Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

 Over the past year, I read a few books written by African authors and after having completed the fourth one, I thought it is time to write a blog post about them. In sequence, they were Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The Devil that Danced on the Water by Aminatta Forna, Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou and Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah. All of them beautifully written and in some ways deeply moving.

Initially, I thought of writing a blog to compare them, but I realized that Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was a masterpiece that deserved a dedicated post. So this post is all about this gem. I have tried my best to remove any spoilers and extract isolated quotes without giving away the plot. But for those who like what they read, it would be advisable to stop before reaching the end of the blog post, as it might become obvious how the book will end.

The book is rich with tribal culture, their beliefs, their closeness to nature and also shows the brutality of tribal life with some of its harshest practices. Some of the harshness resonates with the oppressiveness of the caste system in India. It was surprising to me how some of the practices have parallels, which shows the base human nature of seeking to exploit another.

“And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time. Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders.”

An interesting quote about washing his hands to eat with kings. Was this to do with the custom of hand washing in a royal court before a banquet? And it didn’t matter whose hand was being washed, child or elder, once the hands were washed, he was fit to dine with the king.

“But the war that now threatened was a just war. Even the enemy clan knew that. And so when Okonkwo of Umuofia arrived at Mbaino as the proud and imperious emissary of war, he was treated with great honor and respect, and two days later he returned home with a lad of fifteen and a young virgin.”

The above quote shows how the tribal code guaranteed the safety of the emissary, even under the condition of war. And this same code proves his undoing when dealing with the European colonizer.

“He broke the nut saying: ‘We shall all live. We pray for life, children and a good harvest and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.’”

The above quote which was a part of a speech of acceptance of thanks, was a way of saying that we must share our land, and just like birds need to perch, we need our spot on this earth as well.

The book is also rich with proverbs and quotes:

“There must be a reason for it. A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.”

“Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then you know something is after its life.”

“An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.”

“Looking at a king’s mouth, one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast.”

“Those whose palm kernels had been cracked by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.”

“When mother-cow is chewing grass, its young ones watch its mouth.”

 

“Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy – inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength.”

“Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it. They will take him outside Umuofia as is the custom, and kill him there. But I want you to have nothing to do with his death. He calls you his father.”

“As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. The pot fell in the sand and broke. He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak.”

The above few quotes were some of the most heartbreaking parts of the story which shows the harshness of tribal justice where a mere boy was judged to be put to death for no crime at all other than that he belonged to another clan. Though the sentence is being passed, a village elder advises the main character Okonkwo to not be a part of the boy’s death as the boy had lived in his household for many years and saw him as a father. But Okonkwo still ends up killing the boy when the boy runs to him to be rescued. Okonkwo believes he is doing what was judged, but still ends up grieving for the boy later:

“When did you become a shivering old woman,” Okonkwo asked himself, “you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war. How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.”

 

“Obierika was a man who thought about things. When the will of the goddess had been done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend’s calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for a crime he had committed inadvertently? But he thought for a long time and found no answer. He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife’s twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil, it soiled the others.”

“His life had been ruled by a great passion – to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring. And he had all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting.”

 

The later part of the book deals with the advent of the European. The colonizer begins with building a church and drawing towards it all those who had been excluded from the clan by the harshness of tribal justice.

“That was a source of great sorrow to the leaders of the clan; but many of them believed that the strange faith and the white man’s god would not last. None of his converts was a man whose word was heeded in the assembly of the people. None of them was a man of title. They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu, worthless, empty men. The imagery of an efulefu in the language of the clan was a man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle. Chielo, the priestess of Abala, called the converts the excrement of the clan, and the new faith was a mad dog that had come to eat it up.”

 

“It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt fresh in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul – the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like to drops of the frozen rain melting onto the dry palate of the parching earth.”

 

“It was said that the white man had built a place of judgement in Umuofia to protect the followers of their religion. It was even said that they had hanged one man who had killed a missionary. …. As for the converts, no one could kill them without having to flee the clan, for in spite of their worthlessness they still belonged to the clan. … If they (the converts and missionaries) became more troublesome than they already were they would simply be driven out of the clan.”

 

This next quote send a shiver down my spine for how close it is to the untouchability in the Indian caste system:

“He was a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart – a taboo for ever, and his children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the free-born. He was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to their Great Shrine. Wherever he went he carried with him the mark of his forbidden caste – long, tangled and dirty hair. A razor was taboo to him. An osu (outcast) could not attend an assembly of the free-born, and they, in turn could not shelter under his roof. He could not take any of the four titles of the clan, and when he died he was buried by his kind in the Evil Forest.”

 

“It is not our custom to fight for our gods. Let us not presume to do so now. If we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender. When a man blasphemes, what do we do? Do we go and stop his mouth? No. We put our fingers in our ears to stop us hearing. That is a wise action.”

 

“The white man says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up their religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can longer act as one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

 

“The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia.”

 

“And it was not long before the people began to say that the white man’s medicine was quick in working. The white man’s school produced quick results. A few months in it were enough to make one a court messenger or even a court clerk. From the very beginning religion and education went hand in hand.”

 

And here lies the contrast in the tribal code of conduct and the colonizer’s deceit. The tribal believes that as an emissary, he will receive the same honor from another tribal, but does not realize that the colonizer does not share the same code:

“An Umuofia man does not refuse a call. He may refuse to do as he is asked; he does not refuse to be asked. But the times have changed, and we must be fully prepared.”

 

“We who are here this morning have remained true to our fathers, but our brothers have deserted us and joined a stranger to soil their fatherland. If we fight the stranger we shall hit our brothers and perhaps shed the blood of a clansman. But we must do it. Our fathers never dreamed of such a thing, they never killed their brothers. But a white man never came to them. So we must do what our fathers have never done. Eneke the bird was asked why he was always on the wing and replied: ‘Men have learned to shoot without missing their mark and I have learned to fly without perching on a twig.’”

 

“He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action.”

 

“It is against our custom. It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it. That is why we ask your people to bring it down, because you are strangers.”

 

“That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You dove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…”