TOUFIQ-UL- ALAM (PG07-20-14-006)12-30-2014

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Toufiq-Ul-Alam (PG07-20-14-006)

Prof. Hamidur Rahman

Research Paper (Eng-3532)

30 December 2014

English Christian Missionaries and their Political Neutrality in

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Abstract

The interest of this research involves the true motive

behind the missionary work of English Christian priests and its

relationship with the British Empire. Investigation intends to

find out how these missionaries influenced the local Igbo people.

The novel of interest is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

The novel of interest has Nigeria or to be more specific the

Igbo community as its backdrop. The novel is set between 1860 and

1890. This particular period was the development of the British

Colonial rule in this area. In the novel the appearance of the

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Christian missionaries has a very long lasting and deep impact on

the Igbo people.

Although, the work of Christian missionaries does seem to be

a non-profit one, it, in reality, works in favour of a certain

imperial power. If it is not true then it would have been

possible for the Igbo and the newly converted Christian Igbo to

co-habit without any problem. They should have been able to

retain their own identity as Igbo people along with their newly

found faith Christianity. Just by converting to a new faith does

not necessarily change one’s real identity or sever one’s

connection with one’s own motherland. The new Christians should

still be under the jurisdiction of Igbo community and social

norms. The seemingly non-profit and peaceful and all loving

Christianity must have known how to compromise and co-exist. But

that is not what happened. At first the Christians missionaries

are seen to appear in the Igbo villages and the next thing is

seen is that the natives were being manhandled by the men of a

British Queen who was sitting thousands of miles away from

Africa. The research intends to find out how that happened. Were

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the English Christian missionaries connected to the colonial

interests of the British Empire? How, then, can the reality of

the religion of British Missionaries be defined? If the answers

to these questions can be found then the real motive of the

religion of these English missionaries in Things Fall Apart can be

determined.

In Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe gives a pictorial description

of the Igbo culture/religion. Then he gives the accounts of

infiltration of the Igbo community by the White Christian

missionaries. In the introduction to the 1996 edition of the

novel Don C. Ohadike illustrated the real time picture of the

Igbo community, its culture/religion. He also mentioned in his

essay about the true motive and nature of the British Christian

missionary work and its relation to the British Imperial politics

in the region. The Empire Writes Back provides extensive materials on

the post-colonial theories and the true intention of the British

Empire regarding its policies for the rest of the world and how

language plays a vital role in colonizing various parts of the

world. Ryan Cragun gives to the reader the understanding of

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mission and missionary work in his book From One Missionary to Another:

The Ins and Outs of Missionary Life; his discussion helps the reader to

compare and contrast the work done by the British missionaries in

the pre-colonial Nigeria. Frantz Fanon gives a detailed

psychological analysis of the men and women of color in his Black

Skin White Masks. The relationship analysis of Prospero and Caliban

in the Shakespearean drama The Tempest will cast a light on the

slave and master; and also provide a comparison with the black-

white relationship. Roger Webster’s book Studying Literary Theory: An

Introduction helps readers to understand the application of

Hegemony, ISAs and RSAs.

This research will be an eye opener for people who are

suffering from various post-colonial psychological problems. It

will be a guide for people who were once colonized but forgot all

about it or do not care about it anymore and it will show to them

that blindly giving into a new ideology or culture and faith

would only bring destruction and disaster to one’s self, family,

society and nation.

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The Context

In this paper the appearance and nature of missionary work

of the White English Christian missionaries in Nigeria will be

looked into and it will be traced out if their motive was

politically neutral or otherwise, in the light of Chinua Achebe’s

novel Things Fall Apart. The first thing to do is to find out the

weak points of the Igbo culture/religion and the link between

these weaknesses and the Igbo people (in other words, the

question raised by the Igbo people themselves about their own

culture/religion). Then the opportunity will be taken to find out

what ‘missionary work’ is, what a ‘missionary’ is supposed to do,

what the reality of a ‘missionary work’ is, what kind of mindset

a ‘missionary’ must have during his work among the gentiles, what

kind of policies a ‘missionary’ must follow while doing his work

amongst those gentiles and what kind of results a ‘missionary’

must be looking to achieve. With the acquired knowledge and in

the light of the novel Things Fall Apart, the activities of the

‘English White Missionaries’ in the Igbo villages, the nature and

policy of their work, the end result of their work and who was

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benefited from the result of their missionary work in the Igbo

villages will be discussed. From there will be an investigation

to establish a connection between the appearance of the British

White Missionaries in the Igbo villages and the contemporary

regional policy of the British Government. If the possibility of

a positive connection can be established then the hypothesis that

‘the ulterior motive of the British White Christian missionaries

was to serve the interest of the British Government in Igbo

villages’ may be proven.

The Weaknesses of Igbo Religion/Culture

In the Igbo culture/religion following and maintaining the

tradition is of utmost importance. Igbo culture and religion

intermingle with each other and inseparable. There can be no

culture in Igbo without a religion and vice versa. Igbo people

have been following their tradition from time immemorial with an

iron-clad strictness. The strict hierarchy of the Igbo society

makes the elders of the community all powerful about their

tradition and they make it sure that the tradition is followed

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properly. Promising adults like Okonkwo who believes in tradition

and is ready even to fight to uphold it are seen. As a result

there is no one to raise questions or voice against any of the

traditions of the community, hence the tradition continues to the

present as it was in the past.

A basic study of Igbo religion will reveal many astonishing

points. This religion is strong and its principles are well

defined and established. The basic framework is hardly different

from Christianity save some minor things here and there. The Igbo

believes in a supreme and almighty God named Chukwu whose abode

is in the sky. They believe in a life after death as well. They

believe that Chukwu is all powerful, and is in spirit form. To

them nothing happens by chance and Chukwu is the source of

everything wellbeing or misfortune. They do not have any symbol

which could define Chukwu as they do not know how he looks like.

(Ohadike xxxii)

Just like the Biblical Satan, Igbo people believe in an

ultimate enemy of Chukwu called Ekwensu. He acts just like Satan

does. He is there to turn a person astray from the divine path to

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the path of bad deeds and destruction. Ekwensu, although is the

main foe of Chukwu, is not a God rather he serves Chukwu. Igbo

people believe that good deed is the harmony with the higher

forces and committing sin and not repenting for it will result in

continuous punishment of the transgressor. They are very

respectful and at the same time afraid of committing sin

unknowingly and that is why they have so many propitiation rites

to avoid the wrath of Chukwu in advance. These basics are not

very different from those of Christianity. (Ohadike xxxiii)

But whatever good and appreciable tradition the Igbo

community has, it is overshadowed by some rituals and

superstitious beliefs which are, without a question, inhuman and

brutal. Because of these bad practices a number of people in the

community is seen to become skeptic about their own

culture/religion. But because of the system their voices are

hushed and they silently and reluctantly follow the tradition.

All they need is an outlet to vent their pent up frustration and

hardship; and this situation is the weakest point of the Igbo

community which is based on strong family and social tie and

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hierarchy. Now, an opportunity should be taken to review the

novel to point out the places where this kind of situations

occurs.

In the novel Things Fall Apart, the first time readers come

across this kind of situation in the third chapter. Here readers

find the story of Okonkwo’s father Unoka. He was a weak man did

not like to work too much. He loved singing, dancing and spending

time drinking. He heavily borrowed from his people but

continually failed to pay them back. This resulted in a massive

debt which Okonkwo had to shoulder after his death. Unoka became

sick and his belly swelled from it. As he was dying, people left

him to die and rot in the ‘evil forest’. Now, this was very

inhuman. It is unthinkable to leave a man who is sick and weak

alone in a forest and under a tree. But his community did this

from the belief that sick person with swollen belly is an

abomination to the earth, therefore, he was not allowed to die at

home. In the end, all alone in a dark, dangerous, fearful, cold

forest, Unoka died under a tree and rotted away above ground as

there could be no burial for that sickness (Achebe 13). No one

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can even imagine a man dying alone, without his family by his

death bed and deprived of his right of a proper burial; he was

not a hated criminal! What sadness might have enveloped him! How

lonely and helpless he might have been feeling! His countless

tears and sighs might have melted together when he breathed his

last. The possibilities of Unoka, in his dying moments, blessing

and not cursing this traditional ritual can only be speculated.

In the second chapter reader get that someone from Mbaino

has killed Ezeugo, the wife of Ogbuefi Udo of Umuofia clan. Here

people of Umuofia demand that either Mbaino clan pay the price of

the dead by giving away a boy and a virgin girl as compensation

or Umuofia will wage war against them (Achebe 8). Now, this is a

very unrealistic demand and there is no logic behind it. One

particular person has been killed and instead of finding the

killer the whole clan is blamed for the crime. It is another

inhuman act. Because of this demand not only the killer gets away

with manslaughter but also two innocent persons are damned for

life. This event continues to Chapter Four where it is seen that

Mbaino eventually satisfies the demand. As a result Ikemefuna and

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a virgin girl come to Umuofia clan (Achebe 20). This happened

against their will and this is a clear violation of human right.

