The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has a put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.Things Fall Apart, considered the classic of African literature, is all about context. Nigerian author Chinua Achebe was born into a Christian family -- his father was one of the first Christian converts in his home village when the missionaries first arrived -- and after receiving a degree in English literature, Achebe decided to use English -- the "language of the colonizers", for which he was derided by fellow Africans -- to write a novel about the effects of colonization; for the first time from an African perspective. Things Fall Apart is written in three sections: the first is precolonization, in which the protagonist, Okonkwo, is building his power and reputation in his village of Umuofia; in the second, after an accident, Okonkwo and his family are banished to another village for seven years (and witness the arrival of the first missionaries); and in the third, Okonkwo returns home to find the missionaries have won many converts and the colonizers have set up their own government with foreign laws and harsh punishments. Since Achebe was both a Christian and an African -- and since he wrote this book in 1958, just as England was pulling out of Nigeria -- he writes with understanding of each side in the confrontation and the result is a non-judgemental record of what occurred.
The writing in Things Fall Apart seems almost simple, and although Achebe had apparently studied all the "important" English literature of his day, there are no literary tricks or flourishes here, and apparently, that is what's considered its genius: dismissing the written Igbo language (which was invented and imposed on the Igbo people by the colonizers; an artificial mish-mash of all Igbo dialects that Achebe found too wooden for literature), Achebe used the English language to approximate the rhythms and circuitous nature of his first tongue. If I had something to compare it to, perhaps I would also recognise the genius of this, but like I said it just came off as simplistic, which is odd for a book about people who were apparently great orators.
Having spoken plainly so far, Okoye said the next half a dozen sentences in proverbs. Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. Okoye was a great talker and he spoke for a long time, skirting round the subject and then hitting it finally.What Things Fall Apart does wonderfully is to paint a picture of what village life was like before the missionaries came (and this isn't totally pre-contact: this is the Victorian Age and, as villagers have guns, I'm assuming they have traded with Europeans before). Okonkwo represented the ideal of masculinity:
Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time. Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders.Okonkwo was powerful, a warrior, and although he ruled his compound with fear and terrible beatings, he was capable of forming close bonds with his family. The relationship of the villagers to the land -- and their attendant animistic worship -- assured their survival through feast and famine, and when disputes arose, a council of elders would convene a tribunal. These were a people who obviously enjoyed a rich culture, knew justice, and although they often went to war against neighbouring villages, their ties to their own clansmen were sacred. The Igbo of this village are far from savages in need of salvation (and part of Achebe's purpose here was to respond to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness which Achebe found "bloody racist").
On the other hand, not every villager thrived in their society and it was easy enough for the missionaries to first convert the weak and the outcasts. Achebe is careful not to describe these missionaries as evil (he was a Christian himself, after all) and, by remaining neutral to the events as they happen, the reader is free to assign blame or approval where fit. For example, as the Igbo of the fictional village of Umuofia were a superstitious people -- and allowed themselves to by ruled by a mysterious Oracle -- they would leave all newborn twins to die in the Evil Forest, and although Achebe is neutral about this practise pre-missionaries, it's hard for a reader to be neutral about it; when the missionaries condemn the practise, it's hard not to agree with them. On the other hand, when the new district government imposes British law on the villagers -- with corrupt members of distant and incomprehensible clans used as their messengers -- it's hard to see justice in it.
There is much more to Things Fall Apart than I saw at first blush, and as I like to read about books nearly as much as I like to read the books themselves, this was an interesting experience for me. I would not blame a reader, however, who wants to judge a book solely on what's between the covers, and for that reader, this might prove to be a simple or uninteresting tale.
