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Colonial Ideologies In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

989 Words4 Pages

‘Things Fall Apart’ from the point of view of the ideology they disseminate.
Colonial ideologies in “Things Fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe, in where the story tracks Okonkwo’s life both before and after the missionaries comes to colonize native. Missionaries endeavor to allay fears by coming on a platform of peace, but their final goal is to essentially change the beliefs of the community. Due to the arrival of white missionaries in Nigeria, there was an impact on traditional Igbo society in terms of culture, religion and politics.
Before the arrival of missionaries in Igbo society, the social and family rituals, the marriage customs, crop sharing, religious beliefs and practices were practicing very strongly and they even buried twins in the evil forest consider …show more content…

Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has a put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe, 1958, Chapter 20, pp.166).This quotation effectively illustrates how change in one’s attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of Okonkwo and was disheartened to lose the Igbo traditions he values as his society slowly falls apart. He is opposed to change and he desperately tried to hold onto the traditional values and practices of his society. He does so in the midst of a European conquest which ultimately results in the breakdown of this traditional Igbo society. The religion of the community in Things Fall Apart is Igbo, however in this story, Christian missionaries come to try and convert the natives to Christianity. The colonizers wanted to civilize native’s people but instead they created for them a state of continuous Otherness. One important tactical feature inherent in the notion of culture is definitely it’s of differentiating between self and other. And culture plays an important role in shaping the environment. However, native’s culture has been disappearing due to influenced of British missionaries. So

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