PORTRAYAL AND CRITICISM OF CULTURE AND SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS IN CHINUA
ACHEBE?S THINGS FALL APART
Victor S. Alumona
Introduction
Chinua Achebe's famous novel, Things Fall Apart (TFA), is an extended
reductio ad absurdum predicated on a premise derived from an ironic
twist on the name of the novel's dominant clan called Umuofia. In
short, the argument is that this is Umuofia, whose socio-political and
economic institutions are so well developed that they can compare
favorably with those of any other societies in the same epoch and level
of development, anywhere in the world. Thus, Achebe concludes, any
society so well developed and organized like that of his people cannot
be legitimately called Umuofia. From this perspective, this paper
argues, contra the traditional interpreters of TFA,1 that the novel is
neither a portraiture of the ideal Igboman as seen in Okonkwo,2 nor is
Achebe in the novel concerned mainly with the obsession with power and
its repercussions among his people even before, or at the inception of
colonialism.3 Rather, the novel is an indigenous portrayal and
criticism of the culture and institutions of a denigrated people with a
view to highlighting both their strengths and weaknesses, and without
any tinge of apology at all. I intend to show subsequently that Achebe
achieves this by building an argument and persuasive rhetoric around
the lives and careers of some dominant individuals and the operations
or failures of societal institutions; for instance, the family,
government, morality, law and order, diplomacy etc.
The Irony of the Name Umuofia
The dominant impression of an average African society in tile
literature inspired by tile prejudiced theories of the early
ethnologists and social anthropologists manifests in Joyce Cary's "Mr.
Johnson?.4 In describing a western Sudanese town Cary says, ?Its people
would not know tile change of time jumped 50 thousand years. They live
like mice . . . on a palace floor; all the magnificence and veracity of
the arts, the learning and battles of civilization go over their heads
and they do not even imagine them?.5 A people so described would easily
be called Umuofia, which literally means ?bushmen? in Igbo, with all
the primitivity that that connotes and conveys.
Given that in Arabic, bilad al Sudan means "the land of the blacks",
the description in Mr. Johnson appears to be representative of all the
black nations. Normally, in Igbo, the prefix, ?Umu?, to the name of a
town, clan, or village shows that the indigenes of the town in question
either believe themselves to have one progenitor or that they owe
allegiance to one central idea or concept. Hence, the name ?Umu-Odeju?
shows that indigenes of such a village believe themselves to be
descendants of ?Odeju?. Similarly, a village or town called ?Umudo?
could mean either descendants of a progenitor called ?Udo?, or one
whose inhabitants regard themselves as 'peace-makers', for ?Udo? also
means ?peace? in Igbo.
In view of this, the name ?Umuofia? has two parts?a prefix ?Umu? and a
suffix ?Ofia?. The prefix can mean, ?people from?, indicating nativity,
i.e., a place of origin, or it could mean ?people showing collective
subscription to one ideology? which the suffix connotes. In the present
case, the suffix ?Ofia? means 'bush' in Igbo. So, in essence, Umuofia
means ?people from the bush? or ?bush people?. Hence, Achebe
consciously6 adopts the pejorative stance of tile western
anthropologists: he describes his people as ?Umuofia?, and subsequently
reduces that appellation to absurdity by weaving description,
exposition, rhetoric and argument, around interrelated plots in the
novel under consideration. How he does this is what I endeavor to show
in the remaining parts of the paper.
Cosmology and Rebellion in Things Fall Apart
One cherished attribute among the people of Umuofia is cohesive
community life. It is actually the destruction of this cohesion by an
?abominable religion?,7 and an external government that gave the novel
its title. The overt expression of this cohesion is the ?week of peace?
which Okonkwo broke and was punished by Ezeani. This social cohesion is
predicated on a world-view and religion according to which Chukwu is
the creator of ?heaven?, i.e., the sky or the sublunary world, and the
earth. Chukwu is worshipped through other lesser gods such as Amadiora,
Ogwugwu, and Idemili, etc. These are really, to my mind, deified
natural forces that could either be benevolent or malevolent depending
on circumstances.8 Apart from these, there is also ancestor worship.
The deceased elders of the family or the community are regarded as yet
alive but in the underworld or the spirit world from which they oversee
the affairs of their erstwhile families or community. There is a
communion between the living and the departed members of the family or
community through sacrifices by the former, and through oracles and
divination by the latter. On special occasions, the ancestors re-visit
the members of their community as masquerades.
Moreover, it is also believed in this worldview that there are other
contending forces and spirits in nature and society: fortunes and
misfortunes, ?ogbanje?, wars and pestilence. There are also such other
violent emotions among men in society, as love and hate, fear and envy,
intrigues and treachery etc. It is believed that an individual
endeavors to succeed in life by actualizing his destiny, or a community
strives to realize its goals and aspirations by contending with other
communities or individuals. In order, therefore, to enhance one?s or a
community?s chances of success, supernatural forces are either invoked
or appeased by using equally mysterious forces in the forms of charms
or amulets called Ogwu which sometimes can be deified and propitiated
as a god or goddess. Oracles can also be consulted to unravel a mystery
or the future as seen in the oracle of the ?Hills and Caves?.9
However, in the gregarious efforts to succeed either as a person or a
community, positive morality of intentions and actions must be ensured.
