"Things Fall Apart and MC's unraveling"

I read Things Fall Apart for the first time in 8th grade and years later when I was introduced to the music group The Roots the first album I heard was entitled Things Fall Apart. Whenever the book is mentioned this song runs through my head. Enjoy while you read.



What hit me first was the wrestling portion, not because I am a guy and it exudes all things manly, but because the atmosphere was easy to place. The loud music, people gathered around, it could be any sporting event, except maybe cricket, those matches are pretty quiet. To visualize this event was easy as well, last year Discovery Channel put out a show where American and British athletes travel around the world competing in other cultures sporting events. One of these events was wrestling in Senegal, decently close to where Ibo lands would be. Same rules seemed to apply from the television show and the book, where the winner was the person who was thrown to their back and you challenged your opponent by pointing to them from across the circle.

It always amazes me how missionary's conduct themselves while in foreign lands looking for converts. Chinua Achebe shows two different approaches that colonialism applied when taking over regions. The first approach used by Mr. Brown gives respect to the Ibo people. Mr. Brown wants to co-exist with the Ibo people not pressing the religion or European changes on the people. Well, that is to say it isn't Christianity or death for the Umuofia people. It looks like Mr. Brown is trying to let the education and advancement of the Ibo people. Once people became educated then they would see the flaws of their old way of living, as well as, their old gods. Reverend James Smith on the other hand acted as we see in history books that most colonialist acted. Mr. Brown was settling for small steps forward, treating the Ibo as if they were people, not savages that needed to be tamed. Rev. Smith wanted perfection of what they were being taught about Christianity, there would be no half steps in the education. It was as if Rev. Smith did not like the fact that he was converting the Ibo people so he wanted only a few of them to become converts. I don't think it would be far fetched to think that Rev. Smith would try to displace or terminate the majority of the Umuofia to simply be done with the Ibo people.

That brings us to colonization and the Abame tribe. With what happened to the Abame tribe it really illustrates Europe's view toward the people of Africa and just how far they are willing to go to bend the entire continent to their will. A white man appears in their village, they consult the oracle and then kill the white man who came on his bicycle. There is a wealth of option the white people had, perhaps to go into the village and speak a language that would make sense to them. Instead, the colonists, or more likely the government, waited until a market day and slaughtered everyone. This shows deliberate planning on the parts of the white attackers, they knew enough about the culture of the area to wait until a day where the vast majority of the tribe, men women and children, would be in one central location. A planned brutal massacre. This also shows the mind set of what Europeans thought of the African people, one European was worth the entire tribe of Africans.

I find it interesting that Achebe taps in a source of shared history that many people who would be colonized seem to have. In Things Fall Apart the oracle offers forth that the white man would be the destruction of the tribe and when one came more would follow. Reading for another class this weekend I found that many Native American tribes had the same prophecies before massive colonization of the America's. There is often a big deal made that different cultures have simular myths and legends. For example, all cultures have a flood story of some kind and there is always a creation story. It is interesting to see that both Native Americans and Africans claim that their oracles or dreams. It brings up an interesting question however, did these predictions actually take place before the entrance of white colonization or was it created as an afterthought to continue to justify the elders and gods? I tend to think that these stories were made up after the fact so the elders would not be questioned by their tribes as to why they did not see such a disaster coming. Besides that, if such a warning was given and you lived your life according to the oracle then how do you, as the oracles followers, not listen to them and get rid of the white people when they come.

One part I must make note of is the seeming ignorance of Okonkwo of the slave trade and of white people. I know that the slave trade in this region dealt mainly around the coast and the Umuofia tribe was much further inland than most traders would go, but where did Okonkwo think he got his gun, or where they were getting the razors that they were shaving their heads with? Slave trade was quite prevalent even before Europeans were looking for their alternative work force. The slave trade was inter-tribal and came from such occasions like wars, simply kidnapping or, as shown in the book, as penance for breaking laws. It became common practice for the tribes of the coast area to use their newly aquired European goods to obtain more slaves, this in turn caused more wars to be fought, since that was primarially where slaves came from. Okonkwo was made ignorant of white men, only having heard of them in passing, which again given his European goods seems unlikely. I realize this is nitpicking a wonderful book by Achebe and that the resources on the slave trade are relatively new in comparison to the book, it seemed like a valid point to bring up since it was the "new" white threat that ulimately brought down Okonkwo. It is interesting to note that two of the worst things that happen to Okonkwo, his exile and his death where brought about by Europeans. Machete's don't explode like cheap guns do, eliminate their presence from afar bringing the gun then you eliminate Okonkwo's exile and give the story an entirely new look.