Sömürgeci Bozulma ve Kültürel Dönüşüm: Chinua Achebe'nin Things Fall Apart'ında İngiliz Sömürgeciliği Öncesi ve Sonrası İgbo Toplumunun Analizi

Abstract

Colonial Disruption and Cultural Transformation: An Analysis of Igbo Society Before and After British Colonization in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Abstract

As a leading postcolonial novelist, Chinua Achebe (1930- 2013) has always been remembered as the Father of Modern African Literature. Historically, Nigeria’s history cannot be told without Chinua Achebe’s voice. Being an influential African writer, Chinua Achebe focused his novels on the ways in which the European tradition of the novel and African modes of expression relate to each other in both complementary and contesting ways. Achebe's novels are informed by an important theory of writing which tries to mediate the politics of the novel as a form of commentary on the emergence and transformation of nationalism which constitutes the African writer's epistemological context. Achebe’s purpose from writing Things Fall Apart (1958) was to present the reader his people’s true history with strengths and imperfections by describing Igbo society’s rich culture and other social practices. The arrival of the British colonialism stopped Igbo culture and brought some benefits to their culture. Things Fall Apart: (1) directs the misleading of European novels that depict Africans as savages into a whole new light with its portrayal of Igbo society, and (2) examines the effects of European colonialism on Igbo society from an African perspective. The Europeans had totally destructed the Igbo society, with its political and social organization, to construct their rule. The present paper attempts to highlight an insight of the Igbo society before and after the British colonialism. The purpose of the research is to: (1) analyse Igbo society as it appears in the novel, which is before and after the arrival of white missionaries in Umuofia; and (2) The effects of their arrival concerning Igbo culture; consequently, leading to the clash of cultures between the two parties.

Keywords

• Igbo society
• Igbo culture
• Things Fall Apart
• White Missionaries

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