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How did Christianity come to Nigeria
How African traditional religions influence Christianity in Nigeria
How African traditional religions influence Christianity in Nigeria
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In the book, Things Fall Apart, Achebe introduceses the Umofia people as a patricarchal with strong punishments. As the reader digs deeper into the book, the reader finds reasons and explainations for their style of living. Later in the story, Europeans started to colonize and convert the Ibo to christianity. The arrival of the settlers startled and changed the way of living for the Ibo. Most Europeans started to encourage or forcing the Ibo to convert to christianity. This declined the tribes original culture, while increasing christianity faith. The expansion of the missionariers change the life and views of various clan members. One in particular is Nwoye who converts to religions, opinion on the Ibo culture, and leaves his family behind. …show more content…
Nwoye felt ignorace for believing in the Ibo culture. Doubting his belief for his current religion, he converts to christianity. Nwoye tried to keep this hidden from the rst of his family, as they would be highly dissapointed and dissown him for such an act. One day, one of Okonkwo friend noticeses Nwoye walking around with other christians. Okonkwo later confronts Nwoye about his whereabouts. Okonkowo chokes Nwoye, demanding him to tell him the truth. Inturupted by Uchendu, Okonkwo lets go of Nwoyes neck. Nwoye later flees to go study, so he could learn how to read and write. The missionaries made Nwoye change religion and wating him to be more
His family was banished for their tribe and was sent way to Okonkwo’s mother lands tribe for a crime Okonkwo did not mean to commit but banished regardless. The missionaries show up and they begin to win some of the Ibo people with their new all-powerful God. Eventualy some missionaries show up to the tribe that they now reside in and tell the story of the father the son and the Holy Spirit. These stories did not captivate him but the hymns of peace and the acceptance of everyone into their church Is what amazed him. We see this at the end of chapter () that Nwoye has this idea “ “ pg.
We see evidence from the text when Okonkwo’s cousin seen Nwoye among the christians.(113) His father was not very pleased. He went back to the church and told Mr. Kiaga that he had decided to go to Umuofia where the white missionary had set up a school to teach young Christians to read and write. (114) Nwoye was cheerful that he could leave his father. This evidence fortifies my claim because with Christianity being brought in he finally seen that he could be himself and make his own decisions without be judged. Out of all of it he just wanted to make Okonkwo happy, but instead Okonkwo had pushed him away with the a threat. His threat was that if he came into his compound again, he would be carried out of it.
Many societies have beliefs rooted deep in ancient religion. Some beliefs include polygamy, polytheism, and patriarchy, or rule by men. One such culture is that of Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Polytheism and polygamy are custom in the clan, and the role of each family member is very defined. The men are overly domineering. The women and children are treated poorly and often beaten. Life in Achebe's Umuofia would seem very different to someone living in modern day America.
During the late nineteenth century Christianity is introduced to Africa, which brings conflict and unrest. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, he portrays a cultural and religious struggle between the native Igbo people and the Christians. When the Christians become involved in the Igbo community things change. The Igbo and Christians have different beliefs about the spiritual world and this causes tension between the cultures. The differing spiritual customs of the two religions break them apart even further. Finally the destruction of the Igbo culture happens as a result of contradictory beliefs based on kinship ties within the religions. The differences between the religions are the ultimate downfall of the Igbo culture and both religions contribute to this demise equally. Understanding the dissimilarity between the Igbo religion and Christianity allows the reader to fully apprehend the reason for the eradication of the Igbo culture.
Unfortunately, everything is not perfect. His son, Nwoye, seems not to be showing the characteristics of a real man. He prefers to stay with his mother, listening to women's stories, than to listen to his father's tales of battle and victory. Later, when missionaries come to the tribe, Nwoye is attracted to their Christian religion because of its unqualified acceptance of everyone, much like a mother's unqualified love. Of this, Okonkwo r...
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe tries to convey sympathy and sorrow for his own tribe that gets destroyed. They are proud of their culture and are a peaceful tribe. The Ibo’s traditional beliefs relate to practices and systems that we still use today. Achebe is asking, why should what we have worked to hard to create and establish be disrespected and destroyed? The Christians had no right to secretly overthrow the Ibos. The main character, Okonkwo, gives up his own life because he did not want to see what means a great deal to him destroyed, but in the end, Things Fall Apart.
In Things Fall Apart, Achebe is able to express this embarkation with his division of the novel into two parts. The first part introduces Okonkwo along with his family’s beliefs and their origins, religions, etc. However, in the second part with the arrival of the Christian missionaries, the seeds of colonialism take root within the Ibo tribe and Okonkwo’s family, particularly in his son Nwoye. At the beginning, the missionaries are calm and peaceful. However, as time goes on they start to undergo their mission and start to denounce the Ibo’s gods as “false gods, gods of wood and stone.” At first, many are appalled and find their preaching laughable, but as they continue to thrive, people such as Nwoye begin to reach out. Because Nwoye is unable to forgive Okonkwo for his betrayal in killing his adopted brother, he converts to Christianity in an attempt to get back at his father for his crime. In addition, the missionaries’ hymn about brothers living in “darkness and fear,...
This passage shows the reader that Nwoye is extremely different from many members of his family and the other members of the village. After Okonkwo learns that his son is interested in the new religion he is furious. Okonkwo has always been disappointed in his son. He believes that Nwoye is not as strong as a man of their clan should be. When Okonkwo was Nwoye’s ...
Obierika came to visit Okonkwo in the exile to bring him money they had profited from his fields. The second time he comes is to alert him that Nwoye was with the Christians. Nwoye’s motives for converting to Christianity are because he can relate to the Christian religion more in a sense that what they talk or preach about, answers his questions or doubts. The Africans reacted to the Christian as something new and some what interesting because there ways were very different from the Africans, they did not at first take the Christians seriously. After they were amused by the Christians they were confused because they started building in the “Evil Forest” and did not die, this confused them because then they started to think about the lies in their own religion and the ways they had known their whole lives.
Upon an initial reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it is easy to blame the demise of Okonkwo’s life and of the Umofia community on the imperialistic invasions of the white men. After all, Okonkwo seemed to be enjoying relative peace and happiness before then. He did have a few mishaps; one of them resulted in him being exiled for eight years. Nonetheless, he returned to his home town with high spirits and with prospects of increased success. However, everything has changed. The white men have brought with them a new religion and a new government. Okonkwo’s family falls apart. The men in his village lose their courage and valor; they do not offer any resistance to the white men. Consequently, Okonkwo kills himself in disgrace and Umofia succumbs to the white men. However, the white men are not the only people responsible for demise of Umofia. The Igbo culture, particularly their views on gender roles, sows the seed of their own destruction. By glorifying aggressive, manly traits and ignoring the gentle, womanly traits, Umofia brings about its own falling apart.
In many ways the changes that the missionaries brought upon the Ibo were unavoidable. The rituals and cyclic view the Ibo had of time held their culture together. The Ibo did not hold on to their ideas of interdepenence and community. Therefore, they were more suspetable to surcoming to the ways of the white man. The colonial infiltration caused the Ibo to not only loose their cultural identity, but their voice. The missionaries alterations brought silece among the native dialect of the Ibo. Achebe states at the end of the novel "even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering." From this quote it is apparent that there is little left of the Ibo culture. The colonial infliltration caused the Ibo to fall apart, and break the vital cycle that once held their culture together.
The author then goes on to showcase the cultural shift by describing the arrival of the Christian missionaries and the steady impact that the teachings had on the Igbo people. In an interview, Chinua Achebe said “I wanted that moment of change, in which one culture was in contact, in conflict, in conversation with another culture, and something was going to happen”. The author writes about how the integration of Christianity began to weaken the established culture and take away control from it. According to the novel, “At first the clan had assumed that it would not survive. But it had gone on living and gradually becoming stronger” (Achebe, Things Fall Apart 184).
This crime from Okonkwo left him away from his homeland for seven years, and during his escape, his old culture would soon be evolved. This unintentional action also played a domino effect, first moving his family away and having his home destroyed, then having his son, Nwoye turn back on him and become a missionary in Umuofia joining the white culture. Achebe describes how Nwoye declines Okonkwo being his father towards Obierika who is doing favors for the family (144). Hearing this, his father seems to not be harmed and is disappointed in his son. These missionaries began assembling into Umuofia, convincing the clansmen that there is only one God, and He is the creator of everything unlike what the clansmen had believed. They had a god for everything, but they now were being persuaded. Hearing this, Okonkwo is in shock and believes that the only way to solve the issue is to chase the men out of the village some way (Achebe 146). Nwoye is attracted to the new religion but has yet to reveal it to his father for fear of him. When Okonkwo heard the news, he is infuriated with anger. “… sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck”
How does Achebe depict Ibo culture in ‘Things Fall Apart’? Chinua Achebe’s, Things Fall Apart, is a story of a traditional village in Nigeria from inside Umuofia around the late 1800s. This novel depicts late African history and shows how the British administrative structure, in the form of the European Anglican Church, imposed its religion and trappings on the cultures of Africa, which they believed was uncivilized. This missionary zeal subjugated large native populations.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Through most of the novel, Okonkwo, his family, and the villagers all experience this struggle. As the missionaries continue to live in the Evil Forest, they repeatedly gain village converts as a result of the Igbo beliefs constantly being proven inaccurate. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, converts because of confusion in what his people believe, and Okonkwo changes drastically as a person because of the missionaries’ arrival and actions.