A Refreshing Response

After pulling myself through Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness with all its post-colonialist glory and brutal dehumanization of Africa, its people, and its culture, Things Fall Apart by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe was refreshing.  Unlike Heart of Darkness which totally dehumanized the African people while glorifying the white Christians, Things Fall Apart focused on the African culture and did a much better job at comparing the cultures.  The novel's inclusion of African language, customs, and beliefs responded to the post-colonialist critiques in a subtle yet incredibly powerful way.

One of the most important ways this novel responds to the post-colonialist critiques is with the characterization of the African people as actual people not horses or wild animals.  The African people are the focus of the plot.  In fact it is not until one is well into the story that Achebe even mentions the existence of the white men.  The fact that white men are barely mentioned for much of the book allows the African characters to evolve into complex, significant characters.   Okonkwo has a significant number of cringe worthy flaws from regularly beating his wives regularly to making his son feel bad for being a little feminine to wishing his daughter had been born a boy.  However, despite these flaws, he is a well developed character none the less.  He has goals: to be a better man than his father was and to be the strongest man in the village.  He has emotions and he is passionate. He is an incredibly flawed human, but he is human.  This directly responds to work such as Heart of Darkness that completely dehumanize the African people, stripping them of their identities.

In addition to having multidimensional African characters as a response to the post-colonialist works, Achebe places an emphasis on the African people's religious beliefs and customs.  Now I would like to point out that I am not saying that I agree with all of their religious and ceremonial customs, but it is significant that they are characterized.  From carrying a white cock around to mutilating the evil ogbanjes that haunt their mothers, African culture and religion is described in great detail.  A lot is learned about their religion through the conversations with the various white converters.  Readers learn about the various gods of the African people and how he plays a role in their lives.  This respond to the post-colonialist work in the sense that it actually recognizes the existence of the religion of the African people instead of characterizing them as unclean savages who have no regard for social order.

Achebe does a great job responding to the post-colonialist pieces.  He rips apart the idea that African people are savages who have no culture.  He give the African people names.  He gives them identities. Most importantly he does not characterize them as being perfect.  Like the real people they are, they have flaws.  Unlike the white people who are holier than thou, they are imperfect.  They are perfectly imperfect as everyone is as a human being.