An analytical look at why the village of Umofia
fell apart
Faith has always been a guiding force in man's
life. Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall
Apart is a story that describes the effects of a new Christian religion in a
tribal village of Africa. The tribe has
their own language, known as Obi, a dignified culture and a value system that
has continued for many years as they trace back into their ancestry. Yet, voids that this culture can no longer
fill for modern tribesmen enable white missionaries to intrude upon this system
and convert many of the tribe's younger members to the Christian faith. The tribal system falls apart because younger
members are unable to remember persons
of the past, unable to relate to violence when they have lived in safety and
peace and are uninterested in a faith that does not fulfill their needs for
music, joy and love, instead of discipline of a higher being.
Okonkwo, the protagonist of the story, could
remember to "another time" when children, like his own son Nwoye,
were not lazy. He could also remember
the indolence of his own father, Unoka,
and that his father had not received any titles as a clansman. He was determined to be a respected farmer of
yams to ward off the shame of his unsuccessful and dishonorable father.
Fortunately,
among these people a man was judged by
his worth and not
according to the worth of his father...
As the elders
said, if a child washed his hands he could
eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands
and so he ate
with kings and elders. (page 8)
This was
Okonkwo's motive in life and so he remained prosperous throughout his life and
worked hard to prove to others that he was not the same man as his father. Unfortunately, this was not the feeling
shared by many in the clan and Okonkwo, in trying to make-up for his father's
mistakes, took on the responsibilities of an old man as a young boy and had the
mind set of an elder in the community because as was stated, those were the
people he ate his meals with and held his discussions with. Okonkwo's
own son, Nwoye, did not have the same work ethic and was not working to prove
his manhood to the rest of the village.
Therefore, for Okonkwo to expect hard work ethics of his son by instinct
was unrealistic, because Okonkwo's work ethic was certainly not a genetic
result either. This work ethic however
is a central value of the community and when younger members of the generation
do not feel as though they are responsible for the tribe's continued existence
then they may not feel as though an active participation in village life is
necessary. On the other hand, perhaps
Okonkwo's work ethic was much stronger than the normal that is necessary for
the tribe to continue to flourish and he beats Nwoye forgiving only the minimum
amount of work expected of him. Perhaps
it is the feeling of failure that turns a member of the tribe like Nwoye to
Christianity. Perhaps he felt that he
would be an inadequate member and would be unable meet the standards necessary
for the tribe to succeed and so he turned to the missionaries who were
accepting of everyone, even those who had been officially exiled from the
village.
Though Okonkwo's father had been lazy, he had
always been an encouraging father and assured his son that he would
succeed. Early on evidence of this kind
of support is suggested.
Do not
despair. I know you will not despair
You have a manly
and a proud heart. A proud
heart can survive
a general failure because such
a failure does
not prick its pride. It is more
difficult
and more bitter when a man fails
alone.(p.24-25)
However it is
easy to recognize that in washing his hands completely of his father's ways
Okonkwo may have also washed away the values of gentleness, supporting the ones
near to him and the love of rest and time to relax. This leads to another important observation
leading to the fall of the clan.
Okonkwo's inability to see the importance of childhood and the
insignificance of constant violence makes it difficult for him to relate to
members of the clan such as Nwoye.
There are times when Nwoye would like to hear
stories. He likes stories of nature and
the moral lessons they can provide for him to keep him from making the same
types of mistakes. Okonkwo likes him to
hear stories of war, of fear.
"Masculine stories of violence and bloodshed." Blood of his ancestors, of his past.
Nwoye knew that
it was right to be masculine and to
be violent, but
somehow he still preferred the stories
that his mother
used to tell, and which she no doubt
still told to her
younger children- (p.53)
This type of
violence had not occurred in the children's time in the village. Fighting for their lives and village was a
thing of the past, drastic actions that were taken by their ancestors to hold
onto and cherish. It was something that
the children could not relate to as they were unable to find interest in the
stories of past wars with other villages.
It is probable that like Nwoye, many children preferred the stories told
by their mothers. These stories that
centered around events in nature were something that every child could relate
to within his or her life and they were able to find purpose and meaning and
relate the moral lessons to the actions they would take in their lives as they
grew up.
In Christian history, Jesus often taught his
disciples through parables. These
parables were stories that were easy to understand because they were based on
daily events in the peoples' lives. They
were not necessarily true stories and were never of war or violence to simply
convey the message of courage. This type
of story is the kind that Nwoye and other children seemed to relate to and is
probably one of the many aspects of Christianity that the people, including
Nwoye, would come to love and believe in strengthening their faith in the
Christian God.
And so finally, there is the thought that the
younger generation, having never met their warlike ancestors, and experiencing
only pleasant, peaceful lives in harmony with nature would automatically look
to Christianity for the loving creator it provides. Okonkwo and those of his time worked to
please their gods in order to survive.
For example, there is an annual feast of offering to the goddess of the
earth. The eldest, a man of course,
would break kola nuts in order to give thanks to his ancestors before they went
on to enjoy their own meal. In giving
thanks to their ancestors the people would also pray and ask the gods to
fulfill their prayers as Uchendu, Okonkwo's uncle does, before the final feast
he gives before he leaves his motherland to return to his own society in Umofia
after seven years of exile.
The oldest member
of this extensive family was Okwonko's
uncle,
Uchendu. The kola nut was given to him
to break,
and he prayed to
the ancestors. He asked them for
health and
children... he then broke the kola nut and threw
one of the lobes on the ground for the
ancestors. (p.165)
It was necessary
to offer a man's best to the gods. In
Christianity this same belief occurs as the priest sacrifices his offering of
bread and wine to God in remembrance that there is a supreme ruler. In Christianity, followers are expected to support and tithe
to their church, and ultimately their God.
However, Christianity's God is not a
mysterious, untouchable being like the gods in Umofia. The Christian God is a father who rules
absolutely, but with a loving touch, over his people. He listens to their needs and answers their
prayers if it the Will of His higher plan.
He accepts all people unlike the villagers of Umofia who were told that
it was the gods' will to exile some people for their mistakes. Therefore, many younger villagers in search
of love and safety, and those who returned from exile, were in favor of the new
religion and so they followed the white missionaries. These missionaries were solely intending on
converting the villagers so that they could organize them into a government and
conquer the people quietly in the name of the Queen.
Thus, it was the white missionaries who caused
the fall of Umofia and not religion.
Religion was just a tool they used to shake those who had already lost
faith in their clan and their own personal worth within the clan. Therefore, when the missionaries took the
faith that tied them to their clan, the faith in their gods, the villagers
quickly gave up their possessions to follow this loving, accepting way of life
that the clan had denied them.
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