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Chapter One: Introduction
1.1. Introduction
This research proposes to discuss representation of Igbo Culture, Society and
Language in Chinua Achebe’s novels, namely Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at
Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the
Savannah (1987).In the last two decades of twentieth century “culture” has been
problematized in the fiction of Nigerian novelists in postcolonial perspective. Chinua
Achebe, a Nigerian writer, appropriated the colonizing west’s language and narrative
to present the colonial encounter from an African perspective. Interestingly, both
African and Non-African scholars believe that Achebe’s novels unconsciously
reproduced the essentialism that reduced Africa into a single complete discourse; a
total invention of African literary culture. By analyzing Achebe’s most read novels,
the study argues that Achebe’s works present a picture of NigerianIgbo culture as well
as western European culture. Achebe depicts Igbo culture as a part of transformation
after the impact of colonization. But the self-preservation of the natives is persistent;
and colonization is not atotal subjugation of the indigenous terrain. Igbo unity and
integration challenges Africa’s efforts in nation building. Achebe had also tried to
peep into the culture and society to show how Igbo land was socio-politically stronger
than other nations.
1.1.1.Review of Research and Development in the Subject
Postcolonial reading is a method of interpretation of literary texts that challenges
western ways of seeing things in which the voice of the people has been silenced.
Moreover, the existence of the colonial “other” has completely been psychologically
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developed. Postcolonial reading makes an effort to interpret the world from the point
of view of the marginalized. Postcolonial Literary theory and writing include works
from previously colonized nations and also rewriting colonial works from an
alternative perspective. The term ‘postcolonialism’ has been used in two ways.
Hyphenated term ‘post-colonialism’ denotes to particular historical period after the
fall of empire. Unhyphenated term ‘postcolonialism’ refers to various forms of
representations that protest and question against colonial authority. Unhyphenated
term is preferred by most of the theorists as it is more sensitive to the historical
experiences of the third world. The third world denotes the new independent nations
that were former colonies of imperial powers. In many ways, the Bandung Conference
of third world countries in 1955 can be called the beginning of postcolonialism.
Eleven years later Tricontinental conference held in Havana in 1966 brought together
the three continents, namelyAsia, Africa and Latin America. These continents met in
a meeting to discuss the resistance to the imperialism of the west. The writings of
postcolonial theorists and activists such as Amilcar Cabral, Frantz Fanon, Che
Guevara, Ho Chi Minh and Jean Paul Sartre were first time brought together in the
journal titled Tricontinentalof this conference. These theorists suggested an
alternative system of knowledge from the third world, different from the European
one. ‘Postcolonialism or Tricontinentalism’ for Robert Young “is a general name for
these insurgent knowledges that comes from the subaltern, the dispossessed and seeks
to change the terms and values under which we all live” (2003:20).
The inspiration for anti-colonial struggles against domination and oppression
across the globe can be traced back to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the
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Earthpublished in French in 1961. Frantz Fanon in this book describes psychological
aspects of colonialism and suggests using violence in struggle against colonialism. He
therefore means that through the process of violently seizing freedom and acquiring
political power, the native will be able to retrieve the self-respect that was damaged
under colonial oppression. Edward Said’s work Orientalism signals the development
of postcolonial studies. Orientalism, according to Said, is “a western style for
dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (2001:3). Said thinks
that European nations have produced a discourse called Orientalism that creates
knowledge about non European countries and people. Through these representations,
a hierarchy is created between Europe and the Orient in which east is represented as
inferior to west. These biased projections have an evil motive to legitimize empirical
ideology. This seminal work of Said paved the way to different textual analyses
looking for ways of subverting colonial ideology. Leela Gandhi holds the view that
postcolonialism “is a disciplinary project devoted to the academic task of revisiting,
remembering and, crucially, interrogating the colonial past” (2014:4). To
GayatriChakravortySpivak deconstruction is a strategy for negotiating the
postcolonial condition. Spivak thinks that “the political claims that are most urgent in
decolonized space are tacitly recognized as coded within the legacy of imperialism:
nationhood, constitutionality, citizenship, democracy, even culturalism” (Mongia,
2013:204). Spivak’s most important contribution to this discipline is her postcolonial
exposition of the status of women through the concept of ‘gendered subaltern’. The
postcolonial critic Homi.K.Bhabha’s views about postcolonialism can be traced in his
books Nation and Narration (1990) and The Location of Culture (1994). Bhabha has
made immense contribution to postcolonial studies by popularizing the concept such

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as ‘Mimicry’, ‘Hybridity’, ‘Ambivalence’ and ‘Other’. Aijaz Ahmad has discussed the
use and scope of the terms ‘postcoloniality’, ‘postcolonial’, and ‘postcolonialism’ by
the literary and cultural theorists during the 1980s. Stuart Hall views that ‘identity’ is
a very important term in the field of postcolonial studies.
Postcolonial literary theories and cultural analyses therefore consider the
world from the below, from the viewpoint of the marginalized. In the perspective of
such theoretical and methodological development on postcolonialism, the present
study will focus on analysis and interpretation of African Society, Culture and
Language in the novels of Chinua Achebe. This thesis will limit itself to the novels of
Chinua Achebe. It will focus on Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960),
Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah
(1987).
Chinua Achebe’s novel gives us ample amount of innovative and inventive
technique in the literary genres of his works. There are several research works
available on Achebe’snovels but the issues of society, culture and language in terms
of postcolonialapproach is not yet in detail explored and analyzed. The present work
on Achebe isthe conflict of culture, loss of cultural identity, social changes and
language as identity. The existing works have been written on Achebe’s novels by
NahemYousaf’sChinua Achebe (2010), Chinua Achebe(1990) by C. L. Innes,
Achebe’s World: the Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe
(1981) by Robert M. Wren, Culture & Anarchy in the Novels of Chinua Achebe(2003)
by Jaya Laxmi Rao Vempala,and Achebe’s Ideas on Literature by
IhechukwuMadubuike. There are also a large number of comparative studies on
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Achebe byShram Mustafa Hama Salih, Pallavi Bhardwaj, and K. G.Parimala.These
researchershave studied various perspectives of Chinua Achebe’s novels.The recent
PhD thesis on Achebe in the Department of Literature inUniversity of Nairobi, on
“Rhetorical Strategies in the Novels of Chinua Achebe” (2014) focused on the
stylistic elements in the novels of China Achebe. Another recent work “Portrayal of
African traditions and customs in Achebe’s Novels” (2016) submitted in Department
of English, College of Languages, Sudan University of Science and Technology,
Sudan.It reveals that Africa has a great and rich tradition and custom. There are some
other researches which havecultural elements, linguistic perspective, tribal reading
and modern satire in Achebe’s novels. Neo colonial situations are also traced in few
researches on Achebe’s novels.However all these works have not given much
emphasis as discussed in the present research.
Achebe has produced a variety of works. It is not easy to draw clear limitation
in his work. His novels Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God shares village
atmosphere of Igbo community in Nigeriaand part and parcel with colonial encounter
whereas his third novel, No Longer at Ease represents corrupt world of Africa in a
very artistic manner.A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah later novels of
Achebe describes neo-colonial situation in which protagonist plunges into their own
selfish motives. These later novels have been also discussed in terms of feminist
approach and in terms of humour and satire in the present research. Moreover, in
terms of African society, cultureand language in the novels of Chinua Achebe in
postcolonial perspective develops and provide cultural heritage of Africa in past. My
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research articulates detailed exploration of socio-cultural and linguistic issues in all
novels of Chinua Achebe.
1.1.2.Aims and Objectives
This study will focus on the African society, culture and language from an
interdisciplinary and multicultural strategy. Postcolonial cultural analysis is a method
of study to raise the consciousness of the African marginalized to understand their
condition of predicament and suffering. This thesis relates to the aspects of
Postcolonial, mainly on the visual rendering of Igbo culture. This will also find out
the role of traditions and customs in organizing and rulingindigenous Africans’ (Igbo)
life before the start of Britishcolonization and the impact of Western values on the
local African traditionsand customs. This study will also examine the Postcolonial
world with Igbo society and its effects particularly on the Igbo society’s culture that
are depicted in Chinua Achebe’s novels.This study will also explore the social
organizations which are depicted in the Igbo society, for example, marriage or family,
and religious practices that are described in the Igbo society as submission to God’s
offerings, and ritual rites. The effects of colonialism on the culture of the Igbo society
depicted in Achebe’s novels will also be examined in this research. Related to the
above phenomenon, this research aims at answering how the Igbo society, culture and
language have been described in Achebe’s novels.
1.1.3.Methodology
The research method in this thesis covers research design, data sources, data
collection, and data analysis. This study will examine the selected novels by applying
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the insight and theoretical precision of different postcolonial approaches. This study
will use a combination of analytical, theoretical and comparative approaches. It will
include input from library research, thematic analysis and textual interpretation. In
this research insights and precision from postcolonial literary criticism strategies will
be operated because this study talks about how Igbo people experience the changing
of their culture after the British arrival. The data source of this study is the novels by
Chinua Achebe. The data of this study include written dialogues, monologues and
expression, which are collected from the select novels.
After analyzing the data, we find several points about colonialism. They are:
the change in Igbo culture and Igbo society after the colonial period. The unique
culture of the Igbo people was changed because they could not keep it integrated like
their ancestors. As a result, their culture fell apart. These changes in Igbo culture are
of many facets and the effects that are received by Igbo society have been well
depicted in these novels. The study can be useful to all those who are interested in
exploration of African society in postcolonial perspective. Further research can also
be undertaken on a variety of sociolinguistic, socio-cultural and stylistic aspects in the
1.1.4.The Plan and Chapterization
This research has been presented in five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction
to the substantial part of the thesis presented in chapter 2-4. Chapter 5 is a conclusion
to the research project. In chapter 1, we have discussed a perspective of post
colonialism with reference to African situation. In this chapter, we have discussed our
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research problem, hypothesis, aims and objectives, review, focus and relevance of the
project, methodology and chapter plan. Although much research has been carried out
on the novels of Chinua Achebe, a comprehensive discussion has not been undertaken
on Achebe’s delineation of African Society, Culture and Language. This research
examines all these aspects in Achebe’s novels in detail. The present thesis has been
planned in five chapters. They are:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Igbo Social Structure
Chapter 3: Culture as Heart of Igbo Community
Chapter 4: Language as Representation of Igbo Socio-Cultural Systems
Chapter 5: Conclusion
My first chapter isthe introductory part of the thesis. This chapter explains
how colonization dominates the resources, labour, and markets of the colonial
territory, and may impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the
conquered population. It is essentially a system of direct, political, economic and
cultural intervention by a powerful country over a weaker one. In other words,
colonialism can be meant as a process when one group cannot determine themselves
and another group dominates them. Thisfact of colonization does not happen only in
real life but also in written fiction. This fact has been described in Chinua Achebe’s
novels, namelyThings Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God
(1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). He
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presentsbefore us a close and real picture of the past and present African life with all
their pains, pleasures and puzzles.
In the second chapter, I propose to discuss the distinctive African society with
specific reference to Achebe’s novels.Igbo society is both hierarchical and
patriarchal.Social status is achieved in the community through the earning of titles.
TheIgbo, which can also be called the Ibo, live in Igbo land in Nigeria. Igbo land isthe
home of the Igbo people and it covers most of Southeast Nigeria. This areais divided
by the Niger River into two unequal sections – the eastern regionand the Midwestern
region. The river, however, has notacted as a barrier to cultural unity; rather it has
provided an easy means ofcommunication in an area where many settlements claim
different origins. TheIgbo are surrounded in all sides also by other tribes.
Afigbopositsthat the origin of the Igbo people has been the subject of
manyassumptions, and it is only in the last fifty years that any real work has
beenapproved in this subject matter. Here we may have the findings to reinforce this
idea:
‘...like any group of people, they are anxious to discover their origin
and reconstruct how they came to be how they are....their experiences
under colonialism and since Nigeria’s Independence have emphasized
for them the reality of their group identity which they want to anchor
into authenticated history.’ (Afigbo 1975:28)
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Fig. 1.1. Illustration of Map of Nigeria
Igbo are one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Because they live in the
intense heat of the tropical climate, they are required to wear reasonably loose
clothing. Achebe spends the majority of all the novels depicting Igbo traditional
culture. He accomplishes it by describing various festivals and religious rituals, such
as a wedding, a funeral, and the Week of Peace. In addition, the roles of men and
women are represented through the main character’s relationships with his wives and
children. This provides a framework not only to identify the changes and devastation
brought to Africa (Nigeria) by the British invaders but also to recognize inner tribal
divisions and different patterns of opinion.
In the thirdchapter, I plan to discuss cultural aspects of Africa with special
reference to Nigeria.Chinua Achebe’s work has been credited with the emergence of
an African fiction that goes beyond the Eurocentric discourses about African cultures.
Achebe’s literature, starting from Things Fall Apart, is essential as the beginning of
authentic African literature - the colony speaking back to a Metropolis, which has
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often accidentally caricatured as a culture of the other. This study explores the
representations of a culture of the ‘other’ in Achebe’s novels. Although a work of
fiction performs the cultural work of informing about its society; in this case, colonial
Nigeria of the twentieth century has been delineated. All novels describe the clash of
ideologies between the indigenous culture and the imperial culture; and to Achebe’s
credit, the novels depict from an African perspective the internal struggle of the
indigenous culture and identity to survive under the weight of imposing and usurping
of colonial modernization and education.
Fig.1.2. Illustration of Igbo Man in his Farm
Europe’s imperialistic intervention in Africa is an interesting study in human
adaptation. This tragic event had the effect of permanently reshaping the face of the
African continent in terms of religion, ideology, economy, politics, and society. In a
sense, it has actively brought into this Earth a new race of African people. The
colonial encounter, and its experience by black Africans until independence from
European powers, is a kind of an internal struggle for cultural identity and national
recognition as a resistance to the European domination along with the destruction of
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the previous regionalism and tribalism of pre-colonial Africa. Colonialism introduced
a new unified and centralized phenomenon under an imperial authority of nations.
Indigenous peoples who were once separated by language, culture, and politics found
themselves segregated, by virtue of their closeness towards each other, carved into
‘nations’ under a mutual consent. The establishment of the colonial nation forced
small autonomous groups and villages to break away from their communities and
travel into colonial cities in search of work and political voice in a world that is being
directed by the Europeans. And within this encounter between village and city, the
indigenous people are caught up in the clash between the ideologies of the old culture
and the new culture which is imposed by European doctrines. In his best-known
novel, Things Fall Apart, Achebe facilitates the Western audience foradmiration of
traditional Igbo culture while maintaining a certain objectivity that allows him to
criticize the aspects of both colonial and indigenous societies. He also penned some of
the most universal issues that asocietyfaces, that is, in the process of dispelling
stereotypes of traditional African culture.
Next chapter deals with the significance of the use of indigenous African
language in the novels.This Chapter focuses on colonial masters who are rendered
somehow dull and less interesting. The use of conversation, dialogue, folklore, stories
and witticism by Achebe’s characters and more importantly, the use of proverbs make
his novelscompelling. Achebe’s effective use of language has gained a lot of scholarly
interest.The greatest strength of Achebe’s use of languagebelongsto the notion of
identity. Achebe’s language dazzles with a peculiar vitality that is especially
nourishing to the African audience who are able to ‘connect’ easily with him. Such
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distinctive spiciness and freshness, such peculiar taste and persuasiveness underpin
the semantic implications of the expressions and the processes of variation can be
found behind them.
The final chapter is the essence of this thesis. Thisexamines the indigenous
African Society, Culture and Language in Chinua Achebe’s novels. Its focus is to
explore the ideological contradictions that have been embedded in language clusters’
which are to be unraveled in relation to socio-cultural ethos. The language of any
society is predominantly surcharged with cultural ethos. It is, therefore, significant
that we relate the language issues to cultural substance. A thorough examination of
issues relating to the indigenous African society, culture and language will surely
explore new areas of meaning whichhave till now escaped our notice. In ourview, this
research is worth pursuing because it has the contemporary application by way of
understanding a complex society and culture that draws our serious contemplation in
contemporary times.
1.2. Postcolonialism: A Perspective
The term Postcolonialismbroadly refers to the representation of race, ethnicity,
culture and identity in the modern eraafter many colonized countries got their
independence. It is connected with imperialism: “The word imperialism derives from
the Latin imperium, which has numerous meanings including power, authority,
command, dominion, realm, and empire” (Habib 737). It describes many interactions
between ‘colonizer’ and ‘colonized.’ Themajority of the world was under the control
of European countries. Especially the British Empire comprised of themaximum
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number of territory on the surface of the earth, one out of four people was a subject of
Queen Victoria. The literature produced in the countries such as India, Sri Lanka,
Nigeria, Senegal and Australia after their independence refers to as Postcolonial
literature. Edward Said’s prominent book Orientalism is an assessment of Western
representation of the Eastern culture under the label ‘Postcolonial Studies’. Canada
and Australia are often treated as ‘settler’ countries as they are part of British
Commonwealth of Nations. Most famous postcolonial writers are Salman Rushdie,
Chinua Achebe, Michael Ondaatje, Frantz Fanon, Derek Walcott, J. M. Coetzee,
Jamaica Kincaid, Isabelle Illende, and Eavan Boland. Most of their literary works
represented interrelations between the coloniser and the colonised, such as Things
Fall Apart (1958), Midnight Children (1981), The Waiting for the Barbarians (1990),
Disgrace (1990) and English Patient (1992).There is foremost thedefining factor in
outlining world politics in the second half of 20th century i.e. Britain’s loss of empire
at the outset of World War II. After that Britain lost most of its formal colonies in
Africa, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Pacific, South-East Asia and the far
East including the Persian Gulf etc. In the 17th century, Britain had gained control
over many parts of North America, Canada and the Caribbean Islands along with
slaves from Africa and market development in India. Nevertheless, Britain viewed its
imperialistic growth as a moral responsibility and exerting greater control over the
countries like India and Africa. A famous British writer Kipling referred to this
responsibility in his poem, “The White Man’s Burden” of civilizing the people who
were obviously incapable of self-governing. Many colonized countries such as India,
Pakistan, Ireland, Kenya and Nigeria rapidly started writing a type of literature
reflecting and representing their own experiences during and after colonization.
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Frantz Fanon laid the essential theoretical foundation for the future colonial theories
in his famous book The Wretched of the Earth. He argues that a new world can come
into being only with a violent revolution by African farmers. In another instant, he
used his personal experiences in his book Black Skin, White Mask (1952) to show the
relationship between the colonized and the colonizer in terms of psychology in
observing emotional damage to both the colonized and colonizer. His works
anticipated Said’s Orientalism.
Said’s Orientalism reviews Western representation of the East as irrational,
anti-western, primitive and dishonest. According to Said, Orientalism is an ideology
born of the colonizers’ desire to know their subjects to control them in a better
manner. Said argues, “To write about the Arab Oriental world…is to write with the
authority of a nation…with the unquestioning certainty of absolute truth backed by
absolute force”(307). Another postcolonial theorist GayatriChakravortySpivak whose
writings focused on the intersections of gender, ethnicity of postcolonial subjects
viewed her job as a postcolonial critic. Bhabha illustrates his “conception of ‘cultural
difference’ in terms of what he describes as ‘the language metaphor’, which
represents cultures in semiotic terms as functioning and assigning value in the same
way that systems of language provide meaning” (Gilbert, 124). HomiBhabha’s theory
investigates the ideas of ‘Hybridity’ and ‘Ambivalence’ to construct national and
cultural identities. “Hybridity, perhaps the key concept throughout Bhabha’s career in
this respect, obviously depends upon a presumption of the existence of its opposite for
its force” (Gilbert, 128). In his famous books,Nation and Narration (1990) and The
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Location of Culture (1994) used psychoanalysis and semiotics to explores the ‘spaces’
created by foremost social constitutions in the works of Morrison, Gordimer etc.
1.2.1 Postcolonial Authors
Some of the most prominent authors of Postcolonial literature are Chinua
Achebe, J. M. Coetzee, Franz Fanon, Michael Ondaatje, Salman Rushdie, Li-Young
Li, Derek Walcott and Jamaica Kincaid, GayatriChakravortySpivak etc. “The four
names appear again and again as thinkers who have shaped postcolonial theory:
Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, HomiBhabha and GayatriChakravortySpivak” (Innes, 5).
Though all these writers had different lands, nationalities and social backgrounds,
they could all create their own distinction in producing wonderful works of literature
of which many would certainly come under the label ‘Postcolonial literature. Chinua
Achebe of Nigeria with his first novel, The Things Fall Apart (1958) writes about the
tensions between the people and the values of the native Igbo community and the
Christian colonizers. He worked in many universities in Nigeria and America for
more than three decades. In addition to his fictional writings, he wrote Home and
Exile (2000) a non-fiction collection of an essays. Achebe got the Man Booker
International Prize in 2007 for his literary merit. J. M. Coetzee, an apartheid writer
developed vigorous anti-imperialist attitudes as a white writer living in South Africa
for the apartheid. In most of his novels, he represented his own alienation from his
fellow Africans. The Life and Times of Michael K is an award-winning novel set in
Cape Town with a protagonist Michael K who is a gardener. His novels are
allegorical and accentuating the everlasting nature of human vindictiveness. Coetzee
received his second Booker Prize for his Disgrace (1999). Though he got numerous
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awards, the highest one is Nobel Prize in literature in 2003. Another notable writer in
Postcolonial literature, Frantz Fanon who was interested in the emotional effects of
colonization and racism on blacks, his most known work The Wretched of the Earth
in 1961 had become a leading critic of colonial power and influenced aggressive
revolution. Moreover, he had a significant influence on many thinkers such as
HomiBhabha, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Edward Said. Edward “Said is concerned with the
ways in which knowledge is governed and owned by Europeans to reinforce power,
and to exclude or dismiss the knowledge which natives might claim to have” (Innes,
9). Michael Ondaatje is a novelist, critic, poet born in Sri Lanka and moved to London
with his mother. He is best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel The English
Patient which features the connections of characters of various nationalities during
the last days of World War II. Salman Rushdie is an Indian postcolonial writer who
wanted to become a writer from his childhood. His most successful and Booker Prize
winning novel is Midnight’s Children which gave him international recognition. By
sketching Indian history from 1910 to 1977 he stitched personal experiences with
history. His The Satanic Verses was banned. Most of the Muslims dispute throughout
the world termed the book blasphemous. He had to face troubles in the name of
‘fatwa’ for the novel The Satanic Verses. In most of his writings, Rushdie explores the
intersections of history, religion, culture and identity.
In postcolonial literature, there are also so many notable women writers,
namely Jamaica Kincaid andGayatriChakravortySpivak. Spivak has contributed to a
greater extent. Kincaid’s novel A Small Place (1988) describes Antigua. Mostly she
wrote about women’s experiences with other women in addition to the effects of
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patriarchy and colonialism and women’s own image. One of the prominent theorists
of a postcolonial literary theory is GayatriChakravortySpivak who translated
Derrida’s Of Grammatology into English along with its preface. She has given
numerous interviews on her critical opinions about postcolonial literature.
1.2.2. Postcolonial Literature in English
One of the most influential Postcolonial novels,Things Fall Apart by Chinua
Achebe, explores the interaction between the traditional African society and the
British colonizers. In this novel, the character Okonkwo struggles to understand and
cope up with the changes from Christianity and the British control. His novel
examines various situations occurred after the post-independence fictional West
African village. Achebe conveyed through his novels how the British legacies
continued to weaken the possibility of uniting the country. South African novelist and
Booker Prize winner J. M. Coetzee explores the themes of crime, revenge, land rights
and racial justice in the post-apartheid of South Africa. His Disgrace (1999) portrays
the character David Lurie who was expelled from University in sexual harassment
case. Salman Rushdie’s most popular novel Midnight’s Children intertwines personal
events into the history of India. The narrator in the novel is Saleem Sinai. The Author
used many devices like Magic Realism, Chutnified languageand many other
techniques. In adding together, Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient
discussesconvergence between national and individual identity which brought out
awareness among the people. It is set in a country house in Florence and draws the
lives of a young woman and three men from various countries counting a
poorlyovercooked English patient dying in a room. Some significant writers in
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postcolonial literature are like NgugiwaThiongo, Jamaica Kincaid, EdwidgeDanticat,
Leslie Marmon Silko including Li-Young Lee contributed noticeably.
Ngugi’sDecolonizing the Mind accounts for various traditions of his people. It also
exhibits how British education system tried to destroy the local culture and its
language Gikuyu. Silko in his novel Ceremony (1977)celebrates a variety of traditions
and myths of the Laguna Pueblo and its influence of white relation on local culture. It
also displays how the Native Americans hold anextraordinary position in postcolonial
discussion.
In addition to many male postcolonial writers whose works have been
discussed before, there are some distinguishedwomen novelists who also contributed,
significantly. Jamaica Kincaid with her famous novel ASmall Place is one of the
postcolonial writers whodepicts her personal experience of breathing in the British
colony of Antigua. Kincaid expresses her disapproval for the British ways of
colonized. In this novel, she concentrates on the English Educational system which
attempted to turn natives into English. Further, she points out that the native people
like to adopt the worst of foreign culture and pay no attention to the best. Another
novelist EdwidgeDanticat from Haiti is the writer of the novel Breath, Eyes,
Memory(1994). Her novel presents many themes like migration, sexuality, gender and
history as they are the most common postcolonial themes. In this novel, the
protagonist Sophie struggles a great deal to get an identity out of frantic cultures and
languages such as French, English to adapt to American ways after she reaches
Brooklyn, New York. Danticat becomes a leading female accent of postcolonial
literature.
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1.2.2.1.The Central Ideas in Postcolonial Literature
Postcolonialism has several common motifs and themes like ‘cultural
dominance’,‘Racism’, ‘quest for identity’, ‘racial discrimination’, ‘inequality’,
‘hybridity’ and a kind of peculiar stylistic presentation. Most of the postcolonial
writers reflected and demonstrated many thematic concepts which are quite connected
with both the ‘colonizer’ and the ‘colonized’. White Europeans continually stressed
on racial discrimination for their superiority over the colonized. It was most palpable
in South Africa that the apartheid was included in national laws. Among the most
notable acts of this kind were ‘The Groups Areas Act’, ‘Immorality Act’, ‘Prohibition
of Mixed Marriages Act’, ‘Bantu Authorities Act’, ‘The Population Registration Act’,
and ‘The Abolition of Passes and Coordination or Documents Act. Each of these acts
wasrestrictive, bounding and selective colonized from the ruling White. Both the
writers Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee in their fiction displayed how apartheid
destroyed South Africa in many ways as emotionally, morally and economically. In
postcolonial context, language played a crucial role in control and subjugation of
colonized people. Colonizers often imposed their language upon their subjects in
order to control them. So most postcolonial writers address the issues in many ways
by mixing the local language with imposed language; the result is a hybrid one that
underscores the broken nature of the colonized mind.
1.2.2.2 Postcolonialism and its Manifestation
There are various manifestations of Postcolonial literature in terms of theories
and conceptions. The Postcolonial theorists scrutinize both the colonial texts and
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literature written after colonialism. Some of the notable theorists who followed
general ideas on colonialism such as Edward Said, GayatriChakravortySpivak,
HomiBhabha, Frantz Fanon and others. These theorists connected postcolonial
literature to many fields like philosophy, history, politics, and literary traditions and
its consequence in present day social order. Most of the times, these postcolonial
theorists are from postcolonial countries, for instance, Edward Said from Palestine,
GayatriChakravortySpivak from India and Fanon from a French colony, Martinique.
The colonial countries started writing and portraying the experiences of colonization
and many changes were brought out by independence upon individuals and their
nations. Some filmmakers also attempted to depict colonial and postcolonial
predicaments and sufferings in their films. ShyamBenegal, Satyajit Ray, Deepa
Mehta, and Mira Nair are few among the filmmakers who contributed to
Postcolonialism. Music played a vital role in postcolonial countries; it exhibited
cultural identity and values as aboriginal pop music. The best example of this kind of
music is Ravi Shankar’s amalgamation of classical Indian music with Western
sounds. Negritude movement was also based on the concept of shared cultural affinity
among black Africans. Most prominently negritude literature included the poetry of
Leopold Senghor and AimeCesaire especially in Return to My Native Land. In fact, as
the Postcolonial literature copes with framing identities, translations, the politics of
rewriting,a relation between nation and nationalism. This kind of literature has a great
appeal. Most of the postcolonial novels portray various issues of the colonies, such as
Nigeria, South Africa, Australasia, the Caribbean, Ireland, and Latin American.
Postcolonialismgenerallydealswith many concepts like political, cultural,
geographical, psychological and post-structural. The major colonial empires are the
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British, Portuguese, the French, and the Spanish. It is also major literature which
helps in understanding both the ‘colonizer’ and the ‘colonized’ in many concerns like
politics, culture, customs, education, and geography.
Postcolonial literature a recent branch of study, has emerged after 1950’s. The
countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America were mere slaves of European colonizers
before their colonization. Thus postcolonial literature has been developed as a branch
of studies that attempts to shift the dominant ways in which the relations between the
western and non-western people and their worlds are viewed without any prejudice. In
the western hemisphere, the power structure is controlled carefully by the white
people. They constitute the structure in such a way that power never comes in the
hands of black. After all these things, a postcolonial study comes with certain distinct
characteristics. First,Postcolonialism can be studied as politics and philosophy of
activism that contests disparity. The Postcolonial study advocates rights of an
individual. All human beings irrespective of their anthropological constitution are
claimed to be equal. They must not be segregated because of their inferior look. He
may be Asian, African, Latin American or European. The people from different
continents have their own distinct culture. The Postcolonial study concentrates on the
analysis of the people’s cultural heritage. Second, in earlier studies,womenwere
considered to be inferior to men both biologically and culturally. They were seen and
judged from the perspective of a man. But in the postcolonial study, they are not
considered as objects but they become subjects. Earlier they were not allowed to vote
in a political system. As A. L. Tennyson in Victorian Age (1937-1900) also suggested
that women were meant for a domestic purpose like childbirth and performing non-
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serious work. The female class revolted against all these odd practices, and as a result,
new branch of the study came into existence. Third, postcolonial study is concerned
with marginalized and poor people and their life. They were not given any importance
and their problems remained unsolved. In this study of postcolonialism, the politics of
‘the subaltern’ is given emphasis. Therefore, postcolonial theory is not a theory in the
scientific sense, it is a coherently elaborated set of phenomena. Fourth, postcolonial
study is involved in serious issues like ecological balance and social justice. It
encourage people to develop harmony. It deals with the importance of the relation
between the people of different races living in the world. Fifth, postcolonial study
wants to transform the world order. It threatens the illogicalopportunity and cruelty of
power. It refuses to acknowledge the superiority of western culture. This study
supports that all human race is equal and their civilization is pure.
Colonial rule washed away African culture and customs, which were
considered to be witchcraft. Modernity as Christianity was always connected with
accessing resources, and is part of capitalist bourgeois domination. However, pre-
colonial African society was a pastoral society which had no connection with money.
As a result, modernity, money and church have a bourgeois connection, and Africa is
shown as “uncivilized” as it cannot serve the purpose of gaining more profit. It was,
therefore, essential on the part of the colonizers to destroy ancient and pastoral
cultural diversity of Africa. Representations of Africa are ambiguous and ambivalent
in the writings of post-colonial writers.
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1.3. Major Issues in Postcolonial African Discourse
Postcolonial discourse in African literature became popular after World War II. The
liberation of many countriesfrom the clutches of colonial countries led the path of a
revival of indigenous African literature. With the beginning of colonization, the African
literature was sidelined by their colonial masters. Before it came in contact with western
civilization, African literatures flourished in oral tradition. During the colonial period,
the African voice to oppose the superiority of western culture and literature was present
but the impact of resistance was not so powerful. The postcolonial African literature
contends and questions European ethnocentric philosophy that forced the colonized to
follow the western cultureclaiming superiority over other cultures.
Postcolonialismhighlights the exquisiteness and potentialities of the ‘third world’
cultures that were strategically pushed to the margins. It is the voice of the oppressed
peoples against the philosophical exploitation of the so-calledcentres.
1.3.1.The Importance of History in Postcolonial Discourse
Over the times, certain issues have been of paramount interests to postcolonialism.
One of such issues is history. Knowledge of history is necessary because it enables
human beings to learn from the past in order to modify the present so as to create a
better future. On the importance of history to a people, Woodson insisted that “If a
race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in
the thought of the world and it stands the danger of being exterminated” (Olatunji
quoted Woodson, 10-11:1984).
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This indicates that a people need to affirm their history if they want to continue to be
responsible members of the human race. History, however, becomes a problem,
because it tells of changes and it is subversive. For this, it has become a tool for
political strategy, especially in the hands of tyrants and imperialists. NgugiinMoving
the centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms states, “…history is the result of
struggle and tells of change that it is perceived as a threat by all the ruling strata in all
the oppressive exploitative systems…it is because it is actually subversive of the
existing tyrannical system that there have been attempts to arrest it” (114-115).
This Eurocentric philosophy has been sponsored by the West for cultural, economic
and political reasons. For instance, it is important for the western imperialists to deny,
distort the history of the black race to authenticate their erroneous claims to cultural
supremacy and economic and cultural deprivation of Africans.
On the other hand, postcolonial writers have made it a major issue to re-
inscribe the history of Africa by a subversion of the Euro-American concept of history
and by celebrating the past of the African people. This has led to the production of
theoretical works like The African Origin of Civilization (1988) byCheikh AntaDiop.
The book recounts how Egyptian civilization, with black Pharaohs, has contributed
immensely to modern world civilization.V.Y.Mudimbe (1988) in The Invention of
Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledgeinterrogate the Western
notion about Africa and indicate how western anthropologists and missionaries have
distorted the knowledge, of and about Africa. Also, Walter Rodney (1996) in How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa concentrates on the negative impact of slavery and
colonialism on Africa, and the desirable development of Africa before the coming of
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the Europeans.
1.3.2.Difference as Subversion in Postcolonial Discourse
Another main issue in postcolonial discourse is the maintenance of difference as a
subversion of western universalism. The concept of universalism is predicated on the
mistaken notion that there exists a unitary and homogenous human nature. The best
expression of this in modern theories is found in structuralism which insists that all
particular instances of writing, of social relations and culture lie under some basic
universal structures.Universalism is precipitated by the hegemonic western
epistemology developed to devalue the cultures of the other societies. It is rather
unfortunate that many Africans accept the western concept of globalization without
questions. The concept stresses on economic and culturaldevelopments of the West at
the expense of the Africans. People should first develop locally so that they can
interact well with other peoples at the global level.
The African writers have tried to question universalism by maintaining
‘difference’. This is based partly on laying the privileging of the “distinctive
characteristics, the difference of postcolonial societies” (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin,
1995:55); and according to Hall (1995226), “the displacement of the ‘centred’
discourses of the Westquestioning its transcendental claims to speak for everyone
while being itself everywhere and nowhere”.
In maintaining ‘difference’ the writers venture hybridism and syncretism, and
‘misreading’ of the so-called ‘master scripts’. Hybridity necessitates the hybridization
of African oral tradition and the imported literary forms from Europe. The
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“misreading” exposes “the uncertainties and the ambivalences of the colonial text and
deny it an authorizing presence” (Parry, 1995:42). The essence of “difference” in
postcolonial discourse is for the Africans to foreground their roots so as not to go into
oblivion culturally by following those who Soyinka (1976:x) described as “universal
humanoid who theorize and prescribe their world, history, social neurosis and value
systems as universal”.
1.3.3 Thematic Changes in Postcolonial African Literature
As discussed earlier, postcolonialism encapsulates the entirety of practices which
characterize postcolonial societies from the derivation of colonialism to the present
day. Because of some existing circumstances between the period of colonialism and
the present day, which utter changes in attitude and experience, there are recognizable
phases. Each phase makes out diverse responses in African postcolonial literature.
1.3.4 Colonialist Literature: The Predominant Themes
The first phase is the period when the West was trying to label Africans and gave
them an identity of their own. This is the early part of colonialism. The period is
important because it laid the foundation for postcolonial African literature. The
umbrella term for theoretical and imaginative works of this period is ‘colonialist
literature’. The purpose of colonialist literature is “to justify the conquest, occupation,
and destruction of non-Western societies” (Ching-Liang, 1996:1).
The literature presents the colonized peoples as barbaric and inferior, while the
western culture is foregrounded as the universal standard. Jan Mohammed (1995)
described the literature as “an exploration and a representation of a world at the
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boundaries of civilization, a world that has not been domesticated by European
signification or codified in detail by its ideologypresented as uncontrollable, chaotic,
unattainable and ultimately evil” (18).
Colonialist literature is a creation of works by western citizens at home or
residing in colonized areas. Theyhave mused their creative imagination and
philosophy to portray Africans as sub-humans, evil and culturally inferior. For
example, according to Hill, et al. (1998), the Calvinists (The Puritans) insist that
Africans represent evil and are ‘cast among the non-elect’ and for this, they are “ideal
subjects for enslavement”. They also insisted that “Africans were really offsprings of
Satan who was himself a black man, and that the black skin was the mark for certain
old testament curses” (8).
‘The Great Chain of Being’ theory which has a western outlook of the universe
also affirm the poor standard of the black. According to Jordan (1968) (as cited in Hill,
et al., 1998), it “led to the assumption that black people are the link between animals
and humans” (8). Imaginative texts like Robinson Crusoe (1998) by Defoe, Heart of
Darkness (1999) and Lord Jim (1931) by Joseph Conrad and The Tempest (1975) by
Shakespeare are part of the colonialist literature. They are parts of what Ngugi (1993)
has described as ‘collaborative literature’ in which “the noble and intelligent was the
character who co-operated with the colonial process. The bad and the ugly was the
African who opposed colonialism” (36).
Other texts that may be classified as colonialist include diaries, biographies
and autobiographies, memoirs by whiteadministrators,travelers, settlers and soldiers
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who were representatives of the imperial power. Thesewritings conceal the imperial
discourse within which they are shaped.
1.4.Major Themes in Colonial African Literature
Colonialist literature indirectly gave birth to another phase of African postcolonial
literature which could be referred to as early colonial literature. The emergence of this
phase coincides with the early subtle reaction to colonialism, its orientation, and
praxis. Works in this phase were produced by Africans under imperial license. Most
of the works were written in any one of the imperial languages. The subversive nature
of their themes was not easily understoodbecause they werebarred from full
investigation of their anti-colonial possibilities. This is because the suitability of form,
publication, and dissemination of works in the colonized areas were controlled by the
imperial ruling class. According to Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin (1998), African
literature at this stage“comes into being within the constraint of a discourse and
institutional practice of patronage system which …undercuts their assertion of a different
perspective” (6).A good illustration of such a work is Chaka (1964) by Thomas Mofolo.
The novel tells the historical effectiveness of the little native cultures,
notwithstanding in a subtle subversive manner. As against the European supremacist
description of the universality and centrality of western culture and history, and the
attempt to extinguish the other histories, Mofolo celebrates the history and culture of
Africans.
The next phase in postcolonial African literature is what can be called modern
colonial literature. It takes its signal from works of writers like Thomas Mofolo. This
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phase is dominated by works of so many writers, like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka,
Mongo Beti, Ferdinand Leopold Oyono, CamaraLaye, NgugiwaThing'o, and so on. The
ideological point of reference of such works is to contest and question the colonialist
literature and philosophy which function “to articulate and justify the moral authority
of the colonizer (and hypothesize) the inferiority of the native as metaphysical fact”(Jan
Mohammed, 1995:23).
For example, the first part of Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) lays emphasis
on pre-colonial African culture. This deals with the judicial system, its sustenance, and
way of social mobility. In place of the tame, pathetic, inferior and uncivilized black
characters like Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Friday in Robinson Crusoe,
there is Okonkwo, courageous, physically powerfully built and astute in intelligence.
Also, in place of disordered, subordinate, and unorganized African societies as
presented in the works like Heart of Darkness byConrad, there is a picture of a well
organized, cultured, manlikeand progressive African society, though these society
were not free fromdeficiency that are common in other societies in another place. The
main intention of this phase in postcolonial African literature is to enlighten the world
that “African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans they
(Africans) had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty and dignity” (Achebe, 1964:158).
Thus the works have anthropological ethics as they put in proper perspective of the
strain on African cultural values by the link with western culture.They serve as the
starting point for the cross-examination of western Universalistand centralized mindset
about white culture;in that wayit is entrenching the idea of difference and plurality of
cultures.
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The later stage of colonial literature becomes seriously anti-colonial. The
works move away from mere “imaginative recreation of a common cultural past
crafted into a shared tradition” (Appiah, 1997:120) to the demand for independence
and self-governance. This is thematically accentuated in the works like Ngugi’s Weep
Not Child (1964). In the novel, the dispossessed Africans, at a point in time, are
demanding for the return of their land. The persistence of the blacks for impartiality,
higher wages, and the repossession of their land lead to serious anti-colonial struggle
which culminates in the ‘big strike’ and the ‘Mau Mau’ independence struggles.
By the late 1960s, many African nations became independent. However,
African writers and people became disappointed and disillusioned.The African
politicians who took over the reins of governance from the white colonialists were
corrupt, selfish and worse than the colonial masters. This is clearly visible in Achebe’s A
Man of the People (1966) where Chief Nanga symbolizes himself as a corrupt politician
and possesses theabove characteristics. African writers and people discovered too late
that “The ruling elite was more interested in considering its own dominance, and in
monopolizing the continent’s natural resources than in improving the abject condition of
the common people” (Ogungbesan, 1978:vi).
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is the most renowned writer as he is most vibrant
in his depiction of post-colonial identity, hegemony, racism, violence and resistance.
Instead of concentrating on the hybrid nature of post-colonial African identity Achebe
shows Africa as a universe that has its own tradition with a unique way of life.
Achebe represents Africa from a native point of view. Racism, violence, and the
problem of African identity are the most discussed issues in his narratives.Things Fall
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Apart(1958) is his first novel. Achebe uses the story of the novel’s hero, Okonkwo in
order to demonstrate how the British colonialism destroyed traditional Igbo society in
Eastern Nigeria at the turn of the twentieth century. The steadfastness of the religious
beliefs of the Igbo community is represented in Okonkwo, who stays true to his
culture’s values and as a result, he committed suicide.No Longer at Ease(1960) is his
second novel. ObiOkonkwo is the subject of this novel, which portrays his downfall.
His story ends in disaster due to his arrogance for hisgetting education abroad, and a
denial to reconcile the conflict between his place in a modern Western context and the
way that his Christianized family deals with Igbo traditions. Achebe sets the novel in
the period preceding Nigeria’s independence from colonial rule (1960), and its
message warns of the difficulties that will result from independence. Arrow of
God(1964) is his third novel. In this novel, he develops the theme, initiated in
Achebe’s first novel, Things Fall Apart(1958). Here we find the impact on Igbo
traditional life of British imperial-colonial rule. Set in eastern Nigeria during the
period of the entrenchment of colonial rule, it tells the tragic story of Ezeulu, chief
priest of the god Ulu, who in trying to reconcile the demands of his god and his quest
for personal power brings calamity on himself, on his family, and on his clan. A clear
narrative, highly allusive English and the use of local imagery and folk literary
materials characterize Achebe’s style. His vision is neutral, ironic, and tragic in a
novel that deals with problems of traditionalism under stress from Western concepts
and ideas.In his fourth novel,AMan of the People,(1966), responsible leadership is
replaced with corruption, selfishness, and greed in Achebe’s novel about a post-
independence country similar to Nigeria. Published just before Nigeria’s first military
coup, Achebe’s novel depicts negative leadership in the character of Chief Nanga,
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who is ‘a man of the people’. The novel’s outlook is grim, with a suggestion that such
a corrupt society (where constitutional methods have failed) can only be given new
hope through military intervention.Anthills of the Savannah(1986) fifth one,set in the
imaginary West African country of Kangan, which strongly resembles Nigeria; the
novel continues Achebe’s examination of political conditions in a representative
postcolonial country as initiated in A Man of the People(1966). Achebe portrays the
effect of military rule on a country where democratic processes are undermined,
political unrest is replaced by self-serving autocrats, and where constitutional
processes are suspended. Achebe rejects international finance capitalism as a reason
for Kangan’s political problems, and through the experiences and ruminations of his
principal characters. He illustrates that the biggest problem in the country is a lack of
leadership. The novel is a study of how power corrupts and how in the end this power
destroys itself. The novel demonstrates Achebe’s judgment of convictions about the
role of stories and storytelling that undermines the forces that intimidate oral wisdom
with knowledge and technology.
Representation of African identity reflects many dimensions of the cultural,
social, and psychological phenomena of Africa in the emerging era of post-
colonialism. On investigating we observe that African culture and history or
established traditions in African languages are totally absent in English writing. As a
result, Achebe is an intruder in this field. In our discussion, we see how Achebe has
succeeded in establishing a new discourse by representing the ‘other’ in a manner in
which the ‘other’ becomes the Subject. Chinua Achebe shows Africa as a universe
that has its own tradition with only one of its kind.In Things Fall Apart (1958) and
[34]
Arrow of God (1964), Chinua Achebe brings Africa to the centre from the periphery
by penetrating into African identity. He challenges the previous discourses saying that
it represented Africa from the point of view of an outsider. Here, Africa becomes
Achebe’s subject with a notion of self-criticism as well as a criticism of earlier
discourse about Africa. Africa is not a territory without civilization and tradition; it is
rather a continent of prehistoric traces that differ from western civilization. However,
it is not a static civilization. It has been subjected to change under the influence of
colonial rule. Whether this change is good or evil is questionable, but Achebe has
successfully participated in the postcolonial trend of writing back to the centre.Chinua
Achebe in his essay named “The Trouble with Nigeria” describes the true picture of
Nigeria: corruption, the problem of tribalism, the unpatriotic nature of Nigerian
people as well as the immaturity and dishonesty of the country’s politicians.
Moreover, Achebe also depicted the problems and possibilities of the Igbo clan in this
particular essay.
Pre-independent and post-independent periods of Africa are marked by violent
periods of emerging national consciousness. This transition period is marked by the
frustration of alienated African identity. Because of capitalist colonialist domination,
they had been forced to adapt to the western ideology based on Christianity, which
was posed in a direct opposition to paganism. As a result, a gap is created between the
past African identities and present hybrid identity, creating a feeling of insecurity.
Frantz Fanon in his The Wretched of the Earth (1961) discusses violence in a newly
decolonized country in the first chapter named “Concerning Violence”. He starts the
chapter by saying: “National Liberation, national renaissance, the restoration of
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nationhood to the people, commonwealth: whatever may be the headings used or the
new formulas introduced, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon” (27).
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is set in the colonial period where violence is a natural
outcome. On the other hand, Achebe’s novel named AMan of the People (1966) is set
in the post-independent period of an African nation. Fanon can help us to understand
the violent psychology of both these periods. As Achebe describes in his book the
protagonist of the novel is an emerging intellectual of a post-colonial country. The
reason of violence in such a new born country can be understood through Fanon’s
analysis:
Individualism is the first to disappear. The native intellectual had learnt
from his masters that the individual ought to express himself fully. The
colonialist bourgeoisie had hammered into the native’s mind the idea
of a society of individuals where each person shuts himself up in his
own subjectivity, and whose only wealth is individual thought. Now
the native who has the opportunity to return to the people during the
struggle for freedom will discover the falseness of this theory. (WE,
36)
Though OdiliSamalu is not an active person in the struggle for freedom, he is
an intellectual who tries to stand against the corrupt rulers of his country. He is an
educated man, a totally different self from a traditional African person. In this regard,
we have to understand that ancient Africa was always based on community rather
than individual identity. Interestingly, the antagonist of the novel Mr. Nanga who was
also a talented teacher had actually assimilated his position by grabbing the
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oppressor’s position at a certain point in his political life. To quote Fanon: “In order to
assimilate and to experience the oppressor’s culture, the native has had to leave
certain of his intellectual positions in pawn. These pledges include his adoption of the
forms of thought of the colonialist bourgeoisie (WE 38). Moreover, Fanon shows how
they behave like “a common opportunist” (WE38).The portrayal of Mr.Nanga the
minister is that of a “common opportunist” who has taken the position of a bourgeois
oppressor, and who has now replaced the colonizers. The episode of construction of
national consciousness is noticeable by violence as described by Fanon:
The colonized man will first manifest this aggressiveness which has
been deposited in his bones against his own people. This is the period
when the niggers beat each other up, and the police and magistrates do
not know which way to turn when faced with the astonishing waves of
crime in North Africa. We shall see later how this phenomenon should
be judged. When the native is confronted with the colonial order of
things, he finds he is in a state of permanent tension. The settler’s
world is a hostile world, which spurns the native, but at the same time
it is a world of which he is envious. We have seen that the native never
ceases to dream of putting himself in the place of the settler - not of
becoming the settler but of substituting himself for the settler. (WE 40-
41)
Fanon clearly mentions that in this stage, the native people will behave
violently among themselves as they desire to place themselves in the role of ‘the
settler’. A Man of the People is based on a conflict between two individuals,
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OdiliSamalu and Mr. Nanga. The narrator Odili never liked the Minister, Mr. Nanga
and often criticized him. The narrator and his friend discuss the Minister’s girlfriend,
who is to become his second wife,“Just think of such a cultureless man going abroad
and calling himself Minister of Culture. Ridiculous. This is why the outside world
laughs at us” (AMP21).
Another issue related to Postcolonialism is Negritude. It has been posed as an
antithesis to modern European humanism. European discourse used the ideology of
humanism as derived from the European renaissance. Even while talking about
humanism, the era of exploration of the ‘new’ world had also begun. Thus the
Elizabethan period, as well as the age of Enlightenment, was based on humanist
philosophy, which established the superiority of European knowledge and thought.
However, with the age of discovery and conquest, European humanism denied the
same kind of superiority to ‘other’ races and lands but put the burden on themselves
of ‘civilizing’ other races. Thus humanism worked as an epistemic break as Foucault
describes in The Archeology of Knowledge (2004). Thus Europe considered its
science and philosophy to be superior, and anything other than these paradigms was
not considered to be civilized or of any value. The same notion has been applied to
religion, culture, and superstition.
Chinua Achebe questions the established ideology based on ‘identity of
difference’. Achebe’s purpose is however not to establish Igbo culture as superior to
European civilization, but to show the existence of African history not as archived by
the colonialist writers, but which exists within African ownlegacy of negritude. As
AimeCesaire explains in his Discourse on Colonialism, “The very idea that there was
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a superior race lay at the heart of the matter,and this is why elements of Discourse
also drew on Negritude’s impulse to recover the history of Africa’s
accomplishments”(DC21). Negritude turned out to be a miraculous weapon in the
struggle to overthrow the concept of the “barbarian Negro”.
As a result Chinua Achebe leads to the consciousness of negritude as Leopold
Senghor explains in his famous essay named “Negritude: A Humanism of the
Twentieth Century”.It is neither racialism nor self-negation. Yet it is not just
affirmation; it is rooting oneself in oneself, and self-confirmation: confirmation of
one’s being. Negritude is nothing more or less than what some English-speaking
Africans have called the African personality. It is no different from the ‘black
personality’ discovered and proclaimed by the American New Negro movement.
Perhaps the only originality, since it was the West Indian poet AimeCesaire who
coined the word negritude, is to have attempted to define the concept a little more
closely; to have developed it as a weapon, as an instrument of liberation and as a
contribution to the humanism of the twentieth century.
Chinua Achebe represents the African world as a different humanism of the
twentieth century that can be called negritude. His position of representing African
identity is certainly different from any other writer. In Discourse on
Colonialism,AimeCesaire discusses colonization and civilization, showing how a line
of Oriental discourse has identified civilization with Christianity, on the other hand,it
has associated savagery with paganism, thus continuing domination on the basis of
race. Cesaire says:
[39]
...; that the slavering apologists came later; that the chief culprit in this
domain is Christian pedantry, which laid down the dishonest equations
Christianity= civilization, paganism=savagery, from which there could
not but ensue abominable colonialist and racist consequences, whose
victims were to be the Indians, the Yellow peoples, and the Negroes
(DC 33).
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe tries to find how European civilization is directly
responsible for African misery. AimeCesaire thoughtfully explains how colonization
has already corrupted white European civilization,
First we must study how colonization works to decivilize the colonizer,
to brutalize him in the true sense of the word, to degrade him, to
awaken him to buried instincts, to covetousness, violence, race hatred
and moral relativism;...all these patriots who have been tortured, at the
end of all the racial pride that has been encouraged, all the boastfulness
that has been displayed, a poison has been distilled into the veins of
Europe and slowly but surely, the continent proceeds towards
savagery(DC 35-36).
This is why he argues Nazism emerged in Europe. They have become the
victims of what they have cultivated within themselves for a long time. The people of
west are the victims of what they had been working against thirld world as a
productCesaire says they themselves are responsible for this barbarism: “…, it is the
crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he
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applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved
exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the “coolies” of India, and the “niggers” of
Africa”(DC 36).
Cesaire explains that is why the Western humanism is “Pseudo-humanism”
(37). In the process of industrialization, capitalism has thoroughly changed the basic
ideology of western civilization. He stresses the point that capitalism in the name of
humanism cannot but create a figure like Hitler “…At the end of formal humanism
and philosophic renunciation, there is Hitler” (DC 37). As a result, when Western
Orientalist discourse represents or speaks, it represents a ‘pseudo-humanism’:
Who is speaking? I am ashamed to say it: it is the Western humanist,
the “idealist” philosopher. That his name is Renan is an accident…
What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently,
that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which
colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization—and
therefore force—is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is
morally diseased, which irresistibly, progressing from one
consequence to another, one denial to another, calls for its Hitler, I
mean its punishment (DC 37-39).
In this way, a civilization led by colonizers metamorphoses into a civilization
that sees others as non-human and as devoid of humanity and civilization: “…, who in
order to ease his conscience gets into the habit of seeing the other man as an animal,
accustoms himself to treating him like an animal, and tends objectively to transform
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himself into an animal. It is this result, this boomerang effect of colonization that
Iwanted to point out” (DC 41). As their souls are corrupted they use colonies as ‘a
safety valve’ where they pour out their hatred. “Between colonizer and colonized
there is room only for forced labor, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft,
rape, compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self-complacency,
swinishness, brainless elites, degraded masses” (DC 42). The colonizers treat ‘other’
as an Object. They try to civilize the colonized by detaching them from their roots:
“…I am talking about millions of men torn from their gods, their land, their habits,
their life—from life, from the dance, from wisdom” (DC 43). Colonized people are
systematically demoralized: “I am talking about millions of men in whom fear has
been cunningly installed, who have been taught to have an inferiority complex, to
tremble, kneel, despair, and behave like flunkeys” (DC 43).
1.5. Conclusion
The phenomenon of colonization plays a central role in history. Colonization
has contributed in the under development of nations in the world. The concept of 3G
(Gold, Gospel, and Glory),becomes the backdrop of European colonizers. Africa, a
big continent which is rich with natural resources becomes the crucial destination of
European colonizers. In fact, Africa cannot be separated from colonization, and this is
portrayed in literary works of Chinua Achebe as the medium of the author to react
towards the social phenomena around him. He wrote his idea of the British
colonization in Nigeria, especially in the Igbo land in his first novel, Things Fall
Apart. He describes the Igbo people and their customs before the arrival of the White
people, and what happened during and after their arrival in the Igbo land.
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2.0. Introduction
Social Structure consists of a variety of institutions which are interrelated, and give
direction to its individuals for leading a community life. Social Structure plays a
significant role in shaping the ideas and attitudes of individuals and live there in a
particular society. In a society, family is an important institution because its members
draw on the resources of society to live in a meaningful way. The patterns of life that
the individuals lead are closely linked to the ethos and values of a society. Social
Structure has been defined in many ways.One of the most significantdefinitions of
social structure is, “A term loosely applied to any recurring pattern of social behavior;
or, more specifically, to the ordered interrelationship between the different elements
of a social system or society” (Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology 1994:517).
Similarly, another dictionary holds the view that social structure is “any relatively
enduring pattern or relationship of social elements… the more or less enduring pattern
of social arrangements within a particular society” (Collins’ Dictionary of Sociology
1991:597).On the other hand social structure as a part of sociology defines, “It is the
study of social institutions – thefamily, religion, sport, community, and so
on. We can study institutions atthe micro-level by looking at interactions
between family members, for example, or we can examine macro-
relations such as the family and kinship systemof a society as a whole”
(The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology 2006: xi). Chinua Achebe has delved
into this ideology and performed his commotion extensively in social
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structure of Igbo community. His principles and dogmas positively, have
been collaborated with the responses about social institution of Igbo
structure because the Igbo are interchangeably connected with their
socialinstitution which is dominated by unreasonable faith but they have
their own conviction and concept of society which are going to be
discussed in this chapter.
2.1. Ndichie and Evil Forest
Igbo social structure is primarily based on disbelief and superstition. Their identity is
recognized by the will of gods and goddesses. They have nothing to do with reason
and intellect. Their existence is operated by unseen power of woods and stone.
Administrative machineries are village elders (Ndichie) and Evil Forest who decide
crime and punishment, faith and chance of people at length.
2.1.1. Ndichie
The Igbo society elders (Ndichie) gathered the villagers of Umoufia when decisions
were to be made on a great occasion as war. This is seen in Things Fall Apart where
the village is summoned as a result of a woman being murdered by a neighboring
village. Okonkwo is sent to the village of the perpetrators, and a settlement is made by
handing out human offerings in the shape of a virgin girl and a boy to the village of
Umoufia, “At the end they decided, as everybody knew they would, that the girl
should go to Ogbuefi Udo to replace his murdered wife. As for the boy, he belonged
to the clan as a whole, and there was no hurry to decide his fate” (TFA 12). Here a
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settlement is made on the fear from neighboring villages due to both the religious
awareness that Umoufia possesses great magical power and overwhelming clan
power, “Umuofia was feared by all its neighbours. It was powerful in war and in
magic, and its priests and medicine men were feared in all the surrounding country. Its
most potent war-medicine was as old as the clan itself” (TFA 11). With understanding
the order one must also realize that within the Igbo society, the clan itself ruled all.
The clan is understood as being male and all of the nine villages in Umuofia share one
common (first) ancestor. Each of the nine villages has their own ancestors who are the
sons of the first ancestor. The ancestral Egwugwu who were the living presences of
the dead fathers of the nine villagers of Umuofia was another manifestation of the will
of the Umuofia clan.
2.1.2. Evil Forest
Evil Forest is a dark place and symbol of abomination in Igbo society. It is a land of
spirits and belonged to the gods. It is forbidden land in order to build any kind of
building or house. This is the land where twins are being left to die in the ojoo ofia
(evil bush).“Every clan and village had its ‘evil forest’. In it were buried all those who
died of the really evil diseases, like leprosy and smallpox. It was also the dumping
ground for the potent fetishes of great medicine-men when they died. An ‘evil forest’
was, therefore alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness” (TFA 140). Evil
Forest takes part in villagers’ decision making and exhibits thefrighteningmalicious
nature and give judgement over the cases. In chapter 10, in the dispute of Uzowulu
and his wife Mgbafo Evil Forest persistently silences the crowd and strikes fear in the
villagers, “Evil Forest said, ‘Our duty is not to blame this man or to praise that, but to
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settle the dispute’”. (TFA 88)The impact of Evil Forest can be seen with these words
of Achebe, “Evil Forest rose to his feet and order was immediately restored” (TFA
88).
2.2. Family: Patriarchal Order
The institution of family is complex in traditional Africa. It is polygamous in its
approach. In Arrow of God, Ezeulu has two wives and the third one is already dead.
Nwaka from Umuachala another village of Umuaro, has five wives and on the
Pumpkin Leaves Day, this appeared as sensitization among community: “…the arrival
of the five wives of Nwaka and the big stir they caused. Each of them wore not
anklets but two enormous rollers of ivory reaching from the ankle almost of the knee”
(AG 70). The family lives together in a compound where each woman has her own
hut (obi). The older male children find their own huts when they are ready for
marriages. A son should perform the last rites of his dead father without failing to do
so. There is a division of labour in the family system determined by gender
differences. Women prepare food and obtain water and men work on the farms and
build huts and barns. Wives have their turn to cook for the husbands as the husbands
visit their wives’ in turns. The father maintains a firm grip on the household and
enforces discipline by preventing and settling disputes. In Igbo society respect is
apparentwhen we see Ezeulu’s sons, Nwafo and Edogo, salute him by saying
“Ezeulu!” (4).
2.2.1. Status of Women and Children
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Patriarchal African society is shown to be full of flaws. Women are shown as victims
of Okonkwo’s tyranny and rage. Though Okonkwo’s first wife tries to save Ojiugo by
lying to her husband, Ojiugo becomes a victim of her husband’s rage during the
sacred week: “Okonkwo knew she was not speaking the truth. He walked back to his
obi to wait Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his
anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace” (TFA, 28). Most importantly,
through this simple incident, Chinua Achebe has portrayed the ‘hamartia’ of a tragic
hero. Okonkwo’s rage is the reason of his downfall.
Within the Igbo society women are described through Achebe’s novel as being
subjected to male rule, and women are inferior to the men. “No matter how
prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and
especially his women) he was not really a man” (TFA50). The men in Igbo society are
entitled to acquire infinite products in terms of both wealth and womensince women
are considered a vital part of a man's status and wealth. Therefore, polygamy was a
sign of high quality among other Igbos. Yet the women are not entirely passive in
terms of religious representation. This could be argued by the priestess of Agbala who
is described as being a woman just like any other before she is overcome by the spirit
of Agbala. Although this woman is described as being a divine individual who was
taken over by the male spirit of Agbala, she is nevertheless a female in both her shape
and appearance. Igbo people refer to her as a woman earlier in her life, but it's hard to
argue that she is perceived by them as being a female contribution to the divinity as
the spirit Agbala is described as being male, and thus the source of her spiritual
ascent: “The Oracle was called Agbala, and people came from far and near to consult
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it. They came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with
their neighbours” (TFA 16).
Another example of the female spiritual presence in Igbo society is Ani, the
earth Goddess who is a powerful female influence on the society of Umuofia.
Throughout the novel Things Fall Apart we see that the protagonist Okonkwo
expresses his disappointment and shame over his father Unoka because of his interest
in playing music and not to harvest yam to feed his family. To play this kind of music
was feminine, among other Igbos. In addition to the fact that Unoka lived a life of
deep economic debt to most of the villagers in Umoufia and with this Okonkwo was
very much embarrassed, as it proved unworthy of an Igbo man being unable to
support himself or his wife unless he got help from others. In Igbo society, an
individual would also appear to be a failed human being; in this case, Unoka did not
possess much wealth for which he had only one wife. Marital status was crucial and
the polygamous man was honorable and powerful. Unoka was none of these and
therefore “he was in fact a coward and could not bear the sight of blood” (TFA 6).
This is also referred to when the people of Umuofia are summoned to the
marketplace and Okonkwo is described as a “Man of action, a man of war. Unlike his
father he could stand the look of blood (TFA 10). In this case, it was apparent that the
art of killing, sacrificing, polygamy and participating actively in a war were expected,
as to be the ways of a man. Unoka did not fit in, and he was therefore considered a
man without honor and titles. He had no wealth to support either himself or his
family. Therefore, he was considered a ‘woman’ according to Igbo standards. Unoka
was finally laid to rest in the evil forest because God would not accept such a man.
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In the course of the novel, it is clear that the woman's role is purely domestic,
of obedience and of her husband's will. This is seen during the week of peace when
Okonkwo beats his wife Ojiugo severely. It is its seen as a fault and disgrace towards
the Gods, yet the action is condemned entirely due to the act being committed during
this week. We also find examples of which the women are considered and valued, for
instance, during dowry in marriage. When Obierika, a dear friend of Okonkwo, is set
to marry off his daughter, it is clear that the suitor is entitled to consider her physical
characteristics, together with his relatives. This was to ensure that the girl was
beautiful and mature, “her suitor and his relatives surveyed her young body with
expert eyes” (TFA 66), just as one considers a vehicle before purchase.
Unlike other novels of Achebe, the social status of women
characters in Anthills of the Savannah has been better. The women
characters in this novel go through experience of changes and Achebe has
dexterously put characters based on their education. Elewa, Ikem’s
girlfriend, does not have any formal educationbut she is casted as a lower
class sales-shop girl. On the other hand, Beatrice is a Western educated
woman,who acquired his education from London University and gets a
civilized job as Senior AssistantSecretary in the Ministry of Finance.
Instead of female gender, Achebe gives her a highlyrespected rank
though she belongs to the crossbreed class of rational society.
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Beatrice Okah is Chris’s girlfriend; Western educated lady is
presented as afemale hybrid character in the novel. Beatrice, born in
Kangan, graduated fromLondon and earned a degree in English and came
back to Kangan in order to do a job in thegovernment. Beatrice, during
her education in England, “ did not know these traditions and legends of her
people because they played but little part in her upbringing” (AS 100). Beatrice in
the first part of the novel presented by Achebe as ahybrid character
always tries to repress her African identity in order to maintain equations
of the neo-colonial power. Beatrice’s cultural supremacy is intended to
showher cultural impressions of the Western ways of life and philosophy
which she inherited fromher European Guru during her education. The
colonial imperfection ofpower in the schooling system is highly
noticeable in the representation of Achebe’s woman character Beatricewho
“was born as we have seen into a world apart; was baptized and sent to
school which made much about the English and the Jews and the Hindu
andpractically everybody else but hardly put in a word for her forebears
and thedivinities with whom they had evolved. So she came to barely
knowing whoshe was” (AS 100). However, Beatrice realizes her own
cultural roots, her Africancultural way of life, values and ideologies of
her own civilization which her ancestors preserved and cultivated.
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Beatrice accentuates that it is her obligation to save the ancient cultural
root of Africa. She posits, “So, two whole generations before the likes of
me could take a first classdegree in English, there were already barely
literate carpenters and artisansof British rule hacking away in the
archetypal jungle and subverting thevery sounds and legends of daybreak
to make straight my way” (AS 104). In this reference we may quote from
TheWretched of theEarth, the chapter titled “The Pit falls of National
Consciousness”. Fanon says,“The national bourgeoisie of the colonial
countries identifies itself with the decadenceof the bourgeoisie of the
West. We need not think that it is jumping ahead; it is in factbeginning at
the end” (WE 123).
It seems that Beatrice’s relationship with her housemaid,Agatha in
the novel reminds thecolonizer-colonized relationship. The relationship
also seems to be explicit in naturethat the master and slave relationship is
palpable in many contexts. Instead of sympathy andcareBeatrice shows
impoliteness and heartlessness towards Agatha, who according toBeatrice
is “so free with leaflets dripping with the life blood of Jesus and yet had
nosingle drop of charity in her own anaemic blood” (AS 175). The
ruthlessbehaviour of Beatrice changes over the course of the time, after
Ikem’s death. In chapter 14 Beatrice scoldedAgatha for a misconduct she
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has done towards Elewa. She sits in the kitchen weepingbitterly. It is for
the first time Beatrice apologizes, “I am sorry, Agatha” (AS 177).Agatha
is familiar with Beatrice’s insolent nature and harsh dealings on
variousoccasions so she cannot believe her kind words. Achebe explains
this situations in a very expressive mood, “the unbelief turned first to
shock and then, through the mist of her (Agatha) tears, a sunrise of
smiles” (AS 177).
2.2.2. Women's Associations
The Igbo women had their own clubs, age-group association, and title associations
that complemented those of men. They controlled certain spheres of community life
showing the balance in the masculine and feminine existence. Women were perceived
to possess superior spiritual well-being and headed many of the traditional cults and
shrines. In Achebe's Things Fall Apart the oracle is served by a priestess Agbala.
Women also gained status by amassing wealth through trading, farming, or weaving,
and were treated as ndiogalanya, wealthy persons. Like an Igbo man, every Igbo
woman began her life as an apprentice. From a very young age, a girl assisted her
mother at home, on the farm, or in the marketplace. As she grew older she learned
from experience that hard work, marriage, and membership of certain associations
enabled women to advance socially. One of the most important women’s associations
was otuomu (the Omu society), headed by a female functionary, known as Omu. The
desire to join this prestigious association acted as an incentive for hard work and
thrift, for only women who had enough wealth to pay for the initiation ceremonies.
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The members of the Omu society acted as a pressure group in political matters and
imposed fines on men and women who disturbed the peace of the marketplace. They
punished quarrelsome women and those who broke certain taboos, like those
prohibiting incest and adultery. In the novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe is showing the
“range depth and variety of the nineteenth-century Eastern Nigerian social and
personal life, as it was lived, before the deluge of colonization especially from 1885
onwards” (Ohadike, x). It is also that highness of the ‘other’ or the primitive (Edward
Said, Orientalism, 1978) which is destroyed by colonization.
2.2.3. Gender Relationships
Thoughcolonization brought new opportunities for social movement, it seemed only
to emphasize the large gap between males and females in Igbo society. Traditional
roles for men and women are important even after increased educational and
employment opportunities. Traditionally, when children are quite young they are
molded into their proper gender role. From infancy to the age of five or six, children
in Igbo culture are essentially treated with equal emphasis. Boys are taught to be
adventurous, rough and tough. On the other hand, Girls must have confidence on their
mothers as they grow up; and so they are trainedto learn dependence that is
advantageous for their future roles as wives. Boys and girls learn different skills. Girls
learn homemaking skillsand a few creative skills like dancing, singing and making
cloths. Boys learn a variety of skills including how to perform sacrifices, using masks
and musical instruments, wrestling with the aim ofenduring pain. Okonkwo reflects
on the disappointment of having a boy like Nwoye, which he holds in great respect
and expectation, but his expectations of him are being betrayed countless times, and
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the disappointment is described in Nwoyes missing warrior’s behavior and his
manhood as missing wrestling skills. Nwoye is not married; he ends up embracing the
Christian faith and this is finally the ultimate death blow to the relationship between
Okonkwo and his son. Nwoye’s decision to leave the Igbo people’s gods, norms,
customs and civil order is described by Okonkwo as the closest to the fault of his own
father Unoka “He, Okonkwo, was called a flaming fire. How could he have begotten a
woman for a son?” (145). Ifi Amadiume says in her book, “the socialization of girls
stressed sexual restraint and preparation for their future roles as wives and mothers.
Socialization of boys, on the other hand, stressed masculinity, equated with virility,
violence, valour, and authority”. (94)Essentially, girls are taught to be good wives and
mothers, while boys are taught to be warriors and leaders. A good woman is one who
would act primarily as a wife and mother. She should feed and support her husband as
well as do everything she can to protect and raise her children. Men were leaders and
fighters; they were also the ones who carry on their father's lineage. Marriage, both
traditionally and in more contemporary Igbo society is very important. Both males
and females are not considered adults until they get married. While the pressure to get
married is stronger on women, men also are expected to get married, and if they take a
long time, they might be considered lazy. Marriage is important for men and women
to get social status as adults and be able to fully participate in their society. Once they
are married, Igbo people are considered adults, but in order to fully fulfill their role in
society, they must also have children. Women are expected to act as mothers and
protect their children as part of their gender role. It is their primary expectation, even
in more modern times when a woman might look to get higher education and a good
job. Men must have children as proof of their manhood. If they don’t have any
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children, they aren’t really looked on as true men, and if they don’t have any boys,
then they are considered less of a man. This is part of the reason for polygamy in Igbo
society. Having a lot of wives and children, it was also a way for a man to ensure that
his lineage survived and that he produced a male heir. In more contemporary times,
polygamy still survives, and men have many mistresses.
2.2.4. Gender Roles
While the European influence on modern Nigerian society has led many to downplay
the role of women in Igbo culture, even historically, it is important to recognize that
Igbo women traditionally enjoyed significant socioeconomic status in their own right.
Traditional Igbo society can be accurately described as patriarchal, and men paid
brideprice to purchase their wives, but women were by no means completely
subordinate to men.
The division of labor according to gender is an important feature of Igbo
society. Men are the providers, and their ability to provide for their family is of huge
social significance. Their household tasks are largely for outside home and they are
responsible for paying bills. Within the community, men perform maintenance,
harvest crops, and settle disputes. Female labor tends to center around the inside home
and tends to be related to cooking and cleaning. Women nurse children but discipline
is divided between the parents. This division is perceived as a complementary one,
rather than one that assigns dominance to male labor over female.
It also extends to the political sphere, where women participate in all-female
councils and other political structures that parallel the male counterparts. Again, these
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female counterparts are not necessarily less powerful because they are female. In
other cases the eldest woman in a community will be the most powerful person. In
general, post-menopausal women hold high status and are even considered as
voluntary men.
Time changes, and chastity is not remaining a predominantly important value
in traditional Igbo society.Marriage is extremely important and fertility and child-
rearing are supreme. Women are most respected when they are pregnant or after
giving birth to children, especially to sons. Sexual impotency or simply a wife’s
dissatisfaction with her husband’s sexual performance can lead to divorce, “Sex
means much more to a woman than to a man” (AMP48) which indicates the emphasis
placed on male sexual expertise in Igbo culture. Infidelity is accepted, and expected
and polygamy is common. Some wives welcome the addition of new wives to the
household because it eases their domestic load. Since men pay a bride wealth and
effectively purchase their wives, their wife’s wealth and property is legitimately
theirs. However, most women have independent economic activities and in practice
had self-governing control of their economic dealings.
In spite of love and concern for Igbo society, Achebe clearly mulls the
backwardness of the society by projecting radiance on the status of women. Igbo men
used to go out for hunting with guns and machetes; women think about their family
and household affairs. Achebe’s insight of woman’s status seems to look like the
reflection of the Victorian Poet-Alfred Tennyson, who associated men to field and
women to the hearth. Palm-wine was offered to women by their husbands in the order
of their seniority. They have to go down on one knee, drink a little from the horn, and
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hand over the same to their husbands. In Things Fall Apart, Anasi being the first wife
of Okonkwo, was the first to obtain a horn of wine from her husband. It appears that it
was the custom to sustain the dependency of Igbo women on men.
2.3. Celebrations and Entertainments
2.3.1. Igbo Marriage
In Nigeria, marriage was a fundamental aspect for the survival of the societies, and
therefore followed a certain number of principles. Polygamy was common. However,
in the traditional societies of Nigeria, young people were not free to marry the girls of
their own choice. The parents were the ones who chose for them, according to the
relationship that united them with the family of the bride. People adopted marriage in
order to fulfill social requirements. The ceremonies that accompanied marriage were
various. The way marriage was conceived is close to the depiction in the novel Things
Fall Apart. If marriage is examined in the novel, similar things are discovered. In the
novel, marriage follows certain rituals and is marked by a number of stages such as
finalization of match, fixing dowry (for example with Obierika's daughter),observes
uri (engagement)(Chapter Twelve, with the daughter of Obierika) and then the isa-
ifi(final part of the wedding) (in Mbanta with Uchendu's son Amikwu) takes place. In
Igbo marriage the bride must swear that she has never slept with a man when the
bridegroom expresses his will to marry her. In Things Fall Apart, marriage is
essentially preserved according to a precise ritual of the real world. Here it can be
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seen that Achebe uses literature as a social document where he records or preserves
the customs, traditions or experiences of his society like a historian.
Fig. 2.1. Illustration of Igbo Dance in Marriage
In Igbo society, women were bought and sold in marriage. The bride price was
decided with the help of broomsticks. In the Igbo culture, the bride’s dowry consisted
of cooking- pots, wooden bowls, brooms, baskets of cocoyam, and many more
products. The woman’s marriage condition becomes prominent in the lines quoted by
Achebe’s character, Ezeulu who states, “Different people have different
reasons formarrying. Apart from children which we all want, some men
want a woman to cook their meals, some want a woman to help on the
farm, others wantsomeone they can beat” (AG, 65).
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In spite of all these in Africa and specifically in Igboland, marriage is a holy
institution. It is for this reason that divorce is considered forbidden and if there is one
like Ibe, who beats her wife Akueke everything has been done by Ezeulu and his
kinsman in order to re-unite the Akueke and Ibe. “Ezeulu employed all his skills in
speaking to pacify his in-laws. They went home happier than they came…” (AG 12).
2.3.2. Bride-price in Igbo Society
Marriage is very special for Igbo people but there is a provision of dowry so that
wife’s new life would be secured. In chapter 11 of the novel Arrow of God on the
occasion of Obika’s marriage “Most of the women carried small head-loads of the
bride dowry to which all contributed- cooking-pots of palm oil, baskets of cocoyam,
smoked fish, fermented cassava, locust beans,…” (AG 116). In Igbo as well as in
Africa woman’s virginity plays a pivotal role. It is measured as jewels among girls,
and a newly-married wife is a part of respect: “Obika had already chosen an enormous
goat as a present for his mother-in-law should his wife prove to be a virgin” (AG
119). Bride price in Igbo society is negotiated between both the suitor's father and
father to daughter receiving the proposal. During this ceremony, there is an agreed
price set between the male representatives on both sides of the marriage contract. The
woman is thus passive and only valued by her own father and suitor’s father who
wants his son to marry her. In addition, Okonkwo expresses his surprise and outrage
at practices of other village tribes, for example, practicing women's rights by assuring
that the children belong to a woman and her family, “the world is large,’ said
Okonkwo. I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife
and her family” (TFA 69).
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2.3.3. Wrestling Match
Igbo land is basically agricultural land. When they get leisure out of the crop season
they arrange wrestling match in order to get refreshment and rhythm to their life. The
Igbo people were very fond of personal achievements.
Fig. 2.2. Illustration of Igbo Wrestling Match
Wrestling was a very popular game in the Igbo land. This led to the heroes of the
community with great respect. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo was well known
throughout nine villages. When he was 18 years old, he had thrown Amalinze, a great
wrestler who could not be beaten in wrestling for years. The people beat drums and
played upon their flutes over Okonkwo’s victory. In the same novel there is a
wrestling contest between Okafo and Ikezue. In the last attempt, Okafo was swept off
his feet by his supporters and carried home shoulder high. The villagers sang his
praise and the young women clapped out in joy, “The crowd sang:
Who will wrestle for our village?
Okafo will wrestle for our village.
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Has he thrown a hundred men?

He has thrown four hundred men.
Has he thrown a hundred cats?
He has thrown four hundred cats.
Then send him word to fight for us” (TFA 48).
This song shows the excitement and enthusiasm among people of Igbo Society.
2.3.4. Pumpkin Leaves Feast
Festival is very important for the society. It is a good source of energy and fervor and
Igboland is not the different one. The most important festivals in Arrow of God are
‘Pumpkin Leaves Feast’ and ‘New Yam Festival’. On the occasion of the Pumpkin
Leaves Feast, Ezeulu has a sacred function to execute. He cleanses the sins of the clan
and blasphemy that men and women have committed during the year. Igbo people
celebrate this festival with exuberance. Achebe describes this ceremony in graphic
detail:
Today it was as though all the bees in the world were passing overhead. And
people were still flowing in from all the pathways of Umuaro. As soon as they
emerged from their compound Ugoye and Akueke joined one such stream.
Every woman of Umuaro had a bunch of pumpkin leaves in her right hand;
any woman who had none was a stranger from the neighbouring villages
coming to see the spectacle (AG 69-70).
Besides these two major festivals, most of the villages of Umuaro have their different
festivals according to their rites and rituals.
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2.3.5. New Yam Festival
Fig. 2.3. Illustration of New Yam Festival
Fig. 2.4. Illustration of Selling Yams
Yam is a crop to be harvested, and it is the most major crop of Igbo society. Therefore
it is alife line of the Igbo society. The New Yam Festival is a celebration of socio-
cultural aspect of Igbo life, “The Feast of the New Yam was held every year
before the harvest began, to honourthe earth goddess and the ancestral
spirits of the clan. New yams could not be eaten untilsome had first been
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offered to these powers” (TFA 35).In the evening of this festival all old yams
must be discarded from home with the hope that next year will be fresh and new and
previous year must be dried with discarded yam, “Onthe last night before the
festival, yams of the old year were all disposed of by those whostill had
them. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the
shrivelled andfibrous crop of the previous year” (TFA 35). On the
occasion of this festival, Igbo people invite their guests from different
places according to their prosperity and richness,“The New Yam Festival
was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia. And everyman whose
arm was strong, as the Ibo people say, was expected to invite large
numbersof guests from far and wide. Okonkwo always asked his wives’
relations, and since he nowhad three wives his guests would make a fairly
big crowd” (TFA36).
2.3.6.Dance and Song of Western Culture
In No Longer at Ease, Achebe reflects on the influence of the western culture on
Nigerians who associate themselves with the songs sung on a variety of occasions. At
the ball, the Europeans held their women close, breast to breast, so that they can dance
continuously. When instead of Obi, Clara danced with Obi’s friend Christopher; the
vocalist sang this song on the microphone:
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I was playing moi guitar jeje, A lady gave me a kiss.
Her husband didn't like it, He had to drag him wife away.
Gentlemen, please hold your wife. Father and mum, please hold your girls.
The calypso is so nice, If they follow, don't blame Bobby. (NLE 90)
In A Man of the People, when Odili waits at Chief Nanga’s house in order to meet
Edna, he gives out three Shillings to three different groups of boys and their masked
dancers who danced comically to the song, “Sunday, bigi bele Sunday Sunday, bigi
bele, Everybody run away! Sunday, Alleluia! (AMP 88)”.
The Igbo people believe in the strong sense of community and lineage rather
than in the belief of self or individual. The Igbo live in autonomous villages and
towns, ruled by their elders. The lineage groups proceed from father to son.
Relationships were based on blood ties. Chinua Achebe is a writer who writes with
his cultural experience and with national cultural awareness. C.L. Innes and Bernth
Lindfors talk of Achebe’s concept of cultural recovery and cultural experience. C.L.
Innes writes:
Chinua Achebe is an apt choice in this regard, for the Nigerian’s fiction
demonstrations his preoccupation with language, not simply as a
communicative device, but as a total cultural experience. At this level,
language is not merely technique. It is the embodiment of its civilization and
therefore represents or dramatizes modes of perception within its cultural
grouping. Accordingly, the white man’s failure to understand African customs
in Things Fall Apart is bound up with his ignorance of the African’s language.
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In other words, Achebe seizes upon the perceptual values represented by an
alien European Culture and its language, then exploits these criteria to portray
external conflicts between the African and the white colonialist, or to project
the internal crisis of African society (Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe,
1979:24).
A large number of people of Africa after theEuropean oppression
involve themselves into the captivating urbanemodern Western culture. In
Anthills of the Savannah Sam, his Excellency of Kangan is a
personification of Westernideals and culture who behaves resembling a
typical European. The major bourgeoisiecharacters, Sam, Ikem, Mad
Medico, Chris, and Beatrice were educated in Britain, adoptednot only
Western way of life and values but tried to mimic and admire English.
TheWestern educated elite class of Kangan set away some distance with
the common people because they felt that they were finer to the common
crowd. When they were students in the British educationalinstitutes, they
never learntanything about Africa or African culture but they were
familiar with the imposing academiccurriculum and the cultural
characteristics of the colonizer.
The name that appears in Anthills of the Savannah is a Western
educated character in the novel resembles a Christiandevout. Sam, Chris
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and Beatrice are educated in GreatBritain and adapted to the Western
culture in many ways. Sam has respect for thepeople who speak Standard
English, are fond of eating westernfood, attending night clubs, dance and
sex with Whitewomen. This shows his obsession for the White culture.
Analyzing Anthills of the Savannah in this context, it is observed that
Sam “was fascinated by thecustoms of the English…when he told me
about his elegant pipe which he had spent awhole morning choosing in a
Mayfair shop I could see that he was not taking himselfseriously at all”
(AS 46).Beatrice is another incarnation of Western culture. She attends a
party hosted by Sam and she is a special invitee. Now the depiction of the
setting is depicted as a pure Europe. The pretty sketch of the party
reminds usof the Western ways of arrogance and the indifferent
foodhabits. Beatrice expressed, “A pleasant – faced army major searched
my handbag at theentrance and another officer took me up a wide and
red-carpeted flight of stairs. At thelanding a huge open door led into an
enormous and opulent room where guests werealready settled in” (AS
70).
Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth takes the problem of
language, the linguisticpractices of the Western educated elite who usurp
to power in the newly shapedcountry. Fanon addresses these elites, “If
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you speak the language of everyone, if youare not obsessed by the
perverse desire to spread confusion and rid yourself of thepeople, then
you will realize that the masses are quick to seize every shade
ofmeaning” (WE 152). It seems that Anthills of the Savannah presents the
Western cultural superiority on the inhabitant elite in a negativeand
exclusive manner. Professor Okong, as a member of Sam’s cabinet is a
ferventadmirer of Standard English. Sam represents antipathy towards
ethnic proverbs and aphorisms of hisculture when he frequently quotes
Professor Okong in his conversations, “Idon’t quite get you, Professor,
please cut out the proverbs, if you don’t mind” (AS 18).Here it is clear
that Sam is completely changed and he fully adapted Westernvalues, and
in general he becomes aworldly person affected by Western values. Apart
from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in Anthills of the Savannah Pidgin
hasbecome the rightful language of the ordinary people while Standard
Englishcorresponds the language of the selected class of Nigeria.
However, in Anthills of the Savannah, Achebe realizes the futility
of the national leaders of the imaginary Kangan that gives growth to the
social problems. This is the fraudulent leadership that makes their
livesunhappy. Achebe believes that the problem of stems arises from neo-
colonialism.However, in this novel, Achebe stresses on the requirement
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for Africans to find out what keep them away fromthe people in order to
identify with the people. According to Achebe, the genuinedifficulty of
Nigeria isnot the oppression of the ruling class but the external threat of
colonization. Hecastigates the leaders of his country for upholding the
governmental dishonesty byignoring the common man’s problems.Those
who damage“the nation bytheir un-productivity and fraud” (AS 152) are
the real villains, who make certainthat all the rusticpopulation of Kangan
remain unproductive. He alsoobserves, “When your fat civil servants and
urban employees of public corporationsmarch on May Day wearing
ridiculously undersize T- shirts and school-boy caps’… andspouting
clichés from other people’s histories and struggles, hardly do they realize
thatin the real context of Africa today they are not the party of the
oppressed but of theoppressor” (AS 151-152).
2.4.Crimes and Punishments
Igbo society is a democratic society. There is no written rule for crime and
punishment.Wesee that crimes and punishment have their roots in beliefs and fear of
gods and goddesses. In Igbo society evil deeds are judged by Council of Elders and
supernatural power on the basis of will of god. There are two kinds of crimesexisting
in Igbo society,namely male crime andfemale crime.
2.4.1.Male Crime
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Male crime is an intentional and serious crime. In Igbo society ‘life for life’ is
common. It isevident when we discussthe novel Things Fall Apart.We seethat
Mbaino’s villagers killed Ogbuefi Udo’s wife Ezeugo from Umuofia in market-place,
“An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to
choosebetween war - on the one hand, and on the other the offer of a
young man and a virgin ascompensation” (TFA 11). It was the clear
intention of Umuofia’s Elders to do what is right according to the law of
community, “Okonkwo of Umuofia arrived at Mbaino as the proud and
imperious emissaryof war, he was treated with great honour and respect,
and two days later he returnedhome with a lad of fifteen and a young
virgin. The lad’s name was Ikemefuna…” (TFA 12). After great mission
of Okonkwo, the Elders or ndichie decided that, “the girl should go to
Ogbuefi Udo to replacehis murdered wife. As for the boy, he belonged to
the clan as a whole, and there was nohurry to decide his fate. Okonkwo
was, therefore, asked on behalf of the clan to look afterhim in the interim.
And so for three years Ikemefuna lived in Okonkwo's household” (TFA
12). This is clear that Achebe has given full-fledged information of Igbo
customary rules and regulations. Another incident of male crime took place in
this novel when Okonkwo brought disgrace to his village, Umuofia by beating his
wife, Ojiugo, “In his anger he hadforgotten that it was the Week of Peace”
(TFA 28).Okonkwo has to face the consequences. According to the Priest’s advice
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he, “will bring to the shrine of Ani one she-goat, one hen, a length of cloth and a
hundred cowries” (TFA 29).Killingof Ikemefuna by Okonkwo was another example
of male crime butit was the will of Elders.In spite of all these Okonkwo indirectly
faced mental trauma because he had committed a sin which was not right according to
his will. However, his tragic flaw led to do this heinous crime. Time passed and
Umuofia became victim to colonial power. Rule was changed and the British power
had implemented new rule in the course of time. When Okonkwo killed a messenger,
who is loyal to the colonialist commissionar, a death sentenced was passed on him.It
was unbearable for Okonkwo in order to submit his law of Umuofia to the colonial
power.
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2.4.2. Female Crime
Male crime is an intentional whereas female crime is unintentional but its
consequences are even more powerful than male crime. In Things Fall Apart on the
funeral ceremony of Ezeudu Okonkwo unknowingly shot dead a boy of sixteen-year-
old,The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a
crime againstthe earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who
committed it must flee from the land.The crime was of two kinds, male
and female. Okonkwo had committed the female crime,because it had
been unintended. He was therefore banished from his homeland for seven
years. “He could return to the clan after seven years ” (TFA
117).Undoubtedly with this incident Achebe has tried to show the gravity of Igbo law
which is unparallel and can not be vanished from the Igbo life whether it is intentional
or unintentional.
2.5. Superstitions and blind belief
2.5.1. Various Gods and Goddesses
Colonial accounts state that one of the reasons for the invasion of the African
countries was to introduce them to the ‘civilization’ that would replace their savage
ways of ruling their country,but Achebe’s novel tries to illustrate that the governing
system of the Igbo tribe did, in fact, have order and some form of democracy. This
system included the living, the dead, gods and the Earth with Chukwu, the great
unknowable god as the ruler above all.
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Achebe shows that Igbo people maintain a balance where change is expected
and where man’s existence is interrelated with the material and spiritual. If there is
any lack of balance it is again maintained or put right by certain rituals, sacrifices or
by an appeal to the ancestors. The Igbo world is made up ofUwa (representing the
visible world of human beings, forests, and animals), Mmua (dead ancestors), Alusi
(supernatural forces) and (personal god), a kind of soul given by Chukwu (the
supreme god), which determines the person’s abilities and lot. Achebe has also
portrayed diversity among the Igbo tribes. He has described the taboos and
superstitions of the tribes. In this process, Achebe tries to reveal the African culture as
real and diverse. He describes different clan festivals and customs. He wants to show
African culture to the world, which had only been seen through Western
representations earlier to this. Western writers like Conrad has depicted African
culture as savage, exotic and mysterious. In his novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua
Achebe gets success portraying order within the Igbo society in opposition to the
colonial idea of the society as being revolutionary and without structure and order.
This order within the Igbo tribe was withheld by religious belief and clan order
amongst the Igbo people in their society. According to the Igbo belief the Agbala
(female priestess), the Oracle of the Hills and Caves, expressed the will of the Ani, the
earth Goddess. This will concern both matters of domestic and communal
proportions. Furthermore, principles of behavior were also enforced by the priest of
the earth.
As an example of this, Okonwo’s father, Unoka, seeks the advice of the Oracle
of the Hill and caves in order to understand why his crops are not growing well. The
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priestess tells Unoka that his bad crops are not a result of lack of favor amongst the
gods but his own laziness. She argues that people cross seven rivers to make their
farms grow; whereas Unoka stays at home and offers sacrifices to a reluctant soil:
“Go home and work like a man” (TFA 17).
Another sense of the duality in the Igbo society is also shown through the
Egwugwu which emphasizes the relation between the living and the dead. The
Egwugwu are the dancing masked men who are perceived as dead ancestors of the
people in Umoufia. The function of the Egwugwu is religious deliberation over
matters concerning the Igbo culture. In the case of the novel, it is centered on
marriage. The responsibility of being egwugwu falls upon the young men of status in
the village, being that they had to carry big wooden faces and raffia suits with grace.
Achebe suggests that the villagers did, in fact, recognize that the masked men were
actually mortals but due to the religious function of the Egwugwu, no one speaks of
this. He further goes on to describe how villagers were surprised to see that the white
man was not afraid of the mask bearing men which attest to the conviction of the
Egwugwu. In more recent times, it seems that the Egwugwu has had more of an
entertaining value than a religious one. The meaning of the word Egwugwu derives
from the root form ‘egwu’ which can mean drum, dance or entertainment. Achebe
also puts a lot of emphasis on the power of the egwugwu and at the same time, he
shows his audience something about the gender relations. It is shown that when the
egwugwu comes forward, the women and the children “backward stamped” (TFA
84). He also mentions “powerful flutes” and “awesome” and “guttural” voices of the
egwugwu which tell the reader that the power relation between the genders is far from
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equal. But Achebe includes irony in this notion by mentioning that some of the
women might recognize Okonkwo.
Achebe in his novels has reflected the Igbos’ cosmology, where there is
Chukwu or ama ama amasi amasi- “one supreme God who made heaven and
earth” (TFA 169) (one who is difficult to understand). Below are shown a number
of deities whose domains may be limited to specific aspects of life on earth. Ani- the
earth goddess, Ikenga- a carved piece of wood, Amadiora- the god of the thunder, and
ogbanje- the spirits of children. A body of myths or sacred tales used by the Igbos to
explain their problems and mysteries of life and death find a prominent place in
Achebe’s novels. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe shows various aspects of the
traditional belief system that may be dismissed as superstitious as having an internal
logic.
Goddess ‘Ani’ is a symbol of happiness of Igbo. On the approaching occasion
of ‘The Feast of the New Yam’,“Umuofia was in a festival mood. It
wasan occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source
of all fertility. Aniplayed a greater part in the life of the people than any
other deity. She was the ultimatejudge of morality and conduct” (TFA
35).
Igbo considers ‘Ikenga’ as a ritual object and worship as a god. It is
their belief that a wooden object is respected as equal to god but colonial
power violates their conviction as we see in chapter twenty-one, ‘“There
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are no other gods,’ said Mr. Brown. ‘Chukwu is the only God and all
othersare false. You carve a piece of wood - like that one’ (he pointed at
the rafters from whichAkunna's carved Ikenga hung), ‘and you call it a
god. But it is still a piece of wood” (TFA 169).
‘Amadiora’ is a god of the thunder who is a representation of
violent behavior and it will curse and punish when one will commit little
misdeeds. Okonkwo becomes furious when his adopted son Ikemefuna
behaves like a lazy boy and frightens him saying, “Amadiora will break
your head for you!” (TFA 32).
2.5.2. Birth of Twinsand Ogbanje as a Belief System
The birth of twins or multiple children by a woman was seen as abomination within
the Igbo tribe and in Achebe’s novel he explains how the orphans were thrown in the
evil forest to die as a result of this abomination, “Nneka had had four previous
pregnancies and child-births. But each time she had borne twins, and they had been
immediately thrown away. Her husband and his family were already becoming highly
critical of such a woman and were not unduly perturbed when they found she had fled
to join the Christians. It was a good riddance” (TFA 142-143). This is the prominent
scene of converting into Christianity. Obierika also thinks after the exile of Okonkwo:
He remembered his wife's twin children, whom he had thrown away. What
crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that they were an offence
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on the land and must be destroyed. And if the clan did not exact punishment
for an offence against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land
and not just on the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it
soiled the others (TFA 118).
Achebe has shown the existence of evil spirit in the form of
‘Ogbanje’ who reincarnate and is born to die, often in infancy. This claim
can be demonstrated with these lines, “After the death of Ekwefi’s second
child, Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man,who was also a diviner of
the Afa Oracle, to enquire what was amiss. This man told himthat the
child was an ogbanje, one of those wicked children who, when they died,
enteredtheir mother’s wombs to be born again” (TFA 73). Here Achebe
casts light on the Igbo manifestation that there can be no violated
appearance of any force, and significant of the human agency in order to
realize of one’s luck. He feels that the folk tales which the ancestors crafted must
be extended to the next generations showing its value, importance, and significance.
2.6. Rituals of Igbo
2.6.1.Rituals for goddesses
2.6.1.1. Oracles of Hills and the Cave
Another aspect of the Igbo ruling system is the Oracle of the Hills and the Cave. The
Oracle is seen as a transitional manifestation being that he is served by a priestess. It
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is also accounted for that Agbala, The Oracle at Awka was seen as the daughter of
Igwe-ka-Ani but was also called Father and took a masculine pronoun. In Basden’s
description of Agbala, the oracle, he notes that the oracle is the voice of the Earth,
which the Igbo address as the great Mother, but is still called Father. Basden is also
very critical in his description stating that the only real function of the Oracle was to
deceive and take advantage of the villagers (Basden in Wren, 1980:24). There are also
colonial accounts that state that the oracles were really a link in the slave trades.
When the fate of person was to be decided the oracle would at times show that they
had killed that person by presenting the family of the person with chicken and claim
that it was the blood of the ill-fated one when in fact they would capture that person
and sell them as slaves. In the novel Achebe presents his oracle in a different way.
People “came when misfortune dogged their steps or when they had a dispute with
their neighbors. They came to discover what the future held for them or to consult the
spirits of their departed fathers” (TFA 16).
In this description, we see that the function of the oracle as more ideal. There
is no mentionof anything that might indicate the corruption of the oracles. We also see
that within the political system of the Igbo tribes there are processes that somewhat
look democratic. In chapter 2 of the novel, every man in the village is called to a great
assembly. At the assembly, an orator comes forward and speaks of the murder of an
Umoufian woman by the Mbaino tribe. After this, the men decide how to deal with
the given case. Although the orator is described as powerful and he is in “a land
where oratory is an esteemed art” (Wren, 1980:20), he alone cannot decide what
action the whole village should take. The villagers all state their opinion before taking
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action at the end of the assembly (which is a detail Achebe fails to mention). The men
of the tribe decide that they want compensation for the damages in the form of a wife
and a boy. The normal course of action among the Igbo is that there should be a
demand of a compensatory and disciplinary damage. The wife here is the
compensation which leads the boy to be sacrificed although it is not decided right
away. This form of deliberation is also relevant to the end of the novel. Okonkwo
starts uproar among the villagers but before the form of action is thoroughly discussed
and decided, he kills one of the messengers, shocking the other villagers and
eventually leading him to lose his faith in the Umoufia ways.
2.6.1.2. Ani
Ani is the Igbo Fertility Goddess of the earth. The Igbo people of Nigeria label her the
mother of everything. She is present at the beginning of the cycle of life, helping
children grow in their mother’s womb. Ani also provides system of law to the people,
stressing the importance of integrity and reverence. As the goddess of ethics, Ani is
involved in judging human dealings and is in charge of Igbo regulation. This can be
realized in chapter 4 when Okonkwo beats his wifeEzeani, the priest of the earth
goddess, Ani came and calledOkonkwo in his obi. Okonkwo in her
respect brings kola nut for the priest but she refused to take it, “Takeaway
your kola nut. I shall not eat in the house of a man who has no respect for
our godsand ancestors” (TFA 29). Ani as the goddess of the earth is
visible in chapter 3 of the novel TFA when Unoka paid visit in order to
make his crop healthy Unoka said dejectedly, “before I put any crop in
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the earth, I sacrifice a cock toAni, the owner of all land. It is the law of
our fathers” (TFA 17). Another powerful incident is noticeable on the
occasion of the New Yam Festival in Umuofia,“It wasan occasion for
giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility.
Aniplayed a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She
was the ultimatejudge of morality and conduct. And what was more, she
was in close communion with thedeparted fathers of the clan whose
bodies had been committed to earth” (TFA 35). Ani is still worshipped by the
Igbo of Nigeria and is annually paid homage during the Yam festival.
2.6.1.3. Chi
Chi is one of the most important things in Igbo belief system. Chi has operating force
for those who believe in Chi’s strength. Chi is of two kinds- a good Chi and another
bad Chi. A bad Chi suggests that a living being will not lead respectable life. “At the
most one could say that his chi or personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a
proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also” (TFA 26).
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2.6.2. Other Rituals
2.6.2.1. Naming Ceremony
Another important ritual in the Igbo culture is that of the naming ceremony. “Name-
giving” (Uchendu 60) is a formal occasion, celebrated with feasting and drinking, that
serves the purpose of expressing the social groups to which a child belongs. It takes
place one week after the birth of the child, and the name defines this new life. Names
are not given at random, as a child is given several names all laden with meaning
within the familial and social spheres. The name may be a symbol of a chosen
ancestor or to honour the family legacy. In Things Fall Apart, for Ekwefi “naming
ceremony after seven market weeks became an empty ritual” (TFA 73), because “she
buried one child after another” (TFA 73). The offering of kola nuts and porridge to
family and friends takes place the day of the ceremony. The head of the newborn is
shaved, representing a fresh start for the spiritual life of the child. The naming
ceremony is a key aspect of Igbo life because of this huge significance in the name –
“Our name is our history and our bloodline” (Doumbia, 2004:126).
2.6.2.2. Palm wine
This is the alcoholic drink for the Igbo; it is present at almost all ceremonies and
rituals, and this is of prime importance at every social occasion. Rituals and sacrifices
are meant to encourage spiritual generosity and power, so before any drinking of palm
wine, some is poured on the ground in homage to them.
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Fig.2.5. Illustration of Socialization of Palm Wine
This liquid offering to the Spirit, is made as a tribute or simply used for festive
occasions, “Obierika, was celebrating his daughter's uri.It was the day on
which her suitor(having already paid the greater part of her bride-price)
would bring palm-wine not only toher parents and immediate relatives
but to the wide and extensive group of kinsmen calledumunna” (TFA
104).
Fig. 2.6. Illustration of Tapping Palm Wine
The time when the juice from palm trees is being harvested is a time of great
merriment and celebrations. The significance of palm wine helps to illustrate a pattern
in all rituals like the communication of the spirit continues through music and dance,
sometimes with explicit rhythms to convince a particular spirit. For Igbo, this is also
source of knowledge and energy, “…palm wine a good drinker could take without
losing knowledge of himself” (AG 79).

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2.6.2.3. Kola nuts
Social rituals are an important feature of any culture, and they can be especially
helpful in illuminating the core ethics of many societies. Kola nuts are the part and
parcel of Igbo life in Things Fall Apart. Kola nut was given to Uchendu, “and
he prayed to theancestors. He asked them for health and children. We do
not ask for wealth because hethat has health and children will also have
wealth” (TFA 156). The sharing of kola nuts is perhaps one of the most important
aspects of social and ritual roles in Igbo society. The kola is the most prominent
symbol of hospitality, “One day the local chief paid him a visit and as they sat in the
long outer room we called the piazza eating kolanut with alligator pepper…” (AS 81).
There is also a heavenly belief in kola nut, in “Obierika presented kola nuts to
his in-laws. His eldestbrother broke the first one. ‘Life to all of us,’ he
said as he broke it. And let there befriendship between your family and
ours” (TFA 110). Kola can be given as an offering to the spirits, churches,
mosques, or even strangers on the street.
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Fig. 2.7. Illustration of Kola Nut
The various ideas associated with kola allow it to be a part of almost all traditional
parts of the Igbo life. The Igbo make distinctions based on the color of the kola nut, as
the white kola nut symbolizes potential prosperity and social distinction. The
presentation of a kola nut is an important ceremony. An advantage of the host and an
honor denied to women involves passing the nut with the recitation of appropriate
proverbs and then followed by a prayer from the eldest member of the host’s family
tree who is present. Secondly, the breaking of the nut, separates the kola into its
various seedS, follows different patterns depending upon area. Finally, the
distribution of the nut follows this pattern, as the host receives the first share of the
kola, and each member of his party getting a share in the order of seniority. In No
Longer at Ease, “the President, in due course, looked at his pocket-watch and
announced that it was time to declare the meeting open. Everybody stood up and he
said a short prayer. Then he presented three kola nuts to the meeting. The oldest man
present broke one of them, saying another kind of prayer while he did it. ‘He that
brings kola nuts brings life,’ he said” (NLE 5). Kola nut has been also used in
metaphorical sense here in A Man of the People Odili visits Odo’s (father of Edna)
house where Odo speaks, “I must carry the debt of a kolanut” (AMP 81). Here kola
nut signifies the burden of ancestral debt which an individual carriesthroughout his or
her life.
2.7. Support and Help during Crises in Igbo Community
Igbo lives in one periphery with harmony and in integrity. Their life is flawless. They
are intact with internal peace and happiness. They have their own obi in which their
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life is fully satisfied with their family. They perform common ritual of unity and
support. Their existence lies in belief system of omnipotent god and goddesses who
shares sermon amongst Igbo to live life for clan and ready to die at any cost for
community. In Things Fall Apart whenOkonkwo commits a crime unintentionally
killing sixteen year old boy and this follows banishment for seven years for Okonkwo
and his family, The following extract illustrates sympathy and fellow feeling among
the Igbo, “Obierika and half adozen other friends came to help and to
console him…Obierika was a man who thought about things. When the
will of the goddess hadbeen done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his
friend’s calamity” (TFA 117-118). Okonkwo is born for clan who thinks to
maintain and save his Umuofia from the clutches of white men. When he is set free
from jail in Chapter Twenty-Four he decides to “tell them that our
fathersnever fought a ‘war of blame.’ If they listen to him I shall leave
them and plan my ownrevenge” (TFA 190).
2.8. Acquisition of Titles and Social Relations: A Democratic Leveller
2.8.1. Social and Political Structures
A striking feature of Igbo society was lack of centralized political structures. The
existence of democracy was the great achievement and proof of a high culture. The
Igbo lived in autonomous villages and towns, ruled by their elders. With a few
exceptions, they organized themselves in patrilineal-lineage groups organized along
lines of descent from father to son. Relationships were based on blood ties, and each
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person traced his or her descent to three groups. First, a person belonged to the
smallest social unit known as uno, or house. This was a natural family, consisting of a
man, his wife or wives, and their children. The second group was the umunna, or
lineage, composed of a number of related houses. “Finally, a group of lineage formed
a compact village or town, obodo. This was the highest territorially defined authority
of the Igbo” (Ohadike, 2000:iv). A town or compact village was sometimes named
after its founder, or after a striking geographical feature that best described its location
or also after the most important 'sociological circumstances' that surrounded its
foundation. The members of a lineage were blood relatives and each lineage was a
semi-autonomous unit within a town. Each house, lineage, and town were headed by a
headman, onyisi, who acquired the position by virtue of his age. There were town
meetings which were usually held in the town square, but the most important lineage
and house meetings were held in the obi (meeting shed) of the most senior elders. The
interaction between towns was limited and they were regulated by goodwill, mutual
respect, and diplomacy. Wars often broke out when these failed” (Ohadike, 2000:iv).
The Igbo communities were known as ‘extremely democratic’, yet they had no
centralized governments for running the community. The Igbo subscribed to the
principle of direct participation in the government which is a much democratic
concept. Their entire social and political structure revolved around the idea of “cross-
cutting ties”. As seen in Things Fall Apart the traditional Igbo communities did
indeed fall apart in the twentieth century when the Europeans destroyed their cross-
cutting ties in the process of colonial rule.
2.8.2. Council of Elders
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It was a very important centre of power in the Igbo society with much authority and
control in a democratic depth. Matters affecting lineage members were discussed at
the meeting of its elders, ndisi or indichie, with the assistance of the adult members of
the lineage as seen in ThingsFall Apart. In inter-lineage disputes, elders from the
affected lineage met to discuss a problem. The lineage head derived his authority from
the group's respect for him as the oldest living representative of the founding
ancestors. He was the custodian of ancestral lands, the keeper of the ritual objects that
symbolized political authority, and the group's spiritual and temporal head. Even
though he was the religious, executive, and judicial head of his lineage, he would not
act without their approval, “no action would be taken until an issue had been fully
argued at a lineage meeting and some degree of consensus achieved” (Ohadike, iv).
The wise and democratic setting and functioning of these authorities were
praiseworthy and practically successful.
2.8.3. Age-Groups
An age-group associations were known as ogbo or otu and composed of men (or
women) who were of about the same age. All residents of a town born within a few
years of each other belonged to the same age-group, with ‘separated sections’ for men
and women. The association was named after a major event that was taking place at
the time of its members’ birth - for example, there were” the Biafran War age-group,
ogboaya Biafra (those born between 1967 and 1970), the Second World War age-
group, ogboaya Hitler (1939-1945), and the influenza age-group, ogbo infelunza
(1918-1921). The exact age-span in an age-group varied from town to town, but the
most common were the ‘three and five-year intervals’. This age-group system enabled
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societies without written records to remember past events and also helped them assign
special duties and responsibilities to the different sergeants of the community, in
accordance with the principle of seniority. There was also the junior age groups (age
15 and below) which did “minor jobs like fetching water, cleaning footpaths,
sweeping the street and town squares, and running errands” (Ohadike, 2000: v). In the
middle age groups (16 to about 40 years of age) the men were the fighters and they
formed the fighting forces of the clan. If five years separated one age-group from the
next, there would be up to five distinct age-groups in the category. In wars, each age-
group acted as a ‘separate regiment’, under a leader who belonged to an older age-
group. These middle age-groups also felled and cleared the bush at the beginning of
each planting season. They functioned as the executive arm of the government in the
modern sense and would apprehend fugitives. After marriage, young women “would
become active in the appropriate women's association” (Ohadike, 2000:v). The senior
male age-groups (those aged 40 and above) were responsible for judicial matters.
Their usual decisions were related to the questions like “when a town should go to
war, how an offender should be punished, when the various agriculture cycles would
open and when the annual festivals would be held” (Ohadike, 2000:v).This is evident
in Things Fall Apart, on the occasion of Ezeudu’s funeral ceremony Achebe states,
“It was awarrior’s funeral, and from morning till night warriors came and
went in their age groups” (TFA 114). It is certain that the age-group system
promoted respect and comradeship among the people and acted as a powerful and
effective way of social as well as political set up. “Ezeudu had been the oldest
man in his village, and at his death there were onlythree men in the whole
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clan who were older, and four or five others in his own age group” (TFA
115).The juniors of each section respected and were liable to the seniors and
expected the same treatment when they advanced to ‘higher grades’.This is marked on
the imprisonment of Okonkwo whenAkakanma’s age-group is given importance
because his age-group is young and masculine in order to fight the white man. “The
silence was broken by the village crier beating his sonorous ogene” (TFA
186),and being“calledevery man in Umuofia, from the Akakanma age
group upwards, to a meeting in themarketplace after the morning meal”
(TFA 186). The members of a group acted together, and the “friendships they
cultivated in childhood remained intact throughout life” (Ohadike, 2000:vii). It is seen
that Igbo age group system was useful to coordinate the social setup of Igbos and it
generated community feeling. In this sense, Igbo society was very systematic and
democratic in nature.
2.8.4. Council of Chiefs
The Igbo people emphasized personal achievement but succession to titles was not by
birth. Only some Igbo men managed to acquire prestigious titles, enabling them to be
acknowledged as great men or chiefs who are the real successful persons of the time.
Titled chiefs formed their own council and represent their communities to outsiders
with enough authority as well as democratic responsibilities. Though most Igbo men
eagerly sought admission into the council of chiefs all could not succeed. Every Igbo
man began his life as an apprentice as we see in the case of Okonkwo in Things Fall
Apart. A young boy accompanied his father to the farm and did as much support as he
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could and as he grow-up, he learned that marriage, prosperity, and the achievement of
titles enabled individuals to move forward socially Okonkwo struggles severely in his
cultivation though he was the greatest wrestler of the nine villages. Until a man could
attain certain titles, “he could not dress in certain ways, or take a piece of kola nut
before other people which shows the essential status of the person in the society”
(Ohadike, 2000:viii). Okonkwo's father is the example of the fate of idle men in Igbo
society not withstanding his artistic taste and tragic end. Ohadike writes referring to
Things Fall Apart, “The highest title in many Igbo communities (and the one alluded
to in Okonkwo's village) was ozo (or any of its variants: eze, nze, alo, and ichie)”
(Ohadike, 2000:ix).
To qualify for the ozo title, a man must have acquired the junior titles and
discharge all the duties normally assigned to members of the junior titles. He must
have accumulated enough wealth and completed the ceremonies connected with the
second burial of his father. Thus, no man could attain a status that might equal or
exceed his father’s while the latter was still alive. The Igbo believed that no man
could inherit immortality; it must be acquired through a process of title-taking called
‘ichi-echichi’, or secure the breath of life, to attain immortality or god ship. The Igbo
word chi represents invisible forces, spirits and personal gods; “it is the root of such
word as Chukwo (god), ichie, an immortal or a tilted person, and ndichie, title
holders”. (Ohadike, 2000:ix)Only men who achieved this ritual death and resurrection
could attain immortality. An ozo man was a person who had received the gift of
immortality. He was no longer an ordinary human, but a god. To purchase the highest
title was, therefore, to be born again, to be admitted into “the association of rules,
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otuochichi, and to be initiated into the cult of the ancestors, otundichie”(Ohadike,
2000:ix). The highest title spared its holder the indignity of manual labor in the Igbo
society. It guaranteed him a seat in the council of chiefs and it kept for his portion of
fees paid by new initiates into association of the titles. Further, it gave him rights to
certain portions of livestock slaughtered in his lineage. A title man was greeted with
high sounding salutations such as igwe (His Highness) and ogbuefi (he who slaughter
bulls). The protagonist of Things Fall Apart Okonkwo holds high titles but he could
not represent the good traits of Igbo society. Raymond Williams says, “... Okonkow,
is destroyed in a very complicated process of internal contradictions and external
invasion.” (Williams, 1973:286) The system is clearly convenient to the smooth
functioning of the Igbo society with a democratic setup.
2.8.5. Kingship Organization of Igbos
From a political point of view, the Igbos had no king. Their ‘kings’ were priests (Eze).
There was a hierarchy in the socio-political organization as represented structure: -
Chiefs - secret society - a society of priests - titled men - the people. But, in spite of
the hierarchy, there was democracy in this organization. The Igbos evolved a
humanistic civilization. Each village had a legislative assembly which called open-air
meetings at which everyone was free to give their opinions. This democratic process
allowed the highest honours open to every free man. The final decisions were left to
the elders, but the decisions did not become “laws” automatically. The democratic
process which really existed among the Igbos resembles the fiction of Things Fall
Apart. The democratic process in the novel shows the linkage. In the novel, there is no
king as it is shown by the following answer to the missionaries: “They asked who the
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king of the village was, but the villagers told them that there was no king. ‘We have
men of high title and the chief priest and the elders’, they said” (TFA 140). So, when
they first arrived in Mbanta, the missionaries expected to find a king.
2.8.6. Secret Societies
In Igbo society, there were some secret societies for men and women exclusively and
some for both the sexes. These secret societies were very little known to people as the
members of such societies took an oath of secrecy and never disclosed the identity or
any information regarding them. They were also serious about the effectiveness of the
powers of secret societies as which believed to be weakened if disclosed- “…many of
them functioned as the mouthpiece of ancestors, oracles and spirits. In important
judicial matters, masked ancestors (the egwugwu, or egungun) might appear and
pronounce a verdict” (Ohadike, 2000:xxx.). In chapter ten of Things Fall Apart, the
egwugwu decide over the legal village cases. No one disputed over them as nobody
thought to be wiser than the egwugwu and if critically examined, the cases were
efficiently settled by them. They also take action against the Christian church with
much wisdom and did not shed any blood. But it is the colonizers who took bloody
revenge on the colonized people by totally wiping out villages for misunderstanding
between an intruder Christian man and some aggressive Igbo people which resulted in
the killing of the Christian man. Another example of secret society may find in
chapter twenty three of Things Fall Aparti. After Okonkwo’s Imprisonmentm,
Ezinma, his daughter comes directly to Obierika’s house. But“Obierika had not
been home since morning. His wivesthought he had gone to a secret
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meeting. Ezinma was satisfied that something was beingdone” (TFA 186-
187).
2.8.7. The Titled Man
Having title in Igbo society is a worthy and respectable position. In real life, Some
Igbo men get success to have many titles, which make themrecognized as a great men
or chiefs. Titled chiefs formed their own councils and represented the community to
outsiders. All through Igbo land, a man who failed to developaway from the junior
titles was a man without grade in the eyes of his community. The man without
suitable titles lacked respect in his life as Unoka, father of Okonkwo , “Unoka died
he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt” (TFA 7). It was
curse for Okonkwo’s life; on the other hand “Ezeudu had taken three
titles in his life. It was a rare achievement. There were onlyfour titles in
the clan, and only one or two men in any generation ever achieved the
fourthand highest. When they did, they became the lords of the land.
Because he had takentitles, Ezeudu was to be buried after dark with only
a glowing brand to light the sacredceremony” (TFA 115). Ogbuefi
Ugonna also has takentwo titles, “The white missionary was very proud
of him and he was one of the firstmen in Umuofia to receive the
sacrament of Holy Communion, or Holy Feast as it wascalled in Ibo”
(TFA 163-164).
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2.9. Osu as an Outcast
The word “Osu” exactly means ‘outcast’, and members of thisgroup were
social pariahs and would be treated for that reason. The history ofthe Osu
caste system in Nigeria can be seen backto an indigenous religious belief
system, practiced by the Igbo tribe. It isthe belief of many Igbo traditional
people that the Osus are historically owned by deities, and are, therefore,
considered to be a ‘livingsacrifice,’ untouched and sub-human. As Things
Fall Apart notes in a conversation, which ensued over the question of admitting
outcasts to a local little church in the village of Mbanta, between Mr. Kiaga, a
missionary teacher, and one of the converts, stated about osu cast,
He was a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart - a taboo forever, and his
children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the freeborn. He
was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to the Great
Shrine. Wherever he went he carried with him the mark of his forbidden caste
– long, tangled dirty hair. A razor was a taboo to him. An Osu could not attend
an assembly of the freeborn, and they, in turn, could not shelter under his roof.
He could not take any of the four titles of the clan, and when he died he was
buried by his kind in the Evil Forest. How could such a man be a follower of
Christ? (TFA 148).
Every moment these stories are recited, it would be easy for any rational being to
form out that they are decorated by misconception. It is the opinion of this author that
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the Osu caste system, which has caused a lot of misery to many people in Igboland,
originated out of ancient beliefs and also paved a way to command over Igbo people
in their own land, seen exploitation all over Igboland. Every part of this narrative
about the Osu caste system come first in the Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, in
which the sorrow and suffering of the Osu in Igboland are vividly described.
Osu people suffered a great deal without their fault. God has created every individual
to live their life happily but in their own territory they become alien and start to down
look themselves in their own land. It was a great benefit to the Christian to take
advantage of this situation and Igbo people became onlooker of these circumstances:
These outcasts, or osu, seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such
abominations, thought that it was possible that they would also be received.
And so one Sunday two of them went into the church. There was an
immediate stir, but so great was the work the new religion had done among the
converts that they did not immediately leave the church when the outcasts
came in. Those who found themselves nearest to them merely moved to
another seat. It was a miracle. But it only lasted till the end of the service. The
whole church raised a protest and was about to drive these people out,…(TFA
147).
The author is able to present the immediate effect of conversion on the newly converts
that they protested the entering of the outcaste ‘osu’ in the premise of the church but
not in previous manner. The lasting impact of their culture leads them to think ‘osu’
still impure and not worthy to live among them. These orthodox practices influenced
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the people like ‘osu’ to change their religion. The chances to live a better life allow
them to grasp the opportunity proposed by Christian missionary. “Mr. Kiaga stopped
them and began to explain ‘Before God,’ he said, there is no slave or free. We are all
children of God and we must receive these our brothers” (TFA 147).
The converts feel uncertain about the impact of entering the outcaste ‘osu’ and try to
explain their suspicion to the missionary teachers, ‘“You do not understand,’ said one
of the converts. ‘What will the heathen say of us when they hear that we receive osu
into our midst? They will laugh” (TFA 148). After ignoring each plea of recent
converts Mr. Kiaga successfully persuade osu to adopt Christianity,
The two outcasts shaved off their hair, and soon they were among the
strongest adherents of the new faith. And what was more, nearly all the osu in
Mbanta followed their example. It was in fact one of them who in his zeal
brought the church into serious conflict with the clan a year later by killing the
sacred python, the emanation of the god of water (TFA 149).
This system established special consideration when it is treated as the
mainplot of No Longer at Ease. The Osu people used to marry and
socializethemselves within their own group. The practice continued to
this day. Anordinary Igbo person would not marry or permit any of his
relations tomarry an Osu. Any member of the society who might be an
Osu would bepolluted and reckoned as Osu. It can be said the only aspect
of Igbo traditions that keeps the Osu segregation intact is marriage. An
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Osu couldonly marry a fellow Osu. It is a taboo of the Igbo clan and
abhorrent for anOsu to marry a non- Osu. It is the case between Clara and
Obi where Obi is forbidden to marry Clara, a beautiful educated girl. Obi
blackmailed and tortured emotionally by their parents in order not tosee
osu bride in form of Clara. We consider thefollowing passage which aptly
describes in No Longer at Ease, how Obi's father and the otherpeople in
the village have the concept of the Osu, even though the fact that
theyconverted to Christianity:
Osu is like leprosy in the minds of ourpeople. I beg of you, my son, not to
bring the mark of shame and of leprosyinto your family. If you do, your
children and your children’schildren unto the third and fourth generations
will curse yourmemory. It is not for myself I speak; my days are few. You
willbring sorrow on your head and on the heads of your children. Whowill
marry your daughters? Whose daughters will your sons marry?Think of that,
my son (NLE 107).
The Osu system varies from one community to another. Slattery
(1998)explicates that the Osu system began in the Owerri - Okigwi region
insoutheastern Nigeria and those within the system were devoted to a
deitywith the purpose of serving him; often a particular rural community,
ancestry, orindividual that had been experiencing sickness or difficult
times woulddedicate his slave (Osu) to the god with the hope that the
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slave would carryout the sins of the person who dedicated him. Chinua
Achebe comments on this bad customs by aphorism:
It was scandalous that in the middle of the twentieth century a man could be
barred from marrying a girl simply because hergreat-great- great- grandfather
had been dedicated to serve a god, thereby setting himself apart and turning
his descendants into a forbidden caste to the end of time (NLE 57).
Slattery cites that though a group of detested slaves, they could not besold
or killed, as they were protected by their deity, and others feared to invite
the wrath of the gods. This system of Osu was legally abolishedby the
Eastern Nigerian government in 1956,thoughmanyofthesepracticesstill
continue in the present-day society of the country.
The Osu caste system is an obnoxious practice among many
Africansocieties which has refused to go away despite the impact of
Christianity,Islam, education and the human right culture. The system in
Africa varies from one community to another. Africacountries that still
have caste systems within their borders include Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Algeria, Nigeria, Chad, Ethiopia,Somalia Mali,Mauritania,
Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Djibouti, Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso,
Eritrea, and others.
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No matter how the Osu caste system originated in Igboland, and no matter its
noticeable past benefits, it is now the feeling of many peace-loving individuals that
the ancient institution, which is an inside apartheid in Igboland. To redeem the Osus
and Igbo society (which practice the intolerable Osu caste system) one should revisit
the past so as to explain the rationality behind the once vibrant Osu caste culture. The
Osu caste system remains a sad memento of the historical past of the Igbo nation. The
only way to put those sad reminiscences to break is to find the ways and means to
cease the dogmatic practices of the Osu caste system as it survives today. And with
the co-operation of everyone in the Igbo nation, this stigma will come to an end.
2.10. Education and Igbo Society
Education is an essential part of the development and proper nourishment of the
society. The Colonial encounter was one of the best and the worst phases for Igbo
people as well as Nigeria. Best in the sense, that Igbo become advanced in their
thought and their creativity, worst that they become part of exploitation physically
and mentally and also allowed white to exploit their resources and become the victim
of the abusive onlooker in their own land. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe speaks about
the white missionary who has set up a school to teach young Christians how to read
and how to write. It guesses that the unconverted Igbo had no right to gain
knowledge. So the transition had started from Nigerian precolonial narrator, towards a
more Eurocentric culture. Achebe does not forget to show the converts’ own self-
centered concealed motives for amalgamate the missionaries by accepting the church
and the formal education, “The newly- arrived missionary could not be an instant
expert on African languages and cultures, and the incarnation of Christianity in
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Different African cultures involved a great multiplicity of choices…” (A History of
Christianity82).
Arrow of God shows the reputation of education in Igbo Society. Ezeulu, the main
protagonist of the novel tries his best to move with the change taking place in the Igbo
society. He was a priest of people in a real sense except for his hamartia. He
compromised with the situation and says, “I am like the bird Eneke-nti-oba…Men of
today have learnt to shoot without missing and so I have learnt to fly without
perching” (AG 47). He sends his son Oduche to the missionaries to be his eyes there.
He is an intellectual who understands the need to change in order to adjust with the
European power. No doubt Ezeulu had respect for his own culture but he knows very
well to the indomitable knowledge and power of the white man, therefore, he adapts
to the changing times and demands of the colonizers. And he became compromiser of
cultural change which was taking place in Igbo society.
In No Longer at Ease, Achebe drives us a step further to illustrate the impact of
colonialism on the Africans and their education of belief. The Protagonist has been
revealed as the product of colonial rule. Obi Okonkwo was sponsored by the whole
village to accomplish English education at England. This shows that by this time, the
Igbo had fully understood that the Europeans could drag them out of the state of
backwardness. Obi feels ashamed after seeing corrupt practices. He longs to go back
to Umuofia and feels humiliated of studying English for his degree, “Let them come
to Umuofia now and listen to the talk of men who made a great art of conversation
(NLE 40)”. It is evident that Education made hollow to the mind of the Igbo, like Obi,
every Igbo tried to come out from the clutches of English but it is not possible after
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adopting something which is so rigorous. Achebe with this incident saying that
colonial power of language became so powerful that it is not easy to overcome.
In No Longer at Ease, Obi Okonkwo became the first candidate as to get a
scholarship from his clan’s union. He was very good in his studies. He was a village
celebrity. Obi’s going to England for his further education created much stir in Igbo
people. Before leaving for the city of Lagos there was a prayer meeting. The chairman
of Anglican Church of Omuofia offered the prayer: “The people who sat in darkness
Saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region And shadow of death To them
did light spring up” (NLE 7). During the education in Anglophone, obi’s conduct and
behaviour changes with the interval of time. There is little in his life to show his tribal
culture. Growing up in the new faith and his four years stay in England to pursue a
degree in English literature exposed him to western culture which changed him
forever. He faces the conflict between his childhood impression of Lagos and the real
situations of city life. When he returns from England and joins as an officer in the
department of scholarship, the artificialities of tribal life in cities is exposed. In his
childhood obi Okonkwo had heard the stories of rich life and about plenty of money,
in the city of Lagos. This is the reason that his mind has associated with Lagos with
plenty of money, electric lights, cars club memberships and dance parties. In Chinua
Achebe (2010), Nahem Yousaf says, “Obi clings to the European literary imagination,
though the oblique, poetically allusive (and pathetically elusive) images he chooses
fail to illuminate Nigeria” (14). Obi Oknokwo’s stay in England greatly affected him
to develop the individual self and to question the authority of his clan and parents
over his life. Obi involves in those cultural values which meet his personal wants. It
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was in a night club that he meets Clara, an Osu (out caste, a person dedicated to the
gods and a taboo for the free-born to marry) girl pursuing nursing training. Away
from his family and village Obi wants to enjoy all the joys of the city. In Achebe’s
world: The Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe
(1976),Robert M. Wren talks about various kinds of conflicts which Obi faces in
Lagos. Wren writes:
Put the opposite way, the paradox remains. If the African adopts the
European code of resolute financial integrity (as, one supposes, Mr
Green has done) he must at the same time support himself in the
European mode of life. His salary is adequate for this and little more. If
he has family obligations, he can attempt to meet them, but soon he
must limit the extent of his responsibility to say, immediate family. But
living as he must in (comparatively) great comfort and luxury, he
cannot limit his family support so greatly that impoverished near
relatives suffer privation. Nor can he deny the needs of clansmen in
distress (or claims of clansmen to whom he is indebted, which is Obi’s
case). He must live with the fact that the life of his ancestors for ever
on the edge of famine- is not acceptable to those who nurtured him to
his prosperity, when they can see him in his splendour. (37)
Achebe’s documentation and presentation of traditional Igbo society provide a
vivid dramatization of psychology of the characters and the novel shows all the
contradictory forces of internal conflict and colonial influence determine their
destinies. Chinua Achebe has a retrospective insight of his society. He looks back at
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the past and tries to get a balanced view for many cultural and societal situations. He
tries to find out what went wrong in the past and how the African people recreate the
things again. This is the reason that the novelist provides alternative sets of traditions,
ideas, values and behaviour while reclaiming his heritage and at the same time he has
a sense of cultural awareness which provides directions for constructive changes.
Achebe believes in the fact that every culture may it African or western has its merits
and in his novels, there is a strong presence of community in place of the western
nation of individuality. He presents a rich cultural heritage, the democratic impulse
and collective consciousness behind the village meetings and the mediation of
disputes by village elders (umuanna), highlights the native democratic tradition of the
Igbo people. In the book titled Talking with African Writers (1990), edited by Jane
Wilkinson, Chinua Achebe talks about writer’s commitment and writer’s duties as an
artist. In this interview Achebe says:
It is at the root of the writer’s being: his commitment to his vision of the
world, to the truth as he understands it, including the truth of fiction, which is
slightly different kind of truth from the truth you encounter when you are
buying and selling; the commitment to the integrity of language, commitment
to excellence in the use of your talent son that you don’t tolerate from
yourself, in your work, something that you know can be done better by a little
more attention, by waiting, by some more patience. So it is commitment over a
wide scope of things really. The writer, any artist, who defaults in this is
betraying the nature of art. This is why it is so difficult for me to legislation
from some kinds of people who cannot see the world in its complexity: The
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fanatics of all kinds, of right of left the fundamentals of all kinds. These
people do not understand, they cannot possibly understand, the kind of
commitment I’m talking about. They use the word ‘commitment’ more
frequently than artists do and they use it so frequently that the word has
became debased and is now in the service of fanaticism. That is not what I had
in mind. It is not what I mean by commitment: not commitment to a narrow
definition of the world, to narrow perception of reality, to narrow view of
politics or economics or anything, religion, race. One can became committed
to any of these things, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about
something quite different. When you are committed to, you are very different
from the man who is not committed, say, to his religion. I cannot see an artist
being a fanatical person in terms of religion; it seems to me to be quite
contradictory. You may have artists who are good Churchmen, but if they are
really good artists you will soon discover that they cannot be fanatical in their
religion. The same goes for politics. What they are committed to is bigger,
something of infinitely greater, value than what church you go to, what race
you belong to, what language you speak. (49)
Published in 1966, Achebe’s fourth novel, A Man of the People, seeks to grapple with
the postcolonial realities. In this novel, Achebe ridicules the corrupt leaders of
Nigeria. On one side is Odili Samalu, the narrator- a university graduate and a high
school teacher with an honest desire to support the common good. He plans revenge
from Mr. Nanga by misguiding his would be parlour wife Edna but falls in love with
her. On the other, is Chief, the Honourable M.N., Nanga- a parliamentarian and
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cabinet minister, the most unscrupulous politician dedicated to harvesting the utmost
personal gain from his position. He was nicknamed as M.A. Minus Opportunity,
Achebe says, “Whether you asked in the city or in his home village, Anata,
they would tell you he was aman of the people” (AMP 1). Here it is clear
that education leads advancement and prosperity in the field of living
standard and changes in the living style of Igbo society but on another
hand, this education also leads towards treachery and disloyalty among
the postcolonial world.
In Anthills of the Savannah, the protagonist is exposed as active members of the new
government after attaining the western education. Thus Achebe slowly takes us
through different stages of colonialism which meant enslaving Africa’s freedom.
Achebe presents Igbo as primitive and unsophisticated natives who merely mocked
the arrival of the strangers. Moreover, it can be stated that the European education had
changed the outlook of Igbo society. Faith in Igbo culture is lost, and people adopt a
new culture. It was acceptance and reality of strength and power of White man.
2.11. Conclusion
Resistance has come through re-representation of Igbo culture in the writings of
Chinua Achebe. He does not represent one of the African clans as ancient or one rich
or one of the oldest cultural identities in our universe. He represents African as a
universe that possesses all the necessary elements of humanity within it. Humanity is
not always liberal as defined by Occidental writers; rather a combination of the
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duality of human nature, a combination of good and evil, a combination of love and
hatred. Achebe has taken myth as the ancient root of African civilization. Achebe has
chosen this myth because he truly knows that myth came from the oral traditions of
Africa. Myths provide him with a dense storehouse of ancient African history. African
society is changing fast. Changing of religion is thus another important phenomenon
of the novel. Nwoye also converts his religion from paganism to Christianity. All the
villagers mock the missionaries and the interpreter, Nwoye becomes quite convinced:
But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye,
Okonkwo’s first son. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated
him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something
felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear
seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul
–the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna
who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched
soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the
dry plate of the panting earth. Nwoye’s callow mind was greatly puzzled.
(TFA139)
In a way, it is a criticism of contemporary African society. Achebe explores
the loopholes of the Igbo society that also have a role in the abrupt changes. He has
shown that it is much more the incoherence of the rituals of the Igbo culture rather
than the pure attraction of Christianity has motivated Nwoye to change his religion. In
a way, Achebe is also criticizing the Igbo society.
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Thus, Achebe makes no effort to express his own feelings and thoughts about
the Igbo society but reveals its truth, both positive and negative. He offered a critical
picture of the African past without idealizing and glorifying a society which suffered
immensely through the havoc of the time. He has verified that Igbo race used their
own talent with the white while suffered greatly.
In postcolonial literature, the themes of place and displacement have much
significance. The crisis is related more to placelessness than rootlessness.
“Colonialism involves two types of imperialism – political and cultural. Therefore,
myth and history, language and landscape, self and the other are all very important
ingredients of post-colonialism” (Das, 1999:7).
The protagonists feel perplexed when they realize that a tree cannot settle and
get fixed in a foreign soil. They long to be in their homeland and cherish those
moments. John Macleod emphasizes the role of home in one’s mind:
The concept of home often performs an important function in our lives. It can
act as a valuable means of orientation by giving us a sense of our place in the
world. It tells us where we originated from and where we belong. As an idea it
stands for shelter, stability, security and comfort (although actual experiences
of home may well fail to deliver these promises). To be ‘at home’ is to occupy
a location where we are welcome, where we can be with people very much
like ourselves. But what happens to the idea of ‘home’ for migrants who live
far from the lands of their birth? How might their travels impact upon the
ways ‘home’ is considered? (Beginning Postcolonialism, 210).
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No doubt the emergence of African literature is desirable to fill an emptiness
which has been propagated by various writers out of Africa. Arrow of God is a
personification of the culture and tradition of Africa which exhibits every phase of
African life.With the help of Arrow of God Chinua Achebe presents the real picture of
Africa. He shows Africa as a rich continent full of its own vivacity. It is full of
cultured men and women religiously affluent, politically diverse, loaded with
philosophy and prosperous in an economy. Their way of living is not ideal but it was
impeccable and genuine in its manifestation. Alike the Christian they are not rude,
greedy and the hypocrite. Their existence is unquestionable in vernacular history.
****
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3.0. Introduction
The beginning of postcolonialismcan be traced back to The Wretched of the Earth by
Frantz Fanon. Fanon asks the colonized to find a voice and create an identity by
reclaiming their past. He criticizes the colonizer’s attitude of devaluing the native as a
pre-civilized one. Edward Said’s Orientalism is a seminal work in the postcolonial
fieldin which he criticizes the attitude of considering West or Europe superior and all
others inferior. East is the “Other” who has no power of right choice and decision
making, whose actions are determined by innate emotions of desire and fury. The East
is portrayed as exotic, mystical and sedative in the works of the colonizer. Even the
colonized treated them as inferior and all that was orient as superior.
Postcolonialism is a term much debated on by other eminent critics like
Edward Said, Homi. K. Bhabha, GayatriChakravortySpivak, Robert J.C.Young, John
Macleod and many others.AniaLoomba defines colonialism as “the conquest and
control of other people’s land and goods” (Colonialism/Postcolonialism8). All these
descriptions highlight the settlement of a foreign group which ends with a dominance
of the new group over the other. Boehmer observes “Colonialism involves the
consolidation of imperial power, and is manifested in the settlement of territory, the
exploitation or development of resources, and the attempt to govern the indigenous
inhabitants of occupied lands” (Colonial and Postcolonial Literature2). On the
surface level during the days of colonization only the economic and political
exploitation were taken into consideration. But the impact of cultural exploitation still
lingers in the colonies.
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In his book, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon analyses the nature of
colonialism. He describes colonialism as a source of violence rather than reacting
violently against resistors which have been the common view. Based on the above-
stated definitions, Colonialism can be considered as the settlement of a foreign
community among the natives for a longer period of time. It can also be inferred that
during their stay colonizers tried to intermingle with the indigenous people in order to
get a command over their rights. Although the colonizers withdrew their political
power and have freed natives politically, socially, culturally and religiously, the
colonial experience persists in these colonies in the minds of people. The colonizers
have left their imprint on these states mainly due to the economic superiority they
enjoy.
The colonial literature represents the natives as coward, effeminate,
untrustworthy, barbarous, lazy and the colonizer as brave, trustworthy, civilized and
hardworking. All non-Western cultures are seen as the “Other” by the West. What
Achebe declares in an interview is much relevant,“What I think a novelist can teach is
something very fundamental, namely to indicate to his readers, to put it crudely, that
we in Africa did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans” (Duerden,
1972:7).
A prominent feature of the postcolonial novel is that it is deeply rooted in
culture. The cultural conflict can beseen in the postcolonial novel because it portrays
both inner conflicts and consciousness of the colonized community. The conflicts take
birth due to the fusion of multicultural communities when one is not able to keep
faithfulness to one’s own culture. Postcolonial literature deals with debatable themes
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like national identity, diaspora, gender, cultural hybridities, and race. Mala Pandurang
observes, “The term postcolonial can be used to describe writing that was both a
consequence of and reaction to the European imperial process” (Post-Colonial
African Fiction: The Crisis of Consciousness5). When the novels of different colonies
are scrutinized, the theme depicting the victory of the native culture and tradition over
the Eurocentric culture is seen dominating. These novels attempt to eradicate the
colonial hangover from the human minds. Fanon states, “Decolonisation is the
veritable creation of new men. But this creation owes nothing of its legitimacy of any
supernatural power; the ‘thing’ which has been colonized becomes man during the
same process by which it frees himself” (WE, 28). Writers play a critical role in
changing the ‘thing’ into ‘man’.
3.1. Meaning of Tradition and Culture
The word ‘tradition’ comes from the Latin word tradition which means ‘to hand
down’ or ‘to hand over’. The Oxford English Dictionary defines tradition as “the
transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being
so passed on”.A tradition is a practice, custom, or story that is memorized and passed
down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system.
Culture is derived from the Latin word ‘cultura’ meaning “to cultivate”. It generally
refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such
activities significance. The Oxford English Dictionary defines culture as “the
customs, institutions, and achievement of a particular nation, people or
group”.T.S.Eliot claims that there are three ways of regarding culture; as that of the
individual, of a group or class, and of a whole society. The culture of a whole society
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comprises urbanity or civility, learning in all branches, philosophy, and the arts.
Culture is something alive and its effects are seen in the whole society. The
protagonists chosen for study deviate from their own culture due to some
circumstantial pressures but in the long run, they understand the vitality of their
culture and tradition, and return to it.
3.2. Cultural Pattern of Africa/Nigeria/Igbo
The term culture is a complex term, and it is sometimes related to material objects like
stone, axe, pottery, dance and music, fashion and style. Nonetheless, there are sections
of people who do not associate material objects with culture. British anthropologist
E.B Tylor defines, “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
art, morals, law, customs and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society” (Sardar, 2010: 4). It will be more appropriate to agree with the
definition of American anthropologist Margaret Mead who defines culture is “the
learned behaviour of a society or a subgroup” (Sardar, 2010:5). Raymond Williams
advocates, “Culture includes the organization of production, the structure of the
family, and the structure of institutions which express or govern social relationships,
the characteristic forms through which members of the society communicate” (Sardar,
20105).
This “organization of production” and “structure of the family” differs from
nation to nation. It is difficult to say which culture is better or which is worse. The
universal standard in assessing literature has limitations as great literature has variants
in regard to culture, social and natural differences. Peter Barry points out three phases
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in postcolonial literature: adopt, adapt, adept. In the adopt stage, “they begin with an
unquestioning acceptance of the authority of European models (especially in the
novel) and with the ambition of writing works that will be masterpieces entirely in
this tradition” (Barry, 2015:189). The writer adopts the form as it stands, the
assumption being that it has universal validity. The second stage tries to adapt the
European form to African or colonial subject matter, assuming “partial rights of
intervention in the genre” (Barry, 2015:189). In the final phase, there is cultural
independence without reference to European norms. The writer becomes an
“independent adept”. In the first phase, he is “a humble apprentice” and in the second
“a mere licensee”.
The minds of the postcolonial writers are manifested in poetry, short story,
novels, essays, and plays. Throughout novels, they might express the internal as well
as the externaldiscourse of people belonging to different paths of life. The
postcolonial novels venture the conflict between native and colonial cultures,
denunciation of European subjugation and pride in native. Writers commend the
attractiveness and elegance of the colonies. The standards of natives lost through the
clash between native culture and colonial rule are anticipated only in the writings of
exceptionally few writers.The poignant conflicts of the colonized, who became the
regrettablevictim in the hands of wicked colonizers, are the foremosttheme of these
writings. This is the basic argumentof the writers who endeavor at the resurgence of
their self-respect and pride of human beings in the course of fiction. Transactionof
European literaturewith colonial themes has certainrestrictions as it depict only one
side of the life and that is the main observation of the invader. Most of the
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postcolonial writers achieved their education in a foreign country. Therefore the
characters they comprisepassed through double identities which are hybrid and
mistakable. Practice of ‘ogbanje’ isinhuman in the eyes of the colonized, but for the
indigenous Igbo, it is obligatoryin order to survive and lead their life.
Like Africa, all postcolonial societies require “its economy, its policies, its
culture, its languages and all its patriotic writers” (DM, xii). A close scrutiny of the
postcolonial literature that emerged in India, West Indies and Africa reveals the
oppression of the natives. It also reflects the scenario of tension between the rulers
and the ruled. Most of the postcolonial writers wanted to praise the victory of their
own culture and they expressed it in their fiction. In all these novels various factors
compel the protagonists who belong to different cultural backgrounds to return. All
these novels reflect the richness and diversity of postcolonial cultures.
A society becomes exclusivethrough the customs, traditions, culture, language
and a sense of belongingness. Literature preserves each country’s civilization and
culture by presenting it in the form of letters as the purpose of literature is to delight
and instruct. Like Indian writings, African writings are rooted in religion and
spirituality. The attempt to redefine oneself in terms of ‘other’ is a difficult task.
Culture influences people in many ways. Swami Harshanada opines that man’s
struggle results in progress,“This progress can be in two directions: external and
internal. External progress leads to a better standard of living, i.e. civilization. Internal
progress, on the other hand, results in greater refinement of the whole personality, i.e.
culture” (An Introduction to Hindu Culture: Ancient and Medieval11).
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The consequence of cultural clash is that some people may blindly imitate or
completely merge into the alien culture. Some people may completely reject or
neglect the foreign culture and stick to the indigenous culture likeOkonkwo.The third
category of people may stand in between the two cultures and become the victims of
the fusion of cultures as Ezeulu who compromise with the situation. They may accept
the pros and cons of both cultures. Finally, circumstantial pressures also help them
realize the worth of their culture. In cultural studies and social anthropology, is an
internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own
culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. This contract takes place in the
case of Okonkwo, Obi Okonkwo, and Ezeulu. Cultural alienation is the process of
devaluing or abandoning one’s own culture or cultural background. A person who is
culturally alienated places little value on his culture.
The person who plans of preaching European civilization later realizes its
futility and understands how fruitful his own culture is. The same feeling of Obi in No
Longer at Easecan be traced where Obi shows love for Nigerian food, in spite of the
fact that he had spent five years in England. At the restaurant, when Joseph asked Obi
if he wanted Nigerian food, Obi said: “Of course. I have been dying to eat pounded
yams and bitter-leaf soup. In England we made do with semolina, but it isn't the same
thing… I am sick of boiled potatoes” (NLE27-28).
In Arrow of God, Ezeulu does not show any hatred to the white man who
grows stronger than himself and his clan but keeps good relation with them. When he
is asked the reason for sending his son to the white man’s school, Ezeuluthings that
the white man is like a syndrome; theyare so powerful that no sacrifice is adequate to
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stop them. So Ezeulu decides to sacrifice his own son to know the factors which make
the white man so powerful. Ezeulu is a man who looks for change and that is why he
sends his son Oduche to learn the ways of the white man. Ezeulu is a man modern in
outlook, ready to accept changes, but traditional to the core. He considers Christianity
barely as a means to achieve the wisdom of white man.
His rejection of his appointment as Paramount Chief proves that he is least
interested in the material glory or fame. His desire is real to support his clan and
religion. But he turns out to be a failure because he could not stop the white man’s
ways and a mass conversion of his people to Christianity. It appears that Ezeulu wants
a change in moderation. The natives, especially the Christian natives regard the white
man as a great force to compete with. Moses Unachukwu tries to canvas Christianity
by saying, “As daylight chases away darkness so will the white man drive away all
our customs... The white man has power which comes from true God and it burns like
fire” (AG 86).
3.2.1. Cultural Mixing
We should now look for a short time at the history of colonial Nigeria until the 1920s.
When the slave trade was forbidden in Britain in 1807, British financial
systemaffected very poorly. In order torestore the market, Britain started to
trademerchandise with Africa. Their main business was palm oil and palm kernels,
and the main contractor of palm oil and palm kernel was the Igbo land which was
loaded with palm trees. At initial stage the White man could not fix colonies because
ofdangerous climate and diseases like Malaria. Time passes and quinine was invented
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and they progressively become large in numbers in the direction of colonize and rule
local Igbo people, make use of their resources and labourefficiently. It was not
sufficient that they invite Christian missionaries who again looted their gods who
according to the colonizers,were inferior to the ‘colonizer’s god’. This is forcefully
evident in chapter 16 of Things Fall Apartwhere missionaries states, “Your gods are
not alive and cannot do you any harm” (TFA 138). The native culture, before and
after colonization, was not at all the same. Even though they did not acknowledge the
new culture, still their culture was much inclined by the colonizer’s culture, reason
being a hybrid culture was developed, as ablend of the colonizer’s culture and the
colonized culture. Frederick Lugardcame in Nigeriain 1901with his indirect intention
of rule and the picture of Nigeria changed radically. He controlled local confrontation
by exercising armed force and the British colonial rule was tightlyimplanted.Arrow of
Godexhibits the account of a local Igbo communityat what timeLugard is trying to set
uphis law.
3.3. African Belief Systemand Literature: A Viewpoint
The common western languages used by African novelists enabled them to speak their
opinions and judgment backside to those who once colonized them. Africans could
now present their own vision and account of their own history through writing.
Postcolonial African literature has stretched its boundaries which previously
capsulated the view and thought of the Africans during colonization. The postcolonial
African literature tries to recreate their history with new perception and idea about
Africans which were manipulated by western perspective. Before the emergence of
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postcolonial literature the western world had been viewing them on the facts of
western perspective which is full of biased notion during the period of colonization.
WoleSoyinka has appreciated Achebe for creating the life of his people better
with the help of literature. His novels are loadedwith artistic ethos of Igbo culture.
The Igbo culture was very distinguished in its customs and rituals and these had
strong social implications and spiritual significance which the colonizers failed to
appreciate. We see ‘The New Pumpkin Leaves’ Festival purify the various sorrows
and suffering of clan member.The masquerade in Igbo society was executed by
unknown members of the clan and their identity must behidden to other people, it
might be celebrated on the occasion ofthe harvest and its major motive to provide
entertainment to clan member.The‘New Yam Festival’ was the celebration of New
Yearon the occasion of new yam crop which were Igbosmajor crops. These
ceremonies, rituals, and way of life brought the village people in a group and like all
other religions served the purpose of social harmony. Igbo have no king and queen
and they were politically free.
Colonial nations like France and Britain subjugated a larger part of the world
practically two and half century through colonialism and imperialism. They entered in
these countries by means of trade and gradually subjugated the local residents in these
places by strength and armedforces. They apprehended and captivated the lands from
the local people who were the legallypossessor of these lands. Theyestablished
governments oppressed the native by taking hold of their natural and human resources
andproduced a market of western commodities in these countries. However, there is
difference between colonialism and imperialism. Imperialism is related with the
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growthand development of trade in the particular area under the safety of political and
lawful power.Here, it is essential to reminder that the colonial powers were repeatedly
resisted by indigenous people of colonized lands. When the British attempted to
colonize Nigeria, it was not a bed of roses.They have to face resistance from the local
people violently and forcefully. We see in Things Fall Apart of chapter 17 where
missionaries demanded piece of land from Umuofia villagers in order to settle church,
Uchendu and his peers quote, “Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show
their victory” (TFA 140-141). We canhave argument that Igbo’s resistance was not
planned and structured revolution otherwise scenario might have been changed
though the British people confronted to the Igbo through their culture, ethnicity, and
belief. But at later stage they were little by littletrained by the British to appearinferior
in compared to the colonizers ‘true’ culture and god.
There are other types of colonialism as John Mcleod observes, “Colonialism is
perpetuated in part by justifying to those in the colonizing nation the idea that it is
right and proper to rule over other peoples and by getting colonized people to accept
their lower ranking in the colonial order of things – a process we can tell ‘colonizing
the mind”’(Mcleod,2015:18). The colonizing nations alleged their own superiority
and they convinced the colonized nations to look at their own native civilization and
ways of life as ‘uncivilized’. They were victorious in their point of view and
colonized people start believing in their own inadequacy and give effort to duplicate
the colonizers as much as possible. This is christened as ‘mimicry’ in postcolonial
vocabulary. In Arrow of GodMoses Unachukwu, the court messenger and his
attendant, John Nwodika, Oduche and many others have startedto speak colonizer’s
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language. The colonizer’s language was not only a means of communication, but this
language denotes power. Oduchesought to master the language like Moses
Unachukwu, a carpenterin order to be counted the superioramong indigenous people
because he understood that language is major powerful weapons to get respect.
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3.4. Religion as Belief System
3.4.1. Earth Goddess
In Things Fall Apartthe Earth Goddess was to be followed strictly by each member of
the clan within the Umuofia, and this was practiced in its full force when Okonkwo
accidentally killed a clan member. Nevertheless, he is obliged to follow the rulings of
the earth Goddess and he and his family are expelled from the village for seven years
and move to the village of his mother in Mbanta. A general understanding within the
Igbo society was that a will of God was not to be questioned whatsoever. Yet
Okonkwo’s friend Obierika finds it difficult to comprehend that his dear friend had to
be expelled for seven years as a result of an accident, “Why should a man suffer so
grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought
for a long time he found no answer” (TFA118).
3.4.2. The Evil Forest
In Igbo Society, there was certain situation that allowed someone to be buried in the
Evil Forest. The Evil Forest was the burial ground for those who were not venerable
and measured to be affected by infectious diseases. Evil Forest was also the chief of
the egwugwu and the eldest son. “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 Umofia had grown out 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” (TFA85).The Evil Forest was directly involved in mass conversion
of Mbanta villagerswhich have taken place in Things Fall Apart, for instance, the
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missionaries want to build a church. In order to stop them Mbanta villagers offered
the evil forest, and for Igbo people believethis will mean the closing stage of the white
man’s presence. “Let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest. They boast about
victory over death. Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory”
(TFA140-141).But the survival of all the white men in theirhouses which was located
in an evil forest was a huge shock for Igbo conviction and keenness, “The first day
passed and the second and third and fourth, and none of them died. Everyone was
puzzled. And then it became known that the white man’s fetish had unbelievable
power. It was said that he wore glasses on his eyes so that he could see and talk to evil
spirits. Not long after, he won his first three converts” (TFA141).
3.4.3. Significance of the Ancestral Mask
In Igbo society, the significance of the ancestral spirits known as ‘egwugwu’, who
appeared in ancestral masks, cannot be diluted. Each egwugwu represented a village
of the clan whose leader was called the ‘Evil Forest’. Symbolizing the ancestors of the
community, these elders intermediated public disputes and their authority was never
challenged by anyone. Chinua Achebe, in his novel, Arrow of God, shows the arrival
of a new mask on the crest of excitement:
The faceheld power and terror; each exposed tooth was the size of a big man’s
thumb, the eyes were large sockets as big as a fist, two gnarled horns
pointedupwards and inwards above its head nearly touching at the tip. It
carried a shield of skin in the left hand and a huge matchet in the right (AG
200).
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Fig. 3.1. Illustration of Mask Man
Another incident we see in the same novel in chapter four Nwaka of Umunneora clan
bring huge mask which he assumed on Idemili festival and another special occasion,
“The Mask was called Ogalanya or Man of Riches, and at every Idemili festival
crowds of people from all the villages and their neighbours came to the iloof
Umunneora to see this great Mask bedecked with mirrors and rich cloths of many
colours” (AG 40).
In Writing Across Worlds, in an interview with Mary David, Wole Soyinka
appreciates the African Mask as an aesthetic object. He talks about the elevation of
the mask saying:
…I know how it is worn. I happen to know the rest of the mask that the carrier
wears. I know what shapes he makes as he dances. At such times I am able to
go deeper and contemplate its meaning because it is also a ritual form-
incidentally, of renewal- and it is part and parcel of the ceremonies (Nasta,
2004:24)
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3.4.4. Importance of the Moon (Onwa) in Igbo Land
The Igbo society in Arrow of God did not have access to thecalendar, watch or clock
but they did not lose count of the months, a sequelto the observance to the promptings
of the moon. In addition to this general relevance of the solar component, its
appearance means many things to thepeople of Umuaro. It is an indication to the
eating of one of the twelvesacred yams, which on its own is a signifier of hope of
harvest.
Ezeulu went into his barn and took down yam from the bamboo platform built
specially for the twelve sacred yams…..he had already eaten three and had the
fourth on his hand. He checked the remaining ones again and went back to his
obi, shutting the door carefully after him (AG 3).
However, its position or shape on appearance means a lot of things to thepeople. Thus
it makes the detection of the moon a stirring moment. It can be a sign of good fortune
or an omen of evil. Ifthe moon is not properly sited at appearance, it sends ominous
outlook downthe people's backbone as it is apparent that all is not fine that month.
Thedialogue between two of Ezeulu's wives following Ezeulu's announcementof the
appearance of the moon stresses this notion:
Matefi: may your face meeting mine bring good fortune.
Ugoye: Where is it? I do not see it. Or am I blind?
Matefi: Don't you see it beyond the top of the ukwa tree? Not there. Follow
my finger.
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Ugoye: Ohoo, I see it. Moon, may your face meeting mine bring good fortune.
But how is it sitting? I don't like its posture.
Matefi: Why?
Ugoye: I think it sits awkwardly-like an evil moon.
Matefi: No, a bad moon does not leave anyone in doubt. Like the one under
which Akuata died. Its legs were up in the air. (AG 2)
The Igbo calendar has four market days that make up one week, Eke, Orie,Afo, and
Nkwo. Each day is a signifier of an assortment of procedures and behavior.Most of
the major events in the Igbo culture like ritual cleansing, sacrifice, and marriage and
so on cannot take place on certain market days. Thenarrator thus explains,
“Everybody in Igboland knows that Okperi people do not have other business on their
Eke day. You should have come yesterday or the day before, or tomorrow or the day
after. Son of our daughter, you should know our habits” (AG 23).
The purity that is associated with these market days differs from onecommunity to
another and from deity to deity. On such days, it isspeculated that the spirits in charge
of the market, water or farmland wouldnot wish to be disturbed, so everybody stay at
home or goes to other places.This is analogous to the Christian observance of Sunday
or Saturday as theday of rest.
3.4.5. Medium of Communication in Igbo Land
In Igbo villages, and before the arrival of the white men, theimportant messages are
passed by beating the ogene, which is a traditionalmedium of communication in Igbo
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land. It signifies many things to theIgbo people and every sound is peculiar to the
beat. It may signify a call forwar, to announce a new moon, an emergency, a call to
duty or to announcethe death of a prominent member of the community.
At the sound of the ogene, all members of the community are expected torespond
immediately and make their way to the village square where thespecific reason for the
beating is relayed to the people.
Achebe underlines this custom in Arrow of God, chapter one, when Ezeulu,the chief
priest of ulu, beats the ogene to announce the new moon: “He beat his
ogeneGOMEGOMEGOMEGOME…and immediately children'svoices took up the
news on all sides” (AG 2).
There are announcers who assist the community in sending messages to allpeople
while beating the drum, as is shown on This was shown chapter six, “That very
evening his six assistants came to him for their orders and he sent them to announce
each man in his own village that the feast of the Pumpkin leaves would take place on
the following Nkwo” (AG 65).
Another reason of beating the drum is to summon the elders for a meeting;this custom
is portrayed in chapter thirteen,
As soon as the messenger and his escort left Ezeulu's hut to return to Okperi
the Chief Priest sent word to the old man who beat the giant ikolo to summon
the elders and ndichie to an urgent meeting at sunset. Soon after the ikolo
began to speak to the six villages. Everywhere elders and men of title heard
the signal and god ready for the meeting (AG 142).
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The Ikolo (the drum) is beaten as a form of traditional ritual as well as topay tributes
to dignitaries. “The Ikolo now beat unceasingly; sometimes itcalled names of
important people of Umuaro, like Nwaka, Nwosisi,Igboneme and Uduezue. But most
of the time it called the villages and theirdeities. Finally it settled down to saluting
Ulu, the deity of all Umuaro” (AG 71). Achebe’s understanding with his ancestral
culture is evident in the harmonies that he reveals between the people and their
environment. Such harmonies are predicated on the music of drums, which conveys a
sense of rhythm that defined the cultural ethos of the Igbo people. This music of drum
is used for welcoming guest and spirit, fighting, celebrating festivity, playing games
like wrestling and dancing.
3.4.6. Virginity in the Igbo Community
In Igbo societies, one of the most distinctive marks of unmarriedwomen's chastity is
virginity.The issue of virginity makes the African quite different from the Indian one.
In Indian society, a family stands as an institution to which virginity provides a
supporting structure. Moreover, virginity makes the marital relationship sacred and
long lasting. To be a virgin was a big thing in Nigeria, and was considered as a
powerful symbol of unity, love, heaven and beauty. In No Longer at Ease, Joseph
talks of his girlfriend that “…she was a virgin when I met her, which is very rare
here” (NLE12).On the other hand, a girl who reserved her virginity brings honor to
herselfand to her family.In the Igbo society, the bridegroom gave gifts to his wife’s
mother if found his wife to be a virgin. It is truein case of Okuata, a virgin girl, “She
could go without shame to salute her husband’s parentsbecause she had been ‘found
at home’. Her husband was evennowarranging to send the goat and other presents to
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her motherin Umuezeani for giving him unspoilt bride” (AG 123)So a woman, who
lost her virginity byhaving sex with another partner before she gets married, brought
an eternaldisgrace to herself and her family as well. Achebe underlines this
Igbocustom and its value in chapter 12 of the novel, “Every girl new of
OgbanjeOmenyi whose husband said to have sent to her parents for a matchet to cut
the bush on either side of the highway which she carried between her thighs” (AG
123).
3.4.7. Egwugwuas an Ancestral Spirit
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe makes it clear that these Egwugwuare ordinary men and
this is also noticed by the women as one of these Egwugwuresemble Okonkwo,
“Okonkwo’s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the
second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo” (TFA85). Yet the women did
not speak of this as no one was supposed to acknowledge this because the
egwugwuwere addressed as the actual ancestral spirits.
3.4.8. Week of Peace inIgboland
Within the Igbo, tribe rituals are also a significant part of their culture. One of the
rituals is ‘the week of peace’ which symbolizes kindness and gentleness of which all
villagers exhibit a week before planting. In the novel, Okonkwo violates the sacred
rules within the week of peace by beating his wife severely, and as a result is forced to
sacrifice to the Goddess of earth in atonement, “In his anger he had forgotten that it
was the Week of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him
that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody
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half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess” (TFA28).Ezeani, who is the priest
of the earth goddess, Ani warns him to repay and repent, “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” (TFA29). It is obvious that violating the rules and
order of Gods are totally intolerable within the Igbo society. It could be argued that
the ideas of a traditional understanding of justice did not exist when it came to
violating sacred way of life within the Igbo belief and rituals.
3.5. Legends of the Igbo
Chinua Achebe is deeply rooted in his culture because he grew up in an atmosphere
of Nigeria where the tradition of oral storytelling was concededthroughone
generation to another generation, in order to try to remain African tradition and
religious belief alive. Many of these myths and fables have been depicted from the
earth and the sky and natural world. In African belief it is a disposition and tendency
to feel natural environment as a human way of life. Achebe in his oral storytellingnot
only explaining his Nigerian culture but he has also explained the impact of
colonialism on his native soil and his people. The belief of myths and fables in Igbo
tribal society helped them to endure as well as preserve their culture out of violation
of their culture by colonial rule. It can bemeasured as arevolt of Africans to sustain
their beliefs against European colonialism who treat them as savages.
3.5.1. Myths
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In Things Fall Apart the subsequent myth can be explained the myth of the earth and
the sky, the myth of locust and the myth of mosquito. African myth and fables lay
down regarding to teach and build up manners in which Igbo tribe believes. It will
not simplymaintain them to live in peace and harmony but keep their existence in
Africa.
The first myth that explains the quarrel between the Earth and the sky was told by
Nwoye’s Mother. Achebe gives an account of Nwoye, a young boy is always in love
with the story. But his father, Okonkwo feels weaknesses in his son Nwoye and
resemblance him to his father Unoka. Nwoye loves the story by his mother:
He remembered the story she oftentold of the quarrel between Earth and Sky
long ago, and how Sky withheld rain for sevenyears, until crops withered and
the dead could not be buried because the hoes broke onthe stony Earth. At last
Vulture was sent to plead with Sky, and to soften his heart with asong of the
suffering of the sons of men. Whenever Nwoye's mother sang this song he
feltcarried away to the distant scene in the sky where Vulture, Earth's
emissary, sang formercy. At last Sky was moved to pity, and he gave to
Vulture rain wrapped in leaves ofcoco-yam. But as he flew home his long
talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it hadnever fallen before. And so
heavily did it rain on Vulture that he did not return to deliver hismessage but
flew to a distant land, from where he had espied a fire. And when he gotthere
he found it was a man making a sacrifice. He warmed himself in the fire and
ate theentrails (TFA 50).
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Second, the locust myth is discussed in chapter 7, after three years of Ikemefuna’s
appearance into Okonkwo’s family and arrival of a descendent locust flock of the
Umuofia. The story retail, “The elders said locusts came once in a generation,
reappeared every year for seven years and then disappeared for another lifetime. They
went back to their caves in a distant land, where they were guarded by a race of
stunted men. And then after another lifetime these men opened the caves again and
the locusts came to Umuofia” (TFA51). This myth signifies the locust as an indication
of happiness and joy in Umuofia. These locust possibly become visible after
generation but when these appears these appears for the subsequent seven years.
Although, the locust has an exceptional testimony of wider destruction but for the
Umuofian it is celebration and will of god, ‘“Locusts are descending,’ was joyfully
chanted everywhere, and men, women andchildren left their work or their play and
ran into the open to see the unfamiliar sight” (TFA52). Arrival of the locust in
Umuofia caused great steer among villagers but it seems that it is the symbol of
arrival of the Europeans and led to the conversion into Christianity of many Igbo
along with Nwoye, first son of Okonkwo, is deeply affected with composition of new
music of Christianity.
Third, the mosquito myth is mentioned when Okonkwo felt uneasy while sleeping in
his obi and remembers his mother story, “Mosquito,… had asked Ear to marry him,
whereupon Ear fell on the floor in uncontrollable laughter. ‘How much longer do you
think you will live?’ she asked. ‘You are already a skeleton.’ Mosquito went away
humiliated, and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive”
(TFA71). Here it is clear that the Ear is a representation of a living being and
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mosquitoes are a non human existence. This is a kind of relationship which is really
unnatural because mosquitoes asked for marriage to Ear, the Ear declined. Since then,
whenever mosquitoes passes through the Ear, mosquitoes make Ear do belief that he
is alive. This is no more than the idea that there is no obstruction between the
relationship between the human and non-human existence inside the Igbo believes
system. This can also be noticed that mosquitoes are a simile for anti-colonial
resistance whereas the Ear fit for the power of imperialism. The resistance against
colonialism by Africans may not exist for long but the effort for self administration
will last till death as it is revealed by the invariable ultimatum being given by the
mosquitoes till the final liberty take place from the fetters of domination.
Conclusively we can see that the myths in Things Fall Apart shows that Africans have
a culture that recognizes the place of the natural habitat which are part of the daily life
of the Nigerian life.
Like other novels of Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah also carry out the restoration of
national ethnicity by continualstruggleswhich are personified in the indigenous
mythsand legends.Achebe uses myth of ‘the Sun’ approximately all around of this
novel, who is resembled toSam whose power of blazing heatdestroys the entire
Kangankingdom. The destructive character of Sun causesdisaster.There is another
myth mention in chapter 8 in this novel ‘the Pillar of Water’which introduced by
Beatrice who seeksto plant out the fire of the Sun and also to satiate the arid lands, in
the form of Abazon. Achebe concisely portrays the legends of the male power and the
same isneutralized through the female resistance through the comparison made
betweenBeatrice and the Goddess of Idemili, “In the beginning Power rampaged
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through our world, naked. So theAlmighty, looking at his creation through the round
undying eye of the Sun,saw and pondered and finally decided to send his daughter,
Idemili, to bearwitness to the moral nature of authority by wrapping around Power’s
rudewaist a loincloth of peace and modesty” (AS 97). In Anthills of the Savannah, the
perception of African culture exists through mythand does not belong to the leader or
any class.The myth of Idemiliadmonishes people in danger it seems a forecast of the
rise and fall of Sam.
3.5.2. Folktale
The folktale is another cultural heritage. This refers to human beings and animals
which teaches ethicalassessment, intelligence and social observations.In Achebe’s
novels these are prevalent in ample amount. In Things Fall Apart Achebe writes many
witty stories of manliness, hostility and atrocities. There is a story of tortoise who
haswish to fly in the sky ultimately faces tragic death for his meanness with birds. The
moral of the stories is to teach children to be truthful, not to be covetous and
unreliable otherwise negative things will crop up. There is another story of a “bird
eneke-nti-obawho challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally
thrown by the cat” (TFA50). These folktales are extremelyembedded with Nigerian
cultural consciousness. The songs are also sincerely related to Igbo land and their
culture. One can experience the sagacity of the song of marriage ceremony. In Things
Fall Apart, the song is:
‘If I hold her hand
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She says, “Don’t touch!”
If I hold her foot
She says, “Don’t touch!”
But when I hold her waist beads
She pretends not to know.’ (TFA112).
The folktales mentioned by Achebe in his novels make an attempt to reform the
society, thereby getting rid of one’s weaknesses. Ikemefuna’s song in Things Fall
Apart is a reduced version of an Igbo folktale which discourages the king to not to
commit an action that would indulge with his high office and prosperity of people.
Like the king in Ikemefuna’s song, Okonkwo is warned against committing a sin by
killing a child, whom he sheltered for three years and called him his father. Ikemefuna
still remember the song of his childhood:
Ezeelina, elina!
Sala
Ezeilikwaya
Ikwabaakwaogholi
EbeDandanechieze
EbeUzuzuneteegwu
Sala (TFA57).
InThings Fall Apart, Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s wife narrates a traditional Igbo
folktale (chapter 11) to her daughter, Ezinma which dramatizes a moral. It relates to
a cunning tortoise (Nnabe) who manages to befool the birds (Chineke) at the feast
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and enjoys the food all alone. But at the end, he is punished for his selfishness, and he
falls from the sky, breaking his shell into pieces. Achebe explains that the cheat
tortoise is a favourite in Igbo children’s stories this is evident in Arrow of God,“If the
rat cannot flee fast enough, Let him make way for the tortoise!” (AG 231).
In Arrow of God Achebe puts very powerful expression of folktale and gives
reference to a toad who never get a chance to grow his tail because of toad’s tail’s
postponing nature, Anosi states, “tomorrow I shall go,tomorrow I shall go, tomorrow
I shall go, like the toad which lost the chance of growing a tail because ofI am
coming, I am coming”.Out of this above lines Achebe also has tried to create
humourous tone witty remarks of Igbo community which was undeniable by the
colonial ruler. The women cite the folk tales to the children at night which they
always enjoyed. Obiageli sing a song full of melody and rhythm:
Ja-Ja. Jakulokulo!
Traveller Hawk
You’re welcome home
Ja-Ja. Jakulokulo!(AG 188)
3.5.3. Orality
An important feature of Igbo oral tradition is the use of proverbs. These have been
demonstrated many times throughout Achebe’s work. These proverbs serve a moral
purpose and typically used to teach a lesson or establish morals in children. a
researcher can understand Igbo society properly with correct understanding of these
proverbs. In Things Fall Apart a proverb originates when Okonkwo felicitate
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Nwakibie with palm-wine in chapter 3, Okonkwo states “A man who pays respect to
the great paves the way for his own greatness” (TFA 19). This proclamation build a
preposition also an Indian bent of mind that as you sow as you reap. If one gives
respect to people, it will direct to one’s own achievement. Another proverb we see
when Nwakibie states, “Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot
without missing, he has learned to fly without perching” (TFA 21). This statement
suggests that people must be always ready to survive in any situation.
Proverbs and stories play a central role in Igbo and Nigerian culture all over
Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease. A closer examination reveals the true
importance of these stories – they are significant not just for their cultural
implications, but for their deeper and richer meaning. In Igbo and African societies,
proverbs and stories take on a religious meaning that might be lacking in other
cultures. This meaning upgrades them above their typical role in Islam, Jewish, and
Christian societies. Concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are determined by these proverbs,
and so they take on a pseudo-political meaning, as ethics and integrity in a culture are
decided by the proverbs and stories.
Thus, the importance of proverbs in Achebe's work cannot be understated, as
he uses them in a far more significant way that it initially seems. KaluOgbaa notes
that “proverbs are among the easily distinguishable folkways in Achebe's novels”
(Kalu, 1999:111), which means that they are one of the biggest indicators of Nigerian
culture; additionally, they are also used as a strong contrast to the British society that
Achebe also describes throughout No Longer at Ease. Kalu discusses the deeper
metaphorical meanings of proverbs in No Longer at Ease, and how they represent the
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collapse of a traditional Igbo culture. He uses the proverb “If you want to eat a toad
you should look for a fat and juicy one” (NLE5) and explains its usage in regards to
bribery, it is a modern phenomenon that represents the crumbling of the old way in
Igbo society.
Achebe's certain idea of Africa revolves significantly around his usage of
proverbs and stories. His constant invocation of these proverbs and stories paints a
particular portrait of Nigeria (Igbo culture in particular) that gives it a picturesque,
traditional feel. Readers learn a great deal about Igbo society (viewpoint, morality,
etc.) from these proverbs. Since basic oral tradition stands in the prospect of written
scripture, the seeming subtlety of the references gains more clarity. It is also obvious
that the proverbs are not just casually thrown around by the characters of No Longer
at Ease, but are repeated with seriousness and purpose.
Many of Achebe’s proverbs concern matters of power and political beliefs,
particularly related to the impact of colonization. In Arrow of God, when Ezeulu, the
Chief Priest of Ulu, foretells of something wrong by the white, he addresses the
assembled rulers of Umuaro. He firstly thanks them as the belief of Igbos is that, “if
you thank a man for what he has done he will have strength to do more (AG 143)”
And when Ezeulu goes to the white man’s prison, people’s indifferent attitude
towards him has been cited in the proverbs like, “the lizard who threw confusion into
his mother’s funeral rite, did he expect outsiders to carry the burden of honouring his
dead (AG 126)”.
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Although, No longer at Ease and A Man of the People both being a modern novel of
ChinuaAchebe obtainsubstitute to the oral traditions of African maxim and learnedto
the tradition of code-mixing in carrying outthe native culture. In No Longer at
Ease Obi, the protagonist of novel invites women singing a “The Song of the Heart”,
which is in both Igbo and English:
That money cannot buy a kinsman,
Heleee he ee he
That he who has brothers
Has more than riches can buy.
Heleee he ee he’ (NLE 103)
3.6. Igbo Way of Life
3.6.1. Cloths
Igbo are one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Because they live in the
intense heat of the tropical climate, they are required to wear reasonably loose
clothing. Usually, Igbos women decorate themselves their bodies for a variety of
reasons including traditionally and for aesthetics. The Igbos believes in the aphorism
that one’s body is one’s temple. On the festival pumpkin leaves, Achebe talks of the
Igbo women who wore their finest clothes and ornaments of ivory and jigida (waist
beads) according to the riches of their husbands. In Things Fall Apart, when a suitor
visited Akueke, she wore a coiffure which was done up into a top in the middle of the
head. In Arrow of God, Ezeulu held in his right hand a long, iron, walking-staff with a
sharp, spear-like lower end which every titled man carried on special occasions.
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Achebe reflects the customs and traditions which bound the Igbo people together in
the precolonial society. But with the changing period of time, their faith could not
remain in one piece of harmony.
3.6.2. Beauty and Fashion
Igbo’s craving for beauty and fashion can be seen in Things Fall Apart, the women
scrubbed the walls and huts with red earth until they reflected light. In No Longer at
Ease, “brilliant fluorescent tube (NLE15)”was used. They make black patterns on
their bodies with the juice of the uli tree (black dye).The women plaited their hair in a
new Otimili fashion and decorated their waist with fifteen strings of jigida.Children
also decorated their hair in beautiful patterns. Men wore toga over loincloth.
3.6.3.Food Habits
The Igbo are culturally unique in their appearance. This is the key reason that they are
unique in their identity also.The major food for them is ‘foofoo’ which is often taken
with soup. This is observant when “Matefi’s daughter, Ojiugo, brought in a bowl of
foofoo and a bowl of soup,...” (AG 9). Igbo have other several foods which can be
seen on the marriage ceremony of Obika and Okuata: “The feasting which followed
lasted till sunset. There were pots of yam pottage, foo-foo, bitter-leaf soup and
egusisoup, two boiled legs of goat, two large bowls of cooked asa fish taken out
whole from the soup and kegs of sweet wine tapped from the raffia palm” (AG 117).
In Igbo people, guests are honoured with extreme courtesy. The guest and the host
urge for the welfare of their families and clans before they begin to eat the kolanut.
3.6.4. Livelihood
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Fig. 3.2.Illustration of Igbo Market
Igbo society is very traditional in their outlook of the livelihood. The wealth of the
family is judged by the quantity of yam grown by the man and the amount of ivory
possessed by him and his women.The main sources of income for the Igbo are
farming, carving, tapping palm tree and trading at the market. Carpentry is a new
profession that has come with colonial administration and Moses Nwachukwu, “the
first and the most famous convert in Umuaro” (AG 48). Unachukwu is a good
carpenter who becomes famous as a house-boy in onitsha “Unachukwu was a
carpenter, the only one in all those part. He had learnt the trade under the white
missionaries…” (AG 48). Igbo people have also good command over the traditional
medical practice which is done through the comprehension and exercise of herbs,
roots and animal sacrifice.
3.6.5. Love for Nature
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Achebe states that Igbos had superstitious beliefs, but these beliefs were their own,
there was no guiding force from behind. Igbos can derive happiness and pleasure from
small things. Even the showers and breeze could give them happiness, and the
children ran about singing, “The rain is falling, the sun is shining, Alone Nnadi is
cooking and eating” (TFA34).
In Achebe’s novels, the Igbo love for nature becomes prominent in the songs
sung by the children especially the rain songs. In Anthills of the Savannah, the
children sung a childish rainsong to express happiness,
“ogwogwommilitakumeiayolo!” (AS 87).
3.6.5.1. Python
Igbopeoplelove and respect the animal. Achebe reflects the Igbo society where killing
a python was considered as a disgrace. In Things Fall Apart, we see how Achebe
justifies it, “the royal python was the most revered animal in Mbanta and all the
surrounding clans. It was addressed as ‘Our Father,’ and was allowed to go wherever
it chose, even into people’s beds (TFA 149). It looks as Indian worship king Kobra.
They also consider animals as more dangerous in the dark. A snake was never called
by its name at night because it signs as an evil spirit.
3.6.5.1. Udala Tree
In Arrow of God, there is a mentioning of Udala trees in Umuaro which were sacred
to ancestral spirits. The belief of the Africans here seems to resemble with that of the
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Indians during the Vedic period. As Pipal and Bunyan tree for Indians, the Udala tree
was divine for the Nigerians.
3.7. Changes in Conventions/Customs of the Igbo
3.7.1. Before Colonialism
The way of understanding the civil order and religion present within the Igbo society
is by acknowledging the weight of the religious commitment and obligation which
existed within each and every member of the Igbo society. Each respective clan was
responsible towards the maintenance in honoring the will of the Gods and regulating
on rulings of what were wrong and right ways of conduct within the Igbo society. It
can, therefore, be concluded that the presence of Igbo religion is the main factor in the
regulation of civil order in the form of law, gender rights and practices in Igbo
society. It can be also understood the importance of ancestry connection for the Igbo
tribesmen through the protagonist Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo
illustrates how important it is to maintain the ancestral legacy, and this is both in
behaviour, honour, and judgement. These Igbo religious beliefs and civil order
inevitably met an opponent in the figure of a new set of beliefs, customs, and laws,
which were all subject to the colonization.
3.7.2. After Colonialism
In Achebe’s novel, the protagonist Okonkwo learns after two years of being expelled
to his mother village Mbanta, that his first born son Nwoye has been brainwashed, “It
was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow” (TFA139). Soon a
group of missionaries reaches the village of Mbanta and amongst them a white man.
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The clan is described as being dismayed, yet not anxious by the presence of a new
religion as they were convinced this would die away with time. The missionaries
preached about the one true God and stressed that the people of Mbanta were wrong
to worship any other gods and that both the white man and black man were equals and
brothers as sons of the same god, “All the gods you have named are not gods at all.
They are gods of deceit who tell you to kill your fellows and destroy innocent
children. There is only one true God and He has made the earth, the sky, you and me
and all of us” (TFA137-138). This declaration can be seen as a way to segregate the
Igbo people to be governed by a Western civil order and through another religious
perspective, and thus create disorder within the Igbo people's traditional norms,
religion, and common regulation. As a result of the increased presence of the new
religion Christianity, Okonkwo decides to stand up and fight this new intruding faith.
Tribal leaders were captured by the white men as the Umuofia tribe was
defeated. A tribal meeting was held after the leaders were released. The presence of
the newcomers finally drives Okonkwo to take his own life because the oppression is
too great for his divided tribe to overcome
3.8. Behaviour of the Igboland
3.8.1. Hospitality in the Igbo Community
Social rituals are an important aspect of any culture, and they can bevery helpful in
revealing the core values of any society. Sharing kola nutsis perhaps one of the most
important practices in Igbo society. This is whykola is reckoned as a symbol of
hospitality. In Igbo culture, hospitality plays a huge role in making and
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keepingfriends. The basic and the most common items of entertaining visitors arekola
nut, white clay, and palm wine. Palm wine would be made, and thewhite clay is used
to draw lines of a personal emblem.
Uduezue welcomes the mission from Umuaro village by saying, “but Imust offer you
a piece of kolanut” (AG 21). But they refused, which is a signof hostility. Then
Uduezue tried to give them white clay to draw lines withby saying:“I know what it is
like. Here is a piece of white clay then. Let me agreewith you and leave the kola nut
until you return” (AG 22).
Again the men declined. By refusing the kola nut and the white clay, themission had
rebuffed the token of goodwill between host and guest.Therefore, their mission must
be brave.
Another Igbo custom is that a guest is expected to paint his big toe with thechalk, and
bring along his horn (for drinking palm wine) as well as hismulti- purpose goatskin
bag.
Apart from Kola nut, another very important cultural practice whichis almost
disappearing is the offering of Nzu (chalk) to visitors. Mgbemere(2014:22) states that
in the Igbo cultural mold, which are necessarysignifies are more often used in the
expression of intents than words. Evenwhen words are used, they are sparingly
applied and do not come in plain languages but in riddles and proverbs, especially
when the issues havesweeping implications and involve elders.
As soon as a visitor is given kola nut, next he has to explain hispurpose of the visit,
which he may be permitted to speak out but until it isclear that his intentions are good.
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This can only be demonstrated by the useof nzu. The owner of the house presents his
visitor with a piece of chalk tomake this known. If the visitor draws all upright lines
and paints his big toewith the chalk before rolling the chalk back to the host, it means
that thestranger's visit is generally peaceful and devoid of any intention
forprovocation. It could mean a visit for a chart, solidarity or expression ofconcern in
case there is an initial reason for the visit.
As he said this he reached for a lump of white clay in a four-sided wooden
bowl shaped like the head of a lizard and rolled it on the floor towards
Akuebue who picked it up and drew four upright lines with it on the floor.
Then he painted the big toe of his right foot and rolled the chalk back to
Ezeulu and he put it away again in the wooden bowl (AG 96).
In this citation, the reader is introduced to an important cultural observancewith Ndi-
Igbo. Without saying a word, Akuebue makes the purpose of hisvisit understood.
On the other hand, if a visitor rejects the chalk or draws flat lines, hispurpose could be
interpreted as serious or dangerous. If this is the case, thehost would remain
apprehensive until the visitor reveals what the issuewas. The host may also go as far
as arming himself or inviting more peoplearound before the stranger opens his mouth.
This idea is fully explored inthe novel as the Umuaro emissaries meet with their
Okperi hosts. Adramatization of the story may aid understanding:
AKukalia impatiently: ‘we have an urgent message which we must give the
rulers of Okperi at once’. Udezue:… ‘I do not want to delay your mission, but
I must offer you a piece of kola nut’. Akukalia: ‘Do not worry yourself.
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Perhaps we shall return after our mission. It is a big load on our head, and until
we put it down we cannot understand anything we are told’. Udezue: ‘I know
what it is like. Here is a piece of white clay then. Let me agree with you and
leave the kolanut until you return’. But the men declined even to draw lines on
the floor with the clay. After that there was nothing between host and guest,
their mission must indeed be grave (AG 21-22).
The drawing of the chalk lines could be used to indicate the signatureof individuals,
especially that of the titled men. Each titled man has anunusual way of representing
himself by using the chalk. This practice isseen in the visit of the leaders of Umuaro
to Ezeulu, “Ezeulu presented a lump of chalk to his visitors and each of them drew his
personal emblem of upright and horizontal lines on the floor. Some painted their big
toe and others market their face” (AG 208).This further explains the differences
between the lines Akuaebue drewwhen he visited Ezeulu and the lines Ezeulu as a
titled man and chief priestdrew when he paid back the visit, “Ezeulu picked up the
chalk and drew five lines with it on the floor- three uprights, a flat one across the top
and another below them. Then he painted one of his big toes and dubbed a thin coat of
white around his left eye” (AG 112).The painting of the toe signifies that the visitor
stepped into the house ofhis host in peace and intends to sustain the peace.
3.8.2. Degradation of Moral Values
The degradation of the moral values can be seen in M.A. Nanga, the protagonist of
Achebe’s novel A Man of the People. Chief Nanga has been shown as a corrupt
politician who knows how to give and take the bribe. As he was strong and powerful,
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he persuades Odili’s girlfriend to his bed even Odili was there at home. In His official
residence, Chief Nanga has “seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, one for every day
of the week” (AMP 33). Chief Nanga was a hypocrite who knew how to flatter
people. He prompts the young generation that if they respect him today as a king,
others would respect them when their turn comes. With the character like Mr. Nanga,
Achebe tries to elucidates that young mind could not maintain the dignity and
decorum of Igbo generation. Modern Igbo society became corrupt and greedy with the
passes of time, somehow more dangerous than earlier colonial power.
3.8.3. Kola Nut vs Bribery
The main protagonist of Things Fall ApartOkonkwo, when offered the kola nut to the
guest said, “I have brought you this kola. As our people say, a man who pays respect
to the great paves the way for his own greatness (TFA19)”.The ceremony of kola nut
which taught the Igbo people tolerance and respect to each other lost its worth in the
due course of time. Achebe does not hesitate to show the impact of colonialism on the
ritual of Igbo society which made the people corrupt from inside and outside the
traditional society. The Kola nut which symbolized warmth in Igbo society was now
in modern society equal to the offering of ‘bribe’. When Okonkwo returns after seven
years of exile, the village seems to be unrecognizable for Okonkwo. The indigenous
tradition and heritage got swept, resulting in cultural dislocation and loss of identity,
“The new religion and governmentand the trading stores were very much in the
people's eyes and minds” (TFA 172).
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In No Longer at Ease, Obi Okonkwo is offered bribe by Mr. Mark to get the
Federal scholarship to study in England. His mind is not at serenity for the reason that
he denied to accept the bribe. He feels like an inexpert, “kite that carried away a
duckling and was ordered by its mother to return itbecause the duck had said nothing,
made no noise, just walked away”(NLE70). Obi can realize his helplessness to cope
up with the prevalent system which makes him corrupt. Achebe expresses the Igbo
mentality that, “a man expects you to accept ‘kola’ from him for service rendered, and
until you do, his mind is never at rest” (NLE 70).He also shows the tolerance of the
people for the corrupt practices. He realizes the accepted fact of the society that,
“…the trouble was not inreceiving bribes, but in failing to do the thing for which the
bribe was given”(NLE70)Achebe also states that, “You maycause more trouble by
refusing a bribe than by accepting it”(NLE70).
European knows the requirement of the Igbo people; they know that without
the help of the Igbo, they cannot disintegrate their society. That is the reason;
corruption was promoted and encouraged in modern Igbo society. In Arrow of God,
the court clerks appointed by British took advantage of their fellow Igbos through
bribery and money lending. In A Man of the People, the issue which Max raises in
front of OdiliSamalu throws light on the corruption being encouraged by the
Europeans in Nigeria, “Odili, that British Amalgamated has paid out four hundred
thousand pounds to POP. to fight this election? Yes, and we also know that the
Americans have been even more generous…”(AMP 117).
The economy is the root cause of the prosperity of a country, clan or society
but when this economy comes in the hand of the corrupt people society becomes
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corrupted. Achebe has shown bribe receiving as part of a change in the Igbo culture.
In A Man of the People, Achebe has presented Mr. Nanga as the best example of a
corrupted Individual who knew how to crucify innocent men and assassinate their
character. As a minister, he knew how to offer a bribe to the people for the votes and
also to the journalists for writing good about him. Odo, Edna’s father is full of greed
and enjoys receiving gifts from Chief Nanga, his son-in-law for the reason that he is
getting his young daughter married to an old man. Edna’s father says, “Our people
say: if you fail to take away a strong man's sword when he is on the ground, will you
do it when he gets up...? No, my daughter. Leave me and my in-law. He will bring
and bring and bring and I will eat until I am tired. And thanks to the Man Above he
does not lack what to bring”(AMP 83).
In Anthills of the Savannah after colonialism, new elite in the form of dictators
rise to power. Ikem, the editor of the magazine, ‘National Gazette’ regrets in relation
to his own people and think that his people is more than thief and the “Leaders who
openly looted our treasury, whose effrontery soiled our national soul” (AS 39).
Ikemin this framework refers not tothe White men but to his own country men who
have ruled the country bad than colonizer during the colonial era. When the colonial
powers left thecountry, there was emptiness in the newly shaped country and lucrative
and powerful native elite came into power. Ikem’s speech in theuniversity of Bassa
heading to all Nigerians, he narrates, “you must develop the habit of scepticism, not
swallow every piece ofsuperstition you are told by witch doctors and professors…
when you have rid yourselves ofthese things your potentiality for assisting and
directing this nation will bequadrupled” (AS 153).Here, Achebe exhibits the influence
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of British tradition on the Kangan elite culture and its lifestyle. The country’s new
leaders were the products of the forced European culture. Ikem, Chris, Sam, and
Beatrice who were all educated in British schools, modeled their lives and beliefs on
the European British lifestyle. There is no doubt, both Chris and Ikem return to
Kangan after their college Education in the U.K., with the hope to build a vivacious
democratic nation, but gets stuck in the web of dishonesty and authoritarianism that
has been so typical of postcolonial Africa. Of the three schoolboy buddy-Chris, Ikem,
and Sam, it was Sam who especially admired his European Predecessors, “He was
fascinated by the customs of the English, especially their well-to-do classes and
enjoyed playing at their foibles. When he told me about his elegant pipe which he had
spent a whole morning choosing in a Mayfair shop I could see that he was not taking
himself seriously at all. And therefore I had no reason to do so” (AS 46).
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3.9. Conclusion
Finally, Culture is the entirety of learned and socially transmitted behaviours. Within
a society, the processes leading to change include innovation and culture loss. The
invention may be technological, industrial, scientific, engineering or ideological.
Culture loss is an inevitable result of cultural patterns being replaced by new ones.
Achebe depicts the African Igbo people and their deep-rooted social institutions in an
indigenous African society, showing how in their culture and traditions Igbo are
particularly concerned about justice, fairness and equality. Out of five novels of
Achebe chronologically first and third novels represent village culture and its
ambience which are fully superstitious but seems real and genuine in its form but
chronologically second, fourth and fifth represent modern Nigeria which is changed
and diverse and hide behind curse and evil, rootlessness and fragmented world which
are undoubtedly intolerable but time changes everything and people become bound to
change with this situation.
****
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4.0. Introduction
Language of Postcolonial Literature is invaluable for anyone with an interest in the
evolution and development of English and its use in contemporary world Literature.
InWhat is Literature? (1949) Jean-Paul Sartre argues that language is used in
literature as a tool not only for clear meaning but also to portray the world from a
certain political viewpoint. In the same line, Roland Barthes claims that the structure
of writing is created under a historic reality with political implications. In further
discussions of his theoretical approaches, Barthes deals with the “problem of
meaning”, asserting that there are usually two ways of writings; first to deconstruct
the trend of history by re-writing the history of a certain territory and second, to
follow the path of his or her ancestors by continuing the trend of writings which
support and elaborate it and as a result becoming a part of a grand narrative. Barthes
explains that writers self-consciously produce meaning through their writings. He
points out that language either prolongs the bourgeois ordering of ‘the world of
meaning,’ or can develop a self-conscious engagement with that world. In this way, a
writer questions and reorders existing discourse by weakening existing bourgeois
ideological hegemony. This identification of two ways of writing is described by
Barthes, in S/Z (2002) and in The Pleasure of the Text(1973). Following this line of
thought, we observe that Chinua Achebe’s initiative is to ‘question’ the bourgeois
ideological hegemony. As in Orientalist approach where African people and tradition
are represented as Other by Joseph Conrad. Now, if we have to diagnose meanings of
the discourses attempted byAchebe we have to find out Achebe’s position in the post-
colonial discourse which will ultimately answer the debate on representation in the
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postcolonial world. Though Achebe has his unique ways of representing Africa, his
political goals are clear. Achebe represents Africa from a native point of view. If we
investigate, we observe that African culture and history or establishedtradition in
African languages was totally absent in English writing. As a result, Achebe is an
intruder in this field. In our discussion, we see how Achebe has succeeded in
establishing a new discourse by representing the Other in a manner in which the Other
becomes the Subject.
The issue of language in the African novel is very interesting. It has
engendered controversial debates in African literature in general regarding the way
European languages should be used. Further, in that debate, some scholars like Ngugi
Wa Thiong’o argues that African literature should be written in African languages
rather than inEuropean ones as its means of expression. Thus, such a debate renders
the issue of language more interesting as the controversies grow and writers become
more and more aware of it in their literary productions. However, many of them like
Chinua Achebe undertake to use the European language- English-by adapting it to
African realities and using it as a strategic linguistic tool to build the aesthetics of
their writings. Writers in Third World countries that were formerly colonies of
European nations debate among themselves about their duty to write in their native
language rather than in the language of their former colonizer. Some of the writers
dispute that writing in their indigenous language is very important because cultural
effect and meanings are lost in translation. These writers believe that alien language
can notexpress fully to their culture.
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In the African continent, the natives were forced to give up their traditional
ways of life and attend a European school, study European history and adopt Christian
beliefs. The colonizer has set up targets of hidden exploitations by infusing the feeling
of inferiority into the mind of the native. These exploitations are the outstanding
features of postcolonial writings which emerged in different colonies and found
expressions through writings of Wole Soyinka, Sembene Ousmane, Chinua Achebe,
Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Peter Abrahams. Ngugi states that the biggest weapon
wielded and actually unleashed daily by imperialism against that collective defiance is
the cultural bomb.
The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names,
in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their
unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves. It makes them see their
past as one wasteland of non-achievement and it makes them want to distance
themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that
which is furthest removed from themselves; for instance, with other peoples’
languages rather than their own. (DM 3)
Colonization brought social, cultural and political changes in the African community
and it is made the subject of African literature. It deals mainly with the themes of
independence and colonialism. Like other new literatures, it shares the creation of
myths of the past, the use of local scenery, emphasis on community, nation, and race,
treatment of an individual as representative, transforming and modifying English as a
literary language by deliberately using local forms and rhythms of speech. Common
themes include identity crisis which results in search for truth and roots, injustices,and
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conflicts of all sorts, the desire to break the shell of imprisonment, the discovery of
traditions or a folk culture.
A key goal of postcolonial theorists is clearing space for multiple voices. This
is especially true of those voices of the oppressed that have been previously silenced
by dominant ideologies. Spivak’s main contribution to Postcolonial theory came with
her specific definition of the term subaltern. Spivak believes that essentialism can
sometimes be used strategically by these groups to make it easier for the subaltern to
be heard and understood when a clear identity can be created and accepted by the
majority.A proper examination of postcolonial African Literatures highlights common
characteristics. The common denominators are the English language and colonial
trauma. They depict myths of the past, local scenery, peasant lives, how individuals
represent class or society, history, and present, dispossession and freedom,
metropolitan and regional culture. The common themes in this literature are search for
roots, identity, social and historical injustices.
Achebe maintains the opposite view. In a 1964 essay reprinted in his
book Morning Yet on Creation Day, he says that, by using English, he presents a new
accent out of Africa, speaking of African familiarity in a world-wide language. He
accentuates that the African writer use English in a way that brings out his message
best without changing the language to the level that its value as a medium of
international exchange will be mislaid. The writer should intend at consuming English
which is at once worldwide and able to carry the load of his peculiar understanding.
Achebe accomplishes this aspiration by ingeniously introducing Igbo language,
proverbs, metaphors, speech rhythms, and thoughts into his novel written in English.
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Achebe agreeswith many of his colleague African writers on one point: The
African writer necessitate their writing for a social cause. In contrast to Western
writers and artists who create art for art’s sake, many African writers create works
with one mission in mind; to reestablish their own national culture in the postcolonial
era. In a 1964 testimonial, available in Morning Yet on Creation Day, Achebe remarks
that African people did not take notice ofEuropean culture for the first time. Their
societies were not mindless, but frequently had a philosophy of great intensity and
value and beauty, they had poetry, and above all, they had self-esteem. It is this
dignity that African people all but lost during the colonial period, and it is this that
they must now get back. To further his aim of disseminating African works to a non-
African audience, Achebe became the dawn editor of a series on African literature-
the African Writers Series- for the publishing firm Heinemann.
4.1. Language Use inArrow of God
Chinua Achebe’s novels are primarily directed to an African audience, but
their psychological insights have gained them universal acceptance. Through Arrow
of God, Achebe takes us to the pre-independence days of Nigeria. It tells the tragedy
of a hero who rigidly identifies with the values of traditional Igbo society. Ezeulu, the
priest of Ulu is the arrow or instrument in the hands of God he serves. The weapon is
not used for destruction but for modification. Ezeulu secretly nurtures the desire to
increase his power. When the interviewer Serumaga asks Achebe whether he sees
bows behind the Arrows of the Gods, to turn them to the right direction, he replies “I
mean the coups themselves are bows shooting the arrows” (Duerden 1972:13).
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The language of Arrow of God is simple but not simplistic. Chapters focusing
on colonial masters are rendered somehow dull and less interesting. Chapters in which
Africans feature prominently are quite engaging. The use of conversation, dialogue,
folklore, stories and witticism by Achebe’s characters and more importantly, the
auspicious use of proverbs make Arrow of God compelling. Achebe’s effective use of
language has gained a lot of scholarly interest. Lindfors (1968, 1970, and 1971) and
Nwachukwu- Agbada (1993; 1997) have devoted a lot of attention to Achebe’s use of
language, especially the use of his proverbs.
Fig. 4.1. Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God
This peculiar linguistic behavior that gives Achebe’s writing a distinctive
flavor has largely been responsible for his success as a writer. His effective use of the
principle of economy, his short and catchy sentences and conventional harmony
between characters and their speech all combine to make his novel a literary
masterpiece. The greatest strength of Achebe’s use of language, it appears, dwells on
the notion of identity. One of the functions of language is the signaling of who we are
and where we belong. As Trask (1995:85) points out, “language is a very powerful
means of declaring and maintaining one’s identity”. To Achebe, this is very important
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and his language is deliberately galvanized to achieve what linguists have called
“covert prestige”. According to Achebe:
The price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many
different kinds of use. The African writer should aim to use English in a way
that brings out his message best without altering the language to the extent that
its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost. He should aim at
fashioning out English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar
experience. (1975:101-102)
Another writer that articulated the thrust of English usage by African writers is
Gabriel Okpara, a contemporary of Achebe in writing and cultural thought. In a 1963
paper aptly entitled “African Speech…English words,” he expressed the
psychological context behind his use of language, like Achebe. According to him,
As a writer who believes in the utilization of African ideas, African
philosophy and African folklore and imagery to the fullest extent possible, I
am of the opinion that the only way to use them effectively is to translate them
almost literally from the African language native to the writer into whatever
European language he is using as his medium of expression. I have
endeavored in my words to keep as close as possible to the vernacular
expression. (cited in Hunjo, 2002:63)
The submissions above underline almost every aspect of Achebe’s creative
enterprise. He knows that in Africa, English is no more than a vehicle of African
cultures as well as of English. He agrees with Grieve (1964:13) that if English is to be
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an effective mode of communication in Africa, it is essential that it should adapt itself
so as to be able to express concepts that do not exist in the English culture. This
scenario has been variously referred to in as a process of ‘nativization’,
‘domestication’ and ‘decolonization’ of English, in which at the practical level,
Achebe is a fore-runner. With this background, he maintains African identity in his
writing and disagrees with Ngugi wa Thiong’o, another eminent African writer, on the
latter’s eventual renunciation of English as a literary vehicle and his campaign for the
use of African languages in African literature.
Achebe justifiably believes that this self-censorship is not necessary. What is
needed is to contextualize and Africanize the use of English words. He considers it
further unnecessary for an African to speak like a European. For, when he was asked
if an African could ever learn to use English as an English man, his response was, “I
should say, I hope not. It is neither necessary nor desirable for him to do so”.
(Achebe, 1975:101)
Thus in Arrow of God like most of his other works, Achebe’s language dazzles
with a peculiar vitality that is especially nourishing to the African or Africanized
audience who are able to “connect” easily with him. Such distinctive spiciness and
freshness, such peculiar taste and convincingness, underpin the semantic implications
of the following expressions and the processes of nativization or variation behind
them. The lexico-semantic variations engendered features that scholars like Adegbija
(1989), Bamiro (1994) and Alabi (2000) have identified as transfer (of meaning,
culture, contextand Nigerian Pidgin features), analogy, semantic shift or extension,
coinages or neologisms, generalization, narrowing, translation equivalents, semantic
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duplication and redundancy as well as sheer rhetoric and creativity. The selected
lexisismore or less all self-explanatory to an African reader:
“May your face meeting mine bring good fortune” (2)
“… perhaps I spoke with water in my mouth” (4)
“We have not come with wisdom but with foolishness because a man does
not go to his in-law with wisdom” (12)
“… I will make you eat shit” (24)
“Afo passed, Nkwo passed, Eke passed, Oye passed…I listened, but my
head did not ache, my belly did not ache…” (41)
“He is well …But at the same time he is not” (54)
“…I would have given you something to remind you always of the day
you put your head into the mouth of a leopard ” (55)
“If it pains you, come and jump on my back, ant-hill nose” (67)
“…When they heard their betters talking about palm wine in future they
would not open their mouth so wide” (80)
“…of palm wine a good drinker could take without losing knowledge of
himself” (79). “…there was as little to choose between them as between rotten
palm nuts and a broken mortar” (81).
“…he must have got out of bed from the left side” (AG 83).
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“…everybody must work hard and stop all this shit-eating” (AG 84).
“…not assembled to join him in chewing the seed of foolishness…” (AG
86).
“The white man is like hot soup and we must take him slowly-slowly from
the edges of the bowl” (AG 86).
“You have the yam and you have the knife” (AG 97).
“This type of heat is not empty-handed” (AG 97)
“This hen will follow me home” (AG 120)
“But let me see you come back from the stream with yesterday’s body and
we shall see whose madness is greater...” (AG 124)
“…gave her thunder on the face” (AG 128)
“Forgive me. I take my hands off” (AG 138)
“My friend, don’t make me laugh” (AG 135)
“I am the tortoise who was trapped in a pit of excrement for two whole
markets; but when helpers came to haul him out on the eight day he cried! Quick,
quick: I cannot stand the stench” (AG 183)
“They said it was the fighting posture of a boar when a leopard was about:
it dug a shallow hole in the earth, sat with his testicles hidden away in it and waited
with standing bristles on its head of iron” (199)
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“The fly that struts around a mound of excrement wastes his time” (228).
In the multicultural societies, the significance of one’s own culture and
tradition is lost. The knowledge of British history, English society and culture are
essential for the proper understanding of English literature. Instead of forcing the
colonized minds to read, comprehend and appreciate the English settings, birds, and
animals, the colonized nations have a duty to glorify their culture and tradition instead
of blindly aping the West. The Impression of literature on the human mind is stronger
than the power of colonization. Language is inseparable from the community because
it carries culture and values. Achebe admits that the colonies have benefitted from the
process of colonization. A major influence of colonization is the English language.
When the postcolonial world uses the English language, it differs from the English
used by British people. A good command of English offers the nativeswell-paid jobs.
It bridges the colonizer and colonized, it provides a window through which the
intellectuals could view the world. It even links the people of different provinces who
have the language barrier. American literature, Australian literature, and Canadian
literature differ from Indian English literature because Indian English literature is
neither written in the first language of the writer nor is it the language of the
characters presented in the work and the same is the case with African English
Literature. Indianization and Africanization of English language are aimed at
modifying the language for the purpose. Native writers keep up the cultural
independence to avoid the Western norms.
The language Ngugi wa Thiong’o used, as he worked in the fields and outside
the home was Gikuyu. Born into a large peasant family, his father had four wives and
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twenty-eight children. In Decolonizing the Mind he recollects the storytelling practice
in which the elders tell the stories to children. The following day the children retell
the stories to their friends. When the stories of rabbit and leopard are told, the children
identify themselves with hare which is weak but full of innovative wit. Ngugi asserts,
“His victories were our victories and we learnt that the apparently weak can outwit the
strong” (DM10). The same language is used at home and in the fields. The harmony
of language is broken when he goes to school. He comments, “The language of my
education was no longer the language of my culture” (DM11). English became the
language of my formal education. “In Kenya English became more than a language: it
was the language, and all the others had to bow before it in deference” (DM 11). This
reverence shown to the English language is exhibited also to the colonizer. Ngugi
remembers the punishments given to students who were caught speaking Gikuyu in
the vicinity of the school.
The culprit was given corporal punishment – three to five strokes of the cane on bare
buttocks – or was made to carry a metal plate around the neck with inscriptions such
as I AM STUPID or I AM A DONKEY. Sometimes the culprits were fined money
they could hardly afford. And how did the teachers catch the culprits? A button was
initially given to one pupil who was supposed to hand it over whoever was caught
speaking his mother tongue. Whoever had the button at the end of the day would sing
who had given it to him and ensuing process would bring out the culprits of the day.
Thus children were turned into witch hunters and in the process were being taught the
lucrative value of being a traitor to one’s immediate community (DM 11).
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This practice took place in variant forms in other colonies too. The students who
failed to speak in English were given insulting punishments like shaving off the head
and also unaffordable fine. Ngugi remembers a friend of his who was made to fail in
the entire examination though he had the distinction in all subjects except English in
which he had failed.
The condition was similar in India. The Minutes of Macaulay prepared in
1835 recommended English as the medium of instruction in schools and universities
thinking that English tongue is best suited in the universities. English became the
language of expression of the cultured Indians and also the language of creative
writing. Due to these, the literary landscape of India changed. “Language as culture is
the collective memory bank of a people’s experience in history. Culture is almost
indistinguishable from language that makes possible its genesis, growth, banking,
articulation and indeed its transmission from one generation to the next” (DM15).
Ngugi wa Thiong’o comments that language has a dual character. It is a means
of communication and carrier of culture. For the British, English language is a means
of communication as well as a carrier of culture. But in other countries where English
is used, it is only a means of communication. But unknowingly this means of
communication becomes a carrier of culture too. Language plays a vital role in
transmitting habits, attitudes, and experiences from one generation to another. The
rejection of the foreign culture occurs when the native is forced to mould his lifestyle
in accordance with the foreign. He feels cramped and uncomfortable in his European
clothes, language, and patterns of thought. The rejection of a foreign language occurs
when the foreign tongue becomes inadequate to express the native experience.
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The novelists Raja Rao, Arun Joshi, Bhabhani Bhattacharya, Chinua Achebe,
Ngugi wa Thiong’o and George Lamming have used English to express their native
sensibility. In this attempt, they have tried to mould the language to fulfill their
purpose. Indian writing springs from the Indian scene, manner and gesture. In order to
create the Indian atmosphere, a literal translation of the Indian words is done to create
the impression that it is an Indian novel and Indian characters are speaking.
In 1964, Chinua Achebe stated in a speech entitled, “The African Writer and
the English Language”:Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for
someone else’s? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling. But for
me there is no other choice. I have been given the language and I intend to use it. This
paradox of idea presented by Achebe highlights the problem. Those who use English
have “no other choice” and they employ the borrowed tongue to carry the weight of
their native experience. Achebe asserts that English language has to carry the African
understanding,“But it will have to be a new English still in full communion with its
ancestral home but altered to suit its new surroundings” (The African Writer and the
English Language 84).
The African English which Achebe uses in his own style reflects the African
culture in the postcolonial world. The servant of Winter bottom, John speaks a
peculiar kind of English which astonishes even the English man. Achebe uses a new
kind of English to reflect the African thought. Pidgin is a mixed language that has
developed to help communication between members of different cultures in contact.
This usually occurs in situations of trade or colonialism. Winter bottom's servant John
uses Pidgin English, a simplified form of English which blends English grammar with
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that of a native language. The learning of English language has helped the natives to
increase the respect among natives. Moses Unachukwu, who learned carpentry from
the mission church, could obtain respect from the natives due to his knowledge of
English and his ability to translate it into local Igbo. This is one reason for the elders
including Ezeulu, sending their sons to the mission school. The butlers and cooks
from the native population are trained to European cuisine and table manners. John
Nwodika learns functional English from his master. There is a church where service is
conducted by a native evangelist who also conducts an elementary school which the
native children are encouraged to attend. Local cases and disputes are dealt in the
office of a white district commissioner. The road building project is supervised
directly by a white man. Winterbottom’s servant John says “Dem talk say make rain
come quick quick” (AG 31). “My pickin na dat two wey de run yonder and dat yellow
girl. Di oder two na cook im pickin. Di oder one yonder na Gardener him brodder
pickin” (AG 32). Unachukwu’s English is also different. He says “dat man wan axe
master queshon” (AG 84). Postcolonial literature presents English, not as a
colonizer’s language but an anti-colonized.Ezeulu’s prayer to Ulu is essentially Igbo
in its turn of speech. He says, “Ogbuefi Akuebe may you live and all your people. I
too will live with all my people. But life alone is not enough. May we have things
with which to live it well” (AG 96).
In Arrow of God, the language used by natives is realistic and that of the
common, uneducated African. Ezeulu addresses his people and says, “If you go to war
to avenge a man who passed shit on the head of his mother’s father, Ulu will not
follow you to be soiled in the corruption. Umuaro, I salute you” (AG 27). One of the
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striking features of Achebe’s language is his use of literary devices such as proverbs
and legends. The proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten among the
Igbos. “We have a saying that a toad does not run in the day unless something is after
it” (AG 21). “When we see a little bird dancing in the middle of the pathway we must
know that its drummer is in the near-by bush” (AG 41). “When mother-cow is
cropping giant grass her calves watch her mouth” (AG 174). “The fly that perches on
mound of dung may strut around as it likes, it cannot move the mound” (AG 131).
“The white man is not like black men. He does not waste his words” (AG 140).
4.2. Language Use in No Longer at Ease
No Longer at Ease is Achebe’s chronologically second novel and first in its modern
outlook. This novel is set in the pre-independence of Nigeria of the late 1950s.This
era is marked with general confusion and degradation of moral values. It deals with
the social changes brought about in much African country about to attain
independence from the British or the French rulers depending on the region. To focus
on various realities of the late 1950s, language acts as a channel between characters
and their situation.It also deals with the protagonist as Obi, young Nigerians caught
between the whirlpools of old cultural norms and flamingplants of the new culture
brought on by the colonial legacy. The modernization and Western education of
Lagos-dwellers can be seen in the use of urban English in their dialogues. The
Nigerians who have returned from Europe started anaffected manner of speaking
English, like “how is the car behaving?” (NLE 73) in order to give emphasis to the
specialness of their being.
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There is enormous use of Pidgin English, which points the high-frequency of native-
British interaction in the contemporary times.Normally traders and workingclass
people speak for example,“You no get kola nut for eat?” (NLE 36) asked one of the
traders from the back. “Wetin I been de eat all afternoon?” asked the driver (NLE 36).
Apart from working-class gentleman of Nigeria also make use of pidgin language
while addressing to subordinates of Nigerian. For instance, in chapter 11 Obi says to
the boy in the parking space, O.K., make you look is well” (NLE 88) on which one of
them replies, “I go look am well, sir” (NLE 88). In spite of Pidgin, a lot of
untranslated Igbo words and sentences have been incorporated in No Longer at Ease
as, pieze, garri, agbada, asa abi, “nwa jelu oyibo” (NLE 26) in order to truncate
standard norms of English language.
Achebe in his second novel, No Longer at Ease, uses idiom of the indigenous
language in English. Here is a beautiful illustration of it;‘“white wife?’ asked one of
the men. To him it was rather far-fetched.‘Yes. I have seen it with my two eyes,’ said
Matthew” (NLE 42). Here it isprominent that the villager says “with my two eyes”
rather than the speech pattern of British “with my own eyes,” Chinua Achebe has
purposely used the Igbo expression in the English sentence in order to imprison the
nuance of the speech prepared in Igbo. This kind of idiomatic English expression
biologically integrates the foreign language in the lips of the native speakers.
The issue of language in relation to a feeling of social status and patriotism is also
shown inNo Longer at Ease,Obi Okonkwo, a main character of the book went to
England to study for four years and he deeply missed his Nigeria, especially his
village, and his language. He tried to speak Igbo whenever he could. He recalls the
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situation where he had to talk to a Nigerian student in English instead of Igbo,“It was
humiliating to have to speak to one’s countryman in a foreign language, especially in
the presence of the proud owners of that language. They would naturally assume that
one had no language of one’s own” (NLE40). Obi loved his language because it was a
symbol of his land, the place he belonged to and which he missed so much. Speaking
Igbo helped him to feel less homesick because it remindedhim of his home. He knew
thatEnglish language was inevitable to get the well-paid job and good education, but
inside he was still a true Igbo person who wanted to come home, from where he
belonged to.
Fig. 4.2. Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease
But despite his love for his mother tongue, Obi loses the spontaneity in responding in
Igbo, which becomes apparent in the lorry scene, “his thoughts turned more and
more on theerotic. He said words in his mind that he could not say out
aloud even when hewas alone. Strangely enough, all the words were in
his mother tongue. He couldsay any English word, no matter how dirty,
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but some Ibo words simply would notproceed from his mouth” (NLE 36).
This is the actual tendency of Obi to articulate his erotic sentiments
audibly merely when speaking in English highlights s truncation in Obi’s
natural capability toarticulate similar feelings in his mother tongue, which
is affected by his closeness to English for longer time.
Chinua Achebe chose to write in English for his books not because he felt it
was his beloved language which would be part of his identity and fame, but only
because of practical reason in order to let the world known and to be familiar with
Nigerian entity. He uses English everyday but inside he is still an Igbo
person.According to Ismail S. Talib, a expert, Chinua Achebe shows his feelings
about Igbo language. He knows that English enabled him to be educated well and the
opportunity to reach a wider audience throughout his writing, but on the other hand he
feels that Igbo is still closer to his heart than English because English is not his
mother tongue. Achebe confirmed this opinion in one of his interviews, where he
asked himself: “Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone
else's?” and he immediately replied: “It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a
guilty feeling” (Talib, 2002:72).
4.3. Language Use in Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe traces the ramifications and depths of an African culture to the readers
of the other cultures as well as to the readers of his own culture. He has used English
in which he is proficient from the time ofchildhood.He reaches many more readers
and has a great dealof literary contact than he would have been by writing in Igbo
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language. Therefore, writers who write in their indigenous language must in due
course allow their works to be translated into English so that readers of outside culture
can be taught about it.
Thus by using English, Achebe faces lots of difficulties. How can he exhibit
the African heritage and culture in a language that can in no waydescribed
adequately? Definitely, one of the major tasks of Things Fall Apart is to tackle this
lack of understanding between the Igbo culture and the colonialist culture. In the
novel, the Igbo people ask how the white man can label Igbo customs bad when he
does not even know to speak the Igbo language. Igbo culture can be understood only
by the outsider when one can relate to the Igbo language and vocabulary.Achebe tries
to solve this crisis by incorporating basics vocabulary of the Igbo language into his
novel. By incorporating Igbo lexis, rhythms, texture into an English text about his
culture, Achebe tries to bridge a cultural gap.
Fig. 4.3. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
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The Igbo vocabulary is merged into the text almost seamlessly; so the reader
understands the meaning of most Igbo words by their context. Any thoughtful reader
of Things Fall Apart can understand words, chi, egwugwu, ogbanje, and obi. Igbo
terms as chi and ogbanje are untranslatable, but by using them inthe framework of the
story, Achebe helps the non-Igbo readersmake out with and relate to this complex
Igbo culture.
Chi, for instance, represents animportant, complex Igbo perception that
Achebe constantly refers to by illustrating the concept in various contexts all over the
story. Achebe translates chi as a personal godwhen he first time mentions Unoka’s
bad fortune. As the book progresses, it step by step picks up other nuances. The chi
concept is more complex than a personal deity or even fate, another repeatedly used
synonym. Chi suggests elements of the Hindu notion of karma, the concept of the soul
in some Christian domain, and the concept of individuality in some mystical
philosophies. The understanding of chi and its significance in Igbo culture grows as
one progress through the book.
Another example of Achebe’s assimilation with Igbo elements tohis
regularuse of traditional Igbo proverbs and tales. These particular elements
provide Things Fall Apart avalid African accent. The Igbo culture is basically an oral
one: “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are
the palm-oil with which words are eaten” (TFA7). In order to provide an authentic
consideration for Igbo culture Achebe uses proverbs to play a significant role in the
novel. Despite the foreign origin of these proverbs and tales, the Western reader can
easily relate the story of the novel. They are woven almost smoothly into their milieu
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and need only occasional explanation. Modernreaders of this novel not only relate
easily to traditional proverbs and tales but also feel sorry for the problems of
Okonkwo, Nwoye, and other characters. Achebe has skillfully developed his
characters, and eventhey live in a different era and in a very different culture, one can
understand their feelings because they are complete and timeless in their approach.
Speech patterns and rhythms are not frequently used to represent moments of
high emotion and tension. The sound of the drums in the night in Chapter 13 “go-di-
di-go-go-di-go” (TFA 113); userepetitively several times to call a gathering followed
by group of the people, initially described in Chapter 2 “Umuofia kwenu” (TFA 10)
for assembly and again the painful call of the priestess in search of Ezinma in Chapter
11 “Agbala do-o-o-o!” (TFA 95); the repetitious pattern of questionsand answers also
used on the occasion of the “isa-ifi”(TFA 123) ceremony of marriage ritual in
Chapter14; the long narrated tale of Tortoise in Chapter 11; and we can see the extract
of songs in several chapters of the novel.
Achebe demonstrates another twist in his tale by incorporating a few examples
of Pidgin English.A pidgin is a simplified form of language used for communicating
between groups of people who normally speak diverse languages. Achebe uses Pidgin
words or phrases as-“tie-tie” (TFA 52) (to tie); “kotma” (TFA 164) (court messenger);
and “Yes, sah,the messenger said saluting” (TFA197). The British were expert in
installing Pidgin English in their new colonies.Unluckily,Pidgin now and then takes
on characteristics of master-servant discourse.In addition, using the simplified
language can become easy excuses for not learning the normal languages for which it
substitutes.
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Achebe’s use of Igbo speech patterns, proverbs, and richly drawn characters
create an authentic African narrative that effectively bridges the cultural and historical
gap between the reader and the Igbo. Things Fall Apart is a pioneering work for many
reasons, but predominantly, Achebe’s restricted use of the Igbo language in an
English novel which extends the limitations of what is measured English fiction.
Achebe’s beginning of new forms and language into a traditional narrative structure to
communicate unique African experiences changed forever the definition of world
literature.
4.3.1. Use of Igbo Names and Words in Things Fall Apart
Like Chinese and Thai, the Igbo language is a tonal one; there are differences in the
actual voice pitch and the rise or fall of a word or phrase can fabricate different
meanings. In Chapter 16, for example, Achebe posits how the missionary’s translator,
pronounce the Mbanta Igbo dialect:“Instead of saying ‘myself’ he always said ‘my
buttocks’” (TFA 136).
Igbo names generally represent meanings and sometimes entire ideas. Some
names imitate the qualities that a parent wishes to bestow on a child; for illustration,
Ikemefuna means my ‘power should not be dispersed’. Other names reflect the time,
area, or other circumstances to which a child is born as, Okoye means man ‘born on
Oye Day’, the second day of the Igbo week. And Igbo parents also give names to
honor someone or something else; for instance, Nneka means ‘mother is
supreme’.Prior to Nigerian independence in 1960, the spelling of Igbo words was not
standardized. Thus the word Igbo is written as ‘Ibo’, the pre-1960 spelling
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throughout Things Fall Apart. The new spellings reflect a more accurate
understanding and pronunciation of Igbo words. A character includes a pronunciation
that uses equivalent English syllables for most of the main characters’ names.
The original edition ofThings Fall Apart is written in English which has
caused some controversy as some critics wouldhave liked to have seen the novel
written in the Achebe’s native tongue which is Igbo. Achebe himself explains that he
did not choose Igbo as the language is too complicated tomediate discourse
(Interviewed by JeromeBrooks, Winter1994, “Chinua Achebe, The art of fiction No
139”). It is also assumed thatAchebe chose English as he is trying to reach the minds
of those who misunderstood theIgbo culture. He wanted his audience to be
international that is why he chose English. A lothas also been made of Achebe’s use
of proverbs in the novel. Achebe himself emphasizesthat in Igbo proverbs serve two
important ends:“They enable the speaker to give universal status to a special and
particular incident and they are used to soften the harshness of words and make them
more palatable” (Achebe in Shelton, 1968:86).
Using proverbs is common in Igbo and African literature and it is one of the
elements Achebehas chosen to translate into his novels although they are in English.
The proverbs are used todescribe certain characteristics of Okonkwo. For example,
when speaking of his rise frompoverty to success it is said: “If a child washed his
hands he could eat with kings” (TFA 8). The proverbs are not just used when by the
narrator characters are in dialogue and they are usually mentioned in reference to the
elders in thevillage.
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The use of proverbs is part of what Africanize the novel although the novel
uses typicalEuropean or British elements of fiction such as plot structure, a point of
view and imagery.Combination of elements has created a new genre in literature
which is dubbed ModernAfrican Fiction (Ogbaa, 1999:3) and a lot of the African
writers around the 1950’s and 60’suses the same themes as Achebe in their attempt to
influence the image of the Africa theyknow. It is also used when the characters are in
dialogue and they are usually mentioned in reference to the elders in the
village.Achebe wants to reveal Africa to the world with the help of “new English” as
he himself had proposed in one of his essays. Achebe’s use of English language is
interesting, as he uses lots of words from the Igbo language giving a new flavor to the
English language. He has successfully used the colonizer’s language as he asserts in
his essay “The African Writer and the English Language”:
What I do seeis a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African
experience in a world-wide language.The African writer should aim to use
English in a way that brings out his message best without altering the language
to the extent that its value as a medium of international exchange will be lost.
He should aim at fashioning out English which is at once universal and able to
carry his peculiar experience. (The African Writer and the English Language
433)
Things Fall Apart truly is a ‘new voice’ that shares the ‘African experience’ in
English. Importantly, he also presents new English to the world. Achebe declares that
he intends to use the English language in his own way. He confidently declares: “I
feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of my African
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experience. But it will have to be a new English”(The African Writer and the English
Language 434).Things Fall Apart is a very good example of this new use of
English.In addition, Achebe has used the colonial language for writing back to the
Empire. His use of new English has successfully shown the reason of the falling apart
of African culture, showing the ‘devil’ of colonization much more strongly than other
writers. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart reminds us of Frantz Fanon’s three stages
of native writers using English as their medium of writing. The final phase is the
phase of ‘Adept’. The term has been taken from Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory. All
postcolonial literature, it might be said, seem to make this transition. They begin with
an unquestioning acceptance of the authority of European modes and with the
ambition of writing works that will be masterpieces entirely in this tradition. This can
be called the ‘Adopt’ phase of colonial literature, since the writer’s ambition is to
adopt the form as it stands, the assumption being that which Achebe has successfully
achieved in this particular novel. Frantz Fanon says in his essay named “On National
Culture”:
Finally, in the third phase, which is called the fighting phase, the native, after
having tried to lose himself in the people and with the people;… hence comes
a fighting literature, a revolutionary literature, and a national literature. During
this phase a great many men and women who up till then would never have
thought of producing a literary work, now that they find themselves in
exceptional circumstances—in prison, with the Maquis or on the eve of their
execution—feel the need to speak to their nation, to compose the sentence
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which expresses the heart of the people and to become the mouthpiece of a
new reality in action. (WE 179)
Achebe has successfully participated in this third phase called ‘Adept’ where he has
created a literature of combat or resistance. This is an example of writing back to the
centre. In this way,he has created a space for the national literature of Africa and other
nations that Fanon asserts in his essay:
It is only from that moment that we can speak of national literature. Here there
is, at the level of literary creation, the talking up and clarification of themes
which are typically nationalist. This may be properly called a literature of
combat, in the sense that it calls on the whole people to fight for their
existence as a nation. It is a literature of combat, because it moulds the
national consciousness, giving it form and contours and flinging open before it
new and boundless horizons; it is a literature of combat because it assumes
responsibility, and because it is the will to liberty expressed in terms of time
and space. (WE 193).
In Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease the author shows the clashes
between two different cultures, languages and the ways of life. Chinua Achebe tries to
describe how hard it was for Igbo people to adapt to the new situation and conditions
after the coming of British colonizers. He depicts the struggles people had inside
themselves: suddenly there were two forces and opposite poles which did not
correspond together and they were forced to choose one or try to find some kind of
compromise between them. Achebe himself talked many times about his struggle with
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his identity: whether he was more British or Nigerian. The following quotation from
the text by Abdel Rahman offers Achebe’s opinion of choosing between the two
cultures, languages and religions:
This is the problem of being at the crossroads. You have a bit of both, and you
really have to know a lot more than either. So their situation is not very easy.
But it’s very exciting. Those who have the energy and the will to survive at the
crossroads become really exceptional people (Moyers qtd. in Abdel Rahman
180).
The question of the language of writing used by African writers is very important.
Achebe uses in his writing English language, the language of the colonial empire
which changed the Nigeria and established the new political, social and cultural
system. Chinua Achebe was many times asked why he did not write his books in Igbo
language and chose English instead. When explaining his choice, he said he writes in
English not to attract a wide international audience, but because he was educated in
English. He calls himself a “victim of linguistic colonialism” (“Achebe: Oral tradition
not needed” 2005:1). But he always emphasizes the importance of Igbo language in
his life as well:
I have made provision for that myself, by writing certain kinds of material in
Igbo. For instance, I will insist my poetry is translated back into Igbo while
I’m still around. … I hope I have shown it is possible, in these two languages,
to show respect to English and Igbo together (“Achebe: Oral tradition not
needed” 2005:1).
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Chinua Achebe insisted on writing in English because he said that writing in Igbo
would not enable him to be closer to Nigerians:
My countrymen now are Nigerians. Nigerians as a whole are not Igbo
speaking. The Igbos are just one of the major ethnic groups. I’d written Things
Fall Apart in the Igbo language, only the Igbo would have had access; not the
Yorubas, not the Hausas, not the Ibibio, not to mention all the other Africans,
not the Kikuyus, the Luos, etc., all over the continent who read the book
(Morrow, 1991:4).
4.4. Language Use in A Man of the People
4.4.1.Use of Code-switching in A Man of the People
Here, it is quite engaging that in AMan of the People, Achebe employs code switching
as a prevailing stylistic device. This is distinctive of Achebe in most of his novels
such as Things fall Apartand Arrow of God. In A Man of the People, Achebe engages
his characters in code-switching, depending on the situations in which the characters
find themselves. By doing this, he focuses on the appropriateness of language.
Sometimes, his characters communicating in English switch to indigenous languages
or Pidgin English and vice versa depending on the level of formality of the situation.
In informal occasions, Pidgin or local languages are employed, while English
becomes the medium of communication in formal situations. For instance, in the
opening phases of the book, the main character of the novel, Chief the Honorable
Nanga, communicates in Standard English though addressing the students of Anata
Grammar School. This was the occurrence when a reception was organized for the
honorable minister to address the students at Anata Grammar School. Here, we see
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that Mr. Nanga gained the special attention of the nature of the occasion as formal and
that made him speak Standard English to suit the occasion. There is one key issue that
characterizes,procedure, is the context of interaction which embodies the nature of the
communicative event and the participant roles mixed up. In other words, the context
within which an interaction takes place affects the level of social detachment between
the participants. The excerptbeneath illustrates this:
Changing the subject slightly, the Minister said, “Only teachers can make this
excellent arrangement”. Then, turning to the newspaper correspondent in his
party, he said, “It is a mammoth crowd. The journalist whipped out his note-
book and began to write, “It is an unprecedented crowd in the annals of
Anata”, said Mr. Nwege (AMP 9).
In closely-knit African society, the importance of language is seen in faultless
clearness. The Igbos used Igbo or Kwa language which produced a thrilling impact on
the minds of the people. Writing about Igbo society in Nigeria, Igwe and Green has to
say, “A speaker who could use language effectively and had a good command of
idioms and proverbs was respected by his fellows and was often a leader in the
community” (qtd. In Achebe, Hopes and Impediments 130).
4.4.2. Use of Pidgin English in A Man of the People
Achebe has used Pidgin English which is actually used by some Nigerians. It is
liberally spotted with Igbo vocabulary so that it gives a feel of the native speech. In
The Empire Writes Back, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin describe
the linguistic reality of pidgin as it operated in colonial times:
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Pidgin was inevitably used in the context of master-servant relationships
during the period of European Colonization…Of course, pidgin remains a
dominant mode of discourse among all non-English-speakers wherever it
exists, but its role in most literature…, is both to install class difference and to
signify its presence (The Empire Writes Back75).
Fig. 4.4. Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People
In A Man of the People, Chinua writes about the Chief Nanga who always spoke
English or pidgin, and Mrs. Nanga who stuck to Igbo language with the odd English
words which are thrown in now and again, “Hello, hawa you. Nice to see you again.
All na lie lie” (AMP 32).In Anthills of Savannah, Achebe writes in cockney, a variety
of Pidgin English. He uses it especially when he portrays the woman as being stupid,
but then she talks about Shakespeare, “Your boys like us, ain’t they? My girlfriend
saiz it’s the Desdemona complex. Nice word Des-de-mona. Italian I think. Ever hear
it” (AMP 76).
Here, we observe that Mr. Nanga and Odili are close friends (Odili is a former student
of Nanga but due to the formal nature of the event, they do not speak Pidgin English
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as they usually do but rather, they speak Standard English. Expressions like
‘mammoth crowd’, ‘unprecedented crowd’, ‘annals of Anata’exhibit the level of
formality that characterizes the interaction. During the speech itself, the minister also
spoke Standard English to the appreciation of the crawling crowd.
Comparatively, in the next few minutes, when Mr. Nwege hosted the minister at the
former’s residence, Mr. Nanga switches code and communicates to Mr. Nwege and
Odili, the narrator, in Pidgin Language. Odili recounts this point as:
Later on in the Proprietor’s Lodge, I said to the Minister: ‘You must have
spent a fortune today’. He smiled at the glass of cold beer in his hands and
said: ‘You call this spend? You never see something my brother. I no de keep
anini for myself, na so so troway. If some person come to you say ‘I wan’
make you Minister’ make you run like blazes commot. Na true word I tell you.
To God who made me.’ He showed the tip of his tongue to the sky to confirm
the oath. ‘Minister de sweet for the eye but too much katakata de for inside.
Believe me yours sincerely’ (AMP 13).
In another example visible in chapter 3 at page 31, Chief Nanga speaks Standard
English when he made a distress phone call to the doctor on a serious issue that
concerned the suspected poisoning of Mr. Koko’s coffee but when he realized that the
incident was a mystery played out by the cook, he teased Mr. Koko by speaking
Pidgin English. He says, “But S.I., ‘you too fear death. Small thing you begin holler
‘They done kill me, they done kill me!’ Like person wey scorpion done lego am for
him…” (AMP 31).
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4.4.3. Use of Code-mixing in A Man of the People
We also found few cases of code-mixing employed by Achebe in A Man for the
People. Code- mixing usually occurs when there is a lexical gap in both the
superstratum and substratum languages. When this occurs, there are some vocabulary
items in a non-standard or indigenous variety that are interlocking into the Standard
English. Here is an instantiation of code mixing in A Man of the People: ‘Yes,’ I said,
‘you hit him hard.’ Actually, I amused how Andrew was desperately trying to
convince himself – and me – that he had gone to the reception with the avowed
intention to deflate his empty-headed kontriman …” (AMP 20).
Here, it is perceived that Achebe employs code mixing by plugging the lexical item,
‘kontriman’into the superstrate language instead of giving its Standard English
equivalent as country man. This use of code mixing is of stylistic significance;
perhaps, it is to describe Nigerian environment as regards their use of language.
Although at maximum places of the novel, code mixing is in use because of the
obvious lack of lexical in the Standard variety of English. This is seen through this
example: “…beyond the door to the gleaming bathroom and the towels as large as a
lappa…” (AMP 33).
4.5. Language Use in Anthills of the Savannah
Achebe being a pure Igbo he used in his writing Igbo words and phrases in order to
violates the standards norms of English Language. His works have been written in a
linguistic style of his own.Anthills of the Savannah has been written when Nigeria
already got independence and emergence of new modern culture already has been
[186]
taken place. There are a variety of languages used in this novel. Language of the
political leaders, language of the educated elite,speech pattern of the illiterate, idiom
used by the village elders, the Pidgin English language used by the soldiers and taxi
drivers. These languages are special inmethod and manner. Language used by Achebe
reflects the mood of anIgbo world. Unscrupulousness of the mind is utteredin corrupt
languages according to situation. Achebe thought that there is a closeconnection
between corruption in language and corruption in politics.
Like A Man of the PeopleAchebe in Anthills of the Savannah has also employed rich
use of Pidgin language. Achebe uses Pidgin as a pointer of the lower sections
of the society as taxi driver uses pidgin in a very effective manner:
Ah. How I go begin count. The thing oga write too plenty. But na
for we smallpeople he de write every time. I no sabi book but I sabi
say na for we this oga de fight,not for himself. He na big man.
Nobody fit do fuckall to him. So he fit stay for himhouse, chop him
oyibo chop, drink him cold beer, put him air conditioner and forget
we.But he no do like that. So we come salute am (AS 129-130).
[187]
Fig. 4.5. Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannh
Pidgin is also used by the educated classes to make easyto their business
with others as well in friendly conversations among persons in same
class. For instance, Beatrice uses Pidgin with Agatha and the army officer
who visits her:Beatrice to Agatha ‘Tellam make he siddon,’ I said, ‘I de
nearly ready.’ Beatrice investigates as to where the soldier takes her.
‘What? Na where we de go?’ The soldier reacts,“You mean to say dem
no tell you? Wonderful!” (AS 67).
Chinua Achebe is possibly one of the best examples of a writer using a language as a
broader canvass in order to express native thoughts. In Anthills of the Savannah he
articulated his voice in chapter nine, “Views of the Struggle,” Ikem, central
protagonists, is a young journalist visits Bassa as a delegate from his village home,
Abazon. During a congregation, Ikem is being privileged. Big Chief utters a speech
which is packed with indigenous ideas. He mentions his way of life which are
conspicuously native to Abazon:
[188]
How do we salute our fellows when we come in and see them massed in
assembly so huge we cannot hope to greet them one by one, to call each man
by his title? Do we not say: To everyone his due? Have you thought what a
wise practice our fathers fashioned out of those simple words? To every man
his own! To each his chosen title! We can all see how that handful of words
can save us from the ache of four hundred handshakes and the headache of
remembering a like multitude of praise-names (AS 117-118).
Here we can see that the words through the reader encounters are not intended to
represent English speech. We know this because in chapter 9 of Anthills of the
Savannah, Achebe makes differences between words that are really uttered in English
and uttered in the mother-tongue, using italics to represent words which represent
English. This becomes apparent when one senior from Abazon speaks, “I do not hear
English but when they say Catch am nobody tells me to take myself off as fast as I
can” (AS 122).
Anthills of the Savannah has been written modern perspective and its language and
words are major subject matter. In this novel, words are Ikem’s tool as a male. Ikem
write their love-letters and Beatrice only read and reacts. Achebe defines Beatrice
through the words and perceptions of other characters:
Chris saw the quiet demure damsel whose still waters nonetheless could
conceal deep overpowering eddies of passion that always almost sucked him
into fatal depths. Perhaps Ikem alone came close to sensing the village
priestess who will prophesy when her divinity rides her abandoning, if need be
[189]
her soup-pot on the fire, but returning again when the god departs to the
domesticity of kitchen or the bargaining market-stool behind her little display
of peppers and dry fish and green vegetables. He knew it better than Beatrice
herself (AS 100).
Defined by others, as a “quiet demure damsel”, Beatrice has no outfit regarding her
role. Achebe impressed this position when he has Ikem say to Beatrice, “I can’t tell
you what the new role for Woman will be. I don’t know. I should never have
presumed to know. You have to tell us. We never asked you before” (AS 93). This
shows the Achebe’s art and skill of writing in modern perspective.
Achebe’s usage of Standard English language is blended with
pidgin to articulate a fresh voiceaway from home of Africa, as a world–
wide language. Achebe,likely to other different African writers, as Ngugi
from Kenya has opted English language as a medium toput across the
problems, suffering and troubles of his people during and after the time of
colonial oppression. He builds the representation of Africa in thenative
point of view not through the Westerner’s language and suggested to the
world that theAfrica represented in the Western’s oriented thought is
totally wrong. Achebe recommended that a writer should make the world
aware of thenational power. It is the ethical liability of every inhabitant of
a countryto keep and protect the culture of one’s one community when it
comes in danger. He has used his Igbo vocabulary, proverbs, images and
[190]
speech patterns in order toconvey the legacy of his culture to the
upcoming new generation. Achebe has also notion to retrievehis cultural
custom and mean time he specify new directions for constructingchange.
In Achebe’s point of view, the transition from a new kind of postcolonial
culture should notdiscard the previous cultural heritage of his country.
This idea he conveysthrough a variety of narrators in Anthills of the
Savannah. Achebe trusts on the aphorism ‘The story is ourescort’, here
“The story” stands for cultural heritage of Africa. A character in Anthills
of the Savannah says, “Without it (The story), we are blind…” (AS 119).
Moreover, Anthills of the Savannah exemplify atradition that has been
accustomed to the new and Achebe, here confronts the problems in
preserving nationaland cultural identity in the teeth of the unavoidable
combination of diverse cultures.
4.6. Conclusion
Being born at the intersection of culture, Chinua Achebe accepts the influence
of colonialism on the Igbo society. He expresses himself by saying that he has always
been fond of Igbo language which was spoken with eloquence by the old man of the
village. He loved the stories narrated to him in his native language. He states that he
learnt English at the age of eight. He feels that this language became so dominant that
probably he has spoken more words in English than Igbo. Achebe’s love for Igbo
[191]
language is quite clear by the way he uses African proverbs, imagery, and metaphors
in his novels. In 1964, Achebe speaks in a speech entitled, The African writer and the
English Language”, “Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for
someone else’s? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling. But for
me there is no other choice. I have been given the language and I intend to use it”
(DM 7).
According to Achebe, ‘Igbo’ exists in numerous dialects which vary from
village to village, but there is no standardized formal written or oral language that all
Igbo use in Western Africa. No doubt Christian missionaries tried to create and
impose one – ‘Union Igbo' – in order to translate the bible and speed up the religious
conversion in the belatedly nineteenth century. Unlike Ngugi wa Thiong’s, who
worked for the eradication of the English department as a step towards cultural
decolonization, Achebe does not remark on the desertion of European languages. He
feels that sixty languages of his country cannot be officially used in that way it is
decomposing his state into sixty states. So Achebe feels that, “…An African and a
nationalist looking at the situation now, there is a real value in keeping our countries
together using a language that has been imposed upon us” (writing Across Worlds68).
Ngugi wa Thiong’o feels that to come into contact with English, is to come into
contact with something both negative and positive, and the positive has as much as
any product at any other language. But he asserts that the novels written by African
writers like Chinua Achebe and few others, reflect a world-a colonial world, and this
world is really their world. He asserts that the African countries, as colonies and even
today as neo-colonies, define themselves in terms of the languages of Europe. They
[192]
are called English-speaking, French-speaking, or Portuguese-speaking African
countries.
Achebe’s domination of language comes through almost everywhere in his
writing. His skill can be perceived in his use of discourse to different character, from
societalmilieu and the period from which they belong in the recorded history of
Nigeria exclusively Africa in general. Proverbs and folklore are used to show their
changed meaning in a shallow society of no values. In that way, they also serve the
purpose of reviving a sense of community. The use of Pidgin by city people and
illiterate deprived people emphasizes their existence.The pretentious use of English
by the educated elite of Nigeria brings homely feeling but on the other hand brings
alienation from their people and culture.
Nevertheless, the success of Achebe’s novels, undoubtedly, lies in the beauty
of his language. His novels bring a whole range of human experience before our
mind’s eye by use of imagery, drawn from both native and foreign sources. His use of
devices like proverbs, myths, and legends enriches the English language and speaks
about the rich Igbo culture. His language is not just a technique, but an embodiment
of African civilization. His novels teach and inculcate through song sequences,
prayers, and speeches. They are not just entertainment, but they direct the lives of the
readers. It was the rituals, language, myths, and legends of the Igbo society which
bound the people together. The relationship between a husband and a wife, a son and
a father, and a mother and a daughter, got covered despite the fact that various rituals
which they performed and the legends which they narrated to each other.
[193]
Nevertheless, the whole world called them ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’, they were
happy and contented in their own world.
****
[194]
In the foregoing pages we have interpreted Chinua Achebe’s novels in the
postcolonial perspective. In the substantial part of the thesis i.e. from chapter 2 to
chapter 4, we have analyzed and interpreted the novels with reference to the portrayal
of Igbo society, culture and language by Chinua Achebe. We have drawn on our
insights and precision from a variety of theoreticians, namely Frantz Fanon, Edward
Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi K. Bhabha, Robert Young, Ashcroft et al
and a number of others. Depending on our priority and necessity, we have selected the
parameters which have been operated on the textual materials to derive our inferences
and conclusions. We have, of course, been able to retrieve some new areas of
meaning in Achebe’s novels, although many other aspects have remained unexplored.
However, our study has been useful in explicating many new things. Since any
focused research is limitedso future researches can take up more issues for further
new explorations. It is therefore important to mention the findings that we have been
able to explore in this research.In chapter 2, we have focused on the various social
institutions of Igbo land relating to family and domestic life, policies and
administrations, gender relations, dispensing justice, celebrations and entertainments,
marriage and death rituals, superstitions and belief systems. In doing so, we
understand that Igbo society was unique with their fundamental social aspects and
values. The Igbo enjoy their life fully well despite some of the negative beliefs and
superstitions existing in their society.In chapter 3, Igbo cultural practices have been
discussed with reference to the select novels. The specific cultural traits of Igbo land-
their myths and practices, way of life, rituals and religious beliefs- have been
[195]
discussed. Referring to these aspects in the novels, we understood the Igbo have
distinctive cultural traits that invigorate their life, blending rhythm and spice as a
unique people, having their own culture and identity. In chapter 4, we have discussed
the peculiarities in their language use, loaded with Igbo culture and values. Moreover,
the peculiarities of language use have made Achebe’s English unique fit to portray the
distinctive Igbo culture practices in his novels. It is therefore interesting to read
Achebe’s novels from the perspective of our research topic Society, culture and
language are interrelated. They can not be separated from each other. For our better
understanding and convenience, we have divided them for deeper exploration of the
various aspects of Igbo people. By doing so, wew have been able to bring out some
new areas of means in Achebe’s novels.
5.1. TheFindings
The study of the selected novels indicates that the colonized communities were
subjected to oppression, disgrace and forcible conversion and adaptation to the
foreign religion. Initially, land and labour were exploited by the colonizer and then
they turned to the exploitation of the race and skin. Colonization was possible due to
the internal conflicts of the natives. Even though colonization has come to an end, the
exploitations still take place. Even in the adverse circumstances, the natives adore
Igbo practices. Though assimilation of culture takes place, the natives are not able to
advance further after a certain stage. They make use of the facilities of the foreign
land but deep in their hearts yearn for their native land. In Arrow of God, the cohesion
is also evident in the native lands controlled by the foreign force.
[196]
In Arrow of God, Ezeulu is a priest, who is a mediator between God and his
devotees. The Pumpkin Leaves Festival and New Yam Feast instill the traditional
bond in the minds of the natives. Ezeulu is a man who is for progress, a kind of
progress which will benefit humanity as a whole. He is misunderstood by his own
people of Okperi. He sends his son Oduche to a Christian school to learn the white
man’s wisdom to fight back. It is clear that his sweet revenge on his people, those
who were unsympathetic towards him during his imprisonment, have a row in the
mass conversion of the people to Christianity. Though Ezeulu is a staunch supporter
of native religion, his people hug alien religion. His feverish mind loses its balance. It
is not acceptable according to the situations. Ezeulu’s stubborn nature hesitates to
solve the problem of the starving people by declaring the New Year. Ezeulu who
earlier stated “when two brothers fight a stranger reaps the harvest”(AG 132)paves the
way for foreign religion. Co-operation and adjustment are unaccepted terms for
Ezeulu due to which native religion loses its grip and Christianity paves the way.
Social hostility is chiefly responsible for his insanity.
Ezeulu, feels that education can cure all the evils of society and is ready to
instruct knowledge and enlighten his people. The experiences of the protagonists
substantiate Frantz Fanon’s statement that the process of decolonization also results in
violence. Fanon’s thought is of great value,“At the level of individuals, violence is a
cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair
and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect” (WE 74).The
inferiority complex which arises from the feeling that only West is the best also
alienates man from his culture. The colonized have a common problem of oppression
[197]
and only through struggle - internal or external - they can bring a solution to their
plight. There are people who belittle their own culture and identify themselves more
with the colonizer’s culture than their own asNwoye, in Things Fall Apart.
Oppression creates self-hatred in the natives. A few natives like Obierika and
Nwoye are able to cope with this hostile predicament, but others like Okonkwo turn
‘strange’. The psychic disintegration results in insanity as in the case of Ezeulu. The
haunting visions and feverish minds of these natives reflect the postcolonial trauma.
The violence is the revenge of the colonized over the colonizer for exploiting their
land, labour, race and skin.
The fusion of East and West is a harrowing experience to the natives. They
despise the cultural and racial hybridization. Colonization never ends, and one finds
oneself trapped in other kinds of colonization - social, cultural and economic.No
Longer at Ease reflects the tension inherent in the binary oppositions: East/West,
man/woman, tradition/modernity and colonized/colonizer. Initially, Obi Okonkwo
glorifies the European culture in adopting it as a whole but later he realizes the vanity
of his vision and realizes illusion of the Western culture.
Writers useEnglish language as a weapon to venture their agony. Just as
Prospero, using the colonizer’s language,the flames of that anguish spread from one
place to another place whichadded worldwide implication. The striking words of
Frantz Fanon resound:
The native intellectuals, since they could not standwonder-struck before the
history of today’s barbarity,decided to go back farther and to delve deeper
[198]
down; and,let us make no mistake, it was with the greatest delight thatthey
discovered that there was nothing to be ashamed of inthe past, but rather
dignity, glory and solemnity. The claimto a national culture in the past does
not only rehabilitatethat nation and serve as a justification for the hope of
afuture national culture (WE 169).
Decolonization reaches its zenith with the argument of Ngugi that colonization
should be replaced by thepre-colonial and indigenous ways. Such a decolonization
predict by Ngugi is difficult to bring about. Language is a very powerful tool in
manipulating one’s traditional norms and representing own power. The whites came
and indulged themselves to the scenario of black generation; this was ridiculous in
terms of overpowering the emotion of the Nigerian people. They started to play with
the predicament of the native Igbo who is rustic and innocent in their nature, who are
away from humdrum of daily life, their style never harassed anything and to
anybody.Their past is unique and special in their appearance. And here it is accurate
to say that with the help of language the colonizer plunges in the heart of the native.
With this language as Spivak and Bhabha stated about cultural mixing that
colonization promoted and from which even a simple rectification is not possible.
Chinua Achebe’s novels rely on African folk tradition of the Igbo people
ofsoutheastern Nigeria; a point convincingly made by Kalu Ogbaa in his book
Gods,Oracles, and Divination: Folkways in Chinua Achebe’s Novels. In Things Fall
Apart,for instance, Achebe’s most read novel, the reader comes across Igbo
customs,myths, legends, folktales, and beliefs in magic, superstition, prophecy, and
spells. In thesame novel, Achebe foregrounds some Igbo folktales such as ‘how the
[199]
birds and thetortoise were hosted in heaven’ and ‘the earth and the sky.’These
folktales give theIgbo concepts of creation, commonality, and diligence. Similarly, in
ChinuaAchebe’s Arrow of God, there is an intertextual link between the novel and
Igboritual drama of Egwugwu (masquerade), proverbs, and festival institutions like
AkwuNro(AG 196) (a commemorativesubmission by widows to their deceased
husbands). With these fragments from Achebe’s cultural environment and tradition,
he, likemany other contemporary African writers, is able to enrich his creativity.
Achebeexhibits the cultural wealth of Africa in his novels with a view to
informingforeigners that Africa is not a cultural desert but this is a country of genuine
faith and belief and it has its foundation on real cultural heritage of Africa in diverse
and unique structure.
Out of this discussion, we achieve awide-ranging consideration of past and
present tradition and amendment in the Igbo society through the work of Chinua
Achebe. In doing so, we also achieve knowledge of social, political and cultural
procedures and how this is created by humans for human life. The cultural
investigation of the Igbo society provides knowledge to understand the transformation
at point and change during the colonization. Colonization was at this time a religious,
political and legal system of control. It can thus be concluded by gaining the trust of
the villagers through the trade system and the Christian faith, which has made it
suitable for the colonizers to launch a new government and establish a new law and
justice independently that was different and perhaps superior to earlier Igbo rules and
regulation.
[200]
The Postcolonial criticism is practice in this study because Things Fall Apart
draws the first attention get in touch with of White colonizer and indigenous people.
This approachleads to open the indication and the process of colonization. In row with
colonization,the arising of White Supremacy is the main focal point of this study to be
analyzed. To meet the proper analysis and interpretation, this study uses White
Supremacy theoryand other supporting theories such as negative stereotyping and race
theory. Incomputation, the preservation of the Igbo people of White Supremacy which
occurredaround them is also investigated in this study. This study unveiled the aspects
which supported the outline of White Supremacy. The result of this study also
addresses that there are four aspects which supported the pattern of White Supremacy.
These are religion, institution,law,andtechnology. At that moment, the negative
stereotyping which is directed to the Igbo creates discrimination by the White as their
racist action. While the Igbo perpetuation is divided into two ways, that are vocal and
victory.
Achebe is not narrow-minded and overpowering. He is not ever against of
discovery and learning of the new religion and culture. In his novels, he presents a
clear picture of the new society, and helps us in our understanding of it. Achebe does
not try to induce Nigerian culture upon a European audience, but he also expects that
the European culture should not be imposed on an unwilling Nigerian clan. In Things
Fall Apart, Achebe shows that the missionaries simply walked into the midst of the
tribe with their interpreters, and “told them that they worshipped false god, gods of
wood and stone” (TFA 136) who has given authority to White man to tell to the Igbo
and command so rudely and to change thousands of years of worshipping unchanged
[201]
deities, the white man verbally commands them, “leave your wicked ways and false
gods” (TFA 137). It is not ethical to the Igbo who are innocent and docile and happy
in their own affairs.
Achebe accepts that the Igbo culture was not without defects. In the life of the
Africans, on one hand, there was happiness and prosperity, on the other, there
weresuperstitious beliefs and fear of the invisible power. He does not deny the fact
that the Western culture and education paved a way to their growth and development.
But even the Africans could persuade the Europeans by exhibiting their strength of
unity and fraternity, “…it is clear that just as Christianity has been influenced by
insights from African cultures, African religions have absorbed intimations from
Christianity” (Isichei, 1995:7). It was easy for them to transact with the
unsophisticated peasants whose main concern was to earn their livelihood, to live in
peace with the neighbours. For them, to manage the urban educated mass was difficult
as they insulted their ancestral system. They were more interested in the political
growth of their country, and the eventual attainment of its independence.
Achebe does not impose on the readers that the new religion and the new
culture was bad and evil, but leaves it to them to understand and judge the change
taking place in the Igbo society. The fact cannot be denied that more than the words
of the missionaries, the Igbo people got influenced by the gay and soothing tunes of
evangelism, which has the power and impression of hooking at the silent hearts. The
missionaries had ruled over the Igbo people by falsifying their superstitious beliefs.
In Things Fall Apart, they have constructed their church on the plot of evil land which
was the burial ground and has displayed their victory by winning the converts. With
[202]
increased trade, the colonial venture has also merged its right and power to protect its
benefit, “The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a
trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price,
and much money flowed into Umuofia” (TFA 168). Achebe presents the white man as
quite dubious, vicious, witty and intelligent, who used the Igbos against their own
people. They allured and tempted the deserving men from the society to act as warrant
Chiefs for different villages. Though Ezeulu of Arrow of God refused to accept the
post of Warrant Chief, there were many others who accepted the proposal and later
exploited their own people. Achebe accepts the fact that Igboland was deprived of
true and honest leaders, which did not let Nigeria grow and develop. It seems that
Achebe wants to show that the Nigerian clans had surrendered themselves to the fate.
Corruption and treachery had become a part of their culture and tradition. People’s
attitude about the leaders was that, “Let them eat…,after all when white men used to
do all the eating did we commit suicide? Of course not” (AMP 133).
Achebe is successful in showing painful details, the struggle between the
British colonial administration and his protagonists. He narrates the social and
historical conditions of African society before and during colonialism. Achebe admits
that however the Igbo accepted Christian beliefs but they were not obsessive. Their
lives were ruled, as much by their reason and faith; as much by common sense and
compassion as by doctrine. Nonetheless, Achebe evokes many important issues of
African colonialism. Achebe also makes an attempt to explain that one should desire
for a better living and comforts, but not at the cost of one’s self-esteem. Obi did a
blunder by not trusting his own people, he being under the persuasion of the foreigner,
[203]
the white men, their culture and beliefs. Having no emotions and sentiments for his
people, he becomes an outsider in his own motherland.
In the foregoing discussion, we achieve a comprehensive understanding of
past and present traditions in the Igbo society. In doing so, we also attain knowledge
of social, political and cultural practices. The cultural investigation of the Igbo society
provides knowledge to understand the transformation during the colonization.
Colonization was at this time a religious, political and legal system of control. It can
thus be concluded by gaining the trust of the villagers through the trade system and
the Christian faith, which has made it suitable for the colonizers to launch a new
government and establish a new law and justice independently that was different and
perhaps superior to earlier Igbo rules and regulations. Achebe is not narrow-minded
and pungent and never against the discovery and learning of the new religion and
culture. In his novels, he presents a clear picture of the new society and helps us in
our understanding of it. Achebe does not try to induce Nigerian culture upon a
European audience, but he also expects that the European culture should not be
imposed on an unwilling Nigerian clan. Achebe admits that the Igbo accepted
Christian beliefs but they were not obsessive. Their lives were ruled, a good deal by
their reason and faith and much by common sense and compassion. By analyzing
Achebe’s most read novels, the study argues that Achebe’s works present a picture of
(Nigerian) Igbo culture and impact of western European culture on (Nigerian) Igbo
culture. Achebe depicts Igbo culture as a part of transformation after the impact of
colonization. But the self-preservation of the natives is persistent; and colonization is
not being a total subjugation of the indigenous terrain. Igbo unity and integration
[204]
challenges Africa’s efforts in nation building. Achebe has also tried to show how Igbo
land was socio-politically stronger than the other nation.
5.2. Findings in Contemporary Perspective
The focus of this research is to explore the ideological contradictions that have been
embedded in language clusters’ which are to be unraveled in relation to socio-cultural
ethos. The language of any society is predominantly surcharged with cultural ethos. It
is, therefore, significant that we relate the language issues to cultural substance. A
thorough examination of issues relating to indigenous African society, culture and
language have surely explored new areas of meaning which hitherto escaped our
notice. In our point of view, this research is worth pursuing because it has the
contemporary application by way of understanding a complex society and culture that
draws our serious contemplation in current times.
5.3. Scope for Further Research
After analyzing the data, the present work has tried to provide a perspective of several
points about colonialism. However it is not likely to present every single aspect of this
area. The prominent modes of colonial aspect presented here are based on the analysis
of Achebe’s five novels only. Other novelists may provide different analyses based on
the same hypothesis. The study can be much useful to all those who are interested in
exploration of African society in postcolonial perspective. Further research can also
be undertaken on a variety of sociolinguistic, socio-cultural and stylistic aspects in the
****
[205]
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Chapter One: Introduction

