Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is certainly a political work because the author portrays the traditional Igbo life and how it has been torn to pieces by colonalism. The portagonist, Okonkwo, incarnates this traditional life. The tragedy of Okonkwo emanates from his resistance to change, from his imperviousness to the allurements of modernism born of European cultural traits.
The disruption of Igbo traditional life is the last straw for him, hence his tragedy. The Christian missionaries labeled everything African "pagan"; objects of art were either taken to enrich the art galleries and museums of Europe or destroyed. There was almost an imperceptible cessation of language development. (Achebe 29)
Christianity and European cultures repudiated African laws and customs. A Christian fanatic slays the royal python in Mbata, which could have served well in a zoological garden. Another Christian, Enock, exposes an egwugwu in Umuofia. Among the villagers conflict and disunity set in. The newly converted Christians began to look down on their friends and relatives who had not accepted the faith.
Things Fall Apart expresses the author's nostalgia for the traditions and beliefs of the Igbos before European colonialism. It points out that the Africans in general, and Nigerians in particular, had a high level of value system prior to the advent of Christianity. He asserts that Nigerian traditional culture and value system were far superior to the European with its extreme individualism and materialism. (Achebe 37)
Okonkwo is not looking for a paradise irrevovcably lost when Europeans intruded upon African cultures, nor is he dreaming of a Golden Age in the far-off past, when the Africans dwelt in undisturbed utopian peace and ease. But in the Igbo society of his dreams father and son, men and women enjoyed common beliefs, common liturgies, common value system and simple expectations. One.......