This event continues with Ikemefuna being accepted in the

Okonkwo household. In the fourth chapter it is seen that

Ikemefuna is slowly becoming a part his new family and

establishing a son-father relationship with Okonkwo. He becomes

brother to Nwoye. For three years he stays with his new family

before another misfortune strikes (Achebe 20-21). This happens in

the seventh chapter. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves comes

up with another mojo powered fortunetelling that Ikemefuna is to

be killed by Umuofia. As per the custom he is to be taken outside

the village and killed there (Achebe 40). After all these three

years of bonding, the ill-fated boy Ikemefuna becomes a sacrifice

of yet another irrational, out of nowhere and brutal custom with

which he has relation. It is unacceptable that because of

baseless whim of the Oracle an innocent boy will lose his life.

This man-slaughtering ritual compels Okonkwo, because of his

extreme macho-ness, to kill the boy who had accepted him as his

own father. This is the betrayal of the humanity and innocent

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faith and belief. Okonkwo gives the finishing blow to the poor

boy Ikemefuna with his own two hands (Achebe 40-43). It is a

given that when someone does something against the good

conscience of his, he will be panged by it every moment for the

rest of his life. This cruel act was not alright with Okonkwo.

Although he will not confess it, this betrayal, too, has put him

under a melancholic trance. Readers see Okonkwo on a failed

attempt to soothe himself, “When did you become a shivering old

woman, . . . How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall

to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?” (Achebe

44-45)

Although Nwoye is silent and does not say a thing because of

the fear of beating, he is traumatized. He now feel a pang which

he had felt a long time ago while returning from the family farm.

At that time a distant, helpless and painful cry of an infant in

the dark and thick forest reminded him of yet another vicious and

heinous ritual of the Igbo community. Whenever twins are born

they would be put into an earthenware pot and thrown into jungle

(Achebe 43). These rituals hurt Nwoye as he is a very kind and

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soft hearted boy. His somewhat emotionless silence is like the

calm before a storm. He may not have said anything but his mind

is flooded with thoughts that question the justification of these

mindless murders in the name of religion and cultural traditions.

In the end he becomes a weakness in the seemingly unbreakable

social bond of the Igbo community. Even Obierika, Okonkwo’s

faithful friend, says that he had ‘better’ things to do than the

‘killing’ a boy in the name of custom. He disagrees with his

friend Okonkwo who insists on himself being right, “And let me

tell you one thing, my friend. If I were you I would have stayed

at home. What you have done will not please the Earth. It is the

kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole families.”

He later says, “But if the Oracle said that my son should be

killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it.”

(Achebe 46-47)

Another instance is seen where a social custom which forbids an

adult of title climbing the palm tree is questioned by Okonkwo

himself, the person who did not even question the killing of

Ikemefuna. (Achebe 48)

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The ninth chapter acquaints the readers with another

questionable belief and ritual. It is about the women who give

birth to dead child or children who die early in their childhood

one after the other and their reincarnation. The Igbo people

believe that the children who die early or are born dead will

come to their mothers’ womb again and again to torment the

mothers. They are called the ogbanje. Ekwefi is one such mother

with her child dying on her one after the other. To get a remedy

Okonkwo consults the medicine man, the diviner of Afa Oracle. The

Afa Oracle tells that the ogbanje is the wicked child who after

it dies enters its mother’s womb in order to be born again to

this world. The medicine-man, the diviner of Afa-Oracle told

Ekwefi to go to live with her own people when she would be

pregnant again and that would break the cycle. But it did not

work at all. The kid died again and was not even given a proper

burial. Here a baseless superstition is seen to be in play.

Okonkwo calls another medicine-man who finds divinity in

coincidence and in the name of cure mutilates the dead child and

drags it behind him to bury it in the evil forest. It can never

be called a human treating another human. Just because they are

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afraid of the unknown, they do things out of their superstitious

mind. There is no logical explanation of which they do in the

name of culture/religion. (Achebe 54-56)

In Chapter Seventeen readers see that the missionaries have

started to close in on the Igbo community. When they ask the

ruler of the Mbanta village for a land and the village people

give them one in the ‘evil forest’ as they believed that the

missionaries will be dead in the ‘evil forest’. Sadly for the

people of Mbanta village their belief that ‘evil forest’ is going

to do something to the missionaries was not effective at all and

that wrong and baseless thinking and faith spawned another

weakness in the community. (Achebe 105-106)

Chapter Eighteen tells the readers about the outcasts of

Igbo community. They are called osu. There was no solid ground

for the people of Igbo community to ostracize a group of people

or individual just because the cultural tradition says so.

Readers have found about so many of their baseless superstitions

already that it does not come as a surprise to them that Igbo

community expels people with random hoax. This osu are one such

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example. They are the people who are dedicated to God and

according to the Igbo community they cannot be touched, married

and they will keep being osu and so will be their children after

their parents. This is another huge weakness of the Igbo culture

which has potential of being exploited. (Achebe 111)

These so far are the weaknesses readers have noticed with their

careful reading of the Igbo culture/religion from the novel Things

Fall Apart. Next the domain of missionary work and what

missionaries are meant to do and what they really did in the Igbo

villages will be investigated.

Mission, Missionary and the English Missionaries in

Nigeria

It is imperative to understand the work of the missionaries

before scrutinizing the English Christian Missionaries. Time

should be devoted for a little clarification regarding the terms

related to missionaries and their missions.

Usually missions can be carried out by anyone. The term

‘mission’ is not bound to any particular cult, culture,

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institution or religion. For example, the law enforcing agencies

can call one of their hunts for criminals a ‘mission’. Any number

of persons from any cultural or religious background can have a

mission and carry it out. There are two types of missions- liberal

or servile. The liberal missions are those with no intention of making

materialistic or worldly benefits. The people involved in these

kinds of missions are not interested in making benefits for a

particular person or institution. On the other hand, servile

missions are done with the intention of making benefits for a

particular person or institution and the people involved in this

type of missions get paid in various forms. For example, if a

businessman is doing mission in order to make worldly benefits

then his missions are servile; on the other hand, if a priest is

doing charity work in secret and not revealing his identity is

carrying out liberal missions. As the focus of the paper is on the

Christian missionaries, the terms should be looked at from the

view point of a church. Mr. Ryan Cragun in his book, From One

Missionary to Another: the Ins and Outs of Missionary Life, gives a good insight

into these terms.

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As understood by a Church, a mission is to devote time to

find opportunities to share what one has with the ones who do not

have it. So, a mission can be anything from offering physical

help or share knowledge or understanding of making houses to

teaching languages or gospel. These all can be considered as

mission (Cragun 6). From this definition it is understood that

whosoever will embark on such mission can be called a missionary.

Careful reading reveals a very interesting piece of

information about ‘what a mission is not’. Mission does not mean

converting people of other beliefs into Christianity. The duty of the

missionaries is to share the Gospels with ones who are interested

in understanding them (Cragun 6). So, the point to be noted is

that the duty of a missionary is to ‘share’ but not ‘converting’.

Cragun shares his experience with the rest of the world. He

writes about his misconceptions about missionary work. He says

that the fact that once he tried convince people to the

proposition that ‘his religion was right’ and the ‘religions of

those people were wrong’. He termed this act as bashing. This is

simply wrong. (6-7)

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In the Bible, Matthew 6:1-4, Christ forbids his disciples

not to ‘give alms’ with worldly motivations; otherwise they will

not be getting any reward from the ‘Heavenly Father’. Cragun

points out that the motivation of the missionaries should purely

be divine and they should only do charity to please ‘the Heavenly

Father’ only, not for the people of this world (18-19).

Therefore, according to this, the motivation of the English

Christian missionaries should be the same: something divine, not

worldly.

Cragun also adds in Chapter Nine of his book that politics

exists even in the Church hierarchy. He says that the reason it

is so is that Church is a social institution. In society humans

create various ranking systems to mark the value or worthiness of

one person or a thing. The higher the position of a person in an

institution, the more powerful and the better that person is

supposed to be. This causes others with lower ranking in the

ranking system to suck up to the higher position holders. But

this ranking system is false. A person can be a good missionary

only when he is worthy and obedient. The worldly ranking system

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does not hold any value in God’s eyes. Thus measuring someone

with worldly eyes is completely useless.

To sum everything up, a missionary’s duty is to share what

he has with the ones’ who are interested in what he has to offer.

A missionary must not look for worldly gains and he should not

try to measure himself by the worldly ranking system as it does

not hold any value in God’s eyes. His motivation has to be pure,

philanthropic and he must only seek to please the ‘heavenly

Father’, not any mortal of this world.

But history speaks otherwise. It was just before the

Victorian Era in England when the English started to venture into

the lands of dark and dangerous Africa. Like many British

explorers, traders, and anti-slavery activists, missionaries, too,

took special interest in the pre-colonial Nigeria (Gascoigne). At

that time, just as now, the Church of England and the British

Monarchy were deeply connected to each other as the latter was

the ‘divine’ protector of the former, as it still is; and thus

the influence of the British Monarchy on the Church and its

missionaries is obvious. From a technical point of view, British

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Monarchy is serving the Church while the Church serves the

Monarchy. It is literally impossible to separate the influence of

the State from the very being of the Church and its missionaries

(The British Monarchy). So when the missionaries were sighted in

the pre-colonial Nigeria, they could not have been there without

the influence of the British Monarchy. The missionaries could not

but serve the Queen. This becomes evident from the conversation

between Mr. Brown and Akunna of a missionary in Things Fall Apart.

There Mr. Brown confesses to Akunna that the head of the Church

in England is the Queen herself. (127)

The work of the missionaries in the Igbo villages is very

interesting and intriguing. The novel highlights the work of

missionaries in the Mbanta village. This is a very important

episode because their appearance happened there during the seven

year exile of Okonkwo. Although the story begins in Umuofia, this

chapter does not talk much about how the missionaries in Umuofia

gain much ground in the particular Igbo village (101). In this

episode the missionaries of Mbanta are seen to do the act of

‘bashing’ which they are not supposed to do (Cragun 6-7). One of

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the English White missionaries blames the old man of the village

for killing innocent people and babies and severely condemns them

for worshiping the gods of ‘deceit’. Here it must be noted how

the White missionary is trying to exploit the weaknesses of the

Igbo culture/religion. He points out to the whole village

population that their gods are evil because they order the

villagers to kill their own people and innocent babies (103).

Although the whole village seems to be strict followers of the

Igbo culture/religion, he knows that when it comes to the

sufferers of the cultural practices of the Igbo things will

definitely be different. When someone watches his loved ones

getting killed, that person must have something against the

ritual; and here the missionary attacks the Igbo with that in

mind. This successfully moves Nwoye whose loving brother-like

companion Ikemefuna was a victim to this brutal ritual. This also

moves women who have lost their newborn twin children as a result

of this meaningless killing (107). Their attack is successful.

The missionary keeps blaming the villagers and glorifying their

true God, but he surprisingly forgets what his fellow men do to

the people of Abame; just because a White man is killed, the

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other Whites simply massacre the whole clan except for a few old

and weak men and women (98). It is the English missionaries who

are deceitful at this point. They are simply deviating from the

motto of the missionary work. The fact that the church is

accepting even the osu people, moves the osu themselves as they

are not treated well (111). At this point it can be understood

that the weakness of the Igbo culture is being well exploited by

the missionaries. The missionaries are hell-bent on ‘converting’

but not liberal teaching. They are not simply sharing what they

have but they are taking advantage by simply pointing out the

weak points of Igbo culture. It is a fact that no ‘pure good’

needs to promote itself by contrasting itself with the other

‘evils’ in the society. The act of comparison shows the lack of

conviction of the promoter in the ‘pure good’ he is promoting. If

something is really ‘purely good’ then why does it need comparing

in order to magnify its ‘goodness’? A truth is always truth and

it does not require comparing with a lie. People themselves will

eventually find their ways to the truth. There is no hurry. But

the English Christian missionaries are always comparing the

goodness of their God with the weakness of the Igbo

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religion/culture. This act of comparison is only valid when there

are some weaknesses in their religion too. Hot water burns but

holding a burning coal inside a fist will burn more. This means

that both the things burn but the latter is the worse. Now this

comparison is formulated because the degree of ‘hotness’ of the

two things- ‘hot water’ and ‘burning coal’ has to be proven. This

way it can be understood that the missionaries are desperately

trying to cover something up by, time and again, bringing up the

weaknesses of the Igbo culture/religion.

The missionaries have never wanted to understand the Igbo,

rather force their White conception and ideology on the newly

converts. They are seen to promote the difference between the

‘new converts’ and the ‘Igbo natives’. They emphasize teaching

the ‘new converts’ that they are on their side (with the White

Christian team) and those who do not follow Christianity are the

‘others’. The newly converts know that although they have new

religion now, they still have to live in the same Igbo native

communities- with their relatives who do not believe in

Christianity. This will create a lot of issues regarding co-

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habiting. There must be policies so that communal violence does

not occur. The missionaries, if they really want to live among

the Igbo and teach them without having any ulterior motives,

should be formulating policies for that. But that has never been

the case. The fact that the ‘English’ missionaries are ‘White’

makes all the differences. The missions of the English White

missionaries began back at their homeland where,

. . . the growth of Empire proceeded from a single ideological

climate and that the development of the one is intrinsically bound

up with the development of the other . . . the naturalizing of

constructed values (e.g. civilization, humanity, etc.) which

conversely, established 'savagery', 'native', 'primitive', as

their antitheses and as the object of a reforming zeal (Ashcroft,

Griffiths and Tiffin 3).

