Colonialism has been part of our sacred history since the beginning of the century and has stretched over the globe ever since. Most of the underdeveloped countries we see today has been somehow colonized by a European country, making them oppressed in a way that innocent lives are taken away forcefully. Comparatively, colonialism is a form of oppression. Ashley Crossman (2017) in “What Sociology Can Teach Us about Oppression” states that “Social Oppression is a concept that describes a relationship of dominance and subordination between categories of people in which one benefits from the systematic abuse, exploitation, and injustice directed toward the others” (Para 1). Colonization is a source that only causes more harm than good in the world by the idea of stripping, lower nations of their precious
The Decisive Factor that Causes the Disintegration of Igbo Culture The African Culture’s disintegration is one crucial problem Achebe gives concerns to in Things Fall Apart. He expresses that factors inside culture and the invading colonial culture that jointly lead to this “fall apart”. Contrary to conventional postcolonial discourse that places western physical and cultural invasion at the center of the blame, Achebe’s implicit claim in Things Fall Apart attributes the ultimate disintegration of the Igbo society to the social structure that inherently classify people into different groups. No doubt, without the invasion of the colonists, African culture will not start falling apart. However, this essay is going to argue that in Chinua Achebe’s
The novel, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe talks about post colonial life of Nigerian society and transformation by the Europeans. In the novel, things fall apart for the lead character Okonkwo, who was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness. Okonkwo was a man of action and a war, he was not afraid of war but all his life was dominated by this one fear of being unsuccessful and lazy like his father. So, he lived a life completely opposite to which his father lived. In this story we get an exclusive view of fear, masculinity, family, missionaries and racism.
Although Nigeria has now attained liberation, the civil leaders continue to overpower and suspend the human rights of the people to magnify their power. Countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe have been described to experience server human rights violations daily. Kenya has shocking statics relating to human rights violations in the country. These violations have come about despite the various declarations and charters intended to protect and support human rights in Africa and
In the novels, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and Dune by Frank Herbert, there are underlying tones of classism, parochial thinking, and ignorance which lead to the common themes of racism and division within societies, which directly draws parallels to modern American behaviors. Authors Wells and Herbert emphasize the negative human conditions through their characters within their society, stressing the notion that the current common human behavior will ultimately lead to a bigger divide amongst races and will further create a dystopian lifestyle where humanity and environment will cease to
He compromises at the age of eighteen in his first wresting match to uphold his culture and defeats the undefeated wrestler called Amalinze. Thereafter, he is recognized a famous person in the local village. After two inter-tribal wars, he earns two titles. The novel in the end conveys that the events are witnessed and threatens religion and the result represents falling apart in the Igbo society. (Acehebe, 1958) Though Okonkwo proves an ambitious hero, he is affected by his internal fear that has ruled his entire life.
The novel can also be read as accounts of the decline of Igbo/African race and their way of life, their protagonist’s victims of the British encroachment on their lands. In the Arrow of God, he further explores the failure of the British to understand traditional beliefs and values. The novel is concentrated traditional Igbo life as it clashes with colonial powers in the form of missionaries and colonial government. As far as the political administration is concerned, authority is concentrated on the district officer Captain Winterbottom.He has a deputy named Tony Clarke. They also combine the duty of police and law.
It is this which makes them distinctively post-colonial". (1) As a result, Achebe’s novels are a medium of social complaint and a politically placid one as well. In this regard, this paper is an attempt to reflect some of African things that fell apart, changed, and converted in the post-colonial period that is too vividly mirrored in Achebe’s masterpiece Things Fall Apart. Introduction: …[A] single canvas, Guernica, by Picasso himself could so frighten the state machinery of Spanish fascism. For how could a mere painting on canvas exercise such awe unless in some way it accorded with, or had a disquieting relationship to, recognizable reality?
They achieve this through different contexts and experiences but the similar idea that all colonialism leads to the destruction of a civilisation in which the natives continue to carry the marks of history. Sometimes in April portrays the ongoing destructive presence of colonisation in Rwanda through challenging and expanding on the colonial narratives of racial superiority and identity. For centuries before the colonisation of Rwanda, its natives were all united and shared the same land, culture, religion. However Belgium colonisers imposed racial classification and exploitation between the two dominant tribes; Tutsis and Hutus. Hutus were treated as slaves which created deep resentment that fuelled the Rwandan genocide (United Nations, 2018).
2. A Man of the People and Heart of Darkness : An Image of Corruption A Man of the People (1966) is viewed as Achebe’s turning from a reverence for the tribal life and traditions to a committed satirization of the national reality. This unrestrained corruption is the result of the negative impact of the contact between the European colonial powers and the African politicians and leaders. In the novel, there is a passage which shows how the political and ruling elite change their behaviour after the independence ; “We had all been in the rain together until yesterday. Then a handful of us - the smart, the lucky and hardly ever the best - had scrambled for the one shelter our former rules left, and had taken it over and barricaded themselves in.” (37).