Name: Bhatt Urvi P.
Role No. : 31
Std: M.A-2 (Sem-4)
Paper no. : 14
Paper Name: The African Literature
Topic name: “Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation,
maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people
from another territory”. Explain the theme of colonialism with reference to
“Things Fall Apart.”
Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University
Gmail ID: bhatt.urvi22@gmail.com
Q- “Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation,
maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people
from another territory”. Explain the theme of colonialism with reference to
“Things Fall Apart.”
Ø Introduction:
“Things Fall Apart” is a post- colonial novel
written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1958. It is seen as the archetypal
modern African novel in English, one of the first to receive global critical
acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read
and studied in English speaking countries around the world. It was first
published in 1958. The title of the novel comes from a line W. B. Yeats’s poem
“The Second Coming.”
Ø Chinua Achebe:
Albert Chinualumogu Achebe (Nov
1930-Mar 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first
novel Things fall Apart (1958) was considered his magnum opus, and is the most
widely read book in modern African literature. He gained worldwide attention
for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s. Some of his other novels include
1.
No Longer at Ease (1960)
2.
Arrow of God (1964)
3.
A Man of the People (1966)
4.
Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
[Wikipedia]
Ø What is Colonialism?
Colonialism
is the policy or practice of acquiring full of partial political control over
another country, occupying, it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition
and expansion of colony in one territory by a political power from another
territory. It is a set of unequal relationships between the colonists and the
indigenous population.
Ø Plot:
Things Fall Apart, a novel set in pre- colonial Nigeria in the 1890
highlights the fight between colonialism and traditional tribes. The
protagonist Okonkwo is famous in the surrounding tribes for being a wrestling
champion, defeating a wrestler nick- named ‘the cat’ because he never landed on
his back. He is strong, hard- working, and strives to show no weakness. Okonkwo
wants to dispel his father Unoka’s tainted legacy of being effeminate [he
borrowed and lost money, and neglected his wife and children] and cowardly [he
feared the sight of blood]. Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his
own, as Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. He is also
obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise on this masculinity is
swiftly destroyed. As a result, he is brusque with his three wives, children,
and neighbors; he is wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his
village. He is a leader of his society for which he has striven all his life.
Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the
guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken by the village as a peace settlement between
Umuofia and another village after Ikemefuna’s father killed an Umuofian woman.
The boy lives with Okonkwo’s family and Okonkwo grows fond of him a second
father. The oracle of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be
killed. Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village, warns Okonkwo that he should
have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own
child. But to avoid seeming weak and feminine to the other men of the village,
Okonkwo participates in the murder of the boy despite the warning from the
killing blow even as Ikemefuna begs his “father” for protection. For many days
after killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo feels guilty and saddened by this.
Shortly after
Ikemefuna’s death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. During a gun salute at
Ezeudu’s funeral, Okonkwo’s gun explodes and kills Ezeudu’s son. He and his
family are sent into exile for seven years to appease the gods he has offended.
While Okonkwo is away
In Mbanta, he learns that white men
are living in Umuofia with the intent introducing their religion, Christianity.
As the number of coverts increase, the foothold of the whites grows and a new
government is introduced. The village is forced to respond with either
appeasement or resistance to the imposition of the white people’s nascent
society.
Returning from exile,
Okonkwo finds his village changes by the presence of the white men. He and
other tribal leaders try to reclaim their hold on their native land by
destroying a local Christian Church. In return, the leader of the white
government takes them prisoner and holds them for a ransom two humiliating and
insulting the native leaders, doing things such as shaving their heads and
whipping them.
When the local leader of the white
government comes to Okonkwo’s house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo
has hanged himself; he ultimately commits suicide rather than be tried in a
colonial court. Among his own people, Okonkwo’s actions have ruined his
reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachers of the Igbo to
commit suicide.
Ø Theme of Colonialism:
The novel deals with the social and
psychological conflicts created by the invasion of the white man and his
culture into the hitherto self- contained world of African society and the
disarray of the African consciousness. The colonialism brought the negative and
violent changes in the African tribes. The Missionaries entered Africa to
spread the message of Christianity. Gradually, they established a strong
foothold in the tribe and started ‘falling apart’. In a tribal society, the
most significant factor is unity. The rise and fall of the tribe leader is
delineated in the book. People of the tribe instead of obeying the tribe
leaders and elders started accepting contrasting values of the Church. Okonkwo rejects
his own tribe members for their cowardice and lack of support. As his own
people did not support him he killed himself. Here, due to the weakness and
mistake of the hero, and tribe, the powerful local clans gave up to colonizers.