This research proposes to discuss representation of Igbo Culture, Society and

problematized in the fiction of Nigerian novelists in postcolonial perspective. Chinua

to present the colonial encounter from an African perspective. Interestingly, both

African and Non-African scholars believe that Achebe’s novels unconsciously

as western European culture. Achebe depicts Igbo culture as a part of transformation

than other nations.

1.1.1.Review of Research and Development in the Subject

Postcolonial reading is a method of interpretation of literary texts that challenges

Hyphenated term ‘post-colonialism’ denotes to particular historical period after the

fall of empire. Unhyphenated term ‘postcolonialism’ refers to various forms of

representations that protest and question against colonial authority. Unhyphenated

term is preferred by most of the theorists as it is more sensitive to the historical

of third world countries in 1955 can be called the beginning of postcolonialism.

journal titled Tricontinentalof this conference. These theorists suggested an

The inspiration for anti-colonial struggles against domination and oppression

Earthpublished in French in 1961. Frantz Fanon in this book describes psychological

aspects of colonialism and suggests using violence in struggle against colonialism. He

of postcolonial studies. Orientalism, according to Said, is “a western style for

postcolonialism “is a disciplinary project devoted to the academic task of revisiting,

remembering and, crucially, interrogating the colonial past” (2014:4). To

GayatriChakravortySpivak deconstruction is a strategy for negotiating the

nationhood, constitutionality, citizenship, democracy, even culturalism” (Mongia,

2013:204). Spivak’s most important contribution to this discipline is her postcolonial

postcolonial critic Homi.K.Bhabha’s views about postcolonialism can be traced in his

made immense contribution to postcolonial studies by popularizing the concept such

use and scope of the terms ‘postcoloniality’, ‘postcolonial’, and ‘postcolonialism’ by

a very important term in the field of postcolonial studies.

Postcolonial literary theories and cultural analyses therefore consider the

such theoretical and methodological development on postcolonialism, the present

Chinua Achebe’s novel gives us ample amount of innovative and inventive

NahemYousaf’sChinua Achebe (2010), Chinua Achebe(1990) by C. L. Innes,

by Jaya Laxmi Rao Vempala,and Achebe’s Ideas on Literature by

IhechukwuMadubuike. There are also a large number of comparative studies on

Achebe byShram Mustafa Hama Salih, Pallavi Bhardwaj, and K. G.Parimala.These

researchershave studied various perspectives of Chinua Achebe’s novels.The recent

PhD thesis on Achebe in the Department of Literature inUniversity of Nairobi, on

“Rhetorical Strategies in the Novels of Chinua Achebe” (2014) focused on the

African traditions and customs in Achebe’s Novels” (2016) submitted in Department

of English, College of Languages, Sudan University of Science and Technology,

other researches which havecultural elements, linguistic perspective, tribal reading

emphasis as discussed in the present research.

terms of African society, cultureand language in the novels of Chinua Achebe in

postcolonial perspective develops and provide cultural heritage of Africa in past. My

research articulates detailed exploration of socio-cultural and linguistic issues in all

novels of Chinua Achebe.

1.1.2.Aims and Objectives

interdisciplinary and multicultural strategy. Postcolonial cultural analysis is a method

of study to raise the consciousness of the African marginalized to understand their

condition of predicament and suffering. This thesis relates to the aspects of

language have been described in Achebe’s novels.

will use a combination of analytical, theoretical and comparative approaches. It will

expression, which are collected from the select novels.

exploration of African society in postcolonial perspective. Further research can also

be undertaken on a variety of sociolinguistic, socio-cultural and stylistic aspects in the

novels of Chinua Achebe.

1.1.4.The Plan and Chapterization

to the research project. In chapter 1, we have discussed a perspective of post

on Achebe’s delineation of African Society, Culture and Language. This research

planned in five chapters. They are:

Chapter 2: Igbo Social Structure

Chapter 3: Culture as Heart of Igbo Community

Chapter 4: Language as Representation of Igbo Socio-Cultural Systems