WEEK 1 : Thoughts on the Novel Things Fall Apart

NUR SAFAWANIE BTE MOHD SYAHRIL

1. Based on your reading of "Things Fall Apart", what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the British to take over?
           I think that one of the aspects that cause British to take over is in term of religion. As we know, Igbo people are practicing superstition. When the missionaries request to buy a land to build a church in Umoufia, the leader of the village with support with the elders, they offer the Evil Forest to the missionaries. In their religion, they believe that Evil Forest has evil spirit that will kill the missionaries. However, in Christian, there is no such thing about Evil Forest, so the missionaries are agreed to stay there. It is the big mistake that had been done by Igbo people. When the missionaries stay in Umoufia, they start to spread the Christian religion. Even though at first, they had been laughed by the Igbo people, they are able to grab the Igbo people attention. At first, women and children are attracted to Christianity since Christian has equality which means, children, men and women are the same. This is related to the gender inequality in the culture. The Igbo people believe that men are powerful that capable to do anything and women are just capable to do the house chores since they are weak. So, when the missionaries came, they had been taught that everyone is on the same level in the Christian religion. That’s why women and children are attracted to the religion earlier than men. We can see in the novel, Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son is attracted to the religion because he believes that the religion makes he feels that he is accepted whatever he is and there is no violent occurs in the religion.

    2. Since Sarawak has also undergone colonization, how has this affected aspects of culture in our society?

Sarawak has also undergone colonization and the affected aspect of culture in our society is language. As we know, Sarawak had been colonized by Brooke. The language that they use is English. They were forced to speak in English, because when they failed to do so, they are not able to communicate with the White people. As Sarawakian, I realized that there are certain words that had been mixed with my original mother tongue, which is Melanau even though Sarawak is free from the colonization. For example, in Melanau, we call “ruler” as “rular”. Even though the pronunciation is a bit different, it is still English language.

      3. Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak?

There are changes brought by the colonists in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak. The first change is they start to believe in God.  At first, people in Africa believe in superstition. They believe that everything has good or evil spirit. Similarly, in Sarawak, they are mostly Pagan at first, and start to convert to Christianity, Islam, and Buddha and so on.

Besides, the colonists build schools and people in Africa and Sarawak have a chance to study. With that, they are able to be educated and change their mentality. They start to think further and have a mission and vision in their life. They are not just thinking to be a farmer, fishermen or any usual job that they had done before anymore. With education, they have a will to improve themselves in order to live a better life.

Last but not least, the colonists also build clinics and hospitals. With these facilities, people are not rely on the traditional medical method anymore since there is doctor and nurse who are way capable then the shaman.

SITI AMERAH BINTI RAMLI

1. Based on your reading of “Things Fall Apart”, what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the British to take over? 

-    Based on my reading, I think that one of the aspects of the Igboo culture which allows the British to take over is that they value power more than education. For them, reputation is the most important thing and it is earn by the position of power and influence in the community. Because of that, when the missionaries try to implement the Christianity in the Igboo society, they fall for it. At first, the white missionaries do not use force to do it, but instead they do it wisely. They bring division towards the society in terms of their religion. One of the person who converts to Christianity is Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye. The new faith that the missionaries bring in their society separates them and make them no longer unite and even more weak. They would not be like that if they realize earlier what the white men try to do and think of ways to prevent it. If the people became more educated, they might think wisely of this situation and things might be different.

-   Other than that, the fact that they are superstitious cause them to allow the church to be built. If they do not believe that the spirits in the Evil Forest will punish all the white men, they surely will not allow them to build the church. The new religion disaproved many of the Igbo superstions and cause their traditions to fall apart. At this point, even a powerful man like Okonkwo cannot do anything to save his society. That’s why British managed to take over the society and Okonkwo hanged himself.

2.  Since Sarawak has also undergone colonisation, how has this affected aspects of culture in our society?

    -    After Sarawak undergone colonisation, one of the aspects of culture that has being affected is the language. During the colonisation, English was introduced to the society and it is used until today. For example, most of the people who was born close to the time of colonisation, they are fluent in English. Next, other aspects that has being affected is the religion which is Christianity that had been introduced during the colonisation. Because of the colonisation, mixed-marriage also occurred among the society nowadays.

3.  Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak?

 -   There are some changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak and one of it is the religion. They start to have faith and religion instead of believing in superstitious things. Apart from that, the emergence of schools which make them value education more. The gender inequality towards women was also reduced.

