English Language and Literature 2013

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature Mgr. Lucie Pojetová

The Influence of British Colonization on Nigerian Literature: The Case Study of Chinua Achebe Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. Zuzana Klímová

2013 1

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

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Acknowledgement I would like to thank Mgr. Zuzana Klímová for her invaluable feedback, her patience and for being very helpful during the writing process.

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1

The objective ……………………………………………………………………5

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Brief introduction into the context and basic terms used in the thesis…………………………………………………………………………..….8

2. Chinua Achebe ………………………………………………………………………..….10 2.1 Chinua Achebe - a short biography ……………………………………...........11 2.2 Chinua Achebe and his approach to the religion ……………………………..11 2.3 Chinua Achebe and his approach to English language ………………………13 3. The Igbo people in Nigeria ………………………………………………………..……..17 4. Things Fall Apart …………………………………………………………………………20 4.1 Things Fall Apart: before the coming of the missionaries … …………………..21 4.2 Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo's return to the village …………………………....26 5. No Longer at Ease ……………………………………………………………….………..34 5.1 Identity ………………………………………………………………………….....37 5.2 Religion and traditions …………………………………………………………...39 6. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….…..42 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………….…..45 Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………50 Shrnutí ………………………………………………………………………………………52 4

1. Introduction 1.1 The objective The main purpose of this thesis is the analysis of Chinua Achebe's books Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease and the way the author shows British colonization of Nigeria and the impact it had on Nigerian culture and people. The reason why these books have been chosen for analysis is that the main characters come from the same village and the same family. The main hero in No Longer at Ease is a direct descendant of the family of Ogbuefi Okonkwo, main characters in Things Fall Apart. In the first book, a reader follows the story of the mentioned Okonwko and his family and the village they live in, their religion, customs, culture and so on, with the coming of British colonizers at the end of the book. In the second book, there is a story of a younger generation of the Okonkwo family and villagers and there is also described the change of the way the Igbo people perceive the British colonizers and how the colonizers and the new system they had established changed the Igbos themselves. The main goal of the thesis is to show how Chinua Achebe describes the change of Nigeria, the system and the Igbos themselves, and what impact the colonization had on Nigeria. Chinua Achebe's writing is not one-sided: he shows good and bad sides of both parts involved in conflict as well. On one hand he describes how the coming of British colonizers tore apart the pure Igbo society and its rules and values and completely changed it, which destroyed the old way of Igbo people's life for good. He also points out the way corruption and bribery, which was brought to Nigeria by British colonizers, contributed to the decline of the Nigerian society. On the other hand, he highlights the advantages British colonization brought to the country. Hospitals, schools and churches were built, people got access to the education and were offered 5

opportunities to travel and study abroad in order to get experience and learn foreign languages. The cruel methods and rules which the Igbo culture followed and which cost many lives of innocent people had been weakened and eventually changed. In his books, Chinua Achebe does not say that the Igbo culture is a victim of evil British colonial system. However, he does not say that British system brought only the best things to his country either. He can see advantages and disadvantages in both parts and tries to explain them in his books Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease.

Book Things Fall Apart is much more famous and influential in the world than No Longer at Ease. The first mentioned book provoked discussions about Nigerian literature and British colonization in Nigeria and gained a lot of attention. The second book is famous as well, nevertheless it is not considered as influential as the first one. Things Fall Apart describes Igbo traditions in a detail and it is important to include here the in-depth description of the story because it describes the original pure Igbo society, the first meeting of British missionaries with Igbos and the impact it had on the Igbo village. Through the characteristic of Okonkwo, the author shows the typical Igbo tradition and thinking of Igbo people and he also uses Okonkwo's point of view to show the slow changes of his village and Igbo society in general after the coming of the missionaries. In No Longer at Ease the process of change which has started in Things Fall Apart continues and Achebe develops the storyline and shows how the Igbo society learns how to deal with the new system of British colonizers and how the two cultures and religions clash together. Nevertheless, Things Fall Apart is considered to be more important because it sets the story and analyses the Igbo society and subsequent clash with western society. For the purposes of the thesis, the first book is much more important because it shows the traditional and pure Igbo society before the coming of

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British missionaries – it is important for the analysis of how much the British colonial system influenced the pure Igbo society. In the first book, the characters are better described and the author goes much deeper and gives his readers more in-depth view on the British colonization and the way the Igbo people perceived it. The immediate moment of British coming and their initial changes which are described in detail in the book Things Fall Apart are for the purpose if the thesis crucial. The second book, No Longer at Ease, shows how much the Igbo village changed due to the colonial influence and how the village people dealt with the cultural and religion clashes. Nevertheless, for the purposes of the thesis, the second book serves as a completion in order to get a more complex picture of the culture and religion clash and the way the Igbo people dealt with it. Because of this reason, the analysis of Things Fall Apart will cover a bigger part of the thesis than No Longer at Ease.

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1.2 Brief introduction into the context and basic terms used in the thesis Nowadays, Nigeria is an African federal constitutional republic which is consisted of 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, Abjua. A current form of Nigeria is a result of many historical events, wars between ethnic groups and mainly of British colonization. It had an enormous impact on the whole organization of the then Nigeria and helped to establish the state with government and law and brought western rules, values and religion there. In Nigeria, there have always been a large number of different ethnic groups. Among the most important ethnic groups belong Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, about which Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease ("The Top Ten Tribes Of Nigeria"). The British colonial period in Nigeria lasted from 1900 until 1960 when Nigeria became an independent state. When British colonizers came to Nigeria they had numerous armed forces with them, but they also had a huge number of officers and civilians whose goal was to establish a new social and political system and entice as many Nigerians as possible to support the new system. The new system comprised mostly of three tools: the Christian Church, schools that taught according to British curriculum, and the English language. Nigerians, who underwent and accepted those systems of knowledge, got lucrative posts in the state administrative within the colonial system, whereas Nigerians, who did not accept or did not gain the access to those systems of knowledge, had a big disadvantage. The colonial presence and the impact of Britain in Nigeria can be divided into three main phases: the formation of the colony, the creation of the British and 'proper' way of education and living and the immediate aftermath of the moment Nigeria gained the independence (James 8; Ihuegbu). The first

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two phases can be seen in Achebe's books: the first phase, the formation of colony, is described in Things Fall Apart, where the author shows the first contacts between colonizers and Nigerian people who must find a way how to accept new rules and different religion and cope with them. The second phase, the imposition of British system and implementation of new rules and ways of education, occurs in No Longer at Ease, where British colonizers and their rules are more settled and Nigerian people have used to it a bit. Young Nigerians are offered to travel abroad and gain education, learn English language and then go back and where they very often get jobs at state administration. Achebe writes about the intermingling of the old values and habits and new values and habits which are brought by young Nigerians from their travels abroad.

