When Africa died. "Things Fall Apart"

Armel Darboux

Nduka Otonio

AFRI1001A

March 2 2019

Colonization killed Africa

Nature always seems to despise the presence of an outsider. As an unwanted foreign element crosses the set boundaries and breaks itself into an entity, it corrupts its operations. Things Fall Apart provided the story of African colonization through the story of Okonkwo. As a respected and proven man, his village trusted him in leading them throughout the years. Beside his mistakes and impulsive tendencies, his success, hard work, and rigour made him an example for society, especially in his tragic demise. The allegory of Things Fall Apart is a clear representation Africa before vs. during colonization, highlighting its beginnings, struggles, values, colonial encounter and the tragedy of its death. The truth in deeper the meaning of the novel is chilling. Okonkwo’s lifeless body hanging from a tree is a disturbingly accurate representation of post-colonial Africa. The colonizers used their knowledge as a weapon to eliminate unity, so Africans still live with the unfulfilled longing of the freedom and innocence they once enjoyed. Finally because of colonization, the West holds a significant influence on African affairs and still today, Africa is trapped in the grip of her former colonizers with seemingly no way for escape.

Before the arrival of Europeans the people of Africa practiced their culture freely. In the ignorance of a world outside their own, Africans thrived in their own affairs. One thing that held them together was their common practices and culture. As barbaric and fantastic as they beliefs seem to the most westerners, they represented the center of a wheel, the hub which unified Africa. The arrival of the new faith was the first knife to strike the Africa’s hub. In Things Fall Apart the missionaries gathered the villagers of Mbanta to spread the word about their faith. The Mbantans could only laugh at the foolishness of the odd looking characters standing before them. However the talks of peace, forgiveness and salvation were too sweet to leave everyone indifferent. When the white man set his church into their ground he planted his seeds deep into the heart of Africa and the roots slowly but surely grew. As time passed more and more villagers seeked the new faith, creating drama. For the first time Mbanta experienced the grim atmosphere of a divided community. Okonkwo represented his village in every aspect and his menage was certainly the last one anyone would expect to be shaken by the buffoonery which was this new belief, but knives do not pay attention to what they cut. Nevertheless, Okonkwo stood strong and it almost seemed Mabanta’s core was immune to the white man’s pokes and jabs. However when Okonkwo’s son Nwoye decided to side with the missionaries, it was like the church critically hit the unity hub of the village. Okonkwo's agonizing pain was displayed by his fury and loss of control in which he almost killed his son. The deeper meaning was that the white man truly was capable of destroying the sacred and eternal bond that was the African family. Okonkwo’s internal wound was also source of inimaginable pain because of the irony; he had disowned his father and devoted his life to succeeding where his father would never, only to be abandoned in by his own seed in his turn. The white man succeeded in dividing the African people. If Okonkwo’s family, the pride and example of the village could broken it meant no one was safe. At last Okonkwo would return to his home Umuofia with tremendous plans for his people, far away from any church or abomination of the sort. But as he approached his old home his joy turned to disheartenment. The familiar atmosphere he knew had turned sorry and his home seemed foreign to him. The white man had reached here too. But Okonkwo would not allow the foreigners to divide his people like they did in Mbanta. He was ready for war and knew he would defend his name and values at all cost. A life imposed by a stranger was not worth living. His fellow villagers did not see things the way Okonkwo did and that was a tragedy. In his last moments Okonkwo displayed his courage and unconditional loyalty for his roots. Sticking to his values he beheaded the enemy and sorrowfully entered his death knowing he could not save his village. When Okonkwo the center figure and of Umuofia died, the hub which united everyone broke, leaving Umuofia divided and lost. As explained in the introduction, Things Fall Apart was an allegory in which the story of Okonkwo is representative of Africa and in its unfortunate encounter with the colonizers. The day Okonkwo died was the day Africa collapsed.

In Professor Peter Geschiere work The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and Occult In Post Colonial Africa he explained how anthropology’s thrust for intercultural understanding is a burden to the individual mind. One would read the novel and ask themselves if Okonkwo was really happy to live through the hardships of being a villager. Did his wives hate or love the pain of each beating? Did the village really believe it was right to kill an innocent child? Those questions could be debated but it is undeniable that Africans lived freely according to their own politics which were backed by countless generations of ancestry. Professor Peter Geschiere explained “every tribe believes it’s own habits and values are uniquely reasonable” (Geschiere). The Allegory of the Cave tells the story of a people living inside a cave and ignorant of the world outside. The only visuals they ever witnessed were mere shadows projected onto rocks by a fire inside the cave. In their ignorance the people of the cave were very much content with their existence. One day an individual broke free and experienced the fullness of the real world. When he returned to the cave to tell his friends what he saw, they wanted nothing to do with his fantasies and they rebuked him. Knowledge divides people when it is acquired by some and rejected by others. The missionaries ironically used peace and kindness as a first weapon to infiltrate Africa. They spread their faith and recruited those who believed. Like the free man who experienced the outside world before his comrades, the Europeans educated the Africans who would listen. No

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