Imperialism In Igbo Society

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Since 1880s up to the 1890s was period of ‘scramble for Africa’. It was fundamental period to the age of imperialism where the European became greedy for natural resources of Africa. They came to Africa with wicked intention to take over the land. And it didn’t take long time for white missionaries to dominate African’s social, politic, and economics. When they came there, they claimed that they wanted to do humanitarian act that was making primitive African becoming civilized society.
They regarded that Europe as the central of civilization and humanity. They called this view of the world as Eurocentric. The white missionaries thought that European culture was superior, so that the non-whites were seen as inferior society. That’s why Achebe …show more content…

Those are having many wives, producing many yams, and defeating the strongest man in the village wrestling match. Moreover, Igbo is community that ignore the rest of the world, they don’t have any knowledge about the world outside Umuofia. They even are not interested at all about life outside Umuofia. They regard that anything outside is non-existence to them. Parents of children in Igbo Society deny the opportunity of mobility from Umuofia to another competitive place where the white missionaries study. The reason of this ignorance is because they are in favor of devotion to their native …show more content…

Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, also becomes the first converts to Christianity (Achebe 107). He does it to show his protest for Igbo decision to sacrifice Ikemefuna, Okonkwo’s adopted son’. Nyowe decides to join church and choose to attend school. After knowing about it, Okonkwo gets furious and disowns Nwoye. The decision to abandon his son becomes another example of Igbo’s inability to deal with change. By changing his religion, Nwoye disregard his father in the worst way. But Okonkwo cannot fight against his son because he is uninformed about the Christian culture. It seems that committing suicide is Okonkwo’s way of going against Christianity. But unfortunately this act not only takes his life but it also takes away the respect of Umuofia for

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