Thing Fall Apart (Coming Of White Men)

Thing Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe

Discuss how the coming of the White men makes Umuofia “fall apart”. Make reference to the religious, economic, political and social impact of the British culture on the traditions of the clan.

As the novel opens, we get to know Umuofia, one of Igbo’s nine villages, as an organized but somehow different civilization. Chinua Achebe portrays life in this villageas rough and harsh, conveying to the readers that only brave men would succeed in it. As said before, even though these civilizations are stereotyped and seen as primitive, we can clearly see that their lives are completely balanced between faith and order. It is actually astonishing to see how such a different way of life, to what we think and see as the normal life, may be as much or even moreorganized than ours. Even though both civilization are completely organized and function perfectly well, they could never live together in harmony. One would end up consuming the other as they were not meant to coexist. We may think we are educating and helping “uncivilized men”, but we are actually disintegrating their beliefs, their organization, their politics and their language. We are notaiding them, but destroying their religion and their society. We are, in other words, banishing their culture. A culture that will be lost forever. Hence, we may say, that in many ways the coming of White men made Umuofia “fall apart”.
To begin with, the coming of the white men made Umuofia fell apart as their religion was greatly affected. The village of Umuofia was sustained by their beliefs andtheir gods, who criticized and punished the lazy men and those who were not worthy of worshipping them. Therefore the coming of a new monotheist and more peaceful religion brought huge changes in some of Umuofia’s most important traditions. These white men questioned most of Umuofia’s beliefs such as the dangers that inhabited the evil forest by setting their livings there. This first actionbrought great controversy in the clan as people thought that whoever stayed in the forest for a certain period of time would painfully die. The resistance these white men showed to that “evil force” led many people to get interested in the new religion. People suddenly began questioning their own beliefs and traditions, questioning why they should venerate gods who were bound to punish, and not one Godwho was merciful towards humanity. The village divided in to those who remained steadfast to their traditions, and those who began to adopt the new ones. Society completely turned over after these events. Those who turned into Christianity were seen as the elite of the society. The clan was getting weaker and weaker every day, as more and more people turned into Christianity. The time soon comethat the clansmen had not enough forces to control the missionaries. They should have reacted before, but only the exiled Okonkwo was brave enough to face the white men. Hence, we may conclude that the imposition of a new religion severely damaged the village by, splitting it in two, reducing their forces and their willing to fight, and proving most of their beliefs false. Summarizing this, itmassively weakened the most powerful and feared clan of the nine villages.
Economically, Umuofia was also affected by the arrival of white men. Hitherto, Umuofia had presented us a hierarchical society, were men who showed to be brave, hard workers and strong enough, occupied the highest places in society, while lazy and unmanly men were found at the bottom of the pyramid. Since, the missionariesarrived, things turned around, the lazy and humble men who decided to accept and worship the new god began to get richer and richer, while the hard worker farmers were left behind. Money began circulating in the tribe but only those who turned into Christianity had it. Hence, no one interested in trading, and so, farmers were getting poorer every day. We may say that Umuofia was not destroyed...