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2) Chinua Achebe 2.1 – Chinua Achebe - a short biography Chinua Achebe, whose full name is Albert1 Chinualumogu Achebe, was born on 16th November 1930 in the Igbo town of Ogidi, eastern Nigeria. He studied at the University of Ibadan which was established thanks to the British presence in the country and Achebe was very grateful for that because it provided him with many opportunities to get education in English language and travel abroad and get experience2. From 1961 to 1966 he worked as a director of external broadcasting in Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Before starting his career there, he published his first novel, Things Fall Apart in 1958 which was awarded many times and praised by reviews and more than 10 million copies of the book have been sold so far. That success inspired him to write more novels, which he did in 1960s when he wrote other very well praised books, like No Longer at Ease (published in 1960), Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People (1966). All of them address the issues of cultural clashes between the traditional ways of life and new colonial values and ways. The books were issued in the period when Nigeria gained independence (in 1960) and there were many changes in political and social system. It was a very important milestone for Nigerian people (Garner). Chinua Achebe went on promoting and lecturing tour via the United States with his fellow writers Gabriel Okara and Cyprian Ekwensi, and he was giving lectures at various universities there. After spending some time in the United States, he came back to Nigeria where he became a professor of English (from 1976 to 1981) at the 1

He was baptized Albert Chinualumogu which signified the double cultural influences present in his world. He later dropped the name “Albert” and used to say: “if anyone asks you what her Britannic Majesty Queen Victoria had in common with Chinua Achebe, the answer is, they both lost their Albert”. (AbdelRahman 178) 2 Achebe talked about British presence in Nigeria and its advantages it brought as far as education is considered: “Ibadan was, in retrospect, a great institution. In a way, it revealed the paradox of the colonial situation, because this university college was founded towards the end of British colonial rule in Nigeria. If they did any good things, Ibadan was one of them” (Brooks).

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University of Nigeria. In 1970s Achebe wrote many short stories and children's books, he published many poetry collections and his first book of essays as well. In 1990s, he had a car accident which left him paralyzed from the waist down and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Soon after, he moved back to the United States and he has been teaching at various universities since then. He won several awards for his writing, for example the Man Booker International Prize in 2007 and the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize in 2010. He received honorary degrees from more than 30 universities around the world ("Chinua Achebe biography"; Culross).

2.2 Chinua Achebe and his approach to religion Chinua Achebe's father was a Christian convert while his grandparents and great grandparents rejected new religion and stayed tribal. His parents not only strongly believed in God, they also spread Christianity: the father was a religious teacher and the mother travelled for thirty-five years to all parts of Igboland in order to spread the gospel (Brooks). Members of his family had a direct experience with the pre-colonial society as well as with the coming of British missionaries and the huge changes they brought. He experienced himself the impact Great Britain had on Nigeria as a British colony: in new religion, establishing English as a centralizing language and introducing new western values and culture. This experience allowed him to describe more deeply and precisely the situation when the old values and system were endangered and lately replaced by new, western values and rules. His own experience helped him to look deeply inside his characters' minds where he projects his own knowledge of difference between cultures (Morrow). Even though his parents were Christians - accepted religion brought by the colonizers – they deeply loved their Igboland and wanted Chinua 11

Achebe to love it too. As a little boy, his mother and her sister told him many stories from ancient Igbo tradition which always results in a moral message. They also sang old traditional Igbo songs to him. Achebe also let his characters tell the old traditional Igbo stories in his books to illustrate the Igbo culture better. It is very significant because it helps readers to understand better how the Igbo people thought and how important the traditions and mythologies were for them. It offers a more complex picture of the Igbo society. Later, when British missionaries come and start to influence the Igbo society, it is well seen how the original traditions intermingle with the new rules and Western system. As it was said before, he experienced the struggle between religions and cultures and it helped him to describe the struggle in his books so credibly. Even though he is a Christian, he has always been interested in the religion and traditions of his ancestors, which he very skillfully describes in his books (Achebe 2012). He once commented on this fact: We were Christians, though the inter-religious struggle was still evident in our time. Here were occasions when one would suddenly realize there were sides, and one was on one or another… I can say that my whole artistic career was probably sparked by this tension between the Christian religion of my parents, which we followed in our home, and the retreating, older religion of my ancestors, which fortunately for me was still active outside my home. I still had access to a number of relatives who had not converted to Christianity and were called heathens by the new converts. When my parents were not watching I would often sneak off in the evenings to visit some of these relatives. (Achebe 2012)

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2.3 Chinua Achebe and his approach to English language The question of language of writing used by African writers is very important. Achebe uses in his writing English language, the language of the colonial empire which changed the Nigeria and established the new political, social and cultural system. Chinua Achebe was many times asked why he did not write his books in Igbo language and chose English instead. When explaining his choice, he said he writes in English not to attract a wide international audience, but because he was educated in English. He calls himself a victim of linguistic colonialism ("Achebe: Oral tradition not needed"). But he always emphasizes the importance of Igbo language in his life as well: I have made provision for that myself, by writing certain kinds of material in Igbo. For instance, I will insist my poetry is translated back into Igbo while I'm still around. … I hope I have shown it is possible, in these two languages, to show respect to English and Igbo together ("Achebe: Oral tradition not needed"). Chinua Achebe insisted on writing in English, because he said that writing in Igbo would not enable him to be closer to Nigerians: My countrymen now are Nigerians. Nigerians as a whole are not Igbospeaking. The Igbos are just one of the major ethnic groups. I'd written Things Fall Apart in the Igbo language, only the Igbo would have had access; not the Yorubas, not the Hausas, not the Ibibio, not to mention all the other Africans, not the Kikuyus, the Luos, etc., all over the continent who read the book (Morrow).

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The issue of language in relation to a feeling of social status and patriotism is shown in Achebe's books. In No Longer at Ease Obi Okonkwo, a main character of the book, went to England to study for four years and he deeply missed his Nigeria, especially his village, and his language. He tried to speak Igbo whenever he could. He recalls the situation where he had to talk to a Nigerian student in English instead of Igbo: "It was humiliating to have to speak to one's countryman in a foreign language, especially in the presence of the proud owners of that language. They would naturally assume that one had no language of one's own" (Achebe NLE3 45). Obi loved his language because it was a symbol of his land, the place he belonged and which he missed so much. Speaking Igbo helped him to feel less homesick because it reminded him of his home. He knew English language was inevitable to get well paid job and good education, but inside he was still true Igbo person who wanted to come home, to place he felt he belonged to. Chinua Achebe chose English for writing his books not because he felt it was his beloved language which would be part of his identity, but only because of pragmatic reasons. He uses English everyday but inside he is still an Igbo person (Guthrie 58). According to Ismail S. Talib, a literary expert, Chinua Achebe in this passage shows his feelings about Ibgo language. He knows that English enabled him to be educated well and the opportunity to reach wider audience throughout his writing, but on the other hand he feels that Igbo is still closer to his heart than English, because English is not his mother tongue. Achebe confirmed this opinion in one of his interviews, where he asked himself: "Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else's?" and he immediately replied: "It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling" (Talib 91). 3

NLE – An abbreviation for No Longer at Ease

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In Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease the author shows the clashes between two different cultures, languages and the ways of life. Chinua Achebe tries to describe how hard it was for Igbo people to adapt to the new situation and conditions after the coming of British colonizers. He depicts the struggles people had inside themselves: suddenly there were two forces and opposite poles which did not correspond together and they were forced to choose one or try to find some kind of compromise between them. Achebe himself talked many times about his struggle with his identity: whether he was more British or Nigerian. The following quotation from the text by Abdel Rahman offers Achebe's opinion of choosing between the two cultures, languages and religions: This is the problem of being at the crossroads. You have a bit of both, and you really have to know a lot more than either. So their situation is not very easy. But it's very exciting. Those who have the energy and the will to survive at the crossroads become really exceptional people (Moyers qtd. in AbdelRahman 180). In one of interviews with him he was asked whether he thought that white man's culture destroyed the Igbo culture and religion completely, he answered: A culture can be damaged, can be turned from its course, not only by foreigners. . . . [A] culture can be mutilated, can be destroyed by its own people, under certain situations. . . . The Igbo culture was not destroyed by Europe. It was disturbed. It was disturbed very seriously. But... a culture which is healthy will often survive. It will not survive exactly in the form in which it was met by the invading culture, but it will modify itself and move on. And this is the great thing about

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culture if it is alive. The people who own it will ensure that they make adjustments: they drop what can no longer be carried in transition [.] ... So I think what has happened is that we still have the fundamental principles of the Igbo culture. Its emphasis is on the worth of every man and woman (Ogbaa qtd. in Anyadike).