Thus, it is very much evident that the root of all missions

was based on the thought that the whole world is the ‘other’ and

it is the ‘White man’s’ burden to ‘teach’ and ‘civilize’ the

‘others’. This difference in the thought process makes it

impossible for the English White missionaries to promote equality

in thinking and treating the Igbo people as their fellow humans.

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It simply is not possible. It has been inevitable from the very

outset once the Whites set foot on the pre-colonioal Nigerian

soil.

Another big and historical aspect of the relation between

the African Blacks and the European Whites is that historically

the Europeans knew that African Blacks are the slaves of the

White people and the Whites are the Masters of the Blacks or the

people of colors. This relation can be explained by the

relationship between Prospero and Caliban in the Shakespearean

drama The Tempest. In the drama we see the coming of Prospero to

the Island of Caliban. Before Prospero, it was Caliban who was

the ruler of the Island. Prospero teaches Caliban how to speak

the way ‘civilized’ people do. Caliban learns English. But it

does not make Caliban happy, because somewhere along the way

Caliban becomes dependent on Prospero. Now Caliban takes orders

and works for Prospero as a slave. Caliban, once the ruler of the

Island, becomes a slave of Prospero even though he speaks the

same language as the Whiteman from Europe. The way of the

thinking of Caliban does not change even after he forsakes

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Prospero as his master and becomes free. He finds Trinculo and

Stephano, two more Whites from Europe, and immediately submits

himself to them as a slave. He could speak English no doubt, but

his freedom has long been lost in the process. On the other hand,

although Caliban could speak English, Trinculo keeps calling him

monster and begins to think of ways to exploit and earn money

using Caliban; Stephano gladly accepts Caliban as his servant and

slave. Just learning of the Language of the Whites turns Caliban

into such a slave that he even finds the mere alcohol of Stephano

- Godly. The learning of a Language turns Caliban into a lifelong

slave.

Now, this theory is well promoted in the Igbo village

setting. The missionaries are trying to teach people how to read

and write by setting up schools even if the natives are not

interested in converting (Achebe 108). They do not seem to mind

as long as they can convince the natives to learn the way of the

English- reading, writing, and speaking. But this will, by no

means, put the native Igbo on the same terms of equality. They

can learn English but they will never be the Whites they have

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long been regarding as the race of Master. The history and the

psychological inheritance will not allow them to be free, as they

have always been the race of the slaves and they have always been

looking ‘up’ to the Whites, while the Whites look ‘down’. ***

Frantz Fanon in his book Black Skin White Masks writes about the

psychology of the post-colonial people of ‘color’. By profession

he was a psychiatrist. His background and lineage gave him enough

exposer to the people of color. In this book he discusses various

facets of ‘black psychology’. From his book it is understood that

both the black men and women find it preciously ‘glorifying’ to

be with women and men of the opposite complexion. While almost

each and every black women he talks with finds it fascinating to

become ‘the White’ and that can only happen if a White man would

marry one woman of color. These black women he speaks to

absolutely hates to be anywhere near a man of color or the same

race as they are. They themselves believe that the black men are

lesser humans. On the other hand the Black men wants to be with

White women, because by doing this they will become the White.

From this observation it is clear that the hereditary inferiority

Alam 29

complex makes it impossible for them to become equals with the

Whites, while the Whites suffering from superiority complex find

it absolutely improbable to become the equals of Black people.

Therefore, there will always be a conflict; the Whites will never

be able to be on the same ground as the Blacks. (Fanon)

The English missionaries fail to create harmony among the

convert Christians and the natives. They fail to do so because of

their inability to see the Whites and the Blacks as equals. The

fact that the hostility between the converts and the natives

gradually increases is an ample proof of this. The English White

missionaries should have only been focused on preaching and to

some extent teaching if their motives were innocent and liberal

if they have wanted to keep everyone in harmony. But that is not

what happens. When the missionaries find it difficult to make

converts with their ‘bashing’, they then switch to politics. Soon

it is seen that the Whites have established a court of justice on

the very land of the native Igbo people. Now the natives will be

judged- not by the rules of the land, but the rules of a faraway

land of the Whites (Achebe 110). The White commissioner is now

Alam 30

passing judgments to the natives on the terms of the White Queen

seating thousands of miles away in England.

