Introduction
Things Fall Apart is a novel that depicts the traditional life of Nigerians in the pre-colonial eastern part of the country. People living in the villages of Umuofia and Mbanta have self-government and a developed system of communication, relationships, and values. The author Chinua Achebe depicts the arrival of Christian Missionaries as an insidious invasion of white Europeans who, under the guise of spreading Christianity, were preparing to conquer the continent (Özün & Baskale, 2019). Chinua Achebe levels the biases and racist portrayal of Africans prevalent in popular readings of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) or Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson (1839) (Rashmi, 2022). The role of Okonkwo’s character is central in the novel and therefore should be analyzed in greater detail. This paper argues that Okonkwo was a good leader, as he sacrificed himself to save the national heritage of his people.
The First Critical Perspective: Okonkwo as People’s Leader
In the novel, the two main critical perspectives can be considered – the perspective of the community and the perspective of the nation. From the perspective of the community, Okonkwo is an awful leader, and his terrible leadership qualities eventually lead to his exile to the village where he was born. The exile is preceded by the killing of Ikemefun – Okonkwo’s adopted son, who was given to Umuofia as a ransom from a neighboring tribe. Okonkwo, who kills the boy himself due to his stubborn nature, suffers greatly and later commits another accidental killing that outrages the tribe (Chinua, 2021). Perhaps the oracle that ‘predicted’ the need to kill Ikemefun wanted to get rid of Okonkwo who was demonstrating his masculinity and leadership qualities too aggressively. In other words, Okonkwo’s careless behavior and tendency to underestimate aspects of life that he does not understand and considers feminine leads to his downfall as a tribal leader.
Okonkwo’s hesitations and insecurity are related to both the present and past. Okonkwo disrespects his father, seeing him as weak and not masculine enough, because Unoka failed to satisfy all the symbolic aspects of power, such as the possession of material wealth and the ability to subjugate the will of others (Singh & Narayanan, 2019). The disrespect for his father reflects Okonkwo’s self-confident and assertive character (Umezurike, 2021). Considering himself a rightful heir and successor, he does not feel a duty to show flexibility and fails to understand the importance of soft, feminine power.
Pride and attraction to power are the defining forces that guide Okonkwo’s actions, while human relationships and love are less worthy in his value system. For example, on the harvest festival, he decides to punish his second wife who takes a break to rest from the work in the fields (Siddique & Tangail, 2020). The author depicts Okonkwo as physically strong and describes his majestic figure and large facial features (Chinua, 2021, p. 4). This is a positive characteristic in the agricultural community, but the author notes that women and children who did not have such strength were forced to work on an equal footing with their husband and father. In the first chapter, the author focuses on describing how Okonkwo experiences internal emotional imbalance. Importantly, further, it becomes clear that this imbalance may be caused by the pressure Okonkwo feels as a leader of his community and nation.
Okonkwo does not understand that cruelty will not help him to get rid of uncertainty. He is torn between the desire to perform his duties and feeling lonely and unworthy. His loneliness does not come from anything, it has rather explicit reasons. His father Unoka was trying to convince Okonkwo to become more flexible and get rid of his pride, because “it is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone” (Rashmi, 2022, p. 202). However, Okonkwo did not listen to this advice and ended up hanging himself, being deprived of the support of his fellow villagers. His despair cannot be considered a defeat in his role as a national leader. However, his isolation is a personal failure caused by his inability to understand people and respect their wisdom, desires, pains, weaknesses, and intentions.
The Second Critical Perspective: Okonkwo as Nation’s Leader
Okonkwo’s cruelty and stubbornness are, of course, unattractive individual characteristics. But these features do not totally determine his multifaceted personality. Okonkwo has aspirations that go beyond his manhood, individual impact, and recognition by community members. He is not excessively concerned with the approval or condemnation of his actions, because he has a developed value system. Although this system has certain shortcomings, Okonkwo’s primary goal is to ensure the survival of the community and preserve its national identity.
Okonkwo’s best aspirations are to stop the commissioners and save the tribe from their influence. When he returns to Umuofia after the exile, he sees that the white ministers have plenty of followers. Many men and women in Umuofia “did not feel as strongly as Okonkwo about the new dispensation” (Chinua, 2021, p. 178). There was a widespread perception that “The white, man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia” (Chinua, 2021, p. 178). Okonkwo does not consider the changes brought by the priests good, he sees them as colonizers.
The newcomers are colonizers indeed: Mr. Brown, the preacher, sets an open goal to convince the villagers to despise their pantheistic faith in primary God Chukwu and bow to God, whose representative he considers the queen. Realizing that “a frontal attack would not succeed”, Mr. Brown decides to build a school, but this idea fails as Umuofia people send there “their slaves and sometimes their lazy children” (Chinua, 2021, p. 181). To rule the village Mr. Brown has commissioners and messengers.
Despite the initial acceptance of the ministers, the villagers have generally disrespected them. Still, when it comes to open armed confrontation, Umuofia are not ready to support their leader and go to the end, while Okonkwo is ready to defend his people and traditions (Rashmi, 2022). He understands that the white priests are a threat and that friendship with them is impossible. He sees that ministers seek subjugation and consider his people to be savages.
Okonkwo is ready to self-sacrifice to protect the independence of his people. He shows great bravery in an armed confrontation with white priests when he kills the messenger (Siddique & Tangail, 2020). However, the hero suddenly realizes that no one else can do the same thing. He feels isolated and completely alone; the inner turmoil and uncertainty that have gnawed at him for many years add weight to the decision to commit suicide. For Okonkwo, death by his hand seems a more dignified act than submitting to the white priests who will surely kill him or throw him to the prison.
Okonkwo’s suicide and failure to defend Umuofia should be seen as a tragedy. The man is an authentic hero, as he personifies the unique African national ways of living. Probably, due to a heightened sense of responsibility, Okonkwo is the only one who sees a threat in the change of faith and worldview carried by white messengers. He not only considers himself the leader of Umuofia and Igbo, but he also proves himself as a true leader.
Okonkwo understands that he will fail, but he cannot betray his people. He is ready to give his own life for the sake of his nation, and this intention largely justifies his previous decisions. The killing of Ikemefun, advised by an oracle, the cruelty to wives who pander to their weaknesses, and the desire to dominate his fellow tribesmen, whom he deems incapable of leadership, have a dimension that lies beyond a mere propensity for violence (Rashmi, 2022). Okonkwo is willing to sacrifice the interests of others to protect shared values because he is just as ready to sacrifice his own life for this higher purpose. By putting in contrast the estimations of violence by Okonkwo and the ministers, the author shows that, in the end, Okonkwo does not see violence as a means that will bring Umuofia to prosperity. On the opposite, even feeling pain and sorrow he is only ready to apply violence to prevent and then stop the devastation brought by the commissioners.
Comparing and Contrasting the Two Perspectives
The first critical and cultural perspective is an assessment of Okonkwo’s character at the level of his influence on the tribe. At first, Okonkwo can be perceived as a decidedly negative character due to his blatant disregard for humanity and contempt for weakness (Siddique & Tangail, 2020). However, after reading the novel, the character of the hero and his role in the tribe become clearer. Okonkwo faces many adversaries and has enemies among his fellow tribesmen.
Okonkwo is a nuisance to the tribe, but without him, the tribe disappears as a unique entity and dissolves into the culture of the colonizers. He feels the more subtle and important aspects of public decisions, the more universal meanings of the roles of each member of the community. Okonkwo worries about the fate of important people in his circle as he prepares for a battle that he foresees. When he returns and sees that his world has been taken over by white priests, he realizes that he has already lost (Rashmi, 2022). However, to defend the right to national identity in future generations, he single-handedly resists the invaders.
Okonkwo makes decisions that go beyond the perspective of the tribe and can only be evaluated in the context of the perspective of the Igbo nation. This second perspective is more important because it reveals the character of the hero. After the commissioners who arrived in the search of Okonkwo discover his body, his friend Obierika gives a frank assessment of what happened. Obierika “turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘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. He could not say any more” (Chinua, 2021, p. 208). Therefore, Okonkwo’s leadership and actions are eventually recognized by his tribesmen.
Being more attentive to the personal interests and pains of the community members would have made Okonkwo a better leader at the tribal level. However, the question of whether people’s sympathy would have helped him win at the national level remains open (Rashmi, 2022). Okonkwo would probably have a better chance of winning if he had supporters and friends. However, for the final victory, he would have to foresee the arrival of white ministers and rally the people.
Conclusion
Thus, it was argued, how Okonkwo was a good leader for his community and nation. The second critical perspective better describes the novel, as it provides a deeper understanding of Okonkwo’s character. Okonkwo is a leader who is concerned above all with the fate of his tribe, village, and nation. His personal defeats for him are inseparable from the defeat of his culture, which was eventually destroyed by the audacious colonizers.
References
Chinua, A. (2021). Things fall apart. Anchor Books Doubleday.
Özün, Ş. O., & Baskale, N. (2019). The distortion of cultural identity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Trakya Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(18), 86-99.
Rashmi, K. (2022). The theme of pride and prejudice in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Research Journal of English Language and Literature, 10(2), 200-202.
Siddique, M. H., & Tangail, B. (2020). Portrayal of masculinity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. International Journal of English Language, Literature, and Humanities, 8(2), 11-18.
Singh, D. S., & Narayanan, R. S. P. (2019). Character of Unoka and Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: A Comparative Study. Think India Journal, 22(10), 6030-6036.
Umezurike, U. P. (2021). ‘A son who is a man:’ Receptive masculinity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Norma, 16(4), 205-216.