Religious Conflict In Things Fall Apart

Throughout history, religion has been a major point of contention throughout society. One current conflict based upon religion is over the Starbucks’ Holiday Cup. Though the idea seems very trivial, it has become a large controversy for many Christians who feel Starbucks has declared a war on Christmas by removing symbols affiliated with the holiday from the cup. The #ItsJustACup Controversy share an underlying conflict, religion, with the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, where the new religion brought in by white men leads to many changes within society. In years past Starbucks’ holiday cups have contained many fun designs commonly associated with Christmas such as ornaments, snowmen and wreaths. When this year’s cups were released
When the white men came to imperialize Africa they brought their religion, Christianity along with them. The Igbo were not happy, “[The missionary] was a source of great sorrow to the leaders of the clan” (Achebe 137). This quote shows the arrival of the new religion was not taken well by the leaders of the Igbo tribe. What they took even worse was the conversion of their members, “The church had come and led many astray” (Achebe 162). The quote demonstrates the people viewed joining the church was going astray which generally has a negative connotation. The religious conflict was not solely made up of the Igbo’s opposition to the implementation of the new church, the Christians also insulted the Igbo’s religion when they had “gone into the village and boasted that all gods were dead and impotent and that they were prepared to defy them by burning all their shrines” (Achebe 148). The Christians came into a spot primarily inhabited by the members of the Igbo tribe and insulted their Gods and their religion simply because they believed their religion was correct. The conflict between the two religions caused a domino effect leading to the suicide of the main character