Things Fall Apart Imperialism Analysis

Things Fall Apart’s Repudiation of Western Imperialist Views of Africa
Africa is a continent that contains many individualistic, unique, and culturally independent countries, tribes, and people. However, Africa is conceptualized as a continent that is riddled with poverty and savagery. The misconception of Africa and its identity was induced by Western colonizers, that oppressed not only the colonized but also their culture and traditions. The colonizers gave inaccurate, ambiguous, and self glorifying accounts of Africa. However, Achebe disregards these deceptive stories of his home, and strives to give a scrupulous and authentic view on Africa's culture and traditions through his novel, Things Fall Apart. The novel Things Fall Apart contradicts
However, in most cases, such as Umuofia, the impetus for which dysfunctionality occurs are the Western imperialist countries. “The question asked is ‘what we in the West’ can do to help bring or encourage democracy in the continent. The fact that many of the failed power structures are derived from Western origin, foisted on the continent at formal independence, is not mentioned as much” (Mahadeo and McKinney 1). Mahadeo and Mckinney claim that Western imperialist countries fail to take the well deserved responsibility for dysfunctionality in African societies. This argument is peculiarly accurate, many Western imperialist countries are so quick to commercialize the political and social instability in Africa, but are not willing to take responsibility for this instability. In Osei-Nyame’s critical research essay of Things Fall Apart, he argues that “Umuofia is already weakened by internal cleavages and it is only when the processes of cultural breakdown intensify with the arrival of the white colonizers that Obierika, one of the greatest men in the society, affirms how the "clan can no longer act like one" and has "fallen apart" (Osei-Nyame 3). He believes that preceding cultural breakdown exacerbated by the white colonizers led to the eventual downfall of Umuofia, and since culture was the axiom on which Umuofian government stood; essentially cultural breakdown led to
Instead, it paints a controversial historical account of the culture in African tribes and societies, defying the Western imperialist views that have dominated the minds of many. Through Umuofian tribe, Achebe shows his readers that African culture is more than imbellic, and unthorough; instead, it's complex, unique, and rational. He also dispels the stereotypes that African countries and tribes are savages with no sense of government, by showing the functionality and stability of the Umuofian government. Lastly, he disregards the blame that has been put on Africans for their dysfunctionality by people like Joseph Conrad and the District Commissioner, and puts accurate blame on the colonizers. In Achebe’s critical article about Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he states: “The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world” (An Image of Africa 4). His argument is that these Western imperialist accounts of Africa have remained the imperious story of Africa through many years. His argument is valid; these accounts have shaped and sculpted not only the peripheral and outsiders minds, but also the minds of many Africans today. In one of his later expositions; The Novelist as Teacher, Achebe states, "I would be quite satisfied if my novels