NOTES ON “THINGS FALL APART” (1959) BY CHINUA ACHEBE

October 6, 2022.

Yesterday, I finally finished reading Things Fall Apart, and below is my reflection and learning from my reading. But before that, let me give you a brief introduction to the story. Written by the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart describes how a village struggled during a time of transformation due to the domination of Christianity and colonization.

Plot Summary

The story focuses on the life of Okonkwo, a masculine wrestling fighter, a brave warrior, an emotionless and violent father, and an ambitious leader who chases for titles and social success in Igbo society. As his father does not have a good reputation, Okonkwo always makes sure he does not become like him: lazy and cowardly.

Ever since childhood, he builds his own home and became a diligent farmer and remarkable wrestler. All his hard work bears sweet results in the form of wealth through crops and three wives. However, his life changes when he adopts a boy from another village due to an accidental murder. The boy, Ikemefuna, becomes friends with Okonkwo’s own son, Nwoye. Thus, Okonkwo starts loving him as his own son. But, after three years, the tribe decides to kill Ikemefuna as a part of retribution.

When the tribe takes Ikemenfuna to the forest, Okonkwo is the one who kills him with his machete. Even after killing his adopted son, Okonkwo does not shed a tear as he does not want to be seen as a weakling like his father. Even though he is feeling guilty inside, he suppresses these emotions and distances himself from Nwoye.

Another incident takes place later where Okonkwo accidentally kills another boy. As a crime, the tribe banishes him for seven years to his mother’s native village, Mbanta. Over there, Okonkwo sees the white missionaries arriving, which indicates towards the end of his Igbo community.

The white missionaries spread Christianity and win over the outcasts of the community. Later, it gains pace, and more Igbo people start converting. His own son, Nwoye, also converts to Christianity, and Okonkwo disowns him for that. Finally, the Igbo community also starts talking to the missionaries.

After finishing his seven-year-old sentence, Okonkwo decides to return home. However, things have fallen apart, and they are arrested for heavy ransom money by the missionaries. In order to take revenge, the Igbo people plot to start a war. Naturally, Okonkwo is the prime advocate for this plan. But, during the council, a messenger from the missionary commands them to put an end to the meeting. In a fit of rage, Okonkwo kills the messenger. However, he soon realizes that none of his people is willing to go to war against the white men. Okonkwo’s pride falls, and kills himself in the end.

Interesting Quotations with Notes

With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife. But in spite of these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future. It was slow and painful. But he threw himself into it like one possessed. And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful death. (18)

Quotation 1 shows the relationship between Okonkwo and his father and the elements (a successful father, title, barn, young wife) required for one to be seen as successful in Ogbo society.

His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop. (23)

Quotation 2 shows the connection between crops and gender in the Igbo community.

Unoka stood before her and began his story. “Every year,” he said sadly, “before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers.

I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed-“ (17)

Quotation 3: before Christianity, the Igbo community believes in the god of earth, yams, rain, and others. They carefully please their gods by sacrificing animals. I find this superstition interesting and meaningful in its own way.

Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land–masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell…He remembered the story she often told of the quarrel between Earth and Sky long ago…That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. But he now knew that they were for foolish women and children, and he knew that his father wanted him to be a man. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women’s stories. And when he did this he saw that his father was pleased, and no longer rebuked him or beat him. So Nwoye and Ikemefuna would listen to Okonkwo’s stories about tribal wars, or how, years ago, he had stalked his victim, overpowered him and obtained his first human head. And as he told them of the past they sat in darkness or the dim glow of logs, waiting for the women to finish their cooking. When they finished, each brought her bowl of foo-foo and bowl of soup to her husband. An oil lamp was lit and Okonkwo tasted from each bowl, and then passed two shares to Nwoye and Ikemefuna. (54)

Quotation 4 shows how the image of masculinity and manhood is installed into the mind of young sons by their father. Like the genderized stories, there is also a strict gender division in house chores and social status. Basically, women do not stay in the obi and they are responsible for almost everything (cooking, farming, giving birth, taking care of children) except going to war.

The Feast of the New Yam was approaching and Umuofia was in a festival mood. It was à occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility. Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct. And what was more, she was in close communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to earth.

Quotation 5 describes the connection between the earth goddess and the ancestors of the Igbo community. I find this fascinating especially when many of us seem to have lost our inherent spiritual connection with nature these days.

The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan. New yams could not be eaten until some had first been offered to these powers. Men and women, young and old, looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty—-the new year. On the last night before the festival, yams of the old year were all disposed of by those who still had them. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the previous year. All cooking pots, calabashes and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed, especially the wooden mortar in which yam was pounded. Yam foo-foo and vegetable soup was the chief food in the celebration. So much of it was cooked that, no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends and relatives they invited from neighboring villages, there was always a large quantity of food left over at the end of the day. The story was always told of a wealthy man who set before his guests a mound of foo-foo so high that those who sat on one side could not see what was happening on the other, and it was not until late in the evening that one of them saw for the first time his in-law who had arrived during the course of the meal and had fallen to on the opposite side. It was only then that they exchanged greetings and shook hands over what was left of the food. (36-7)

Quotation 6 depicts the new year in the Igbo community. I wonder what foo-foo is and what it tastes like! The Igbo New Year is similar to the Chinese New Year, where fresh food is made, clean tools are prepared, and a spiritual ceremony is held. Most importantly, all members of the family gather and celebrate this remarkable time with a mountain of food (I like that the author explains how much food is made through a humorous story).

Every child loved the harvest season. Those who were big enough to carry even a few yams in a tiny basket went with grown-ups to the farm. And if they could not help in digging up the yams, they could gather firewood together for roasting the ones that would be eaten there on the farm. This roasted yam soaked in red palm-oil and eaten in the open farm was sweeter than any meal at home. (61)

Quotation 7 describes the special sensation and pleasant memory children have toward the harvest season. Even little children follow their parents to the farm just so that they can taste the roasted yam soaked in red palm oil outside their huts in the open farm. Not only that the food is tasty, but eating out in the open fire also connects us back to ancient times, to our ancestors and nature.

Eze elina, elina!

Sala

Eze ilikwa ya

Ikwaba akwa oligholi

Ebe Danda nechi eze

Ebe Uzuzu nete equu

Sala

He sang it in his mind, and walked to its beat. If the song ended on his right foot, his mother was alive. if it ended on his left, she was dead. No, not dead, but ill. It ended on the right. She was alive and well. He sang the song again, and it ended on the left. But the second time did not count. The first voice gets to Chukwu, or God’s house. That was a favorite saying of children. Ikemefuna felt like a child once more. It must be the thought of going home to his mother. (60)

Quotation 8 is depicted by Ikemefuna, whom Okonwko adopts for 3 years, and kills in order to sustain his manly image in the village. Here, I detect a sense of purity embedded in Ikemefuna’s superstition and I value his imagination and longing for his mother.

When did you become a shivering old woman,” Okonkwo asked himself, “you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.” (65)

If I were you I would have stayed at home. What you have done will not please the Earth. It is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families.

“The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her messenger,” Okonkwo said.

“That is true,” Obierika agreed. “But if the Oracle said that my son should be killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it.” (67)

Quotation 9 shows the inner dilemma faced by Okonwho when he is told that he has to kill his adopted son as this is an instruction from the Earth’s goodness. Here, I see the downside of superstition or religion. Also, the culture of masculinity is so deeply implanted within their belief that in order to showcase his masculinity or capability of being a “man,” Okonkwo follows the instruction to kill his adopted son.

She was about sixteen and just ripe for marriage. Her suitor and his relatives surveyed her young body with expert eyes as if to assure themselves that she was beautiful and ripe.

She wore a coiffure which was done up into a crest in the middle of the head. Cam wood was rubbed lightly into her skin, and all over her body were black patterns drawn with uli. She wore a black necklace which hung down in three coils just above her full, succulent breasts. On her arms were red and yellow bangles, and on her waist four or five rows of jigida, or waist beads. (71)

Quotation 10 depicts how the daughter of Obierika, a friend of Okonkwo, is being watched by her suitor and his relatives, which allows the reader to notify the patriarchal culture that lies beneath this male gaze. In Igbo society, women are preceived as assets, and their values are defined by their beauty, ages, and bodies.

Why do they always go for one’s ears? When he was a child his mother had told him a story about it. But it was as silly as all women’s stories. Mosquito, she had said, 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. (75)

Quotation 11: This is a funny story made up by the author about the relation between human ears and mosquitos. I think it is just funny and so I share it here.

“I do not know how to thank you.”

“I can tell you,” said Obierika. “Kill one of your sons for me.”

“That will not be enough,” said Okonkwo.

“Then kill yourself,” said Obierika.

“Forgive me,” said Okonkwo, smiling. “I shall not talk about thanking you any more.” (142)

Quotation 12: this dark humorous joke is made by Obierika when he brings money to his friend, Okonkwo. Obierika is a good friend. He helps Okonkwo to keeps his place after he is expelled from his fatherland for 7 years. When Okonkwo thanks him, he simply jokes that if Okonkwo really wants to thank him, he can either kill his son or himself. Would you make this kind of joke?

The arrival of the missionaries had caused a considerable stir in the village of Mbanta. (144)

The white man told the villagers about “this new God, the Creator of all the world and all the men and women. He told them that they worshipped false gods, gods of wood and stone. …He told them that the true God lived on high and that all men when they died went before Him for judgement. …But good men who worshipped the true God lived forever in His happy kingdom. “We have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to Him so that you may be saved when you die,” he said. (145)

“All the gods [the goddess of the earth, the god of the sky, Amadiora or the thinderbolt]  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 the earth, the sky, you and me and all of us.” (146)

Quotation 13: The arrival of the Christian missionaries from England makes a big change in the Igbo community. They tell the Igbo people that their gods are fake and Jesus is the only true God that they should follow. Of course, Igbo people do not believe in what the missionaries say at first. When the missionary asks for land to build a church, they give them the Evil Forest, where what they call “bad spirits” are burried there and they think that the church will not survive there. But it survives and becomes stronger by getting poor people and outcasts as followers. They also build a school and starts getting young kids to go to the school and also the church on Sunday. They give small gifts and so people would join the program. On top of this, they build a courthouse and form a government and start putting the residents into jails if they break what the white men consider as a crime. All these changes break the Igbo community apart whereby old and young generations do not hold the same belief and mindset anymore. As Okonkwo’s uncle, Uchendu, notes,

I fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. I fear for you, I fear for the clan.” (167)

The painful dillema faced by the middle-age generation, like Okonkwo, is that there is no much he can do to save his clan or community because many young kids, including his own son, have joined Christianity and turn themselves away from their traditional custom and belief. Also, fighting against the white men and Chtistianity means that he has to kill his own bloods.

“…our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (176)

This is the ultimate sadness I find in the whole book. It must be really painful to be in Okonkwo’s position. I feel his helplessness, frustration, and hatred toward the new government, religion, and also toward himself for not being able to overturn the situation or adapt himself to the new change.

At last, this books ends in a rather bitter satire. I personally really like the ending. After Okonkwo kills one of the white men and kills himself (as he knows that he will never compromise himself to the new ruling system), the Commisioner thoughts,

In the many years in which he had toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa he had learned a number of things. One of them was that a District Commissioner must never attend to such undignified details as cutting a hanged man from the tree. Such attention would give the natives a poor opinion of him. In the book which he planned to write he would stress that point. As he walked back to the court he thought about that book. Every day brought him some new material. The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

The hierarchy between white/civilization/superiority and black/primitive/inferiority is clearly shown in the description above. It is sad that the deconstruction of such hierarchy is not presented in this book. Perhaps it can be found in his other books.

Work Cited:

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. USA: Penguin Books, 2017.