In Things Fall Apart, Achebe veils his desire of embracing the Occidental influence in the portraiture of Okwonkwo, only to fulfill it later. Many instances in the novel portray Okwonkwo (who is supposed to be an image of African values) as a mechanical personality-a mere robot who lacks the ability of reflection, intuition and adaptability. Like Conrad, Achebe denies him the power of speech (language); He had a slight stammer, and when he was angry, he uses his fists to communicate. His spirituality is also brought to question as expressed in his mechanical aggressiveness which leads him to commit acts of abomination that result in his exile and his eventual suicide. The characters, societies and views expressed in the novel essentially are universal to human kind. There may be variation in different social settings, but the novel portrays people in a communal environment grappling with survival on a daily basis on planet earth.
The European colonizers painted a negative and one dimensional picture of Africa, so what Achebe is trying to do is a reconstruction of African heritage not as the way is presented by Conrad, but in a more realistic way; not view with European eyes. Besides, Achebe's text reaffirm African people's pride in their cultural heritage in the backdrop of attempts of dehumanize and portray them as savages by European.
Now, imagine this situation: If someone creates a fake and negative heritage of our culture, won't you do anything about it? I hope that your answer is a big YES. So, that is what Achebe is doing in his novel with the African people. He is not only presenting a balance and more real point of view of Africa, but also portraying an African point of view of Africa.
Also, in both in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart the European Colonialism is present. With the presence of Kurtz being in African tribes and with Christian missionaries in Umoufia, we can see how the European culture is trying to conquer some part of Africa in a way to civilize and recreate it (forcing people from Umoufia to adapt and respect certain civilized-European rules.) Here, we can see that European see Africa as a new continent that needs to be civilized by them, carrying not only rules to tribes, but also religion, culture and costumes to be adapted.
That is why, Achebe creates a novel telling a new-unknown version of Africa; a new and more real Africa, that is not so tough as European tried to tell. Therefore, Things Fall Apart is a critical response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Therefore, would you defend your own heritage if people wrote fake vision of it?
Nicolás! I totally tally with your points. What I love thr most of your entry is the relation made between the way Okonkwo behaves, the way of how European colonizers portrayed the African culture, and the fact that this kind of behaviour is universal to the whole human kind. And that made me ask myself, how could European colonizers think of others as violent while they were using violence? Of course they had many arguments to justify it and thanks to the barrier of language they didn't try anything else than stablishing an steretype and using violence.
ResponderEliminarRegarding your question, Chinua Achebe's actions in response to Conrad's nivel is admirable as he was able to take the weapons of the enemy, language and the steretype of African culture, to make the Occidental culture be aware of the truth about African traditions. This is definetely an action that must be taken as an example. I don't know if there is any in the world, but it would be great to have a version of our Chilean native people told by a native or a Chilean rather than Alonso de Ercilla's 'La Araucana'