Things Fall Apart

How did Igbo society fall?

Religious causes, cultural causes,economical causes

Disintegration of Igbo society is central to Things Fall Apart; the idea of collapse,
on both an individual and social level, is one of the novel's central images. This
image also gives the book its title. The Christians arrive and bring division to the
Igbo. One of their first victims is Okonkwo's family. The new faith divides father
from son, and the Christians seek to attack the very heart of Igbo belief; such an
attack also attacks the core of Igbo culture, as the tribe's religious beliefs are
absolutely integral to all other aspects of life. Not coincidentally, the first converts
are people who stand to profit from a change in the social order. They are people
who have no title in the tribe, and thus have nothing to lose.

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/things-fall-apart/study-guide/section4/

THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

The immediate subject of Chinua Achebe’s novels is the tragic consequence of the
European encounter with African civilization. His novels deal 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 that has followed.

In Things Fall Apart, the theme is the colonization of Africa by the British and the
negative and violent changes this brought about in the lives of the African tribes.
Along with colonization was the arrival of the missionaries whose main aim was to
spread the message of Christianity and to convert people to their religion. These
missionaries eventually establish a strong foothold in the tribe which then allows a
government as well as law court for administering justice to become part of the
indoctrination of native peoples to Western ways. Achebe does not gloss over the
cruelty and superstition that prevails in the tribe, and even shows that it was this
element that opened the way for the disintegration of the tribe and their ‘falling
apart.’ This theme is best shown in the rise and fall of Okonkwo, who represents
the best and worst of his culture. Thus, Okonkwo himself becomes a symbol of the
disintegration.

In a tribal society, the most important factor is the unity of the members of the tribe
and their absolute obedience to the ruling of the elders as well as the gods and
goddesses. This is lost when some of them accept contrasting values brought to
them by the missionaries. This leads to an increasing openness to Western thought
and religion and allows for the eventual exploitation and assimilation. Okonkwo is
one of few who resist and he ends up dead at the end of the novel. His refusal is a
form of resistance to conforming to the ways of the white man as well as a
rejection of his own culture as he has made a terrible transgression in committing
suicide and will not be buried in the warrior style that he deserved. In a way
Okonkwo rejects his own tribe members for their cowardice and lack of support.

This tragedy is one that is shared by the entire tribe, which has ‘fallen apart.’ This
thus is a double tragedy, due to the weakness and mistake of the hero, but also the
weakness of the tribe, who despite their power among the local clans, cannot resist
the colonizing effort.

Achebe has used tragedy as a medium in handling this theme. This involves a
particular dramatic ordering of events in which each of the situations is linked to
another, thus revealing a tragic pattern. Achebe thus succeeds in striking a
profoundly sad and ironic note in his novel Things Fall Apart.

Source(s)

http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Things_Fall_Apart/Things_Fall_Apart26.html

https://wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/thingsfallapart.html

http://mamadou-ba-neige.over-blog.com/article-2093779.html
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/things-fall-apart/about-things-fall-
apart

Okonkwo’s Loss of Identity: Honour, Male Power, and Sense of Duty in

Things Fall Apart
8 Mars 2006

As it is revealed by the background of Things Fall Apart1[1], the Igbo society is

characterised by order and hierarchy. Both concepts are so deeply rooted that their
alteration forcibly engenders chaos in society. This is reminiscent of the English
people’s belief in the chain of being during the Elizabethan period2[2].

As a matter of fact, in the Igbo society too, the arrival of the Europeans may be
regarded as the starting point of the chaos resulting from their interference with
Igbo traditions. The first alteration of those traditional cultures concerned mainly
the established power attributed to men by a patriarchal society. That waning of
male power inevitably affected various aspects of order and hierarchy, particularly
honour and the sense of duty which were the attributes of men. Moreover, those
attributes constitute the main criteria for respect.

Male power appears thus as fundamental in the Igbo patriarchal society where
“power is usually cited as the most important factor used by men to construct their
own identities as the ‘engendered representatives of humanity.’” 3[3] That power is
not only at the physical level, but also at that of society itself. At the physical one,
individuals who appear to be lazy are looked upon as agbala, meaning a woman in
the Igbo language. Onkonkwo’s father and elder son illustrate this idea. He himself
became famous after defeating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling competition. This is
what Azodo labels as an “ability physical power”4[4]; he puts parallel to the
“coercive physical power” exercised by the British colonisers upon Umuofia
people, and which Okonkwo uses to punish his wives (EP, p.52).

At the level of society, there is what Azodo calls a “structural power” and which
consists of a certain number of privileges given to the individual by the clan. This
is illustrated through the character Ogbuefi Ezeudu who “had been a great and
fearless warrior in his time, and was now accorded a great respect in all the clan.”
(TFA, p.57). The “positive male power” – the term is used in opposition to the
“coercive physical power” which is in a certain way demeaning – responds to the
standards established by the elders of the clan as a fundamental basis of order and
1

4
hierarchy in Umuofia society. There is a dialectical link between male power and
honour. In effect, this “structural power” is accorded on the basis of the
individual’s wisdom, and in relation to some ideals defined by the clan. Honour
becomes thus the axis round which all other aspects of order and hierarchy turn.
The centrality of honour in the organised Umuofia system is reinforced by the fact
that it is the attribute of people who are likely to accede to the leadership of the
clan. Consequently, those people show a strong sense of duty because they have to
stick to – and to promote – those values that ensure order and hierarchy in the clan.
The man who fails to achieve power loses his identity as a real member of the clan.

Our concern, therefore, is to show how male power, honour, and the sense of
duty have led to the decline of Okonkwo’s identity.

Set in Igboland towards the end of the nineteenth century, Things Fall Apart is
characterised by an imbrications of many themes among which one can mention
male power, honour, the sense of duty, exile, clash of cultures, order and hierarchy.
The novel illustrates the chaos and the conflicting situation caused by the arrival of
the Europeans who brought with them a new religion, a new way of life, and new
ways of thinking. The first part of the novel shows the well structured society of
Umuofia, with its ‘political’5[5] organisation and kinship system. One also
witnesses the first illustration of male power through the main character, Okonkwo
who is depicted as courageous warrior whose fame is beyond doubt:

Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and

even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements.
As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his
village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great
wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to
Mbaino. (TFA, p.3)

5
Okonkwo’s fame is emphasised by the narrator who puts it parallel to a physical
description that reveals much about his personality:

That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during
this time Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the
harmattan. He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and
wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily,
and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in
their houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his
heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on
springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did
pounce on people quite often. He had a slight stammer and
whenever he was angry and could not get his words out
quickly enough; he would use his fists. He had no patience
with unsuccessful men. He had had no patience with his father.
(TFA, pp.3-4) [My emphasis]

One may assert that Okonkwo has achieved self-fulfilment as far as his power
as a man is concerned. According to Ada Uzoamaka Azado: “In the Umuofia
community of Things Fall Apart, Igbo men are constrained to achieve and flaunt
[male superiority], in order to be seen and respected.”(EP, p.50) The Nigerian
society Achebe describes in Things Fall Apart is characterised by patriarchy which
manifests itself at all levels. Despite the concept of Nneka, meaning “Mother is
Supreme,” which is reminiscent of Steady’s assertion that “the most important
factor with regard to the woman in traditional society is her role as mother”6[6],
women are always marginalised and looked upon as mere properties of men: “In
domestic terms, women are quantified as part of men’s acquisitions. As wives,
women come in multiple numbers, sandwiched between yam barns and titles.” 7[7]
Therefore, women appear in Umuofia society as part of the many criteria referred
to for manliness. Their isolation is stated by the narrator: “It was clear from the
way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men.” (TFA, p.87). But this is

7
not inherent to Umuofia only. In fact, in African societies where phallocracy is
dominant, women are usually placed in a secondary position.

It is not then surprising if the author opposes him to his father who is depicted
as a lazy and irresponsible drunkard:

Unoka, for that was his father’s name, had died ten years ago.
In his day he was a lazy and improvident and was quite
incapable of thinking about tomorrow. If any money came his
way, and it seldom did, he immediately bought gourds of
palm-wine, called round his neighbors and made merry. He
always said that whenever he saw a dead man’s mouth he saw
the folly of not eating what one had in one’s lifetime. Unoka
was, of course, a debtor, and he owed every neighbor some
money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amounts. (TFA,
p.4)

Unoka’s lack of responsibility appears through his inability to manage properly

the money he earns. His only concern is to get gourds of palm-wine and to
celebrate with his friends. He is depicted as a failed man, as an agbala. The fact
that people mock at him is also illustrative of that failure the narrator reinforces in
the following lines:

Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his

wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed
at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend
him any more money because he never paid back. /…/
Unoka was never happy when it came to wars. He was in fact
a coward and could not bear the sight of blood. And so he
changed the subject and talked about music, and his face
beamed. (TFA, pp.5-6)
This negative picture drawn of Unoka is not fortuitous. It is a device used by the
narrator to epitomise male power in the Igbo society as well as the conception
people have of men who fail to achieve it. Thus, one realizes that men’s power is
closely connected with their own quest for identity. This explains the reason why
Okonkwo is in a perpetual attempt to strengthen his power which sometimes is
threatened in many regards. In other words, he tries to define himself by forging an
image which, in his patriarchal society, is that of the real man with all the power
attributed to him. His identitarian essence and social status constitute the main
preoccupations Okonkwo grapples with in an internal conflict.

Okonkwo appears, first, as a successful man who has achieved the self-
fulfilment he tries to look for. As Ifeoma Onyemelukwe puts its:

[Okonkwo] is the man who was able to resolve his identity

crisis in late adolescence. At age 18 he had developed self-
confidence, a high self-concept, self-esteem and had high
achievement motivation as typical of the average Igbo man.
The consequence of this is his reverberating achievement and
celebrity. 8[8] (EP, p.37)

Okonkwo’s physical strength is combined with his maturity to forge a powerful

personality in such a patriarchal society. Onyemelukwe adds:

It should be noted that the Okonkwo being x-rayed in this

passage has grown. He is about thirty-eight years old; and
grows even the more in the novel. He is now a mature adult
member of a male hegemonious society which upholds
cultural practices that predispose the woman to subjugation
and oppression and stifle her development and progress in
society somewhat like Alkali’s mimetic world in The Stillborn
and the Virtuous Woman. He is married to three wives and has

8
many children; polygamy and large unit being also indices of
greatness in this culture. (EP, p.37)

That status of the male character as a powerful individual is thus reinforced by

the image of the agbala which is generally used to allude to unsuccessful or
coward men. Onyemelukwe remarks:

Things Fall Apart depicts very successful Okonkwo as

showing no empathy or sympathy to less fortunate men like
his father, Unoka. Such individuals, to his mind, are simply
agbala (Igbo word for woman) or she-men.
It is not surprising that Okonkwo stands out in the novel
as a macho man with a great deal of self-esteem and self-
confidence.
The cap fits Okonkwo in many instances in the given
description.True, FA portrays him as one who is neither patient
nor tolerant. (EP, pp. 37-38)

According to the Igbo cosmogony, Okonkwo’s power stems from his own will
to achieve success. This is clearly expressed in the novel:

But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes
his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his
chi agreed. And not only his chibut his clan too, because it
judged a man by the work of his hands. That was why
Okonkwo had been chosen by the nine villages to carry a
message of war to their enemies unless they agreed to give up
a young woman and a virgin to atone for the murder of Udo’s
wife. 9[9] (TFA, p.27)

Achebe uses an omniscient narrator to extend the limits of Okonkwo’s power,

recapturing thereby what has been lost through Okonkwo’s father, i.e. success and
honour. Okonkwo failed to make an effective use of his power. He is victim of
9
‘over-power’. The purpose of his failure may be to show the weakness of the
lonely hero blinded by the honour of patriarchy.

Okonkwo’s fame sinks overnight after the accidental murder he is guilty of. He
is no longer the image of power and fame he used to be because his gun exploded
and killed inadvertently a young boy. Moreover, the rules established in the Igbo
traditional society stipulate that any person guilty of such a crime should be exiled
to his motherland. This, combined with Okonkwo's masochism, emphasizes the
shame shed on him. As a matter of fact, he falls into a vertiginous decline
synonymous with nothingness:

Overnight, great Okonkwo, the great warrior, the great warrior,

the great wrestler, one of the most outstanding achievers of his
time, most respected and revered, loses all he has laboured to
achieve just in the twinkle of an eye. His hope or remaining
“one of the lords of the clan,” is shattered.
His flight to Mbanta implies starting life afresh, from the
scratch. It means loss of self-esteem, peace, happiness. His ego
is obviously punctured. His fame transforms into shame. His
identity crumbles. Crises and conflict set in again. (EP, pp.41-
42)

It is obvious that the situation into which Okonkwo is put appears to be

paradoxical because, despite the patriarchal trend, he is exiled to his mother’s
village. This can be regarded as a device Achebe uses to reshape the image of the
African woman whose lost identity is being recaptured by giving her a very
important role, i.e. that of a shelter (or a relief) for man. In this regard the novelist
wants to celebrate the ‘Mother as a Supreme Being’, a concept which is recurrent
in his writings.

