Oliver Mahoro
Lauren Liebe
English 203
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
A People Unknown
Things Fall Apart takes place in what is now known as Nigeria, this happens during the late 19th century, but the book itself was written in 1958 as the colonial system in Africa was falling apart. What makes Things Fall Apart so significant, is that before it, most of the records, novels, and books about Africa and its people written in English were all written by Europeans. So when Chinua Achebe came to the scene, he transformed the traditional view held by the Europeans about Africa and its people. Before him Africans were seen as barbarians and a people of a low civilization who needed to be conquered. Achebe highlighted the realisms of the colonial condition …show more content…
There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.” Achebe does this to show to the reader that the Igbo people had an operational society with organizations such as a judicial system known as the tribal Council which settled disagreements between the villagers and also administered law and order in Igboland. These organizations were not recognizable to the Europeans who showed up for the palm oil, but these same organizations had functioned for thousands of years. It became very clear to the people of Igboland of this fact, “… he does not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his...” So when the European missionaries and colonial governors did arrive they failed to identify and understand these organizations and instead of trying to learn how this society’s traditions, beliefs and customs, that had operated and had been doing so for thousands of years successfully, the Europeans sort to change and replace them with their own form of governance and religion. …show more content…
First to arrive in the interior villages were the missionaries. “The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages.” Mr. Kiaga was the first missionary Okonkwo encountered and he was regarded as as a man of great faith and he was thought of as being “harmless”. After him came Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown was the missionary stationed in Umofia, he gained a great deal of respect through a “policy of compromise and accommodation”. His willingness to listen to the villagers talk about what they believed and try to find a way to incorporate them in his Christianity is what gained him favor. Things were going well until Reverend James Smith, Mr. Brown‘s successor took charge and unlike Mr. Brown he “saw things as black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in a mortal conflict with the sons of darkness. He spoke in his sermons about sheep and goats and about wheat and tares. He believed in slaying the prophets of Baal.” Smith’s stubborn stand is what unsurprisingly drives the people of Umofia over the edge, “He condemned openly Mr. Brown's policy of compromise and accommodation” and ultimately leads to the abolition of the church “the red-earth church which Mr. Brown had built was a pile of earth and ashes. And for
Lauren Liebe
English 203
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
A People Unknown
Things Fall Apart takes place in what is now known as Nigeria, this happens during the late 19th century, but the book itself was written in 1958 as the colonial system in Africa was falling apart. What makes Things Fall Apart so significant, is that before it, most of the records, novels, and books about Africa and its people written in English were all written by Europeans. So when Chinua Achebe came to the scene, he transformed the traditional view held by the Europeans about Africa and its people. Before him Africans were seen as barbarians and a people of a low civilization who needed to be conquered. Achebe highlighted the realisms of the colonial condition …show more content…
There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.” Achebe does this to show to the reader that the Igbo people had an operational society with organizations such as a judicial system known as the tribal Council which settled disagreements between the villagers and also administered law and order in Igboland. These organizations were not recognizable to the Europeans who showed up for the palm oil, but these same organizations had functioned for thousands of years. It became very clear to the people of Igboland of this fact, “… he does not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his...” So when the European missionaries and colonial governors did arrive they failed to identify and understand these organizations and instead of trying to learn how this society’s traditions, beliefs and customs, that had operated and had been doing so for thousands of years successfully, the Europeans sort to change and replace them with their own form of governance and religion. …show more content…
First to arrive in the interior villages were the missionaries. “The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages.” Mr. Kiaga was the first missionary Okonkwo encountered and he was regarded as as a man of great faith and he was thought of as being “harmless”. After him came Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown was the missionary stationed in Umofia, he gained a great deal of respect through a “policy of compromise and accommodation”. His willingness to listen to the villagers talk about what they believed and try to find a way to incorporate them in his Christianity is what gained him favor. Things were going well until Reverend James Smith, Mr. Brown‘s successor took charge and unlike Mr. Brown he “saw things as black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in a mortal conflict with the sons of darkness. He spoke in his sermons about sheep and goats and about wheat and tares. He believed in slaying the prophets of Baal.” Smith’s stubborn stand is what unsurprisingly drives the people of Umofia over the edge, “He condemned openly Mr. Brown's policy of compromise and accommodation” and ultimately leads to the abolition of the church “the red-earth church which Mr. Brown had built was a pile of earth and ashes. And for