Imperialism In Things Fall Apart

While cultural imperialism may seem noble in the minds of those carrying it out, in reality, it has a fatal flaw. Jeanette Winterson once said, “Confidence and superiority: It's the usual fundamentalist stuff: I've got the truth, and you haven't.” When European colonists arrived in Africa, they believed themselves as culturally and economically superior beings. Consequently, the indigenous people of Africa were viewed as uncivilized and primitive. However, Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart depicts a drastically different African culture than those portrayed by early European colonists. Things Fall Apart illustrates the methodical conversion of the Igbo people from traditional values to those of the Christian faith and the ill-fated struggle of a man named Okonkwo to preserve the traditional practices of his culture. Through Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the common portrayal of Africa as an uncivilized continent through the existence of Igbo justice systems, traditions, and ceremonies. At the onset, Achebe illustrates the development of the Igbo society through the justice system in place before the white colonists arrive. Far from uncivilized, disputes that occur within the Igbo society are brought before nine spirits known as the egwugwu and are then publicly resolved. “He [Evil …show more content…
Achebe masterfully refutes age-old stereotypes of indigenous African culture in Things Fall Apart through the presence of Igbo law, customs, and ceremonies. The negative stereotypes that have arisen from the flawed perspective of early European colonists in Africa still has prominent influence in many more developed countries today. The cultures of indigenous African societies are not inferior to those in western countries, they are simply different and peculiar to foreign