African Cultural Reality and Socio-Political Interplay in 'Things Fall Apart' : An Interrogation

"Things Fall Apart", a novel founded on strong African culture and proverbs, illustrates a clash between traditions and missionary-driven civilization in the Igbo community of Nigeria. The author, Chinua Achebe, relates to the African pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial dispensations. Achebe explores art and literature to redefine thoughts on the vibrancy of the pre-colonial representative institutions in Igboland for peaceful co-existence, which contradicts the generally acclaimed non-existence of political authority in the community. It appreciates the giant strides of Africans to fervently preserve their cultural heritage, and resist the new religion supported by imperialism, and its trappings such as racism, abolition of indigenous practices, divide and conquer, and the break-up of African tribal societies under colonialism. Through textual analysis, this article highlights the ideological impetus for the book and draws a relationship between Okonkwo's stance against foreign domination and current anti-western insinuation in Africa. It also draws a dialectical connection and dichotomy between African 'evil culture' and 'evil religion' associated with colonial domination, and engages its implications for contemporary Nigerian state and Africa.