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Palak Sahu

Dr. Ashma Sharma

Postcolonial Literature

27 April 2022

A discussion on Okonkwo, the central character of Things Fall Apart, as the epitome of the

complex cultural ambiguity of the Igbo people.

Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart articulated a new vision of the African world and

portrayed a distinguishing and more penetrating image of its culture than previously written

about. It vividly presents the coherent social structure and a universe of meanings and values

through her novel’s depiction of Igbo culture. It challenged the simplified representation that the

West offered of Africa as a formless area of life, as "an area of darkness" devoid of human

significance and in need of civilizing. It shows the richness of their culture without

sentimentalizing or glorifying it. It also explores the flaws, while indulging in its richness which

makes it one of the rawest depictions of Africa. Emmanuel Obeichina comments, "the integrative

technique in which background and atmosphere are interlaced with the action of the narrative

must be regarded as Achebe's greatest achievement". It has been described as "the archetypal

modern African novel in English" for its creative deployment of the language of the colonizer in

penning the African landscape. Despite the novel's evident contestation of the colonial enterprise,

as expressed in the closing chapters and reinforced by its ironic ending, readers have always been
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intrigued by Achebe's moral and cultural ambiguity surrounding his main character, Okonkwo,

and the narrative dissonances that this creates.

Achebe presents us with a dynamic framework of social interactions and interpersonal relations

that lay the affective foundation for what we might call a collective consciousness, one that is

properly commensurate with a sphere of existence and an order of experience that contribute to

its institutional strength by virtue of their strict confinement. It's instructive in this regard to

mention the novel's physical setting's limited scope. This is established in the very beginning of

the narrative devoted to the central character, Okonkwo: “Okonkwo was well known throughout

the nine villages, and even beyond”. It depicts the tribe's limited awareness of its location in

space, of its specific place in the world which can be later contrasted and related after colonial

domination.

Before the invasion of their land and the adultering of their culture by foreign powers, the Igbo

people were undisturbed by the present, and they had no nostalgia for the past. In the novel,

Achebe portrays the people who are now trapped in a cultural ambiguity. On the one hand, there

is the traditional way of life pulling on the Umuofia people and one man's struggle to maintain

that cultural integrity against an overwhelming force of colonial imperialism. On the other hand,

we have the European style which, as presented, seems to represent the future, a new community

of the so-called "civilized world." This African man, Okonkwo, and the entire society of

Umuofia struggle to make a choice between the old and the new. Achebe presents in Igbo

people, the desire to become a member of European-style society, which has its own attraction.

The Igbo culture is revealed as technologically backward but remarkably complex. He portrays
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stereotypic white colonialists as rigid people exhibiting imperialistic intentions, whereas the Igbo

are highly conscious individuals open to new ideas. Amidst this conflict, some people, including

Okonkwo, see this shift as a means of enjoying the spoils of twentieth-century civilization.

Okonkwo realizes that this transition has to be done at the cost of his identity and his values. The

hero and protagonist of the story epitomizes the nobility and the rigidity of traditional culture. He

has been portrayed as a symbol of the failed inheritor of Igbo culture which he advocated in his

lifetime and took the decision of committing suicide against his own Igbo cultural belief.

Okonkwo, son of Unoka, is a respectable and influential leader within the Igbo community of

Umuofia in eastern Nigeria. With the beginning of the novel, Achebe writes that his fame ‘rested

on solid personal achievements’, unlike his father, Unoka who is weak and indolent and who

often borrowed money from others spending it on palm wine and merriment with friends.

Okonkwo’s heated temperament has been frequently highlighted in the novel and we are told that

‘He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father.’We note that

Okonkwo was ruled by one passion that was to hate everything that his father Unoka had always

loved. He believed that gentleness and idleness were the traits of a loser and this stood in contrast

to the definition of heroism and masculinity in Igbo culture. Patrick C. Nnoromele, in his essay,

‘The Plight of a Hero in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart’ writes, “A hero, in the Igbo cultural belief

system, is one with great courage and strength to work against destabilizing forces of his

community, someone who affects, in a special way, the destinies of others by pursuing his own.

He is a man noted for special achievements. His life is defined by ambivalence because his

actions must stand in sharp contrast to ordinary behavior. So a hero is not made in isolation;

rather he is a product of the social matrix within which he operates” . We see that Okonkwo
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wanted to be the hero but the road to heroism in Igbo is fraught with many difficulties. Okonkwo

kills his adopted child, Ikemefuna, to show his society that he is unlike his father, and is able to

carry the legacy of Igbo culture; which he believes is manly. He beats his wives and works hard

to follow the culture, despite the influence of Christian missionaries. Nwoye, his biological son

who is greatly attached to his brother, Ikemefuna is heartbroken at his death. He is deeply

saddened by the cultural obligations that his father had to fulfill to be called a hero and which

invited Okonkwo to kill his adopted son, who revered and deeply loved him as his father.

Okonkwo may be guilty of his act but his decision of carrying the legacy of Igbo culture

overrides any emotions. It is this act that essentially drives Nwoye towards Christianity.

Okonkwo is of the opinion that traditional men have lost their place in society and cannot be

termed ‘worthy’ anymore as Western culture had softened their resolve; he believed men have

been turned to weaklings by colonization and Christianity. Umofia, a man who seemed to have

been impressed by beliefs of the colonizers becomes Okonkwo’s greatest roadblock as “when he

speaks, he moves our men to impotence”. Ibgo people have been described as peace lovimg and

there’s a popular adage that says, “a man cannot go to war against a clan and win”, however

Okonkwo is seen taking the supposed societal abuse into his own hand by avenging himself as

against the wish and desire of the clan. He kills the messenger of the Whiteman who tries to stop

the clan’s meeting; but when he saw other messengers escaping and realised that Umuofia would

not go to war.

“Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they

had let other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in

that tumult.”

As a result of this action, he realizes that he is on his own and will not get any protection from
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his own, he thus commits the act of hanging himself. This act of hanging is itself cowardice and

contravenes the belief of the same society he claims to be protecting. Only a weakling commits

suicide in Igbo traditional context. Thus here, can it be said that Okonkwo is a weakling when it

comes to anger and temper management? Or that it is the colonial psychological trauma/torture

that he cannot withstand? In both the cases, we see him as a complex character torn between this

cultural tension.

Furthermore, a detrimental flaw is his unwilling attitude to accept the changes taking place in the

traditional society in which he grew up and was used to. He is not able to adapt to the clashing

values of both his society and the western society and the revolving nature of the society in

which he lives. He can not accept the fact that in a colonized society, he would be an average

male, as against the distinguished and powerful hyper-male that he is in the traditional Igbo

society. His anger and temper conflict the very own tradition and culture he has imbibed and

wants to protect, he beats his wives often, but we see a disparity that this would not be a major

offence to Igbo society, but during Peace week it is and that Okonkwo hurled up in anger breaks

this rule. Thus, Okonkwo is punished and made to atone for the sin of beating his wife because it

was carried out during the peace week. It is through Okonkwo that Achebe highlights individual

faults of the two cultures.

The young man who was taken as compensation for the killing of a lady in their village is given

to the care of Okonkwo who later murders the boy as we have discussed. The killing was

sanctioned and demanded by the Oracle, it was supposed to complete the cycle of violence that

brought the boy to Umuofia in the first place. In Violence and the Sacred, Gene Girard writes
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that “society is seeking to deflect upon a relatively indifferent victim, a “sacrificeable” victim,

the violence that would otherwise be vented on its own members, the people it most desires to

protect”. Yet Okonkwo’s act does not successfully finish the violence. When he causes a second

death, albeit accidentally, he accepts the punishment of exile together with his family. In his

absence, the clansmen, dressed in “garbs of war” set fire to his house and barns and kill his

animals. His life is wiped out so that community may heal and regain order. As Ojaide comments

“order to Africans is perceived as natural and ritualistic to ensure harmony, the absence of which

will bring calamity to the whole group. For this reason, an individual could be sacrificed to avoid

a war, a plague, or any anticipated communal disaster. In other words, the individual can be

sacrificed for the well-being of the community.” The clan sacrifices Okonkwo by exiling him to

appease the earth goddess, against whom Okonkwo has committed three sins; he has beaten his

wife on a day of peace, he’s killed Ikemefuna when he was warned not to, and he has

accidentally shot another man. Okonkwo embraces exile. This procedure ends the violence as

Girard suggests in primitive cultures. The clan as an organic unity establishes its moral

continuity. Whether the culture is appreciated or not from a western point of view, what they do

on a daily basis allows them to function in the world and to make sense of it.

Achebe’s presentation of tribal beliefs against Christianity does not create a hierarchy of one

over the other. The two religions are equally developed, equally irrational, and equally effective

which is reflected through Okonkwo. Just as Okonkwo rebelled against his father, Okonkwo’s

son Nwoye was rebelling against his father and all of the values that Okonkwo represents.

Primarily through Okonkwo’s character, we see how the world of Igbo is torn between this

cultural ambiguity and conflict and how the title implies the falling apart of the Igbo culture and
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also the beliefs and the death of the main character, Okonkwo.

Bibliography:

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Ballantine Books, 1959.

Irele, Abiola. The Crisis of Cultural Memory in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Akers Rhoads, Diana. “Culture in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart” African Studies Review.

Gikandi, Simon. “Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Culture” Research in African

Literatures, Vol.32, No.3 (Autumn, 2001).

Nnoromele, Patrick. The Plight of a Hero in Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart.