International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, 2018 VOL. 1, NO. 2, 9-23 ISSN: 2617-0299 The Post-Colonial Reality in Chinua Achebe’s Novel Things Fall Apart (1958) Fatima Zahra El Arbaoui1 Abstract Keywords Literature, as an impersonation of human activity, often portrays a Africa; Economy; picture of what people think, say and do in the society. In literature, Literature; Reality; we find stories intended to depict human life and activities through Religion; Politics; some characters that, by their words, actions and responses, transmit Post-Colonialism; specific messages for the purpose of education, information and Society stimulation. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is probably the most authentic narrative ever written about life in Nigeria at the turn of the twentieth century. When it was first published, Achebe declared that one of his motivations was to introduce a real and dynamic society to a Western audience who perceived African society as primitive, naive, and backward. Unless Africans could recount their side of their story, Achebe believed that the African experience would forever be "mistold," even by such well-disposed authors as Joyce Cary and Joseph Conrad who have described the continent as a dusky place dwelled by people with stolid, primitive minds. Achebe, perhaps the most authentic literary voice from Africa, he wrote not only to record the African, especially Nigerian, life but to analyze the reality experienced by the native people in different times and situations. The novel Things Fall Apart describes the Igbo people at a truly seminal stage in their history and culture: as colonial forces apply pressure, their entire way of life is at stake. These looming colonial forces basically declare the end of everything they know, representing huge changes to the way they exercise religion, their family unit, the roles of gender and gender relations and trade. Colonial forces don’t just mean foreign control; rather there’s an impending doom which is instantaneous and calamitous and which is something that Achebe examines head on. In this regard, the paper is an attempt to show Achebe’s endeavor to portray the post-colonial African reality in all its varied colors and textures and to find out the extent to which this novel faithfully mirrors the postcolonial impress that shadow the hopes and aspirations of the community that he belongs to. 1 University Sultan Moulay Slimane, Morocco, E-mail: [email protected] 1. Introduction Towards the end of the nineteenth century most European states migrated to Africa and other parts of the world where they set up settlements. Nigeria was amongst other African countries that received guests who were on a conquest delegation; presenting their religion and culture that is later forced on Igbo. The culture of the people of Umuofia (Igbo culture) is tremendously undermined by this alteration. Achebe’s main goal of writing the novel is his desire to teach his readers about the worth of his culture as an African. Things Fall Apart gives readers a real vision of Igbo society right before the white missionaries’ intrusion into their land. The attack of the colonizing power undermines to change almost every part of Igbo society; from religion, politics and culture to economy. Consequently, Achebe accuses the white missionaries’ colonial laws and/or invasion for the post-colonial mistreated Igbo culture; this persecution can be observed in terms of the abused social cohesion between people and their society. Before Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart, all the novels that had been written about Africa and Africans were written by Europeans. Mostly, the European writings depicted Africans as savage and barbaric individuals. Heart of Darkness, for instance, by Joseph Conrad portrayed Africa as a wild, dark, and uncivilised continent. Following Conrad’s novel in 1952 was Mister Johnson, a novel by Joyce Cary who described the novel’s protagonist Mr Johnson generally as a childish, semi-educated African who reinforces colonialist stereotypes about Africa. In light of the portrayals of Africa and its people by both Conrad and Cary, it does not surprise anyone that Achebe and other African authors started to stand out and narrate their story of Africa and its people. With his depiction of Africans in Things Fall Apart, Achebe defies how Africans formerly have been described in European literature. In one of his lectures, he contends that Europeans have perceived Africa as “the other world” (Achebe, “An Image of Africa”, 1978, p.15)2. Joseph McLaren claims that Things Fall Apart was written “at a time when the most prevalent works of fiction about Africa were written primarily by Europeans”3 (Joseph McLaren, 2012, p.19). Majumder alludes to E. B. Tyler, an anthropologist, whose work is believed to be objective. Tyler writes the tourists, after reaching the impassable countries [in Africa] and seeing no police system available in their own countries, come to the direct conclusion that the cannibals live there as their 2 C. Achebe. (1978). An Image of Africa, Research in African Literatures, 9 (1), 1-15. 3 McLaren, Joseph. (2012). Things Fall Apart: Cultural and Historical Contexts In Critical Insights: Things Fall Apart. Ed Keith Booker. Massachusetts: Salem Press, 19. Print. 10 wishes. We think it is a wrong belief, because, in these ‘uncivilized’ countries there are severe rules and regulations in each stapes of life4 (Majumder, 2007, p. 137). Achebe’s objectives are obvious from the beginning; he wrote to teach and to disintegrate the prepositional vision Europeans had of Africans. The novel has gotten much consideration among critics for this reason. McLaren writes that “[b]y portraying the cultural life of the Igbo […] Achebe was able to counter Western images of Africa” 5(Joseph McLaren, 2012, p. 24). Furthermore, Alison Searle observes that “Achebe scrupulously creates the sense of a rich and coherent social fabric that has formed its own ideas about whites and their culture”6 (Alison Searle, 2007; p.49). She continues to contend that Achebe rotates the narrative perspective from what had formerly been the standard: “Instead of gazing through the eyes of the European, the text displaces the assumptions of imperial narrative, and grants the terms of reference and mediating perspective to the usually suppressed ‘other’. 2. Literature Review The main goal of Chinua Achebe was his society, more exactly, the fate of his people, they pertained as an authentic record of the changing African world. In his opinion, the writer must be in charge of his society. To him it was silly to consider art as a pure and independent being coming into existence by itself in an aesthetic void. Accordingly, his aim was to make his fiction an instrument of awareness seeking to elevate the social reality to a higher level because in the traditional African sense, art is in the service of man7 (Achebe, 1978, p. 9) and the artist is a representative of his community, behaving as the conscience of his society. So the literary artist should face the reality and direct his comrades to see themselves as others see them. Edward 4 Majumder, Samiran Guha. (2007). Africa: Ouponibeshik Bonam Uponibeshiter Chukhe – Prekhshit: Ram Nath Bishwasher Ondhokarer Africa. Uponibeshbad O Ouponibeshik Path. Ed. Fakrul Chowdhury. Dhaka: Raman Publishers. 127- 141. 5 McLaren, Joseph. Things Fall Apart: Cultural and Historical Contexts. In Critical Insights: Things Fall Apart. Ed Keith Booker. Massachusetts: Salem Press, 2012. 19-32. Print. 6 Searle, Alison. (1 (2007). The Role of Missions in Things Fall Apart and Nervous Condition. Literature and Theology. 21.: 49. LibHub. Web. 27 February 2017. 7 C. Achebe. (1978). An Image of Africa, Research in African Literatures, 9 (1), 1-15. 11 Said argues that “Most interesting post-colonial writers bear their past within them- as scars of humiliating wounds, as instigation for different practices, as potentially revised visions of the past tending toward a new future” (Edward, 1993, p.34)8. So it is through the visions of Things Fall Apart that the world turned out to be more appreciative of Africa and its people and at the meantime the reality embracing the stereotypical ideas that once existed about Africa started to surface in a much clearer light. 3. Methodology In this research the qualitative descriptive method has been used to achieve the set objectives of it; to identify The post-colonial reality in Chinua Achebe’s Novel Things Fall Apart. It is argued that this method is adequate because the results are introduced in a descriptive manner. Data has been collected from various sources, consisting of primary and secondary references. The research is limited to the selected novel of Chinua Achebe. The first step in this study lays down the theoretical framework. To do this, reference has been made to different sources that are related to the topic. Second, a review of previous studies in a synthesized manner has been done. Third is identification and description of the background of the novel that is under study, which preceded an in-depth reading of them. 4. Results and Discussion In the writing of Things Fall Apart, Achebe portrays the history of Igbo; he does so by depicting both the straightness and weaknesses of their culture and traditions that made them distinct from Western cultures like their beliefs in the power of ancestral gods, the killing of twins and the persecution of women to name a few. In the novel, the reader is also made aware of the white missionaries’ coming into Umuofia as well as the responses of Igbo to their arrival. Although the arrival of the missionaries had a few advantages to Igbo, there were also a lot of challenges that faced the religious, political, cultural and economic reality of Igbo. 8 Edward Said. (1993). Culture and imperialism. New York: Knopf. 12 4.1 The Post- Colonial Political Reality The Political Reality was highly changed by the Europeans. In Africa, there was an elected council that served as government. Their government was more or less democratic. When the Europeans told the countrymen of the king that would now be their ruler, the Africans thought it was bizarre. They attempted to tell the European men about their council, but the white men simply neglected it. They declared that the king possesses all land, and will permit the Africans to live on it because he cares for their matters. The Africans thought this was abnormal because they had worked and struggled highly for their land and it was theirs. Although colonial rule was unpopular with most of the locals, some widely cooperated with the Europeans for certain benefits. Some were thankful to the Europeans for freeing them from slavery and war. Others considered that the Europeans taught Africans competences that would enable them to be improved socially and economically. The white men also imparted a government and “[t]hey had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance”9 (Achebe, Things Fall Apart, 1958, p. 164). The District Commissioner comes into a foreign country and randomly begins establishing new laws that the natives must comply, and if they reject to obey them, they are condemned to jail where they are addressed as slaves. Men could be rebuffed and discarded in jail for tossing twins into the evil forest, although this was a habit that had to be practiced by the principles of their own society. Men of title and who are of high respect in the towns are held as slaves for disobeying the white man’s rules and are obliged to serve personal missions for the District Commissioner like gathering wood and clearing the compound. Disregarding and disrespecting highly honored men. The white man's government plays a vital role, not only with its court and its "court messengers" but also with its jail and its executions. These transformations are narrated by Achebe in a sarcastic mode, as if the foundation of a government by the white missionaries was the Igbo’s' first meeting with government, as if the Igbo did not have a justice regulation before the coming 9 Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. New York: Random House, Inc. New York 13 of the colonizers. This way is very cynical because, earlier, Achebe made great efforts to clarify not only the diversities of justice parcel out by the Oracle (Okonkwo's expulsion) and by the general citizenry (scolding about violating the Week of Peace and about women not helping in the recuperation of a lost cow), but he also shows the procedures followed and the sorts of justice implemented by the formal court. Keep in mind that one of Achebe's objectives in writing this novel was to show that the Igbo had built up an advanced society, religion, and justice system long before the Europeans came. By hiring other locals African - the kotmas, or court messengers- to be their agents in the everyday requirement of their dominion, the white men carry into their interest people with skin color and language characteristics much like the local natives; people who appear to be companions of the countrymen (though their dialect was clearly different). Eventually, the court messengers manhandled their status by abusing prisoners and taking briberies. Achebe is explaining that defilement among the Igbo people isn't restrictive to Umuofia; the court messengers are more concerned in what they can benefit from the situation rather than what they can do to spread Christianity or even to help the Umuofians. The court and the troubles it creates to Igbo society explain the collision of two societies and the overwhelming effects of colonizing a country. On the one side, there is Igbo society, its traditions and habits, which, according to Syed Fagrutheen is “heavy in traditions and laws that focus on justice and fairness” 10( Syed Fagrutheen, 2014, p.22). On the other, there is the new government of the missionaries who arrived to execute their own laws and traditions, which divides the village of Umuofia. When Okonkwo reveals to Obierika that his mate Umuofians should fight against the British, Obierika wisely comprehends that it is too late. Many Umuofians have already "joined the ranks of the stranger." Obierika says that the white man "has put a knife on the things that held us 10 Fagrutheen, Syed. (2014). Downfall of Traditionalism in Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. The English Literature Journal. 1(1), 21-37. LibHub. Web. 27 February 2017. 14 together and we have fallen apart" — the first specific acknowledgment of the book's title, Things Fall Apart. 4.2 The Post-Colonial Economic Reality Concerning the post-colonial economic reality, we can say that before European colonization, it can be clearly seen in the novel that the economy depended on farming which had a major impact in Ibo culture. The major harvests that Ibo people develop are yams. Yams went hand in hand with social class. The more yams that you have, the more regard and esteem you get from others. During the raining season yams are cultivated. The yams are held in tee-pee formed hills so that the rain has a trough for the water to flux around. Toward the end of the raining season and the close beginning of the dry season the yams are reaped and sold in the market. With the Ibo village the people would reap their yams and take them back to their compound and construct yam barns. By building the barns it guaranteed families a permanent food outfit during the dry season. Not only do the Ibo people depend on the yams to ensure food but they also depend on palm trees for their drink. They flip palm trees in order to get their drink. The result of this procedure is palm wine which is excessively drunk at ceremonies and casual dinners. The Ibo people respect extremely the earth since it gives them nutrition. The village plows and uses everything they grow indicating how much regard and appreciation they have for the earth. They don't underestimate anything realizing that the earth is not always going to be so open- handed and give them a plenty of nourishment for their starving families. Clearly in this pre- colonial period, manufacturing has not taken over and the Africans are maintaining themselves on subsistence cultivating which rotates around the idea that one should only produce enough food as one requirement for oneself. This encourages everybody in the clan to eat as much food as they need. Contrasted with the post-colonial Africa, the Marxist model has been deserted and a more industrialist approach has been adopted. Western companies motivate cultivators to plant much more than they require and to sell their merchandise on the open market. This goes in accordance with postcolonial criticism because Achebe refuses the concepts of universalism and that a universal ideal representation, such as excess goods being sold on the global market, is 15 applicable to all human beings. Because of the European conquest of the Achebe people, they have forfeited their freedom and their honor in choosing how to manage their own food, which is contributing to their decaying culture. Another literary critic, Gikandi, disagrees: ‘… the yam was essential to agricultural production among the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria, and that it had, together with palm oil, been a major part of the regional economy before the discovery of coal at Enugu. In those days it made sense to see African life as the movement from primitive (agricultural) practices to industrial production, and we were thus not interested in questioning the logic of this narrative of modernity’11 (Gikandi, 2010, p.4) Although Gikandi displays the importance of palm oil and yam in the Marxist economic system, he hikes up the “discovery of coal” as the propeller that causes the Igbo people to industrialize and lose their culture. 