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3) The Igbo people in Nigeria Since Chinua Achebe focused on Igbo people in his books, it is highly important to bring a brief characteristic of this tribe: their customs, religion, social structure, mythology and approaches to foreigners, for better understanding of the issues Chinua Achebe writes about in his two books and which are analyzed in this thesis. The Igboland (or archaically Ibo) is mostly situated in Southeast Nigeria between the Niger River in the west and the Cross River in the east. The Niger River divides the area into two unequal sections: the Eastern region (which is larger) and the Midwestern region. The Igbo language has dozens of dialects which developed as a result of segregation of Igboland which comprised of self-contained towns and villages separated from each other by very thick forest and bush. During the colonial period (1900-1960) many Igbo people travelled far from their villages and when they spoke together they realized that their dialects were different, but all of them had the same base (Ohadike 20; Slattery). The Igbos are very religious people who believe in a Supreme Being, a creator named Chukwu who is believed to create the whole universe, uwa, as well as the first human family, Eze Nri with his wife, sons and daughters. The Igbos rely on mythology, legends and traditions very much. According to Igbo belief nothing happens by chance, everything (good health, illness, death, marriage) is controlled by the will of God. But there is no symbol of Chukwu, because nobody knows what he really looks like. Igbo people rarely keep a special altar or shrine to worship him, since according their belief the God is everywhere at the same time. The opposite of Chukwu was Ekwensu, the equivalent of Satan. His main goal is to lead people astray. He was Chukwu´s principal enemy and at the same time, his faithful servant (Ohadike 25). Chinua Achebe describes 17

Igbo religion and mythology in detail because they had a significant impact on everyday lives of Igbo people. The author focuses on the importance of religion and Igbo mythology in both his books, Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease as well. Achebe for example in his books shows various habits and rituals performed by Igbo people on many occasions like the wedding, a birth of a child, funeral or celebrations. He shows how much are Igbo people connected together through these rituals and their religion which forms their everyday lives. The Igbo people strongly believe in life after death and that spirits of their ancestors constantly watch over them. As far as burials and funeral ceremonies are concerned, the most important of all kinds of burials is a funeral of a chief. However, there are several kinds of deaths which are commonly considered shameful, and under these circumstances there is no burial provided at all. Some of examples of such kinds of death are women who died in labor, children who die before they have any teeth, people who commit suicide and those people who die in sacred month. For all of these people there is no funeral ceremony – they are only thrown into a bush. Some people were in the past condemned to death right after they were born. Like twins who were considered less human with no right to live and they were also thrown into a forest. Also babies who were born feet first, babies who were born with teeth, boys with only one testicle and so on. All of them were killed immediately after their birth and Igbo people got rid of their bodies (Slattery). Many of these previously mentioned facts are also described in Achebe´s books, especially in Things Fall Apart in order to show the Igbo society better.

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In his book Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe writes about funerals, weddings and children being born. He exactly and truly describes methods which Igbo people used when twins were born or when a child was born handicapped – he writes about special rituals which had to be performed in order to drive evil powers away. Many of the things mentioned above describing Igbo methods used during funerals, weddings and ill-treatment with twins or handicapped newborns were true and were described by Achebe in Things Fall Apart as well (Champion 274- 275). In his two books, Chinua Achebe truly describes the division of people in Igboland according to casts. There are two classes of people – the Nwadiala and the Osu. Nwadiala means “sons of the soil” and they are perceived as masters and free people. Osu are the slaves, the outcast and the untouchables. They are treated as inferior people and have to face many forms of abuse and discrimination. Osu people are not allowed to drink, dance or have sexual relationship with Nwadiala (Igwe). In No Longer at Ease, Chinua Achebe writes about a forbidden relationship between Nwadiala man and Osu woman and the Igbo traditions which are still held in Igboland even though British colonial system and culture have a huge impact on changing the society. Achebe states that there are some strong traditions which are tightly connected to the Igbo roots which the Igbo people will never be able to completely abandon. He writes about the clash between two cultures and the consequences it has on the main characters of the book.

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4) Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958 and since then it has been regarded as one of the most influential books of the postcolonial era. Chinua Achebe managed to create a complex portrait of a traditional village life and culture in Africa. Achebe did not only want to inform the outside world about the Igbo culture and its traditions, but he also wanted to remind his people their past and point to the place they belong. He fought against the generally accepted stereotype of African people as primitive nations without any chance for dignified way of living. Over his two books, Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease, he shows how much the Igbo culture changed over the time (Brians). In his book, Achebe shows two painful features of modern African

life:

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humiliation of Africans by colonialists, and the corruption and inefficiency of what replaced colonial rule. The authors shows the Igbo society in the period of transition when rooted, strong and traditional values are put in conflict with an alien and much more powerful culture which eventually tears them apart (French). In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe covers two thirds of the book by the description of the way the Igbo people had lived before British missionaries came and the end of the second part describes the arrival of English Christian missionaries whose goal was to bring a new religion of one God among aboriginal tribes, teach them how to read, write and count, and also bring Western culture and values which were so different from the aboriginal ones. The third part of the book is the shortest one and shows the changing of Igbo society under the influence of British missionaries through the point of view of Okonkwo who comes back to his village after seven years in exile and is

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appalled by the changes and new rules which have replaced the old traditions he praised.

4.1 Things Fall Apart: before the coming of the missionaries The story starts with Okonkwo, a main character who was a proud warrior and one of the most important people in his village Umuofia. He was a very strong, highprincipled and hard-working man, a husband of three wives and a father of many children. Thanks to his diligence he managed to establish a huge farmstead with fields where he and his family grew vegetables, and he, unlike his father, knew how to make money and became a very wealthy man. Because of his high position and respect he had in the village, he was asked to take a young boy named Ikemefuna, who was taken as a prisoner in a result of a peace settlement between Okonkwo's village and another village. The disputes between these two villages were caused by Ikemefuna's father who murdered a woman from Umofia. Okonkwo accepts the young boy and even though he never showed his real feelings, he grew fond of him very much. In the book, the Igbo people had the Oracle which was a prophet who spoke for the highest Gods and the Igbo people had to always believe that what the Oracle said had to be done. Chinua Achebe shows here the importance of religion and mythology for Igbos at those times. People from Umofia relied so much on what the Oracle said that they never questioned her orders and always did what she wanted. Missionaries who come later to the village do not agree with this way of making decisions about people's lives. Their attitudes will be closely described later on in this chapter. After three years of Ikemefuna's presence in the village, the Oracle of the Hills and Caves made a decision about Ikemefuna's future destiny and ordered Umufia people to kill him. Nobody from the village doubted the decision and even though Okonkwo's 21

love to him was very strong (he was like a son to him), he did not ask for reasons why Ikemefuna, a boy who looks up to him like to his second father, had to be killed. Okonkwo did not do anything to save the young boy because he was afraid of looking like a weak hysterical woman instead of a brave man who does not show his feelings and that is why he killed him. After Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo fell into depression which made him unable to sleep or eat. He felt terribly because there were two parts fighting inside him – a part of him which loved Ikemefuna and did not want to kill him and which missed him very much after his death; and the second part of him which was a brave soldier who had respect at villagers and who never showed his feelings because it would be a sign of weakness. Achebe describes Okonkwo's character in the second chapter: Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. (Achebe TFA4 12) He experiences the similar fights later on in the book, for example when his son decides to convert to Christianity and Okonkwo condemns him even though he loves his son very much, his faith and Igbo traditions means much more to him. In the book, there is also seen the clash between Okonkwo's culture and traditions he believed in and which he had been following for the whole life even though it was sometimes killing him inside. This is for example the death of Ikemefune when Okonwko could not do anything against it because he had to follow the traditions

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TFA – an abbreviation for Things Fall Apart.

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about which he sincerely believed that they were right. Suddenly everything he believed in was tearing apart and the main reason for it was the coming of the missionaries and their new religion. He blamed them for ruining the old system and traditions and hated them because he could not find a way how to deal with the changes (van den Bersselaar 68). There is also a storyline about his daughter Ezinma, whose health had been very fragile since she was born. She got ill again after Ikemefuna died and her parents tried to heal her. In the book, there are shown the healing methods which were used by Igbo people in order to cure themselves. There are also described myths and superstitious which affect the whole healing process and which are completely different from medical treatments and methods which were later brought to Nigeria by the colonizers. As it was said before, the Igbo people had completely different methods and rules regarding their whole life. Some of the rules were very cruel and not easy for the Western society to understand and accept. Achebe talks about such methods in many parts of the book, for example in chapter seven, where so called medicine-man gives advice about bearing a healthy child. Okonkwo's second wife had many children before Ezinma, but all of them died during the delivery or very soon after. One day, a desperate Okonwko decided to visit a medicine-man in order to get information about right methods which would help him and his wife to have a healthy child. Even though the medicine-man was believed to be connected to Oracle and had supernatural powers, his advice did not work. When another Okonkwo's newborn baby died, the medicine-man prohibited any mourning for it and declared the baby ogbanje, an evil child, and took the dead body of the baby and used a sharp razor to mutilate it. Then he took the baby's body to the Evil Forrest, “holding it by the ankle and dragging it on the ground behind him. After such treatment it would think twice before 23

coming again, unless it was one of the stubborn ones, carrying the stamp of their mutilation – a missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine-man´s razor had to cut them” (Achebe TFA 55-56). Western society condemns such ways of treating children and babies and they strictly prohibited converted people to stick with the old and absurd traditions. According to Diana Akers Rhoads, an American scholar and expert in literature, the British missionaries did not approve the methods used in rituals and very cruel treatment of some newborns which were considered evil. These cruel methods belonged to main reasons why Igbo people decided to convert to Christianity, because under the new religion they did not have to kill their children if they were declared obanje or if women had twins. For many mothers it was a huge relief. Rhoads continues in her article with giving further explanation: Those who initially convert to Christianity are members of the clan who have not been fully incorporated into clan life. The first woman convert in Mbanta has had four sets of twins who have been thrown away. Once the osu, the outcasts, see that the church accepts twins and other matters seen by the clan as abominations, they join the new church. Nwoye, the gentle son who cannot accept Okonkwo's harshness and especially his killing of Ikemefuna, finds in the poetry of Christianity the promise of brotherhood (Rhoads 69). But the process of converting to the new religion was not always easy and there were many people from the village who did not understand that and tried to influence the converts and make them come back and use only the old ways and rituals again. Achebe shows the attitude of missionaries against these traditions in the book in the

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passage where a new Reverend, Mr. Smith, comes to Umofia and observes the behavior of Igbo people who were newly converted: Within a few weeks of his arrival in Umofia, Mr. Smith suspended a young woman from the church for pouring new wine into old bottles. This woman had allowed her heathen husband to mutilate the dead child. The child had been declared an obanje, plaguing its mother by dying and entering her womb to be born again. (…) Mr. Smith was filled with wrath when heard of this. He disbelieved the story (…) and had replied that such stories were spread in the world by the Devil to lead men astray. Those who believed such stories were unworthy of the Lord´s table (Achebe TFA 131). Achebe wanted to describe the Igbo people completely – positive and negative sides if them as well. He never intended to romanticize Igbo people. He wanted to show the cruel side of them as well, even though he still considered Igbo people and their habits and culture human and not bad or over the edge. He commented on this issue in one of his interviews: I do not romanticize, because that was the one thing that was very clear to me 40 years ago when I was a young man beginning to write, that I was not going to romanticize my culture, because I knew that there’s a matter of integrity in artistic creation which is involved, and that your reader must trust what you say, that what you see is what you are going to report… I have no question – no doubt whatsoever in my mind about my humanity or the humanity of my people. And the story I am going to tell is to make this humanity apparent. Now, you

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note I’m talking about humanity; I’m not talking about angels. I’m not talking about perfect beings. I’m talking about people ("An intimate interview with Chinua Achebe"). The first part of the story ends with the death of Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a friend of Okonkwo who attends his funeral. At the funeral, an unhappy accident happened when Okonkwo's gun exploded and killed Ogbuefi Ezeudu's sixteen-year-old son. According to the rules in Igbo village, killing a clansman is considered a crime against the will of gods, and that forced Okonkwo to leave his village for seven years. During the seven years the missionaries came and started to change the village and its rules and myths. At first, the two different cultures, the Igbo's and missionaries coexisted in a relative peace, because Igbo people did not think the white people would stay for a long time there. The Igbos thought that the missionaries would be punished by Igbo gods for violating the Igbo rules and myths, and that the white people would not survive there. When the Igbo people realized the missionaries were there to stay and intended to change Igbos' religion, the relationships became much tenser and the culture clash was more evident.

4.2 Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo's return to the village The last and the shortest part of the book describes the return of Okonkwo and his family back to his village Umofia which is now partly different due to the presence of Christian missionaries. Readers can see the changes in a point of view of Okonkwo, who came back to his village after seven years and could see how much it had changed since he left. He could not see the slow changes missionaries and British system in general brought during the seven years and he did not see the whole slow process of intermingling Igbo people and Western system together. When he came back, his 26

village had changed and the old values which had been so much highly regarded seven years before were gone. The fearless warrior who would never show his feelings and weaknesses and who used to be so much worshipped before he left was all of a sudden only a regular inhabitant of transforming village. But he did not want anything of it. According to Dr. Ernest A. Champion, a professor at Green State University, Okonkwo wanted to maintain the origin way of life which was extremely precious to him. When he came back from the exile, he expected his clansmen to remain as he left them – proud of their heritage, culture and strength (Champion 274). Suddenly there were new western values and rules which started to replace the old ones. The most evident this change is seen in a passage when Okonkwo and people from the village gathered in a session where Okonkwo wanted everybody to start fight against the white government and for the sake of old times. He wanted the old times back very desperately because all his characteristics and the way he was brought up and acted were tightly connected to the old Igbo village. He did not want any changes because it undermined his security and the feelings he belonged somewhere. All his securities were suddenly gone and he was getting lost in trying to find his identity and get it back. In the following passage Okonkwo wanted to fight against the new rules and system and he wanted village people to force the white people to leave (Anyadike). He hoped the old times could come back and he would find again his identity and security. The following quotation shows Okonkwo's happy feelings when his clansmen agreed to fight for their village and he hoped for a chance to get the old times back and feel secure again. For the first time in many years Okonkwo had a feeling that was akin to happiness. The times which had altered so unaccountably during his exile seemed to be coming round again. The clan which had turned 27

