I Linguistics, Igbo and Other Nigerian Languages Webmaster 2009

Home , Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, Oyi

IDOKO, FLORENCE NGOZIKA PG/MA/07/42924

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AND NWANA’S OMENUKO

A PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (M.A) DEGREE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS, IGBO AND OTHER NIGERIAN LANGUAGES (WRITTEN LITERATURE STRESS)

Linguistics, Igbo and Other Nigerian Languages

UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

2009

Webmaster

TITLE PAGE

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AND NWANA’S OMENUKO

IDOKO, FLORENCE NGOZIKA PG/MA/07/42924

MAY, 2009

ii.

APPROVAL PAGE

This project has been approved on behalf of the Department of

Linguistics, Igbo and Other Nigerian Languages, University of Nigeria,

Nsukka.

______Prof. Inno. Uzoma Nwadike Dr. B.M. Mba Supervisor Head, Department of Linguistics, Igbo & Other Nigerian Languages

______External Examiner

iii.

DEDICATION

My Husband, Alex

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My special thanks goes to the Almighty God, who in His infinite mercy, made it possible for me to start this programme, strengthened me all through and above all, brought the programme to a successful end.

To produce this work, I have had much encouragement and help from various persons. Most prominent among them is Professor Inno.

Uzoma Nwadike (KSM), my supervisor, who untiringly directed me with great patience and tolerance. Prof., you are a father indeed. My unreserved gratitude goes to my husband, Chief Alex C. Idoko, who has sacrificed

ALL in his life, human and material, to keep me moving forward. Daddy, may God bless you in a special way. My special thanks and appreciation goes to Chief J.M.U. & Dr. (Mrs.) Oby Omeje (KSM) whose love and encouragement has inspired me throughout the course of my study. I wish to express my indebtedness to my children, Ifeanyi and Chidera, whose love and encouragement continued to give me strength all through the period. My sincere regards also goes to my foster son, Hon. F.C. Ozioko, for his moral and financial support.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the Head, Department of

Linguistics, Igbo and Other Nigerian Languages, Dr. B.M. Mba, and all the Lecturers in the Department for the quality lectures we received from

6 them which has gone a long way in giving this work its present appearance of perfection.

I am very grateful to all the teachers of Modern Primary School,

Ezzi Iheakpu-Awka, for their encouragement and support. I am looking forward to seeing you join me in the academic pursuit. I wish to appreciate here, the advice and encouragement of my mother, my late father, my brothers and sisters and my good friends. With all due respect, I thank you all.

ABSTRACT

“Comparative Analysis of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Nwana’s

Omenuko” is a critical study of the relationship between the two classical novels in the areas of setting, theme, character and characterization.

Both Achebe and Nwana use the same pattern of settings. Two categories of setting are identifiable in both Things Fall Apart and

Omenuko :- a pre-colonial society, free from any external influence and fully democratic: and, a society dominated by European values.

The theme of Omenuko is offence and expiation while that of

Things Fall Apart is the disintegration of the traditional society resulting from the influence of the colonial religion and government. The authors also use other powerful sub-themes to bring home their stories. Such sub- themes include love, manliness and survival, colonization, sojourn and return. The authors thus succeeded in showing us the social changes in the traditional Igbo society brought about by colonization.

These authors present protagonists that rise from a humble beginning. Their lives are ruled by the same passion – to become successful, powerful and rich. In the case of Achebe’s hero, the very gods

vii. whom Okonkwo strives to obey and serve drives him out of his fatherland because of the inadvertent killing of a clansman; just when he is ready to acquire the highest title in the land, marry his daughters off to deserving 8 suitors and initiate his sons into their first manhood groups. Okonkwo goes into exile in his maternal home, Mbanta. All the sins he commits are against the Earth goddess: the killing of the son of Ogbuefi Ezeudu and the final abomination of taking his own life. On the other hand, Nwana’s hero sells his clansmen into slavery for his own selfish interest. He goes into exile in Ndi Mgborogwu. Omenuko is made to suffer remorse for his crime, then appeases the gods, his land and people. Like the prodigal son, he realizes the enormity of his sin and goes home penitent. He is reconciled with his people and there is general jubilation.

Through the novelist’s method of characterization, one is able to gain insight into a great variety of human behaviour and problems.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: i. APPROVAL PAGE :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: ii DEDICATION :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: iv ABSTRACT :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: vi TABLE OF CONTENTS :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: viii CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 1

1.1 Background of the Study :::: :::: :::: 1 1.2 Significance of the Study :::: :::: :::: 1 1.3 Background of the Authors :::: :::: :::: 2 1.4 The Novels and their Backgrounds :::: :::: 5 1.5 Scheme of Organization :::: :::: :::: 7 1.6 Methodology :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 8 1.7 Analysis of Data :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 9

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW :::: :::: :::: :::: 10

CHAPER THREE

RELATIONSHIP OF THINGS FALL APART AND OMENUKO: SETTING, THEME, CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION :::: :::: :::: 20

Setting :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 20 Theme :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 28 Character and Characterization :::: :::: 33

CHAPTER FOUR

SOCIAL PROBLEMS :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 39

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 51

BIBLIOGRAPHY :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: 54

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The purpose of this study is to examine the response of African

Novelists to the social instability which necessarily came in the wake of colonialism. I have selected Things Fall Apart and Omenuko , by

Chinua Achebe and Pita Nwana respectively because both novels are in one way or the other concerned with societies in transition.

Transition is used in the context of this essay to define the historical period and phenomenon of a society in an ambivalent conflict between two radically different cultures. For the society depicted in Achebe’s novel, transition involves a change from independence within a traditional, self regulating order to subordination to an imperial Britain. Historically, this phenomenon occurred in the first two decades in the nineteenth century. For

Nwana’s society, transition involves a change from the Igbo political system to the complete control of Igboland by the British colonial administration. This change also comes in the first decade of the nineteenth century.

1.2 Significance of the study

The reason why I selected Things Fall Apart and Omenuko is that a comparative study will help me to evaluate the two novels in 12

order to establish their respective literary merits. Secondly, it will

enable me to highlight the similarities and differences between these

two works, although the authors share a common colonial experience.

I will be able to demonstrate the contributions – national and

individual – made by each author to the central tradition of the novel.

My method will be essentially analogical. This means the

investigation of similar settings, themes, character and

characterization between the two works under study.

1.3 Background of the Authors

Things Fall Apart and Omenuko are separated only by space,

not by age. In a way, they belong to the same generation following the

similarities of their cultural background and the periods of their

stories.

Achebe hails from Ogidi in Anambra State of Nigeria. He had his secondary school education at the Government College, Umuahia, and later went to the University Collge, Ibadan, where he intended to read

Medicine, but became attracted to literature. His literary studies included the major classical and modern authors and essayists.

Distorted presentation of Africa by some writers like Joseph Conrad,

Graham Green and Joyce Carry generated in him the desire to “set the records straight” and to paint an African portrait of Mister Johnson:

I know around ‘51’, ‘52’, I was quite certain that I was going to try my hand at writing, and one of the things that set me thinking was Joyce Carry’s novels set in Nigeria, Mr. Johnson, which was praised so much, and it was clear to me that it was a most superficial picture of not only of the country – but even of the Nigerian character, and so I thought, if this was famous, then perhaps someone ought to try and look at things from the inside.

Achebe worked with the Nigerian Broadcasting Service, where he came in contact with the whitemen whose patronizing attitude he depicted in some of his novels.

