On Misplaced Blame in Literature

I am not sure if I am finished with this. Chances are that I will come back to it later. But, in the meantime, I would like to know what you think. Enjoy!

Misplaced Blame in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Religion is misrepresented in Things Fall Apart in the same way that it is misrepresented in the real world: by people who claim to be religious but are not in reality, or by people who use religion as a vehicle by which to fulfill their own selfish desires or as a veil to hide their self-seeking motivations. Consequently, religion—namely Christianity—has come to make those who hear its very mention shudder with disgust, and utter words of blatant ignorance and shameless and hurtful disrespect. None of this is to say that Chinua Achebe was inaccurate in his representations of the early British colonizers of the time period in which Things Fall Apart is set. In fact, in his Power and the Church: Ecclesiology in an Age of Transition, Martyn Percy asserts that the novel “hold[s] up a mirror to Western tradition and establishment” (163). The problem in question is actually with the readers of Things Fall Apart and similar novels. Readers take the actions of the “Christians” in the story and accept these actions as those of God-fearing Christians. Without once opening a Bible to see what Christianity truly dictates in the actions of its followers, readers assume an opinion about all of Christianity and its people and run with it. This opinion infiltrates university classrooms, and Christianity is forced to suffer the cutting and serious blows of a generation that has been led believe that Christianity is manipulative, unfairly judgmental, and even elitist.

The problem began a long time ago when someone figured out that posing as a Christian could mask self-seeking motivations, and allow for a sneaky manipulation of another human being. From a Christian perspective, this is an unfortunate consequence of the “Fall of Man” described in Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, sin was introduced into the world. Ever since, people are born as sinful beings, and humankind has been found capable of doing unspeakable evil to other human beings. Some of this evil includes the cruelty involved in the British colonization of the tribes in Nigeria, as illustrated in Things Fall Apart. The deterioration of an old way of life and the end of Okonkwo’s life begin with the appearance of a single white man.

White men first appear in chapter fifteen of Things Fall Apart. First one white man appears, and is killed by the people of Abame. Later, more white men come and destroy the people of Abame. In chapter sixteen, Obierika informs Okonkwo (in his exile) that missionaries had come to Umuofia. This is the first time that the word “missionaries” (143) is used in the novel, and even though the Oxford English Dictionary definition of “missionary” is “A person sent on or engaged in a religious mission abroad,” the immediate assumption is that these “missionaries” are Christian—easily assumed based on a general common knowledge of British colonization. By this time in the book, readers are already partial to Okonkwo, despite his gruff nature, and his comrades, so when “Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, called the converts” to the missionaries’ church “the excrement of the clan, and the new faith” a “mad dog that had come to eat [the clan] up,” (143) it’s easy to take their side against the missionaries. It’s also very easy to make the clan victims of the missionaries. Simultaneously, this is also the chapter where the divide between converts and nonconverts appears—especially in the case of Nwoye and Okonkwo. Readers, especially university students, want to take sides, and since Okonkwo is clearly the protagonist of the story, then the missionaries and their “faith” must be the antagonist. This begs the question, was Achebe’s intention to victimize the clan against the plight of the missionaries?

In his Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Casebook, Isidore Okpewho makes one thing very clear:

Christianity is brought by the Europeans, as history itself appears to be. But Christianity is portrayed as a fulfillment of historic trends among the Igbo; Nwoye has sought something other and thinks he has found it in Christianity. He has had doubts about the religion of his fathers; the songs of the Christians fill his soul with sweetness and peace; they answer a need in his soul. Similar doubts are expressed by Obierika, who comes to destroy Okonkwo’s compound after his friend has been exiled for an offense that was purely accidental. Achebe is anxious to show that the Igbo make their own choices, are not victims of history, but makers of history. There is a continuity and development, not just repetition and rupture. The Igbo chose Christianity, as Nwoye did, or rejected it, as Okonkwo did, because they were aware of themselves making their own world in time (Okepwho 142, emphasis added).

In other words, the Igbo people are not passive victims of their circumstances, but active avatars in the situation that unfolds all the way to the end of the novel. It is up to each individual member of the clan to make a decision as to what they believe. This assertion agrees with the Bible, which says that it is up to each man to “work out [his] own salvation” (Philippians 2:12, NASB). Nwoye’s curiosity in the words of the missionaries is described at the end of the sixteenth chapter, when the narrator relates that “It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it… The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul—the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed” (147). This wondering and curiosity is described in Ecclesiastes 3:11, which states that “… God has also planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy]” (Amplified Bible). In other words, according to the Bible, no other gods would ever be sufficient for the Igbo people, and according to the Great Commission, given by Jesus to his followers in Matthew 28:19-20, it is the job of the missionaries to go and “make disciples of all the nations,” and teach them everything that Jesus said. God being the only God would be one of those teachings, and so the missionaries were only following the orders of Jesus Christ Himself. Faulting them for simply doing as their religion dictates is unfair and unjust; if they did not follow what the Bible said, after all, they would be hypocrites—the number one reason why people do not go to church in the first place!

 The original missionaries do not teach the Igbo people that the whole clan must believe one way or the other, that is an idea all their own. Unfortunately, while some can agree to disagree, all are not so mature. The new converts to the church are overzealous—as most new Christians are, even today—and “boasted openly that all the gods were dead and impotent and that they were prepared to defy them by burning all their shrines” (154). This boastfulness is in direct contrast with the Bible. In fact, the Apostle Paul says specifically “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking” (2 Corinthians 2: 20a, NASB), and Obadiah 1:12 says, frankly “do not gloat over your brother’s day” (NASB).  This boastfulness is also a symptom of pride, one of the seven sins that God Himself considers an “abomination,” along with “spreading strife among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16, 19, NASB), which is exactly what the gloating converts are doing. The intention of the missionaries was not to divide the people—when talking about religion in any context, there are going to be opposing opinions—the gloating of these three converts is entirely with the intention to cause a tiff with the nonconverts.

Once the church of the missionaries was well established, traces of a foreign government begin to surface (155). At this point in the novel, the government of the white people is not discussed in any detail—Achebe makes sure that the government takeover of the British sneaks up on the readers as much as it does the Igbo people.

When Okonkwo returns from exile, Umuofia is much changed. There is another mention of the government that the white men brought with them, and the narrator states that they “built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance” (174)—having no idea as to how to Igbo society operated, British politicians storm in and implement their laws on a people who, first of all, do not know what their laws are, and secondly, are not united in their desire to alter the existing laws. The white men also set up prisons and begin trading with the Igbo people—essentially, the entire Igbo society is changed.

Obierika puts it best: “‘The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion… Now he has won our brothers… He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart’” (176). The failure of the missionaries to make an effort to put a stop to the boasting and gloating of the over-zealous new converts is a mistake on their part, but another mistake has been made with far more grave consequences—this statement by Obierika, though profound, is incomplete. He makes no mention of the white man’s government; it is the government who is punishing people unfairly, and killing people who’ve broken their white man’s laws. The original missionaries are not entirely at fault, and it is certainly not Christianity itself at fault. Christianity dictates very simple laws, such as not killing or stealing or committing adultery; while these are similar to the laws of the white man, they way that the District Commissioner is communicating (or not communicating) and carrying out these laws is not biblical.

In chapter twenty-two, Mr. Brown, the original white missionary, is replaced by Reverend Smith, a much more obsessive man than Mr. Brown, and a poor representation of authentic Christianity. Jesus said the second greatest commandment was to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, NASB), and Reverend Brown is not a loving man to those who disagree with him. His zero-tolerance, zero-patience, zero-mercy attitude fans the flames of both the over-zealous converts and the infuriated leaders of the old Igbo community, Okonkwo included, which results in Okonkwo and his comrades burning down the church. The District Commissioner sides with Reverend Smith, and Okonkwo and his accomplices are tricked and captured, and punished according to the laws of the District Commissioner. The District Commissioner’s interference with something that, initially, should have been between the church and Okonkwo and his comrades, ends in despair for Okonkwo. In this moment, government and religion become one. Even if he is not a missionary or a church leader, the District Commissioner becomes lumped in with the other white men. What he does also represents Reverend Smith, and therefore Mr. Brown, and therefore the missionaries, and therefore the church, and therefore Christianity, and, ready as always to argue against religion, Achebe has—maybe intentionally, maybe not—caused readers to believe that Christianity is to blame for Okonkwo’s existing troubles and his troubles yet-to-come. Everything that the original missionaries set out to accomplish no longer matters in the eyes of the readers. All that matters is that Okonkwo kills himself, and the old Igbo nation no longer exists, and it’s all Jesus’ fault.

This is simply untrue. The Bible teaches unity among nations and people (Psalm 133:1, John 10:16; 17:11, 21-23, Romans12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 10:17; 12:5, 12-13, 26, 27; Galatians 3:26-28, Ephesians 1:10; 2:14-19, 21; 3:6; 4:4-5, 12-13, 16, 25, Colossians 3:11, 15 [Bible Bulletin Board]), not strife and ignorant leadership.

The implications of a blind acceptance of a misrepresentation of Christianity as it is depicted in literature are grave and severe. Religion, after all, is a serious subject—the subject of the fate of one’s eternal soul, and the standard by which one chooses to live one’s life; the paradigm of Christians, Christianity, and Jesus Himself. These are important and shape humans as individuals. Authors should pay more attention to how they choose to misrepresent specific people in literature, and readers should not accept everything they read blindly, but read carefully and closely, and always with a healthy dose of skepticism.

           

Works Cited

Okpewho, Isidore. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: a Casebook. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.

Percy, Martyn. Power and the Church: Ecclesiology in an Age of Transition. London: Cassell, 1998. Print.

BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 100 Versions and 50 Languages. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. <http://www.biblegateway.com/>.

Bible Bulletin Board. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. <http://www.biblebb.com/files/tniv/UNITY.TXT>.

Achebe, Chinua. 1994. Things Fall Apart. Kindle Ed. New York: Random House, Inc.

On The Company You Keep

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" II Corinthians 6:14

Platonic, casual friendships with people who hold different core values are not impossible. In fact, I believe them to be healthy and necessary to keep your mind open, and reinforce your faith. But to be yoked together is something different entirely. To be yoked together with another person involves sharing a deep, intimate friendship with someone else. This kind of deep relationship is not possible with someone who does not share your core values -- your friendship will be defined by conflict.

Furthermore, you are your friends. Facebook has made it possible to know way more information about someone else's life than is entirely necessary. This means, if you hang out with someone, all of your Facebook friends know it, and can look that person up on Facebook as well, and can see who they are (or, at least, who that person wants everyone on Facebook to believe they are. Remember that everything that a person posts on Facebook is by choice. They want the world to know these things about themselves. It's really an excellent reflection on the kinds of choices those people make. What parts of yourself do you want to make most well-known to the world?). If you are your friends, you decide how you're going to be represented. If, as a Christian, you have intimate contact with someone else, and it's made known on Facebook, and that other person has picture of them slinging back body shots, or wearing barely-there (if there at all) clothing, or doing a keg-stand, or anything otherwise defined as impropriety or inappropriate, then it is a reflection of who you are. The choices made by individuals as to how they portray themselves on Facebook are not only reflections of their poor choices, but are statements about your poor choices.

I know what you're thinking -- "That's so judgmental. Doesn't the Bible say 'do not judge?'"

Indeed, it does! Let's take a closer look, shall we?

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother 'let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Matthew 7:1-6. 

Basically, don't judge someone unless you are prepared to take the same kind of judgment. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and all that jazz. It does not say "do not judge ever," it simply says to be prepared for others to judge you in the same way. No one lives a sinless life, we're all a "work in progress," but we're free to offer righteous judgment calls as long as we are"plank-free," so to speak, in that area of our own lives.

So, as a person who tries her hardest to make sure that the people most intimately involved in her life are the kind of people she wants to be like, or the kind of people with whom she is proud to associate herself, I am telling you, friends and companions, to do the same. Do not let yourself be misrepresented because of the bad decisions of others. Watch what's on Facebook, and on the Facebooks of those you share intimate companionship with. People will make judgment calls based on these things.