Things Fall Apart, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 209

Summary

In this Crash Course Literature episode, John Green explores Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart,' a novel that delves into the complexities of African colonization and the clash of cultures. Set in the late 19th century, the story follows Okonkwo, an Igbo warrior, as he navigates the upheaval brought by British missionaries and colonialism. Achebe's work challenges simplistic views of pre-colonial Africa, presenting a nuanced portrayal of a society with its own institutions and values. The novel, written in the late 1950s during decolonization, reflects on the impact of European intervention and the struggle for identity and autonomy, ultimately urging readers to consider the human cost of colonization and the importance of understanding diverse perspectives.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video discusses 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe, a novel that explores the impact of colonialism on Africa.
• 🌟 The book is significant not just for its length but for its historical context and the quality of its narrative.
• 🏛️ Achebe's work counters the traditional European perspective on Africa by presenting a complex and human portrayal of African life.
• 👶 Achebe himself was raised at 'the crossroads of culture,' exposed to both Igbo and Western traditions.
• 🌱 The novel delves into the pre-colonial Igbo society, highlighting its structures, beliefs, and traditions.
• 🤝 It shows a society with functional institutions like tribal councils that were in place before European contact.
• 🚢 The arrival of British missionaries and colonial governors disrupts the Igbo society, leading to cultural and religious clashes.
• 🔍 The novel does not simplistically condemn or praise either the Igbo or European worldviews, acknowledging the complexities of both.
• 📖 Achebe wrote the book during the late 1950s, a period of decolonization in Africa, which adds another layer of historical context.
• 🏞️ The story reflects on the changes in Igboland, with characters like Okonkwo representing the struggle between maintaining tradition and adapting to new influences.
• 🔚 The novel concludes with a critique of colonialism, showing its dehumanizing effects and the tragic consequences for both the colonized and the colonizers.

Q & A

What is the main theme of 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe?

The main theme of 'Things Fall Apart' is the impact of colonialism on the traditional Igbo society in Africa, exploring the clash between Igbo culture and European values, as well as the internal and external conflicts that arise from this encounter.

How does the historical context of 'Things Fall Apart' influence its narrative?

The historical context of 'Things Fall Apart' is crucial as it is set during the late 19th century colonization of Africa and written in the late 1950s during the decolonization period. This dual context allows Achebe to reflect on both the pre-colonial and colonial experiences of the Igbo people.

What is the significance of the character Okonkwo in the novel?

Okonkwo is a central character who embodies the traditional Igbo values of strength and masculinity. His struggles and eventual downfall represent the broader impact of colonialism on the Igbo society and the individual, highlighting the tension between maintaining cultural identity and adapting to new realities.

What role do missionaries play in the story, and how do they affect the Igbo society?

Missionaries in the story are agents of colonialism who introduce Christianity and European values to the Igbo society. Their presence disrupts the traditional way of life, leading to cultural conflict and eventually contributing to the disintegration of the Igbo community.

How does Achebe portray the traditional Igbo society before the arrival of Europeans?

Achebe portrays the traditional Igbo society as complex and functional with its own institutions and rituals. He emphasizes the closeness of the living to their ancestors and the importance of communal harmony, showing a society that is not perfect but has its own order and stability.

What is the significance of the title 'Things Fall Apart'?

The title 'Things Fall Apart' signifies the disintegration of the Igbo society's traditional structures and values due to the influence of colonialism. It reflects the theme of cultural upheaval and the loss of a way of life.

How does Achebe use the character of Mr. Brown to show a different approach to colonization?

Mr. Brown is portrayed as a more accommodating missionary who tries to understand and respect Igbo customs, showing a less confrontational approach to colonization compared to his successor, Reverend James Smith.

What is the role of the tribal council in the Igbo society as depicted in the novel?

The tribal council plays a crucial role in the Igbo society by settling disputes and maintaining order. It represents the community's self-governance and the traditional mechanisms for conflict resolution that existed before the arrival of the British.

How does Achebe's personal background influence his portrayal of the Igbo culture in 'Things Fall Apart'?

Achebe's personal background, growing up in a family that straddled traditional Igbo culture and Christianity, allows him to authentically portray the cultural crossroads. His experiences enable him to depict the complexities of the Igbo society with nuance and empathy.

What is the significance of the District Commissioner's planned book in the novel's conclusion?

The District Commissioner's planned book, 'The Pacification of the Primitives of the Lower Niger,' symbolizes the colonial perspective that reduces the rich and complex Igbo culture to a simplistic narrative. It highlights the dehumanization and misunderstanding inherent in the colonial view of the colonized.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to 'Things Fall Apart'

John Green introduces the discussion on Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart,' emphasizing that the book's length does not reflect its quality. He highlights the historical context of the novel, set during the late 19th-century colonization of Africa but written in the late 1950s during decolonization. Achebe's personal background, being born into a Christian family yet rooted in traditional Igbo culture, influenced his writing. The novel aims to provide a human and complex portrayal of Africa and its people, contrasting with the European perspective. It begins by deeply immersing readers in the Igbo culture before the arrival of Europeans, showcasing their societal structures and traditions.

05:02

🌍 Historical Contexts and Cultural Collisions

The paragraph delves into the historical contexts of 'Things Fall Apart,' discussing the European colonization of Africa for resources and the spread of commerce, Christianity, and civilization. It details how the British Empire's interest in palm oil led to the colonization of Igboland, and how missionaries like Mr. Kiaga, Mr. Brown, and Reverend James Smith each had different approaches to converting the Igbo people, leading to varying degrees of conflict. The paragraph concludes with the tragic end of Okonkwo, reflecting on the broader implications of colonization and the loss of humanity it entailed.

Keywords

💡Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is considered one of the foremost African authors in modern literature. His work, especially 'Things Fall Apart,' is pivotal in understanding African literature and post-colonial discourse. In the script, Achebe is discussed as the author of 'Things Fall Apart,' which is a historical novel that explores the impact of European colonization on African societies, specifically the Igbo people of Nigeria.

💡Things Fall Apart

This is the title of Achebe's novel, which is the focus of the video script. The novel is a critical examination of the collision between traditional African societies and European colonialism. In the script, 'Things Fall Apart' is used to illustrate the complex interplay between Igbo culture and the disruptive forces of colonialism, highlighting the novel's themes of cultural conflict and the erosion of traditional values.

💡Colonization

Colonization refers to the process by which a nation extends its control over other territories, often with the aim of economic or political dominance. In the context of the video, colonization is central to understanding the historical backdrop of 'Things Fall Apart.' The script discusses how European powers, particularly Britain, colonized African lands, including Igboland, and the subsequent cultural and societal upheaval this caused.

💡Igboland

Igboland refers to the region in southeastern Nigeria inhabited by the Igbo people. In the script, Igboland is the setting for 'Things Fall Apart,' and it represents a pre-colonial African society with its own complex social structures and traditions. The video discusses how the arrival of European colonizers disrupted the traditional Igbo way of life.

💡Cultural Crossroads

The term 'cultural crossroads' is used to describe a situation where different cultures intersect and influence each other. In the script, Achebe's childhood is described as being at 'the crossroads of culture,' where he was exposed to both traditional Igbo culture and Western Christian education. This concept is crucial for understanding the novel's exploration of cultural identity and the impact of colonialism on indigenous cultures.

💡Historical Context

Historical context refers to the circumstances and events that surround a particular period or event. The script emphasizes the dual historical contexts of 'Things Fall Apart': the late 19th-century colonization of Africa and the late 1950s when the novel was written, during the decolonization of Africa. These contexts are essential for understanding the novel's themes and its critique of colonialism.

💡European Essentializing

European essentializing is a concept that refers to the reduction of complex African cultures and societies to simplistic stereotypes by European colonizers. The script criticizes this tendency, noting that 'Things Fall Apart' challenges these stereotypes by presenting a nuanced view of African life before and during colonization.

💡Okonkwo

Okonkwo is the central character in 'Things Fall Apart.' He is a strong-willed and proud Igbo warrior whose life is upended by the arrival of European colonizers. In the script, Okonkwo's story is used to explore the personal and societal conflicts that arise from the clash between traditional Igbo values and the imposition of foreign beliefs and systems.

💡Decolonization

Decolonization is the process by which colonized territories gain political independence from their colonial rulers. The script mentions the historical context of decolonization in the late 1950s, which was ongoing when Achebe wrote 'Things Fall Apart.' This period of political change in Africa is relevant to the novel's themes of resistance and the struggle for cultural identity.

💡Three C's

The 'Three C's' refers to the goals of commerce, Christianity, and civilization that European colonizers sought to spread through colonization. The script discusses how these goals were used to justify the exploitation of African resources and the imposition of European values and religion, which had profound impacts on African societies.

💡Palm Oil

Palm oil is a vegetable oil derived from the fruit of oil palm trees. In the script, palm oil is mentioned as a key commodity that drove European interest in colonizing parts of Africa, such as Igboland. The demand for palm oil was a significant factor in the economic motivations behind colonization.

Highlights

Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' is a historical novel about the colonization of Africa in the late 19th century.

The book's length does not reflect its quality, and Achebe's work is as significant as any other literature.

Achebe was born in 1930, 80 years after missionaries arrived in Igboland, and was raised in a blend of Christian and Igbo traditions.

