Culture Clash

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart takes the reader to a locale rarely seen by the Anglo-Phonic world. Achebe takes great care in crafting a palpable and tactile world for his audience. A world rooted in reality though resoundingly a child of fiction. Not to fence ride the issue, but I wonder if Achebe conceivably wrote this piece for dual audiences; European and African (with European style education given the choice English language but perhaps there is a fatalistic logic in this). Achebe has often defended his usage of the English language, but I think one of his points here is the juxtaposition of the multiple societies. Even amongst the Igbo, who hold ceremony and traditional law with much esteem, there are those other societies and villages which are counted as not as conservative. There is an aim at culture clash here. Okonkwo, representing the traditional and conservative values of his ancestral lands is continuously forced to deal with the confrontation of new ideals and beliefs. It is ironic that the society which is set up in Umuofia is very western in many ways. The society has a rigid concept of laws and justice, and it is governed democratically by the council of elders. The Umuofian society is also remarkably socially mobile ,a trait often lauded by western democracies of their structures, as Okonkwo is able to supersede the failings of his father and is judged almost entirely on his own prowess and prosperity. Again the irony is, as these western forces enter the African landscape they are suppressing the democratic nature of the indigenous society. Victorian England also is arguably one the least socially mobile societies in the Europe at this present time. Though the culture is seemingly foreign to our eyes, the society painted for us by Achebe is remarkably “western” in many aspects. I wouldn’t prescribe the dualistic tendencies of Ngugi, to Achebe. I think his aim is for whomever would listen.