Things Falling Apart Essay

Monika Knickrehm
November 24, 2014
Period 1
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down.. “The center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...” (W.B. Yeats, “The
Second Coming”) When the center or core of something goes away, everything else becomes unraveled and lost. The book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, depicts the life of Ibo tribes living in Nigeria. In the 1890s, European missionaries came to Nigeria to start their project of purportedly pacifying the natives. As the missionaries gained more power, the core values of Ibo culture became less adequate. People who opposed the ways of the white men became few and far between. One of these people was a man named Okonkwo. As time went on, his tribe did nothing to stop the missionaries and he became more and more desperate.
Okonkwo was so attached to his culture, that when it crumbled he decided he couldn't bear to live without it and he took his own life. The core of Ibo culture was built on a sense of community and traditions, but once the missionaries took away their traditions and introduced a new religion, Ibo culture began to disintegrate. In Ibo culture, religion and traditions were very important to the people. In the Ibo tribe
Umuofia, people’s daily lives were dictated by the will of the Gods. “The Feast of the New
Yam was approaching. It was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess.” (36)
The people of Umuofia had several festivals in which the entire tribe came together to eat, drink, and dance. Their sense of community was what made them successful as a tribe. The justice system in Umuofia was much like European justice systems. They had a panel of

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judges known as egwugwu who would listen to cases and decide on a consequence appropriate for the crime. The trials drew the entire village out of their huts. In Umuofia, everybody knew everything about everyone. They were almost like a huge family, participating in religious and governmental ceremonies together. Ibo people were extremely invested in their religion and would do just about anything to satisfy their gods’ needs. Chielo, the Oracle of the goddess ,Agbala, was greatly respected in Umuofia. One night, Chielo arrived at Okonkwo’s hut and demanded that his daughter, Ezinma, come with her to appease the gods and to purify Ezinma. "Chielo began once again chanting greetings to her God. She turned round sharply and walked through Okonkwo’s hut, Ezinma crying loudly, calling on her mother." (102) Ezinma’s mother, Ekouefi, really didn't want to let Chielo take her daughter to the hills in the middle of the night, but she took the risk to please Agbala because religion was so important to her. Manliness was also valued in Ibo culture. Someone who was a successful yam farmer, had many wives, and tribal titles was considered powerful and manly. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was the exact opposite of manly. He would sit around all day, telling fables and playing music. “In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.” (4) Because of his father’s way of life, Okonkwo had grown up with barely enough to eat and was constantly ashamed of who his father was. When Okonkwo became older, he never lost a chance to prove his manliness. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men, he had no patience with his father.” (4) The people of Umuofia were deeply rooted in their community and religion, it seemed like no one could ever pull them apart.
In Ibo culture, religion and traditions were very important to the people, but little by little, as the missionaries began to gain power, the Ibo values and morals began to resemble
European views. When the missionaries and European governments came to Nigeria, they did not attack the native people and force them to convert to Christianity. Instead, when they

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first arrived, the white men seemed harmless and weak to the Ibo people. “ ‘They want a piece of land to build their shrine,’ said Uchendu to his peers when they consulted among themselves. ‘We shall give them a piece of land, let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest.’
” (149) The chief priests and elders suggested this plot of land because it was believed that someone who went and lived in the Evil Forest would die within four days. When the missionaries were still alive after the fourth day, everyone was astonished and confused. It caused some people to think that if this belief wasn’t true, perhaps other things in their culture might not be true. As time went on, the missionaries who had come to Umuofia harmless and powerless began to gain more converts and more control. The missionaries scoffed at traditions and beliefs that the Ibo people had practiced for years. In Ibo religion it was believed that twins were evil, so they put them in pots and threw them into the Evil Forest. The missionaries were horrified by this idea. “It was true that the missionaries were rescuing twins from the bush...As far as the villagers were concerned, the twins still remained where they had been thrown away” (154) At first the missionaries’ strange beliefs and actions didn’t really bother the villagers, but as timed went on they became a more concerned. “The white men had not only brought a religion but also a government. It was said that they had built a place of judgement to protect the followers of their religion. It was even said that they had hanged one man who had killed a missionary.” (155) Hearing these stories made the Ibo people worried, but they did not act to stop the Europeans. When his people did not attempt to put an end to the white man's power, Okonkwo became frustrated; he wanted to fight back. “ I cannot understand these things. What has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?” (175) Before, Ibo tribes had constantly been fighting, trying to secure their power, but now they let the Europeans take over without even putting up a fight.

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If the foreigners had come to Nigeria with an army and tried to force the native people to adopt their religion and culture, the Ibo people would have felt threatened and would have united to defend themselves. Instead, the missionaries came peacefully and slowly broke down the core of Ibo culture. By exposing them to European culture and religion, the missionaries caused people to question their core beliefs and traditions. As a result family members and tribes turned against each other. The powerful and united Ibo culture was dismantled without even a fight. When the foundation of a strong culture begins to crumble, everything else falls apart.

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