Civilizations and Change

Civilization and Change

The United States of America. Australia. The countries of South America. The countries of Africa. These countries all experienced change resulting from the arrival of another more dominant culture. Change can help civilize a culture, not only because it helps improve the economy, it also introduces new ideas. The people that bring the change can set up trade routes, which causes money to flow into the people of the country. They can also pass on their ideas on religion, like Christianity and Judaism, and on inventions, like computers and other technologies. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart tells the story of his rich Ibo tribe and their response to the white European missionary and political system. Through Okonkwo, the protagonist, and Obierika, Okonkwo’s best friend and foil, Achebe traces two different responses to change. Although change can civilize a culture, it sometimes tears apart the existing community because man fears it, it challenges traditions, and man cannot accept or adapt to it.

Change contributes to destroying an existing culture because man is fearful of it. One reason man is fearful of change is that he does not understand it. The Abame clan killed the white missionary on a bicycle who had seemed to take a wrong turn. They killed him because, since they could not understand his language, they took him as a threat. Another reason man is afraid of change is that it is forced upon him. In the case of the Umuofian people, Mr. Smith was very strict and from the book with his missionary work. “He saw things in black and white. And black was evil” (Achebe. 184.) His approach made it impossible for the Ibo people to make their own decisions on what they did believe, and what they now believe. The last way that causes man to fear change is he does not trust who is enforcing it on them. When the District Commissioner called Okonkwo and the five other leaders of the clan to speak with him, the clan leaders brought machetes. This shows that they did not trust the District Commissioner and his people because they wanted to protect themselves. The fact that man is fearful of change is only one reason change tears his culture apart.

Change dismantles man’s world because it presents challenges to his tradition. One way it challenges his traditions is that it tells man that his religion is false. Mr. Smith told the Ibo outright that their gods and goddess are false and do not exist. This trashed all of what the Ibo people believed in. Another way change challenges tradition is the new ideas of change say that man is wrong. If the Ibo’s religion is fake, then the Oracle is not real, which, in turn, makes Okonkwo responsible for killing Ikmafuna, who was his adopted son. This puts Okonkwo in a mental state of guiltiness, which he perceives as womanly. “If I were you I would have stayed home. What you have done will not please the Earth.” (Achebe. 67.) Obierika, however, does not participate in the killing of Ikmafuna, because he believes that some Ibo traditions are in desperate need of a re-thinking. Finally, change presents difficult challenges because it dismisses all of man’s cultural beliefs. This means that the Ibo clan titles are fictitious. Everything that Okonkwo has worked so hard for all his life has gone out the window. “His life had been ruled by one great passion-to become one of the lords of the clan…then everything had been broken. He was cast out of his clan…” (Achebe. 131.)

Change tears apart a culture because man cannot accept, or refuses to adapt