false on him appeared to be making amends. He had spoken violently to his clansmen when they had met in the market-place to decide on their action. And they had listened to him with respect. It was like the good old days again, when a warrior was a warrior. Although they had not agreed to kill the missionary or drive away the Christians, they had done it. Okonkwo was almost happy again (Achebe TFA 136). When the Igbo people attacked the church according to the plan by Okonkwo, some of them were caught and arrested for a short while. In the book, after the destroying the church, Okonkwo and five other men who committed the crime were having an argument about the way they stood up to the new British system and rules. Okonkwo seemed to be the only one who wants to fight against it – the others hesitated because they were slowly and unconsciously accepting the new rules are afraid of punishment: “We should have killed the white men if you had listened to me”, Okonkwo snarled. “We could have been in Umuru now waiting to be hanged”, someone said to him. “Who wants to kill the white man?” asked the messenger who had just rushed in. Nobody spoke (Achebe TFA 138). Okonkwo did not want to give up and so he planned one more meeting with the white government which was supposed to be another form of protest against the white government. The meeting turned into a wild argument and the messengers of the white government wanted to end the session. Okonkwo rejected that kind of humiliation and the whole ire accumulated from the previous days woke the old part of him: the warrior part. He killed one of the messengers in order to show the white government that

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Umofia and the Igbo people in general would never succumb and they would stay in their position. He expected other people from his village to fight for him, but nobody did anything to support him. Okonkwo could see that missionaries and the white government brought an irreversible change to his village and that change affected more or less everyone there. The pure Igbo features were gone for good. The changes were inevitable after the coming of the white government. Igbo people stopped fighting for their rights and slowly started to adapt to the new British system. The next day Okonkwo committed a suicide because he lost all his hopes and everything he was taught to believe in was gone. Okonwko gave up because he did not know how to live under the new system. He felt betrayed and hopeless. He was also betrayed by his own son who decided to convert to Christianity and accept values of the white people, which was absolutely unacceptable for Okonkwo. The converting of his son Nwoye to Christianity was also something Okonkwo could never understand and accept and he decided to condemn him instead. In No Longer At Ease old Nwoye tells his son Obi about his father who condemned him for converting to new religion: I was no more than a boy when I left my father's house and went with the missionaries. He placed a curse on me. I was not there but my brothers told me it was true. When a man curses his own child it is a terrible thing. And I was his first son (Achebe TFA 104). According to Champion, Nwoye is the symbol of a change in the book – he finds it difficult to understand and follow the old traditions and rules of Igbo people. Especially after Ikemefuna death which happened only because the Oracle had said that he had to be killed. Ikemefuna was like a brother to Nwoye and he never accepted the

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Oracle's orders. When Nwoye finds a new religion and rejects his father and his religion and everything he stands for, Achebe shows a real consequence of the clash between the two cultures and religions (Champion 275). Lily Garcia comments on the changes British colonizers brought to the country and affected Igbo people in various aspects of their lives. She talks about the culture clashes and the way Okonkwo dealt with them: In the most literal sense of human consequences is the death of Okonkwo. Though he was not murdered, his death is the effect of their presence. When he died he did not go the way a warrior should, he fought as much as he thought he could and need to escape. The culture collision was the result of one culture trying to overpower another, but in the end no one really won. Like the turtle’s shell cracked and broken, no one left the fight unscathed. Gradually the visitors pushed their way through, taking with them some villagers. Both sides had powerful conviction and a strong belief that they were right (Garcia 4). Chinua Achebe himself commented Okonkwo's suicide as a desperate reaction to the colonial expansion in one interview: People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that’s the time to do something about it, not when it’s around your neck. Okonkwo's solution to colonial invasion was to rebuff it, to repulse it, to drive it back. The problem with this is that Okonkwo was the only person in his community who saw the problem and its solution that simply. You see, his community was aware from what they knew of European invasion 30

of Africa at that point that it was not going to be easy to drive it back, they had examples around of communities that were bombarded, of markets that were bombarded. So it was not a simple matter of cowardice or bravery, it was really a question of looking – taking a hard look at the situation and deciding that this thing cannot be handled in this simple way without running very, very great risks.[…] The colonizers were not going to be persuaded by simple resistance to reevaluate their intentions. So there’s really no escape, that’s what I’m saying. There’s no escape ("An intimate interview with Chinua Achebe"). Okonkwo and some Igbo people in Things Fall Apart were convinced that there was no possibility of Christianity and Igbo religion to coexist next to each other. People from Igbo village who converted to Christian religion were condemned by their clansmen. According to Diana Akers Rhoads, Achebe showed good as well as dark sides of both religions and systems. Rhoads claims that Christian religion and Igbo religion are equally irrational: to the Christians it seems foolish to worship wooden idols, but to the Igbos it seems crazy to say that God has a son but has no wife. Both systems look up to one supreme God who has many messengers on earth. Both religions support humility and are afraid of Gods anger if believers will not obey their will. Chinua Achebe does not take a side in this dispute – he does not see things only as black and white (Rhoads 64-65). On the other hand, Achebe criticizes British government system and blames it from huge increase of corruption, on which he focuses more in No Longer at Ease. In his books he says that demoralized and corrupted government and state system is the result of British interference rather than simply the natural outgrowth of the native culture. The Igbos had very well established and effective system of justice 31

which was replaced by British system of district commissioners and court messengers who rooted corruption there. The Igbos had well functioned society and system of laws which had been working for many years and due to the effort of British missionaries to change it the culture clash was inevitable (Rhoads 65-66; Garcia 2). Dr. Caroline Ifeka-Moller, an anthropologist and academic, thinks that Nigerians in the south5 accepted new religion quite easily because of many social changes, such as incorporation into the new world economy which brought many new opportunities for jobs and better life standard, the imposition of new political roles under the colonial system and promises of better future. Christianity promised a new kind of power – the power of a white man – which would lead to a technological superiority. On the other hand, Dr. Caroline Ifeka-Moller points out that Christianity was admitted very slowly in Igboland, even though people there have been very strongly exposed to mission contact, urbanization and new western hierarchical system since the beginning of the twentieth century. The amount of conversions to Christianity in Igboland was much less than conversions in other parts of Nigeria (Ifeka-Moller). It confirms the theory about Igboland and its strong ties to the local mythologies, traditions and religion. The Igbos struggled with the idea of the one and right identity. They were strongly bound to their language, religion and culture which formed their identity. And due to such strong ties, they were less able to accept the new Western system, language and religion. The following quotation describes the mixed feelings of Igbo people after the coming of British missionaries who brought new language and culture and religion to the country:

5

Nigeria is divided into two main religions – Islam and Christianity. There are over 49 percent of Muslims and 48 percent of Christians consisting of Catholics, Protestants and other Christians. The majority of Muslims live in the northern part of the country and most of the Christians live in the south (Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2003).

