Colonialism In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

“ ‘We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they came to our clan by mistake, that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them?’ “ (Achebe 141). Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, is a historical fiction fixed on the life of the warrior, Okonkwo, in the Ibo culture of Africa. The story is set in the lower Niger in the 1900s. In addition to the life of Okonkwo, Achebe pans his focus to the arrival of the missionaries toward the end of the book. The missionaries arrive in Africa to convert the “primitive” Ibo people to “civilized people” through Christianity. The arrival of the missionaries symbolizes the early attempts of colonization by European powers. Through cultural aspects, character traits, …show more content…
One of Achebe’s goals was to be able to inform others about his people and their culture from his native perspective, versus Western culture that had always represented the voice of those people. Achebe wanted others to know that his people have a voice to speak for themselves, and that there are distinct borders marginalizing what was real and what was opinionated from a foreign perspective. Achebe’s third person omniscient narration allows us to become deeply familiarized with not only the personalities of the missionaries, but also with the judgements of other characters toward the missionaries. We are aware of those who wish to dispose of the missionaries in order to preserve their culture, and those who find themselves comforted in a new beginning by this foreign culture. His views are not biased, as he depicts a kinder nature to the missionaries. In order to capture the realistic characteristics of the missionaries, Achebe portrays split perspectives to capture what his people went through from their own perspective. His book is a method of exposing the world to the realistic reactions and consequences of the affairs and relations that occurred during the colonization