Achebe's work counters the traditional European view of Africa with a human picture that matches the complexity of actual humans.

The novel provides a deep grounding in ancient Igbo life and culture before the arrival of Europeans.

Igbo society had functioning institutions like the tribal council that were not recognized by Westerners.

The novel does not unambiguously condemn or praise either the Igbo or European worldviews.

Okonkwo, the protagonist, urges resistance to European colonization, but his friend Obierka notes that resistance is too late.

The historical context of the novel includes the European scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference of 1885.

The British Empire's interest in Igboland was driven by the desire for palm oil and the opportunity to spread Christianity.

The novel was written during the decolonization of Africa, a time of significant conversations about the continent's future.

The British missionaries' arrival in Igboland is depicted through three characters with varying approaches to colonization.

Reverend James Smith's uncompromising stance leads to conflict and the destruction of the mission church.

Okonkwo's resistance and eventual suicide reflect the loss of agency and the human cost of colonization.

The novel ends with the British District Commissioner's reduction of Okonkwo's life to a mere paragraph, symbolizing the dehumanization of colonization.

Achebe's work encourages a more complex view of the world and its people, and asks big questions worth pursuing.

Crash Course is supported by viewers like you and is available for free thanks to Subbable.com.

Transcripts

Hi I’m John Green, this is Crash Course Literature, and today we continue our discussion

of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Mr. Green, Mr. Green! I can’t even believe

we’re spending two weeks on this book. Like, it’s about as long as a Babysitter’s Club book.

Okay, couple things, Me From the Past. First off, the length of a book is not directly proportional to its quality.

Secondly, I could do, like, five Crash Course Literatures on Babysitter’s Club 26, Claudia and the Sad Goodbye.

Trying to pretend that you didn’t like The Babysitter’s Club so you’ll seem cool - I see through you, Me From the Past!

So, Things Fall apart is interesting on a lot of levels, and part of that is due to

the historical contexts of the story. And I did say contexts, plural.

Because it’s a historical novel about the colonization of Africa in the late 19th century,

but it was written in the late 1950s, just as European colonial powers were giving up their colonies.

And like the novel, Chinua Achebe lived between these two worlds. So let’s start there.

[Theme Music]

So Chinua Achebe was born Albert Chinuamaluga Achebe in 1930, about eighty years after the

first missionaries arrived in Igboland. His father had converted to Christianity,

hence the Albert, through one of the missionary schools in Nigeria and became an evangelist for the church.

But the rest of Achebe’s family adhered to the traditional Igbo culture and religious traditions,

which meant Achebe spent his childhood at “the crossroads of culture,” as he once put it.

By the age of eight, he could read in Igbo and in English. He read Shakespeare and missionary

texts one day and sat in Igbo storytelling circles the next.

And he wrote Things Fall Apart to “retell the story of my encounter with Europe in a

way acceptable to me,” and to counter the traditional European view of Africa and Africans

with a human picture that matched the complexity of actual humans.

And with Okonkwo’s story, Achebe grounds the reader really deeply in the ancient Igbo

life and culture before there’s even any mention of missionaries. So we get a clear

look at the structures and beliefs and traditions that held the community together before Europeans arrived.

Except, of course, it’s also not a clear look because one, we’re reading fiction. More importantly,

we’re reading fiction written a hundred years after European contact. Anyway, early on in Things Fall Apart,

we hear that in Igboland, “The land of the living was not far removed from the domain

of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and

also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man’s

life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer

to his ancestors.” So Achebe shows us a functioning society with

institutions like the tribal council that settle disputes and bring order to Igboland.

Now these institutions may not be recognizable to the Westerners who showed up for the palm

oil, but they had functioned for thousands of years.

And then, when British missionaries and colonial governors arrive on the scene, they fail to

understand these institutions and they try to replace them with their own forms of religion

and government. But one of the fascinating things about this

novel is that it doesn’t unambiguously condemn or praise either worldview, right? Like, there

are clearly problems with both systems of justice.

And that really runs counter to the European essentializing of pre-colonial African lives,

which usually imagines them either as uncivilized savages or else as these innocents living

in an Edenic utopia. So Okonkwo is in exile when the Europeans

first show up in the story, but when he returns to his transformed community, he urges resistance.

But his friend Obierka responds sadly, “It is already too late. Our own men and our sons

have joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to

uphold his government.” This is of course particularly interesting

considering that it was written in the context of a decolonizing late 1950s Africa.