Taken together, Achebe’s five novels encompass the entire socio-historical experience of Nigeria from pre-colonial times to the present. His first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), deals with the impact of tribal life by the Western ethos. The novel is set partly in the pre-colonial days and partly at the moment of contact of Igbo culture with Western culture. Achebe recreates and interprets for his people their past before the coming of the British. His second novel,

No Longer At Ease, (1960), is set partly in Lagos and partly in the village of Umuofia. The novel is about the temptations that confront a young Nigerian with a Western education, when he is given responsibility in his own country. Its drama is the oppressive demands made on the individual in a transitional society, or settling society in which old values are crumbling under the pressures of new ones. In his third novel, Arrow of God (1964), Achebe returns to the theme of 14 the conflicts of western and Igbo traditional world views. A Man of the people, (1966), the author’s fourth novel, is set in the city and deals with politics. The abuses that the novel describes show the problems of imposing an alien socio-political system on collection of different ethnic groups each of which has its own peculiar socio- political culture. Anthills of The Savannah (1988) his fifth novel, is where the issue that exercises thought is the exercise of power.

Apart from novels, Achebe has written short stories: the

Sacrificial Egg and other Stories , (1962); Girls At War, (1972). His children’s stories include, Chike and the River, (1966), How the

Leopard Got His Claws, (1972). There are, in addition, collections of poems and essays: Beware Soul Brother and other Poems, (1971).

Morning Yet on Creation Day, (1975), is a collection of his essays, on a variety of subjects: literature, literary criticism, language, war, personal travels and Igbo cosmology.

On a very wide contrast, not much is known about the author of

Omenuko. Like Chinua Achebe, Pita Nwana was not an Igbo scholar.

In the 33rd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,

Professor Inno Uzoma Nwadike states thus:

He was a foreman at the Uzuakoli Institute. He only attained Sunday School education at the CMS on the Niger at Onitsha. Mr. Pita Nwana trained as a carpenter.

He published no further books. According to Erenest Emenyonu in

The Rise of the Igbo Novel (1978), “He seems, therefore, to have been the reporter of the pioneer generation of Igbo literature and not its creative genius”. However, Omenuko is very special in the sense that the author, Mr. Pita Nwana is the first Igbo to write fiction in Igbo.

His novel, Omenuko , was published in 1933 after it had won an all-

African literary contest in indigenous languages organized by the

International Institute of African Languages and Culture. It is a biographical novel based on the actual events in the life of the hero,

Igwegbe Odum.

1.4 The Novels and their Backgrounds

Pita Nwana’s Omenuko and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , deal with transitional periods when two different colonial societies are trying to move from a settled way of life to a new unknown one. Achebe’s Things

Fall Apart describes a society’s response to contact with a colonizing cultural force. The traumatic impact of this force on indigenous culture becomes the background against which Achebe exposes the harmful effects of the period on the minds and lives of the indigenes. This is a starting point in the evaluation of the social problems of Things Fall Apart .

In the case of Nwana’s Omenuko , the impact the contact with a colonizing cultural force had on the indigenes was even more devastating.

Before the era of the colonial administration, there was a kind of autonomy 16 in Igbo behaviour. Individuals were free to act as they chose to as long as they did not break popular village sanctions or mores. If they did, they were not in danger of the whiteman’s retribution but the judgment of the elders in their local villages. But with the changing times and the point of transition highlighted in the novel, everybody is now accountable to the courts of law and the whiteman.

As mentioned earlier, Achebe and Nwana share a common culture derived from colonial experience – an experience which left an indelible mark on the psyche of the Africans. It involves the imposition of new political, economic and religious cultures on the colonized. More importantly, the imposition of political control also involves conscious or unconscious deviation of the people’s culture and distortion of their past. In

Africa, loss of political freedom was attended by loss of cultural confidence.

The work of European anthropologists, who placed the African culture at the bottom and the European at the top of cultural evolution, undermined, to a large extent, the Africa’s confidence in himself, making him accept the

European-created image of him as primitive.

The colonizers, however, persuaded themselves that they were on a humane and philanthropic mission of civilizing and Christianizing of the

‘primitive’ and ‘benighted’ natives. Colonialism, however, produced a 17 counter movement or cultural nationalism which functioned to inspire artists. From the 1930s to the 1960s, educated West Africans attempted to revive authentic West African values. Obiechina rightly points out that:

Like similar movements in Latin America, Ireland and dependent states of nineteenth century Europe, African cultural nationalism took the form of the rehabilitation of the old cultural tradition and its values, including a re-awakening of interest in the folklore, arts, music and cultural habits of the local people which most distinguished them from the metropolitan culture.

The African learned to take pride in his values which he had but almost lost due to colonial denigration. The myth of the African inferiority was gradually eroding. Obiechina’s comments are particularly relevant to Achebe, in whose novels one notes a sustained attempt to express and affirm his people’s past.

1.5 Scheme of Organization

For easier analysis, this essay is divided into five chapters. While the first chapter introduces the work, the second chapter reviews the existing literatures. The third chapter illustrates the relationship between literary vehicles in Things Fall Apart and Omenuko in the areas of setting, theme, character and characterization. The fourth chapter deals with the social problems highlighted in the two novels under study. These factors are essentially destabilizing agents which make the period a transitional one, and hence their relevance to the theme of this essay. 18

1.6 Methodology

In this study, data were obtained through two major sources namely, primary and secondary sources.

(a) Primary sources

(1) The novels under study: Things Fall Apart and Omenuko.

(2) Visits were made to the National Archives where relevant

materials were obtained and utilized.

(3) Oral interviews were held with knowledgeable artists in the

area of literature. Literary critics and comparatists were also

consulted.

(4) Through personal observations: The researcher equipped herself

with first-hand knowledge of certain aspects of the study. Being

a scholar of oral and written literature, a teacher of Igbo

Literature and a literary critic, she is so to say, an insider.

(b) Secondary Sources:

An extensive review of existing literature was made. These

include books, dissertations, theses, journals, seminar papers and

newspaper articles.

1.7 Analysis of Data

Data collected from the variety of sources were subjected to a very careful scrutiny and all possible bias and subjective judgments were neglected.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Comparative Literature means giving a comparative approach to the study of literature. It is the discovery of cultural relativity in the field of literature. According to Willfried Feuser (2001) in Essays in

Comparative African Literature,

The main direction of comparative scholarship in Nigeria should, therefore, be inward. Genre study and thematology could, for example, be applied to selected “ethnic” literatures viewed both in their traditional art forms and their adaptations of imported, western models like the novel.

Nigerian literature in whatever form of linguistic expression relates to the literatures of other African countries and to the other continents.

Comparative analysis is therefore very necessary to measure relativity.

For instance, the concept of ‘ogbanje’, as mentioned in Things Fall Apart are used by Yoruba as ‘Abiku’, by Edos as ‘orinmin’, by the Housas as

‘damwabi’, and by the Ghanaian Fanti as ‘kossamah’. Moreover, the concept of ‘chi’ in Igbo corresponds to ‘ori’ in Yoruba. Quoting Feuser

(2001) in the same essay,

You cannot read a single page of Fafunwa, Tutuola or Amaku without stumbling over some archetype or other, and if it is true, as Roger Bastide (p.77 in Negritude: Essays and Studies, Albert H. Berrian and Richard A. Long, eds. Hampton, Va, Hampton Institute Press, 1967) assures us that “Jung re- discovered all of Greek mythology in the sub-conscious of his Swiss patients”, then so much the better for the universality of African thought and imagery.

Apart from literature, other fields of human endeavour also enter the orbit of comparative literature if we are to adopt its definition by

Henry H.H. Remak (1961) which posits that:

Comparative literature is the study of literature beyond the confines of one particular country, and the study of the relationship between literature on the one hand and other areas of knowledge and belief, such as the arts … philosophy, history, the social sciences, the sciences, religion, etc. on the other. In brief, it is the comparison of one literature with another or others, and the comparison of literature with other spheres of human expression.

National Literatures are not islands unto themselves. There are bound to be border violations between the various national domains.

Those are beneficial in the sense of a greater intellectual and aesthetic openness and an enhanced possibility of mutual understanding.

