Things Fall Apart

In 1995 a movie came out about a young girl named Pocahontas whose tribe is evaded by a group of British settlers who were set to sail to what at the time was called the “New World.” The two cultures, one being Pocahontas’s tribe and the other being the British settlers, clash in beliefs and an uprising occurs when the British attempt to take over the native tribe. Similar to Pocahontas and her tribe, the Igbo tribe in Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart, face the issue of colonization by the British. Though the Igbo tribe seemed to have complex laid out way of living that could have potentially lead them to achieving the “Golden Society”, their inability to economically and spiritually provide for all of their tribes members leads to the demise of the tribe’s way of life. In the beginning of the novel, it appeares that the tribe has laid out cultural beliefs and ways of dealing with conflict that comes up in their society. Like any thriving society they have core values one of which is exemplified in the common belief that they “were not to go to war unless its case was clear and just and was accepted by its Oracle- the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves.”(12) The Oracle of the Hills and Caves symbolizes the leadership that was clearly evident in their society. Overtime they had accumulated the belief that Agbala who was the Oracle of the Hills was the one to call the shots and for the time being this theory was able to effectively run their tribe. Not only did the tribe have strong leadership but they also had ways of dealing with issues if they did come up. They had nine Egwugwu that heard the cases and it was “common knowledge when and where the ceremony would take place” (87). These nine Egwugwu had various similarities to the jury led by a foreman or a judge, which is very similar to the Western traditional judicial system. The fact that the Igbo tribe was able to create their own version of the Western judicial system exemplifies the advanced society