The Logic Of Cultural Violence In David Achebe's Things Fall Apart By David Achebe

The article that I chose to respond to is “Principle and Practice: The Logic of Cultural Violence in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart” by David Hoeberg. There were two major points in this article that caught my eye. The first was that “often, the communal sanction given to acts of violence springs from unexamined assumptions and contradictions within the culture and shared by a majority of its members” (Hoeberg). This, to me, is saying that the Igbo culture tends to contradict itself. There are several examples of this in Things Fall Apart, the most obvious one being the selection of Ikemefuna as the young man sent with the virgin as a peace offering from Mbaino to avoid war (Achebe 11). The second point that caught my eye was that “’the Achilles …show more content…
For Okonkwo, this is a very important truth because his father “had taken no title at all and was heavily in debt” when he died (Achebe 8). Had Okonkwo’s worth been judged off of his father’s worth, he would have been cast aside as someone who was not capable of many things. This is something the Igbo were very proud of, their ability to look at people separately and accept that children may not always be who their parents were. This is all contradicted when it comes to young Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna was chosen as the young man to be sent with the peace offering of a virgin, but not because he was chosen at random. He was chosen because “his father had taken a hand in killing a daughter of Umuofia” (15). For a culture that prides itself on not judging ones worth based on the actions of their parents, Igbo has managed to completely contradict itself here. Not only is it against what they claim to believe, but it breaks a higher moral code an eye for an eye is not the way the world should work. This opens the readers eyes to a new truth, those within the culture are given different privileges than those not in the culture. This can lead to an ethnocentric view …show more content…
This flaw is “its blindness, or refusal to contemplate, its own ethnocentrism” (Hoeberg). This is very clear in the way Okonkwo and Ikemefuna are treated differently, one being held to his father’s mistakes and the other not being blamed for the actions of his father. Only the people who are part of this culture can truly enjoy the ‘comfort’ that it brings. In a culture where violence is accepted for all but one week and the belief that “to show affection is to show weakness” is widely practiced, some ‘civilization’ may be deemed necessary (Achebe 28). The missionaries believe that is what they are bringing to these largely undeveloped countries. “But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government” (155). Many of the Igbo people did not like the religion that these white men were bringing over, they thought theirs was better than anything the westerners had to offer. The takeover by the white men was in some cases hostile, forcing the new religion and government onto the natives, but in some cases it was somewhat peaceful, taking time to explain the new religion/ government and why it is better than the Igbo culture. This was widely rejected by the Igbo people; they felt they did not need a new