With reference to the texts under review namely, Achebe’s Things

Fall Apart and Nwana’s Omenuko, a lot of references were made as it concerns comparative literature. Commenting on the heroes of Chinua

Achebe and Thomas Hardy, David Carroll observes in Critical

Perspective on Chinua Achebe, 22

As Okonkwo’s life moves quickly to its tragic end, one is reminded forcibly of another impressive but wrongheaded hero, Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge . They share in obsessive need for success and status, they subordinate all their private relations to this end, and both have an inability to understand the tolerant, skeptical societies in which their novel single mindedness succeeds … Viewed in the perspective of the Wessex, rustic way of life, Henchard is crass, brutal, and dangerous; but when this way of life as a whole is threatened with imminent destruction, then his fierce resistance takes on a certain grandeur. The reader’s sympathy describes a similar trajectory as it follows Okonkwo’s career. By the values of Umuofia, his inadequacies are very apparent; but when the alien religion begins to question and undermine these values, Okonkwo, untroubled by the heart- searching of the community, springs to its defense and acts. (Chinua Achebe 62 – 63).

In comparison of the character of the heroes of Achebe and Hardy,

Eustace Palmer, in An Introduction to the African Novel (1981), states thus:

Things Fall Apart is a novel of character and environment but in a slightly different sense than the novels of Hardy. In Hardy’s novels a character’s destiny depends on social circumstances. But in Achebe’s case, environment is character. Okonkwo is what his society made him, for his most conspicuous qualities are a response to the demands of his society: if he is plagued by fear of failure and of weakness, it is because his society puts such a premium on success; if he is obsessed with status it is because his society is preoccupied with rank and prestige; if he is always itching to demonstrate his prowess in war, it is because his society reveres bravery and courage, and measures success by the number of human heads a man has won; if he is contemptuous of weaker men it is because his society has conditioned him into despising cowards. Okonkwo is the personification of his society’s values and is determined to succeed in this rat race.

Early reviews of Things Fall Apart tended to stress the simplicity of its narrative plots, themes and anthropological details. But later critics have shown that the apparent simplicity of the novel is deceptive as there are complex and subtle interplay of values and attitudes artistically embedded in the work. Such complexity has been, in fact, identified and analyzed by various critics. Solomon O. Iyasere, talking about the complexity of themes of Things Fall Apart, write in Critical

Perspectives on Chinua Achebe (1979), where he states:

Things Fall Apart seems a simple novel, but it is deceptively so. On closer inspection, we see that It is provocatively complex, interweaving significant themes: love, compassion, colonialism, achievement, honor, and individualism .

As recorded in the Breast of the Earth , Kofi Awoonor (1975), contributing on the theme of Things Fall Apart asserts that on the question of theme, Achebe’s preoccupation is to recreate out of the despised history of Africa the story of its dignity and integrity:

African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans; their societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity. It is this dignity that many African people all but lost during the colonial period and it is this they must regain.

Consequently, Things Fall Apart is a novel which attempts to recapture Igbo traditional life in its unpolluted state. The author 24 recreates a settled past when the people enjoyed a tranquil life without contrasts with the instability brought about by British colonialism.

Ejikeme Alua (1976), writing on the theme of Omenuko, records his own contribution in an article in the Journal of the Igbo Studies

Association, Volume 2, titled Odenigbo. According to him:

The contemporary view is that Pita Nwana has, may be inadvertently, explored two themes in the book. Basing their argument on what the author stated in his preface, one school of thought holds that the book is woven round the concept and acknowledged philosophy of the African that a stranger must always feel the urge to go home no matter his achievements in his place of sojourn outside his home. The reason for this is that events which regulate his life in another land must invariably remind him that he is a stranger who is not wanted by his hosts. Instances are then cited from the book to support this view.

As a critic, I do not agree with this school of thought. That a stranger should always feel the urge to go home is a philosophy in different parts of the world. Such a philosophy must not be regarded as a theme. It is the punishment of the sin he committed that led him to sojourn to Mgborogwu. What disturbed Omenuko at Mgborogwu much was not the urge to go home but the urgency of cleansing himself from the sin he committed. He had started getting worried even before the first secret meeting of the people of Mgborogwu against him. Omenuko needed peace of mind and got something close to that as soon as he retrieved the people he sold and offered sacrifices for the sins he committed and not when he finally returned. 25

The other school of thought holds that the theme of the work is

“sin and its expiation”. This concept was just muted by Ernest

Emenyonu in his article in Research in African Literature , Volume 4,

number 1 (1973). Those who support this view also advance evidences

from the work.

Ejikeme Alua also gave detailed expositions to settle this

academic tussle by weighing the views expressed by the two parties on

the basis of the facts emerging from the work. A close observation of

the detailed discussion on the issue reveals that he tried to convince the

reader to arrive at an acceptable conclusion as he comments:

In conclusion, it is evident that “Sin and expiation” is the theme of the book. It was sin that sent Omenuko out of his home and caused him the emotional disturbances and other awful experiences abroad; it was the expiation and adequate restitution for the sin that brought him back home. It puts a stop to the emotional booby-traps which had bedeviled Omenuko since after his crime. Ejikeme Alua (1976).

The setting of Omenuko is discussed extensively by Ernest

Emenyonu in The Rise of Igbo Novel (page 33). The setting is important to the actions in the novel as it helps to bring out the conflict in which the hero is trapped. He writes:

Omenuko is set in Okigwi, one of the densely populated areas in Imo State. The action takes place in the rural communities around busy market places, where commercial activities go side by side with serious matters, such as settling disputes and planning community projects. The market is more than a meeting place for local affairs. People drink palm wine, pour libations, as haggling and bargaining go on over their 26

agricultural product. Families live within walled compounds where the head of the family supervises his immediate and extended families from his obi.

For the setting of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , Innes (1986: p.47)

writes:

Each of Achebe’s novels shed light on a different era in the recent history of Nigeria . Things Fall Apart (1958) is set in a traditional Ibo village community at the turn of the century when the first European missionaries and administrative officers were beginning to penetrate inland.

Many other works of different literary artists have been compared to prove certain similarities among different cultures.

Kofi Awoonor (1975: p.225) who compares Achebe and

Tutuola as artists observes:

Achebe is a more conscious artist than Tutuola. His preoccupation with creating an “authentic” African voice is more deliberate and studied than Tutuola’s felicitous accidents of language. If Tutuola’s work is described wholly from the African tradition, Achebe is the direct articulate product of the European presence in Africa.

In their comparative study, Ernest N. Emenyonu and

Benaiah E.C. Oguzie (1958) tried to compare the poor relationship that exist between the foreigners and their hosts.

According to them:

We also see the lack of social interaction between the foreigners (the whiteman, the court messengers and the interpreter) and the people. There was complete lack of trust between the two groups. The whiteman was said to be ignorant and did not speak the native language and so was unable to understand or learn the culture of the people . The messengers were ridiculed as well. The special 27

prejudice is clearly seen in the song by the prisoners:

Kotma of the ash buttoks He is fit to be a slave The whiteman had no sense He is fit to be a slave (Things Fall Apart, Chap. 20, pg. 123)

This attitude of the ‘new Africans’ is also shown in other works by African writers which goes to confirm that the issues which Chinua Achebe wrote about in Things Falls Apart were not peculiar to Igbo people alone. They were also common to other parts of Africa. In his Song of Lawino Okot P. Bitek from

Uganda showed how Lawino pleaded with her husband, Ocol, not to cast away the ways of his ancestors in favour of a new culture. She pleads:

… Listen Ocol, my old friend The ways of your ancestors Are good Their customs are solid And not hollow They are not thin, not easily breakable They cannot be blown away By winds Because their roots reach deep into the soil (Okot P’Bitek, Song of Lawino, pg. 29) The same people writing about the views of arts from Kenya in reference to the whiteman’s presence, quote Ngugi Wa Thiong’os from

Kenya, in his Weep Not Child (Heinemann 1964) who shows the whiteman’s presence in Africa also as unwelcome to the people when 28 he said: “We made the roads and cleared the forest to make it possible for the warring whiteman to move more quickly”.

