Truth, Excellence, Service

TROCINO, Job D. 8-Champaca 5 October 2018

Literary Commentary Mr. John Daryl Wyson

Struggle Changed the Africans’ Strength and Identity

Thesis Statement: When the Europeans started colonizing Nigeria, the native characteristic of
strength and bravery was replaced by cowardice.

Things Fall Apart tells a story about Okonkwo and his clansmen in which their main trait

is being strong and their town, which is Umuofia, is known for being very strong in wars and

battles. Their village was the scariest in the whole tribe. This continued until Okonkwo disobeyed

Ezeudu who told the former that he should not kill Ikemefuna, a teenager who calls Okonkwo

father. This haunts their whole village and as their proverbs say, “If one finger brought oil, it soiled

the others,” (page 125) their village was cursed and they had a lot of difficulties like Okonkwo.

Then, Europeans arrived while Okonkwo was exiled to his motherland which changed Nigeria’s

cultures, beliefs, and traditions. When the Europeans started colonizing Nigeria, the native

characteristic of strength and bravery was replaced by cowardice.

When the Europeans arrived in Umuofia and the surrounding villages. Okonkwo was only

on his third year in exile. After some time, the villagers of Mbanta, Okonkwo’s motherland,

assembled to decide on their action. Most of them spoke with length and fury against the

Europeans. But not all of them viewed the situation like that. Some didn’t agree because they said

that “If we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the

offender,” (page 158) which paints an image of cowardice of the people that live in Mbanta.

Okonkwo angrily disagreed and even tells them that “We should not reason like cowards,” (page

158). The villagers agreed that they should do something but they wanted to “ostracize these men”

(page 159) so that they “would then not be held accountable for their abominations” (page 159)
which according to Okonkwo is a sign of weakness. They “were amused at his (white man’s)

foolishness” (page 176) which was the reason that they let the white man stay. This made Okonkwo

say that men became women while he was still exiled.

The Europeans, like what Spaniards did to colonize the Philippines, used Christianity to

colonize Nigeria. First, they preached the gospel every morning. Then, they asked for a plot of

land to build a church there. The men of high title gave them the Evil Forest which made the

villagers laugh at the Christians. They thought that the white men would die in four days but that

did not happen. This made them believe that the God of the Christians is more powerful than theirs

just like (their god). Because of this, the villagers stopped doing their rituals and worshipping their

gods. Some of the converts did things that before were wrong like boasting openly “that all the

gods were dead impotent and that they were prepared to defy them by burning all their shrines”

(page 157). Some of the outcasts of the villagers even made the church fight the clan. One of the

things that they did was killing the sacred python, the emanation of the god of water. This just

shows that the tribesmen questioned their cultures and joined the Christians.

Near the end of the story, when Okonkwo finally finished his seven-year exile, he

suggested to the people in Umuofia that they should fight and drive foreigners away but his

clan didn’t listen to him. Obrieka quoted twice that “It is already too late. Our own men and our

sons have joined the ranks of the stranger,” and “How do you think we can fight when our own

brothers have against us?” This is far from Okonkwo’s definition of man which is very aggressive

and doesn’t show any feelings openly except for anger. He suggested to them that they should fight

but they didn’t listen to him which drove him to enact revenge on the Europeans alone in his own

way which also led to his demise which is ironic because throughout the novel, he thought of
himself as someone strong and that he can endure all the pains that he will have to go through but

in the end, he hanged himself as foreshadowed by some lines earlier in the book.

Umuofia was a symbol of strength and fierceness is Nigeria long ago. They were the

scariest village in their clan. Sadly, when Okonkwo disobeyed Ezeudu because of his fear of

weakness, things fell apart including the unity of the clan which was completed by the arrival of

Europeans. Their characteristic of strength was replaced by cowardice and weakness which made

the colonization of Africa by the Europeans inevitable.