To a large extent, Okonkwo’s return to the land of the mother has played an
important role in his final situation in the sense that it made him safe from the
influences of Europeans. He becomes fully aware of his ‘depersonalisation’ when
he was in exile. This identitarian change is noticed by his uncle who aptly
remarks:
Why is Okonkwo with us today? This is not his clan. We are
only his mother’s kinsmen. He does not belong here. He is an
exile, condemned for seven years to live in a strange land. And
so he is bowed with grief. But there is just one question I
would like to ask him. Can you tell me, Okonkwo, why it is
that one of the commonest names we give our children is
Nneka, or “Mother is Supreme?” We all know that a man is the
head of the family and his wives do his bidding. A child
belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and
her family. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his
motherland. (TFA, p.133)

The narrator epitomises Okonkwo’s awareness of the loss of identity he suffers

from: “[He] knew these things. He knew that he had lost his place among the nine
masked spirits who administered justice in the clan.” (TFA, p.171) However, his
return is prefigured in the following lines that put an emphasis on his honour and
sense of duty:

He was determined that his return should be marked by his

people. He would return with a flourish, and regain the seven
wasted years. /…/ Even in his first year in exile he had begun
to plan his return. (TFA, pp.171)

At the same time, there is a sort of a prophecy showing the devastating situation
that would be the outcome of the return of who has decided to recapture his lost
identity.

One might wonder if the changes that have occurred in his society would allow
him to achieve his reintegration without troubles. When taking into account the
Okonkwo portrayed, at the beginning of the novel as a famous strong wrestler and
farmer on the one hand, one may believe that his return would bring again order
and hierarchy in Umuofia. But on the other hand the imbrications of concepts like
honour, male power, and the sense of duty are such that they constitute in common
‘epicentre’ or ‘turbulence zone’ characterised by violence and by the decline
Okonkwo’s fame and personality (see chart n°1 in the appendix).

The ‘epicentre’ or ‘turbulence zone’ (E) is surrounded by three ‘peripheral

zones’ which form the common areas between the three concepts organised in
pairs: male power/honour (P1), male power/sense of duty (P2), and sense of
duty/honour (P3). In the first ‘peripheral zone’ (P1), Okonkwo is shown as a
famous character, but also as a man who beats his wife on grounds of honour. In
the second ‘peripheral zone’ (P2), one sees Okonkwo who is very successful as a
good farmer aware of his role. On the other hand, failure is shown through
Okonkwo’s father who is portrayed as a lazy and irresponsible man. The third
‘peripheral zone’ (P3) illustrates the presence of a justice established in the
Umuofia society. It is in order to conform to that justice that Okonkwo is exiled for
having committed a murder inadvertently.

Coming back to Okonkwo’s reintegration in his society, placing him in the

framework of the figure above shows that his final situation is not fortuitous. In
effect, Okonkwo constitutes a combination of male power, honour, and sense of
duty. His bad-temperedness and his eagerness to be successful illustrate this
‘centrality’, reminding us of a volcanic epicentre where magma is hotter damages
are more important. Therefore, the violent situation that has hastened Okonkwo
into an unavoidable decline is engendered by the non-linear overlapping of male
power, honour, and sense of duty.

However, should we have a linear (or horizontal) ordering of male power,

honour, and sense of duty, it would be impossible to find an ‘epicentre’. Rather, we
would have only two ‘peripheral zones’ (P1 and P2) from which decline is
excluded. This is valid for the three possible situations (S1, S2, S3) we would have
when permuting the three elements, i.e. male power, honour and sense of duty as
shown on the charts in the appendix.

