African American Imperialism Things Fall Apart

In the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe the missionary's arrival affected the African traditions by changing, judging, and assimilating the tribes in the book as well as in Africa. Things Fall Apart is about an African man Okonkwo who is the leader of his village Igbo. We follow Okonkwo through his downfall and watch him make terrible mistakes. We watch his culture and community get torn apart. For a fact, Africa is still primarily a Christian continent. This is because missionaries went to Africa and fit the same exact thing that occurs in the book. In the book when Mr. Brown (one of the missionaries) arrives; he is mean, doesn't care about their traditions, and tries to push Christianity beliefs onto them even when they don't understand

According to Statista, 80% of Africa still follows Christianity. How did the missionaries convert the Africans? By colonization. Colonization was the act of going to a different country and converting/setting control in a different country. Countries that were colonized were France, Belgium, Great Britain, etc. A reading from Brown University says “They believed that converting as many Africans as possible to Christianity would "civilize" Africans and save them from their ‘backwardness’ and ‘primitiveness”. This quote shows how the missionaries forced Christianity on the Africans and viewed them as weird and strange. Another example of how the missionaries took control of the Africans was in assimilation. Assimilation is when another culture comes in and tries to convert and change their ways and make them like themselves. An example of this is when missionaries would take over the schools and colleges and teach them what they wanted to teach them. They would prohibit them from speaking their original language and make them speak English. The New York Times wrote an article about African political leader Nelson Mandela’s experience with schooling. They wrote “The entire enterprise of mission schools in Africa stood at an ambiguous, contested crossroads. It was part of colonialism, yet it educated students who opposed colonialism. It avoided political

Before being colonized, Africa had a rich history of culture and prosperity. They were rich and would have prospered without European colonization. Sources believe that African tribes and countries would have continued to trade and risen to power being the superiors and leaders when it came to trading. An article from Verso talks about how colonization affected Africa's progression. They said “The colonization of Africa lasted for just over seventy years in most parts of the continent. That is an extremely short period within the context of universal historical development. Yet, it was precisely in those years that, in other parts of the world, the rate of change was greater than ever before.” This source shows how the missionaries affected Africa's growth and progress with other countries. When the Africans were colonized other European countries (as well as America) were progressing way ahead. When the missionaries went to Africa they took all of their culture and resources away and they affected Africa's progress and will forever affect