The missionaries' goal was to come to Nigeria and take control of the Igbo society. In order for them to do this, they had to win the people over and for them to do that; they converted the Igbo people to Christianity. Achebe did not agree with the missionaries and in his story, he tried to get the reader to emphasize with the Igbo culture. In the story, he describes every reason and purpose for every action the Igbo people did. He talked about their festivals and their traditions. He even used words like obi and egwugwu as a way to connect the reader with the Igbo language.
Achebe hated what the missionaries did and how they tried to colonize his people. I think the story of a man who killed a messenger and hanged himself makes an interesting reading. The death of Okonkwo is symbolic and Achebe ends the story like this to show the reader how the Europeans viewed the Igbo people. Okonkwo killed himself because the Christian missionaries did not understand their religion and all they wanted to do was to break up their religious meetings and convert people to Christianity. Achebe felt like if the Christian missionaries learned about the Igbo people, they might have understood everything that was done in the Igbo culture was done for the well being of the tribe. For example, when the Ibo tribe threw away twins and mutilated baby bodies, it was for religious purposes. The missionaries took this as being brutal and savage instead of what it really was. The Christian missionaries did not know that the Igbo people saw twins as evil and that was the reason they killed them.
Achebe did not like the damage the missionaries did to the Igbo people. The Christian missionaries were clueless to the danager they had caused the Igbo people. The Igbo people were divided up by the co-existing of two religions. No tribe members would have dared to kill another tribe member because they saw themselves as brothers. When they were divided up by religion, by the Europeans, they started to fight among each other. Achebe did not like the missionaries because they divided his people and they changed the whole Igbo society system. They only used religion to win over the minds of the people and to colonize their country. This is true because when I read the book, I noticed that the missionaries were controlling the court system. They did trials for the people of Umuofia for their crimes.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
As the white men moved into the Igbo's land, their culture, values and their beliefs changed. These changes were extremely evident, but in the end the Igbo were unable to doing anything to stop the changes that had already start taking place in their society. As soon as the whites arrived, they introduced a new religion that was completely different than the natives were accustomed to. The white man told the Igbos that, “they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone,” (145) also, he mentioned that there was only one God, the creator of everything. Okonkwo was convinced that the man was entirely wrong, but his first son, Nwoye, had been captivated by all of these new ideas, and after a discussion with his father, “Nwoye decided to go to Umuofia where missionaries had a school to teach, to read and write the new Christians. (152)” “He was happy to leave his father to follow the missionaries. (152)” Indeed, Nwoye was not the only one convinced by the new form of religion, but also other natives, and some of them turned away from everything they were, just to be part of it. Before colonialism, the unit of the family was very important in the Igbo culture, but with the arrival of missionaries and their religion the division among families began. Sons, wives, and daughters separated voluntarily from their family to follow the new form of religion, even clans could no longer act as…
- 833 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The missionaries bashed the Igbo culture. The colonists basically set up Umuofia to be harvested for its money and workforce. The workforce would most likely, in the future, end up working in the fields, and the colonists would end up with all the benefits of it because they were the ruling power. The colonists also caused fighting and bloodshed to rise. The Igbo disagreed with what they were doing so they burnt down the churches and it might have even escalated further if something was not done. For these reasons, I believe that the method that the colonists of that day did more harm than good for the Igbo…
- 459 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Yet his attitude echoes so much of the depiction of Africa; this attitude, following Achebe's depiction of the Igbo, seems hollow and savage. Digression is one of Achebe's most important tools. Although the novel's central story is the tragedy of Okonkwo, Achebe takes any opportunity he can to digress and relate anecdotes and tertiary incidents. The novel is part documentary, but the liveliness of Achebe's narrative protects the book from reading like an anthropology text. We are allowed to see the Igbo through their own eyes, as they celebrate the various rituals and holidays that mark important moments in the year and in the people's live.…
- 3934 Words
- 21 Pages
Good Essays -
5. Describe the setting (time, place, culture) of the novel. Discuss Achebe’s presentation of the details of everyday village life in Umuofia, the values and beliefs of the Igbo people, and the importance of ritual, ceremony, social hierarchy, and personal achievement in Igbo culture. How is social life organized? What are the important celebrations? What is the role of war, of religion, and of the arts? What is the role of the individual in relation to the community of Umuofia? Compare /contrast Igbo ways of life, customs, perspectives, beliefs, and values to those of your own culture.…
- 1433 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, depicts the Igbo culture of Nigeria in the 1890’s, as well as the beginning of the British colonization of these people. Achebe describes the Igbo culture in fairly great detail in the novel, including different portions of the society and many of the laws and beliefs of the culture. The spread of Christianity brought by British missionaries is also described in a fairly detailed way, and this spread is shown to be the driving force behind the British dominating the Igbo culture. In order to understand why and how Christianity aided the British in their conquest one must first understand why some parts of Igbo society were so receptive to the British missionaries and why some were so opposed to them.…
- 1167 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
This sentence can also summarize the effect that European occupation and imperialism had on Africa as a whole. Achebe’s book was based on this time period and the influence of the European culture so clearly a one sentence explanation of this effect is very significant. This sentence shows the impact by explaining how the white man asserts dominance over the Africans which consequently had terrible outcomes for the tribes, namely, the Ibo tribe. Not only could this apply to the tribe focused on in Things Fall Apart, but also to any culture which imperialism was imposed upon. So really this sentence is significant to both the entire novel and the era of imperialism as a whole.…
- 451 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe discusses the rise of an Igbo chieftain who came from great poverty to power and the eventual loss of Igbo traditions, rites, and the influence of his clan through his eyes due to western imperialism and colonialism. The intended audience for this novel is very broad, but if we tried to define it would primarily be people who have not experienced the Igbo culture and westerners or people who speak English. In this essay I will be focusing on the last six chapters: chapters 20 to 25. These chapters highlight the loss of power and customs of the Igbo people who have succumb to colonial rule. I fell Achebe is rhetorically effective and uses all three rhetorical skills (Ethos, Pathos and Logos) because he uses credibility of himself being an Igbo and the character of Okonkwo, as well as emotion by using through fictional characters as a medium, and Logic/facts by describing people’s decisions and the facts behind them.…
- 1425 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Igbo Cultural Collision with Christian Religion How can a fictional character like Okonkwo make a statement about culture? The novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe answers this question and more by telling of the experience of an Igbo man named Okonkwo during the Christians colonization of Africa. In the story, The Christians arrive in Africa one day.…
- 791 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
He condemned openly Mr. Brown’s policy of compromise and accommodation” (Things Fall Apart pg. 184). As Mr. Brown had warned not all missionaries were lenient, as he was. It is evident in the respect Mr. Brown requires of his converts as well as in the warnings he gives the Ibo about other missionaries. As time goes on Mr. Brown continues to befriend the Ibo people and comes to love them as one would a child, driving home Achebe’s message that not all westerners had bad intentions.…
- 790 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
While this is a great point, the missionaries eventually pull Igbo people into their own culture, breaking some traditions. The people who did not fully agree with the Igbo traditions decide to break away and confirm to Christianity. For example, Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, does not believe in certain rules and is interested in Christianity. A couple years into Okonkwo’s exile, Obierika stumbles upon Nwoye among the missionaries in Umuofia. Obierika decides to visit Okonkwo for an explanation. “He finds that Okonkwo does not wish to speak about Nwoye. It is only from Nwoye’s mother that he hears scraps of the story” (Achebe 144). Okonkwo believes Nwoye is a disgrace to the family and never wishes to speak of his “womanly” self again. Due to the Europeans converting members of the Igbo clan to Christianity, they are forced to change their cultural traditions. As Obierika said, “it is too late, our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger” (Achebe 176). These illustrations display the conditions for questioning and constructive change of violent traditions are present in the Igbo society (Hoegberg 60), but simply from the amount of time and new actions interfering with their own culture putting them in…
- 699 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The Igbo have a solid, seemingly unmovable set of moral and intellectual laws, including the belief of honoring ancestors and keeping order in a man’s house. But with the simple act of Nwoye drifting from these once inarguable truths, it goes to show that his cultural identity holds no water when put to the test. Achebe utilizes this plot for the intended effect of displaying that culture has an inevitable death. To further substantiate the claim, one must look at a short period of America’s existence from 1900 to 2000, where you see a multitude of changing ethics, standards and ways of life that prove the cultural cycle of life and death. For example, the conservative ideologies of women’s roles as homemakers only and the taboo of any talk about sex in the 50’s have since been ousted; this created a period of uncertainty and opposition conclusively leading to a transition away from usual customs, which is exactly what Nwoye’s storyline demonstrates.…
- 694 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Also, these missionaries helped many of the people who were sent out to die, like the twins that were rescued from the evil forest due to being considered a bad omen sent by the “Gods”. Catholics can say that missionaries coming to Umuofia was one of the best things that could’ve happened to these Africans since many of them would do savagery things such as when they tortured a dead baby body in order for this evil spirit to not return into another body. The missionaries were considered to have brought a lunatic religion, according to Okonkwo but this religion plays a huge role in the story since it lured Nwoye, Okonkwo’s eldest son, to convert. Nwoye has converted because he was inspired by their poetry, but he also knew that his father wasn’t proud of him due to not being as hardworking and a man like him, which angered Okonkwo because his son was just like his father, lazy and useless. Therefore explaining how unfair the Ibo religion was.…
- 850 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. The book deals with Okonkwo, as the main character, and how he approaches Christianity. The novel shows the impact of a western culture on the Ibo society and how the citizens have to adapt to the new changes and beliefs. Achebe, wanted to show readers that, culture and ideas do fall apart and diminish after a while. White men arrived in Africa as traders and missionaries. Is the Ibo culture civilized or barbaric? Was the arrival of the white missionaries in Things Fall Apart positive or negative? Each of these are different influences on the ibo culture by the christian religion.…
- 842 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In Chinua Achebe’s renowned novel Things Fall Apart, the West received its first level of consciousness into their colonial nature through the vantage point of an African perspective. Achebe’s classic refuses to feud the colonized against the colonizer, additionally he refuses to lighten the disconcerting circumstances and situations his native Africa encounters with the 19th century colonial powers. Achebe’s reading of the encounter of Ibo tribal life with Western entry into Africa is in many ways a tragic irony and almost fable-like. Furthermore, his understanding prevents any easy notions of exoneration for one side or the other. Achebe’s display of the complexities of this encounter between Ibo tribal life and Western Christianity show…
- 1826 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
These foreigners were convinced that they need to erase the culture of the Igbo people and built it afresh on a Christian model that they thought was most appropriate. Actually, from Achebe’s point of view, the missionaries concluded that the Igbo traditions were evil and needed abolition without seeking to understand that culture. From the progression of missionary work to colonialization, it is doubtful that the missionaries had the pure motives and intentions they claimed to have. Things fall apart because foreigners and most missionaries want to eliminate ever fabric, belief, and ceremony that hold the ethnic group together. Their claim that all that is African is…
- 937 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays