Name: Saiba Bano

B.A. (H) English- 5th Semester

Roll No.: 2349

Group- F

Question: Critically analyse Achebe’s politics of representation in his

recuperating the pre-colonial past of the Igbo community, influenced by his
own contemporary socio-political and historical position.

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic, known for
his contribution to modern African Literature. Things Fall Apart is his first
novel, which is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English and in
which he narrates pre-colonial life of Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans
during the late nineteenth century. In this essay, I intend to discuss the need
for recuperation of pre-colonial history in response to mainstream history,
which is merely a product of power relations embedded within colonial
societies, as can be understood using post structuralist theories, which talk
about the role of power and discourse in formation of historical records.
Recuperation of history, hence, recovers voices from the past, negates
misrepresentation, and helps in deconstructing colonial identities. In Things
Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe challenges the European stereotypes of African
culture and recreates history of pre-colonised Nigeria, its culture and traditions
by describing the Igbo community- their social, economic, and religious
practices, superstitions, and gender roles by employing an assemblage of
characters, like Okonwo, who was a slave to the hyper masculine patriarchal
society, Obereika, the voice of reason, and many women characters, who
though oppressed, also show their power and strength from time to time, as
depicted by Ekwefi, Enzima and Chielo. Writing in 1950s, at the cusp of
decolonisation and shortly after the 2nd World War ended and when several
countries were fighting against imperialism and for freedom, Achebe writes as
a post-colonial subject and a product of colonisation, hence presenting a
colonial reconstruction of the history of his ancestors, using his gender politics,
religious beliefs, as well as his colonial education.

History, as we know it, is the representation and construction of the past from
particular perspectives. Therefore, what exists today as mainstream historical
narratives of pre-colonial Africa are merely a product of power relations
embedded within the colonial times. Using post-structuralist theories of
Foucault and Derrida, we can understand the role of power in discourse. This
approach is useful as it allows one to understand and problematize issues of
discourse, meaning, knowledge, epistemology, power and metanarratives in
relation to the production of history in general and the treatment of the
experiences of the subaltern groups in historical accounts and narratives in
particular. Existing history neglects the perspective of the down trodden and
reconstructs the past through the voice of the powerful. Recuperation helps in
recovering voices from the past, negating misrepresentation, and in
deconstructing colonial identities. Historical accounts of Africa are filled with
stereotypes and prejudices. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness describes Africans as
barbaric, voiceless and faceless- dehumanising them. Achebe aims to
recuperate the pre-colonial past of his ancestors, challenging the European
stereotype of African cultures at the time by showing the world how the Igbo
people lived, and the effects that the European imperialists had on their lives.

Through Things Fall Apart, Achebe aims to revive the cultural history of his
ancestors, the Igbo community and has employed an assemblage of characters
for the purpose. He shows various aspects of the society including economic,
religious, cultural and judicial. He describes the society as organised, dynamic
and self-critical with fixed gender roles and division of labour, as opposed to
the stereotypical barbaric representation. He employs an omniscient narrator
that provides insights into the thoughts of most characters and hence never
letting the reader assume that the Igbo people are homogenous and could be
summed up in one single character. Things Fall Apart recognizes the
hyperbolic representation of gender politics in Igbo society, while
acknowledging the necessary nuance that gives Achebe's women some agency
and prominence; for instance Cheilo, who altered as the powerful Orator
Agbala. He criticizes the hyper masculinity of the society in Oknowko's killing of
his adopted son, Ikemefuna and yet highlights the unique roles women had to
play, for instance the role women played in economy and agriculture. Achebe
revives the cultural and religious practices of his ancestors, defining their
designating of Nature, Earth and dead ancestors as Gods, also illustrating their
superstitions and various religious practices, their source of morality and
beliefs based mostly on agriculture. He outlines in detail the cultural festivals
the community celebrated, like the Week of Peace they celebrate in honour of
Ani, the Earth Goddess, the Feast of the New Yam and the wrestling, which
celebrated the physical masculine strength, and was yet enjoyed by men and
women alike, from the youngest to the oldest, showing the all-inclusivity of the
community. Achebe has represented the organic conflict between tribes and
the judicial system they had, law and order being maintained by the people of
the community. He also highlights the fact that the advent of Christian
missionary did not just superimpose on their religious beliefs and cultural
practices but also sabotaged their culture and overtook the law. For example,
Okonkwo was exiled for seven years for murder while Aneto was hanged to
death for a similar crime by the White court.

There are many factors that shape Achebe’s politics of representation- his
religious beliefs, his colonial education, gender politics and the various
contemporary movements. These influence his biases and prejudices, which in
turn overshadow his representation. Achebe was born and raised in a
traditionally Igbo village called Ogidi. Though he was also educated in English,
his upbringing makes him a reliable source for the culture and people he
describes in his novel. Since his parents were converts to Christianity, Achebe
stood at a crossroads of traditional culture and Christian influence. While
reading his novels critically, one must keep in mind Achebe as a post-colonial
subject, a product of imperialism and a part of the colonial bourgeois. His
education was in a school modelled on the British public school, and funded by
the colonial administration. He became fascinated with world religions and
traditional African cultures. On reading colonial accounts of his ancestors,
Achebe was so disturbed by portrayal of Nigerian characters in books written
by Whites as either savages or buffoons that he decided to become a writer.
Achebe recognised his dislike for the African protagonist in such books as a
sign of the author's cultural ignorance. Being educated in English, he wrote his
novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in
African literature. Using English allowed his books to be read in the colonial
ruling nations. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart shortly after the Second World
War ended and when struggle for Freedom from imperialism was at its peak in
various countries and the idea of democracy and sovereignty was emerging.
This was a time of the Cold War and Pan-Africanism and the beginnings of
Apartheid. Achebe was also influenced by the feminist movement that had
erupted across the globe, owing to the setting up of United Nations which
brought the issue of women’s rights on the forefront. These greatly impacted
his gender politics, colonial identity and cultural awareness as is well reflected
in his novels.

Hence, a critical reading of Things Fall Apart gives us an insight into another
perspective to pre-colonial history as opposed to the stereotypical European
representations, throwing light onto the culture and practices of the Nigerians,
particularly the Igbo community, highlighting the community’s self-criticality
and well-structured division of labour, thus humanizing those that had been
dehumanised by the Whites. The novel also helps us in understanding
Achebe’s position as an author and as a post-colonial subject, who uses his
colonial education, his gender politics and his religious beliefs while chronicling
the history of his ancestors- from pre-colonial times to the advent of
imperialism. Chinua Achebe, by his use of English language for this portrayal
succeeded in making his version of the past accessible not only to the Igbo
people, but people across Africa and other countries, reaching both the
colonised and the colonisers.