We notice that the absence of one ‘peripheral zone’ entails the disappearance of
the ‘epicentre’ because the different elements are connected only in pairs. This
means that in the first case represented by chart n°1, Okonkwo focuses on one of
the concepts. Considering all situations, we find out that Okonkwo insists mainly
on his honour he tries to keep by imposing male power. That is why in the third
situation (S3) where there is no direct link between male power and honour, there
is neither violence nor fame. Rather, the interference with the sense of duty
engenders either exile and justice, or success and failure. Okonkwo’s purpose is
mostly to avoid being the failure his father was. He is obsessed by the eagerness to
recapture his identity. Onyemelukwe writes:

The narrator tells us that “even as a little boy” Okonkwo “had

resented his father’s failure and weakness” and had suffered
from people making a mockery of his father, who owes
shamelessly and dies without taking even a title. In Igbo
culture a man without title is regarded as a woman and treated
so. One can imagine Okonkwo’s inferiority complex as a child
and the shame he had had to put up with. Cognizant of the fact
that unlike most of his peers he inherited nothing from his
“loafer” of a father he realizes that he has got to work extra
hard to make it in life. And he desires to be a success not a
failure like his father. Okonkwo ends up being the popular
opposite of his father, Unoka. The choice is his. He rejects the
father’s image and settles for who he wants to be: The exact
opposite of Unoka. He becomes intrinsically motivated, his
resentment for his agbala of a father being the propelling
force. (EP, p.39)

For Onyemelukwe, Okonkwo’s search for identity turns into a ‘psychological

phobia’ which compels him to reject any characteristic one could find in his
father:

/…/ This psychologicalphobia leads him to hate everything

that his father, Unoka had loved, such as gentleness and
idleness. If Okonkwo treats his wives and children
tyrannically like Medza’s father in Beti’s Mission Terminée,
it is linked to this psychological phobia. The same
explanation goes for his inclination of wife-battery and
other excesses of his in the novel, like killing Ikemefuna
who called him “father” or firing a shot at Ekwefi, his
beloved second wife. (EP, p.39)

Male power constitutes the main aspect on which Okonkwo bases his quest for
identity, his quest for manliness. This is what entails violence and decline at the
‘epicentre’. Would it be the same if Okonkwo were a woman in the patriarchal
Umuofia society? The answer to this question is not obvious in Things Fall Apart,
but rather, in A Man of the People10[10].

When we apply the diagrams to A Man of the People, replacing ‘male power’
by ‘female power’ clearly corroborates the hypothesis of male power as being the
main cause of violence and decay. Indeed, because of the patriarchal aspect of
Nigerian society depicted in Achebe’s novels, Eunice who struggles against
oppression recaptures her identity instead of sinking into decay like Okonkwo. It is
obvious that Eunice resorts to violence (she shot down the murderers of her fiancé
Max) in order to heighten the image of the African woman of which she is the
representative. The same situation applies for Ngugi’s Devil on the Cross11[11]
where Warrîînga shoots down the Rich Old Man in her struggle against oppression.
In the same way, Eunice’s sense of duty has urged her to use violence for honour.
But contrary to Okonkwo, her personality does not wane simply because of the
order and hierarchy in her society which is rather in favour of male superiority.
There is no decay at the epicentre of the overlapping of honour, sense of duty, and
female power.

The Umuofia society is organised in such a way that man must progress on the
paradigmatic axis if he wants to be respected. The syntagmatic axis is thus reserved
for women or for men who ‘cannot achieve manliness’, that is for men who cannot
leave the ‘female axis’ and move upward on the axis of manliness. In fact, the
combination ‘female power’/ ’honour’ does not lead to decline because the upward
movement of women on the paradigmatic axis is synonymous with reassessment. It
is an amelioration of their status and cannot be regarded as a decline. This is why
10

11
when Eunice (A Man of the People) and Warrîînga (Devil on the Cross) finally got
rid of their male oppressors. They recapture their identity and re-place themselves
at a higher level on the paradigmatic axis and on the scale of order and hierarchy.
As a matter of fact, Okonkwo who loses some of his attributes is, in a certain way,
excluded from the circle of respected men. He is no longer a source of pride and,
thus, falls down to the level of women just like his agbala father. His movement on
the paradigmatic axis, as we show on chart n°3 in the appendix, is a negative one.

The only element resulting from the imbrications of the three themes is a
violence used as a weapon for Eunice, and which is different from the one in the
case of Okonkwo. In the first case, it is used at the individual level to get rid of the
oppressor, whereas in the second it affects the whole society. And because the
violence in the case of Okonkwo is not circumscribed to just one individual, the
collateral damages are not controllable. That is why ‘things fall apart’.

To highlight Okonkwo’s failure, the author puts him aloof, being not concerned
with the various changes that have affected the Umuofia society. At this point, the
author shows one of the most important roles played by exile which is used as a
device to make Okonkwo safe from alteration. The confrontation is no longer
between Okonkwo and his society, but between his cultural beliefs and European
culture. As a matter of fact, Europeans having succeeded in convincing a large part
of the Igbo people, Okonkwo becomes an individual fighter in Umuofia. His
success and failure repose on his ability to make an appropriate synthesis of the
three values that make up his personality: male power, honour, and sense of duty.

Okonkwo lives in a society in which male power is at the centre of traditional

beliefs. The patriarchy he is inculcated by ancestral traditions urges him to adopt
an attitude of superiority over women by beating his wives for various reasons. He
who has become very famous as early as the age of eighteen is blinded by fame.
Consequently, his main concern is to stay at the paroxysm of his power and for
that, all means are good. Okonkwo’s character shifts then from a popular hero to
aMachiavellian ‘antihero’. That shift shows that violence is an inevitable result of
the changes which have affected Okonkwo’s society because, for Okonkwo, the
only answer to that invasion is violence.

The author epitomises Okonkwo’s tragedy as a character victim of the violence

of society on the one hand, but also of himself on the other. In fact, there are
different types of violence characterising the Umuofia society. There is first the
violence brought and exercised over the Umuofia people by European colonisers.
This violence is more physical and it opposes two people or two cultures. The
second type of violence is more poignant and is imposed by traditions on the
individual. For example, it is in the name of traditions that many things happen:
twin children are killed deliberately to avoid a curse that may hit the village;
Okonkwo is banished for seven years for having killed inadvertently a Klansman;
young Ikemefuna is sacrificed to Ani, the Earth goddess to render justice after the
murder of a member of the neighbouring village; Okonkwo resorts to wife-battery
to show one aspect of his manliness; even after his death, the traditions do not
allow his Klansmen to bury him…

There is also the individual violence Okonkwo exercises on his own personality.
This violence is first psychological. He believes firmly in the necessity to recapture
his lost identity. For the purpose, he imposes himself some poignant principles to
which he tries to stick. This leads to his suicide which represents the physical
aspect of his own violence. In return, the novel ends tragically with the death of
both the white man and the main the character. He has prefers to hang himself
rather than fall into captivity. Rather than assuming his actions, he tries to save the
little honour that remains for him. But in doing so, he casts off that honour he tries
to keep by all cost.

It is obvious that the last chapters of Things Fall Apart portray an Okonkwo who
becomes aware of his failure, and who tries to recapture his identity and dignity.
He is no longer the man who “said yes strongly; so his chi agreed” (TFA, p.27).
Unfortunately for Okonkwo, awareness occurs lately. Even the efforts he makes to
keep the least he could of his honour proves to be useless. In effect, the fact of
committing suicide to imprisonment is regarded as an abomination: “It is an
abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offence against the Earth, and a
man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen.” (TFA, p.207). Okonkwo
is rejected even as a dead man simply because, as one of the clansmen said, “it is
against [their] custom.” (TFA, p.207). However, the narrator expresses some
compassion through the character Obierika:

Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friend’s body,

turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said
ferociously: “That man was one of the greatest men in
Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be
buried like a dog…” He could not say any more. His voice
trembled and choked his words. (TFA, p.208) [My
emphasis]

The narrator even attributes the responsibility of Okonkwo’s death to the District
Commissioner’s men. This can be interpreted as a device used by Achebe to
denounce the negative and violent aspects of the arrival of the colonisers in
Africain general and in particularly. Things Fall Apart can also be regarded as a
novel through which Achebe epitomises the absurdity of certain customs which
have some devastating effects on the individual and on society as a whole. There is
a call for awareness, a call for a good symbiosis of African and European cultures,
which Okonkwo has failed to do properly. His decline as well as his tragic end are
thus a logical outcome of that failure.

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-Gikandi, Simon. Reading Chinua Achebe. London: James Currey, 1991.

-Johnson, Sally and Ulrike Hanna Meinhoff. Language and Masculinity.

Cambridge-Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.

-King, Bruce. Introduction to Nigerian Literature. New York: Africana Publishers

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APPENDIX
© Copyright: Dr Mamadou BA, mars 2006