PORTRAYAL AND CRITICISM OF CULTURE AND SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS IN CHINUA 
ACHEBE?S THINGS FALL APART
 

Victor S. Alumona



Introduction
Chinua Achebe's famous novel, Things Fall Apart (TFA), is an extended 
reductio ad absurdum predicated on a premise derived from an ironic 
twist on the name of the novel's dominant clan called Umuofia. In 
short, the argument is that this is Umuofia, whose socio-political and 
economic institutions are so well developed that they can compare 
favorably with those of any other societies in the same epoch and level 
of development, anywhere in the world. Thus, Achebe concludes, any 
society so well developed and organized like that of his people cannot 
be legitimately called Umuofia. From this perspective, this paper 
argues, contra the traditional interpreters of TFA,1 that the novel is 
neither a portraiture of the ideal Igboman as seen in Okonkwo,2 nor is 
Achebe in the novel concerned mainly with the obsession with power and 
its repercussions among his people even before, or at the inception of 
colonialism.3 Rather, the novel is an indigenous portrayal and 
criticism of the culture and institutions of a denigrated people with a 
view to highlighting both their strengths and weaknesses, and without 
any tinge of apology at all. I intend to show subsequently that Achebe 
achieves this by building an argument and persuasive rhetoric around 
the lives and careers of some dominant individuals and the operations 
or failures of societal institutions; for instance, the family, 
government, morality, law and order, diplomacy etc.

The Irony of the Name Umuofia
The dominant impression of an average African society in tile 
literature inspired by tile prejudiced theories of the early 
ethnologists and social anthropologists manifests in Joyce Cary's "Mr. 
Johnson?.4 In describing a western Sudanese town Cary says, ?Its people 
would not know tile change of time jumped 50 thousand years. They live 
like mice . . . on a palace floor; all the magnificence and veracity of 
the arts, the learning and battles of civilization go over their heads 
and they do not even imagine them?.5 A people so described would easily 
be called Umuofia, which literally means ?bushmen? in Igbo, with all 
the primitivity that that connotes and conveys. 

Given that in Arabic, bilad al Sudan means "the land of the blacks", 
the description in Mr. Johnson appears to be representative of all the 
black nations. Normally, in Igbo, the prefix, ?Umu?, to the name of a 
town, clan, or village shows that the indigenes of the town in question 
either believe themselves to have one progenitor or that they owe 
allegiance to one central idea or concept. Hence, the name ?Umu-Odeju? 
shows that indigenes of such a village believe themselves to be 
descendants of ?Odeju?. Similarly, a village or town called ?Umudo? 
could mean either descendants of a progenitor called ?Udo?, or one 
whose inhabitants regard themselves as 'peace-makers', for ?Udo? also 
means ?peace? in Igbo.

In view of this, the name ?Umuofia? has two parts?a prefix ?Umu? and a 
suffix ?Ofia?. The prefix can mean, ?people from?, indicating nativity, 
i.e., a place of origin, or it could mean ?people showing collective 
subscription to one ideology? which the suffix connotes. In the present 
case, the suffix ?Ofia? means 'bush' in Igbo. So, in essence, Umuofia 
means ?people from the bush? or ?bush people?. Hence, Achebe 
consciously6 adopts the pejorative stance of tile western 
anthropologists: he describes his people as ?Umuofia?, and subsequently 
reduces that appellation to absurdity by weaving description, 
exposition, rhetoric and argument, around interrelated plots in the 
novel under consideration. How he does this is what I endeavor to show 
in the remaining parts of the paper.

Cosmology and Rebellion in Things Fall Apart
One cherished attribute among the people of Umuofia is cohesive 
community life. It is actually the destruction of this cohesion by an 
?abominable religion?,7 and an external government that gave the novel 
its title. The overt expression of this cohesion is the ?week of peace? 
which Okonkwo broke and was punished by Ezeani. This social cohesion is 
predicated on a world-view and religion according to which Chukwu is 
the creator of ?heaven?, i.e., the sky or the sublunary world, and the 
earth. Chukwu is worshipped through other lesser gods such as Amadiora, 
Ogwugwu, and Idemili, etc. These are really, to my mind, deified 
natural forces that could either be benevolent or malevolent depending 
on circumstances.8 Apart from these, there is also ancestor worship. 
The deceased elders of the family or the community are regarded as yet 
alive but in the underworld or the spirit world from which they oversee 
the affairs of their erstwhile families or community. There is a 
communion between the living and the departed members of the family or 
community through sacrifices by the former, and through oracles and 
divination by the latter. On special occasions, the ancestors re-visit 
the members of their community as masquerades.

Moreover, it is also believed in this worldview that there are other 
contending forces and spirits in nature and society: fortunes and 
misfortunes, ?ogbanje?, wars and pestilence. There are also such other 
violent emotions among men in society, as love and hate, fear and envy, 
intrigues and treachery etc. It is believed that an individual 
endeavors to succeed in life by actualizing his destiny, or a community 
strives to realize its goals and aspirations by contending with other 
communities or individuals. In order, therefore, to enhance one?s or a 
community?s chances of success, supernatural forces are either invoked 
or appeased by using equally mysterious forces in the forms of charms 
or amulets called Ogwu which sometimes can be deified and propitiated 
as a god or goddess. Oracles can also be consulted to unravel a mystery 
or the future as seen in the oracle of the ?Hills and Caves?.9

However, in the gregarious efforts to succeed either as a person or a 
community, positive morality of intentions and actions must be ensured. 
The custodian of morality is the Earth goddess?Ani. It ensures that no 
indigene of a community takes the life of another for whatever reason. 
Thus, Okonkwo had to be exiled for seven years after killing Ezeudu?s 
son accidentally, at his father?s funeral, in order to propitiate the 
land. In addition, this world view and religion sanctioned and 
maintained such other beliefs and practices as, payment of ransom?two 
persons for one life taken?human sacrifice, disposal of twin babies in 
the belief that they were evil,10 the Osu Caste system, and the ogbanje 
phenomenon, etc. 

How these beliefs and practices were justified within the cosmology 
and religion of the fiction bothered Achebe a great deal. Oftentimes, 
he makes his characters question the rationale behind certain beliefs 
and practices. That way Achebe is able to show that the people of 
Umuofia had critical dispositions necessary for philosophical 
reflection as seen in other apparently civilized cultures of the world. 
How the author does this in the novel we shall see later.

Economy and Economic Relations
In the novel, Umuofia is depicted as having an economy in which 
economic activities and relations have advanced far beyond the 
itinerant, fruit-gathering type that the early ethnologists and 
anthropologists attributed to Africans. The Umuofia economy is a 
monetary one in which trade-by­-barter has been greatly reduced. As 
such loans could be obtained and repaid as exhibited in the Unoka-Okoye 
episode in the fiction. Commerce has developed to such an extent that 
there are markets and expectedly, the existence of traders or merchants 
as a social class.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of Umuofia, and thus the 
people have a symbiotic relationship with both land and environment. 
This then explains the religious importance of Ani (Earth), which is 
regarded and worshipped as a goddess that has regenerative potency. The 
agriculture is mainly of the shifting, sedentary compound cultivation 
type, which is practiced with some rudimentary scientific knowledge. 
This is evident in the ways and manners the weather is watched, the 
time farms are cleared and cultivated, and also the ways Okonkwo 
endeavored to care for his yam tendrils during a prolonged drought. 
Moreover, the agricultural economy is such that a determined farmer 
does not need to have inherited barns of yams from his father; he could 
succeed as well by being a sharecropper. This is what Okonkwo did when 
he approached Ogbuefi Nwakibie to borrow seed yams.

Now, the terms and phrases as well as the complexity with which a 
particular language renders economic relations and their overt 
expressions in the lives of individuals in society usually indicate the 
level of development of the society whose language it is. The economy 
of the community depicted in TFA is not only a developed one; it is 
inscribed in a complex web of socio-economic relationships. 

It is apt to point out that the Igbo society described in the novel is 
a shame culture and a contest society.11 In a shame culture, ?the 
important tiling is to be successful in one?s enterprise and to be 
judged so by others, rather than having a good conscience.?12 It is a 
culture in which the cliché: ?Success has parents, brothers and 
sisters; failure is an orphan,? is apt and relevant. In other words, 
?merit and excellence are reckoned less by intentions than by results.?
13 In such a culture, success is noble and failure shameful 
irrespective of the circumstances. Achebe captures the essence of this 
culture by informing us that ?? among this people (the Igbo) a man was 
(is) judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of 
his father,?14 and that ?age was respected among his (Okonkwo) people, 
but achievement was (is) revered.?15 In other words, ?If a child washed 
his hands, he could eat with Kings?.?16 It is shameful in such a 
culture as the Igbo one to be an ?agbala? ? a man who had taken no 
title ? like Unoka (Okonkwo?s father whom he detests down to his 
marrow) and Osugo whom Okonkwo slighted in a kindred meeting with the 
comment ?this meeting is for men..? In a shame culture, failure is 
bearable when it is the lot of many more persons. Otherwise, in Unoka?s 
words, ?it is more difficult and bitter when a man fails alone.?17

By virtue of being a shame culture, the Igbo society of the TFA and 
even nowadays is also a contest society. In principle it is an open 
society18 as seen in the economic structures and institutions for 
decision-making. Individuals in the society are in obvious competition 
with one another to get to and remain at the top of the socio-economic 
hierarchy of the community.19 Personal success in a society like this 
one attracts intense envy from the lowly and unsuccessful. This 
explains why it is a social norm in the society of the TFA for a man 
never to take the life of his compatriot whether deliberately or 
otherwise. This norm forestalls indiscriminate hauling down of 
achievers in a contest society by non-achievers like Unoka and Osugo. 
Thus, the society depicted in TFA is both a shame culture and a contest 
society. It is then not quite surprising that Okonkwo's ?whole life was 
dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.?20

Family Values and Societal Morality
Achebe takes great care, and goes to great lengths, to show that, 
although Okonkwo is polygamous, the family is nevertheless cohesive.21 
Even the structural layout of huts in the compound shows that power, 
protection, leadership and prestige emanate from the Obi and radiates 
toward the other members of the family. It is a family in which any of 
the wives could take care and charge of the children of another in her 
absence, and commensurately, any of the wives or elders of the family 
can send a child on an errand without taking prior permission from the 
mother. These values are exemplified by the fact that Nwoye's mother 
fed Ojiugo's children, as she did hers, when the latter went to plait 
her hair and could not cook the afternoon meal for her children and 
husband. Similarly, Ezinma, Ekwefi?s only surviving child, took fire 
across to Nwoye's mother, and offered to make it for her before 
returning to her own mother's kitchen to resume her chores. It is also 
noteworthy that as he matured Nwoye could be sent for to perform some 
of the difficult chores for any of his father's wives, and not 
necessarily his own mother. 

