Essay On European Colonialism In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Nigerian Stories on European Colonialism The colonization of the African continent that began in the late 19th century has attracted scholars from many different backgrounds to voice their ideas on its ultimate effects on the African people. The accoladed Nigerian scholar Chinua Achebe and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have both been a part of such conversation. Both Achebe and Adichie wrote stories that stressed how the European invaders did not save a primitive group of people, but rather disrupted a complex and intricate collection of Africans that had established laws and customs. Both writers stories, Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” and Adichie’s “The Headstrong Historian” were influenced by the time periods that they were in at the conception of their works, both talk in depth on the effects that the colonialists and missionaries had on Nigeria, and the complementary gender roles that were ingrained in Nigerian Ibo culture. Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” was greatly influenced by his upbringing and the unique position that he found himself in during the writing process. Achebe was born in Nigeria 1930 to a protestant missionary and was …show more content…
In the second chapter of “Things Fall Apart”, Achebe writes that although an Ibo man named Okonkwo overworked his wives, they would never think to complain as he was the sole head of the house. “But his wives and children were not as strong, and so they suffered. But they dared not complain openly”(13). There were some benefits to such a system, as the women could help their husband by cooking, and the man could take care of gathering the yams and looking over the land. Also, Achebe notes throughout the book that the men would sometimes beat their wives, and it appears that Achebe disagrees with this activity as he has an elder scold Okonkwo for beating his