taken from: http://www.name-list.net/facebook/surname/Okonkwo |
Okonkwo was so
concerned about being the exact opposite than his father – considered weak and
lazy - that since very young he began to
build his own reputation as a strong, emotionless, hard-working man. However,
as the the missionaries come to the village where he was exiliated because of a
murder he committed, he began to show a strong rejection towards this new
culture that was so different from the own one. He could not accept the fact
that his clansmen where embracing this new concepts of a new God, and all the things that came along
the missionaires. Such was his opposition that he could not bear the fact that
his people were not going to fight against this “intruders” so he decided to
kill himself.
In words of a man
of the tribe in the book:
“It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offence against 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”.
“Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account”- Ecclesiastes 3:15 New International Version (NIV)
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre….”- Extract from The Second Coming, W.B. Yeats
Life is a cycle. And it seems that Africa knows it
well...and ironically, The Walt Disney Company captured it in an animated film.
Now you should wonder, which part of history are we living again and is there something we can do to revive the positive aspects of it? If life is a cycle and we are inevitably in this "widening gyre" maybe is because we cannot avoid to look at the past, even if we do it to learn from it, the simple act of looking back sets the foregoing of what is about to happen.
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”Luke 9:62 English Standard Version (ESV)
But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:26 English Standard Version (ESV)
Is it posible to do something about it? Not to look back in anger and learn to face the future looking forward? What do you think?
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario