Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 4

an African writer who used the English language for the enhancement of African art hence his painstaking efforts to represent, right alongside the English of the narration, his native local Igbo language, highly oral in nature and the cultural spaces that language points to. With an unsentimental omniscient narrator, the reader is provided with an inside look into the linguistic, social, judicial and religious changes that Okonkwo and his peers go through as a result of imperialism. a) References to Nigeria’s Colonial Past Things Fall Apart , as John Povey rightly summarizes, “describes the effect of British missionaries and administrators on a typical village tribal society; the dislocation that change, religious and educational, brings to historic certainties” (1989, p. 258). Imperialism and the advent of missionaries constitute a focal point for Achebe; and references to Nigeria’s colonial past are plentiful in the novel. In Things Fall Apart , it is through the voice of the District Commissioner that the colonial status of the nine Igbo villages is conveyed. Emphasizing the new law in effect in Umuofia to the group of men who destroyed the Church, the local British administrator argues: “That must not happen in the dominion of our queen, the most powerful ruler in the world” (Achebe, 1958, p. 167). Nigeria, we know, was a colony of Britain; the dominion status alluded to in this quote refers to the political structure in effect in the northern part of the country preceding the official birth of Nigeria in 1914 (Temple, 2012). This seemingly straightforward statement, beyond the historical piece of information it carries, speaks to Achebe’s deeper political concerns. In setting his fiction in a “dominion,” not the “colony” Nigeria is known to have been, Achebe locates his narrative at a time preceding the formal birth of the federation of Nigeria as it is known today. The name Nigeria is actually never mentioned by either the narrator or any other characters; the novel is set in the nine villages surrounding Umuofia. By entertaining an intentional factual blurring over the actual colonial status of Nigeria, Achebe challenges the historical legacy of colonization. One thing however that suffers from no doubt in the District Commissioner’s statement is the position of Britain as the leading world power of the time. Indeed, in the nineteenth century, the British Empire ruled and administered, at its height, about one fifth of the world’s population (Johnston, 1969; Christopher, 1988); and Nigeria (whether a colony or a dominion) was just a small part of that large Empire. In Things Fall Apart , more than the alienating effects of the English language, it is the introduction of a new religion, and a new overall social order among his fellow Igbo that Chinua Achebe deals with. b) Umuofia: A Traditional Igbo Community To a Western eye, life in Umuofia appears problematic in many respects. Nothing in how the village operates is reminiscent of typical Western order. From an economic, social, judicial or even religious point of view, the various modus operandi of Umuofia find their relevance in Igbo’s traditions and culture. What the British in Things Fall Apart perceive as unorthodox and chaotic, is in fact a well-thought-out organization that suits the Igbo on many levels. The stories of Okonkwo and his fellow countrymen are told from an insider’s point of view with an omniscient narrator able to fill the reader in on every aspect of the Igbo culture. Umuofia is a rural village where people live mainly on agriculture and hunting. Achebe repeatedly writes about the importance of yams, something that is only understood in reference to the Igbo culture. Considered the “the king of crops” (1958, p. 21), yams indeed constitute for the Igbo not only a source of income, but a measure of a person’s manhood and respectability to a large extent. For the Igbo’s youth, the art of preparing yams is considered a rite of passage (Korieh, 2007); Nwoye and Ikemefuna learn it the hard way when they failed to accomplish the task according to Okonkwo’s high expectations (p. 28). The ability to plant and harvest extended amounts of crops, of yams principally, loudly speaks to a man’s worth. Okonkwo, we remember, lacked respect for his father Unoka, not just because he had no titles, but because of his laziness and his inability to grow a good crop of yams and properly feed his family. In the novel, the narrator affirms: “Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed” (p. 28). With Okonkwo and his peers, the “king of crops” is not only a measure of greatness; it represents the very symbol of life. Recounting Ikemefuna’s smooth integration into Okonkwo’s family, the narrator compares him to a piece of yam. He writes, “Ikemefuna grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season and was full of the sap of life” (p. 32). The importance of agriculture in Things Fall Apart, beyond its informative value about the rural nature of the Igbo, is a way for Achebe to highlight strong work ethics in his community. The Igbo indeed are a society which values hard work. The greatness of a person is measured in direct ratio with how hard he/she is willing to work. Greatness among the Igbo is not a matter of class and is not passed down from one generation to another; rather it is a personal achievement. By allowing his protagonist to be judged solely on the basis of his own deeds and merits, Achebe deconstructs slanted stereotypical representations of Africans as lazy. Speaking to the differences between Okonkwo and his father, the narrator argues that among the Igbo, “a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” (p. 7). On a different register, but still emphasizing the all-important role of farming within the Igbo, the narrator talks about how people in Umuofia resort to agriculture Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 42 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals A From Local Fabulation to Worldwide Celebration: Foregrounding Indigeneity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart