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t....Culture in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall ApartAuthor(s): Diana Akers RhoadsSource: African Studies Review, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Sep., 1993), pp. 61-72Published by: African Studies AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/524733 .Accessed: 02/01/2011 07:27Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=afsta. .Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.African Studies Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to AfricanStudies Review.http://www.jstor.org

Culture in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart Diana Akers Rhoads Trying to avoid lending authority to any one culture over others, current advocates of multiculturalism generally emphasize the appre- ciation of difference among cultures. Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina today provide horrifying evidence that difference can have precisely the opposite impact. On the one hand, difference can be necessary to na- tional self-confidence, but, on the other, it can stir destructive tribal or national pride. Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart represents the cul- tural roots of the Igbos in order to provide self-confidence, but at the same time he refers them to universal principles which vitiate their destructive potential. Seeing his duty as a writer in a new nation as showing his people the dignity that they lost during the colonial pe- riod, he sets out to illustrate that before the European colonial powers entered Africa, the Igbos "had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity" (1973, 8). Achebe, however, cannot achieve his goal merely by repre- senting difference; rather he must depict an Igbo society which moderns can see as having dignity. What is remarkable about his Igbos is the degree to which they have achieved the foundations of what most people seek today--democratic institutions, tolerance of other cultures, a balance of male and female principles, capacity to change for the bet- ter or to meet new circumstances, a means of redistributing wealth, a vi- able system of morality, support for industriousness, an effective system of justice, striking and memorable poetry and art.' Achebe apppears to have tested Igbo culture against the goals of modern liberal democracy and to have set out to show how the Igbo meet those standards. Critics who have warned of the dangers of presenting a Eurocentric vision of Achebe's novel and/or have advised immersing students in African culture as a means of getting them to recognize and appreciate difference among cultures might object to the focus here (for example, Nichols, Traore and Lubiano in Lindfors 1991). These critics are correct in noting that one of Achebe's aims is to present the peculiar- ities of the Igbo culture, especially the beauties and wisdom of its art and institutions, though, as argued below, Achebe also presents its weaknesses which require change and which aid in its destruction. A further aim, however, is the presentation of a common humanity which African Studies Review, Volume 36, Number 2 (September 1993), pp. 61-72.

AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW transcends the European and the African, which belongs to both but is peculiar to neither. Achebe asserts in an essay on teaching Things Fall Apart that one general point...is fundamental and essential to the appreciation of African issues by Americans. Africans are people in the same way that Americans, Europeans, Asians, and others are people.... Although the action of Things Fall Apart takes place in a setting with which most Americans are unfamiliar, the characters are nor- mal people and their events are real human events. The necessity even to say this is part of a burden imposed on us by the customary denigration of Africa in the popular imagination of the West (Lindfors 1991, 21). In addition to representing elements of common humanity, Achebe emphasizes certain basic political institutions which might form the foundation of a modern African state. Written at a time when Nigeria was about to achieve its independence from Britain, Things Fall Apart looks like the work of a founder of sorts. Achebe has often said that "art has a social purpose and can influence things" (Granqvist 1990, 28). Such statements suggest that Achebe is not trying simply to reproduce Igbo history or only to lend it dignity. If he were, he could have fol- lowed the pattern of other historians. As Dan Izevbaye has argued, African historians of the late 1950s and early 1960s focused on past African empires in order to improve the status of African history, and there is much evidence of common ethnic identity among the peoples of southern Nigeria. Achebe, however, writing Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s, chooses to ignore the evidence of what Izevbaye calls a "rich material civilization" in Africa in order to portray the Igbo as isolated and individual, evolving their own "humanistic civilization" (Lindfors 1991, 45-51). Achebe does not want to write about African empire, but about democratic roots in Igbo culture. He seems to write Things Fall Apart in part as a statement of what the future might be if Nigeria were to take advantage of the promising aspects of its past and to eliminate the unpromising ones. That Achebe sees the best of Igbo village life as offering some- thing of the ideal is suggested by an interview in 1988 with Raoul Granqvist. Achebe, talking of the importance of ideals, refers to the example of village life based on a kind of equality. "This," he says, is what the Igbo people chose, the small village entity that was com- pletely self-governing....The reason why they chose it [this system] was because they wanted to be in control of their lives. So if the community says that we will have a meeting in the market place to- morrow, everybody should go there, or could go there. And every- body could speak (Cranquist 1990, 43). 62

Culture in Achebe's Things Fall Apart Since Achebe is not the first to write of Africa, he must dispel old images in order to create a true sense of his people's dignity. Works such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness see Africans as primitives repre- senting Europeans at an earlier stage of civilization (for example, Conrad 1988, 35-36) or imaging all humanity's primal urges which civi- lization hides (Conrad 1988, 49). Firsthand European accounts of the colonial period, such as the district commissioner's Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger in Things Fall Apart, reduce the African experience to an anthropological study told from the white man's point of view (p. 191).2 Achebe reveals that the Europeans' ideas of Africa are mistaken. Perhaps the most important mistake of the British is their belief that all civilization progresses, as theirs has, from the tribal stage through monarchy to parliamentary government. On first arriving in Mbanta, the missionaries expect to find a king (p. 138), and, discovering no functionaries to work with, the British set up their own hierarchical system which delegates power from the queen of England through district commissioners to native court messengers-foreigners who do not belong to the village government at all (p. 160). Since the natives from other parts of Nigeria feel no loyalty to the villages where they enact the commands of the district commissioners, the British have superimposed a system which leads to bribery and corruption rather than to progress. The Igbos, on the other hand, have developed a democratic sys- tem of government. For great decisions the ndichie, or elders, gather together all of Umuofia (pp. 13, 180, 183). The clan rules all, and the collective will of the clan can be established only by the group. Further, as is appropriate in a democracy, each man is judged on his own merits, "according to his worth," not those of his father, as would be appropriate in an aristocracy or an oligarchy (p. 11). Within this system the Igbos as a whole reveal themselves more tolerant of other cultures than the Europeans, who merely see the Igbos as uncivilized. In other words, the Igbo are in some ways superior to those who come to convert them. Uchendu, for example, is able to see that "what is good among one people is an abomination with others" (p. 129), but the white men tell the Igbos that Igbo customs are bad and that their gods are not true gods at all (pp. 135, 162). Unlike the Europeans, the Igbos believe that it "is good that a man should worship the gods and spirits of his fathers" even if these gods are not the Igbos' gods (p. 175). While the European tradition allows men to fight their brothers over religion, the Igbo tradition forbids them to kill each other: it is an abomination to kill a member of the clan. Further, the long history of Crusades and holy wars and of religious persecution in Europe occurs because men can fight for gods, but it is not the Igbo "custom to fight for [their] gods." Rather, heresy is a matter only between the man and the god (pp. 148, 150). 63

AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW The Christian missionary in Mbanta objects to the Igbo gods on the belief that they tell the Igbos to kill each other (p. 135), and, in fact, the gods are invoked in the fighting of wars against another village--though not indiscriminately, only when the war is just. At times the oracle forbids the Umuofians to go to war (p. 16). The Europeans in Things Fall Apart, however, kill far more in the name of religion than the Igbos: the British, for example, wipe out the whole village of Abame in retaliation for the killing of one white man (p. 129). The Igbos do not fight each other because they are primitive. Achebe implies the existence of the conditions in Nigeria which his- torically led to the need for war as a matter of survival. The land, con- sisting of rock underlying an almost nonexistent topsoil, was very poor and thus would not support large numbers of people. Planting soon depleted the soil, and so villagers were forced to move further and further afield to find land which would yield a crop to support them. Okonkwo's father, the lazy Unoka, has little success planting yams be- cause he sows on "exhausted farms that take no labor to clear." Meanwhile, his neighbors, crossing "seven rivers to make their farms," plant the "virgin forests" (p. 20). As the population of Nigeria increased, land and food were insufficient to provide for everyone. The novel seems to make the turning point in the alteration from plenty to scarcity some time between the generation of Okonkwo's Uncle Uchendu and that of Okonkwo, for Uchendu speaks of "the good days when a man had friends in distant clans" (p. 127).3 Although the state of constant warfare was hardly desirable, at least it provided a means for survival. In modern times, however, the villagers have no recourse when they are starving: in Anthills of the Savannah Achebe remarks that the starving people of Abazon cannot find sustenance by taking over the land of another village (1987, 30). Achebe implies here that the modern Nigerian government is not an improvement on the destroyed past culture. In Anthills the president spends lavishly on himself while refusing money to the Abazons because they did not vote for him. The Christian missionary, then, is mistaken about the perversity of the Igbo religion: some wars are inevitable if the clan is to survive, but war is not indiscriminate. Religion is a factor both in limiting war and in supporting it when it is just. In the latter case war might be seen as a deterrent to future crimes against Umuofia. Neighboring clans try to avoid war with Umuofia because it is "feared" as a village "powerful in war" (p. 15), and when someone in Mbaino kills a Umuofian woman, "[e]ven the enemy clan know that" the threatened war is "just" (p. 16). In fact, the Igbo have a highly developed system of religion which works as effectively as Christianity. The Igbo religion and the 64

Culture in Achebe's Things Fall Apart Christian religion are equally irrational, but both operate along similar lines to support morality. To the Christians it seems crazy to worship wooden idols, but to the Igbos it seems crazy to say that God has a son when he has no wife (p. 136). Both systems of religion look to only one supreme god, Chukwu for the Umuofians (p. 164). Both supreme gods have messengers on earth, Christ for the British and the wooden idols for the Igbos. Both religions support humility; the Igbos speak to Chukwu through messengers because they do not want to worry the master, but they deal with Chukwu directly if all else fails (p. 165). Both gods are vengeful only when disregarded. If a person disobeys Chukwu, the god is to be feared, but Chukwu "need not be feared by those who do his will" (p. 165).4 In addition to revealing that the original Igbo religion is not infe- rior to Christianity, Achebe makes it clear that the demoralizing cur- rent state of political affairs in Africa is the result of European inter- ference rather than simply the natural outgrowth of the native culture. The Igbos have a well-established and effective system of justice which the British replace with the system of district commissioners and court messengers. Disputes in the tribe which cannot be resolved in other ways come before the egwugwu, the greatest masked spirits of the clan, played by titled villagers. Hearing witnesses on both sides, for example, the tribunal comes to a decision in the case of Uzowoli, who beat his wife, and his indignant in-laws, who took his wife and chil- dren away. In this dispute the egwugwu try to assuage each side. They warn Uzowoli that it "is not bravery when a man fights a woman" and tell him to take a pot of wine to his in-laws; they tell Odukwe to return Uzowoli's wife if he comes with wine. The system helps to dispel hard feelings by refusing "to blame this man or to praise that"; rather the egwugwu's duty is simply "to settle the dispute" (p. 88). Although the conditions in Nigeria require warlike men for the survival of the village, the Igbos have realized the danger of such men to their own society. Warriors must be fierce to their enemies and gentle to their own people, yet spirited men can bring discord to their own so- cieties. The tribe has institutions to control the anger of its own men. For instance, there is a Week of Peace sacred to the earth goddess. Moreover, as indicated earlier, killing members of one's own clan is for- bidden, and even inadvertent death such as Okonkwo's killing of Ezeudu's son must be expiated. Recognizing the need for Okonkwo to dis- tinguish between friends and enemies, Ogbuefi Ezeudu calls on Okonkwo to tell him to have nothing to do with the killing of Ikemefuna because the boy is too much like a family member: "He calls you his father" (p. 56). The entire Igbo society is based upon the combining of the male and female principles.5 The male is strong and warlike, and the female is tender and supportive in times of adversity. Uncle Uchendu explains 65

AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW this balance in his explication of the saying "Mother is Supreme": It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fa- therland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you (p. 124). In the Igbo system the earth goddess acts as a counterbalance to male strength. If the Igbos have not achieved the ideal balance of male and fe- male, they do seek to limit a male's abuse of his control over the female, and there are even indications that elements in the society see their wives as equals. The tribe's saying that it is not bravery to fight with a woman recurs in Things Fall Apart (see the discussion of Uzowoli above) and Arrow of God (p. 64), and Achebe depicts in-laws as objecting to ill treatment of a wife and as acting to prevent it (Things, 86-89; Arrow, 11-12, 61-64). While the tribe does denigrate the womanly by derisively call- ing fear and sensitivity agbala, or "woman," it also includes men like Ndulue who treat their wives as equals: Ndulue and his wife were al- ways said to be of "one mind," and Ndulue "could not do anything without telling her" (p. 66). Achebe suggests that not only does Ndulue's example exist, but it is also passed on in a song about this great warrior whom the rest of the tribe can admire (p. 66).6 Okonkwo's ability in war makes him dangerous in peace, for he is harsh with his wives and children and even kills Ikemefuna because he is afraid of being thought weak like his father. His harshness be- comes sacrilege. During the Week of Peace he will not stop beating his wife, "not even for fear of a goddess" (p. 31). And Obierika sees Okonkwo's part in Ikemefuna's death as a crime against the Earth: "it is the kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families" (p. 64). Ultimately, Okonkwo's destruction is tragic because, although it is brought about by the unjust system of the white man, Okonkwo is responsible in part because of his defiance of the sacred laws of the clan.7 In addition to supplying a workable system of government and in- stitutions supporting moderation and morality, the Igbos have an eco- nomic system which redistributes wealth in a manner preventing any one tribesman from becoming supreme. As Robert Wren asserts, ozo re- quires that every ambitious man of wealth periodically distribute his excess (1980, 78). In order to take any of the titles of the clan, a man has to give up a portion of his wealth to the clan. Okoye, in Things Fall Apart, is gathering all his resources in preparation for the "very expen- sive" ceremony required to take the Idemili title, the third highest in 66

Culture in Achebe's Things Fall Apart the land (p. 10). As Achebe explains in Arrow of God, long ago there had been a fifth title among the Igbos of Umuaro-the title of king: But the conditions for its attainment had been so severe that no man had ever taken it, one of the conditions being that the man aspiring to be king must first pay the debts of every man and every woman in Umuaro (1969, 209). Along with the representation of the viability of Igbo institu- tions in a world without Europeans, Achebe gives a sense of the beauty of Igbo art, poetry and music by showing how it is interwoven with the most important institutions of the clan and by creating a sense of the Igbo language through his own use of English. The decorating of walls and bodies or the shaving of hair in "beautiful patterns" recurs in vari- ous ceremonies. Music and dancing are a part of Igbo rituals which call for talent such as that of Obiozo Ezikolo, king of all the drums. Stories become the means of inciting men to strength, of teaching about the gods, and of generally passing on the culture. Okonkwo tells "masculine stories of violence and bloodshed," but the mothers talk of the tor- toise's "wily ways," the techniques available to the weak, and of the pity of the gods (pp. 52, 94). To show how conversation is respected, Achebe throughout illustrates how careful the Igbos are in their choice of words so that they can make a point without offending their listener or listeners. As Achebe says, for the Igbos "proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten" (p. 10). Thus, for example, Unoka refuses to pay Okoye by asserting that "the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them"-in other words, Unoka will pay his large debts before his small ones (p. 11). Achebe himself uses proverbs to explain his culture: "As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings." This proverb embodies tribal recognition that through hard work even a person such as Okonkwo can overcome his father's ill repute to make himself "one of the greatest men of his time" (p. 12). And the proverbs help to establish the morality on which the tribe depends. Most villagers, for example, though respecting industry and success, dislike the pride which causes a man like Okonkwo to deal brusquely with other men: "'Looking at a king's mouth,' said an old man, 'one would think he never sucked at his mother's mouth'" (p. 28). In addition to portraying the dignity of Igbo village life, Achebe makes it clear that the Igbos did not need the white man to carry them into the modern world. Within the Igbo system change and progress were possible. When old customs were ineffective, they were gradually discarded. Formerly the punishment for breaking the Week of Peace was not so mild as that meted out to Okonkwo, an offering to Ani. In the past "a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through 67

AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW the village until he died. But after a while this custom was stopped be- cause it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve" (p. 33). Such changes were likely to be brought about by men who, like Obierika, "thought about things," such as why a man should suffer for an inad- vertent offense or why twins should be thrown away (pp. 117-18). Although Achebe has the Igbo culture meet certain standards, he does not idealize the past. Probably the most troubling aspect of Igbo culture for modern democrats is the law that requires the killing of Ikemefuna for the sins of his clan. Achebe's description of Ikemefuna makes him a sympathetic character, and it is difficult not to side with Nwoye in rebelling against this act. Nevertheless, Igbo history does not seem so different from that of the British who think they are civi- lizing the natives. A form of the principle of an eye for an eye is involved in Mbaino's giving Mbanta a young virgin and a young man to replace the "daughter of Mbanta" killed in Mbaino. It is the Old Testament principle cast in a more flexible and gentler mold, for the killing of Ikemefuna is dependent on the Oracle and thus is not, like the Old Testament law, inevitable. Further, the sacrifices of the virgin to replace the lost wife and of the young boy become a way to "avoid war and bloodshed" while still protecting one's tribe from injustices against it (p. 12). Achebe, then, seems to depict this episode in terms which relate it to the development of the British, while also sympathizing with the impulses to change in Obierika and with the revulsion of Nwoye against the sacrifice which to him is so like the abandonment of twins in the Evil Forest (pp. 59-60). The sacrifice of the virgin, of course, is also a reminder of the sacrifices of young virgins in the classical literature which is so basic a part of the British heritage. Achebe presents the past as admirable, but not without flaws which can be eliminated. He does so both because he holds his own art to a standard of truth and because he sees that the history he is trying to re-create to give his people dignity will be credible only if it in- cludes faults: This is where the writer's integrity comes in. Will he be strong enough to overcome the temptation to select only those facts which flatter him? If he succumbs he will have branded himself as an un- trustworthy witness. But it is not only his personal integrity as an artist which is involved. The credibility of the world he is attempt- ing to re-create will be called to question and he will defeat his own purpose if he is suspected of glossing over inconvenient facts. We cannot pretend that our past was one long, technicolour idyll. We have to admit that like other people's pasts ours had its good as well as its bad sides (1973, 9). Further, these faults explain in part why the British are able to de- stroy the old Igbo culture. 68

Culture in Achebe's Things Fall Apart Those who initially convert to Christianity are members of the clan who have not been fully incorporated into clan life. The first woman convert in Mbanta has had four sets of twins who have been thrown away. Once the osu, the outcasts, see that the church accepts twins and other matters seen by the clan as abominations, they join the new church. Nwoye, the gentle son who cannot accept Okonkwo's harshness and especially his killing of Ikemefuna, finds in the poetry of Christianity the promise of brotherhood. Achebe makes it clear that the poetry rather than the rationality of Christianity wins Nwoye's "callow mind" (p. 137). The British also control the people through fear, trade, educa- tion and treachery. The Igbos fear the whites because the massacre at Abame and the ability to survive in the Evil Forest in Mbanta suggest that the white man's medicine is strong. Further, soldiers back up the rule of the district commissioners and the word of the court messengers. Another incentive to accept the British is the desire for wealth: the Igbos find that learning the white man's language soon makes one a court messenger or a town clerk in the trading stores set up by the British. Finally, many come to believe Mr. Brown's argument that the leaders of the land will be those who learn to read and write. If the British cannot achieve their goals in a straightforward manner, they sometimes stoop to treachery: Okonkwo and the other key leaders in his village suffer their worst humiliation because the district commis- sioner tricks them into a palaver where they leave their weapons out- side, a British practice which Robert Wren finds reported in A. E. Afigbo's investigations of local traditions (Wren 1981, 16). Even the Igbos' virtues tell against them in the breaking of the clan. Their tolerance of the missionaries allows the Christians to get a foothold in the villages. Their law against killing another member of the clan prevents them from killing the converts to Christianity. Although Achebe depicts the treachery and ignorance and intol- erance of the British, he does not represent the Europeans as wholly evil. Both the Igbo and the British cultures are for Achebe a mixture of types of human beings. Okonkwo and Mr. Smith are warrior types who will not compromise when their own cultures are threatened. Okonkwo favors fighting the Christians when in Abame one of them kills the sa- cred python, and he favors war with the Christians in Umuofia. In the end he cuts down the court messengers who come to disband the meeting in Umuofia. Likewise, the Reverend James Smith is against compro- mise: "He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness" (p. 169). Mr. Brown, on the other hand, is more like Akunna or Obierika. He and Akunna are willing to learn about the other's beliefs even if they are not converted to them. He and Obierika are thoughtful de- fenders of their own cultures. Mr. Brown recognizes the difficulty with 69

AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW a frontal attack on the Igbos' religion, and so he favors compromise and accommodation. Obierika realizes that if Umuofia kills the Christians, the soldiers from Umuru will annihilate the village. Achebe's novel, then, depicts for both Africans and Americans the actual and potential sources of modem Nigerian dignity. Things Fall Apart suggests that the perpetual human types recur in all cultures and that all effective civilizations must learn to deal with those types. Revealing the Igbo ability in precolonial times to incorporate the variety of humans in a well-functioning culture, Achebe refers his Igbo society to a series of standards which both Africans and Americans can seek as goals-a degree of redistribution of wealth, a combining of male and female principles, compelling art and poetry and music, tol- erance, democracy, morality, a sound system of justice and, perhaps most important, the capacity for meaningful change. Lending veracity to his depiction of Igbo history by remaining clearsighted about cul- tural weaknesses which need correction, Achebe depicts a worthy pre- cursor of a healthy and just modern civilization. Notes 1. Eustace Palmer has noted the elaborate nature of the religious, social, administrative, and judicial systems in Africa, but his concern has been mainly to describe how Achebe demonstrates "the beauty and autonomy of African culture" rather than to show how that culture meets the same ideals which modern Europeans would hold dear. Critics such as Wren and Ravenscroft have noted the democratic elements and the balance of male and female, but again their concern has been to reveal the value of village culture rather than to relate that value to transcultural standards. 2. Unless otherwise indicated, page numbers refer to Things Fall Apart (New York, 1959). 3. Wren places overpopulation simply in precolonial times. He describes the reduction of forests, and with them, the loss of the wild game, which would have been a source of protein. He sees the killing of twins as a population-control device (1981, 17-18). 4. Carroll argues that Chukwu is a god of power while Christianity's God is a god of love (1990, 53), but this argument ignores several elements of the text. The missionaries in- troduce the Christian god not as loving, but as punishing heathens by throwing them "into a fire that burn[s] like palm-oil" (p. 135). Later the hymn about a loving god at- tracts Nwoye, who cannot understand the cruelty of exposing twins or of Ikemefuna's death as retribution for the crime of Mbaino. Still, Nwoye's response is "callow" in that he does not see that the Christian religion makes no more sense than his own or that its cruelty is just differently directed, for example, towards the people of Abame in retribution for their killing of a white man (pp. 137, 127-30). Further, as Carroll himself sees, the Igbo see the need to balance the cruelty of the male with the love and gentleness of the female (1990, 50). 5. For a series of perspectives and greater elaboration on the combining of masculine and feminine see especially the essays by Stock, lyasere, Innes, Weinstock and Ramadan, and Jabbi in the Innes and Lindfors anthology (1978); also see Killam (1977, 20ff.); and Ackley (1974). 70

Culture in Achebe's Things Fall Apart 6. Some feminist critics have not been satisfied with Achebe's treatment of women: Rhonda Cobham, for instance, argues that he chooses to ignore the historical contri- bution of Igbo women to the political and thereby reinforces a typically Western sexist attitude towards women (in Lindfors 1991, 91-100). But such attacks seem unfair to me on the grounds that Achebe is trying not to depict so much the historical situation of women as to make a point about the dignity of Igbo culture; in effect, he suggests that Igbo culture is as civilized as the colonial culture which usurped it. Further, he seems to be providing the foundation for effective political institutions at the time when Nigeria was about to achieve independence. In line with his presentation of Igbo tradition, he sees such institutions as combining both feminine and masculine principles. In fact, Things Fall Apart presents the best men as combining the masculine and feminine. Okonkwo is defective in his rejection of the feminine, but the tribal norms combine the masculine and feminine. Obierika, for instance, helps to burn Okonkwo's compound, but succors him by taking care of his yams when he is in exile. Or Uchendu reports the need to kill Ikemefuna, but advises Okonkwo not to partici- pate. Further, certain key elements of society are governed by the women, for exam- ple, the arts or the morality represented by the goddess Ani. On a different note, Iris Andreski's Old Wives' Tales (1970) argues that the British colonists improved the situation of Igbo women. In a 1988 lecture Achebe responds to this book by drawing parallels between the Western and Igbo denigration of women. He relates the Biblical myth blaming Eve to the Igbo myth blaming Earth (Woman) for producing its distance from Sky (Man) and the New Testament myth which makes man feel generous in making his spouse the mother of God to the Igbo myth that Mother is supreme. And he points to the political actions of Igbo women in "The Women's Riot" of 1929 and the women's revolt of 1958, suggesting that Igbo women do not need to learn feminism from the West (Granqvist 11-18). 7. Killam discusses Okonkwo as both flawed and representative of a type which must give way before the "irrepressible forces which determine historical change" (1977, 15-32). References Achebe, Chinua. 1987. Anthills of the Savannah. New York: Doubleday. . 1969. Arrow of God. New York: Doubleday. . 1959. Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest. . 1973. "The Role of the Writer in a New Nation." In African Writers on African Writing, edited by G. D. Killam, 7-13. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Ackley, Donald G. 1974. "The Male-Female Motif in Things Fall Apart." Studies in Black Literature 5: 1-6. Andreski, Iris. 1970. Old Wives' Tales: Life-Stories from Ibibioland. New York: Schocken. Carroll, David. 1990. Chinua Achebe. London: Macmillan. Conrad, Joseph. 1988. Heart of Darkness. Edited by Robert Kimbrough. 3d ed. New York: Norton. Granqvist, Raoul ed. 1990. Travelling: Chinua Achebe in Scandinavia. Swedish Writers in Africa. Sweden: Umea University. Innes, C. L. and Bernth Lindfors eds. 1978. Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press. Killam, G. D. 1977. The Writings of Chinua Achebe. London: Heinemann. Lindfors, Bernth ed. 1991. Approaches to Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart. New York: MLA. Palmer, Eustace. 1979. The Growth of the African Novel. London: Heinemann. Ravenscroft, Arthur. 1969. Chinua Achebe. Harlow, Essex: Longman, Green. 71

AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW Wren, Robert. 1981. Achebe's World. Harlow, Essex: Longman. - 1980. "Ozo in the Novels of Chinua Achebe." Nsukka Studies in African Literature 3: 71-79. 72

Aristotle’s Poetics aims to give an account of what he calls ‘poetry’ (for him, the term includes the lyric, the epos, and the drama). Aristotle attempts to explain ‘poetry’ through ‘first principles’ and by discerning its different genres and component elements. His analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of his discussion. “Although Aristotle’s Poetics is universally acknowledged in Western critical tradition,” Marvin Carlson explains, “almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions.” The centerpiece of Aristotle’s surviving work is his examination of tragedy:

Tragedy, then is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper catharsis for these emotions.

Aristotle distinguishes between the three genres of poetry in three ways: differences in the means, the objects and the modes of their imitations. The means cover language, rhythm, and harmony, used separately or in combination. The objects refer to actions, virtuous or vicious, and the agents, good or bad. As a complete whole in itself having beginning, middle, and end, every tragedy includes six parts: plot (mythos), character (ethos), thought (dianoia), diction (lexis), melody (Melos), and spectacle (opsis). The key elements of the plot are reversals (peripeteia), recognitions (anagnorisis) and suffering (pathis). The best form of tragedy, Aristotle argues, has a plot that is what he calls “complex”, it imitates actions arousing horror, fear and pity, and the hero’s forutune changes from happiness to misery because of some tragic mistake (hamartia) that he or she makes. The horrific deed may be done consciously and knowingly (Medea), unknowingly (Oedipus), or unknowingly but with timely discovery. The characters must be good, appropriate, consistent, or consistently inconsistent, he argues.

The classic discussion of Greek tragedy is Aristotle’s Poetics. He defines tragedy as “the imitation of an action that is serious and also as having magnitude, complete in itself”. He continues, “Tragedy is a form of drama exciting the emotions of pity and fear. Its action should be single and complete, presenting a reversal of fortune, involving persons renowned and of superior attainments, and it should be written in poetry embellished with every kind of artistic expression”. The writer presents “incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to interpret its catharsis of such emotions” (by catharsis, Aristotle means a purging or sweeping away of the pity and fear aroused by the tragic action). The basic difference Aristotle draws between tragedy and other genres, such as comedy and the epic, is the “tragic pleasure of pity and fear” the audience feel watching a tragedy. In order for the tragic hero to arouse these feeling in the audience, he cannot be either all good or all evil but must be someone the audience can identify with; however, if he is superior in some way(s), the tragic pleasure is intensified. His disastrous end results from a mistaken action, which in turn arises from a tragic flaw or from a tragic error in judgment. Often the tragic flaw is hubris, an excessive pride that causes the hero to ignore a divine warning or to break a moral law. It has been suggested that because the tragic hero’s suffering is greater than his offense, the audience feels pity; because the audience members perceive that they could behave similarly, the feel pity.

According to Aristotle, tragedy came from the efforts of poets to present men as ‘nobler’, or ‘better’ than they are in real life. Comedy, on the other hand, shows a ‘lower type’ of person, and reveals humans to be worse than they are in average. Epic poetry, on the other hand, imitates ‘noble’ men like tragedy, but only has one type of meter – unlike tragedy, which can have several – and is narrative in form. As mentioned above, Aristotle lays out six elements of tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and song. Plot is ‘the soul’ of tragedy, because action is paramount to the significance of a drama, and all other elements are subsidiary. A plot must have a beginning, middle, and end; it must also be universal in significance, have a determinate structure, and maintain a unity of theme and purpose. Plato also must contain elements of astonishment, reversal (peripeteia), recognition, and suffering. Reversal is an ironic twist or change by which the main action of the story comes full-circle. Recognition, meanwhile, is the change from ignorance to knowledge, usually involving people coming to understand one another’s true identities. Suffering is a destructive or painful action, which is often the result of a reversal or recognition. All three elements coalesce to create “catharsis”, which is the engenderment of fear and pity in the audience: pity for the tragic hero’s plight, and fear that his fate might befall us.

When it comes to character, a poet should aim for four things. First, the hero must be ‘good’, and thus manifest moral purpose in his speech. Second, the hero must have propriety, or ‘mainly valor’. Thirdly, the hero must be ‘true to life’. And finally, the hero must be consistent. Tragedy and Epic poetry fall into the same categories: simple, complex (driven by reversal and recognition), ethical (moral) or pathetic (passion). There are a few differences between tragedy and epic, however. First, an epic poem does not use song or spectacle to achieve its cathartic effect. Second, epic often cannot be presented at a single setting, whereas tragedies are usually able to be seen in a single viewing. Finally, the ‘heroic measure’ of epic poetry is hexameter, where tragedy often uses other forms of meter to achieve the rhythms of different characters’ speech. Aristotle also lays out the elements of successful imitation. The poet must imitate either thing as they are, things as they are thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The poet must also imitate in action and language (preferably metaphors or contemporary words). Errors come when the poet imitates incorrectly – and thus destroys the essence of the poem – or when the poet accidentally makes an error (a factual error, for instance). Aristotle does not believe that factual errors sabotage the entire work; errors that limit or compromise the unity of a given work, however, are much more consequential.

Aristotle concludes by tackling the question of whether the epic or tragic form is ‘higher’. Most critics of his time argued that tragedy was for an inferior audience that required the gesture of performers, while epic poetry was for a ‘cultivated audience’ which could filter a narrative form through their own imaginations. In reply, Aristotle notes that epic recitation can be marred by overdone gesticulation in the same way as a tragedy; moreover, tragedy, like poetry, can produce its effect without action-its power is in the mere reading. Aristotle argues that tragedy is, in fact, superior to epic, because it has all the epic elements as well as spectacle and music to provide an indulgent pleasure for the audience. Tragedy, then, despite the arguments of other critics, is the higher art for Aristotle.

part two

In Oedipus the King, the literary element of catharsis is evident during the climax and falling action of the play. This includes whenOedipus finds out who his natural parents are, when Oedipus pokes his eyes out in grief and misery and when Oedipus attempts to stop his fate from affecting his children. Catharsis is defined as a cleansing or purging of emotions through pity and sympathy with a tragic hero. A feeling of catharsis can be confirmed by reading the chores replies to the earlier actions of the plot. The chores or the choragos can be quoted while expressing pity to quote catharsis.

One of the earliest signs of catharsis that can be seen in Oedipus the King is when Oedipus finds out who his legitimate parents are. When he learns of his real parents he also learns that he has fulfilled the prophecy, married his mother and killed his father. During this state of discovery, the chores sings of the misfortune that Oedipus has seen. The chores provides a description of the misfortune andcatharsis when they sing “Races of mortal man whose life is but a span, I count ye but the shadow of a shade! For he who most doth know of bliss, hath but the show; a moment, and the visions pale and fade. Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fall warns me none born of woman blest to call.” (lines 1160-1230) This quote tells of the “bliss” in the life of Oedipus earlier, compared to the “Piteous fall” that he now suffers. After Oedipus comes to the wretched conclusion of his parentage, a messenger soon enters the scene, speaking of the death of Jocasta, the wife and mother of Oedipus.

The second purging of emotions in the novel occurs after Oedipus returns home to find his wife hung in the bedroom. The grief thatOedipus feels after this causes him to take the pins off his wife’s clothes and stab his own eyes out, again giving a feeling of catharsis. Although the earlier catharsis could was almost unavoidable, this event. In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is a classic tragichero. According to Aristotle's definition, Oedipus is a tragic herobecause he is a king whose life falls apart when he finds out his life story. There are a number of characteristics described by Aristotle that identify a tragic hero. For example, a tragic heromust cause his own downfall; his fate is not deserved, and his punishment exceeds the crime; he also must be of noble stature and have greatness. Oedipus is in love with his idealized self, but neither the grandiose nor the depressive Narcissus can really love himself (Miller 67). All of the above characteristics make Oedipus atragic hero according to Aristotle's ideas about tragedy, and a narcissist. Using Oedipus as an ideal model, Aristotle says that atragic hero must be an important or influential man who makes an error in judgment, and who must then suffer the consequences of his actions. Those actions are seen when Oedipus forces Teiresias to reveal his destiny and his father's name. When Teiresias tries to warn him by saying I say that you and your most dearly loved are wrapped together in a hideous sin, blind to the horror of it (Sophocles 428). Oedipus still does not care and proceeds with his questioning as if he did not understand what Teiresias was talking about. The tragic hero must learn a lesson from his errors in judgment and become an example to the audience of what happens when great men fall from their lofty social or political positions. According to Miller, a person who is great, who is admired everywhere, and needs this admiration to survive, has one of the extreme forms of narcissism, which is grandiosity. Grandiosity can be seen when a person admires himself, his qualities, such as beauty, cleverness, and talents, and his success and achievements greatly. If one of these happens to fail, then the catastrophe of a severe depression is near (Miller 34). Those actions happen when the Herdsman tells Oedipus who his mother is, and Oedipus replies Oh, oh, then everything has come out true. Light, I shall not look on you Again. I have been born where I should not be born, I have been married where I should not marry, I have killed whom I should not kill; now all is clear (Sophocles 1144). Oedipus's decision to pursue his questioning is wrong; his grandiosity blinded him and, therefore, his fate is not deserved, but it is far beyond his control. A prophecy is foretold to Laius, the father of Oedipus, that the destiny of Oedipus is a terrible one beyond his control. But when it is prophesized toOedipus, he sets forth from the city of his foster parents in order to prevent this terrible fate from occurring. Oedipus's destiny is not deserved because he is being punished for his parent's actions. His birth parents seek the advice of the Delphi Oracle, who recommends that they should not have any children. When the boy is born, Laius is overcome with terror when he remembers the oracle. Oedipus is abandoned by his birth parents and is denied their love, which is what results in what Miller calls Depression as Denial of the Self. Depression results from a denial of one's own emotional reactions, and we cannot really love if we deny our truth, the truth about our parents and caregivers as, well as about ourselves (Miller 43). The birth of Oedipus presets his destiny to result in tragedy even though he is of noble birth. In tragedies, protagonists are usually of the nobility that makes their falls seem greater. Oedipus just happens to be born a prince, and he has saved a kingdom that is rightfully his from the Sphinx. His destiny is to be of noble stature from birth, which is denied to him by his parents, but given back by the Sphinx. His nobility deceived him as well as his reflection, since it shows only his perfect, wonderful face and not his inner world, his pain, his history (Miller 66). When he relies on his status, he is blind, not physically, but emotionally. He is blind in his actions; therefore he does not see that the questioning would bring him only misery. Later, after his self- inflicted blinding, Oedipus sees his actions as wrongdoing when he says What use are my eyes to me, who could never - See anything pleasant again? (Sophocles 1293) and that blindness does not necessarily have to be physical as we can se when he says, If I had sight, I know not with what eyes I would have looked (Sophocles 1325). In the play Oedipus Rex, Sophocles portrays the main character, Oedipus, as a good- natured person who has bad judgment and is frail. Oedipusmakes a few fatal decisions and is condemned to profound suffering because of them. Agreeing with Aristotle that Oedipus' misfortune happens because of his tragic flaw. If he hadn't been so judgmental or narcissistic, as Miller would characterize a personality like Oedipus, he would never have killed King Laius and called Teiresias a liar. In the beginning, Teiresias is simply trying to ease him slowly into the truth; but Oedipus is too proud to see any truths, and he refuses to believe that he could have been responsible for such a horrible crime. He learns a lesson about life and how there is more to it than just one person's fate.

part thr
ee

Léopold Sedar Senghor, “Prayer to the Masks”

Masks! O Masks!

Black mask red mask you white-and-black masks,

Masks at the four points the Spirit breathes from,

I salute you in silence!

And not you last, lion-headed Ancestor,

You guard this place from any woman’s laughter, any fading smile,

Distilling this eternal air in which I breathe my Forebears.

Basks of maskless faces, stripped of every dimple as of every wrinkle,

You who have arranged this portrait, this face of mine bent above this altar of white paper

In your image, hear me!

Now dies the Africa of empires—the dying of a pitiable princess

And Europe’s too, to whom we’re linked by the umbilicus.

Fix your immutable eyes on your subjugated children,

Who relinquish their lives as the poor their last garments.

May we answer present at the world’s rebirth,

Like the yeast white flour needs.

For who would teach rhythm to a dead world of cannons and machines?

Who would give the shout of joy at dawn to wake the dead and orphaned?

Tell me, who would restore the memory of life to men whose hopes are disemboweled?

They call us men of cotton, coffee, oil.

They call us men of death.

We are men of dance, whose feet take on new strength from stamping the hard ground.

Yamba Ouloguem, “Dear Husband”

Once your name was Bimbircokak

And everything was fine.

They you became Victor-Emile-Louis-Henri-Joseph

And bought a dinner set.

I used to be your wife.

Now you call me spouse.

We used to eat together.

Now we’re separated by a table.

Calabash and ladle,

drinking gourd and couscous

are banished from our daily fare

by your paternal order.

We’re modern now, you say.

The tropic sun is hot, hot, hot!

But your cravat

never leaves the neck

it nearly strangles.

You frown

when I mention it,

never mind, I’ll say no more.

But husband, look at me!

We eat grapes and

milk that’s pasteurized

and imported gingerbread from France

and don’t get much of any.

Isn’t it your fault?

You used to be Bimbircokak

and everything was fine.

Becoming Victor-Emile-Louis-Henri-Joseph

as far as I can see

doesn’t make you kin

to Rockefeller!

(Excuse my ignorance, I don’t know much

about finance.)

But can’t you see

Bimbircokak

—because of you—

once I was underdeveloped

now I’m undernourished, too!

Birago Diop, “Spirits”

Listen to Things

More often than Beings,

Hear the voice of fire,

Hear the voice of water.

Listen in the wind,

To the sighs of the bush;

This is the ancestors breathing.

Those who are dead are not ever gone;

They are in the darkness that grows lighter

And in the darkness that grows darker.