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Everywhere the traditional society meaningfully survives. The most urbanized African knows that usually not far away is a village of his tribe where many if not most of the old ways are cultivated and practiced. His native language, like that of his children, is an African language. At the same time even the remotest area in the interior has experienced some contact with the west. Planes are visible overhead and roads are being built and improved. Under these conditions Africans, even if they wished to, could not accept one society and then pay little attention or no attention to the alternative; they simply must experience both societies (Champion 272).

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5. No Longer at Ease As it was said in the introduction of the thesis, the description and analysis of the book No Longer at Ease covers only one third of the thesis, because this book is less important for the purpose of the thesis. The main object of the thesis is to show how Chinua Achebe looks at the presence of colonial Britain in Nigeria and to answer the question how much the British colonial system influenced and changed the pure Igbo society in negative and positive ways as well. For the purposes of the thesis, the first book is much more important because it shows the traditional and pure Igbo society before the coming of British missionaries – it is important for the analysis of how much the British colonial system influenced the pure Igbo society. In the first book, the characters are better described and the author goes much deeper and gives his readers more in-depth view on the British colonization and the way the Igbo people perceived it. The immediate moment of British coming and their initial changes which are described in detail in the book Things Fall Apart are for the purpose if the thesis crucial. The second book, No Longer at Ease, shows how much the Igbo village changed due to the colonial influence and how the village people dealt with the cultural and religion clashes. Nevertheless, for the purposes of the thesis, the second book serves as a completion in order to get a more complex picture of the culture and religion clash and the way the Igbo people dealt with it. Because of this reason, the analysis of Things Fall Apart covers a bigger part of the thesis than No Longer at Ease.

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The book No Longer at Ease was first published in 1960 and is considered a sequel to Things Fall Apart because of the main character, Obi Okonkwo who is a grandson of Okonkwo, the main character from the previous book. Achebe shows lives of a new generation in Umofia under the rule of British colonial system and the way the village people deal with it. He again does not describe things only as black and white, but he tries to show positive and negatives sides of British colonization in Nigeria. In this book, the main theme is the same as in the previous book; it is the identity and culture clash. Nevertheless, this theme is elaborated in a different way and put into a slightly different situation – into the time when Okonkwo's grandchildren are adult and the British colonial system has firmly settled in the country. The story starts with a trial where the main character Obi Okonkwo from Umofia is accused of corruption and bribery. Then the story goes back to explain what led Obi to this situation. Obi got a scholarship and a great opportunity to study in England, learn English language perfectly and mainly to get education which would guarantee him to get a very high position in a state administration. On his way back home, he met Clara and fell in love with her and later on decides to marry her. When Obi comes back to his village, everybody has big expectations. Obi is the first person from Umofia village who gets education and is expected to represent well his village in Nigerian Civil Service in Lagos and later find some jobs for other people from Umofia. According to an academic Carl Brucker, immediately after Obi's coming back to the village, he finds himself being crushed by two sides. The first side is the village – the great expectations of the villagers put big pressure on him and he has many obligations to them. He must pay a large amount of money every month to the Umofia Progressive Union which gave him a scholarship for studying and wants him to repay

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everything back. There is also his family which expects him to get a well paid job and pay for his brother's studies and help financially to his family in general. The other side of the struggle is his new life in Lagos where he gets job. He has high standards of living and wants to get marry his girlfriend and need lots of money for the wedding and to cover his expenses (Brucker). The pressure on Obi increases when he must pay more and more amounts of money every month - for medical treatment of his severely ill mother, for studies of his younger brother, for paying the debt to the Union and for covering his expenses. Soon, he is confronted with realities of daily life and realizes that his naive ideas about building the new pure Nigeria are gone. He is out of money and he must find a way how to maintain the style that is expected of him and how to cover all his expenses. His naive ideas about avoiding corruption and fighting against it are slightly pushed away by his hopeless situation. The last straw is the pregnancy of Clara – Obi's family strictly rejects their marriage because she is an Osu, which means she comes from a slave family and is not allowed to marry someone from the Nwaidala cast. For Obi, a person who belongs to the Nwaidala cast, would having child with Osu girl be a social disaster. It would completely destroy the family's reputation as well. Obi finds himself in a very complicated and hopeless situation which is caused by the clash between the two cultures and religions. The old Igbo traditions are still very significant in the Igbo society, even though it has been more than two generations since the British colonizers came to Igboland and started to change it slowly. These traditions – the duty to take care of his family financially and not be allowed to marry the Osu girl he loved – still very strongly intervene in his life and have a strong impact onto Obi's later decision to take the bribe. Under such circumstances, Obi cannot resist the corrupted system in Nigeria anymore. The common practice of taking bribes which was brought by British 36

to Nigeria seems to be a chance for Obi to get the money he desperately needs. Even though he fights against the idea of taking bribes, he eventually realizes that there is no other way how to get money so quickly. Even though he does not approve such method, he has no other choice how to solve his complicated life situation but accept the bribe. He decides to use the method of getting money quickly which was brought to the country by the colonizers. So he accepts the bribe, but he gets caught and is taken to court where he is sentenced and his life and lives of people who rely on him are destroyed.

5.1 Identity Throughout the whole book, Obi fights with his feeling of identity, where he belongs to. Before he left Nigeria, he had been a true Nigerian and had known only his village. But his father, Nwoye – the son of Okonkwo who converted to Christianity and rejected his father – strictly condemned the old religion and brought up his children as Christians. Obi has his own opinion of religion but is afraid of telling his parents. Obi thought: 'What would happen if I stood up and said to him: "Father, I no longer believe in your God"?' He knew it was impossible for him to do it, but he just wondered what would happen if he did. He often wondered like that. A few weeks ago in London he had wondered what would have happened if he had stood up and shouted to the smooth M.P. lecturing to African students on the Central African Federation: 'Go away, you are all bloody hypocrites!' It was not quite the same thing, though. His father believed fervently in God; the smooth M.P. was just a bloody hypocrite (Achebe NLE 44). 37

There can be seen a parallel with Okonkwo when he came back to Umofia and also did not find the way how to deal with the system and mainly with the reality which was so different from the country he dreamt of. The British colonial system and its influences changed the village and the people there so much during the years when Obi was abroad, that Obi does not recognize it anymore after his return. He realizes that the Nigeria he came back to after four years of being in England is not the same country of his dreams. The westernization of Nigeria was a very quick process and his country had changed massively during his staying in England. The society in his country was no longer created by the old African traditions and culture, but a huge impact of colonial society was seen there: It was in England that Nigeria first became more than just a name to him. That was the first great thing that England did for him. But the Nigeria he returned to was in many ways different from the picture he had carried in his mind during those four years. There were many things he could no longer recognize, and others---like the slums of Lagos--- which he was seeing for the first time (Achebe NLE 12). Nigeria became a country where bribery and corruption has rooted deeply and where the clashes between old tradition and new western systems are still not finished. Obi feels he must change as well in order to acclimatize to the new system. But he does not want to be a criminal and betray himself and ideas he believes in. He wants to stay pure and honest, but under the circumstances and the big pressure from all sides, he eventually succumbs (Moanungsang).