Talking about the concept of the Hero in The Rise of the Igbo Novels, Ernest Emenyonu (1978: p.157) compares:

It is interesting to compare Achebe’s concept of the hero to that of Pita Nwana in Omenuko. Both novels have historical perspectives and deal with the same people although they are set a generation or two apart from each other. In both novels success is the aspiration of every member of the society and achievement is greatly applauded and honoured. Both novelists show how the pursuit of success can lead to a cunning wrestling with the forces of nature, causing a lopsided development of the individual, which, in turn, ultimately, affects his society. In both novels popular expectations produce tragic consequences in the lives of the heroes. The Rise of the Igbo Novel (1978: P.57).

In summary literatures reviewed show that comparative studies had existed long ago. This means that a lot have been compared; ranging from literary artists to works in other fields of study. Studies indicate that there are relativity among cultures, themes, concepts, ideas, etc. as well as differences. Many concepts found in one culture surprisingly exist in other cultures within a country and even beyond. The study further indicates that comparative study units have been established in different universities across the country. This goes to show that there is even interdisciplinary comparison.

The literatures reviewed also show that the novels Things Fall Apart and

Omenuko have been studied and compared by various critics over the years. 29

In the next chapter, we shall look at the relationship between

Things Fall Apart and Omenuko in the areas of setting, theme, character and characterization.

CHAPTER THREE

RELATIONSHIP OF THINGS FALL APART AND OMENUKO: SETTING, THEME, CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION

The choice of an adequate literary form for a story is of the most crucial choices confronting any novelist who wishes to make a faithful representation of life. The form of a novel is as important as its content, and indeed, constitutes the organizational principle which renders the content significant. In this chapter, therefore, the intention is to analyze the similarities and differences in Things Fall Apart and

Omenuko based on the following elements of literature – setting, theme, character and characterization.

SETTING:

A close observation of Things Fall Apart and Omenuko shows that their setting effectively promotes the themes of transition. In these texts, both authors deal with characters who live in a native environment and culture. Both Achebe and Nwana have adopted a similar pattern in setting because both authors are concerned with the theme of transition.

Two major categories of setting are identifiable in both Things

Fall Apart and Omenuko: a pre-colonial society and a society dominated by European values.

(1) Place of Setting:

Omenuko is set in Igboland in well known places. All the

towns mentioned are familiar and still exist up till today. For

example, Mgborogwu where most of the events take place is

Mkpologwu in present day Aguata Local Governsment Area of

Anambra State. Emenyonu (1978:34) is of the views that:

Omenuko is set in Okigwi, one of the densely populated areas in Imo State. The action takes place in the rural communities around busy market places where commercial activities go side by side with serious matters such as settling disputes and planning community projects.

Other towns mentioned where Omenuko plassed or stayed for the

purpose of trading such as Umuduru Nso Ofo (presently Umuduru, near

Arondizuogu); Umulolo, Bende, Ozuakoli and Ezi Nnachi, are all

familiar places in Abia and Imo States and Awka, where Omenuko

received his warrant of office is the present Awka, capital of Anambra

State. In Things Fall Apart, the events that take place occur equally in

Igboland specifically in Umuofia and Mbanta (unknown places). Most

of the activities depicting family life take place in the various

compounds while others such as wrestling competitions and clan

meetings take place in the village playground (Ilo). According to 32

Wren (1980;1) “Things Fall Apart is set in the land where the author was born, raised and educated”. He adds that “the land lies east of the great Niger River and north of the Niger Delta”.

(ii) Time of Setting

Both stories in Omenuko and Things Fall Apart took place

very many years ago when the Igbo people were still stark illiterates

and when whitemen with their religion and colonial government had

just made their appearance. In Things Fall Apart , for example, the

whiteman’s very existence and physical appearance still belong to the

realms of rumour and grim humour. This emerges clearly in the

discussion of variation in customs during the marriage of Obierika’s

daughter. Obierika compares the rumour of whiteman’s existence to

“the story of whitemen who, they say, are white like this piece of

chalk … and these whitemen, they say have no toes” ( chapter 8, pp.

51 – 52). At this point, no one from Umuofia had yet seen a

whiteman. Machi humorously associates white with a local word for

leprosy (“the white skin”). This joke is to prove prophetic eventually,

for when the whiteman eventually appears, he proves as destructive to

the old order as leprosy is to the skin. It could be safely assumed that

the events reported in both novels took place when Christianity was

just appearing on the horizon because ritual murder, killing of twins

and slave trade were still being practiced. At this point, Igbo customs 33

had not been tainted to a large extent by European civilization and

influence. About Omenuko, Emenyonu (1978: 34) affirms:

The novel is set in the last few decades of the nineteenth century, but the most important actions take place in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Omenuko is said to have returned to his hometown (at the end of the novel) in 1918.

(iii) Social Setting:

The story of Things Fall Apart starts when the Igbo society is unsoiled and virtually free from any external influence. The political structure is clearly defined and everybody is subject to the law of the land and impartially treated. Democracy at its best is practiced. On this, Wren

(1980:) has this to say:

Within the clan the political organization is democratic. There are no chiefs or kings … important decisions are made by the clan assembled as a body … while major internal conflicts are dealt with by the ancestral egwugwu … Thus no one person has authority much in excess of his fellows:

The overall picture is that of a peace loving clan where nobody is unduly oppressed. At the bottom of the social ladder, the osu (outcast) would be found. These are people dedicated to the gods of the land and who are not allowed the freedom to enjoy the rights and privileges of the free-born.

However, towards the end of the novel (from chapter fifteen), there is a marked erosion of this political structure by the colonial authority. 34

Wren (1980:3) writes that:

The stability of the order among the eastern Igbo was profoundly shaken by the coming of the European colonial power. The checks and balances which the communities had evolved over the centuries were rendered useless when the district commissioners – British political officers laid down the law without understanding the tradition and custom .

In Omenuko, the political life of the people is more or less organized in the same manner as in Things Fall Apart with everybody including men and women, elders and priests participating in the art of governance. (Emenyonu (1973:35) says that

The affairs of the village are decided by a general assembly in which men and women can participate. However, effective control is in the hands of the elders, members of an age set whose turn it is, to govern the village at a particular period in their age grade circle.

Again, as in the case of Things Fall Apart , after the first few chapters, European colonial administration is ushered in with native courts, warrant chiefs, court clerks and court messengers and interpreters actively participating in dispensing law and justice and maintaining order.

For instance, it is the white district commissioner that issued the warrant of office to Omenuko at the death of Eze Mgborogwu on behalf of young

Obiefula, the son and heir of Eze Mgborogwu. It is the same District

Commissioner (Nwa D.C) that warned the people of Orumba na Isii of the dire consequences of attacking Omenuko and his people at Ikpa Oyi. 35

Religiously, the Igbo people at the early beginning of Things Fall

Apart are idol worshipers although they have an unshakable belief in God

Almighty called Chukwu (Great God) or Chineke (The Creator). The other deities which they worship include Ani (the earth goddess),

Amadioha (god of thunder), Agbala, Idemili and Ogwugwu. Prayers, libations and sacrifices are consistently and carefully offered to these gods, goddesses and ancestors through the mouthpeace of the deities – the diviner, priests and priestesses. Ezeani is the priest of the earth goddess, Ani, while Chielo is the priestess of Agbala. To a great extent, the life of the individuals in the community and indeed the life of the community is controlled by these deities through their pronouncements and sanctions. There is complete obedience to their laws and commandments. Wren (1980: 2) notes that “morality is enforced by the priest of the earth goddess and the oracle of the Hills and caves provides advice to individuals and guidance to the clan”.

