Things Fall Apart

This was my first time reading Things Fall Apart and I can't really describe how it left me feeling. From my research on the previous blog topic many people felt that although colonization was brutal it served Africa well because it gave them new technology and an updated way of living. However, I do not agree with that, especially after reading this book.  Okonkwo's tribe had a its long ancestral history and rituals and although they seem strange to us they are one's way of life. 

Europeans took what was good for them and what worked for them and thought it meant that it was good for everyone. The tribes in Chinua Achebe's novel had a long history within their own tribes and with their surrounding tribes. When the Europeans came they tried to change everything that a tribe had ever known, their way of living, their beliefs.  The thing that really gets me is that the missionaries came in and asked for land and hoped that they would get it and at least be remotely accepted.  But once they had the land they decided that it was their way that was right and just even if the tribal members did not understand it completely or even at all.

The novel made me think that even after all of these years, and with people becoming highly educated, that we would have solved the problems in society today.  After all this time and reading these books and being able to use history as our guide book we would know what way is the right way, and many would think that our way (the white man way) is the best way, but in this book that is not true.  Many will read this book and think that the way the Europeans colonized Africa was not right, but yet the fear of diversity, and the fear of others who are different will continue to rule our society and people's actions. Chinua Achebe's novel will continue to cause people to stop and think and hopefully make a change.

Check out these sites.....

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm