Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
A Book Review
By Obi. O. Akwani MGV Editor
Okonkwo: A Life of Fear; A Life of Bravery
This summer (August 2005) I picked up Things Fall Apart, that famous
novel by Chinua Achebe -- first published 47 years ago in 1958 -- and
read it again, perhaps for the twentieth or perhaps hundredth time.
I do not remember the last time, before now, when I read that book,
but it had to have been at least twenty years ago. In any case,
Things Fall Apart had been a standard text for our high school
English literature class and that is more than 29 years ago. I
believe it is still the standard text for some schools in Africa.
I was not surprised that Achebe's novel still retained its power for
me. I read it this time with the mature critical eye of another
craftsman. I re-read the short, deceptively simple yet complete and
descriptive sentences and was once again captivated by the beauty of
this novelist's craft. Achebe's economy of words and ability to
convey complete ideas and create whole mind-pictures in the reader
make up part of his genius as a novelist. The whole tale of Okonkwo
is told in a dense 148 pages of concise sentences that hold-in the
gravity of a myriad of subject matter.
With just eleven words in the opening sentence of Things Fall Apart
-- "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even
beyond" -- Achebe had me hooked, imagining the nature of his
protagonist. By the end of the third paragraph, I had formed a
complete picture of Okonkwo the man -- physically, a "tall and huge"
fellow of a severe aspect on account of "bushy eyebrows and wide
nose." He is also a man of immense agility who walked as on springs
with his heels hardly touching the ground. Achebe describes him as a
man of quick temper who "had no patience with unsuccessful men." His
own father, Unoka, deceased for about ten years by the time we meet
Okonkwo, is one such unsuccessful men. We shall return to Okonkwo's
father later.
We meet Okonkwo at about the age of 38 at the height of his fame.
The foundation of this fame -- his wrestling feats -- are at least
twenty years behind him and he had added to them by showing
"incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars."
By the time he was 28 years old, Okonkwo was already a rich man --
"a wealthy farmer" with "two barns full of yams" and three wives and
had taken two titles.
Now nearing 40 Okonkwo was "one of the greatest men of his time."
Though he was still young, he had earned the right to associate with
the elders. "Age was respected among his people, but achievement was
revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could
eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate
with kings and elders." (p. 6)
As the novel quickly unfolds we slowly come to learn more about the
flaws and vulnerabilities of Okonkwo. The failings of this powerful
protagonist are wrapped firmly around the substance of his power,
contemporary fame and successes.
A Life Dominated by Fear:
Okonkwo's life was dominated by fear. This fear of being considered
weak or a failure propelled his drive for success. It was a
deep-seated fear of being like his father.
Achebe leads the reader to the understanding of how, due to this
fear, Okonkwo had become a man of fiery temper, impatient with less
successful men and unable to tolerate what he saw as weakness in
others. Some of the consequences of Okonkwo's temper are revealed
beginning in the second chapter. His family lived in perpetual fear
of his temper. In the fourth chapter it is related how he brusquely
cut down an untitled man who interrupted him during a clan meeting,
telling the man, "This meeting is for men." It was okonkwo's temper
that caused him to transgress the "Week of Peace" by beating up his
youngest wife, Ojiugo when she spent too long doing her hair and
missed setting out dinner for her husband and kids. For that
transgression Ezeani, priest of the earth goddess, fined him "one
she-goat, one hen, a length of cloth and a hundred cowries". During
preparations for the New Yam festival, a restless Okonkwo had found
an outlet for his restlessness by beating up his second wife, Ekwefi.
And when she made a snide comment about his marksmanship following
that beating, he had, in a rage, turned his gun on her and fired.
Ekwefi had escaped by scampering over a half wall before Okonkwo's
gun discharged.
The Ikemefuna Episode:
One major subject matter in Things Fall Apart revolves around the
episode of Ikemefuna, the ill-fated lad entrusted to Okonkwo's care
by the Umuofia council of elders. Ikemefuna was one of two young
people from neighbouring Mbaino, handed over by his people in
compensation for the death of "a daughter of Umuofia." This daughter
of Umuofia, the wife of one Ogbuefi Udo an elder, was killed while
at a market in Mbaino. Achebe doesn't say how she was killed,
whether accidentally or in a deliberate homicide, but the reaction
of the Umuofia people is made clear. They would make war - a war of
revenge - on Mbaino unless the later paid compensation in the form
of two of their own. Mbaino handed over the fifteen year-old
Ikemefuna and another teenager, a virgin girl, to Umuofia to avert
attack by the latter, reputed to be the more powerful community.
