Things Fall Apart In Colonial Context

Things Fall Apart in Colonial Context
Things Fall Apart depicts the downfall of an Igbo community in Nigeria. The book follows the story of a protagonist, Okonkwo, a well respected leader and warrior in his community, during the eve of colonialism. More specifically the book highlight missionary journies to Igbo communities, including Okonkwo’s and whose presence was initially received with, welcomed with open arms or aggressive resistance. Through Okonkwo, we experienced how three villages responded to “white men” invading their land and how they imposed their custom and beliefs upon the African people. In the end, Okonkwo believes he failed as a great warrior which correlates with great prospering African communities that failed once colonialism
Thus, when the colonizers entered the continent in hopes of spreading Christianity, they were also faced with the collateral that involved. From the belief of gods, to sacrifices, rituals, to sorcery, religion were deeply ingrained in nearly every aspect of society, which will naturally cause resistance, as the people try to protect the culture that they have spent their entire history building and entire lives practicing and teaching. Every aspect of the traditional communities was built around the belief and ways of worshiping their gods or ancestors. When the Christian missionaries and colonizers invaded, it completely disrupted the ways of life that people practiced and were accustomed to. Without their native religion, there was little left to be said for any traditional customs, eradicating an entire
They were the people who were able to easily convert to Christianity and immediately forsake their traditional belief to the Christian belief. Many African clans did not see them as harmful when they first came and they let the European stay because of their curiosity such as Umuofia with the first missionary leader Mr. Smith. Others immediately rejected them just because of the uncertainty they had about the Europeans. For example, Achebe included a village that did not know much about the “white man” and after consulting the oracle, they decided to kill him. The group of the “white man” came back later after market weeks and wiped out the whole city. This is one of the violent ways that the Europeans showed their power to the African people. The psychological theory, such as Social Darwinism and Evangelical Christianity explains the outcome of nonhuman impulses. Social Darwinism provides scientific support that it was okay to conquest Africa because the superior group must control the minor group due to natural selection. For example, we started seeing