When Okonkwo wanted to pass his feelings regarding his daughters' 
suitors, he talked to Ezinma who in turn talked to Obiageli, her half-
sister, and secured her consent not to marry any man in Mbanta. This is 
because the family cohesion affords her the chance to exert influence 
on the other children of the family.

Furthermore, Nwakibie was a great man of rank in the society who had 
three wives. But only Anasi, the first wife, wore the anklets of her 
husband's titles.22 This shows the locus of.power and respectable 
authority among the women in the compound. In Okonkwo's compound, 
Nwoye's mother occupies a similar position. So in the absence of a man 
or any other male that could take charge, the women knew who should 
take immediate charge ? showing the cohesive nature of the average Igbo 
?nuclear? family.

Even adherence to etiquette ensures that this cherished family 
cohesion is maintained. For instance, when called to the Obi to be 
given palm-wine brought by visitors, the younger wives of Nwakibie had 
to stand aside waiting for the first wife to arrive and drink first. It 
is also noteworthy that in a gathering of people, not just anyone 
shares things out among them. The youngest in any gathering does so.

Achebe also carefully shows the premium placed on marital bond and 
life-long mutual dependence between husband and wife in the story told 
of Ogbuefi Ndulue and his wife Ozoemena.23 In the words of the 
perceptive Obierika, ?it was always said that Ndulue and Ozoemena had 
one mind . . . I remember when I was a boy; there was a song about 
them. He could not do anything without telling her.?24 Even­ though 
this extolling of strong mutual marital bond draws skepticism from a 
conservative like Okonkwo regarding the manliness of Ndulue, the author 
has made his point?family cohesion and life­ long mutual bond and 
dependence is a cherished Igbo family value.

Now, moving away from family life into the village and even across the 
clans, there are ceremonies, feasts and events used by this people to 
maintain family ties. An example is the Uri ceremony at which a suitor 
entertains the villagers of his bride. Apart from this, Uri is used to 
draw in other families, especially women, to share in the joy of a 
family that has successfully raised a maiden fit for marriage. Women 
and children are invited to help in cooking and rendering other 
services relevant to the ceremony.

Secondly, feasts like the new yam festival are used to maintain not 
only village or clan unity, but also healthy relations and mutual bonds 
between in-laws as related by the hyperbole of the yam foo-foo set 
before in-laws.25 Daughters of a village married away to other villages 
or clans have an avenue to meet as a group through the institution 
called Umuada in order to perform some vital duties like settling 
quarrels or mourning in their families of origin.

Moreover, Achebe also endeavors to show that even though the Igbo are 
predominantly patrilineal, maternity is not only sacred but also very 
important in the life of an Igbo. It is as if a son is raised by his 
father to be a worthy participant in the life of the society, but is 
rehabilitated by his mother or mother?s family when danger or 
misfortunes strike. This is the whole point of Okonkwo spending seven 
years of exile among his mother?s kinsmen. He was not tried for 
homicide, convicted and sent to jail for seven years. Rather he was 
given an opportunity to re-evaluate his life, make amends while still 
living a normal life with the full complements of his family.26

However, this cohesive family so much extolled in the novel had to 
thrive in the community, and the community in the clan, in accordance 
with established morality. Some principles of this morality are 
highlighted in the novel. The first among these is the principle of 
accommodation: ?Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one 
says no to the other, let his wing break.?27 This principle justifies 
my claim that the Igbo society of the TFA as well as today?s Igbo 
society is a ?shame culture? in which visible success is revered, and 
individuals go to any length to achieve it nowadays. This principle is 
therefore primarily important in order to discourage unfair and 
virulent competition especially as a shame culture is normally a 
contest society.

Complementary to this moral principle is a taboo according to which a 
clansman cannot take the life of another in any way; hence, Okonkwo's 
ostracization for inadvertently killing his clansman. This taboo is 
also very important in a shame culture in order to prevent feigned 
accidents through which a person can eliminate his competitor. In 
addition, there is the etiquette which demands that one who sets an 
edible item before another taste it first. When Okonkwo took wine to 
Nwakibie to solicit his help, ?the first cup went to Okonkwo, who must 
taste his wine before anyone else.?28 This is to assure others that 
what is set before them, be it palm-wine, kola-nut, or tobacco snuff, 
etc., has not been poisoned.

In certain conservative settings, even wives taste food set before 
their husbands, especially in a polygamous family. Allied to the above 
is the principle of teleology or purposive action: every action has a 
purpose given that ?a toad does not run in the day time for nothing?29 
(it is either that it is pursuing something or something is pursuing 
it). Since every action leads to an end, the intention behind which is 
not always obvious, caution is enjoined on all and sundry: ?Eneke the 
bird says that since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has 
learnt to fly without perching.?30 This I call the principle of caution 
or cautionary action.

