Things Fall Apart (22 page)
Authors: Chinua Achebe
In that brief moment the world seemed to stand still, waiting. There was utter silence. The men of Umuofia were merged into the mute backcloth of trees and giant creepers, waiting.
The spell was broken by the head messenger. “Let me pass!” he ordered.
“What do you want here?”
“The white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to stop.”
In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body.
The waiting backcloth jumped into tumultuous life and the meeting was stopped. Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: “Why did he do it?”
He wiped his machete on the sand and went away.
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-F
IVE
When the district commissioner arrived at Okonkwo’s compound at the head of an armed band of soldiers and court messengers he found a small crowd of men sitting wearily in the
obi.
He commanded them to come outside, and they obeyed without a murmur.
“Which among you is called Okonkwo?” he asked through his interpreter.
“He is not here,” replied Obierika.
“Where is he?”
“He is not here!”
The Commissioner became angry and red in the face. He warned the men that unless they produced Okonkwo forthwith he would lock them all up. The men murmured among themselves, and Obierika spoke again.
“We can take you where he is, and perhaps your men will help us.”
The Commissioner did not understand what Obierika meant when he said, “Perhaps your men will help us.” One of the most infuriating habits of these people was their love of superfluous words, he thought.
Obierika with five or six others led the way. The Commissioner and his men followed their firearms held at the ready. He had warned Obierika that if he and his men played any monkey tricks they would be shot. And so they went.
There was a small bush behind Okonkwo’s compound. The only opening into this bush from the compound was a little round hole in the red-earth wall through which fowls went in and out in their endless search for food. The hole would not let a man through. It was to this bush that Obierika led the Commissioner and his men. They skirted round the compound, keeping close to the wall. The only sound they made was with their feet as they crushed dry leaves.
Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.
“Perhaps your men can help us bring him down and bury him,” said Obierika. “We have sent for strangers from another village to do it for us, but they may be a long time coming.”
The District Commissioner changed instantaneously. The resolute administrator in him gave way to the student of primitive customs.
“Why can’t you take him down yourselves?” he asked.
“It is against our custom,” said one of the men. “It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it. That is why we ask your people to bring him down, because you are strangers.”
“Will you bury him like any other man?” asked the Commissioner.
“We cannot bury him. Only strangers can. We shall pay your men to do it. When he has been buried we will then do our duty by him. We shall make sacrifices to cleanse the desecrated land.”
Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friend’s dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog….” He could not say any more. His voice trembled and choked his words.
“Shut up!” shouted one of the messengers, quite unnecessarily.
“Take down the body,” the Commissioner ordered his chief messenger, “and bring it and all these people to the court.”
“Yes, sah,” the messenger said, saluting.
The Commissioner went away, taking three or four of the soldiers with him. In the many years in which he had toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa he had learned a number of things. One of them was that a District Commissioner must never attend to such undignified details as cutting a hanged man from the tree. Such attention would give the natives a poor opinion of him. In the book which he planned to write he would stress that point. As he walked back to the court he thought about that book. Every day brought him some new material. The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on
him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought:
The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
LOSSARY OF
I
BO
W
ORDS AND
P
HRASES
agadi-nwayi:
old woman.
agbala:
woman; also used of a man who has taken no title.
chi:
personal god.
efulefu:
worthless man.
egwugwu:
a masquerader who impersonates one of the ancestral spirits of the village.
ekwe:
a musical instrument; a type of drum made from wood.
eneke-nti-oba:
a kind of bird.
eze-agadi-nwayi:
the teeth of an old woman.
iba:
fever.
ilo:
the village green, where assemblies for sports, discussions, etc., take place.
inyanga:
showing off, bragging.
isa-ifi:
a ceremony. If a wife had been separated from her husband for some time and were then to be re-united with him, this ceremony would be held to ascertain that she had not been unfaithful to him during the time of their separation.
iyi-uwa:
a special kind of stone which forms the link between an
ogbanje
and the spirit world. Only if the
iyi-uwa
were discovered and destroyed would the child not die.
jigida:
a string of waist beads.
kotma:
court messenger. The word is not of Ibo origin but is a corruption of “court messenger.”
kwenu:
a shout of approval and greeting.
ndichie:
elders.
nna ayi:
our father.
nno:
welcome.
nso-ani:
a religious offence of a kind abhorred by everyone, literally earth’s taboo.
nza:
a very small bird.
obi:
the large living quarters of the head of the family.
obodo dike:
the land of the brave.
ocbu:
murder or manslaughter.
ogbanje:
a changeling; a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn. It is almost impossible to bring up an
ogbanje
child without it dying, unless its
iyi-uwa
is first found and destroyed.
ogene:
a musical instrument; a kind of gong.
oji odu achu-ijiji-o:
(cow i.e., the one that uses its tail to drive flies away).
osu:
outcast. Having been dedicated to a god, the
osu
was taboo and was not allowed to mix with the freeborn in any way.
