Cultural Violence In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

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A World of Violence and Contradictions Throughout Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe emphasizes that Africans are not the savages that were portrayed in Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness. However, in “Principle and Practice: The Logic of Cultural Violence in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,” David Hoegberg shows how sometimes cultural violence in Igbo society doesn’t agree with other parts of their culture, weakening Achebe’s argument. While Hoegberg points out the contradicting practices of Igbo cultural violence and their morals as a flaw in the Igbo society, he fails to note that all cultures have some sort of contradiction within them. Even with contradictions, cultural violence still serves to benefit the Igbo society by causing cultural change.
Hoegberg defines cultural violence as “violence that is encouraged by the beliefs and traditions of a given culture and practiced upon its own members” (Hoegberg 69). The most prominent example of this violence is the killing of Ikemefuna. “When the daughter of Umofia was killed in Mbaino, Ikemefuna came into Okonkwo’s household” as retribution for the girl’s death (Achebe 14). Eventually Okonkwo is told, “‘The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced [Ikemefuna’s death]” (Achebe 57). …show more content…

However, this reasoning also leads to Hoegberg being unable to realize the faults within the European culture present in Things Fall Apart. Even though the European missionaries came to spread Christianity, which promotes peace, they went to an African market and “began to shoot. Everybody was killed” (Achebe 139). This act of violence, however, was not supported by cultural violence because European culture, unlike African culture, does not openly condone violence. By looking at these two vastly different peoples, it is easy to see that many cultures contain

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