The custodian of morality is the Earth goddess?Ani. It ensures that no
indigene of a community takes the life of another for whatever reason.
Thus, Okonkwo had to be exiled for seven years after killing Ezeudu?s
son accidentally, at his father?s funeral, in order to propitiate the
land. In addition, this world view and religion sanctioned and
maintained such other beliefs and practices as, payment of ransom?two
persons for one life taken?human sacrifice, disposal of twin babies in
the belief that they were evil,10 the Osu Caste system, and the ogbanje
phenomenon, etc.
How these beliefs and practices were justified within the cosmology
and religion of the fiction bothered Achebe a great deal. Oftentimes,
he makes his characters question the rationale behind certain beliefs
and practices. That way Achebe is able to show that the people of
Umuofia had critical dispositions necessary for philosophical
reflection as seen in other apparently civilized cultures of the world.
How the author does this in the novel we shall see later.
Economy and Economic Relations
In the novel, Umuofia is depicted as having an economy in which
economic activities and relations have advanced far beyond the
itinerant, fruit-gathering type that the early ethnologists and
anthropologists attributed to Africans. The Umuofia economy is a
monetary one in which trade-by-barter has been greatly reduced. As
such loans could be obtained and repaid as exhibited in the Unoka-Okoye
episode in the fiction. Commerce has developed to such an extent that
there are markets and expectedly, the existence of traders or merchants
as a social class.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of Umuofia, and thus the
people have a symbiotic relationship with both land and environment.
This then explains the religious importance of Ani (Earth), which is
regarded and worshipped as a goddess that has regenerative potency. The
agriculture is mainly of the shifting, sedentary compound cultivation
type, which is practiced with some rudimentary scientific knowledge.
This is evident in the ways and manners the weather is watched, the
time farms are cleared and cultivated, and also the ways Okonkwo
endeavored to care for his yam tendrils during a prolonged drought.
Moreover, the agricultural economy is such that a determined farmer
does not need to have inherited barns of yams from his father; he could
succeed as well by being a sharecropper. This is what Okonkwo did when
he approached Ogbuefi Nwakibie to borrow seed yams.
Now, the terms and phrases as well as the complexity with which a
particular language renders economic relations and their overt
expressions in the lives of individuals in society usually indicate the
level of development of the society whose language it is. The economy
of the community depicted in TFA is not only a developed one; it is
inscribed in a complex web of socio-economic relationships.
It is apt to point out that the Igbo society described in the novel is
a shame culture and a contest society.11 In a shame culture, ?the
important tiling is to be successful in one?s enterprise and to be
judged so by others, rather than having a good conscience.?12 It is a
culture in which the cliché: ?Success has parents, brothers and
sisters; failure is an orphan,? is apt and relevant. In other words,
?merit and excellence are reckoned less by intentions than by results.?
13 In such a culture, success is noble and failure shameful
irrespective of the circumstances. Achebe captures the essence of this
culture by informing us that ?? among this people (the Igbo) a man was
(is) judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of
his father,?14 and that ?age was respected among his (Okonkwo) people,
but achievement was (is) revered.?15 In other words, ?If a child washed
his hands, he could eat with Kings?.?16 It is shameful in such a
culture as the Igbo one to be an ?agbala? ? a man who had taken no
title ? like Unoka (Okonkwo?s father whom he detests down to his
marrow) and Osugo whom Okonkwo slighted in a kindred meeting with the
comment ?this meeting is for men..? In a shame culture, failure is
bearable when it is the lot of many more persons. Otherwise, in Unoka?s
words, ?it is more difficult and bitter when a man fails alone.?17
By virtue of being a shame culture, the Igbo society of the TFA and
even nowadays is also a contest society. In principle it is an open
society18 as seen in the economic structures and institutions for
decision-making. Individuals in the society are in obvious competition
with one another to get to and remain at the top of the socio-economic
hierarchy of the community.19 Personal success in a society like this
one attracts intense envy from the lowly and unsuccessful. This
explains why it is a social norm in the society of the TFA for a man
never to take the life of his compatriot whether deliberately or
otherwise. This norm forestalls indiscriminate hauling down of
achievers in a contest society by non-achievers like Unoka and Osugo.
Thus, the society depicted in TFA is both a shame culture and a contest
society. It is then not quite surprising that Okonkwo's ?whole life was
dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.?20
Family Values and Societal Morality
Achebe takes great care, and goes to great lengths, to show that,
although Okonkwo is polygamous, the family is nevertheless cohesive.21
Even the structural layout of huts in the compound shows that power,
protection, leadership and prestige emanate from the Obi and radiates
toward the other members of the family. It is a family in which any of
the wives could take care and charge of the children of another in her
absence, and commensurately, any of the wives or elders of the family
can send a child on an errand without taking prior permission from the
mother. These values are exemplified by the fact that Nwoye's mother
fed Ojiugo's children, as she did hers, when the latter went to plait
her hair and could not cook the afternoon meal for her children and
husband. Similarly, Ezinma, Ekwefi?s only surviving child, took fire
across to Nwoye's mother, and offered to make it for her before
returning to her own mother's kitchen to resume her chores. It is also
noteworthy that as he matured Nwoye could be sent for to perform some
of the difficult chores for any of his father's wives, and not
necessarily his own mother.