So how did the British Empire end up coming to power in Igboland? Well, let’s go to

the Thought Bubble. So in the 19th century, when the events of

this story took place, all the great European powers were busily setting up colonial empires

across the world. These overseas colonies were a real win/win

for Europe, as they not only furnished raw materials to feed the manufacturing economies

back home, they also acted as new markets in which to sell industrial goods. So colonies

were popular. They were so popular, in fact, that the German

Chancellor organized a conference to divide up Africa among the Europeans, in order to

avoid any wars over the continent. They would also have the happy side effect

of spreading the so-called Three C’s: commerce, Christianity, and civilization.

So, at the Berlin conference of 1885, Africa’s fate was decided. Oh, also no one from Africa

was invited to the conference, naturally. In West Africa, much of the colonial trade

had been in slaves prior to 1807, and most of that horrifying business was done on the

coast. There wasn’t much colonial settling in the interior until after the slave trade

was banned in the British Empire. With the slave trade no longer an option,

the British turned to palm trees. Palm oil made for a great lubricant for industrial

machinery, and after colonization, more than 16 million pounds worth, that’s currency

not weight, by the way, were exported per year.

The British Empire laid claim to Igboland, which was rich in palm trees and also non-Christians,

a perfect opportunity to put the three C’s into practice.

Thanks, Thought Bubble. So, that helps us to understand the historical context for the

setting of the book. The OTHER historical context is the time in which it was written.

By 1958, Africa was beginning the process of decolonization, as European powers gave

up their colonies. And that meant that throughout Africa, people

were having conversations about what the future should look like. Should we embrace European-style

nation states? Should we have some kind of pan-African cooperation?

Marxism, capitalism - who would make a better ally, the Soviet Union or the United States?

And so in that context, Achebe gives us a story about the pre-colonial Igbo world,

which has a stability, and a kind of strength to it, but is certainly not without its problems,

while also giving us a look at colonial Igboland. But it’s interesting to note that because

he is obsessed with strength and acts out of fear, Okonkwo doesn’t fare particularly

well under either structure. But anyway, back to the text. So the British

incursion into Igboland is the focus of the final part of the book. Missionaries are the

first to arrive in the interior villages, and at first, there doesn’t seem to be much

cause for alarm. The first missionary Okonkwo encounters is

a guy named Mr. Kiaga and he is characterized as a man of great faith but is thought of

as “harmless.” Then there’s Mr. Brown, the missionary based

in Umofia, who gained respect through a “policy of compromise and accommodation.” Mr Brown

is willing to listen to the villagers talk about their beliefs, and tries to incorporate

some of their traditions into the practices of his Christianity.

But then Mr. Brown’s successor in Umofia, the Reverend James Smith, “saw things as

black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children

of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness.”

And Smith’s uncompromising stance inevitably leads to conflict with the people of Umofia,

and ultimately to the destruction of the mission church. We’re told “the red-earth church

which Mr. Brown had built was a pile of earth and ashes. And for the moment the spirit of

the clan was pacified.” So in three quick steps with three missionaries,

we go from a harmless one to one whose rigid belief system leads the community to violence.

The town then keeps itself armed and ready for a reprisal, and “Okonkwo was almost

happy again,” we’re told. But instead, Okonkwo and several other village leaders

are arrested, beaten by their jailers, and the village is forced to pay a fine.

Okonkwo calls a town meeting to organize a forceful resistance and when the authorities

arrive to break it up, he beheads one of the messengers. And then the gathered villagers

do not rally to his side, and he knows that his cause is lost. “He knew that Umuofia

would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.”

And then when the British District Commissioner arrives to arrest Okonkwo, he finds that Okonkwo

has hanged himself. Achebe closes the novel by revealing the District

Commissioner’s thoughts about all he had learned “in the many years in which he had

toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa.”

The Commissioner wants to write a book about his experiences, which he plans to call “The

Pacification of the Primitives of the Lower Niger.” And he decides that Okonkwo, the

textured character we’ve come to know through the course of this novel, would warrant, “Perhaps

not a chapter, but a reasonable paragraph.” In those final moments of the novel, we see

the loss of humanity that’s inherent to colonization, and indeed that’s inherent

to the privileged gazing upon the other. The European system of colonization so profoundly

failed to see human beings as human beings that it wrought destruction in Africa and

across the world. But of course, Okonkwo and his village are

not just a paragraph to us. They are not a footnote. Things Fall Apart, and great books

like it, help us to wipe away some of the spots on the lenses of our perception. They

let us see more clearly, and ask us to imagine the world and the people in it with more complexity

and they ask us the big questions, the kinds that may not easy answers, but are still worth

pursuing. As Achebe said later in his life, “Igbo people say, If you want to see it

well, you must not stand in one place.” Thanks for watching. I’ll see you next week.

Crash Course is made by all of these nice people and it exists because of your support

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forever. Thank you again for watching and thank you for bearing with me as I deal with

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about To Kill a Mockingbird and I promise I will not sound like a bullfrog then. As

we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.