A Safer Waterfront In Lagos, Nigeria

1119 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Chinua achebe's background in relation to things fall apart

TFA/ Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria is located in country where citizens once thrived in their community. However, the Umuofia clan described in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is far from the impoverished, bustling, fraudulent megacity depicted by journalists Alexis Okeowo in “A Safer Waterfront in Lagos, If You Can Afford It”, and George Packer in ”The Megacity”. Although the transformation between the communitarian society and the city built on individualism and mercantilism is drastic, the onset of this change is visible in Things Fall Apart. Throughout the novel, Christian European colonists act as catalysts for change in not only Umuofia but the entire Ibo culture. The legacy of colonialism is still visible today within Nigeria’s government …show more content…

The Nigerian government has been criticized by several activist groups in the past few years for building high-end resorts in wealthy sections of Lagos, while consciously neglecting the lives of millions of poverty-stricken citizens (Okeowo). In preparation for the glamourous up-and-coming borough of the city, the Lagos State Government has “forcibly [evicted] communities without any warning or planning and without any remedy” (Okeowo). Packer reaffirms that Nigerian policies are set up to benefit the few wealthy citizens whilst “leaving the vast majority of people poorer every year”(Packer). The Lagos State Government’s disregard for the communities within the slums resembles the European colonists’ disregard for the Ibo culture. In Things Fall Apart, the colonists first invade Abame, one of many Ibo clans, in an uncivil and barbaric manner. Obierika describes to Okonkwo “Everybody was killed except the old and the sick” (Achebe 139) during the annihilation of the Abame clan, highlighting the European’s merciless execution of everyone in the marketplace. In other clans such as Mbanta and Umuofia, the colonists’ path to occupation is less violent; however, the new English policies begin to deteriorate the Ibo value system and introduce a method of disrespecting the needs of people they perceive as savage or

Show More
Related

  • A Collection of Book Reviews Dealing with Racism

    1886 Words  | 4 Pages

    This is a gripping novel about the problem of European colonialism in Africa. The story relates the cultural collision that occurs when Christian English missionaries arrive among the Ibos of Nigeria, bringing along their European ways of life and religion.

    Read More

  • Imperialism In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    357 Words  | 1 Pages

    The fictional novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about Okonkwo and his Ibo tribe, Umuofia, known now as Nigeria. This novel describes the beginning of the colonial transformation of traditional society seen in a political, economical and in a socio-cultural form. Furthermore, in this fictional story, the colonization process can be represented as it was used during the scramble for Africa, which took place in the late 19th and early 20th century (Akram-Lodhi, Colonization); back in that time colonization was justified. However, modern analysis have had demonstrate that the scramble for Africa was a colonial and imperialistic practice, these views helped to facilitate the end of colonization that began around 1950 (Hobsbawm 217). Although,

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life of an African man called Okonkwo. The setting of the book is in eastern Nigeria, on the eve of British colonialism in Africa. The novel illustrates Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs, and his eventual downfall, all of which basically coincide with the Igbo?s society?s struggle with the Christian religion and British government. In this essay I will give a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help understand that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos.

    Read More

  • Jesco Denzel: Lagos Waterfront Under Threat

    1661 Words  | 4 Pages

    Art Criticism Introduction The above picture was photographed by photographer Jesco Denzel, who works under the photography agency, laif für Photos & Reportagen. The photograph who won first prize singles for world press photo competition under the theme contemporary issues. The picture was titled as ‘Lagos Waterfront under Threat’ and it depicts a group of tourists in a boat steering through a canal of the Makoko community in Lagos, Nigeria. Makoko community is based in Lagos Lagoon making it a humongous informal settlement after it was recognized as an ancient fishing village.

    Read More

  • Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Okonkwo’s desire for respect motivates his quest to preserve the practices of Ibo culture, while Obierika preserves the practices of the Ibo culture with a more humanistic perspective. Achebe uses the differing approaches of Okonkwo and Obierika in maintaining the cultural doctrines of the Ibo people to reveal his sympathy for Obierika over Okonkwo. Okonkwo’s motives for maintaining the customs of the Ibo originate with fear. Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna while “dazed with fear,” drawing “his machete [to] cut him down” because, “he was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 61). Though Okonkwo attempts to appear strong to the people of Umuofia, his fearful motivation speaks to a hidden internal weakness. Okonkwo’s focus on eradicating the taint of “his father’s weakness and failure” and his yearning for respect drive him to kill Ikemefuna instead of the more proper motive of simply effectuating what the Ibo conside...

    Read More

  • The Push and Pull of Lagos, Nigeria

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    populous city in Nigeria. In this essay I am going to critically examines push and

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Chimamanda Adichie's Half Of The Yellow Sun

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Just in our five main characters important social cleavages in Nigeria are shown. Olanna and Kainene are upper-class and London educated, Odenigbo is the educated middle-class, Ugwu is a poor village boy where being uneducated is normal, and Richard is a white, educated, journalist. Through this story, we see how those differences affect the way they are treated. Richard goes through the most since he has the greatest cultural difference, people expect him to be like his ignorant peers, and Nigeria just got out of British control. Nigerian people act surprised when he is able to eat their spicy food, speak Igbo, and even Kainene had trouble believing that his interests in their culture were for a positive reason. The one social cleavage they all have in common is that they all identify as Igbo. Igbo is one of the three major ethnicities in Nigeria the other two are Hausa Fulani and Yoruba; they all have their own regions in Nigeria too. This ethnic difference is an essential cause of the Biafran War. It started with the coup within the government, then the Hausa blamed the Igbo and began to kill them, the Igbo didn’t feel apart of the country, formed their own country and tried to leave

    Read More

  • How Does Chinua Achebe Depict Ibo Culture In Things Fall Apart?

