Conflicts and Tradition in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Conflicts and Tradition in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Ms.N.Vennila                                                                          Dr.Madhubala

Research Scholar                                                                     Asst.Prof in English

Department of English & Foreign Languages                Nachiappa Swamigal

Alagappa University                                                              Arts & Science College

                                                                                                Koviloor

                                                Abstract

Things Fall Apart is one the novel to deal with the colonial experience from an African perspective of the twentieth century and it is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs and customs, and also a story about conflict. It focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and Traditional African values during and after the colonial era. Achebe’s style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory.

The main conflicts in the novel is between the traditional society of Umuofia and the new customs brought by the whites, which are in turn adopted by many of the villagers. The characters are divided into opposing camps according to race, religion, age and gender as well as economic and gender group. Okonkwo, the protagonist, acts as the personification of the Igbo traditional way of life throughout the novel. The objective of the paper is to bring out the major conflict that occurs in Things fall Apart and how Achebe has portrayed out the Ibo culture, the traditional beliefs, and the religious matters of the Africans, and most importantly the African style and the uniqueness of the novel.

Conflicts and Tradition in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and also a critic is best known for his first novel Things Fall Apart.  It is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

The title of the novel comes from Yeats’s poem, The Second Coming the key phrase of the poems reads, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." Things fall Apart, where Yeats describes the collapse of the two thousand year old tradition of Christian Civilization in Europe.  The events in Things Fall Apart take place at the end of the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth century. Although the British did not occupy most of Nigeria until 1904, they had a strong presence in West Africa since the early nineteenth century.

Things Fall Apart is the story of an Ibo village of the late 1800's. Chinua Achebe tells two different stories at the same time. It also tells about one of its great men, Okonkwo, who has achieved much in his life. He is a champion wrestler, a husband to three wives, a title-holder among his people, and a member of the select egwugwu. The other is of Okonkwo’s village, Umuofia, and its struggle to hold on to its cultural tradition while facing colonialism from the West. Achebe’s ideas are fresh and revealing, sometimes nostalgic identification with the tribal past in encounter with modern conflicts.

The village is held together by a net work of relationships and the community is greater than the individual. Achebe succeeds in recreating pre colonialist Africa as a mature and well knit society, which yielded to the impact of the new civilization in a tautly constructed narrative.

Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. The tension about whether change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status. The villagers in general are caught between resisting and embracing change and they face the dilemma of trying to determine how best to adapt to the reality of change. Many of the villagers are excited about the new opportunities and techniques that the missionaries bring. This European influence, however, threatens to extinguish the need for the mastery of traditional methods of farming, harvesting, building, and cooking. These traditional methods, once crucial for survival, are now, to varying degrees, dispensable.

The Igbo people initially criticize the Christians and the missionaries as "foolish.” One of the primary tasks of Things Fall Apart is to confront this lack of understanding between the Igbo culture and the colonialist culture. In the novel, the Igbo ask how the white man can call Igbo customs bad when he does not even speak the Igbo language. An understanding of Igbo culture can only be possible when the outsider can relate to the Igbo language and terminology. To quote from the novel,

“Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (p 129)

Throughout the novel, Achebe shows how dependent such traditions are upon storytelling and language and thus how quickly the abandonment of the Igbo language for English could lead to the eradication of these traditions.

Things Fall Apart is mainly about the tragic fall of the protagonist, Okonkwo, and the Igbo culture. Okonkwo is a respected and influential leader within the Igbo community of Umuofia in eastern Nigeria. He first earns personal fame and distinction, and brings honor to his village. Okonkwo determines to gain titles for himself and become a powerful and wealthy man in spite of his father's weaknesses.

The major culture conflict in Things Fall Apart is the complexity of Igbo society before the arrival of the Europeans. To support such conflict, he includes detailed descriptions of the justice codes and the trial process, the social and family rituals, the marriage customs, food production and preparation processes, the process of shared leadership for the community, religious beliefs and practices, and the opportunities for virtually every man to climb the clan's ladder of success through his own efforts.

Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders because he feels that they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly if he consents to join or even tolerate them. He was portrayed as an average man of the Igbo clan. He put great emphasis on the importance of being respected and of being an important figure within the Igbo clan.

Okonkwo was portrayed as a man who was highly respected among his clan. He was a perfect representative of Ibo traditional standards.

Tradition was very important to Okonkwo as it was with most of the clan. Order was maintained by tradition and Igbo tradition was steeped in superstition. Various gods and goddesses who were associated with nature dictated life. In an effort to control natural calamities, customs evolved to keep the gods and goddesses content. For example, twin babies were promptly disposed of after birth so as not to offend a goddess. Tradition explained the unknown and defined limitations. People knew just what was expected of them as well as the consequences any action, provoked or unprovoked. As an example of this, Okonkwo knew when his gun killed a clan member he was to be exiled for seven years. Whether or not the death was intentional was not the issue. The death of a clan member by another clan member was an insult to a goddess.

The Igbo people sacrificed everything for what they believed in. Theywere passionate in their beliefs and went to great extremes to defend their way of life. Ultimately, theyare ready to sacrifice their own life rather than compromise their values. In addition, Igbo gods and goddesses came from nature. Igbo life depended on nature for survival. When the gods ordained a death, the family of the victims grieved over their loss. However, they did not openly question the wisdom behind the tradition. The victims' deaths were perceived as not only good but as necessary for the survival of the clan.

Things Fall Apart was an excellent example of cultural relativism which is what is perceived as good or bad in one society is not necessarily good or bad in another. Things Fall Apart portrayed life in the Igbo clan from the Igbo perspective. Whereby, European's viewed these practices as a crime because these practices were unacceptable in Western society.

Works cited

Primary sources

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1996.

Secondary sources

Afigbo, Adiele E. Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture, Ibadan: Oxford

University Press, 1981

Gikandi, Simon. Reading Chinua Achebe: Language and Idealogy in Fiction. London:

Heinemann, 1991.

Innes, C.L. Chinua Achebe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of the Igbo People. London: Macmillan, 1976

Killam, G.D. The Writings of Chinua Achebe. London: Heinemann, 1991; revised 1977

Rutherfold, A., and Peterson, K.H. eds. Chinua Achebe: A Celebration, London: Heinemann,

1991.