When Okonkwo wanted to pass his feelings regarding his daughters'
suitors, he talked to Ezinma who in turn talked to Obiageli, her half-
sister, and secured her consent not to marry any man in Mbanta. This is
because the family cohesion affords her the chance to exert influence
on the other children of the family.
Furthermore, Nwakibie was a great man of rank in the society who had
three wives. But only Anasi, the first wife, wore the anklets of her
husband's titles.22 This shows the locus of.power and respectable
authority among the women in the compound. In Okonkwo's compound,
Nwoye's mother occupies a similar position. So in the absence of a man
or any other male that could take charge, the women knew who should
take immediate charge ? showing the cohesive nature of the average Igbo
?nuclear? family.
Even adherence to etiquette ensures that this cherished family
cohesion is maintained. For instance, when called to the Obi to be
given palm-wine brought by visitors, the younger wives of Nwakibie had
to stand aside waiting for the first wife to arrive and drink first. It
is also noteworthy that in a gathering of people, not just anyone
shares things out among them. The youngest in any gathering does so.
Achebe also carefully shows the premium placed on marital bond and
life-long mutual dependence between husband and wife in the story told
of Ogbuefi Ndulue and his wife Ozoemena.23 In the words of the
perceptive Obierika, ?it was always said that Ndulue and Ozoemena had
one mind . . . I remember when I was a boy; there was a song about
them. He could not do anything without telling her.?24 Even though
this extolling of strong mutual marital bond draws skepticism from a
conservative like Okonkwo regarding the manliness of Ndulue, the author
has made his point?family cohesion and life long mutual bond and
dependence is a cherished Igbo family value.
Now, moving away from family life into the village and even across the
clans, there are ceremonies, feasts and events used by this people to
maintain family ties. An example is the Uri ceremony at which a suitor
entertains the villagers of his bride. Apart from this, Uri is used to
draw in other families, especially women, to share in the joy of a
family that has successfully raised a maiden fit for marriage. Women
and children are invited to help in cooking and rendering other
services relevant to the ceremony.
Secondly, feasts like the new yam festival are used to maintain not
only village or clan unity, but also healthy relations and mutual bonds
between in-laws as related by the hyperbole of the yam foo-foo set
before in-laws.25 Daughters of a village married away to other villages
or clans have an avenue to meet as a group through the institution
called Umuada in order to perform some vital duties like settling
quarrels or mourning in their families of origin.
Moreover, Achebe also endeavors to show that even though the Igbo are
predominantly patrilineal, maternity is not only sacred but also very
important in the life of an Igbo. It is as if a son is raised by his
father to be a worthy participant in the life of the society, but is
rehabilitated by his mother or mother?s family when danger or
misfortunes strike. This is the whole point of Okonkwo spending seven
years of exile among his mother?s kinsmen. He was not tried for
homicide, convicted and sent to jail for seven years. Rather he was
given an opportunity to re-evaluate his life, make amends while still
living a normal life with the full complements of his family.26
However, this cohesive family so much extolled in the novel had to
thrive in the community, and the community in the clan, in accordance
with established morality. Some principles of this morality are
highlighted in the novel. The first among these is the principle of
accommodation: ?Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one
says no to the other, let his wing break.?27 This principle justifies
my claim that the Igbo society of the TFA as well as today?s Igbo
society is a ?shame culture? in which visible success is revered, and
individuals go to any length to achieve it nowadays. This principle is
therefore primarily important in order to discourage unfair and
virulent competition especially as a shame culture is normally a
contest society.
Complementary to this moral principle is a taboo according to which a
clansman cannot take the life of another in any way; hence, Okonkwo's
ostracization for inadvertently killing his clansman. This taboo is
also very important in a shame culture in order to prevent feigned
accidents through which a person can eliminate his competitor. In
addition, there is the etiquette which demands that one who sets an
edible item before another taste it first. When Okonkwo took wine to
Nwakibie to solicit his help, ?the first cup went to Okonkwo, who must
taste his wine before anyone else.?28 This is to assure others that
what is set before them, be it palm-wine, kola-nut, or tobacco snuff,
etc., has not been poisoned.
In certain conservative settings, even wives taste food set before
their husbands, especially in a polygamous family. Allied to the above
is the principle of teleology or purposive action: every action has a
purpose given that ?a toad does not run in the day time for nothing?29
(it is either that it is pursuing something or something is pursuing
it). Since every action leads to an end, the intention behind which is
not always obvious, caution is enjoined on all and sundry: ?Eneke the
bird says that since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has
learnt to fly without perching.?30 This I call the principle of caution
or cautionary action.