It is possible that even after converting to another

religion, people can still be judged by the rules and laws of

their own land. It will still be possible for the newly converts

to co-habit with their countrymen in peace as long as they

succeed in coming to terms with their differences and accept them

as they are and do not go into direct conflict of interest. If

the new converts do not try to incite agitation then the gentiles

(apart from the sadness that their fellowmen left the faith of

their ancestors) should not have any problems living as they have

been doing it from time immemorial. But in the novel this does

not happen.

From the very beginning the White missionaries have been

promoting extreme difference between their religion and the one

of the Igbo people. As a result there has been no question of a

peaceful co-habitation among the converts and the natives. It is

amazing to see that the so called pagan natives do not bother to

give away a piece of their mother land to the missionaries as

Alam 31

they found the Whites to be ignorant. The natives believe in

living an otherwise peaceful life. The Whites takes the

opportunity to start their propaganda. Slowly they come to

exploit the weakness of the native culture and bring enough

converts to their side. It is impossible for the Whites to go on

a full scale confrontation with the natives and win them by

subduing them. But if they can arrange a situation where the

convert natives will be fighting their own men, then the Whites

can claim their innocence in the matter. Besides, the natives

cannot lay a hand on their fellow men as it is the rule of the

Igbo not to harm their own. In the novel Obierika is seen

expressing his sadness:

It is already too late. Our own men and our sons have joined the

ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help

to uphold his government. If we should try to drive out the white

men in Umuofia we should find it easy. There are only two of them.

But what of our own people who are following their way and have

been given power?They whould go to Umuru and bring the soldiers,

and we would be like Abame. I told you on my last visit to Mbanta

how they hanged Aneto (Achebe 124).

Alam 32

Obierika speaks corporeal truth. After the osu have been

admitted to the church, the extremity affected them as well. It

is one from the newly converted osu who killed a sacred Igbo

python, but they could not do anything particular about it

(Achebe 112). After the osu some men of titles like Ugonna also

converted to Christianity; Ugonna even has cut the honorary

ornament the anklet off. As a result, now the Whites have

influential people on their side (123). Now the natives are

disgracing and showing disbelief about their ancestral

culture/religion.

In the introduction to the 1996 edition of Things Fall Apart,

Don C. Ohadike gives a historical picture of what happened in

Igboland. He says that the White missionaries were not innocent

after all. He says that the motive of the missionary work in the

Igboland was to destroy the cultural/religious belief of the Igbo

people in order to make converts. They did not have any respect

for the Igbo culture/religion at all. He mentions the name of one

Bishop Crowther who was outright racist and his crusade against

the Igbo community was to destroy the evil or darkness of the

Alam 33

Igboland. He also mentions about the attitude of the British

colonial agents in the Igboland. Many missionaries would help

them with information so that they can make strategies to conquer

and establish the British rule in those areas. These supposedly

innocent and civilized missionaries even went as far as to

promoted violence among their own country people against these

pacifistic Igbo people. The Igbo people could not readily fathom

the extent of the damages done by the White Christian

missionaries. The newly converts who were their brothers and

sisters became the enemies of their own flesh and blood. (Ohadike

xliii-xliv)

So, the situation is that the natives cannot say a thing as

their own people are acting against them while the Whites can

claim their innocence in the matter as they are not directly

involved at all. It is a play called Hegemony. The Whites first

arrange Ideological State Apparatus to get the better of the natives

and then create a conflict of interest to gain more advantage and

if their ploy is succeeded then the Repressive State Apparatus comes

into the scene. Roger Webster, in his book Studying Literary Theory: An

Alam 34

introduction, writes, "Under Hegemonic control, people actively

work towards their own subordination, which coincides with the

continuation of the dominant power groups ..." (4). The ISAs

(Ideological State Apparatus) directly contribute to this

hegemonic control. The dominant power will not try imposing their

thoughts on the target of domination, rather they will arrange

things in such a way that people of the society will come forward

and do the things on their own accord to fulfil the hegemonic

control. It will seem that people are acting with their free will

and they will become the voice of the ruling class; for example,

people of the society may talk against their religion, cultural

traditions or try to reform and in a way will be fulfilling the

wish of the ruling class masterminds. On the other hand, RSA

(Repressive State Apparatus) will try to directly force the

people of the target society to do things that the ruling class

wants them to do by means of law enforcement institutions, the

administration of the government, penal system, etc., (Webster

61-62). In Umuofia, too, the Whites bring the RSA, the court of law

from far away England (123) and there the natives are being ill-

treated by the Whites on their very native land.

