“Nkali. It’s a noun that loosely translates to ‘to be greater than another’” (Adichie). Chimamanda Adichie believes that power plays a large role in everyday lives. Power is the ability “to be greater than another.” Power drives people to have more influence in their lives and is what sets up a civilization. It is needed to maintain the stability of the civilization, so the civilization does not become vulnerable. In Chinua Achebe’s historical fiction novel, Things Fall Apart, the defined power structure in the Ibo culture is what ultimately ends up weakening their culture to the outside influences of the British.
Select groups in the Ibo culture hold power which primarily weakens the culture. The select groups have a social hierarchy where
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In order to have successful harvests, the Ibo people must celebrate their gods through ceremonies. These ceremonies include “the Feast of the New Yam, [which] was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess” (Achebe 37). The Ibo people constantly live in fear that they will be punished by their gods and that their harvest will turn out to be unsatisfactory. At no time is this more evident than when Okonkwo beats his second wife during the sacred week of peace, a time between the harvest and planting season meant to please the gods. People in the society do the “justice of the earth goddess, and they [are] merely her messengers” (125). They do whatever it takes to please their gods, but when it comes to certain things, it leaves a few puzzled. Nwoye begins to search for answers when “the question[s] of the twins crying in the bush and...of Ikemefuna who was killed” comes up. It ultimately leads to the conversion of himself and many others’ to Christianity. British Christianity says that “the same God created you and them”, and that he “has promised everlasting life to all who believe in His holy name” and there was no more fearing the gods, only praising