The Beginning of British Imperialism in Nigeria

The Beginning of British Imperialism in Nigeria

Adam Coleman

History 210: World History

October 19, 2011

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. The first group of Igbo society which needs to be discussed are the ones who were very much opposed to the intrusion of Christian missionaries into their lives. The main people who were opposed to the missionaries were the leaders of Igbo society; these people being the priests, the elders, and the men of high title in each village. These different groups’ reasons were all valid and varied from one group to the next. The priests oppose the Christian missionaries for an obvious reason, because their religious beliefs are in stark contradiction to the beliefs espoused by the priests and believed by the Igbo people. The missionaries are attempting to convert the Igbo people to Christianity and therefore away from the animistic religion that these priests represent. On multiple occasions people who have been converted by these missionaries directly assault religious symbols of the Igbo, such as when Okoli kills the royal python or when Enoch rips the mask of off one the egwugwu. The elders’ reason for not welcoming the missionary is that if their sons were to convert to Christianity then there will be no one to worship them when they die soon and join the ancestors. The Igbo culture has a tradition of worship and making sacrifices to their ancestors, but obviously Christianity does not have this tradition so the elders strongly oppose it. The chance of all the elders’ decedents converting to Christianity is as bad as “the prospect of annihilation,” to the elders. The men of high title in Igbo culture oppose the British missionaries because they threaten the traditional culture and therefore the men’s place as leaders of the society. Igbo society is ruled by the priests, elders, and most power of all men who have achieved high titles by accomplishing great things. Along with Christianity the missionaries bring with them European imperialism which threatens to fundamentally alter Igbo culture and power structure causing the men’s high titles to mean, in essence, absolutely nothing. The other group of Igbo society which must be discussed, in order to understand how and why Christianity spread through Igbo culture, is the people of Igbo who openly accepted the Christian missionaries and converted. This group of people include the dregs of Igbo society, including the efulefu and the osu, as well as those who do not agree with some of the harsh rules enforced by Igbo society. The efulefu are members of Igbo society who have not gained any title and they are thought to be worthless, effeminate and are looked down upon by the rest of society. They are considered by most people to be like a “man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle.” The efulefu are open to the missionaries and conversion to Christianity because they are not ignored and rejected by them, to the contrary the Christians accept them as equal human beings. They would rather abandon the religion of their fathers in order to be treated with basic human respect and feel unity. The osu or outcasts are the very lowest members of Igbo society; they are not allowed to marry or live with a freeborn person and can hold no titles. The outcasts and their descendants are forced to dedicate their lives to a god and must also have long tangled hair to identify themselves. The osu are attracted to Christianity because they are actually accepted by the Christians instead of being shunned, as is the usual for them. The missionaries even force the converts to accept and love the outcasts. The other group who openly embraced Christianity are the members of Igbo culture who think some of its rules are too harsh or just do not make sense. An example of a person like this would be the woman Nneka who had multiple pregnancies which resulted in twins. According to Igbo religious beliefs twins are an abomination, and as a rule are left to die in the forest after they are born. Nneka does not agree with this rule and so she converts to Christianity just in case her current pregnancy results in twins once more. Another example is Nwoye, the son of Okonkwo, who does not agree with the practice of killing twins or the practice of killing people taken from other villages like his friend Ikemefauna. Nwoye had not agreed with these things since he was little and found that Christianity seemed to sooth the problems he had with these rules. The British were able to take over Igbo culture because of the Christian missionaries who came in the country first. The Christians only accepted by a certain group of Igbo at first, but eventually many Igbo people started to convert to Christianity. The reason for so many converting was that some of the rules of Igbo religion were harsh or useless, and because Igbo culture treated many people unfairly. The Christians also built a school and hospital in order to win over even more Igbo people over to their side. Once the Christians had decent control they set up a court house and start enforcing their laws on the Igbo people. This caused disunity in the Igbo society like Obierika said, “the white man came […] peaceably with his religion [but now] our clan can no longer act as one.” This disunity was caused by the fact that so many of the Igbo people had converted to Christianity, and made it impossible for the Igbo people to rid their country of the British. They could not get rid of the British because they were not willing to shed the blood of their clansman who had converted. Since the Igbo could not run the British off and many of them keep converting to Christianity it was only natural that the British ended up take over the Igbo. The British were successful at conquering Nigeria because they were able to lure many Igbo over to Christianity due to the flaws in Igbo laws and society. With Christianity establish by missionaries the British had no trouble establishing power and gaining more until they had the whole country under their control.