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Even though there is a parallel between Obi Okonkwo and his grandfather Okonkwo, they are not same because Obi did not succumb to the new system and culture and chose death instead of any attempt to assimilate to it. Obi Okonkwo could not find strength to fight against the pressures coming from the new and old culture and systems. He could not find a way how to deal with it and find his place in the new system he was not used to (Babalola). “While courage and inflexibility ruled the society of Okonkwo, his grandfather, Obi is a typical product of a modern era that mixes motives and values, a miserable amalgam, the offshoot of a weak, Hybrid Culture” (Moanungsang). Chinua Achebe criticizes the corrupted system in Nigeria which massively expanded during the British colonial era6. The author thinks that the roots of corruption in Nigerian society are in colonial era and he projects his opinions into the main character Obi who raised and fell with the corruption (Baldauf).

5.2 Religion and traditions In No Longer at Ease and Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe analyses the way Igbo people tried to assimilate to the new system of English colonizers. According to Lokangaka Losambe, a specialist at African literature, the major problem for Igbo people was their inability to get rid of their rooted traditional beliefs. They were still somehow connected to their original culture and habits and it was almost impossible to find some Igbo person who consciously and unconsciously cut off all his ties with his traditions (Losambe, 148). Chinua Achebe confirms this idea in his two books, especially in No Longer at Ease. Obi's father converted to Christianity and rejected the Igbo culture, religion and traditions when he was young. Nevertheless, when Obi found 6

Achebe has been a huge critic of corruption for a very long time and he openly speaks against it in many of his interviews and books. In No Longer at Ease he also projects his disagreement with this phenomenon.

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out that Clara was Osu, he and his wife, Obi's mother, strictly prohibited him to marry her. The reason why they disagreed with the wedding was Clara's origin and the fact she was an Osu. Even though Obi's father was a Christian and according to the Bible he should not have been judgmental in this case, he could not have cut off his ties to Igbo traditions and accept an Osu in his family. In the following passage there is aptly described how Obi's father thinks and also how the other people in the village still follow the old traditions. Even though some people accepted the new religion, their tradition and old roots were still part of them. Obi's father is afraid of the consequences of such marriage. He is worried about daughters of Obi in the future who would have to bear the curse of being the daughters of Osu mother. That implies that not only him but also the whole village will follow the old Igbo traditions in the future as well no matter how strong influence the British colonizers will have: 'The Bible says that in Christ there are no bond or free.' 'My son,' said Okonkwo, 'I understand what you say. But this thing is deeper than you think. 'Osu is like leprosy in the minds of our people. I beg of you, my son, not to bring the mark of shame and of leprosy into your family. If you do, your children and your children's children unto the third and fourth generations will curse your memory. It is not for myself I speak; my days are few. You will bring sorrow on your head and on the heads of your children. Who will marry your daughters? Whose daughters will your sons marry? Think of that, my son. We are Christians, but we cannot marry our own daughters.' (Achebe NLE 102)

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Lokangaka Losambe aptly depicts the main differences between religions and approaches of Igbo people to them. Igbo people were urged to unconditionally give up their roots and beliefs and accept the new religion, system of education and the new way of life in general. Under the new religion, Igbo people must accept that there is only one God and forget the all Igbo gods they used to worship for decades. They also have to erase the differences between Nwadiala and Osu people and consider them as equal. Twins and handicapped children can no longer be killed and condemned after they are born. On the other hand, as it was said before, there are still very strong ties of Igbo people to their traditions and not everybody in Igboland managed to completely cut off such ties and live only according the new colonial system. Even Chinua Achebe writes about these ties and religion-culture clashes in his books, mainly in No Longer at Ease, where Obis father, a deeply religious Christian, strongly condemns Obi's girlfriend just because she is Osu. Even though this fact should not matter anymore under the new religion and social education, Obi's father cannot deny his roots and let his son marry the Osu girl which would result in a huge condemnation from the rest of the village (Losambe 148 -151).

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6. Conclusion In his two books, Chinua Achebe analyses the impact British colonial system had on Igbo society in Nigeria. He discusses the culture-religion clashes between the two worlds: the English and the African. Achebe is not one-sided he shows both negative and positive sides of British colonization. When he describes the Igbo society, he uses true facts and his own experience as well to give readers as much real picture about this society as possible. He does not avoid the description of cruel methods and rituals the Igbo people performed and which were significantly limited after the coming of missionaries and their presence in Igboland. On the other hand, Achebe tries to show that British colonial presence and changes they brought destroyed the original African culture for good – the impact British colonizers had on the land was so huge that there will never be just unique African culture again. In his books and in interviews as well, Chinua Achebe never strictly says whether British colonization was right or wrong. In his books, he finds many examples of negative consequences of this colonization, but many positive contributions as well. Among the negative things which British colonization and its impact brought to the country was bribery and corrupted system which took a part in slow destruction of Nigeria. Corruption is still a major problem in the country and Chinua Achebe talks about this issue very often in interviews even today. But he does not believe that British colonizers destroyed his country, which he confirms in one of his interviews which is mentioned earlier in the thesis. He says: A culture can be damaged, can be turned from its course, not only by foreigners. . . . [A] culture can be mutilated, can be destroyed by its own people, under certain situations. . . . The Igbo culture was not 42

destroyed by Europe. It was disturbed. It was disturbed very seriously. But... a culture which is healthy will often survive. It will not survive exactly in the form in which it was met by the invading culture, but it will modify itself and move on. And this is the great thing about culture if it is alive. The people who own it will ensure that they make adjustments: they drop what can no longer be carried in transition [.] ... So I think what has happened is that we still have the fundamental principles of the Igbo culture. Its emphasis is on the worth of every man and woman (Ogbaa qtd. in Anyadike). According to him, Igboland and Nigeria in general had not been healthy and strong enough when colonizers came and this fact made the process of westernization much easier7. Achebe shows that the colonization and a complete change of the original African society had pros and cons. As positive sides, Achebe definitely names education – his quotation8 about British education is included in the thesis as well. Thanks to the British colonial system, young Nigerians were able to travel abroad and get western education, which was supposed to help them in their future life and also help their country. Such educated Nigerians were supposed to get jobs in a state administration and secure the state for the future. British colonization also raised the standard of living in the sense of new schools, hospitals, buildings for state administration and so on. On the other hand, there were also many negative sides which the colonization brought. The Igbos lost their identity as a consequence of the British impact and changes their brought. The culture and religion clashes negatively influenced the Igbo people who 7

He talks about it for example in this text : Anyadike, Chima. "Duality and Resilience in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart." Philosophia Africana. (2007).Web. 30 Mar. 2013. 8 Achebe talked about British presence in Nigeria and its advantages it brought as far as education is considered: “Ibadan was, in retrospect, a great institution. In a way, it revealed the paradox of the colonial situation, because this university college was founded towards the end of British colonial rule in Nigeria. If they did any good things, Ibadan was one of them” (Brooks).

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suddenly had to find their way of accepting the system and religion and live according to the new rules and they also had to redefine their identity. As Achebe shows in his books, this process was not easy and some Igbos had problems with accepting the new, western, way of life. They were trapped between two worlds, the English and the African one, and they could not find their way of assimilating to the new system and new culture. Even though the English western system was pushing the old traditions out, the Igbo people could not cut off their ties to their origins and old traditions, it was not easy for them to just “switch” the religion and culture. This was the main issue for Okonkwo and Obi – neither of them found the way how to accept the new western system which was applied to the old Nigerian system and they were not successful in dealing with the changes and the new environment in their country. They were not able to fully adapt and live and work within the system according to the new rules. The culture and religion clashes and the loss of identity caused that Okonkwo rather committed suicide because he was not able to get used to the new system, he was lost and everything he had believed in before was destroyed by the coming of the British colonizers. Obi did not commit suicide literally, but he committed suicide in a sense of society status and chance for a good future life.

