I first heard about Chinua Achebe in Mathrubhumi
Illustrated Weekly's My Book
column. It is a column in the Malayalam Weekly, published by
the Mathrubhumi group, about one's favorite book and it is one
of the sources that has introduced me to some great books. That time
somebody has written about Things
Fall Apart. I didn't read
much about the story in the article, but I read about the author and his area
of writing. And I told myself, native Africa is something that I haven't read
yet. True, I have read J M Coetzee before, but the 2 books of him I have read,
never told anything about the native African and his struggle. Chinua Achebe
did that. And since then his name was in my mind.
Things Fall Apart was first
published in 1958, and tells the story of the great warrior Okonkwo of the Igbo
tribe who lives in the village of Umofia. He is a successful man who believes
that manliness lies in the tribal traditions of having more wives, more land,
and more titles. And he has achieved them all by himself. His father,
Unoka, was lazy and didn't think anything about tomorrow. He was a debtor and
owned money to lot of people in the village. Okonkwo has seen his father and
had decided not to be like him. With his hard work, he has acquired 3 wives, 2
barns and a few titles. But things starts to go wrong when he takes up the
guardianship of Ikemefuna, a boy who was taken by the Okonkwo's village as a
peace settlement offer with the neighbouring village. Initially Okonkwo doesn't
like him much, but later he realizes that the boy is hardworking and truthful.
Ikemefuna also considers Okonkwo as his father and had forgotten about his
home. Then disaster strikes in the form of the decision from village elders
that the boy should be killed. An old person in the village warns Okonkwo that
he should not be doing anything with respect to the the murder of the child as
he is father-like figure to the child. But Okonkwo joins the group of men who
takes Ikemefuna to the jungle to kill him and at the unfortunate decisive
moment , he himself strikes the killing blow, even though the boy is
crying to him for protection. After that incident he is
guilt ridden. And later during the funeral of a village elder, when
his gun accidentally fires and kills a fellow tribesman, he is
forced to go into exile for seven years. By the time he is back, he sees his
village being partially controlled by the church and white people. He is deeply
disturbed that this village men are doing nothing about it. To add
insult to the injury, his own son joins the church and follows the new
religion. The rest of the story tells us about how he takes on the white men
and how it affects him.
The novel's beauty lies in the fact that Achebe has taken a situation, which may be unknown to the readers, and yet he has made an universal impact with it. The village ceremonies, culture, rituals, myths and customs are all existing within the African community that Achebe also is part of. Yet it is so appealing to everyone. Change the character names and some of the rituals, Things Fall Apart could be a novel set in pre-independence India.
Biyi Bandele writes in the novel's introduction that Chinua
Achebe's great uncle who brought up his father was a person who had taken
'highest-but-one-title' in the clan, and was considered to be an important
figure in his tribe. He gave space for the missionaries to operate, but later
he sent them packing. Achebe's father on the other hand joined the missionaries
and received education from them. Achebe grew up in a house where they sang
hymns and read Bible every night, but he was also interested in his great uncle's
compound and would often take part in pagan festivals of rice and stew. Achebe
lived at the crossroads of culture, and it is from this he has setup this
beautiful novel, which is largely the story about his own tribe.