In the novel there are glimpses of the people's sexual morality. For
instance, the Isa-ifi ceremony31 performed on behalf of Umuada (council
of daughters) by the eldest of them is used to ascertain the fidelity
of a bride to her suitor since betrothal. Similarly, premarital sex
seems not to have been encouraged given the description given of Akueke
who was being married-off.32 However, Ezeani, who upbraids Okonkwo for
violating the ?week of peace? by beating his wife said: ?Your wife was
at fault but even if you came into your Obi and found her lover on top
of her, you would still have committed a great evil to beat her.?33
Reading the lips of Ezeani one is at a loss about how to view the
statement. It could be a way of stressing the enormity of Okonkwo's
action.34 But at the same time, it could also be a reflection of a
subdued practice that allows married women to have lovers. One's
suspicion that this could have been the case is heightened by the story
of how Okonkwo married Ekwefi eventually: she ran away from Anene, her
first husband, to Okonkwo in circumstances that seem to permit a kind
of sexual permissiveness for married women.35 This view does not,
however, cohere with the isa-ifi ceremony and the premium placed on
sexual abstinence before marriage. Neither does it fit into
contemporary Igbo life in many places. Perhaps it is one of those
liberties an artist takes in creating a work of fiction!
There is also a set of moral rules used to protect farm crops from
wilful destruction. For instance, anyone who carelessly lets loose his
hoofed domestic animals on another's farm pays a fine.36 The purpose of
all these rules is to produce a society in which a man can maximize his
abilities without let or hindrance in pursuance of some obvious goods:
wealth, health, children, social relations and prestige, long life,
etc.
Rites of Passage
One mark of an advanced culture or civilization is the way it
celebrates the human life cycle: birth, growth and death. Apart from
birth, Achebe, in the novel, gives details of the Igbo account and
celebration of maturation and death. At maturity, a maiden is given
into marriage through an established process, as seen in the case of
Akueke, that dignifies the bride and groom's families, involves the
whole immediate community and consequently validates the marriage. It
is clear that marriage among this people was not by capture or seizure
of the bride as some primitive tribes are wont to do.37 At marriage, a
woman not only becomes a wife in her husband's homestead, but also
automatically joins the council of daughters, Umuada, of her kindred.
On the other hand, a young man at marriage inaugurates his own compound
and Obi as well as his own ancestral shrine. He carves out his own
farmlands from which proceeds he creates his own barn. Thus, he ceases
to be an ?agbala? and can subsequently initiate himself into the Ozo
society and masquerade cults.
Death is undesirable; but without it, there would not be ancestral
worship, which is a vital aspect of Igbo cosmology. So, the death of a
successful man like Ezeudu, who lived to a ripe old age, and thus
passes as a model of a fulfilled life, is announced carefully but
steadily by different connotations of the ekwe sound. Thereafter, there
is a dignified celebration of his passage from earthly life to the life
of the world beyond. In essence, therefore, there is no absolute death.
38 The efficacy of this belief is shown in the fact that it was at
Ezeudu's funeral that Okonkwo tactlessly violated a taboo that sent him
into exile for seven years, in much the same way as he tactlessly
disregarded Ezeudu's advice and warning not to have a hand in
Ikemefuna's sacrifice because the boy called him father. So, whether
alive or dead, the words of a virtuous wise man abide, and one
disregards them to his utter peril.
Similarly, there is the tacit passage from ?the dead? or spirit world
to healthy earthly life as described in the digging up from the bowels
of the earth of Ezinma?s iyi-uwa, i.e., the string that linked her to
the kindred Qgbanje spirit. Having broken that cord, she ceases to be a
tormentor child to her parents by her hitherto unbroken cycle of
reincarnation.39
Government. Judicial System and Diplomacy
One other aspect of Igbo culture highlighted in the novel through
interlocking plots is its republicanism anchored on an egalitarian
spirit. This republicanism works through certain organs of governance.
The highest of the popular organs of governance is the clan assembly,
which is the apex decision-making body. It declares wars and makes
peace. However, the inner caucus of this assembly is the body of
?ndichie? literally, the ancients: men who have taken the highest
titles in the land, priests of various categories and lineage heads.40
On his return from his embassy to Mbaino, it was to this body that
Okonkwo reported and delivered for appropriate disposition the ransom
he collected (Ikemefuna and a virgin girl).
Below the clan assembly and ndichie comes the Umunna-kindred meeting
at which family matters were discussed. It was at such a meeting to
decide the next ancestral feast that Okonkwo committed hubris41 by
insulting Osugo who contradicted him with the condescending remark:
?This meeting is for men.?42 Even at the height of his power and fame
the kindred meeting could force Okonkwo to apologize to Osugo, and the
eldest man had to forcefully remind him: ?those whose palm-kernels were
cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be
humble.? This remark, in my opinion, brings out the significance of
Okonkwo?s hubris.
Hence, in Umuofia, decisions on important matters are not taken
capriciously. However, Achebe hints that such an assembly, like the
clan?s, which works like the ecclesia of typical Greek city state say,
Athens, could be swayed this way or that way by the power of oratory
into hasty or wrong decisions on sensitive issues like declaring a war
or making peace. This explains Okonkwo' s apprehension of Egonwane's
rhetorical prowess and influence on the fateful day it was to decide on
either war on the white man and his socio-political structures or
benign acquiescence in the new religion and government.
The decisions of the assembly, especially those pertaining to
declaring war on another town or making peace with it, were moderated
by a transcendental religious authority?the oracle of the Hills and
Caves. It always ensured that Umuofia never went to war unless its case
was clear and just.43 Given this kind of check on the decisions of the
clan assembly pertaining to such important matters as war and peace,
the type of rash decision taken by the Athenian assembly in 428 B.C. on
the fate of the male population of the revolting city of Mytilene,44
would be avoided easily.
In diplomacy before war is fully declared, even after the oracle has
sanctioned it, Umuofia would issue an ultimatum within which the
offending clan or town was expected to choose war or peace. If the
latter is chosen, then ransom must be paid for the unjustified
provocation, or harm done to the community. Thus, the lad Ikemefuna and
a virgin girl were collected by Okonkwo, the emissary of Umuofia, as
ransom for the murder of Ogbuefi Udo' s wife. Overall, it was made
clear in the novel that Umuofia had the principle of just war and when
it was necessary, waged it in accordance with the notions of civilized
behavior.
It was also emphasized in the novel that Umuofia had a judicial system
in which the Egwugwu, masquerade cult, was the highest judicial body.
In the case between Odukwe and others, a person in the crowd wondered
why ?such a trifle? as the dispute between husband and wife, ?should be
brought before the Egwugwu?. This suggests that there were lower levels
of adjudication that could have handled the litigation.
However, the masquerade cult, in administering justice, does so in
accordance with the principle of fair hearing. ?Your words are good,?
said the leader of the Egwugwu. Let us hear Odukwe, his words may also
be good. Similarly, in delivering judgment, the judicial systems aim at
a balance or harmony and not at a bi-polar divisive declaration of
innocent/guilty parties. Judgment aimed at what the Greeks called
equipollence of arguments pro and contra on issues, especially family
matters: ?We have heard both sides of the case... our duty is not to
blame this man or to praise that, but to settle the dispute.?45 This
equipollence of arguments is necessary for the attainment of balance or
harmony, which is a principle of existence that this people valued and
was guarded by Ani, the Earth goddess.
In order to achieve this harmony in the society through the judicial
process and pronouncements, the Egwugwu used a quasi-jury system: ?The
nine egwugwu then went away to consult together in their house.?46 This
manner of delivering judgment after hearing a case is quite congruent
with the republican and democratic ideals of the culture and people as
epitomized in the various levels of governmental structures, but
especially the manner of decision-making in the clan assembly?by
consensus after a reasonable debate on the matter, pro and contra.
Entertainments and Leisure
Even though the culture is one in which ?solid personal achievement?
through dint of hard work is a leading ideal, the novel commences by
showing a hilarious people agog with joy at watching a wrestling
contest, which is a part of the greatest of their festivals -- the new
yam festival. Soon after, we are introduced to a man given to music,
play, leisure and story telling, although not the stories of violence,
war and blood. Through him, we are told how various groups learn their
music and dance.
We also see that among this people most events have entertainment
dimensions to them. This is evident in marriages, funerals and other
rites of passage. Even ordinary welcome gesture to a visitor, and the
rituals of breaking kola-nut presented to him, is suffused with
proverbs and aphorisms that could cause bellyaching laughter. A mere
request for a favor could be turned to merriment easily. It is worth
recalling that when Okonkwo went to Nwakibie to borrow seed yams, he
took palm wine. Soon after his arrival a jolly company was formed and
an ordinary request was turned into a light-hearted session of jovial
friends.
Summary
From the foregoing detailed commentary and discussions on the societal
institutions and cultural values and ideals carefully portrayed in the
novel, Things Fall Apart, it could be conveniently maintained that the
Umuofia appellation, with its primitive connotations, used by Achebe to
describe the Igbo people and culture of the time, is ironical, which
when not understood as such, makes the surface meaning quite absurd.
This is because the society so described and regarded has the social
institutions, cultural ideals and values characteristic of civilized
societies on common historical platform and economic development. The
author endeavors to make just this point, for purposes of reasserting
the unique identity of a misunderstood and thus erroneously denigrated
people, but he nevertheless distances himself from his people's
civilization. This he does in order to peer into it with a rational and
critical insight that enabled him to raise questions about certain
assumptions and fundamental beliefs of his people. How this was done
with a kind of philosophical disposition and detachment is examined in
the next section.
Criticism of Culture and Societal Institutions in Things Fall Apart
One super-structural dimension to the people's culture that is
subjected to critical appraisal in the novel is the cosmology or world-
view. Ancestral worship is the first to be rationally and critically
weighed in the tale of Obiako and his deceased father: Obiako had gone
to consult the oracle which said to him, ?Your dead father wants you to
sacrifice a goat to him.? But Obiako retorted, ?ask my dead father if
he ever had a fowl when he was alive.?47 The import of this challenge
is far-reaching; it stresses the point that people should not require
from others more than they deserve. Moreover, the belief that places
excessive demand on the living in order to satisfy the dead is
fundamentally challenged. Meanwhile, Obiako' s defiance raises the
question about the powers of the ancestors over the living. Inasmuch as
it cannot be conclusively proved that they have or have not powers over
the living, Obiako stresses that reasonableness is a common attribute
of man whether dead or alive. Assuming that his father is alive as an
ancestor, he should be reasonable in making his demands.
The belief and practice pertaining to the ?week of peace? are also
critically assessed in the novel through the reflections of the wise
Ezeudu. Erstwhile violators of the week of peace were dragged on the
ground round the clan. This practice was dropped later as a form of
punishment because it was pragmatically self-refuting. The whole
principle and essence of the week of peace, i.e., harmonious
neighborliness, was negated by the practice. Through that insight, it
was highlighted that practices must be consistent with beliefs
otherwise the rationality of such a belief is seriously doubted.
In addition, the idea that a man could be blamed for events over which
he has no control is criticized. ?In some clans, it is an abomination
for a man to die during tile week of peace? They have that custom in
Obodoani. If a man dies at this time, he is not buried but cast into
the evil forest. It is a bad custom which these people observe because
they lack understanding.?48 Apparently, why they lack understanding is
because the person who dies within the ?week of peace? has no control
over life or death. In view of this, he should then not bear the blame
for his own misfortune. However, rather than draw this conclusion,
Ezeudu, while reflecting on the matter, drew a startling one: because
the corpses of people who die within the week of peace are thrown into
the evil forest, the towns of these practitioners are filled with
wandering spirits. This deduction is consistent with the general
framework of the people's worldview, but deviates from the logic of the
reflection.
Furthermore, the cultural perception of the twin births as an
abomination and their disposal after birth is criticized by Obierika's
introspection after participating in the destruction of Okonkwo?s
compound because of the homicide of a kinsman. Obierika asked himself:
?Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed
inadvertently?? This was a puzzle for him. Perhaps more puzzling is the
killing of twins: ?He remembered his wife's twin children, whom he had
thrown away. What crime had they committed?? The only answer to these
questions for Obierika was a dogmatic one: ?The Earth had decreed that
they were an offence on the land and must be destroyed.?49 The same
Obierika in another context covertly questions this article of
religious faith.
In discussing the lkemefuna episode with Okonkwo after the latter had
recovered from his stupor caused by pangs of conscience after killing a
?son?, Obierika raises the question whether all divine commands must be
obeyed. His outright answer is no! Those that violate natural bonds and
enjoin discomfort for humans should be tolerated, or at best one can be
indifferent to them: ?But if the oracle said that my son should be
killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it.?50
The enormity of obeying such a command is seen against the background
of the introspective questions asked by lkemefuna himself as to how he
came to such an impasse. Was his father involved in the killing of a
daughter of Umuofia? Even if he was involved, ?is it justified? he
would have asked, ?for an innocent child to be used as a ransom?? He
could not understand what was happening to him or what he had done.51
So, how did he come to merit his fate? At best it was an arbitrary
decision and Achebe criticized it as such in the thoughts of the
innocent boy.
In like manner, the justification for the punishment meted out to
Okonkwo for the inadvertent homicide is also raised in the novel.
Achebe, speaking once more through Obierika, critically appraised the
custom or rule that demands that a man suffer grievously for what
obviously is not a premeditated murder. This is quite (rationally)
inexplicable. The only justification was that the Earth goddess decreed
it. An explanation for some of these obnoxious customs is that they
provide and protect public good, but exactly how this is so is not
clear.
The belief in chi and its influence on the fortunes of an Igbo is also
subjected to criticism in the novel. While at Mbaino on exile, Okonkwo
had to reflect on his chi and destiny. It appeared to him that despite
his vision to be a great man and his active pursuit of it through hard
work, he had suffered grievously just at the point of achieving it.
Perhaps, his chi is not cut out for great things, which if it is
actually so, negates the wisdom of the elders that says, ?if a man says
Yea, his chi affirms.? In his own case, he had said yea, and from all
indications, his chi was saying no!52
Furthermore, the belief in the Ogbanje phenomenon and the practices it
engenders like the mutilation of the corpse of a child suspected to be
an Ogbanje, are all criticized in the fiction. In particular, the
process of curing this Ogbanje by trying to break the wheel of
incarnations by soliciting the child's cooperation in tracing his/her
iyi-uwa is shown, one and all, to lack a scientific basis and thus a
poor diagnosis of disease. The people's naiveté in relying on a mere
child to lead the way in tracing the cause of his/her disease is
highlighted by way of criticism in the novel.
The idea of evil forest and the Osu Caste system especially are all
given pragmatic refutation in the fiction. The one, by showing that
humans stayed in the precincts of the evil forest for a month or so,
without perishing contrary to the expectation and belief that they
would perish in three days. The other, by showing that when they
abandoned their gods and shrines, and then ran into the new Church,
that they did not die and no further calamity befell them. Rather the
only thing they lost was their bondage.
Finally, the drive for material prosperity through solid personal
achievement, to the utter neglect of the intangible aspects of human
culture, is severely criticized. This is vividly achieved through the
portraiture of Unoka who ordinarily should win some awards as a
talented and ingenious musical artiste. Rather than this, he died a
pauper and abominably too. Even at that, Unoka chided his society for
neglecting what Achebe has called feminine values, music, story-
telling, fellow-feeling, good neighborliness, piety, virtuous living
etc, by taking along with him his flute while being taken away to the
evil forest to die despicably.
Okonkwo detested his father, and did everything in his power to deny
everything he stood for, and in doing so determined for himself a new
set of ethos for personal achievements, which sometimes ran contrary to
accepted mode of behavior. He, however, moved steadily to perdition.
His life is therefore a lesson and warning that no society or
individual prospers and endures in its prosperity that neglects
enabling virtues acquired through education and civilized behavior.