Oye:
the name of one of the four market days.
ozo:
the name of one of the titles or ranks.
tufia:
a curse or oath.
udu:
a musical instrument; a type of drum made from pottery.
uli:
a dye used by women for drawing patterns on the skin.
umuada:
a family gathering of daughters, for which the female kinsfolk return to their village of origin.
umunna:
a wide group of kinsmen (the masculine form of the word
umuada).
Uri:
part of the betrothal ceremony when the dowry is paid.
1. The Ibo religious structure consists of chi—the personal god—and many other gods and goddesses. What advantages and disadvantages does such a religion provide when compared with your own?
2. The text includes many original African terms and there is a glossary provided. Do you find that this lends atmospheric authenticity, thus bringing you closer to the work? Do you find it helpful?
3. There is an issue here of fate versus personal control over destiny. For example, Okonkwo’s father is sometimes held responsible for his own actions, while at other times he is referred to as ill-fated and a victim of evil-fortune. Which do you think Okonkwo believes is true? What do you think Achebe believes is true? What do you believe?
4. The threads of the story are related in a circular fashion, as opposed to a conventional linear time pattern. What effect does this impose on the tale of Ikemefuma? What effect does it have on the story of Ezinma?
5. The villagers believe—or pretend to believe—that the “Supreme Court” of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
6. Our own news media pre-programs us to view the kind of culture clash represented here as being purely racial in basis. Does Achebe’s work impress as being primarily concerned with black versus white tensions? If not, what else is going on here?
7. Certain aspects of the clan’s religious practice, such as the mutilation of a dead child to prevent its spirit from returning, might impress us as being barbaric. Casting an honest eye on our own religious practices, which ones might appear barbaric or bizarre to an outsider?
8. In an essay entitled “The Novelist as Teacher,” Achebe states: “Here then is an adequate revolution for me to espouse—to help my society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement” (Hopes and Impediments, p. 44). In what ways do you feel that this novel places Achebe closer to the fulfillment of this noble aspiration?
9. Nature plays an integral role in the mythic and real life of the Ibo villagers, much more so than in our own society. Discuss ways in which their perception of animals—such as the cat, the locust, the python—differ from your own, and how these different beliefs shape our behavior.
10. The sacrifice of Ikemefuma could be seen as being a parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus. The event also raises a series of questions. Ikemefuma and the villagers that are left behind are told that he is “going home” (
See this page
). Does this euphemism for dying contain truth for them? Do they believe they are doing him a favor? Why do they wait three years, him and Okonkwo’s family to think of him as a member of the family? Finally, Okonkwo, “the father,” allows the sacrifice to occur as God presumably allowed Christ’s sacrifice, with no resistance. How can one accept this behavior and maintain love for the father or God?
11. Of Ezinma, Okonkwo thinks: “She should have been a boy” (
See this Page
). Why is it necessary to the story that Okonkwo’s most favored child be a girl?
12. Of one of the goddesses, it is said: “It was not the same Chielo who sat with her in the market . . . Chielo was not a woman that night” (
See this Page
). What do you make of this culture where people can be both themselves and also assume other personas? Can you think of any parallels in your own world?
13. There are many proverbs related during the course of the narrative. Recalling specific ones, what function do you perceive these proverbs as fulfilling in the life of the Ibo? What do you surmise Achebe’s purpose to be in the inclusion of them here?
14. While the traditional figure of Okonkwo can in no doubt be seen as the central figure in the tale, Achebe chooses to relate his story in the third person rather than the first person narrative style. What benefits does he reap by adopting this approach?
15. Okonkwo rejects his father’s way and is, in turn, rejected by Nwoye. Do you feel this pattern evolves inevitably through the nature of the father/son relationship? Or is there something more being here than mere generational conflict?
16. The lives of Ikemefuma and Okonkwo can be deemed parallel to the extent that they both have fathers whose behavior is judged unacceptable. What do you think the contributing factors are to the divergent paths their fate takes them on as a result of their respective fathers’ shadows?
17. The title of the novel is derived from the William Butler Yeats poem entitled The Second Coming, concerned with the second coming of Christ. The completed line reads: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” What layers of meaning are discernible when this completed line is applied to the story?
18. The District Commissioner is going to title his work The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Niger (
See this Page
). What do you interpret from this to be his perception of Okonkwo and the people of Umuofia? And what do you imagine this augurs in the ensuing volumes in Achebe’s trilogy of Nigerian life?