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    Consequently, the native traditions gradually disappeared and in time the whole local social structure within which the indigenous people had lived successfully for centuries was destroyed. Achebe spends the first half of the novel depicting the Ibo culture, by itself, in both a sophisticated and primitive light describing and discussing its grandeur, showing its strengths and weaknesses, etiquettes and incivilities, and even the beginning of cultural breakdown before the introduction of the missionaries. The collapse of the old culture is evident soon after the missionaries arrived, and here Achebe utilises two of the primary missionary figures, Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith, to once again depicts both sides of the Ibo culture between them, with Mr. Brown depicting the sophisticated and Mr. Smith depicting the primitive aspects. The main focus in this novel is on one man, Okonkwo, the protagonist who symbolises the many Nigerians, or Africans who were struggling against the white missionaries, who brought their religion and policies and imposed them on Okonkwo’s and the other surrounding tribes. Achebe also shows how great the effect is when something seemingly un-invasive, such as a church, is set up in a Nigerian or African culture.

    Read More

  • Discuss The Impact Of Imperialism In Things Fall Apart

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Chinua Achebe 's classic novel "Things Fall Apart," the development of European colonization 's lead to extreme cultural changes, leaving a lasting impact on the Igbo village of Umofia in West Africa. In the novel, Achebe displays the impacts of European colonization in both critical and sympathetic terms to provide the reader with both positive and negative factors of Imperialism to develop an unbiased understanding of what the Igbo culture and society went through. While addressing the hardship 's of life by showing the deterioration of Okonkwo 's character, the cultural and traditional changes of society, and the positive and negative impacts of imperialism, Achebe keeps touch on the overall theme of the novel, once a dramatic event

    Read More

  • Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements. In the end, what holds African countries such as Nigeria together is their shared pride. Modern, western influences can bring positive changes to society, but new cultures cannot completely eradicate the foundational cultures to which a society is founded on.

    Read More

  • Marginality, Dichotomy, and Hegemony in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    The arrival of the white man in the latter part of the novel turns the traditional setting in Umuofia into an archetypal colonial situation that reveals a classic co...

    Read More

  • British Colonial Policy And The Nigerian Civil War

    2828 Words  | 6 Pages

    While the outside world considered Nigeria to be a united and monolithic entity, even the British colonial administration was wary of the reality of Nigerian politics; the nation was not so much a “country” as it was more than three hundred different groups coalesced into one.4 5 These tribes were divided between three main spheres of influence: the Yoruba, the Igbo, and the Hausa. Historically, their interests were often opposed, and their cultures did not come into regular contact with one another until the British occupation. In spite of the differences British administration a...

    Read More

  • Colonialism In Things Fall Apart Essay

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    Colonization in Nigeria affected the Igbo culture and its people in many different ways. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the author portrays events in the novel that reflect real experiences that he had. Many of the events in the novel deal with the act of colonization and how it affects different members in society, an idea that Achebe has experienced for himself. The author 's first hand experience with colonization allows the story to depict how colonization affected the Igbo people more accurately. Chinua Achebe creates an accurate representation of colonialism with his use of real events that occurred.

    Read More

  • My First Visit to Nigeria

    2136 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this essay I will reconstruct my first visit to Nigeria. The journey took place when I was seventeen in early 1993, during which time Nigeria was under the military rule of General Sanni Abacha. For the most part of my trip I stayed in Lagos, former capital state and still highly recognised as the commercial capital of Nigeria, although I did visit other parts of the country including Ondo State and Jos. Between this time and the time I left, in early 1994, I experienced and learnt a lot about the Nigerian culture. My main focus will be on the particular aspects of Nigerian culture that I saw as relevant to me as a teenager at the time, and also on my views before and after the journey. Up until the point of this journey I had lived most my life in the city of London and my cultural views were very much British. I was not very familiar with Nigerian culture, and the parts I was familiar with, which came mostly through my parents and other family members, were not very appealing to me. Thinking back now I imagine that one of the reason things like that did not appeal to me was because it went so much against the British culture which I had already related to; fully accepted as my own; and deemed as ‘normal’. For example eating certain food, not including chips, with your right hand instead of with a knife and fork. Leading up to the time I left for Nigeria, I had never really identified myself with the Nigerian culture even though both of my parents where originally from Nigeria.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to David Whittaker, Achebe’s work “proved to be an immensely influential work for African writers, becoming the progenitor of a whole movement of fiction, drama, and poetry, which focused on the revaluation of Africa’s history and cultures, and on representations of the culture conflicts that has their genesis in the colonial era.” This novel became a pivotal point of realization not only for Africa, but also for the world. All at once the world, afraid of what change may bring, pushed the same question to the back their mind: “What if we have it all wrong?” Suddenly, the culture of Africa was influencing the culture of America, Asia, Europe, Australia, etc. Achebe’s novel was a catalyst in the process of nationalist renewal and decolonization of African culture as a whole (Whittaker). A principle in this novel’s thematic course is the inter-generation conflict faced by not only the village as a whole, but also, on a microscopic level, in Okonkwo’s household. As the culture in Umuofia begins to shift, the predecessors of the current generation heavily rely on the cultural norms initiated by their father’s fathers. While tradition should be honored in a society, it should also be modified; this concept is not fully grasped by the older generations of

    Read More

More about A Safer Waterfront In Lagos, Nigeria

Open Document