In the novel there are glimpses of the people's sexual morality. For 
instance, the Isa-ifi ceremony31 performed on behalf of Umuada (council 
of daughters) by the eldest of them is used to ascertain the fidelity 
of a bride to her suitor since betrothal. Similarly, premarital sex 
seems not to have been encouraged given the description given of Akueke 
who was being married-off.32 However, Ezeani, who upbraids Okonkwo for 
violating the ?week of peace? by beating his wife said: ?Your wife was 
at fault but even if you came into your Obi and found her lover on top 
of her, you would still have committed a great evil to beat her.?33 
Reading the lips of Ezeani one is at a loss about how to view the 
statement. It could be a way of stressing the enormity of Okonkwo's 
action.34 But at the same time, it could also be a reflection of a 
subdued practice that allows married women to have lovers. One's 
suspicion that this could have been the case is heightened by the story 
of how Okonkwo married Ekwefi eventually: she ran away from Anene, her 
first husband, to Okonkwo in circumstances that seem to permit a kind 
of sexual permissiveness for married women.35 This view does not, 
however, cohere with the isa-ifi ceremony and the premium placed on 
sexual abstinence before marriage. Neither does it fit into 
contemporary Igbo life in many places. Perhaps it is one of those 
liberties an artist takes in creating a work of fiction!

There is also a set of moral rules used to protect farm crops from 
wilful destruction. For instance, anyone who carelessly lets loose his 
hoofed domestic animals on another's farm pays a fine.36 The purpose of 
all these rules is to produce a society in which a man can maximize his 
abilities without let or hindrance in pursuance of some obvious goods: 
wealth, health, children, social relations and prestige, long life, 
etc.

Rites of Passage
One mark of an advanced culture or civilization is the way it 
celebrates the human life cycle: birth, growth and death. Apart from 
birth, Achebe, in the novel, gives details of the Igbo account and 
celebration of maturation and death. At maturity, a maiden is given 
into marriage through an established process, as seen in the case of 
Akueke, that dignifies the bride and groom's families, involves the 
whole immediate community and consequently validates the marriage. It 
is clear that marriage among this people was not by capture or seizure 
of the bride as some primitive tribes are wont to do.37 At marriage, a 
woman not only becomes a wife in her husband's homestead, but also 
automatically joins the council of daughters, Umuada, of her kindred. 
On the other hand, a young man at marriage inaugurates his own compound 
and Obi as well as his own ancestral shrine. He carves out his own 
farmlands from which proceeds he creates his own barn. Thus, he ceases 
to be an ?agbala? and can subsequently initiate himself into the Ozo 
society and masquerade cults.

Death is undesirable; but without it, there would not be ancestral 
worship, which is a vital aspect of Igbo cosmology. So, the death of a 
successful man like Ezeudu, who lived to a ripe old age, and thus 
passes as a model of a fulfilled life, is announced carefully but 
steadily by different connotations of the ekwe sound. Thereafter, there 
is a dignified celebration of his passage from earthly life to the life 
of the world beyond. In essence, therefore, there is no absolute death.
38 The efficacy of this belief is shown in the fact that it was at 
Ezeudu's funeral that Okonkwo tactlessly violated a taboo that sent him 
into exile for seven years, in much the same way as he tactlessly 
disregarded Ezeudu's advice and warning not to have a hand in 
Ikemefuna's sacrifice because the boy called him father. So, whether 
alive or dead, the words of a virtuous wise man abide, and one 
disregards them to his utter peril.

Similarly, there is the tacit passage from ?the dead? or spirit world 
to healthy earthly life as described in the digging up from the bowels 
of the earth of Ezinma?s iyi-uwa, i.e., the string that linked her to 
the kindred Qgbanje spirit. Having broken that cord, she ceases to be a 
tormentor child to her parents by her hitherto unbroken cycle of 
reincarnation.39

Government. Judicial System and Diplomacy
One other aspect of Igbo culture highlighted in the novel through 
interlocking plots is its republicanism anchored on an egalitarian 
spirit. This republicanism works through certain organs of governance. 
The highest of the popular organs of governance is the clan assembly, 
which is the apex decision-making body. It declares wars and makes 
peace. However, the inner caucus of this assembly is the body of 
?ndichie? literally, the ancients: men who have taken the highest 
titles in the land, priests of various categories and lineage heads.40 
On his return from his embassy to Mbaino, it was to this body that 
Okonkwo reported and delivered for appropriate disposition the ransom 
he collected (Ikemefuna and a virgin girl).

Below the clan assembly and ndichie comes the Umunna-kindred meeting 
at which family matters were discussed. It was at such a meeting to 
decide the next ancestral feast that Okonkwo committed hubris41 by 
insulting Osugo who contradicted him with the condescending remark: 
?This meeting is for men.?42 Even at the height of his power and fame 
the kindred meeting could force Okonkwo to apologize to Osugo, and the 
eldest man had to forcefully remind him: ?those whose palm-kernels were 
cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be 
humble.? This remark, in my opinion, brings out the significance of 
Okonkwo?s hubris.

Hence, in Umuofia, decisions on important matters are not taken 
capriciously. However, Achebe hints that such an assembly, like the 
clan?s, which works like the ecclesia of typical Greek city state say, 
Athens, could be swayed this way or that way by the power of oratory 
into hasty or wrong decisions on sensitive issues like declaring a war 
or making peace. This explains Okonkwo' s apprehension of Egonwane's 
rhetorical prowess and influence on the fateful day it was to decide on 
either war on the white man and his socio-political structures or 
benign acquiescence in the new religion and government.

The decisions of the assembly, especially those pertaining to 
declaring war on another town or making peace with it, were moderated 
by a transcendental religious authority?the oracle of the Hills and 
Caves. It always ensured that Umuofia never went to war unless its case 
was clear and just.43 Given this kind of check on the decisions of the 
clan assembly pertaining to such important matters as war and peace, 
the type of rash decision taken by the Athenian assembly in 428 B.C. on 
the fate of the male population of the revolting city of Mytilene,44 
would be avoided easily.

In diplomacy before war is fully declared, even after the oracle has 
sanctioned it, Umuofia would issue an ultimatum within which the 
offending clan or town was expected to choose war or peace. If the 
latter is chosen, then ransom must be paid for the unjustified 
provocation, or harm done to the community. Thus, the lad Ikemefuna and 
a virgin girl were collected by Okonkwo, the emissary of Umuofia, as 
ransom for the murder of Ogbuefi Udo' s wife. Overall, it was made 
clear in the novel that Umuofia had the principle of just war and when 
it was necessary, waged it in accordance with the notions of civilized 
behavior.

It was also emphasized in the novel that Umuofia had a judicial system 
in which the Egwugwu, masquerade cult, was the highest judicial body. 
In the case between Odukwe and others, a person in the crowd wondered 
why ?such a trifle? as the dispute between husband and wife, ?should be 
brought before the Egwugwu?. This suggests that there were lower levels 
of adjudication that could have handled the litigation.

However, the masquerade cult, in administering justice, does so in 
accordance with the principle of fair hearing. ?Your words are good,? 
said the leader of the Egwugwu. Let us hear Odukwe, his words may also 
be good. Similarly, in delivering judgment, the judicial systems aim at 
a balance or harmony and not at a bi-polar divisive declaration of 
innocent/guilty parties. Judgment aimed at what the Greeks called 
equipollence of arguments pro and contra on issues, especially family 
matters: ?We have heard both sides of the case... our duty is not to 
blame this man or to praise that, but to settle the dispute.?45 This 
equipollence of arguments is necessary for the attainment of balance or 
harmony, which is a principle of existence that this people valued and 
was guarded by Ani, the Earth goddess.

In order to achieve this harmony in the society through the judicial 
process and pronouncements, the Egwugwu used a quasi-jury system: ?The 
nine egwugwu then went away to consult together in their house.?46 This 
manner of delivering judgment after hearing a case is quite congruent 
with the republican and democratic ideals of the culture and people as 
epitomized in the various levels of governmental structures, but 
especially the manner of decision-making in the clan assembly?by 
consensus after a reasonable debate on the matter, pro and contra.

Entertainments and Leisure
Even though the culture is one in which ?solid personal achievement? 
through dint of hard work is a leading ideal, the novel commences by 
showing a hilarious people agog with joy at watching a wrestling 
contest, which is a part of the greatest of their festivals -- the new 
yam festival. Soon after, we are introduced to a man given to music, 
play, leisure and story telling, although not the stories of violence, 
war and blood. Through him, we are told how various groups learn their 
music and dance. 

We also see that among this people most events have entertainment 
dimensions to them. This is evident in marriages, funerals and other 
rites of passage. Even ordinary welcome gesture to a visitor, and the 
rituals of breaking kola-nut presented to him, is suffused with 
proverbs and aphorisms that could cause bellyaching laughter. A mere 
request for a favor could be turned to merriment easily. It is worth 
recalling that when Okonkwo went to Nwakibie to borrow seed yams, he 
took palm wine. Soon after his arrival a jolly company was formed and 
an ordinary request was turned into a light­-hearted session of jovial 
friends.

Summary
From the foregoing detailed commentary and discussions on the societal 
institutions and cultural values and ideals carefully portrayed in the 
novel, Things Fall Apart, it could be conveniently maintained that the 
Umuofia appellation, with its primitive connotations, used by Achebe to 
describe the Igbo people and culture of the time, is ironical, which 
when not understood as such, makes the surface meaning quite absurd. 
This is because the society so described and regarded has the social 
institutions, cultural ideals and values characteristic of civilized 
societies on common historical platform and economic development. The 
author endeavors to make just this point, for purposes of reasserting 
the unique identity of a misunderstood and thus erroneously denigrated 
people, but he nevertheless distances himself from his people's 
civilization. This he does in order to peer into it with a rational and 
critical insight that enabled him to raise questions about certain 
assumptions and fundamental beliefs of his people. How this was done 
with a kind of philosophical disposition and detachment is examined in 
the next section.

Criticism of Culture and Societal Institutions in Things Fall Apart
One super-structural dimension to the people's culture that is 
subjected to critical appraisal in the novel is the cosmology or world-
view. Ancestral worship is the first to be rationally and critically 
weighed in the tale of Obiako and his deceased father: Obiako had gone 
to consult the oracle which said to him, ?Your dead father wants you to 
sacrifice a goat to him.? But Obiako retorted, ?ask my dead father if 
he ever had a fowl when he was alive.?47 The import of this challenge 
is far-reaching; it stresses the point that people should not require 
from others more than they deserve. Moreover, the belief that places 
excessive demand on the living in order to satisfy the dead is 
fundamentally challenged. Meanwhile, Obiako' s defiance raises the 
question about the powers of the ancestors over the living. Inasmuch as 
it cannot be conclusively proved that they have or have not powers over 
the living, Obiako stresses that reasonableness is a common attribute 
of man whether dead or alive. Assuming that his father is alive as an 
ancestor, he should be reasonable in making his demands.

The belief and practice pertaining to the ?week of peace? are also 
critically assessed in the novel through the reflections of the wise 
Ezeudu. Erstwhile violators of the week of peace were dragged on the 
ground round the clan. This practice was dropped later as a form of 
punishment because it was pragmatically self-refuting. The whole 
principle and essence of the week of peace, i.e., harmonious 
neighborliness, was negated by the practice. Through that insight, it 
was highlighted that practices must be consistent with beliefs 
otherwise the rationality of such a belief is seriously doubted.

In addition, the idea that a man could be blamed for events over which 
he has no control is criticized. ?In some clans, it is an abomination 
for a man to die during tile week of peace? They have that custom in 
Obodoani. If a man dies at this time, he is not buried but cast into 
the evil forest. It is a bad custom which these people observe because 
they lack understanding.?48 Apparently, why they lack understanding is 
because the person who dies within the ?week of peace? has no control 
over life or death. In view of this, he should then not bear the blame 
for his own misfortune. However, rather than draw this conclusion, 
Ezeudu, while reflecting on the matter, drew a startling one: because 
the corpses of people who die within the week of peace are thrown into 
the evil forest, the towns of these practitioners are filled with 
wandering spirits. This deduction is consistent with the general 
framework of the people's worldview, but deviates from the logic of the 
reflection.

Furthermore, the cultural perception of the twin births as an 
abomination and their disposal after birth is criticized by Obierika's 
introspection after participating in the destruction of Okonkwo?s 
compound because of the homicide of a kinsman. Obierika asked himself: 
?Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed 
inadvertently?? This was a puzzle for him. Perhaps more puzzling is the 
killing of twins: ?He remembered his wife's twin children, whom he had 
thrown away. What crime had they committed?? The only answer to these 
questions for Obierika was a dogmatic one: ?The Earth had decreed that 
they were an offence on the land and must be destroyed.?49 The same 
Obierika in another context covertly questions this article of 
religious faith.

In discussing the lkemefuna episode with Okonkwo after the latter had 
recovered from his stupor caused by pangs of conscience after killing a 
?son?, Obierika raises the question whether all divine commands must be 
obeyed. His outright answer is no! Those that violate natural bonds and 
enjoin discomfort for humans should be tolerated, or at best one can be 
indifferent to them: ?But if the oracle said that my son should be 
killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it.?50

The enormity of obeying such a command is seen against the background 
of the introspective questions asked by lkemefuna himself as to how he 
came to such an impasse. Was his father involved in the killing of a 
daughter of Umuofia? Even if he was involved, ?is it justified? he 
would have asked, ?for an innocent child to be used as a ransom?? He 
could not understand what was happening to him or what he had done.51 
So, how did he come to merit his fate? At best it was an arbitrary 
decision and Achebe criticized it as such in the thoughts of the 
innocent boy.

In like manner, the justification for the punishment meted out to 
Okonkwo for the inadvertent homicide is also raised in the novel. 
Achebe, speaking once more through Obierika, critically appraised the 
custom or rule that demands that a man suffer grievously for what 
obviously is not a premeditated murder. This is quite (rationally) 
inexplicable. The only justification was that the Earth goddess decreed 
it. An explanation for some of these obnoxious customs is that they 
provide and protect public good, but exactly how this is so is not 
clear.

The belief in chi and its influence on the fortunes of an Igbo is also 
subjected to criticism in the novel. While at Mbaino on exile, Okonkwo 
had to reflect on his chi and destiny. It appeared to him that despite 
his vision to be a great man and his active pursuit of it through hard 
work, he had suffered grievously just at the point of achieving it. 
Perhaps, his chi is not cut out for great things, which if it is 
actually so, negates the wisdom of the elders that says, ?if a man says 
Yea, his chi affirms.? In his own case, he had said yea, and from all 
indications, his chi was saying no!52

Furthermore, the belief in the Ogbanje phenomenon and the practices it 
engenders like the mutilation of the corpse of a child suspected to be 
an Ogbanje, are all criticized in the fiction. In particular, the 
process of curing this Ogbanje by trying to break the wheel of 
incarnations by soliciting the child's cooperation in tracing his/her 
iyi-uwa is shown, one and all, to lack a scientific basis and thus a 
poor diagnosis of disease. The people's naiveté in relying on a mere 
child to lead the way in tracing the cause of his/her disease is 
highlighted by way of criticism in the novel.

The idea of evil forest and the Osu Caste system especially are all 
given pragmatic refutation in the fiction. The one, by showing that 
humans stayed in the precincts of the evil forest for a month or so, 
without perishing contrary to the expectation and belief that they 
would perish in three days. The other, by showing that when they 
abandoned their gods and shrines, and then ran into the new Church, 
that they did not die and no further calamity befell them. Rather the 
only thing they lost was their bondage.

Finally, the drive for material prosperity through solid personal 
achievement, to the utter neglect of the intangible aspects of human 
culture, is severely criticized. This is vividly achieved through the 
portraiture of Unoka who ordinarily should win some awards as a 
talented and ingenious musical artiste. Rather than this, he died a 
pauper and abominably too. Even at that, Unoka chided his society for 
neglecting what Achebe has called feminine values, music, story-
telling, fellow-feeling, good neighborliness, piety, virtuous living 
etc, by taking along with him his flute while being taken away to the 
evil forest to die despicably. 

Okonkwo detested his father, and did everything in his power to deny 
everything he stood for, and in doing so determined for himself a new 
set of ethos for personal achievements, which sometimes ran contrary to 
accepted mode of behavior. He, however, moved steadily to perdition. 
His life is therefore a lesson and warning that no society or 
individual prospers and endures in its prosperity that neglects 
enabling virtues acquired through education and civilized behavior. 
This warning is still pertinent to contemporary Igbo society that has 
suddenly embraced acquisitive materialism at the expense of education.