However, towards the later part of the story (Chapter 16) Christian missionaries of blacks led by a few white men started to make inroads into the traditional religion and life of the Igbo people. The people are told of All Powerful God and His son Jesus Christ (who God had without a wife) and that whoever worships this God through His Son, the Christ, will go to heaven. They are informed, to their chagrin and bewilderment, 36 that the deities they worshiped are pieces of wood and stone and are ineffective and impotent and that persistent worship of these deities will send them to hell fire that burns with unquenchable fire. These two opposing teachings led to very serious clashes between the clan and the

Christians backed by colonial power and authority which finally led to the break-up of the Igbo society.

Similarly, the Igbo community represented in Omenuko worships the God Almighty (Obasi Di n’Elu) and various other deities. These deities wield enormous power and influence on the life of the community and their commandments are scrupulously obeyed. Hence, when

Omenuko committed an abomination against the gods and the people of his land, he is punished by going into exile and by being made to offer a very costly propitiatory sacrifice to appease the gods and the people. On the above, Emenyonu (1978: 37) asserts:

Because of the enormity of his crime and his recalcitrant behaviour, Omenuko is required to offer a sacrifice of atonement in the highest terms ever prescribed by the chief priests of the two angered deities. In the process, he learns self- discipline and comes to appreciate the true values of his society …

The two angered deities in question are represented by Aniche and

Iyiukwu. However, later in the work, mention is made of Omenuko’s children going to school without reference to the influence of the missionaries as is the case in Things Fall Apart. 37

The economic life of the Igbo people in Omenuko revolves around farming and trading although emphasis is placed on trading as against

Things Fall Apart where emphasis is placed on farming. Unfortunately, at that period, slave trade was still being practiced without interference from the colonial masters. That is why Omenuko is able to sell some of the young men who are helping him in his business when he loses all his goods in a river mishap. However, by Igbo standards, Omenuko is respected for his astuteness in life generally and in business in particular.

Due to the uncanny handling of his business, he becomes extremely wealthy while in exile in Mgborogwu. He was one of the richest people in his clan on his return to his native land.

In Things Fall Apart , economic activity of the Igbo people revolves around farming; the main crop being yam. The other crops planted by the women are cassava and cocoyam. Apart from farming, there is palm wine tapping by the men. There is also local markets where goods are sold with the aid of cowries. Later, with the coming of the church which brings new form of worship and education, there is trading in palm oil and palm kernel. Again educated Igbo people serve as court clerks and teachers. Life is such that everybody struggles for himself to make both ends meet and to carve out a name for himself, economic prosperity being one of the hallmarks of a great man and a great family. 38

THEME

The theme of Omenuko, according to Emenyonu (1978: 34) is offence and expiation. It is a story of the abomination committed by the protagonist, Omenuko, and how he finally appeased the gods of the land to enable him live in amity with both the gods and the people of his land.

To Wren (1980: 45), the central theme in Things Fall Apart is the disintegration of traditional society resulting from the influence of the colonial religion and government. The entire story revolves around how the culture and traditions of the Igbo society crumbled due to the influence of the colonial masters ably backed by their government.

Apart from these central themes, Chinua Achebe and Pita Nwana brings out many sub-themes in their texts – Things Fall Apart and

Omenuko respectively. These sub-themes include:

(i) Love

Achebe’s hero, Okonkwo, allows his buried humanity to express itself only in private unguarded moments. Publicly, especially among the members of his own clan, he struggles to maintain the image of an unusually calm and stalwart individual, a man worthy to be a lord of the clan. It is only in private, and often in the dark, that Okonkwo spontaneously reveals the love and warmth he feels for his family. In the dark, he rushes to protect his daughter from harm by Chielo; without 39 thought, he rushes to save her from iba . He had wished Ezinne had become a boy. Okonkwo also loves Ikemefuna. It is the closeness of this father- son relationship, being expressed in the feasting of the locusts, that Ezeudu interrupts to tell Okonkwo that Ikemefuna must die. At the very moment of his violence against Ikemefuna, we see love locked inside. “As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his matchet, Okonkwo looked away”. Okonkwo looked away not because he is a coward, not because, like his father, he could not stand the sight of blood; after all; “in

Umuofia’s latest war, he was the first to bring home a human head, his fifth”. Okonkwo looks away because of his buried love for Ikemefuna whom he has taken as his own son.

Omenuko’s expression of love on the other hand is outward. He loves his brothers and confines in them when he was in trouble. He also took their advice to run out of their homeland after the sin he committed.

Even the boys he sold into slavery he felt for them and made sure that he brings most of them back.

(ii) Manliness and survival

In Things Fall Apart, the thematic emphasis on manliness and survival, becomes extended through the yam, the “king of crops”, a

“man’s crop”. Okonkwo’s effort to assert himself through success as a yam father is firmly based in an ontology that insists on man’s masculine role as the provider of support for the family. Contrasted with this and 40

illustrating the society’s insistence on manly virtues is the picture created

of Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, a man known “in all the clan for the

weakness” of his matchet and hoe. Okonkwo visits Nwakibie, an elder, in

order to borrow yam seedlings for his new farm:

“I have come to you for help”, he said. “Perhaps you can already guess what it is. I have cleared a farm but have no yams to sow. I know what it is to ask a man to trust another with his yams especially these days when young men are afraid of hard work. I am not afraid of hard work. The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did. I began to fend for myself at an early age when most people still sucked their mother’s breast. If you give me some yam seeds, I shall not fail you”.

Moreover, Okonkwo’s desire to assert his manliness is clearly dramatized in the killing of Ikemefuna. The obsession with proving and preserving his manliness dominates Okonkwo’s entire life, with public and private: “He rules his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, live in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so do his little children”

(Things Fall Apart , Chapter 2, p.9). Even in the informal relaxed story-telling sessions, Okonkwo sees as threat to himself and his dynasty, the boys sitting with their mothers, “for these stories will make women of his sons, make them like their grandfather rather than like their father”. So, at those times, “Okonkwo encourages them to sit with him in his obi and he tells them stories of the land- masculine stories of violence and bloodshed”.

The hero of Pita Nwana, Omenuko, shows his own manliness through his actions no matter the consequences. His ambition to rise above his humble beginnings seems to have produced an extreme reaction in his character. Being a trader, profit becomes his guide in most of his major actions in the novel; humanness becomes a consideration only later when he can afford it.

Consequently, he is always on top of things, scheming and grasping, the cool man and the easy talking operator. Only few of the people he meets recognize him truly for what he is, not even the ‘white District ’Commissioner.

(iii) Colonization

Achebe, in Things Fall Apart, tries to show the impact and the

attendant consequences of the colonial system on the Igbo traditional

system. Pita Nwana has also done that twenty years before Achebe. The

difference here would lie on the different ways in which the different authors

mould their chief characters. While Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart is more

pronounced and more uncompromising in his reaction to the changing

society, Omenuko is not only silent and non-committing in his reaction, but

he also tries to utilize this new change to his own advantage. Pita Nwana

sees through his chief character that the whiteman’s colonization is not what

one can fight against, but something one has to accept and exploit to one’s

own good. Pita Nwana, however, is not as articulate as Achebe in showing 42 the social reaction and conflict generated by this colonial system in Igbo society.

It is natural to expect that the two cultures could not have had such a peaceful and uneventful fusion as Nwana presents it. Achebe’s hero, Okonkwo, is very articulate in his contempt of and opposition against the new culture. Omenuko, on the other hand, is silent and uncommitted in this war between the two cultures. He does not believe in fighting or dying for any of the systems. He would rather exploit to his advantage, anything good he finds in any of the systems.

(iv) Sojourn and Return:

The chief characters, in Things Fall Apart and Omenuko, have

been made to undergo the same fate with near identical consequences.

Omenuko as well as Okonkwo committed crimes and as a result, both

of them are made to go into exile as punishment for their crimes. In the

case of Okonkwo, it is exile for a stipulated number of years (for seven

years), while in the case of Omenuko, the number of years in exile is

not stipulated; it could go on for life. The reasons are that while

Okonkwo’s crime is non-premeditated or accidental, Omenuko’s crime

was a premeditated one.

In the traditional Igbo society, almost all crimes are atoned for.

This usually is in the form of sacrifice to be done by the offender.

Before Omenuko could go back to his home town he had to offer some

sacrifices to atone for his crime. Nwana and Achebe record that their 43 heroes returned home as wealthy men. Both came back to meet a changed society in which the powers and innovations of the whiteman have been firmly entrenched. After considering the circumstances surrounding their sojourn and return, Omenuko voluntarily retires from public life while Okonkwo retires from life itself.

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION

There are few similarities in the characters mentioned in both

Omenuko and Things Fall Apart . First, only two characters are outstanding in both works. In Things Fall Apart, they are Okonkwo and his great friend, Obierika; Okonkwo being the protagonist. In Omenuko , it is the hero of the story, and again his great friend, Igwe. This is not to say that nothing can be said about other characters in Things Fall Apart such as Uchendu, Nwoye, Mr. Brown and Ezinne or about such characters in Omenuko like Nwa D.C., Mazi Oji and Nwabueze.

Secondly, the two protagonists in the two novels start life from a humble beginning. They later grow very rich. Each committed an abomination which led to their exile. Both became wealthy again during their exile, from where they now came back home.

Both Okonkwo and Omenuko are strong-willed, ambitious and industrious and both are determined to achieve greatness and fame.

Both are highly respected in their communities such that Okonkwo is chosen as the imperial emissary to Mbano and is given the custody of 44

Ikemefuna on behalf of his clan while Omenuko is so respected and trusted that many parents entrust their children to his care for their welfare and progress in life. Also, Omenuko, a stranger, is mandated to hold the warrant of office of Eze Mgborogwu on behalf of his young son, Obiefula.

The above notwithstanding, there are many differences in the character of both Okonkwo and Omenuko. Okonkwo is a hot tempered man who strongly believes that might is right and the only thing worth demonstrating is strength, anger and brutality. He is a man of violence who relishes in inflicting injury to others. In anger, he soundly beats his wife, Ojiugo, forgetting that it is during the week of peace. In anger, he beats his second wife, Ekwefi, just for cutting off few banana leaves and not only that, he actually fires at her with his dane gun when he heard her murmuring against him. It is the constant nagging, bullying and beating which his first son, Nwoye, receives from him that makes him feel disenchanted with life and with his father which eventually leads him into the beckoning hands of the Church. On the other hand,

Omenuko is of cool temperance. In fact, throughout his life time, there is no act of violence he exhibited within his family. He is always level- headed and strongly believes in using his considerable wisdom in solving his problems. 45

Okonkwo had an inflexible will and once he starts something, he

would neither budge nor stop to reflect, but would go all out to fulfill his

wishes no matter the consequences. For instance, after their humiliating

imprisonment, he swears revenge when they were eventually released. “If

they listen to him (Egonwanne), I shall leave them and plan my own

revenge”, he swore (Chapter 24). This, he fulfilled by butchering the head

messenger sent by the District Commissioner to stop their clan meeting.

This is an attribute of a flat character. On the other hand, Omenuko is a

very flexible person and able to adapt to varying conditions and situations.

He always considers his actions very carefully before doing anything. For

instance, when Ndi Mgborogwu start harassing him by insisting that he

should hand over the warrant of office back to Obiefula, instead of

adamantly refusing, he accepts. After he trickishly secures his own, he

hands over Obiefula’s own to him.

Okonkwo is an autocratic father who rules his family with an iron fist. He takes decisions unilaterally. He does not believe in consultations, always believing that he is right in his decisions. For instance, despite the warning he receives from Ogbuefi Ezeudu not to participate in the killing of

Ikemefuna, he refuses and he is the very person who kills the poor boy. He refuses to agree with his wife, Ekwefi, that two goats would be enough for the farewell feast for his mother’s kinsmen. He always has contrary views on issues with his great friend, Obierika. On the other hand, Omenuko is a democrat to 46 the core. He believes in persistent consultations and out rightly seeks for advice and also accepts suggestions from his people and abides by them. For instance, after the sale of his kinsmen into slavery, Omenuko calls a meeting of his family members where he tells them of his heinous act and of the mayhem he is envisaging. During the subdued meeting, he is dissuaded from carrying out his evil intention which he readily accepted. At the death of Eze Mgborogwu, he called the elders of Mgborogwu together to deliberate on how to meet the

District Commission at Awka. He always consults his great friend, Igwe, on any important decision he wants to take.

When the only course open to Achebe’s hero was to go into exile, he fled to Mbanta, his mother’s kinsmen. There, he was received, supported and consoled. Achebe writes about the assurance of protection given to Okonkwo by his mother’s younger brother, Uchendu.

It’s true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in his mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness, he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that Mother is supreme. (Things Fall Apart Chapt. 14 p.94).

In contrast to Pita Nwana’s hero, when Omenuko fled his hometown, he did not seek refuge among the kinsmen of his mother’s maiden family, instead, he fled to Mgborogwu, where he was without patrilineage and therefore without citizenship either in the world of men or in the domain of his ancestors. The people of Mgborogwu seized upon this when they rose against him for seeking to hold the highest office in their land. They protest to the white District Commissioner, “we shall never allow this to happen in this our own land, that one who is, afterall, a stranger should be our head and chief executive”.

Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart, started preparing for his return as soon as he entered his last year in exile. Irrespective of the kindness showed to him by his mother’s kinsmen, he regretted everyday of his exile. He says, “The seven wasted and weary years were at last dragging to a close”. He is very happy as he prepares to go.

Omenuko on the other hand, tries various devices to prevent his return. He tries exaggerated acts of charity, as well as other diplomatic maneuvers but these only serve as temporary tolerance. The evidence that

Omenuko is not happy going home is that he became very willing only when the District Commissioner sees the threat to his life and advises him to return to his original homeland to avoid being assassinated by his angry landlords.

In the heroes’ characterization, while Okonkwo’s name hase nothing in relation to his actions in the novel, Omenuko’s name shows his actions in the novel. He gives out actually even in the face of scarcity.

CHAPTER FOUR

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

In Things Fall Apart and Omenuko, the authors tried to highlight many of the social problems of the time. Some of these social problems still rear their ugly heads in the present day society while some are either carried out secretly in a different way or not done at all. In this chapter, effort will be made to look at the striking social problems as contained in the two novels to see their relatedness or otherwise. They include

(i) Slave Trade:

In Pita Nwana’s novel, Omenuko, it is clear that slave trade was practiced at that time, though not openly. A merchant by profession, when the novel opens, he had lost all his goods on his way to the market following the collapse of a rickety bridge. With amazing rapidity,

Omenuko sells his neighbours’ sons and relatives who were apprenticed to him into slavery for the sake of his own economic survival. Omenuko arranges and sells those boys secretly in the middle of the night, hence committing a criminal act against his society. In the author’s own words, we read:

N’ime abali ahu ha ruru Bende, o wee jekwuru ndi enyi ahia ya, ndi nke na-agba ya mmadu, si ha, “Bianu ugbu a n’abali, m jiri ihe ahia bia.” (Omenuko Isi mbu, p.6).

(In the night they arrive Bende, he (Omenuko) went to his customers that buy slaves from him and said, “come this night, I came with some articles of trade”).

The author, however, disapproves and severely condemns this practice of slave trade. This we can see through the critical reactions and condemnation which Omenuko receives on his return from Bende where he sold his boys into slavery. Even his brothers were not exempted in the condemnation. When he initially solicits the support of his brothers, they responded with serious reproach.