This warning is still pertinent to contemporary Igbo society that has
suddenly embraced acquisitive materialism at the expense of education.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have endeavored to show how Achebe went into great
details to reconstruct the workings of the societal institutions of his
people whose dignity colonials distorted and mortgaged. I also showed
how he used authorial criticism through words put in the mouths of his
major characters to criticize his people?s culture and way of life.
Overall, it can be concluded that the name of the dominant clan in the
novel, Umuofia, as a pseudonym for the Igbo, or African peoples for
that matter, is essentially a misnomer. For Umuofia?s import has been
reduced to absurdity by showing that the people to whom it was supposed
to apply possess all the societal institutions, culture, and reflective
intellectual tradition and disposition that should make it qualify as a
civilized society in the modern mold.
Notes and References
1This is the view of Umelo Ojimah (1999) in his book, Chinua Achebe:
New Perspectives (Ibadan: Spectrum Books).
2 On the BBC programme, ?Book Choice? of 30th August, 1996, Achebe
himself declared that ?Okonkwo was not an Igbo paragon. He was in many
ways a misfit. He was a one-sided man, neglecting the feminine aspects
of culture. He was too anxious to succeed.?
3 Some scholars believe that given Achebe's perception of the writer
or artist as a seer and teacher in his society he, Achebe, had been
concerned with the incidence of power: who has it, how he acquired it,
and how he uses it. Achebe is then considered to be pre-occupied with
this phenomenon in his fictions set in history like TFA, as he is
concerned with it in his near sociological exegesis, The Trouble with
Nigeria (Nairobi: Heinemann, 1983).
4 See the exposition on this book in ?The World of Chinua Achebe:
making of Things Fall Apart? Newswatch 3(12) March, 1986,11-17.
5 Quoted. in Newswatch 3 (12) March, 1986, p.1.
6 This claim is justified first in the context of the colonial epoch
in which the book Things Fall Apart was written, during which the
educated elite was the vanguard for the restoration of a robust self-
image, and the appreciation of the culture of the colonized people.
Things Fall Apart was, surely, an intellectual contribution to that re-
descriptive effort. Second, in the radio program alluded to in note 2
above, Achebe said, inter alia, that given the literature with which
his generation was fed at schools exemplified in Joyce Cary's Mr.
Jobnson, ?one had to tell his own story?. The story he told is Things
Fall Apart, in the first instance, and in doing so, I contend that he
appears to have consciously chosen the name ?Umuofia? to connote the
perceived primitivity of the Igbo people, a view he reduces to
absurdity by the civilization he reconstructs in the novel. This
argument is supported by the title the District Officer chose for his
new book after seeing the dangling body of Okonkwo. He entitled his
proposed account of the fate of this man ?The Pacification of the
primitive tribes of the Lower Niger?. Thus, I have not read the name
?Umuofia? literally as some may want to believe.
7 TFA, p. 118.
8 In much similar manner, the Stoics of the 4th/3rd century BC in the
Graeco-Roman world, allegorized natural forces and in consequence
identified them with the gods in the Greek Pantheon such that the whole
world as a dynamic continuum in which natural laws, especially those of
causal determinism, hold inexorably was called Zeus. Zeus was the
greatest of Greek gods.
9 The Greeks used Apollo's oracle at Delphi for similar purposes. See
Plato's Euthyphro where Socrates uses the revelation of this oracle to
explain the origin of the perception of him as the wisest man.
10 One justification for this practice was that, in the eyes of the
practitioners, wild and domestic animals only have their young ones in
numbers at the same time. So that the bearing of twins by a woman
brings her and her babies nearer to the class of beasts, debases
humanity, which is evil and should not be allowed.
11 See Alvin W. Gouldner, Enter Plato: Classical Greece and the
Origins of Social Theory (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963).
12 At least one strand of evidence supports my claim that the Igbo
society of the fiction is a shame culture: when Ezeani had commanded
Okonkwo to pay recompense to ani for violating the week of peace, his
subsequent demeanor is a classic posture in a shame culture: ?Inwardly,
he was repentant. But he was not the man to go about telling his
neighbors that he was in error? (TFA, p. 22). In other words, his
public image rather than the serenity of his conscience mattered to him
so much.
13 Gouldner, Enter Plato, p. 83.
14 TFA, p. 6. Here, Achebe takes a swipe at (Victorian) England and
contemporaneous European societies where a loafer like Unoka could
suddenly come into economic prosperity and limelight through
inheritance, but unlike Okonkwo who did through solid personal
achievements.
15 TFA, p. 16
16 TFA, p. 18.
17 TFA, p. 18.
18 However, the existence of Osu, outcasts, in both the fictional and
contemporary Igbo society, describes the limits of its egalitarianism
and thus casts doubts on this claim to openness.
19 This is clearly evident in the fact that while in exile in Mbanta,
Okonkwo was preoccupied with the thought of how to recapture his pre-
eminent position in Umuofia, and in consequence, planned his return
from ostracization in style: He would build bigger a compound than the
one he had before his exile, initiate his sons into the prestigious Ozo
society, and marry off his blooming daughters to worthy prosperous
young men etc.
