Cultural Collision and Loss of Identity in Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart is a classic African novel about how colonialism impacted and undermined the culture of traditional African society. Set in the Igbo community in West Africa, Achebe details how life was for this African society before the arrival of the white men. It was a society that was full of rich culture in terms of leadership, religious beliefs, and other cultural practices. According to Achebe, the white men were welcomed by the Africans, but upon settling, they started building their mansions of culture and taught the Africans new ways of life. “They [the white people] must have used powerful medicines to make themselves invisible until the market was full” (139). The arrival of white men in African society brought cultural collusion that challenged the identity of the people.
No one likes to be told how to live because each particular group of people has their own culture and traditions that should be emulated by all. When new culture and traditions are brought in, they bring cultural collision, and the result is, the lesser dominant society is assimilated. This is the case with the Igbo community, as presented in the novel. “A man’s life was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer to his ancestors” (122). Chinua Achebe writes that missionaries came to African to teach the natives new ways of life that is Christianity. The natives had lived one way in their entire life and did not have an idea of the missionaries, but they later came to change the “‘ We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns” (122). The Igbo community is revealed to be dependent on storytelling and culture, and the reaction of Okonkwo after the arrival of missionaries symbolizes the collapse of culture.
The theme of cultural complexity in Igbo clearly shows a clash of cultures between the whites and the Igbo society. These cultural collisions occur both at the societal and individual level, and the misunderstanding brought especially to the people cuts in both ways. In the novel, we see Reverend Smith being uncompromising by viewing Africans as heathens but tried his level best and converted a good number of them. “He told them they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone” (145). Consequently, we see the Igbo community initially criticizing the Christians and the missionaries as being foolish “‘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” (152). According to Achebe, the misconceptions of Africans for themselves and to the Europeans need some realignment, the same way as Africans by the West perceive it. Achebe has written Things Fall apart as a Europeanized African, but the novel acts as a ritual return of a prodigal son and an act of atonement with his past. He is, therefore, trying to recover from the cultural collision.
Conclusively, Things Fall Apart is also a story about the loss of identity through identity confliction. Throughout the novel, there is a struggle between culture, family, and religion of the Ibo tribes. When things fall apart, the beliefs and customs of people are challenged, and the personal identity of a man is lost too. For example, Achebe concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader among the Umuofia people and a man who won the wrestling championships at a young age of eighteen years. At first, he was a lovely man who was loved by all. “Perhaps down in his heart, Okonkwo was not a cruel man” (13). As a leader, he uses his masculinity to kill and cause suffering among his fellow people. As the novel takes its course, Okonkwo is challenged and later turns to become a person who is no longer recognized by the society. The existence of male power makes the Igbo community a patriarchal one as men use this power to construct their own identities, where they become “engendered representatives of humanity.” [3]. Achebe, therefore, uses the concept of a cultural collision between the Africans and whites and power to show loss of identity among people in the society.