[The Best
Notes.com]
Almost towards the end in the novel, the reader is introduced to
colonialism. This colonialism is anarchy as referred in the above lines. The
falcon is young generation of the clan and the falconer refers to the elders.
The center cannot hold is an ironic reference to both the imminent collapse of
the African tribal system, threatened by the rise of imperialistic
bureaucracies, and the imminent disintegration of the British Empire. Achebe
did retrospect in depicting Nigerian society and British colonialism of 1890s.
The first sign
of colonization come to Abame when the first white man appears. The elders of
the village were told by the Oracle that the white man would soon be followed
by others and destroy their way of life. The villager killed him as a revenge
by colonizers they were massacred.
The white men sent missionaries
to convert the tribal people in the beginning stages of their colonization. They
believed in changing the fundamental beliefs of the tribes in order to control
the natives more easily.
With
the arrival of missionaries the structural fabric of the Ibo society began to
tear. The people of Mbanta did not realize the intention of colonization
through the spread of Christianity. With the religion acting as foothold, it
was easier for a foreign government to take over because most religion
government most religions advocate peace and control a great part of people’s
lives.
The
foothold of the religion created vast difference among young and old. Okonkwo
was separated from his son. The foreign religion started to flourish. Christian
disregard for the customs and religion of the tribe creates an atmosphere of
lawlessness within the village.
Obierika and Okonkwo took note of how the white man came to their land
peacefully and quietly at first and later on how they started imposing their
government and their rules onto Ibo society. They were divided as they couldn't stand together to protect their way of living. White men brought trade in Umuofia
but the villagers could not unite themselves some of them welcomed the change.
With this opportunity, they willingly accepted the confines of the white man’s
rule because they were not willing to sacrifice the new trading community to
fight for their independence.
The white District Commissioner tricked the
tribal leaders of Okonkwo’s village to go to his headquarters and then
Christian Church. They were fined, beaten and starved. They also raised the
ransom.
When Umuofia seemed ready to throw them out, the court messengers
stepped in to break them up. Okonkwo denied following the order and killed one
of the messengers. But Okonkwo tribesmen did not support him. They let the
other messengers, the henchmen of the white government, escape.
Colonization ultimately drove the leader, Okonkwo to take his own life
because the oppression was too great for his divided tribe to overcome. Okonkwo couldn't take living under the foreigners’ rule who didn't know their language
or custom. So, rather than bearing the Yoke of colonization, he hanged himself.
Ø Colonization’s Depiction:
Animal Allegory:
Achebe’s novel is rich in
depicting the theme of colonization through animals and symbols also. The
presence of Animals in their folklore reflects the environment in which they
live not yet modernized by European influence. Through the colonizers, for the
most part, view the Igbo’s understanding of the world as rudimentary, the Igbo
perceive these animal stories, such as the account of how the killing of the
sacred python. Enoch’s killing and eating of python symbolizes the transition
to a new form of spirituality and a new religious order. Enoch’s disrespect of
the python clashes with the Igbo’s reverence for it, epitomizing the
incompatibility of colonialist and indigenous values.
Locusts Allegory:
Achebe depicts the locusts
that descend upon the village in highly allegorical terms that prefigure the
arrival of the white settlers, who would feast on and exploit the resources of
the Igbo. The fact that the Igbo eat these locusts highlights how innocuous
they take them to be. Sometimes those who changed the religion fail to realize
the damage that the culture of the colonizer does to the culture of the
colonized. The symbolic status of British is indicated by the repetition of
words like “settled” and “every” that emphasize their presence.
Ø Conclusion:
Thus, as the
novel proceeds we learn how colonizers slowly established their colony. First
came the missionaries, they tried to exploit the religion of Igbos, they converted
them, they started using force Mr. Brown tried to use moderate ways in order to
maintain the territory. But Mr. James Smith replaced him and started expanding
their territory by the means of torture. They started acquiring villages and
converting the natives on large scale. The author in The Things Fall Apart,
showed how the clansmen “fall apart” by the well planned trickery of the
colonizers. The novelist wisely delineated the theme of colonialism by using
different devices. Achebe efficiently tells us how the Africans lived before
the British reached. He, through an interesting story depicted how the Africans
gave up to British. He uses imagery, symbols, and themes of animals or insects
to emphasize the colonialism in his country.
very well written assignment but in the topic like colonialism you can also compare with other literary analysis. It is good that if you can define how colonialism and african literature can be connected.
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