White Missionaries and the Igbo People

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the author brings white missionaries into the Igbo people’s land. These missionaries have caused the Igbo people to convert into a new religion and a new government. Therefore Chinua Achebe uses the missionaries to convey the theme that the legacy of colonialism leads to a shattered community. Even though the Igbo people had tried to resist the missionaries’ beliefs, they underestimated the missionaries’ power. This book was published in 1958 and between the 1870s to the 1900s, Africa was faced with Europeans aggression and colonization.

African societies put up various forms of resistance[but] had been colonized by the European power(exhibition.nypl.org). Even though the Europeans push one main factor which was religion, some Igbo people tried to withstand and hide from the missionaries. Some of the Igbo people would still praise their original God. These missionaries started to make the Igbo peoples’ faith with their Gods less prominent. Your Gods are not alive and cannot do any harm…they are pieces of wood and stone(127). The main reason for the Igbo people to convert into a new religion was due to the lack of faith they had for their Gods. This men came into their lands and told them that their gods are not real like wood and stone. The missionaries have proven to the Igbo that their Gods are just figments of their imagination. As the missionaries brought a new religion into the Igbo’s land, they also brought a government. As the Igbo people heard news of this new government some were questioned. Religion but a government…in Umuofia to protect the followers of their religion(135). Before this government, they had a church where every Sunday the men and women of Umuofia would have to come and celebrate their God. This government would protect the place of judgment in Umuofia. These missionaries may say they are doing the right thing for the people of Umuofia but to the Igbo people disagreed. “They believed they were bringing civilization to ‘savage people'(cnn.com). These people were not being protected but slowly being controlled. These lands where being controlled by the missionaries more than the people of Umuofia and no one really saw it happening. The missionaries were not going anywhere clearly so they made themselves at home and therefore creating a government.

As the Igbo people tried to resist the missionaries and their beliefs. There was a certain man who had to take his life because of the pressure of the missionaries. Okonkwo was his name and he was there hanging from a tree, That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he will be buried like a dog(179) Okonkwo was sent out of his land for taking the life of another man and during the time he was out the missionaries arrived. Okonkwo did not like the missionaries’ customs and beliefs so he actually took the life of one of the missionaries before he had killed himself. Men of Umuofia were forced to the changes of the missionaries. The African tradition religion was also destroyed due to the introduction of Christianity, they forced the people to learn their language…(is.mendelu.cz). The Igbo men and women were living peacefully before the missionaries had arrived. These missionaries had invaded the land of Umuofia and converted the men and women into Christianity and their customs. The Igbo people clearly thought their lives were better when they didn’t have the missionaries in their land. The missionaries have changed the land of Umuofia forever, the beliefs and customs were changed quick. The government and the Christian religion were the major changes to Umuofia and it’s people. That put the Igbo people to question their beliefs and customs so they converted because they thought that was the right thing. The missionaries colonialism brought the people to fall apart like Okonkwo.

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