20 TFA, p. 9.
21 The same ideal cherished by the whole society at large.
22 TFA, p. 14.
23 TFA, p. 47.
24 TFA, p. 48.
25 TFA, p. 26.
26 The victim of this arrangement is apparently Ezeudu?s son who lost
his life in the process of trying to accord his father his due last
rites as an eminent man in his culture and society. Much as he counts
as a person, the culture under consideration takes a collective view of
the matter and the focus now is on the community and its continued
survival. This has been endangered now by the manslaughter Okonkwo
committed which in the thinking of the people has desecrated the land
which must be cleansed. If the community continues after his
unfortunate death, then the individual must not have died in vain,
otherwise, both him, his name, that of his family, would have been
lost. Banishing Okonkwo, the mighty, is the least that could be done to
appease his (the victim) spirit.
27 TFA, p.14
28 TFA, p.14
29 TFA, p. 15
30 TFA, p. 16
31 TFA, p. 92
32 TFA, p. 49
33 TFA, p. 22, emphasis added.
34 TFA, p. 22 Even the oldest man can remember only one or two
instances of such a violation.
35 TFA, p. 76
36 TFA, p. 80
37 See F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the
State (Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1978).
38 cf. Socrates' defense of the immortality of the soul in Plato's
Phaedo
39 TFA, p. 53. Cf., the religious side of Pythagoreanism and the other
Pythagorean beliefs in transmigration and the wheel of reincarnation of
souls. See G.S. Kirk and J.E. Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers: a
Critical History with a Selection of Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1957).
40 Egalitarianism in this case should be viewed in terms of the public
space available to members of a particular society in which to express
themselves and actualize their potentialities. In this regard, using
egalitarianism to qualify a society becomes, somehow, a relative term,
such that given a gradation of openness, such societies as ancient
Greek society, the ancient Roman Republic and today?s American society
could each be described as egalitarian in its own epoch in the history
of human development. In the Igbo society of Chinua Achebe?s Things
fall Apart, women were quite visible in the very important affairs of
the community. Consider the prominence given to femininity by the
emphasis given to such a name as Nneka ?mother is supreme?. Also, when
Okonkwo became a persona non grata in Umuofia, he was allowed to be
rehabilitated by his mother?s clan. We should also bear in mind that
the ogwu that leads Umuofia to successes in their battles is called, in
a manner of endearment, agadi nwanyi (old woman). And in this regard,
women were the priestesses of many of the important gods of the
community. In connection with this we should recall the night the
priestess to Agbala, Chielo, came to take Okonkwo?s daughter (regarded
as an acolyte of Agbala) to visit the shrine, and Okonkwo as a man in
that village where he was almost supreme, dared not disobey the
priestess, but lamely trailed her at the back as she majestically
proceeded to the shrine of Agbala in the dead of the night. So it is
not correct to say that women were shut out in the society under
consideration, neither should what obtained in favor of women be
regarded as mere tokenism, for given the epoch under review, women were
quite visible in the society, and that is a measure of egalitarianism
41 This is a Greek term which connotes, among other things, undeserved
slight or careless disregard for a person by another usually more
successful than the slighted. Hubris includes the maltreatment of a
slave by a master, or a foreigner by an indigene. It is an offence
which the gods avenge on behalf of the subject of abuse. As Okonkwo's
life unfolded in the novel, he seems to have been punished by the gods
for his hubris against Osugo and other things including his tactless
killing of Ikemefuna. This interpretation is consistent with the public
perception of Okonkwo in the novel: ?And so people said he had no
respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said his good fortune had
gone to his head. They called him the little bird, nza, who so far
forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi.? See TFA,
p. 22.
42 Osugo, like Unoka, Okonkwo's father, is an ?agbala? who had taken
no titles and should really in consequence be classed among women. This
is the essence of Okonkwo' s allusion, which the eldest man in the
meeting caught and chided him for.
43 TFA, p. 9
44 J.B. Bury, A History of Greece: to the Death of Alexander the
Great, 3rd ed. (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1966), pp. 413ff.
45 See TFA, pp. 64-66.
46 TFA, p. 65
47 TFA, p. 15
48 TFA, p. 23.
49 TFA, p. 87
50 TFA, p. 47. This is contrary to Okonkwo's position that ?all
commands of the oracle must be obeyed? from which perspective he tries
to rationalize his killing of a boy he raised, who called him father.
This dialogue between Obierika and Okonkwo underscores the fundamental
question about the nature of theistic or humanistic ethics such as that
Socrates raised in the Euthyphro. It also raises the question as to
which is the predominant ethical disposition of the indigenous Igbo
people. From the reaction of Obierika to Okonkwo's conduct, and
Obierika's position in weighing the matter with his conservative
friend, I suggest that the Igbo have a predominantly humanistic, rather
than theistic, ethics. Although arguments could be raised by anyone of
a humanistic disposition to show that for this people, as for Socrates,
?genuine goodness is a unity?.
51 TFA, p. 11.
52 In appraising Achebe's essay ?Chi in Igbo Cosmology? in a different
context, I have argued that this dictum would hold only when a man is
reasonable about his ambitions and refrains from troubles and setting
for himself impossible tasks. Proper conduct in life will tantamount to
one's Chi saying Yea to his ambitions, otherwise, it would say no!
Somehow, in the novel, Okonkwo in many ways set for himself impossible
tasks, and consequently his Chi said no to many of them, but not for
want of trial and hard work. The point made here underscores my
contention that the Igbo have a humanistic ethics.
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