His brothers told him that it (the selling of his apprentices) is a thing unheard of and can never please the ear that hears it … They blamed him for his rash act, because it is an event which can never be forgotten in life. They wondered how he could summon up courage to sell the children of his fellow men merely because his goods fell into a river. “Was it the fault of your fellow man that you lost your goods? (Emenyonu, 1978 p.39).

In the same way, Chinua Achebe makes us notice the existence of slavery in Things Fall Apart . He calls it ‘low born and outcasts’ (the slaves and the osu). The traditional society of that time excludes this group of people from communicating socially, politically and religiously with the free-born. When the free-born who joined the church started 51 mixing freely with the outcasts who formed the bulk of the congregation in those days, it was seen by the elders as an abomination and they lamented that “the church had come and led many astray. Not only the lowly born and the outcast but sometimes a worthy man had joined it”. A worthy man here refers to the free-born of the village and titled men as shown by Ogbuefi Ugonna, who being a titled man and well respected in the village, “had cut the anklet of his titles and cast it away to join the

Christians”. In trying to convince the missionary why the outcasts should not be allowed into the church, one of the converts says,

He was a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart – a taboo for ever, and his children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the free- born. He was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to the general shrine. Wherever he went he carried with him the mark of his forbidden castle – long, tangled and dirty hair. A razor was a taboo to him. (Things Fall Apart, Chapter 18, p.111).

The author, however, shows his disapproval of the osu practice in the way the missionary responds to the speech of the converts.

In our society today, we cannot say that the practice of slavery is completely wiped out. Where it is practiced however, it is done with utmost secrecy and sometimes given another name, for instance, when we listen to the media most of the time, we hear government battling with how to stop human trafficking and child labour.

(ii) Murder:

Chinua Achebe records many cases of murder in Things Fall

Apart as opposed to Pita Nwana who records only one case of murder in

Omenuko. In Things Fall Apart, the wife of Ogbuefi Udo went to the market at Mbano and had been killed. No reason was given for her murder. In a gathering of Umuofia people in the market square, Ogbuefi

Ezeugo had said through a gleaming white teeth, “Those sons of wild animals have dared to murder a daughter of Umuofia”. The woman was the wife of Ogbuefi Udo.

During the second year of Okonkwo’s exile, his friend, Obierika, visits him. In their discussion, Obierika tells him the events that had taken place in his absence. One of such events is another case of murder as recorded by the author. “Have you heard, asked Obierika, ‘that Abame is no more?”. Obierika narrated to his friend how the first whiteman was seen in Abame and on consultation with the Oracle, they were told that the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them;

And so they killed the whiteman and tied his iron horse to their sacred tree because it looked as if it would run away to call the man’s friends. I forgot to tell you another thing which the Oracle said. It said that other whitemen were on their way. They were locusts, it said, and that first man was their harbinger sent to explore the terrain. And so they killed him (Things Fall Apart, Ch. 15, pp 97 – 98).

Continuing his story, Okonkwo’s friend, Obierika, told him that on a market day, when the market was full, the whitemen and their followers surrounded the market and began to shoot. According to the story,

“Everybody was killed, except the old and the sick who were at home and a handful of men and women whose chi were wide awake and brought them out of that market”.

Furthermore, at the gathering of the clan of Umuofia, after they have ransomed the six elders detained by the British Administration to plan their next line of action, the District Commissioner send his hated messengers to break up the meeting. “Okonkwo confronts the head messenger, trembling with hate and unable to utter a word”. Achebe creates a powerful scene as he writes,

In a flash Okonkwo drew his matchet. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s matchet descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body. ( Things Fall Apart Ch. 24, p.144).

In comparison with Omenuko, Pita Nwana did not record any intentional murder in his novel.

This second social problem of murder is still present in the society of today as assassins are hired to kill people who are regarded as enemies.

(iii) Wars:

There are cases of wars recorded by the two authors in review. Pita

Nwana records that when the people of Mgborogwu could not force 54

Omenuko to leave their home for them, they met and decided to carry war to his house at Ikpa Oyi. During this fight, two people; one from each side, were killed. However, Chinua Achebe did not present wars physically but in many occasions talked about wars. For instance, when the sons of Mbaino killed the daughter of Umuofia, Okonkwo was sent to Mbaino as “the proud and imperious emissary of war”. The people of Mbaino, however, out of fear for the war-like people of Umuofia, opted for a peaceful settlement by giving them a lad of fifteen and a young virgin. We also hear stories of wars in different parts of the world today.

(iv) Accidental Killing

During the funeral ceremony of a warrior, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, Achebe, records Okonkwo’s activities as well as other people’s activities to give the great man a befitting burial. In his words,

The drums and the dancing began again and reached fever-heat. Darkness was around the corner, and the burial was near. Guns fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the centre of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell has been cast. All was silent. In the centre of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man’s sixteen-year-old son, who with his brothers and half brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father. Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart.

There is no record of such action in Nwana’s Omenuko.

It is a social problem as many people carry guns in different ceremonies today either as a way of respect, as in funeral ceremonies or as show off in other parties.

(v) Bribery and Corruption

The social problem of bribery and corruption is shown in the texts under discussion – Things Fall Apart and Omenuko.

In Things Fall Apart, it is clear that bribery and corruption is in vogue that time. It is shown in the text where the court messenger and interpreters take bribe in a land dispute and decide the case in favour of the wrong side. This act of bribery spread fast as is shown in the speed with which the court messenger demand a bribe for the release of the elders who were detained by the whiteman. In the same way, Pita Nwana also records a case of bribery when Okoroafo and other men were traveling to Aru Ulo to see Mazi Oji for a discussion on how to get back the slaves sold to him. When Okoroafo and his men got to Ozuitem, they were caught by the people saying that they have violated their ‘ Ekpe ’. In the course of the argument, the people of Ozuitem collected five shillings each from the four men traveling with Okoroafo.

This case of bribery is present everywhere these days - in the court, on the road, even in offices. Government has, however, tried to introduce many programmes to combat the issue of bribery and corruption such as 56

War Against Indiscipline ( WAI ), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) etc. It is hoped that very soon it will be a thing of the past. Even land dispute which rear its head has also claimed many lives in our society today.

(vi) Violence Against Women

In Things Fall Apart , Chinua Achebe records many cases of violent acts exhibited by his hero, Okonkwo. During the Week of Peace,

Okonkwo’s wife goes to plait her hair without either cooking the afternoon meal or making adequate arrangement for her children’s feeding. In the words of Achebe, “Okonkwo was provoked to a justifiable anger by his youngest wife, who went to plait her hair at her friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal”. Even though it was an abomination to beat somebody during the Week of

Peace and even though Nwoye’s mother tried to cover her co-wife,

Okonkwo did not recognize it and Achebe declares:

Okonkwo knew she was not speaking the truth. He walked back to his obi to wait Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger, he had forgotten that it was the Weak of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody halfway through, not even for fear of a goddess. ( Things Fall Apart Ch. 14, p. 21).

On another occasion, Okonkwo’s second wife cuts some leaves from a banana tree and eventually the banana tree died. The New Yam Festival is three days away. The women and children are enthusiastic over the feast and are preparing for it. Okonkwo hates being idle waiting for a feast or getting over it, instead, he prefers working in the farm. As Achebe puts it,

And then the storm bursts. Okonkwo, who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound in suppressed anger, suddenly found an outlet. “Who killed this banana tree”? he asked. A hush fell on the compound immediately. ‘Who killed this tree?’ Or are you all deaf and dumb? ( Things Fall Apart Chapter 5, p.27)

Even though the woman admitted that she had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food, Okonkwo gives her a sound beating and leaves her and her only daughter weeping.

In contrast, Pita Nwana did not portray such violent acts against his hero in his Omenuko.

