“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” or so goes the popular children’s rhyme about well-loved Italian colonizer, Christopher Columbus. However, what the poem does not mention is that is 1492, after sailing the ocean blue, Christopher Columbus committed genocide. After his arrival in their home country, Columbus wrought irreparable offences against native groups in the Americas, as the American Indian Movement (AIM) recounts, “Columbus was the beginning of the American holocaust, ethnic cleansing characterized by murder, torture, raping, pillaging, robbery, slavery, kidnapping, and forced removals of Indian people from their homelands.” Under Columbus, indigenous groups were enslaved and barbarically punished. If they did not pay colonizers
…show more content…
They, like many other colonized populations, are conveniently written out of the story as a “savage” people who, if not for benevolent white colonizers, would have gone bereft of virtue or civilisation. A population of millions, spanning vastly different land areas, cultures, economies and languages is described with only a single story. Telling such a single story is a dangerous thing because it robs people of their right to an individual story by creating incomplete prejudices about many people and many, vastly different, stories. The folly of the single story are not limited to the Americas, pre-colonial Africa, for example, is historically portrayed in a solely negative light— Nigerian born author, Chinua Achebe, sardonically calls, “one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans... delivered them” Achebe adamants, however, that Africa’s past “with all its imperfections - was not.” In his novel, Things Fall Apart, Achebe challenges history’s single story of Africa by telling the tale of Okonkwo, a strong tribesman living in the the Igbo clan of Umuofia whose complex life and culture are stereotyped and stigmatized by European …show more content…
Chinua does this by taking apart the single story of Africa--a legend painting it as primitive, and always wavering between violence and destruction-- and by instead showing a less well known side to early African populations through their advancements in conversation, justice and religion. Rather than being savage for uncivilised the Igbo people have a well functioning society in many ways. To demonstrate the Igbo people’s sophisticated ability to create and value conversation Things Fall Apart highlight the Igbos language for its artful style and its unique tendency to rely of proverbs. It shows a civil court case among the Igbo that contrast the idea of a continuously warring and ever violent Africa. While pre-colonial religions in Africa are often depicted as false, or as strange, Things Fall Apart paints their strength and purpose of meaning. In the modern world, whenever simple stories are negated or expanded as is done in Things Fall Apart, people regain an ability to respect and appreciate other cultures. For example, after the long labours of historians, indigenous people and activist groups to provide another story of America’s colonization many states have begun to celebrate Indiginous peoples day in place of Columbus day. In during so, they are able to honor many stories, rather than only one.
They, like many other colonized populations, are conveniently written out of the story as a “savage” people who, if not for benevolent white colonizers, would have gone bereft of virtue or civilisation. A population of millions, spanning vastly different land areas, cultures, economies and languages is described with only a single story. Telling such a single story is a dangerous thing because it robs people of their right to an individual story by creating incomplete prejudices about many people and many, vastly different, stories. The folly of the single story are not limited to the Americas, pre-colonial Africa, for example, is historically portrayed in a solely negative light— Nigerian born author, Chinua Achebe, sardonically calls, “one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans... delivered them” Achebe adamants, however, that Africa’s past “with all its imperfections - was not.” In his novel, Things Fall Apart, Achebe challenges history’s single story of Africa by telling the tale of Okonkwo, a strong tribesman living in the the Igbo clan of Umuofia whose complex life and culture are stereotyped and stigmatized by European …show more content…
Chinua does this by taking apart the single story of Africa--a legend painting it as primitive, and always wavering between violence and destruction-- and by instead showing a less well known side to early African populations through their advancements in conversation, justice and religion. Rather than being savage for uncivilised the Igbo people have a well functioning society in many ways. To demonstrate the Igbo people’s sophisticated ability to create and value conversation Things Fall Apart highlight the Igbos language for its artful style and its unique tendency to rely of proverbs. It shows a civil court case among the Igbo that contrast the idea of a continuously warring and ever violent Africa. While pre-colonial religions in Africa are often depicted as false, or as strange, Things Fall Apart paints their strength and purpose of meaning. In the modern world, whenever simple stories are negated or expanded as is done in Things Fall Apart, people regain an ability to respect and appreciate other cultures. For example, after the long labours of historians, indigenous people and activist groups to provide another story of America’s colonization many states have begun to celebrate Indiginous peoples day in place of Columbus day. In during so, they are able to honor many stories, rather than only one.