One village against imperialism. That is the basis of Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart. Achebe creates the fictional village of Umuofia that is led by the elders and great warriors of the clan. Umuofia is a village that is rich in tradition, religion, and values. The main character we meet is Okonkwo who is “well known throughout the nine villages and beyond.” Okonkwo is a warrior that has led Umuofia to war many times and is known to be the mediator between the villages when war is eminent. But to fully understand Okonkwo and the man he is, you must understand who his father is.
Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, is a musician in the village that is quite the talker. He can split a kola nut while talking his friends into letting him borrow money. Unoka will borrow and borrow until he owes his friends thousands of cowries. He is known in the village as a lazy man who has never taken any titles showing his role in society. He always wonders why his yams are never fruitful. He sacrifices to his ancestors and the Gods. He asks the God of the Earth, Agbala, why his yams are never successful. The priestess for Agbala simply replies, “Hold your peace!… You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm. You, Unoka, are known in the whole clan for the weakness of your machete and your hoe. When your neighbors go out with their ax to cut down virgin forests, you sow your yams on exhausted farms that take no labor to clear. They cross seven rivers to make their farms; you stay at home and offer sacrifices to a reluctant soil. Go home and work like a man.”
Because Unoka is lazy, Okonkwo must build up his own status in the village. When Unoka dies he leaves Okonkwo nothing to take care of his mother, sisters, and the other wives. He learns to plow the fields and wrestle to show his strength in the village taking multiple titles of status. He takes three wives, and has 7 children. Okonkwo rises to a respectable view of the village and frankly the entire community near and far. Later in the novel, the imperialist English Christians invade the villages throwing off the religion and flow of history that makes up the village of Umuofia. The Christians come in and tell the people that there are not multiple Gods and begin a new government forcing the villagers to decide to go with the new white people or stand their ground.
I loved this book. It is so rich in African culture while sharing a viewpoint we don’t often get when studying Imperialism in high school and college. It shows how the villagers came face to face with a strange power taking control of their land without permission or respect of the customs and traditions of the tribe all to show respect to their Queen. Although this is a fictional account, Imperialism and colonialism made bigger impacts than we think. There are parts of the world that have lost their language because a bigger, larger, richer country has come in saying that they are the best, forcing natives to lose who they are. In America, personally, we don’t often look at the culture of different races and nationalities in an accepting way. We are brash and arrogant about how we see things. In the same way, you see the British acting this way to Okonkwo and his people. I would definitely recommend you read this book. You need to.
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