Significance of the Title ‘THINGS FALL APART’

Or

Whiteman’s Colonialism in Africa

Chinua Achebe had a soft corner in his heart for the people of Africa. He feels pricks of conscience when his observant eye penetrates into the miseries of African people created by the West. Being a 20^th century writer, Achebe highlights the imperialistic attitude of the Whiteman towards poor and wretched black people.

The title of ‘Things Fall Apart’ has got immense popularity throughout the world. The very title exposes the colonialist biases of the English man in Africa. Everything in Africa was going accordingly. The arrival of the so called civilized (The Whitman) brought destruction and disintegration in the political, social and economic structure of a democratic (so called uncivilized) state of Africa. The title of the novel may be interpreted in different ways.

‘Things’ in the title of the book means political, social and moral circumstances. In other words, we may say that it means an organized way of things or well governed society or social setup.

‘Fall Apart’ connotes losing the control of the controlled, or to say, going away from something that was in control in the past. It also means turning and turning into gyre (lawlessness). In its broader sense, it may be interpreted in the sense that centre and margin are no more in good terms.

The whole of the title ‘Things Fall Apart’ can be interpreted broadly in the words that there is no more absolute concept of centre and margin. Centre can become margin and vice versa. Falling of the things apart from the centre means some sort of change either pleasant or unpleasant. Even it may be pleasant for the margin and unpleasant for the centre.

In this context, ‘Fall Apart’ means an attempt by the ruled (The colonized) to liberate themselves from the ruler (The colonizers) at political, social and different other levels. Another postcolonial writer Fanon writes;

“Whiteman is a devil incarnate from inside.”

The worth mentioning point here that Fanon was a psychoanalyst and therefore, he goes deep into the nature and psycho of the Whiteman before putting forward this sentence. The idea is further reinforced when we hear from Obie Rika;

“The Whiteman was the reason of banishment and destruction in Igbo society.”

Discussing about the knife of the Whiteman that was the cause of the devastation in African societies and culture, 20^th century critic R. K. Bridges remarks;

“The knife of British administration supporting the cause of missionary campaign fell on the culture of happily living Igbo people and cut it to bleed and die.”

Observing such awareness in African people ‘Empire started writing back’ which means the Whiteman started moving back to the centre. Following are the themes that have been observed in general:

• Traditional clashes with change
• Loss of culture is the loss of identity
• Okonkwo, a representative of Igbo society
• Disruption of peace in Africa by the arrival of the Whiteman in Africa

Because of the above-mentioned suppressions, things started falling apart either towards the centre or the margin. Let’s try to corelate the events of the novel in the light of the above-mentioned themes.

The writer, right from the beginning of the novel, portrays the African culture giving beautiful artistic touches. Achebe says;

“Africans have a culture of their own.”

They lead their lives according to the tradition of their culture and as such they were proud of sticking to them. Achebe goes on to say;

“Africans were hospitable by nature. They offered Kola nuts and palm wine to their guests.”

Whereas on the contrary side, the Whiteman holds the opinion;

“They do not have any culture. So, they must be cultured and civilized by universal culture which is Whiteman’s culture.”

On the other hand, Obie Rika, who is considered to be the conscience of the society, accentuates with heavy heart;

“The Whiteman has put a knife on the very thing that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

So, these cultural clashes resulted in the process of ‘Empire Writes Back’. Two important festivals ‘A Piece of We’ and ‘New Yam Festivals’ were observed by Igbo people. These festivals were not only providing the natives with the opportunity of eating, drinking and merry making in an assembly but also Igbo people were developing intimacy among themselves.

Domestic violence is common in both the African and Western culture. So, the Westerns claim of being civilized is based on hollowness and biases. This element bridges Nigerian culture with civilized European culture. We can say that there is no more difference between the culture of both i.e. the Western and the Nigerian. It is just a fallacy in the notion of the Whiteman if they consider themselves civilized and the Black as uncivilized. Okonkwo dies in the end of the novel and Achebe makes the fullest use of the situation;

“Okonkwo’s death meant the defeat Igbo’s culture and the victory of the Whiteman’s religion and his political intentions.”

In short, the emergence of the Whiteman brought disturbance in the settled order of Nigerian culture. Now, it seems inevitable that Empires should write back to the centre.