Things Fall Apart
These past few weeks, the class has been reading Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe as our first reading assignment. I did not know what to expect from the book, but as I kept reading it really started to grow on me. There were some interesting parts and some parts were you had to wonder why they had that custom or belief. The book is about a man named Okonkwo who lives with the Umuofia clan in the village of Iguedo. When Okonkwo was young he did not like his father. His father, Unoka, was not successful, he held no title and owed his neighbors a lot of debts. Okonkwo saw his father as a failure. At a young age Okonkwo was able to bring his village honor by beating Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was a wrestler who had been undefeated for seven years until Okonkwo had beaten him. After Okonkwo has started his own family and made a reputation for himself, a new member is added to his family. Ikemefuna is a young boy brought to Umuofia after an Umuofian wife is killed in the market of Mbaino it is requested that a virgin female and a young man be brought from Mbaino. The virgin replaces the murdered wife but the elders do not know what to do with Ikemefuna. It is decided that Ikemefuna will live with Okonkwo until they decide his future. For three years Ikemefuna stays with Okonkwo and his family. While Ikemefuna is living in Umuofia he is very well liked and starts to feel at home with Okonkwo. After three years the elders have decided that Ikemefuna shall be killed. Okonkwo is not pleased with the decision but he will not disobey the elders. The death of Ikemefuna brings Okonkwo into a depression. Now that Ikemefuna is gone Okonkwo has a daughter named Ezinma who he wishes had been a boy. Meanwhile Okonkwo visits Obierika and he invites him to stay when his daughters suitors come to choose a bride-price. Okonkwo brings up that he wishes his sons could be put up for marriage and how he feels about Ezinma. While Okonkwo sits with Obierika and his son-in law they start talking about the different customs in other villages. And they start telling stories of men with skin as white as chalk. The next morning Okonkwos wife Ekwefi pounds on his door and says Ezinma is dying. Okonkwo runs to see what is wrong and makes an antibiotic for her. Ezinma is Okonkwo and Ekwefis ogbanje child. An ogbanje is an evil spirit that comes in the form of a child but soon dies after birth and keeps coming back to torment its mother. Ezinma is one of the longest living ogbanje known. When she was nine they dug up her iyi-uwa, which keeps the evil spirit connected to the other world, so that she could live longer with her family. Later in the book Agbala, the oracle of the hills, wants to meet with Ezinma. Okonkwo and Ekwefi followed Ezinma to the cave in case anything should happen.
In chapter thirteen Okonkwo and his family are exiled from Umuofia for seven years. Okonkwo had accidently killed a young man and because of that all of his belongings and house have to be burnt. Okonkwo and his family moved to Mbanta where his mother was born. The family Okonkwo has there welcomes them warmly and helps them settle in with a new home. During the second year of Okonkwos exile Obierika brings bags of cowries to Okonkwo. Obierika also tells Okonkwo that Abame had been destroyed by white men. At this point in the book colonization is starting. Two more years later Obierika visits again. This time he is coming to talk about seeing Nwoye with the Christian missionaries. The missionaries request land to build a church. The elders grant them land in the evil forest thinking that it will kill them within a few days. After the the missionaries survive the forest they started gaining converts. Some of Okonkwos cousins tell him that they have seen his son Nwoye with the missionaries. When Nwoye returns home Oknokwo confronts him and chokes him. Nwoye leaves his fathers house to go to school in Umuofia. Okonkwo wonders how he ended up with such a weak son. Okonkwos seven years is almost to an end and he is planning to return to umuofia. The Christian church is still gaining more converts and Okonkwo does not approve of this new religion. Okonkwo has big plans for his return to Umuofia but the village has changed over the past seven years. The church and white men have grown stronger since Okonkwo had been away from the village. The village is starting to fall apart because of colonization. Not many people in Umuofia are unhappy with the white mans ways. They have brought in trade and money to the village. Many things have changed for Okonkwo. Some of the villagers want to burn the church so the village can be cleansed. Okonkwo is almost happy again even though they did not kill the Christians like he wanted. Because of the burning of the church the elders and Okonkwo are imprisoned by the commissioner. After they are released a meeting is called. At the meeting Okonkwo kills a messenger. In the last chapter the commissioner goes to Okonkwos hut to find him. When Obierika take him to where Okonkwo is they find him hanging from a tree. He has commited suicide. Colonization plays a big part in Things Fall Apart. It is because of colonization that Okonkwos village has fallen apart and plays a role in his suicide. The colonization of Umuofia began in part two, chapter fifteen of Things Fall Apart. The first signs of colonization came when a white man appeared in Abame. The Abame people killed the white man because the Oracle told them that more people like him would soon follow the first white man. The Oracle explained that the white men would destroy their way of life. But not long after the killing of the white man, other white men came and slaughtered the village. In chapter sixteen missionaries are sent in to set up a religion that teaches peace at the beginning stages of colonization. If the
natives come to follow that religion they have a better control over them. The religious beliefs that the white men introduce to the Ibo tribe starts to rip apart their ways of life. The division of families and neighbors begins in this chapter. Okonkwo and his son Nwoye are two people who become separated. Chapter eighteen starts off in Mbanta. In Mbanta they do not fear the new religion because it has not interfered with their lifestyle yet. But the idea of colonization is to gain a foothold and then move in and take over after destabilization. The religion acts as a foothold because it makes it easier to take over. The religion can offer peace in peoples lives. As the new religion grows, the community of Mbanta starts to break down and it is hard to keep order. In chapter twenty Okonkwo and Obierika talk about how the white men came to their village quietly and peacefully but now they are taking over by introducing their religion and government to the Ibo people. After the introduction of religion and division of people within the tribe introducing a new government was easy. Chapter twenty-one, the white men had also brought trade into Umuofia. With the opportunity of the new profit, nobody was willing to sacrifice that so the accepted the confines of their rules. In chapter twenty-three the district commissioner tricked the tribal leaders and Okonkwo himself to visit their headquarters and then imprisoned them. They were imprisoned because of the burning of the Christian church. They are beat and starved until the cowries can be paid to release. In chapter twenty-four it seems like Umuofia was ready to go against colonization, the court messengers step in and break them up. Okonkwo kills the head leader because he will not follow their orders. But the other people of Umuofia let the other messengers go and do not rise against them. In the last chapter, chapter twenty-five, the effects of colonization drive Okonkwo to take his own life. He cannot take living under the foreign men so instead of bearing through it he hangs himself. Throughout Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe there are different proverbs that the Ibo people use as their guidelines in life. There are thirty one proverbs within the book that I was able to find. Some examples are, proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten (Achebe 7). Palm oil is one of the most important products within the Umuofia village. When it talks about words being eaten, it is meant that words of wisdom are taken in. This proverb increases knowledge and builds a healthy community through nourishment. Next, If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings (Achebe 8). Relating to Okonkwo because he has clearly washed away his childhood and become important in Umuofia. Even though his dad, Unoka, had no title to his name and had a lot of debt to repay his neighbors, Okonkwo made a reputation for himself and has built a nice living for his family. Another example Let the kite perch and the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break (Achebe 19). After Okonkwo broke the kola nut in Nwakibies obi he spoke this proverb. Okonkwo was ashamed of his father and having the same misfortune he had. A fourth example You can tell a ripe corn by its look (Achebe 22). This proverb comes from when Okonkwo is asking Nwakibie for yam seeds. Nwakibie gives him twice the amount of what he asks because he can see that Okonkwo was a trustworthy person. Next, A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches (Achebe 62). Okonkwo had said that his son Nwoye had too much of his mother in him. He has tried hard to turn Nwoye into a man but it just will not happen. This basically can be understood as saying how you can predict someones future by the family or environment they grew up in. The sixth example proverb is When mother-cow is chewing grass, its young ones watch its mouth (Achebe 66). Obierikas eldest brother said this because Maduka had been watching Obierikas mouth. So in saying this he meant that Maduka was acting just like Obierika. The Next example is It is not bravery when a man fights with a woman (Achebe 89). The Evil Forest, the leader of the nine egwugwas, quoted this to Uzowulu. Uzowulu had beaten his wife so badly that she could have died if her neighbors had not come over to help her. After the beating his wife ran away to her family. Evil Forest is stating that is was not a justifiable act. The eighth example is If your death was the death of nature, go in peace. But if a man caused it, do not allow him a moments rest (Achebe 116). Ezeudu was told that only if his death had been caused by a human being then he could seek revenge. The ninth example is Never kill a man who says nothing (Achebe 131). Uchendu said this because he was told that the Abame people had killed a white man even before they knew anything about him. The last example is He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart (Achebe 166). Obierika told Okonkwo that they have fallen apart because of the white men. Even their brothers have turned against them and have joined the white men. These proverbs relate to many people now in modern days, they teach us lessons throughout our lives.
One part in the book I find most interesting is in chapter nine when they are talking about the ogbanje. Ekwefi is one of Okonkwos three wives who is the mother of Ezinma. Ekwefi has tried to have many children and up until Ezinma all of her children have died. It is supposed to be a crowning moment when your children are born but for Ekwefi it was a process of misery. Nine of the ten children she had given birth to died in infancy. There is a naming ritual during the seventh market week of birth where Ekwefi started naming her children after death. After the death of her second child, Okonkwo went to a medicine man to find out what was wrong. The medicine man told Okonkwo that the child was an ogbanje. Ogbanje literally translates to children who come and go. It is said that ogbanjes are spirits of children stillborn or who died young that have been possessed by evil spirits. The ogbanjes return to torment their mothers. I thought the most interesting part about the ogbanje was its iyi-uwa. The iyi-uwa is an item that keeps the childrens spirits connected to the world so it can return to its mother. It also ties the ogbanje to the spirit world. In order to stop the cycle of the ogbanje the iyi-uwa needs to be dug up and destroyed. As mentioned before okonkwo went to a medicine man and he gave him some things to try with Ekwefis next pregnancies. Ezinma was the last child she gave birth to and she has lived to be ten years old. After Ekwefi realized that Ezinma was going to stay for awhile her love and cheer returned to her. They became more than just mother and daughter but good friends as well. At age nine, Ezinma was followed by the medicine man to find her iyi-uwa so it could be destroyed. When they found it, it was a rock wrapped in cloth. This is interesting because even though Ezinma did not know what was happening she still laws able to lead the medicine man to her iyi-uwa.
I was really disappointed in the book when Ikemefuna is murdered. I thought that Ikemefuna would stay throughout the entire book. The part that I found the most disappointing was that Okonkwo had killed Ikemefuna. He seemed like a positive addition to the family. When Ikemefuna was around Nwoye seemed to become manlier and more helpful to Okonkwo. It was
hard for Okonkwo to do that to Ikemefuna but I think that he should have spoke up against it even though it was not a custom thing to do in his village.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe really caught my attention. The book shows how culturally strong Okonkwos village is. It also shows how different their culture and society was apart from other countries in that time. The horrible part is when the colonization starts. Because of colonization a unique and interesting society is ruined. I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the others in this class.
Citations
* Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. England: Penguin Books, 2001
Used as (Achebe) in in-text citations
* Ogbanje. http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Ogbanje, copyright 200-2009, February 1, 2011.
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