How Does Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart
381 Words | 2 PagesWhite men made African people that they converted to their religion act like savages so they were misinterpreted. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about a man who has it all going good, but as his mistakes add up his life begins to fall apart. The tragedy in this novel is when the western people arrive at Umuofia and impact the Ibo society and Okonkwo eventually leading to their destruction. The thesis is seen in Things Fall Apart when the white men arrive in Umuofia and established their religion.
Things Fall Apart Post Colonialism Analysis
1837 Words | 8 PagesS. Naipaul and J. M. Coetzee these Post-colonial writers have all dealt with Africa in their own individual and unique ways. Achebe does not treat the African culture and ways of life as something hybrid, complex, dependant for its significance on the Western style of perceiving things or neither has he shown Africa to be existing only in relation to its difference from or consonance with the Western form of religion, culture, identity, and discourse. The major theme of the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ centers around the destruction of Africa’s intricate, almost incomprehensible but unique way of life and culture in the wake of British colonization and forced or maneuvered conversion to Christianity. The administrative as well as religious changes that the British tries to impose upon the native Africans has the disastrous effects of uprooting the indigenous people from their original root and tradition and can be seen as some instruments of subjugation, subordination and subservience which starts with creating distrust, doubts and insecurity in the minds of people for their Igbo tradition, and its cultural and religious practices and ends with making them internalize the Christian way of life and British administrative apparatuses. Another theme that is explored in this novel is the inherent fault of the central character Okonkwo, who is ambitious, industrious, honest, masculine but is rash, and unthinking and his sense of self and identity is wholly dependent on the approval of others in his community and he thinks of anything that intrudes into it as a threat and he tries hard to be a man though in a flawed manner.
Essay On Religion In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
846 Words | 4 PagesReligion in Things Fall Apart Religion is the belief in a greater power, which shapes the way someone lives their life. Religion can bring people together, or it can pull them apart. The novel Things Fall Apart, a work by Chinua Achebe, is about a man named Okonkwo and how he and his village deal with the colonization of Christianity. In the end, it pulled Okonkwo away from his people, leading him to his death.
Things Fall Apart Feminist Analysis
878 Words | 4 PagesFeminist Theory In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, they recognize the life of the Igbos which are a tribe in the village of Umuofia during European colonization. There are many topics brought up in this book like the effects of colonization, culture and tradition, religion, race, etc. It is relatively easy to read “Things Fall Apart” as an anti-feminist text due to the face that the Igbo clan’s customs and traditions seem to side towards masculine features, such as power and strength. The novel is told through a male protagonist’s point of view in nineteenth century Nigeria, while women there do not have much rights, they do wield heavy influence over the leaders of the clan.
Positive And Negative Impacts Of Colonialism In Things Fall Apart By Africa
1715 Words | 7 PagesThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the positive and negative impacts of colonialism. Key words: - Colonialism, Religion, Culture, Civilization, Conflict INTRODUCTION Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 just two years before Nigeria’s independence from the British’s rule in 1960. Achebe, who was born in 1930, had experienced colonialism in his country. The novel depicts the pre-colonial and early colonial Nigerian society.
Things Fall Apart Essay
782 Words | 4 PagesThings Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe is a novel about a tribe called Umuofia, this tribe along with ours had intruded by strangers. These strangers were later called white missionaries, these missionaries were there to colonize the Ibo people and make them believe in their God and their religious practices, they were successful. The novel ' Things Fall Apart' had made the colonization seem as though it was a dramatic change for the Ibo people but there were similarities along with differences between Pre-Colonial and Postcolonial in the Umuofia tribe. Pre and PostColonial of the Umuofia tribe were similar due to their faith in a higher power at work.
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