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Bibliography: Primary sources Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart / Chinua Achebe; with Introduction and Notes by Aigboje Higo. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1965. 158. Print. Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. Oxford: Heinemann, 1987. eBook.

Secondary sources: "Achebe: Oral Tradition not Needed." BBC News. BBC. 21 Oct 2005. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. . "An Intimate Interview with Chinua Achebe." Hopes of the Horizon. University of California Extension. 19 Apr 2013. Web. 19 Apr 2013. . AbdelRahman, Fadwa. "Said and Achebe: Writers at the Crossroads of Culture." Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics. 25 (2005): 177-192. JSTOR. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. Achebe, Chinua. "How Things Fell Apart." Guernica. Guernica: A Magazine of Art and politics.15 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. . Anyadike, Chima. "Duality and Resilience in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart." Philosophia Africana. 10.1. Mar 2007. n. page. EBSCO Web. 25 Apr.

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Babalola, C.A. "A Reconsideration of Achebe's No Longer at Ease." Phylon. 47.2 (1986): 139-147. JSTOR. Web. 13 Mar 2013 . Baldauf, Scot. "Chinua Achebe on corruption and hope in Nigeria." The Christian Science Monitor. 22 Mar 2013. Web. 26 Mar 2013. . Brians, Paul. "Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart Study Guide." Homepage of Paul Brians. 14 Apr 2011. Web. 3 Mar 2013. . Brooks , Jerome. "Chinua Achebe, The Art of Fiction No. 139." Paris Review. Winter 8. 1994. Web. 16 Feb. 2013. < http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1720/theart-of-fiction-no-139-chinua-achebe>. Brucker, Carl. "No Longer At Ease." Survey of World Literature. Arkansas Tech University. 1992. Web. 22 Mar 2013. . Culross, Melissa. "Chinua Achebe's Biography and Style."African Postcolonial Literature in English in Postcolonial Web. Postcolonial Web. 2013. Web. 19 Apr 2013. . "Chinua Achebe biography." Biography. A + E Television Networks. 21 Mar 2013. Web. 19 Apr 2013. . 46

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Summary The aim of the thesis is to analyze two books, Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease, written by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. In these books, the author describes the Igbo society - its culture, religion and mainly mythology which influences the everyday lives of the Igbos. He aptly shows not only the positive sides of Igbo culture and religion, he writes about the negative sides as well, for instance he describes cruel rituals and killing of newborns or twins and so on. All of these rituals were later considered inappropriate by British colonizers and they were slowly pushed away by new religion and the Western way of life. When describing the Igbo society, Achebe uses his own experience and true facts which helped him to offer his readers an in-depth inside into the main characters, Obi Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart and his grandson Obi in No Longer at Ease. Achebe is not one-sided and he also shows positive and negative sides of British presence in Nigeria. He focuses on the way Igbo people tried to deal with the changes brought by British missionaries - with the new religion, condemnation of some Igbo rituals, new way of life, corruption and so on. The author uses his main characters to show different approaches of Igbos to the British colonization and different ways of dealing with it. Meanwhile Obi Okwonko, the main character from Things Fall Apart chose death rather than trying to assimilate and accept the Western way of life, because it represented the destroying of everything he believed in and which formed his identity. After the coming of British missionaries, his lost everything he believed in and he stopped being the person he had been praised by the villagers before. He did not find the way to deal with the changes and rather committed suicide. The main character from the second book, No Longer at Ease, did not literally commit suicide, but he killed himself in a sense of society status and chance for a good future life. He was trapped between

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two worlds – the English and the Igbo world - and he did not find the way to escape from this clash and he succumbed to the pressure coming from the culture-religion clash. Achebe shows in his books, this process was not easy and some Igbos had problems with accepting the new, western, way of life. They were trapped between two worlds, the English and the African one, and they could not find their way of assimilating to the new system and new culture. Even though the English western system was pushing the old traditions out, the Igbo people could not cut off their ties to their origins and old traditions, it was not easy for them to just “switch” the religion and culture. Achebe is in his books shows both negative and positive sides of Igbo and British culture as well.

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Shrnutí Hlavním cílem práce je analýza dvou knih, Things Fall Apart a No Longer at Ease, od nigerijského autora Chinua Achebeho. Autor v těchto knihách popisuje společnost a kulturu nigerijského kmene Igbo a zaměřuje se zejména na tradice, mytologii a rituály tohoto kmene, které jsou velmi často kruté a pro člověka pocházejícího ze Západního prostředí, až nepochopitelné. Chinua Achebe ukazuje jak pozitivní, tak i negativní stránky Igbo kmene a jeho kultury, zejména právě kruté rituály s usmrcováním některých novorozeňat, dvojčat apod. Na svých dvou hlavních postavách, Obim Okonwkovi z Things Fall Apart, a Obim z No Longer at Ease, autor ukazuje vnitřní boj lidí z kmene Igbo, který byl vyvolán příchodem britských misionářů a změnami, které přinesli. Autor pracuje zejména s fenoménem ztráty identity u příslušníků kmene Igbo, jelikož jejich identita byla formována právě igboskými tradicemi, kulturou, náboženstvím a rituály, které ovlivňovaly každodenní život Igbů. Po příchodu britských misionářů a změn, které s sebou přinesli, a které se dostaly často do konfliktu s igboskými tradicemi a způsobem života, dochází u mnoha členů kmene ke zmatení a pocitu ztráty identity. Někteří nedokážou nalézt způsob, jak se vypořádat s nastalými změnami a jak přijmout nová pravidla a styl života. Skrze své hlavní hrdiny autor ukazuje myšlení Igbů a jejich vnímání těchto změn, stejně jako jejich pocity zmatku a beznaděje. Ukazuje, jakými různými způsoby se s nastalými změnami Igbo lidé vyrovnávali. Obi Okonkwo v knize Things Fall Apart volí raději smrt jako reakci na příchod britských misionářů, kteří pro něj představují zničení všeho, v co doufal, věřil, a co utvářelo jeho identitu. Nedokáže přijmout nový systém a asimilovat se, a proto raději spáchá sebevraždu. Hlavní hrdina druhé knihy, No Longer at Ease, se rovněž není schopný dostatečně asimilovat a vypořádat se s novým systémem, zejména proto, že je na něj

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vyvíjen nátlak ze dvou „světů“ – z původního Igbo světa představující jeho rodinu, a z “nového, západního“ světa, představující jeho práci a životní styl. Obi není schopný vyřešit střet těchto dvou odlišných kultur a světů v jeho životě a rovněž má jeho příběh tragických konec. Achinua Achebe se ve svých knihách snaží ukázat, jak těžké bylo pro společnost Igbů přijmout nové změny, odtrhnout se od svých zvyků a ujasnit pojetí jejich nové identity. Tito lidé se často dostali do střetu mezi dvěma kulturami a náboženstvími a často nedokázali nalézt způsob, jak najít cestu ven a vypořádat se s novým Západním systémem v jejich zemi. Achinua Achebe však ve svých knihách nestojí na žádné straně – popisuje klady a zápory jak Igbo kultury a náboženství, tak i Velké Británie jako kolonizátora.

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