The virgin became a replacement for the dead wife of Ogbuefi Udo,
while Ikemefuna came to live as a member of Okonkwo's household.
Ikemefuna's stay in Okonkwo's home was supposed to be a temporary
arrangement -- until the clan decided what was to be done with him
-- but he ended up living as a member of the family for three years.
He became "wholly absorbed into his new family." In that time he
became a mentor and "was like an elder brother to Nwoye," Okonkwo's
first son who, in his father's disappointed view, was taking on
traits of his indolent grandfather. Under Ikemefuna's influence,
however, Nwoye blossomed. Ikemefuna made Nwoye "feel grown-up" to
his father's secret pleasure. "Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his
son's development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna."
After three years, Ikemefuna had begun to call Okonkwo 'father' but
the day came when the oracle pronounced on the boy's fate. Ikemefuna
was to be sacrificed to Agbala. On the appointed day, some men of
Umuofia including Okonkwo took the boy into the forest on a pretext
of taking him home to his people. Someone else inflicted the first
blow, but when the boy cried and ran to his 'father', Okonkwo
inflicted the fatal cut with his machete. Okonkwo was afraid to be
thought weak by his fellows if he showed compassion to the boy who
knew him as a father and so he killed the boy.
Okonkwo suffered for the act, but only barely. He did not eat for
two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He stayed drunk and could not
sleep at night. On the third day he forced himself to get over it
and went to attend the bride-price ceremony of a friend's daughter.
There they bantered and gossiped about current events.
Okonkwo in Exile:
When Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes during the burial ceremony
of Ogbuefi Ezeudu and a piece of shrapnel lodges in one of the
mourning sons of the dead Ezeudu killing him, justice in this case,
was exile for Okonkwo and his family and the razing of their home in
Umuofia by members of the Ezeudu clan, "dressed in garbs of war."
Okonkwo's seven-year exile is spent with his maternal relatives in
Mbanta.
Okonkwo, in exile, is a depressed man. Even though he lacks nothing
materially -- he has a home, farmland and ample seedlings, which he
has planted, courtesy of his uncle and cousins -- he still laments
his loss of place in Umuofia. "It was like beginning life anew
without the vigour and enthusiasm of youth..."
Tales of the White Man:
Two years into exile, Okonkwo is visited by Obierika, who brings
news of the arrival of white men and their destruction of a place
called Abame. The Abame people had killed the first white man who
arrived there on a bicycle (iron horse) after their oracle tells
them that "the stranger would break their clan and spread
destruction among them." Some months later, three other white men
came with a troop of soldiers and wiped out the Abame people. Both
Okonkwo and his uncle, Uchendu think the Abame people were fools not
to have taken precautions concerning the white man. Uchendu called
them fools for killing the first white man that came into their
midst. They should have tried to find out more about him before
deciding what to do. Okonkwo calls them fools for not preparing for
war, even after being warned that the presence of the white man
portended danger.
Another two years go bye. Obierika arrives for a second visit with
the exile. The presence of the white men had reached into Mbanta and
Umuofia. Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, had joined the white men. Nwoye was a
young man very much in the sensitive mould of his grandfather. Nwoye
has been sighted in Umuofia where the whites have built churches and
established missions from where to spread their gospel.
The End of Exile and Return to Umuofia:
The end of Okonkwo's seven years of exile draws near. The white men
and their Christian foothold have grown stronger. The Mbanta
community adjusts to the new situation. Okonkwo is contemptuous of
his mother's people's accommodating response to the ever-growing
strength of the new Christian community. Eagerly he makes
preparation for his return to his fatherland. He throws a feast
during which one of the elders in attendance makes a speech
commenting on the changes taking place in their midst due to the
arrival of the white men and the Christians.
"I fear for the younger generation... because you do not understand
how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to
speak with one voice... An abominable religion has settled among
you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse
the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter's dog that
suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. I fear for you; I fear
for the clan." (p. 118)
Before he returns to Umuofia, Okonkwo disowns his first son Nwoye
and enjoins the remaining five to stay faithful. In Umuofia he
discovers everything changed. Many men of title had converted and
joined the Christians. The White men had not only sought converts
and built churches, they also had set up a government and a court
system. It was a system that did not respect their traditions or
social order. Now the white men's prison in Umuofia held many titled
men and put them to menial labour, a condition that was clearly
beneath them. When an Umuofia man killed another in a land dispute,
the white men's government, with information supplied by their
Christian converts, supplanted traditional authority and hung the
killer.