Alam 35

The people from Umuofia became kind of self-imprisoned to

Mr. Brown’s ideological teachings. Every one of the Igbo people

has his own property and wealth and all of them work really hard

to maintain that; and they are all free people. But once the

people learn to write and read the language of the Whites they

became employed in the court and became the slaves or servants in

the process.

The end result will always speak for itself. The entering of

the White English Missionaries in the Igbo community seems

innocent. But in the end, the community broken into pieces; once

mighty Umuofia clan could do anything effective to prevent the

failing of the cultural and religious systems of the society;

families are broken, husband-wife, parents-children are lost

forever; the social hierarchy could not hold it together anymore;

people learned to speak the language of the Whites and once free

children of Umuofia became servants to the people who came to and

occupied their ancestral land; honor and faith lost their

meaning; there was no respect anymore; if anything the Church

grew stronger with the patronage of the British government and

Alam 36

could successfully establish its position in the area. At this

point of the discussion, it is clear as crystal that the

missionaries helped establish the British hold on area around the

pre-colonial Nigeria.

The aggressive British Imperialism can also be discussed in

the light of recent events. It can be proven that the techniques

of this particular colonizers always bring about the destruction

to a great community. For example, in one of YouTube video clips

of Dr. Norman Finklestein, the result of British policy for

Zionists in the Middle-East region is shown. The Zionist

plantation by the British to have a hold over the strategic

region of Palestine has put the region into a perennial chaos.

Hundreds of thousands of people are being tortured and murdered

and ethnically cleansed in the area by the rogue military power

of a planted Zionist regime. This is another of the political

messes of the British government in the Middle-East region.

(GlobalResearchTV)

Alam 37

Conclusion

From the analysis of events it can be said that the nature

of the White English Christian missionaries were not at all

liberal. It was very much focused to satisfy the British interest

in the region and thus the missionaries were not politically

neutral.

There are other things that the concerned readers can learn

from the discussion is that blindly following one’s faith is not

good, rather a weakness, which literally invites others to

exploit it. Irrespective of culture/religion, humanity must get

the privilege over every ritual of a community. It is the duty of

the followers of a culture/religion to reform their own customs.

Otherwise some else will do it for them and that does not bode

good omen for them. The new generation must be very strong and

have courage to question the old until they get a satisfactory

answer and must fight to uphold the humanity before anything

else. People must learn to respect the belief or faith of the

others, or else no one will respect theirs.

Alam 38

Regarding converting to a new belief or culture, one must

understand one’s position in the world. One must redefine one’s

essence, bad or good. One must understand what one is before

submitting oneself to a new God or culture. Otherwise, one will

keep jumping from one to the other. Just because the trend of the

present time seems to do something, it does not mean that

everyone must jump the band wagon without thinking twice. Sadly,

this is happening all around us. The trend rules the good

judgment of the people; mass media and entertainment industry

keeps promoting various ideologies and newer identities to the

people of the world. Just because something is new and seems

fascinating, people always tend to try it out and then suddenly

jump to something newer. This way till death they will keep

searching for contentment but to no effect. In the novel The

Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh portrays the character of Ila. She is a

person of nowhere. Her father has profession which compels her to

keep running about the world. Before she could define herself

with her current culture or the native one, she is forced out of

it by the demand of her father’s job. She could not establish any

real relationship with any country or person. Today she is here,

Alam 39

and tomorrow she is not. As a result, for the rest of her life

she keeps looking for her identity and suffers from an unhappy

married life. She failed to identify with her own people who

actually loved her. But as she could not understand people, she

is unable to realize that the narrator himself loves her. The

people want her, she does not recognize them or want them and the

ones she aspires to be with do not recognize her as one of their

own. This dilemma keeps her haunting. (Ghosh)

In this modern world every single person is suffering from

this ‘displacement’ problem. Because of inability to connect to a

particular identity, people suffer lifelong psychological

depression. Everyone says that they are happy but the corporeal

truth is that they are far from it. Therefore, it is suggested

that one should try to find one’s own identity first, define it

properly and have a firm conviction in it; then one can study and

try to understand others. In this way a person will have a clear

judgment of what one must accept and what one must discard.

Alam 40

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Alam 41

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