"The White Man Is Very Clever. He Came Quietly And Peaceably With His Religion. We Were Amused With His Foolishness And Allowed Him To Stay. Now He Has Won Our Brothers, And Our Clan Can No Longer Act Like One. He Has Put a Knife On The Things That Held Us Together And We Have Fallen Apart."

The title quote for this post, to me, was the most important and impactful couple sentences in the entire book of Things Fall Apart. And was exactly what I was thinking about when I came to it in the novel. And I'm sure it is representative of the entire experience of white colonization of Africa. That on the surface there seemed to be this need on the part of white Christian Europeans to convert the "godless" natives of Africa, and that was how they initially made their inroads to the continent, but forced government was not far behind, and by then it was too late for the African tribes. 

The story is about Okonkwo, a strong and powerful leader of the Umuofia tribe in Nigeria, who is known as a fearless warrior. Okonkwo respects all of the traditions of his tribe and honors the spirits and gods that his tribe believes in. Suffice it to say that Okonkwo is a hyper-masculine individual and views any deviation from this as a sign of weakness, which, in his eyes, is not acceptable. He beats his wives and children, he works tirelessly to accumulate more wealth, and to rise to the highest possible rank within his tribe. After an unfortunate incident where Okonkwo's gun, fired during an animated tribal ritual, accidentally kills the son of one of his fellow tribal leaders, Okonkwo and his entire family are banished from the tribe for a duration of 7 years. They go to reside with his mother's tribe, the Mbanta. During this time, white missionaries arrive and set up a church on the outskirts of Mbanta. Little by little, they recruit more members from the tribe to believe in the one Christian god (a lot of those converting do so because they see things about their own gods that they don't like and don't agree with, and so prefer this new option). By the time Okonkwo returns to Umuofia, his oldest son has converted and his former tribe has also become significantly transformed by the presence of the white missionaries and government officials - the progress in Umuofia is even more advanced than it was in Mbanta. Things don't go well for Okonkwo, as he still has the heart of a warrior and is not willing to follow the new laws imposed on him by the white colonists. 

I found it interesting that the white colonists didn't show up until about pg 140 of 209 pages of the book. So the first two-thirds of the book detailed the life of Okonkwo, his tribe, and their customs and beliefs. It felt like once the white missionaries arrived, the rest of the book moved along very quickly, with less time devoted to presenting the dynamics of the white men with the tribesmen. But I guess it didn't bother me that much, because in the overall context of the story, it worked. 

Okonkwo was not a very sympathetic character. I felt like you could see how he was the embodiment of where things went wrong and he was, in some ways, a contrast to the white missionaries. For example, he had a ward in his care for 3 years as a punishment to another tribe after a wife is killed and came to care and respect the kid. But once the clan determined that the retribution should be the death of the ward, Okonkwo sets his feelings aside and kills the kid himself. He beats his wives and children, and then is surprised when his son turns his back on him and converts to Christianity. His tribe isn't all that different either. For example, whenever a woman in the tribe gives birth to twins, they throw the children away into the forest to die. And instead of wondering if it could be something that he/they did to have wrought such bad fortune upon him/them, he/they keeps his/their hyper-masculine warrior attitude. And I'm not criticizing this. This was the way of African tribes and who am I to criticize their way of life and how they believed the gods guided their good or bad fortune?

And the slow-takeover by the white colonists was presented in the most honest and seemingly accurate way I've ever read. That it wasn't necessarily tanks and guns and forced indoctrination straight out of the gate, but coming in peace and offering a new option and there were enough clansmen who were doubting their own way of life and their own gods to embrace this new approach. And by the time they realized that they didn't want white men controlling their lives in every facet, it was far to late to make a stand. 

I would highly recommend this book. It has been an interesting contrast to have read Things Fall Apart and Out of Africa so close together - one written from the perspective of a white woman living in Africa and one from the perspective of a black African. There were some perspectives about native Africans that were very similar, but Out of Africa feels very glamorized now, compared to the life the people led in Things Fall Apart. And of course no space was given to the wrongful colonization and enslavement in Out of Africa. 

Up next is Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. I expect this to be a quick read, clocking in a 157 pages. I loved The Age of Innocence so I'm sure I'll get sucked into this one too. 

202 to go!