Okonkwo is sad and perplexed by these changes. He does not
understand why his people had lost the power to fight. Obierika
tells him that it is too late to fight the way he (Okonkwo)
envisioned. Umuofia's own sons were among the ranks of the strangers
who uphold the white men's government. The white men say Umuofia
customs are bad and do not respect them; their Umuofia converts
agree and aid their destruction of traditions and customs. Obierika
muses:
"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. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act
like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and
we have fallen apart." (pp. 124-125)
The Umuofia Okonkwo returned to after exile was greatly changed from
the one he knew seven years earlier. Contrary to his expectations
the men of Umuofia had not dealt boldly with the white men and their
religion. He was in an increasingly small minority with his views.
Most of the others did not agree completely with the white men's
ways, but many were willing to compromise. Apart from their
government and religion, the white men had also built a trading post
in Umuofia. This made it possible for farmers to get good prices for
their palm kernels and other goods. With the arrival of a new
missionary in charge, Mr. Brown, the church had also learned to be
less confrontational, which gained them more attention. The
missionaries encouraged people to send their children to school so
that it would be their own people, not strangers, who manned the
many administrative openings in the white men's government in
Umuofia.
But Okonkwo was not moved by any of their arguments. He drove away
Mr. Brown when the later tried to pay him a visit after having sent
Okonkwo's son Nwoye to teacher training school in Umuru to the
south.
After Mr. Brown, a Rev. Smith, a man of markedly different
disposition, became the missionary in charge, and compromise and
conciliation gave way to confrontation. Things come to a head when
an ancestral spirit is 'killed' when Enoch, a convert, unmasks an
Egwugwu. This has never happened before. All the Egwugwus gather
and, in retaliation, Enoch's house is burnt down, the church is also
burnt down.
These acts of revenge were the sort of acts Okonkwo understood. For
the first time since his return, Okonkwo feels something close to
happiness. He and the other men of Umuofia do not want to be caught
unprepared like the people of Abame. They go about armed. The
district commissioner summons Umuofia leaders. They go. Okonkwo is
among them. It is a ruse. The men are surrounded, captured
handcuffed and jailed. They suffer humiliation. Their heads are
shaven and they are beaten. They will not be released until 250 bags
of cowries are paid for the burnt church and house. The money is
paid. They are let go.
A Final Act of Defiance and Despair
Later when Umuofia is at a meeting the DC's messengers arrive to
order the meeting dispersed. The angry Okonkwo confronts them, draws
his sword and beheads their leader. The rest run away. Umuofia does
not attempt to stop them. The meeting is disrupted. Okonkwo realises
that Umuofia will not fight. He cleans his bloody sword in the sand
and silently goes away. He is not seen alive again.
In a final act of despair, Okonkwo commits suicide by hanging
himself from a tree behind his house. Even in death, he was still
rejecting what his father, Unoka, stood for. Many years before, when
he was still a young and up-and-coming farmer Okonkwo had suffered
his first economic disaster in a general bad harvest. Most farmers
despaired in that disaster. One farmer in particular hung himself
after his livelihood was wiped out in the bad harvest. Then the
aging and ailing Unoka had comforted and counselled his son: "Do not
despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and proud
heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a
failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more
bitter when a man fails alone." (p. 18)
It was as if Unoka anticipated his son's destiny and sought to avert
it. Even though what confronted Okonkwo at last was a general
failure, it was a general failure that pricked his proud heart. He
had taken everything about the clan in a personal way and had acted
accordingly. It is certain that if Unoka's words came to him moments
or even hours before he raised his sword against the DC's
messenger, Okonkwo did not consider it. He had clung to a tiny
desperate hope that the clan shall redeem itself by following his
example to act like brave warriors. But that small hope was
disappointed. In the end he lost all faith in the world around him
and did not care to live in it any more. He took the general failure
of the clan personally and, like a martyr, chose to die alone.
His friend, Obierika, gave his final epitaph: "That man was one of
the greatest men in Umuofia..." Obierika told the district
commissioner who had come with a posse of men to arrest Okonkwo.
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