Violence against women is an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and ranges from domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, to trafficking. Some types of violence are not observed since they happen behind closed doors and are treated as ‘private’ family matter. Violence is one of the numerous mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions by the society. In Igboland, violence against women is an everyday occurrence and sometimes even considered ‘normal’. 58

(vii) Human Sacrifice:

Another social problem recorded by Achebe in Things Fall Apar t is human sacrifice. This social evil is however not present in Nwana’s

Omenuko.

Ikemefuna, along with a young virgin girl, was given to Umuofia in place of Ogbuefi Udo’s wife who was murdered by the people of

Abame. Ikemefuna had grown in Okonkwo’s house along with his own children. He has become so used to the members of the family, especially

Nwoye, that he had almost forgotten his place of birth. Eventually, one day, Umuofia decided to kill him. Achebe reports that the oldest man in the quarter of Umuofia, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, had visited Okonkwo and had said to him:

“That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death”. Okonkwo was surprised, and was about to say something when the old man continued: “Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him. The Oracle of The Hills and the Caves have pronounced it. They will take him outside Umuofia as is the custom, and kill him there. But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you father”.

And so Ikemefuna who had been thinking of when to see his mother and three year old sister, was sacrificed to the gods.

Though reduced to the barest minimum now following the effort of government, the church and the school authorities, human sacrifice is still being practiced in different parts of our society.

(viii) Suicide

Suicide as a social problem is highlighted by Achebe but is not recorded by Pita Nwana.

In Things Fall Apart , after Okonkwo had killed the chief messenger of the District Commissioner who came to stop the great assembly of Umuofia, he expected his people to react positively in his support to wage war against the white missionary. Contrary to his expectation, they let the other messengers escape. As Achebe puts it,

The waiting backcloth jumped into tumultuous life and the meeting stopped. Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: “Why did he do it?”. He wiped his matchet on the sand and went away. ( Things Fall Apart Ch. 24, p. 143).

Okonkwo goes and hangs himself, committing the final act of abomination against the gods, in particular, the earth goddess, Ani, whom suicide is a discretion. A man who commits suicide cannot be buried by his clansmen.

This social problem however, does not obtain in our society these days except in extreme frustration.

(ix) Banishment:

In the traditional Igbo society, the enactment and the preservation of the law is the civic responsibility of everybody. Chinua Achebe and Pita

Nwana show clearly that everybody knows the law and has to comply with them. In Things Fall Apart, for instance, when Okonkwo committed a crime, Achebe writes,

The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years. ( Things Fall Apart Ch. 13, p. 87)

In the case of Omenuko, Nwana records that his own crime is a premeditated crime. Its own type of exile could go on for life.

Omenuko’s recovery of those he sold into slavery made a change in terms of the number of years he was in exile. The two authors clearly make it clear that these crimes committed by their chief characters must be atoned for before each could be accepted back into the society.

In our society today, the modern judiciary categorizes killing as either murder or manslaughter respectively. As for going into exile, it has ceased to exist in Igbo society.

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

The pattern of history Achebe traces in Things Fall Apart resembles Nwana’s vision in Omenuko. A close examination of Things

Fall Apart and Omenuko reveals remarkable similarities in patterns of events employed by both novelists to reveal the nature and direction of the transition occurring in the respective traditional societies.

The change that takes place in Omenuko is more subtle than the vision expounded in Achebe’s pattern. It takes the nature of gradual assimilation. Achebe’s pattern is symbolically embodied in the severance of son from father, with the son representing the new dispensation which replaces the world of the father. Umuofia finds itself caught up in a whirlwind of changes, and as we move from the world of Unoka through that of Okonkwo to the world of Christianized Nwoye, we are dealing not only with the life of an individual but also with the history of a culture in transition. It is simultaneously the unfolding of the history of Igbo culture.

It is clearly evidenced that in Things Fall Apart and Omenuko the only terms for describing inter-personal affinities are those like father, mother, sister and brother. Hence, Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart addresses Ogbuefi Nwakibie as “our father” or “Nna anyi” (p. 15). The

62 employment of the term “uncle” for Okonkwo’s mother’s brother,

Uchendu, is Achebe’s modern or European style rather than Umuofia’s.

In Omenuko, most of Omenuko’s life is spent among relations who, though not members of his nuclear family, still regard him as a member of their family.

The subversion of the family institution is, therefore, portrayed simultaneously as a major cause as well as a major product of change. In

Things Fall Apart , Okonkwo repudiates his father, only to be repudiated eventually by his own son, Nwoye. The son, in effect, asserts a right to pursue and serve his individual destiny rather than the corporate destiny of the clan. In Omenuko , Eze Mgborogwu directs that Omenuko should hold his warrant for Obiefula, his young son, till he grows up. Omenuko, through his relationship with the District Commissioner, secures for himself a warrant with which he rules his large family at Ikpa Oyi.

Because the authors under study have the same vision, they have themes and characters in common. Both record societies in transition in which adaptability has become necessary for survival. In both novels, the characters are ambitious, self-made social climber. The similarities might be explained by saying that both authors write out of a similar experience.

The technique of exhibiting the experience differs in relation to each author’s vision of life and the nature of environment.

Achebe adopts the tragic mode because of the violent wrenching of the old by the new. The events that surround Okonkwo’s fortune and actions are all in keeping with the tragic pattern of life and the tragic elements in human nature. His character is of such monumental magnitude that he dominates the drama of the novel. As in all great tragedies, his death has a tragic effect on his community. Omenuko as a character also dominates the drama of the novel but instead of being tragic, he always tries to exploit to his advantages, any situation he finds himself.

Omenuko is a biography of the life of a great man called Igwegbe

Odum while Things Fall Apart is a fiction based on historical narratives.

Both novels are extensively used for reading for pleasure and as textbooks for various examinations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Achebe, Chinua (1958). Things Fall Apart . London: Heinemann.

Achebe, Chinua (1960). No Longer at Ease . London: Heinemann.

Achebe, Chinua (1964). Arrow of God. London: Heinemann.

Achebe, Chinua (1966). A Man of the People , London: Heinemann.

Achebe, Chinua (1988). Anthills on the Savanna . Ibadan: Heinemann Educational (Nigeria) Ltd.

Alua Ejikemuwa Law (ed.) (1976). Odenigbo, the Journal of the Igbo Studies Association (ISA), Unibadan.

Amuta, Chidi (1989). The theory of African literature . London: Zed Books Ltd.

Awoonor, Kofi (1975). The Breast of the Earth, New York. Nok Publishers International.

Emonyonu, Ernest & Oguzie, B.E.C. (1985): African Literature for Secondary Schools. Ibadan, University Press Ltd.

Emenyonu, Ernest N. (1978). The Rise of the Igbo Novel , Ibadan, Oxford University Press.

Feuser, Wilfried F. & Aniebo I.N.C. (2001). Essays in Comparative African Literature: Nigeria: Centre for Blank and African Arts and Civilization.

Innes, C.L. & Lindfors Bernth (1979). Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe . London: Heineman.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’ O. (1965). The River Between . London: Heinemann.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’ O. (1964). Weep Not Child . London: Heinemann.

Nwadike, Inno Uzoma (2008). Igbo Studies: from the Plantations of West Indies to the Forest Lands of West African 1766 – 2008. Nsukka. University of Nigeria Press Ltd.

Nwadike, Inno U. (1998). Elements of Literature (Lecture Note) Unpublished.

Nwadike, Inno U. (1981). The Development of Written Igbo as a School Subject. 1766 – 1980 : A Historical Approach. Unpublished.

Nwana, Pita (1963). Omenuko , Ibadan: Longman Nigeria Ltd.

Obiechina, E.N. (1975). Culture, Tradition, and Society in the West African Novel . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Palmer Eustace (1981). An Introduction to the African Literature : London Zed Books Ltd.

Umelo, Ojinmah (n.d.). Chinua Achebe: New Perspective : Ibadan Spectrum Books Limited.

Wren, R.M. (1980). Notes on Things Fall Apart. England. Longman Group Ltd.