Conclusion
In this paper, I have endeavored to show how Achebe went into great 
details to reconstruct the workings of the societal institutions of his 
people whose dignity colonials distorted and mortgaged. I also showed 
how he used authorial criticism through words put in the mouths of his 
major characters to criticize his people?s culture and way of life. 
Overall, it can be concluded that the name of the dominant clan in the 
novel, Umuofia, as a pseudonym for the Igbo, or African peoples for 
that matter, is essentially a misnomer. For Umuofia?s import has been 
reduced to absurdity by showing that the people to whom it was supposed 
to apply possess all the societal institutions, culture, and reflective 
intellectual tradition and disposition that should make it qualify as a 
civilized society in the modern mold.



Notes and References
1This is the view of Umelo Ojimah (1999) in his book, Chinua Achebe: 
New Perspectives (Ibadan: Spectrum Books).

2 On the BBC programme, ?Book Choice? of 30th August, 1996, Achebe 
himself declared that ?Okonkwo was not an Igbo paragon. He was in many 
ways a misfit. He was a one-sided man, neglecting the feminine aspects 
of culture. He was too anxious to succeed.?

3 Some scholars believe that given Achebe's perception of the writer 
or artist as a seer and teacher in his society he, Achebe, had been 
concerned with the incidence of power: who has it, how he acquired it, 
and how he uses it. Achebe is then considered to be pre-occupied with 
this phenomenon in his fictions set in history like TFA, as he is 
concerned with it in his near sociological exegesis, The Trouble with 
Nigeria (Nairobi: Heinemann, 1983).

4 See the exposition on this book in ?The World of Chinua Achebe: 
making of Things Fall Apart? Newswatch 3(12) March, 1986,11-17. 

5 Quoted. in Newswatch 3 (12) March, 1986, p.1.

6 This claim is justified first in the context of the colonial epoch 
in which the book Things Fall Apart was written, during which the 
educated elite was the vanguard for the restoration of a robust self-
image, and the appreciation of the culture of the colonized people. 
Things Fall Apart was, surely, an intellectual contribution to that re-
descriptive effort. Second, in the radio program alluded to in note 2 
above, Achebe said, inter alia, that given the literature with which 
his generation was fed at schools exemplified in Joyce Cary's Mr. 
Jobnson, ?one had to tell his own story?. The story he told is Things 
Fall Apart, in the first instance, and in doing so, I contend that he 
appears to have consciously chosen the name ?Umuofia? to connote the 
perceived primitivity of the Igbo people, a view he reduces to 
absurdity by the civilization he reconstructs in the novel. This 
argument is supported by the title the District Officer chose for his 
new book after seeing the dangling body of Okonkwo. He entitled his 
proposed account of the fate of this man ?The Pacification of the 
primitive tribes of the Lower Niger?. Thus, I have not read the name 
?Umuofia? literally as some may want to believe.

7 TFA, p. 118.

8 In much similar manner, the Stoics of the 4th/3rd century BC in the 
Graeco-Roman world, allegorized natural forces and in consequence 
identified them with the gods in the Greek Pantheon such that the whole 
world as a dynamic continuum in which natural laws, especially those of 
causal determinism, hold inexorably was called Zeus. Zeus was the 
greatest of Greek gods.

9 The Greeks used Apollo's oracle at Delphi for similar purposes. See 
Plato's Euthyphro where Socrates uses the revelation of this oracle to 
explain the origin of the perception of him as the wisest man. 

10 One justification for this practice was that, in the eyes of the 
practitioners, wild and domestic animals only have their young ones in 
numbers at the same time. So that the bearing of twins by a woman 
brings her and her babies nearer to the class of beasts, debases 
humanity, which is evil and should not be allowed.

11 See Alvin W. Gouldner, Enter Plato: Classical Greece and the 
Origins of Social Theory (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963).

12 At least one strand of evidence supports my claim that the Igbo 
society of the fiction is a shame culture: when Ezeani had commanded 
Okonkwo to pay recompense to ani for violating the week of peace, his 
subsequent demeanor is a classic posture in a shame culture: ?Inwardly, 
he was repentant. But he was not the man to go about telling his 
neighbors that he was in error? (TFA, p. 22). In other words, his 
public image rather than the serenity of his conscience mattered to him 
so much.

13 Gouldner, Enter Plato, p. 83.

14 TFA, p. 6. Here, Achebe takes a swipe at (Victorian) England and 
contemporaneous European societies where a loafer like Unoka could 
suddenly come into economic prosperity and limelight through 
inheritance, but unlike Okonkwo who did through solid personal 
achievements.

15 TFA, p. 16

16 TFA, p. 18.

17 TFA, p. 18.

18 However, the existence of Osu, outcasts, in both the fictional and 
contemporary Igbo society, describes the limits of its egalitarianism 
and thus casts doubts on this claim to openness.

19 This is clearly evident in the fact that while in exile in Mbanta, 
Okonkwo was preoccupied with the thought of how to recapture his pre-
eminent position in Umuofia, and in consequence, planned his return 
from ostracization in style: He would build bigger a compound than the 
one he had before his exile, initiate his sons into the prestigious Ozo 
society, and marry off his blooming daughters to worthy prosperous 
young men etc.

20 TFA, p. 9.

21 The same ideal cherished by the whole society at large.

22 TFA, p. 14.

23 TFA, p. 47.

24 TFA, p. 48.

25 TFA, p. 26.

26 The victim of this arrangement is apparently Ezeudu?s son who lost 
his life in the process of trying to accord his father his due last 
rites as an eminent man in his culture and society. Much as he counts 
as a person, the culture under consideration takes a collective view of 
the matter and the focus now is on the community and its continued 
survival. This has been endangered now by the manslaughter Okonkwo 
committed which in the thinking of the people has desecrated the land 
which must be cleansed. If the community continues after his 
unfortunate death, then the individual must not have died in vain, 
otherwise, both him, his name, that of his family, would have been 
lost. Banishing Okonkwo, the mighty, is the least that could be done to 
appease his (the victim) spirit. 

27 TFA, p.14

28 TFA, p.14

29 TFA, p. 15

30 TFA, p. 16

31 TFA, p. 92

32 TFA, p. 49

33 TFA, p. 22, emphasis added.

34 TFA, p. 22 Even the oldest man can remember only one or two 
instances of such a violation.

35 TFA, p. 76

36 TFA, p. 80

37 See F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the 
State (Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1978).

38 cf. Socrates' defense of the immortality of the soul in Plato's 
Phaedo

39 TFA, p. 53. Cf., the religious side of Pythagoreanism and the other 
Pythagorean beliefs in transmigration and the wheel of reincarnation of 
souls. See G.S. Kirk and J.E. Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers: a 
Critical History with a Selection of Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 1957).

40 Egalitarianism in this case should be viewed in terms of the public 
space available to members of a particular society in which to express 
themselves and actualize their potentialities. In this regard, using 
egalitarianism to qualify a society becomes, somehow, a relative term, 
such that given a gradation of openness, such societies as ancient 
Greek society, the ancient Roman Republic and today?s American society 
could each be described as egalitarian in its own epoch in the history 
of human development. In the Igbo society of Chinua Achebe?s Things 
fall Apart, women were quite visible in the very important affairs of 
the community. Consider the prominence given to femininity by the 
emphasis given to such a name as Nneka ?mother is supreme?. Also, when 
Okonkwo became a persona non grata in Umuofia, he was allowed to be 
rehabilitated by his mother?s clan. We should also bear in mind that 
the ogwu that leads Umuofia to successes in their battles is called, in 
a manner of endearment, agadi nwanyi (old woman). And in this regard, 
women were the priestesses of many of the important gods of the 
community. In connection with this we should recall the night the 
priestess to Agbala, Chielo, came to take Okonkwo?s daughter (regarded 
as an acolyte of Agbala) to visit the shrine, and Okonkwo as a man in 
that village where he was almost supreme, dared not disobey the 
priestess, but lamely trailed her at the back as she majestically 
proceeded to the shrine of Agbala in the dead of the night. So it is 
not correct to say that women were shut out in the society under 
consideration, neither should what obtained in favor of women be 
regarded as mere tokenism, for given the epoch under review, women were 
quite visible in the society, and that is a measure of egalitarianism

41 This is a Greek term which connotes, among other things, undeserved 
slight or careless disregard for a person by another usually more 
successful than the slighted. Hubris includes the maltreatment of a 
slave by a master, or a foreigner by an indigene. It is an offence 
which the gods avenge on behalf of the subject of abuse. As Okonkwo's 
life unfolded in the novel, he seems to have been punished by the gods 
for his hubris against Osugo and other things including his tactless 
killing of Ikemefuna. This interpretation is consistent with the public 
perception of Okonkwo in the novel: ?And so people said he had no 
respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said his good fortune had 
gone to his head. They called him the little bird, nza, who so far 
forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi.? See TFA, 
p. 22.

42 Osugo, like Unoka, Okonkwo's father, is an ?agbala? who had taken 
no titles and should really in consequence be classed among women. This 
is the essence of Okonkwo' s allusion, which the eldest man in the 
meeting caught and chided him for.

43 TFA, p. 9

44 J.B. Bury, A History of Greece: to the Death of Alexander the 
Great, 3rd ed. (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1966), pp. 413ff.

45 See TFA, pp. 64-66.

46 TFA, p. 65

47 TFA, p. 15

48 TFA, p. 23.

49 TFA, p. 87

50 TFA, p. 47. This is contrary to Okonkwo's position that ?all 
commands of the oracle must be obeyed? from which perspective he tries 
to rationalize his killing of a boy he raised, who called him father. 
This dialogue between Obierika and Okonkwo underscores the fundamental 
question about the nature of theistic or humanistic ethics such as that 
Socrates raised in the Euthyphro. It also raises the question as to 
which is the predominant ethical disposition of the indigenous Igbo 
people. From the reaction of Obierika to Okonkwo's conduct, and 
Obierika's position in weighing the matter with his conservative 
friend, I suggest that the Igbo have a predominantly humanistic, rather 
than theistic, ethics. Although arguments could be raised by anyone of 
a humanistic disposition to show that for this people, as for Socrates, 
?genuine goodness is a unity?.

51 TFA, p. 11.

52 In appraising Achebe's essay ?Chi in Igbo Cosmology? in a different 
context, I have argued that this dictum would hold only when a man is 
reasonable about his ambitions and refrains from troubles and setting 
for himself impossible tasks. Proper conduct in life will tantamount to 
one's Chi saying Yea to his ambitions, otherwise, it would say no! 
Somehow, in the novel, Okonkwo in many ways set for himself impossible 
tasks, and consequently his Chi said no to many of them, but not for 
want of trial and hard work. The point made here underscores my 
contention that the Igbo have a humanistic ethics.

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