Things Fall Apart’s Repudiation of Western Imperialist Views of Africa Africa is a continent that contains many individualistic, unique, and culturally independent countries, tribes, and people. However, Africa is conceptualized as a continent that is riddled with poverty and savagery. The misconception of Africa and its identity was induced by Western colonizers, that oppressed not only the colonized but also their culture and traditions.
The colonizers gave inaccurate, ambiguous, and self glorifying accounts of Africa. However, Achebe disregards these deceptive stories of his home, and strives to give a scrupulous and authentic view on Africa’s culture and traditions through his novel, Things Fall Apart. The novel Things Fall Apart contradicts the imperialist western stereotype of traditional African tribes and societies, through the aspects of Umuofia’s culture, governance, and cause of dysfunctionality.
In Lovesey’s interpretation of Things Fall Apart, he discusses how “Things Fall Apart’s reading of the past enacts historical instability and the provisional nature of all historical accounts, as well as the ways such accounts are changed and lost, rewritten and reinvented” (Lovesey 1). Lovesey’s argument is valid, but I believe Achebe does more than shake the strongholds of African stereotypes, he completely breaks them down, and makes room for the truth to burgeon. A vastly held stereotype of Africa is that Africans’ culture is illogical, imbecilic, and lacking any thoroughness.
Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness is an ideal example of the Western imperialist views that gave inaccurate accounts of African culture: “They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks—these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a mask wild vitality” (Conrad 22). Conrad epitomizes African culture with yelling and the wearing of masks instead of making an attempt to comprehend the purpose of the masks. He uses the connotative definition of masks, to portray African culture as tribal and savage.
However, Things Fall Apart gives a contradictory interpretation of African culture, by taking the initiative to decipher the rationale behind the culture of the tribe of Umuofia: And when, as on that day, nine of the greatest asked spirits in the clan came out together it was a terrifying spectacle. Even Mgbafo took to her heels and had to be restrained by her brothers. Each of the nine egwugwu represented a village of the clan. Their leader was called Evil Forest. Smoke poured out of his head. The nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan.
Evil Forest represented the village of Umueru, or the children of Eru, who was the eldest of the nine sons (Achebe 67). Unlike Conrad, Chinua Achebe takes the extra step to explain the rationale behind the use of the masks in the Umuofian culture, which gives the readers insight of the “explored the complexities of Igbo culture and the irrevocable changes brought on by colonialism in the late 1880s” (Victoria Gaydosik 1). Gaydosik argues that these irreversible post colonial views imposed on the minds of many, through the colonialism of Africa, have caused the minds of many to be simplify the complex and thorough cultures of the Africans.
Western imperialist views of Africa have given birth to the stereotype that African countries and tribes lack any form or sense of stable governance. “Africa the perennial problem with a constant focus on the ‘democratic deficit’ of Africa with reference to dictatorships and/or rigged elections. ” (Mahadeo and McKinney 1). They argue that the “single story” of Africa is that its countries and tribes are riddled with unjust and avaricious leaders, and lack the modern dogma of democracy in their governments.
Achebe metaphorically spits in the face of this stereotype with is illustration of the Umuofian tribe. Most modern civilizations have idiosyncrasies that conduce their government, whether it be culture, religion, political democracy, human equality, there are many characteristics of a people that contribute to the way they govern themselves. In Umuofia, culture and religion was the infrastructure on which their government was poised. Achebe’s purpose of this is to allow the readers to perceive Umuofia as a conventional and bourgeois society and in a way ne Umuofian society to modern Western countries.
And in fairness to Umuofia it should be recorded that it never went to war unless its case was clear and just and was accepted as such by its Oracle – the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. And there were indeed occasions when the Oracle had forbidden Umuofia to wage a war. If the clan had disobeyed the Oracle they would surely have been beaten, because their dreaded agadi-nwayi would never fight what the Ibo call a fight of blame” (Achebe 9). Not only do African countries and tribes have government systems that (thematically speaking) are homogenous to those of many Western imperialist countries, but they also have their own foreign policy!
Achebe betrays the stereotype that Africans engage in bloody violent wars without any vindication, and dares to excogitate that Africans may actually possess a frontal lobe! Dysfunctionality in Africa is usually accredited with the savage nature of the indigenous Africans. However, in most cases, such as Umuofia, the impetus for which dysfunctionality occurs are the Western imperialist countries. “The question asked is ‘what we in the West can do to help bring or encourage democracy in the continent.
The fact that many of the failed power structures are derived from Western origin, foisted on the continent at formal independence, is not mentioned as much” (Mahadeo and McKinney 1). Mahadeo and Mckinney claim that Western imperialist countries fail to take the well deserved responsibility for dysfunctionality in African societies. This argument is peculiarly accurate, many Western imperialist countries are so quick to commercialize the political and social instability in Africa, but are not willing to take responsibility for this instability.
In Osei-Nyame’s critical research essay of Things Fall Apart, he argues that “Umuofia is already weakened by internal cleavages and it is only when the processes of cultural breakdown intensify with the arrival of the white colonizers that Obierika, one of the greatest men in the society, affirms how the “clan can no longer act like one” and has “fallen apart” (OseiNyame 3). He believes that preceding cultural breakdown exacerbated by the white colonizers led to the eventual downfall of Umuofia, and since culture was the axiom on which Umuofian government stood; essentially cultural breakdown led to dysfunctionality.
When the Umuofian culture was threatened and intimidated by an exterior culture, the once so stable government was shaken at its core, which led to the dysfunctionality and eventual downfall of the Umuofian tribe. Osei-Nyame also argues that “Achebe’s early novels have been popularly received for their representation of an early African nationalist tradition that repudiates imperialist and colonialist ideology” (Osei-Nyame 1).
I feel compelled to agree with his rationale; Achebe makes the audacious choice to put the blame on the colonizers rather than the colonized, and in doing “causes fundamental, groundbreaking, instability in the commonly accepted historical narratives of Africa. Things Fall Apart serves a greater purpose than to expatiate a tale about a recalcitrant character, who opposes the intrusive superior authority. Instead, it paints a controversial historical account of the culture in African tribes and societies, defying the Western imperialist views that have dominated the minds of many.
Through Umuofian tribe, Achebe shows his readers that African culture is more than imbellic, and unthorough; instead, it’s complex, unique, and rational. He also dispels the stereotypes that African countries and tribes are savages with no sense of government, by showing the functionality and stability of the Umuofian government. Lastly, he disregards the blame that has story of Africa throu been put on Africans for their dysfunctionality by people like Joseph Conrad and the District Commissioner, and puts accurate blame on the colonizers.
In Achebe’s critical article about Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he states: “The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world” (An Image of Africa 4). His argument is that these Western imperialist accounts of Africa have remained the imperious Africa through many years. His argument is valid: these accounts have shaped and sculpted not only the peripheral and outsiders minds, but also the minds of many Africans today.
In one of his later expositions; The Novelist as Teacher, Achebe states, “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past—with all its imperfections—was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them” (Achebe 45). As an African that was always lugubrious and chagrined about my heritage and origin due to Western imperialist stereotypes, I can genuinely say with all sincerity that Achebe you have achieved your goal.