The dead are not down in the earth;

They are in the trembling of the trees

In the groaning of the woods,

In the water that runs,

In the water that sleeps,

They are in the hut, they are in the crowd:

The dead are not dead.

Listen to things

More often than beings,

Hear the voice of fire,

Hear the voice of water.

Listen in the wind,

To the bush that is sighing:

This is the breathing of ancestors,

Who have not gone away

Who are not under earth

Who are not really dead.

Those who are dead are not ever gone;

They are in a woman’s breast,

In the wailing of a child,

And the burning of a log,

In the moaning rock,

In the weeping grasses,

In the forest and the home.

The dead are not dead.

Listen more often

To Things than to Beings,

Hear the voice of fire,

Hear the voice of water.

Listen in the wind to

The bush that is sobbing:

This is the ancestors breathing.

Each day they renew ancient bonds,

Ancient bonds that hold fast

Binding our lot to their law,

To the will of the spirits stronger than we

To the spell of our dead who are not really dead,

Whose covenant binds us to life,

Whose authority binds to their will,

The will of the spirits that stir

In the bed of the river, on the banks of the river,

The breathing of spirits

Who moan in the rocks and weep in the grasses.

Spirits inhabit

The darkness that lightens, the darkness that darkens,

The quivering tree, the murmuring wood,

The water that runs and the water that sleeps:

Spirits much stronger than we,

The breathing of the dead who are not really dead,

Of the dead who are not really gone,

Of the dead now no more in the earth.

Listen to Things

More often than Beings,

Hear the voice of fire,

Hear the voice of water.

Listen in the wind,

To the bush that is sobbing:

This is the ancestors, breathing.

Source:

The Negritude Poets, ed. Ellen Conroy Kennedy. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989

IRWLE VOL. 4 No. II,

July 2008

THEMATIC SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIGENOUS LEGAL

REGIME IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART

Adesina Coker and Oluwole Coker

Things fall apart

The centre cannot hold

Mere anarchy is loose upon the world

(Achebe: 1958; emphasis added)

Chinua Achebe’s globally acclaimed classic, Things Fall Apart (1958) ( TFA

henceforth) represents the efflorescence of African literature. Coming on the eve

of Nigeria’s political independence, and of course at a period when most African

countries attained nationhood, the novel is an emphatic statement about the

African spirit. It is clear that Things Fall Apart’s arrival heralded the much

desired confidence and self determining spirit that the comity of nations expects

from an emerging voice in global affairs. Quite expectedly, the nationalism

engendered by the debut of the work in African literary firmament is a pointer to

its enduring brilliance. As the classic is celebrated on its 50th Birthday, it is

worthwhile to reexamine the significance of this work along fresh paradigms and

most especially, within new constituencies. To this end, it is intended in this

paper, to explore the indigenous epistemology as it relates to law and the

administration of justice in the universe of the novel.

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2003:42) defines anarchy,

which is at the heart of the epigraph which introduces this essay as , ‘a situation

in which there no effective government in a country or no order in an

organization or situation. Since governments are synonymous with laws and

effective laws ensures order in a given society, Achebe makes a brilliant attempt

at plotting oppositional scenarios viable enough to assume a wider conflict as

the novel gathers artistic momentum. As an author mindful of the realities of his

cultural background, Achebe rallies indigenous forces and pitches them against

those of colonial incursion. This appears early enough to show that confrontation

and conflict is imminent. This has basically nothing to with Okonkwo or his

character deficiencies or flaws.

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July 2008

As the above readily suggests, the coming of the colonial people is bound to alter

the status quo. For Okonkwo, Achebe’s central character, it is not likely to be

business as usual. A new order is around and it is incumbent on him to adapt.

But human adaptation hardly comes overnight as old habits die hard. Hence the

stage for confrontation appears set early in TFA.The implications in respect of

introduction of modern jurisprudence is therefore far-reaching especially for an

Okonkwo whose rise to fame and affluence in Umofia is legendary. Thus the

coming of the European missionaries poses a serious challenge to both

individual and communal essence in many ways than one.

This of course leads to a consideration of the socio-political structure of the Igbo

society which the ‘White Man’ is coming to alter. The fact that power, control

and judicial administration all flow from family headship through clan then to

Elders’ Council in traditional arrangement in the Igbo worldview, suggests early

enough that the likes of Okonkwo are on their way to political and quasi-

judicial oblivion.

This implies that, a new social psychology needs to be embraced. But the

Okonkwos of Umuofia rarely ever contemplate this. As enshrined in the rich

culture and tradition of the society, certain principles are sacred and sacrosanct.

As such, the resistance put up by Okonkwo sprouts from his strong convictions on what presently exists. For example, the administration of justice is the sole responsibility of nine male masked spirits in Umuofia hence raising questions of charges of misogyny (Anyadike, 2005:6).Obviously, there is an absence of counterbalance, which in modern legal principles ensures equity, justice and fairness. The point is that, TFA’s conflict assumes serious dimension when the protagonist faces issues that are culturally confounding and antithetical to the culture and traditions which Okonkwo strives to defend. How well he does this or how faithful he adheres to the ethics of the society is another dimension. Granted that Okonkwo’s drive and ambition seem to blindfold him in wild pursuit of obedience to tradition, yet he rarely acts alone when it comes to observance of enshrined principles in Umuofia’s indigenous worldview. Having stated the foregoing, culture should be appreciated as a process not a stasis; hence the imminent invasion of that society is not strange, rather it is a charge on the accommodating spirit of the self. What is implied in our discussion, thus far, is that, TFA is dramatizes oppositional structures, not only of cultures as variously canvassed by literary critics, but of a new social, political and judicial order coming to obviously usurp

what hitherto obtains. In other words, as desirable as the dawn of change might

IRWLE VOL. 4 No. II,

July 2008

be, it could only be successfully inculcated in the prevailing order if there are

mutual areas of understanding.

Modern judicial system coming into Umuofia from Europe owes its existence to

three major sources: received English Law, Judicial Precedents and Common

Laws. Basically, these sources are from a different tradition that is alien and

generally written. This is in contradistinction with origins of laws in traditional

situations. In the latter case, culture and folk tradition belly laws, and

indigenous judicial systems. Culture is also often regarded as the unwritten

constitution of the indigenous society. Hence, there is bound to be irreconcilable

differences once Umuofia’s worldview hosts this foreign tradition.

This paper does not hold brief for Okonkwo or his community, Umuofia.

Rather .Our focus is on Achebe’s dexterity as a writer at identifying the thematic

significance of indigenous epistemology in a skilful juxtaposition with emerging modern judicial and legal tradition. As a matter of fact, Okonkwo’s hardly deserves pity since he is evidently as stereotyped by Achebe, destined as a tragic hero in the model of the Greek tragic character.

Obiechina (1992:205) summarizes his character:

He is a rash impetuous man in addition to being a strong man.

In the end, his character weaknesses and the overwhelming

force of the enemy combine to defeat him and the cause for

which he struggled

Now to the world of Achebe in TFA .It is an indubitable fact that this indigenous

Igbo worldview, if properly harnessed has lessons to hand down to the emerging

order since, according to Ademoyo (2005) the African culture is deep and

philosophically coherent and plausible. This extends to the understanding that

the traditional arrangement though not necessarily perfect, is a fine testimony of

a pre-colonial rancor free society.

Mark Pizzatto (2003:3) rightly observes:

Postcolonial cultures feel the loss of the past communal

self- and - its uncanny return-in a more specific way caught

between the postmodern lures of global capitalism, the

modernist inscription of national identities and the

pre-modern heritage of tribal communities

IRWLE VOL. 4 No. II,

July 2008

As a follow-up to the above, Abiola Irele also attests to the fact that TFA is a

worthy testament to Africa’s pre-colonial social and political order:

In the first place, the novel provided an image of an

African society, reconstituted as a living entity and in its

historic circumstance: an image of a coherent social structure

forming the institutional fabric of a universe of meanings and

values.

What the foregoing portends for our present endeavor is simple: there is

convincing circumstantial and material evidence of a precursor indigenous

judicial system among the people. Despite whatever imperfections, the thematic

significance of conflict of interest between a Western /European mode and the

subsisting tradition paves way for effective scenario build-up in Okonkwo’s

Umuofia. Two incidents shall be be used to explicate the thesis that, TFA benefits

immensely from this contrasting set-up by its author. Actually, it is definitely

indubitable whether the novelists ‘deserved success as a man of

letters’(Lindsfors,2002:73) would have been easily achieved without this

conscious philosophical-epistemological juxtaposition. Hence, anarchy may not

have been a salient thematic impetus on which the unfolding drama of existential

struggle is premised.

Okonkwo’s banishment for the ‘mistaken murder’ of a clansman is our first

reference point. The question here is not whether the banishment is in

consonance with Umuofia tradition, since this is explicitly stated in the novel;

rather one may pause to put this in the context of modern judicial system.

Though this is akin to manslaughter in modern juristic thought, it is doubtful

whether Okonkwo’s punishment under Western law would have been as light

banishment or exile in contemporary times. In fact, unless proven beyond

reasonable doubt, such acts are generally as meriting capital punishment as

grave as life imprisonment. The point therefore is that such is the socio milieu in

which Achebe’s novel thrives and survives.

The case of Ikemefuna is another significant example. It is not intended to probe

such an act as either a ritual imperative or essence, and such excusing such a

dastardly act on the alter of culture. Rather, it is contended that Achebe’s

Umuofia shares a collective guilt of perpetrating such a heinous crime. Of course,

Achebe’s strong Christian leaning and Western education frown at such. In terms

of thematic significance, this singular event is the beginning of the end for

Okonkwo, and indeed the penetration of Umuofia by the Europeans they loathe.

Quite suggestive, the fact that human life is sacred is well foregrounded, and

Ikemefuna’s ritual murder portends grave repercussions on the community.

This, the Yoruba of Western Nigeria would capture in the saying that ‘eje alaise a

IRWLE VOL. 4 No. II,

July 2008

ja’ (the blood of the innocent shall avenge) and also captured by an English

saying that ‘those who live by the sword shall die by the sword’ .Okonkwo’s

suicide by hanging thus demonstrate an African ethic as enshrined in the cultural

worldview that no evil shall go unpunished. Okonkwo’s death is therefore of no

heroic stature but a culmination of the events in a lifetime characterized by

impudence, rashness and brute force. As such, the oppositional structure,

represented by the presence of white colonial administration, is on a rescue

mission. It should be noted that this position is hinged on the comparison of the

same situation under a modern judicial institution.

In the light of the foregoing, the position of Jare Oladosu(2005) can be well

situated in our present discourse. This philosopher of law contends that

traditional kingship institution have outlived their relevance. He bases his

arguments on the fact that the desire of African nations to aspire to republican

states which conforms to modern principles and engenders development cannot

materialize as long as existing traditional order subsist. He fumes:

The institution of traditional kingship was unfounded either

on the coercive imperatives of might and naked force, being the

prize of war and conquest or on what we may describe as spiritual

deception, the practical manifestation of a dubious theology

Obviously, though this philosopher critic denounces traditional fundamentalists,

as he refers to cultural advocates, his position seems at another extreme. His

arguments are however not without their merits and they clearly not lost on this

discourse.

Kolawole (2005:11) throws some light:

Literature is an extended metaphor and a symbol whose intertextual

interactions transcend literary transactions. It derives from the impact

of a wider range of pretext - linguistic, cultural, philosophical,

ideological, historical or political

It is therefore worthwhile to state that, far beyond cultural agency of Igbo

culture, TFA is a classic on a mission of socio and philosophical reappraisal in

the context of the milieu. It may well be positioned that TFA is an

interventionist paradigm necessary at the crossroads of Africa’s civilization.

The place of law in the scheme of things becomes readily evident, not only in

the examples previously cited, but runs through the universe of the novel.

Furthermore, if the whole idea of culture understands a people’s way of life in

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July 2008

its entirety, then the thematic direction seems enhanced by the penetrating

influence of a new mode of governance strolling to the psyche of Umofians.In

the history of human civilization, tradition has been a fulcrum of attention. This

is because of its overbearing influence in the affairs of humanity. In other

words, Igbo culture and tradition which Achebe foregrounds in TFA through

the activities of Okonkwo and his ilk, opens naturally to an inevitable challenge

of change.

III

The place of law in the novelistic engagement of TFA has been the focus of this

paper. It has been stated that, as an integral part of Umuofia culture and

tradition, indigenous legal thought becomes a victim of the new order. This

generally reflects on the conduct of the characters, especially the valorous

Okonkwo, and the society at large. Cases in point have been the sanction of

banishment on Okonkwo as well as the ritual murder of Ikemefuna. What this

holds for the thematic build-up of TFA is a situation where conflict arises as a

result of oppositional tussles.

Our thesis is that, TFA is a classic of multidisciplinary relevance. Its depth and

enduring brilliance helps in foregrounding indigenous judicial administration

while at the same time preparing the ground for dynamic change in a society

obviously in transition. It is contended that by building the conflict in TFA on

this judicial tangle, Achebe further establishes the utilitarian and responsive

nature of African letters where society is the canvass of thematic, stylistic and

aesthetic direction.

Finally, the overall impression from this endeavour is that interdisciplinary

studies enhance the quality of knowledge production as instantiated in TFA

multidisciplinary uniqueness. Specifically, even in present day society, modern

law can be better disseminated when the creative energy ensures its reflection

and adequate representation. This, as Achebe has demonstrated, ultimately

benefits the cause of humanity.

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IRWLE VOL. 4 No. II,

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