4.3 The Post-Colonial Religious Reality The religion of the community in Things Fall Apart is Igbo, but in this story, Christian missionaries come to convert the natives to Christianity. These two religions are very different. Since animals are frequently used as sacrifice, they support and simplify the natives’ religious traditions. This is not the only case of how religion is a natural element of everyday life to worshipers of the Igbo religion. In Achebe’s portrayal of the Igbo model, it is obvious that Okonkwo has the chance of expressing himself spiritually at home: “Near the barn was a small house, the ‘medicine house’ or shrine where Okonkwo kept the wooden symbols of his personal god and of his ancestral spirits” (13). Being spiritual and religious is essential for the whole society, because it “unites everyone into a clan, giving them a sense of purpose and attachment. Its religion connects the people to the heavens, the earth, and the land and places everyone in the social 11 Gikandi, Simon. (2016). Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Culture. Research in African Literatures 32.3 (Autumn 2001): 3-8. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 278. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Mar. 16 order”12 (Levine, 1999, p. 136). A clear example of this can be seen in the village’s communal meeting, where two families come before the Egwugwu to make a contention. The Egwugwu are villagers that dress up as masked ancestral spirits, each one substituting one of the nine villages of the tribe. No one realizes the identity of the masked ancestral spirits, but we understand that Okonkwo is one of the nine Egwugwu. The Egwugwu, which behaves like a court, permits both sides to defend their side and then they come to a mutually acceptable decision. The ancestors, or the living-dead, are principal personages in the Igbo community. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu demonstrates how the African community contains the dead, or the living-dead, since a person who has kicked the bucket “remains an active participant in the religious life of the community”13 (Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu , 2010, p.51). The Igbo communities organize ceremonies in their honour; the villagers sacrifice and respect them in their everyday lives, which can be exemplified by the breaking of the kola nut “As he broke the kola, Unoka prayed to their ancestors for life and health, and for protection against their enemies” (p. 6). This method of leaking the dead in the community is distinct from Western customs. In Christianity, it is normal to pray directly to God thanking him for blessing you with food and blessing the food you are about to eat. However, in Igbo religion you pray to your ancestors. The ancestors are still seen family members and are expected to affect the gods and goddesses in your grace, which is clarified in Things Fall Apart, where Okonkwo’s behavior towards the ancestors can be observed. He ratifies that the ancestors are able to influence the prosperity of his family: “He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-whine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children” (p. 14). Igbo society has an intense feeling of community and the community’s order is always in the service of the individual’s happiness. The priest of the earth goddess calls in on Okonkwo for beating his wife during the week of peace when furious because she has ignored her obligations as a wife and 12 Levine, Alan. ((1999). Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart as a Case Study in Nietzsche’s Transvaluation of Values. Perspectives on Political Science. 28(3), 136-141. LibHub. Web. 6 March 2017. 13 Asamoah-Gyadu, J Kwabena. (2010). The Evil You Have Done Can Ruin the Whole Clan: African Cosmology, Community, and Christianity in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Studies in World Christianity. 16(1), 46–62. LibHub. Web. 27 February 2017. 17 not cocked his meal, which could probably have destructive outcomes for the whole tribe: We live in peace with our fellows to honour our great goddess of the earth without whose blessing our crops will not grow. You have committed a great evil. […] The evil you have done can ruin the whole clan. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase, and we shall all perish. (p. 29). Even in punishment by the gods and goddesses, the whole community will be punished for the mistake of one person. On the other hand, in Christianity, there is one all-powerful god. This god is the eternal being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe God to be both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) and immanent (involved in the world). God for them is there to save them from their sins and to save them from this life. For the Igbo culture this is strange because this life and land is their whole life. A single god doesn't seem enough to them, especially when this god has no relation with agriculture and their traditions. As the missionary addresses the clan through a translator, he answers their questions about his belief. Two questions exhibit clearly the differences, firstly in relation to the monotheistic (having only one god) element of Christianity: An old man asked: ‘Which is this god of yours,’ he asked, ‘the goddess of the earth, the god of the sky, Amadiora of the thunderbolt or what?’ The missionary answers that plethora of gods the clan has, are not gods at all and there is only one true God: the God of Christianity. The second question were asked by another member of the clan about how they will be protected from the wrath of these neglected deities and the ancestors if they worship this new god. Then the missionary responds: ‘Your gods are not alive and cannot do any harm’, replied the white man. ‘They are pieces of wood and stone’. This is received by ridiculous laughter by the clan, because; for them their gods are absolutely not harmless. However, these two principal matters become incredibly interesting when we think about the effect of Christianity on tribal religion, as we can notice the massive gulf in understanding that exists between the two groups. The missionaries, by attempting to impose 18