A civilized society has social order characterized by a government, a system of justice, a social structure, and some kind of spiritual belief system. Igbo is a civilized culture in Africa who has limited knowledge of things that occur outside of their clan. Umuofia is part of the clan and runs on these customs of civilization. The society of Igbo is civilized because they all believe in a higher power and have a government system that fits them. To start off, the people of Igbo have Gods they praise in different ways and if they are told to do something from their Gods they will do it not questioning if it’s right or wrong. Worshipping their Gods was normal, it was a display of respect and honor. For example, in the beginning of chapter …show more content…
Consequences should be based on the severity of the crime. For example “Obierika remembered his wife’s twin children, who had thrown away to the Evil Forest to die” (Achebe,1944,P.125). He was forced to throw his own children away because the clan believed that twins were evil because they thought they were sent to bring devastation to a village by the Gods. As a result they were thrown to the Evil Forest to die. This was unfair to the children because they have not committed any crime, or harmed anyone in any way but had such a severe punishment just for being born. To add on, people had gotten punished for something they did not do. For instance during chapter seven “Umuofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it” (Achebe,1944,P.57). Ikemefuna was taken from his home and his family because of his father killing a woman of the Umuofia village. This is one example of the unfairness in Umuofia’s government because Ikemefuna was taken and killed for something his father did when he could have been punished for it. However their government system is still fair. As seen in chapter thirteen, “Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a crime against the Earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land (Achebe,1944,P.124). There was a set rule and it had no room for favoritism. Okonkwo was one of the most known warriors in the nine villages and because he accidently killed Ezeudu’s son he still had to leave the clan, which was fair because he killed a
I, Obeirika, am writing to you, the District Commissioner, in order to combat your respond to the portrayal of the Ibo. I plan to help you understand the Ibo internal logic so that you can comprehend and value it. We Ibo believe that killing twins is necessary because the earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed. If we did not exact punishment for an offense against the earth goddess. Her wrath was unleashed on all of the land. If welcoming twins makes the earth goddess angry, then the Christian practice of saving twins is going against our earth goddess. That could and will throw us into chaos. The view maybe barbaric but it’s also our way of living.
The Exile of Okonkwo for killing an innocent boy is one such instance. It shows that backward as they may have appeared to the white man, they valued and treasured the sanctity of human life. The Ibo Culture ensured that bad deeds did not go unpunished. Furthermore, the acceptance of strangers into their culture and living space illustrates that the Igbo cordial and civilized in their own sense. Even though they regarded the strangers with peculiarity, no harm was done to
The brutal punishments are mostly caused by the lack of coherence between the judicatories and the law enforcement in the area. An example of the brutal treatment can be found in chapter 23, where the leaders of the clan were held captive and starved until their fine was paid(Achebe, 192-196). Even though the commissioner had better intentions for
Achebe explained this idea very simply by explaining, “what is good among one people is an abomination with others” (Achebe 141). In answering whether or not Umuofia can be classified as a civilized group, everything revolves around perspective. Readers may interpret a text, but they should not blatantly call a group of people uncivilized. Umuofia’s ideas may differ from what an average American may have experienced, but referencing Achebe’s own words, people do not always agree on ideas and practices. The entire point of Things Fall Apart is for Achebe to prove Africa did not need the Europeans to civilize them; this quote clearly outlines his idea on the subject. No one should look down upon a culture that does not belong to him or her. By calling a people uncivilized, they themselves are the uncivilized
Society becomes civilized when it becomes cultured. Whether it is the Ibo tribes of Nigeria, or Nigeria itself, both civilizations show signs of being cultured. They both follow set protocols for their social events, as well as specific steps for gaining in political and economic prowess. Religion plays a large part in showing a culture's civilization, and by following a majority in religion both cultures show how they've become civilized. Achebe shows how the Ibo are civilized by relating in detail their social systems and by noting all the details they need to follow for it to be considered acceptable. A cultures' members show responsibility for the community's actions, and therefore they must take responsibility for each other. Civilized cultures band together and make sure each person is accounted for, as well as pulling their own weight.
During the late 1800s, the Ibo culture was thriving in the villages of Southeastern Nigeria, but specially in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is one of Umuofia's strongest leaders and is also a very masculine man that has no clue that everything around him is about to change (Achebe 3). An invading British culture is about to challenge everything the Igbo people know about their world (138). The story is mainly about how the Igbo culture is held together, the changes the new culture is imposing , and how everything led to Okonkwo's downfall.
Their is a force in the Ibo tribe called the egwugwu. The egwugwu are seen as a sort of god within the tribe, but are actually masked elders. These elders serve as judges in the tribe and are thought to be the spirits of Umuofian ancestors. The egwugwu represent the spirit of the clan. When an egwugwu spirit is unmasked, the egwugwu dies, which caused distress and confusion among the people. An Ibo tradition has again been broken due to the missionaries. Before this tragic event though, there is a switch in leaders of the missionaries. Mr. Brown, the first leader, was one missionary who cared about the culture of the Ibo. He passes his role on to a Reverend James Smith. Regarding Smith, Achebe writes, “Mr. Brown’s successor was the Reverend James Smith, and he
The Igbo of Nigeria were a horticultural tribe located in West Africa; within their tribal configuration, tribes called the Afikpo Igbo are present in more than twenty villages and have inhabited Eastern Nigeria. Each of these villages spoke a common language nonetheless each village remained autonomous and there was no collaborative structures that connected the 5 million Igbo people. When it comes to political organization the Afikpo Igbo people have a “dual-sex system” where both men and women collectively make decisions, settle disputes, and enforce penalties; however each group is segregated by sex and each controls its own domain of activity. Omu, which is considered the “mother of the community”, represents the women and the men are represented by obi, who
Religion is something people often use as a way to get through their daily lives because it gives them something to look forward to in an afterlife. The Igbo religion is no different for its people. The religion that the Igbo people practice is very unique and extraordinary to learn about. Although it has many similarities with christianity and Islam, it is also very different from those religions. The traditional thought of the Igbo people is that there is only one god, however that one god has many “forms”. The god is called Chukwu however its other forms have different names such as Ndi Mmadu who is god of the “visible beings” and Úrò who is god of elements and minerals. Traditional Igbo beliefs calls for many celebrations including extravagant
The Igbo laws and principles contain specific information that describe the laws more, and help understand more about the Igbo. The principles of Igbo gives many specific information on who the Igbo people are and helps the reader understand more about them. In the article Igbo Political Systems by Uzoma Onyemaechi it states, “The Igbo social structure is defined by the bloodline...The family is the center or the nucleus into which the he child compound is formed. From here it extends to village level, clans, and town. The blood relations create associations between man and his neighbor.” The Igbo is also one of the largest tribes in Nigeria today. For example, in the article The Principle And Practices Of Justice In Traditional Igbo Jurisprudence
...taken up his religion also say that our customs bad.” Christianity is destroying and guiding two different societies. It guides the people that don’t believe in Christianity to convert because converts who once had the same beliefs as them are saying that theirs customs are bad. This causes Ibo people to convert to Christianity.Which guides the Christian society into better directions because they are gaining more converts. At the same time this destroys the Igbo religion because they are losing their members to the Christian society.
For sixteen years since the advent of the third Republic the Igbo Nation has suffered from bad governance and mismanagement of our share of the proverbial National Cake by our own brothers and Sisters in the Government of the Igbo States. Sincerely the Nigerian Nation has given to the Igbo controlled States their fair share of the Federal Allocation but those who Sat at the helm of our affairs have failed us.
“A civilized society: the culture has a social order characterized by a government, a system of justice, a social structure, and some kind of spiritual belief system.” In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, the Igbo villages are uncivilized. The system of justice is ruled by men with titles and elders. The male society in Igbo is very dominant and aggressive towards women. Some may argue that, in their culture, it is civilized because the men only beat their wives for either disobeying them or making mistakes.
As the English began to colonize the Igbo society, there were few natives who opposed it, they others just felt that the English would come and go, but they were wrong. Soon, the English began to introduce "white man's religion." This new religion was completely the opposite from what the natives were accustomed to. Christianity was rather intriguing to many of the natives and many of them turned away from their families and everything they were to become a member of this new religion. Before this, they natives had been very superstious, but as they new religion flooded over the peoples, their superstiousocity began to lessen and their belief in the many gods they had previously believed in.
Now we should take in consideration of the bad things, the abominations of the Igbo cultures, and this does not mean its bad literally its just saying that other culture will view these things as morally unacceptable. Some of the Igbo’s practices like the fact that they eat bugs might be considered an abomination to societies such as America, when they see bugs they feel disgusted by them and have no intentions on eating them, but when you look at the Igbo tribe you will find out that they see the locusts as a delicacy and eat them for a long period of time with many different meal styles. That to the American people would be seen as an abomination, seeing that Americans have a feeling of discrete towards locust they would be disgusted by the fact of people actually eating them for meals. This was a rare appearance and ...