An Epic Clash of

Faiths: The Unexplored Perspective of

I have read several commentaries about Chinua Achebe's "Things fall apart" and many seem
to agree that this was an African story from an African perspective, and this is true. Then
again, the book is held up by many as a classic defence of Africanism in the face of an
onslaught by foreign forces, and this is true to a large extent, except that unlike most other
Africanist stories, Chinua Achebe, presented the story objectively and so vividly that few
could dispute the plausibility of the story. This is something that many other Africanist stories
lack, especially some by Ghanaian writers that are so heavily slanted towards the inclination
of the writers that, they become absurdities. One plot of the story which interests me in
particular is the struggle between the new Christian religion and the traditional religious
system of the people of Umofia.

Unlike other Africanist stories, "Things fall Apart" presented a balanced account of the
events of the intriguing conflict between the two faiths. Through the eyes of Nwoye
(Okonkwo’s eldest son) and Obierika (Okonkwo's best friend), another side of the traditional
religion of Umofia was explored, a side that paved the way for the eventual triumph of the
new Christian faith.

While all the people of Umofia adhered to the traditional system punctiliously, there were
many questions that lingered in their hearts, questions they dared not ask for fear of the gods.
For instance, when Okonkwo was banished from Umofia for inadvertently killing a boy, his
best friend, Obierika, pondered over the designs of their gods. He wondered for instance, why
he had thrown away so many twins that his wife had delivered. He wondered what crimes
the children had committed to merit such fates. Prior to that, the same man desisted from
taking part in the murder of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo’s protégé, due to the vague questions on
his mind. But like all others in the community, he was only aware of the consequences of
failure to comply with the orders of the oracle, thus seeking answers was irrelevant. And so
when the Christian faith emerged with answers to those questions, and with a promise of
liberating them from the fury of their gods, many were happy to embrace it.

When Okonkwo returned from killing Ikemefuna, the boy who called him father, something
"snapped inside" Nwoye, the same way he felt when he first encountered the twins that were
thrown away into the evil forest to die. The cries of the innocent children and the murder of a
boy he so dearly loved as his elder brother, haunted Nwoye all his life. Of course both the
murder of Ikemefuna as well the throwing away of twins were the orders of the gods. But
Nwoye was not obliged to love those gods, and he never did, if even he feared them, like all
the others.
Their gods, were clearly objects of terror, not of affection. For a man like Okonkwo, to whom
compassion was a sign of effeminacy that must be suppressed outright, loyalty to the gods of
terror was normal, but not Nwoye, who had a tender humanity in him. Thus Nwoye’s, was a
parched soul, haunted and seeking relief. That relief promptly came when the first Christian
missionaries arrived at Mbanta where his father had fled for refuge after he was banished
from Umofia.
“It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was
the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who
sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his
young soul—the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who
was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the
hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth.
Nwoye’s callow mind was greatly puzzled.”
The conversion of Nwoye, as described in novel above, was natural, effortless and seamless.
There were no guns to his head nor swords to his throat. It was simply his young troubled
soul caving in to a powerful soothing supernatural force that few that truly encountered could
resist. And so Nwoye deserted his fathers’ gods and became one of the earliest converts of the
new Christian faith, encountering his father’s wrath in the process. That story of Nwoye was
the story of thousands of Africans that would embrace the Christian faith.
But then Nwoye was not alone. Many other people in his community had reasons to flee their
fathers’ gods, and none more than the Osus, the outcasts of the community. As the story
accurately described them, these were people, together with their generations, forever
declared a taboo by their fathers’ gods and who could neither marry nor be married by a free
born. They lived in seclusion from their community and were buried in the evil forest. They
were not even allowed to shave their hairs, which hanged in a long tangled mess on their
heads.
The message that there was one God who equally loved all men resonated easily with them.
That a god could die for his people, even outcasts like them was beyond their imagination,
more so that the god had power over their fathers’ gods and could liberate them from their
enslavement and even their own community. So like Nwoye, and the others with many
questions, they gladly embraced the new faith that embraced them. If their gods were those of
terror, they were fleeing them into the arms of the God of love.
But there were many more questions that Chinua Achebe so deftly raised in his famous
novel. When Okonkwo’s father had fallen sick, he took his flute along as he was being
carried away to die alone in the evil forest. It might have been a harrowing experience for his
loved ones, but a nightmare for the man himself, yet he was only one of the many sick people
who were dumped in the evil forest to die with their disease; a people abandoned in their
greatest moment of anguish and distress, but because their fathers’ gods ordered it so.
In extreme circumstances, ailing and dying people that refuse to undergo the ordeal were
even tied to a tree and left to die and rot. Obviously, their fathers’ gods were not those of
sentiments, and this suffering was not their concern. But to the troubled and yet terrified
children of Umofia, a safe haven in a foreign god was not a bad alternative, especially since
its missionaries say it is the God of all.
But then, Chinua Achebe’s novel also explored the spirituality of the African continent like
few others. The gods of our fathers were not impotent pieces of wood or clay as some of the
missionaries and Christians understood. Instead, as the novel intricately revealed, those were
mere expressions of the principalities that ruled Umofia and indeed the whole African
continent at that time.
The mystical prowess of the priestess of Agbala was well documented throughout the story as
well the powers of the myriads of gods that were said to prowl the communities at night
sending shivers down the spines of their subjects. In the story, there was little distinction
between gods and sinister spirits, for all held the same terror for the people.
No part of the story demonstrated this part better than the dark night when Ekwefi,
Okonkwo’s second wife traced to her cave, the priestess of Agbala who had taken her
daughter that night. Chilling experiences were recounted of sinister spirits that prowled the
night and could descend on their victims. Spirits were seen that night climbing trees with
their heads turned upside down.
In all these, the story affirmed the belief in the potency of the powers that existed on the
African continent prior to the advent of Christianity, and few Africans who had the
opportunity to interact with their grandparents would dispute this picture as painted by this
novel. Crucially it was in this atmosphere that Christianity was born, but what significance
does this have for the plot under consideration?
What this means is that, the intriguing battle between Christianity and the traditional religion
was not merely an ideological one; it was not merely a matter of emotions and sentiments. It
was also a clash of powers and principalities, and there had to be winners and losers here too.
This aspect of the story was so vividly dramatized in the village of Mbanta when the
missionaries asked for a land to build their chapel. “They want a piece of land. Let us give
them a piece of the evil forest. They boast about victory over death. Let us give them a real
battlefield in which to show their victory”, Uchendu, Okonkwo’s uncle suggested, a
suggestion quickly bought by the rest. And so the Christians were offered that battlefield. The
Christians boast victory over death, and indeed they boasted victory over the evil forest, the
emblem of death, and that great victory was the firm pillar on which that church stood.
In many ways, this was the story of Christianity in Africa. A fierce battle of many
dimensions, swiftly won by the Lord of lords. Ironically, of all the novels that documented
this epic battle, few did it so vividly and accurately as this acclaimed novel by a legendary
writer whose story is held up as a shining light of Africanism.
Their fathers’ gods had made them outcasts, ordered the deaths of their innocent children, tied
their ailing loved ones to trees and murdered their beloved friends and terrified them day or
night. Then there appeared a new faith of love and light and compassion and freedom from
the ensnarement of their fathers’ gods. Could this men of Africa be blamed for gratefully
embracing the Lord of lords?
Of the many questions which Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” posed, this appears one
of the loudest, and ironically so for a story held up as a shining light of Africanism. No
wonder then that this side of the story has been largely unexplored.