Power Structure and Corruption in Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart “Nkali. It’s a noun that loosely translates to ‘to be greater than another’” (Adichie). Chimamanda Adichie Power plays a large role in everyday lives. Power drives people to have more influence in things. Power is what sets up a civilization and it is what is needed to maintain the stability of the civilization, so it does not become vulnerable. In Chinua Achebe’s historical fiction novel, Things Fall Apart, the defined power structure in the Ibo culture is what ultimately weakens their culture to the outside influences of the British.
Select groups in the Ibo culture hold power. The select groups have a social hierarchy and in the clan they “‘have men of high title and the chief priests and the elders’” (Achebe 143). The wealthy and wise are the most influential people in the culture. Men can claim “only four titles in the clan” (123). Those with titles show off wealth and have a larger impact on the civilization. The Ibos also have the egwugwu who bring to life ancestral spirits that represent the villages of the clan.
It is a great honor being a person with power. Having a select few at the top leaves many at the bottom. Those at the bottom are left to find new options. When the new religion comes to the clan, “the low-born and the outcast” convert more often(174). The British come in and offer better lives to many opposed to continuing on unsuccessful paths and having limited impressions on the power structure. People of Umuofia consider those without power weak. The Ibo civilization considers women as inferior.
Achebe shows women as weak and uses them as insults, such as “agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title” (13). Calling someone an agbala is not only an insult but it is also a sign of failure. It is not only Okonkwo’s goal, but also many others to not look weak and to become successful. Not only is it important to collect titles but “it was right to be masculine and to be violent” (53). Men are supposed to be strong and show very little emotion, and the only emotion that they can show is anger.
After Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna he asks himself, “when did you become a shivering old women” (65)? He is upset with himself because he is showing emotion and signs of weakness. In the new religion, they accept women, outcasts, abominations, and the low-born. Christianity does not shut anyone out and it does not judge anyone by their personal strength only by the strength they have in their faith. The constant attempts in pleasing the Ibo gods contributes to the civilizations decline.
The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess” (Achebe 37). The Ibo people constantly live in fear that they would be punished by their gods and that their harvest would turn out unsatisfactory. At no time is this more evident than when Okonkwo beats his second wife during the sacred week of peace, which is a time between the harvest and planting season to please the gods. People in the society simply do the “justice of the earth goddess, and they were merely her messengers” (125).
They do whatever it takes to please their gods, but when it comes to certain things it leaves a few puzzled. Nwoye begins to search for answers when “the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed”. It ultimately leads to his and many others’ conversions to Christianity. In the British Christianity, it is said that “the same God created you and them”, and that he “who has promised everlasting life to all who believe in His holy name” and there was no more fearing the gods, only praising (157).
The Ibo culture has many questions attached to it and that leads to its vulnerability and ideal conditions for a new religion to thrive. A new religion can only flourish in a place where there is political instability or cultural fracturing. The power structures are vaguely held together and the missionaries are able to introduce Christianity and to add a sense of comfort and support spiritually, socially, and politically in the Ibo culture.