HAMZAH SHIBLI BIN ISMAIL FAIROZ

1. Based on your reading of "Things Fall Apart", what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the British to take over?

In my opinion, the fact that they practice racism among themselves that allow the British to take over. The racism that occur within them is where they exiled those who commit mistake as they believe that those who make mistake bring bad luck to them. Those who had been exile is the easiest people for the British to persuade as they had nothing left for them, no place to go and the treatment over them were different from their own native. This made them easy to be persuade. I cannot neglect the effect of religion in this fact. The Christianity itself practice equality among their follower which make those who had been exile easily attracted to the religion as they felt that they were treated as the way they liked. They just wanted to be accepted, to be respected by the people and so on.

2. Since Sarawak has also undergone colonisation, how was this affected aspects of culture in our society?

The effect from the colonisation that I can see is our life style. As we know, Sarawak is well-know for variety of culture. Hence, there are a lot of life style present in Sarawak. After the colonisation of Brook, our life style change according to the global. For example, before the colonisation, we live in a wooden house, we wear traditional cloth according to our culture, after being colonise, we live more modernly. We live in a constructed house, wear more appropriate cloth. This does not mean that we are neglecting our culture, we are upgrading our life style according to the time. Before the colonisation, a lot of the people work as fisherman or farmer. During the colonisation, more jobs are created and a lot of improvement were happening. The colonisation turn us into a better society.

3. Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak?

There are some changes that brought about in the live of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak. The most visible changes is religion. In the story, the Igbo people believe in superstitious. They have a lot of God and they believed that if they commit mistake, they needed to sacrifice to repent their mistake or being exile from their people. That is why they believe that those who commit mistake would bring bad luck to them and they do not want to anger their God by doing mistake. Same goes for Sarawak in the past. The people believe over a lot of God and superstitious.

After the colonisation, they finally have more strong belief because at that time, religion such as Islam, Christian and Buddha had been spread. A lot of mosque, church and temple had been build. A lot of philosopher or religious people come to Sarawak to spread their belief. Same goes to those in Africa. Because of the colonisation, they finally have more strong belief that is in Christian. They finally can get the right treat that they should have.

In conclusion, religion give a lot of affect in colonisation and it can be a medium for colonisation to happen as shown in the novel. Being colonise does not only give negative impact, it also have a lot of positive effect.

HASFIYAH BINTI ASSAN

1. Based on your reading of “Things Fall Apart”, what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the British to take over?

2. Since Sarawak has also undergone colonisation, how has this affected aspects of culture in our society?

3. Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak?

1.     In the novel, Things Fall Apart, the effects of colonialism were extremely evident in the Igbo society. As the white Englanders moved into the native's land, their cultural values changed. Examples of these changes were evident in all aspects of the Igbo people's lives, in their religion, family life, children, and the dead. Many of the Igboians were upset by the colonialism of their society, but in the end they were completely incapable of doing anything to reverse the changes that had already taken place in their society.

As the English began to colonize the Igbo society, there were few natives who opposed it, they others just felt that the English would come and go, but they were wrong. Soon, the English began to introduce "white man's religion." This new religion was completely the opposite from what the natives were accustomed to. Christianity was rather intriguing to many of the natives and many of them turned away from their families and everything they were to become a member of this new religion. Before this, they natives had been very superstitious, but as they new religion flooded over the peoples and their belief in the many gods they had previously believed in began to lessen. Also, as many of the natives ran to the new Christian faith, many family bonds were broken. Before colonialism took place, family was an important thing in the Igbo society. It was not often that a man would give his son away for any reason, but because of the English coming in and teaching a new faith, many families were forced to give up their sons, daughters, and even some men were forced to give up their wives. The new religion also affected the way certain customs took place in the Igbo society. An example would be when one of the newly converted Christians killed the highly honoured snake.

In my opinion, the biggest effect that colonialism had on the Igbo society was the way in which their dead and infants were treated. In the traditional society, those who killed themselves were thrown into the Evil Forest, as where twins and children who died at young ages. As Christianity began to grow, the converts took the twins who were sent to the Evil Forest and gave them homes. Overall, the colonialism of the Igbo society affected them in many different ways. Each aspect of their lives and culture were consumed by English's belief systems. Whether it was their religion, family life, children, or their dead—the white's beliefs and systematic way of life took over the traditional systems and beliefs.

2.    Sarawak was so admired by the diversity of language, culture and old traditions inherited from their ancestors, but whether this was maintained in an atmosphere of development and globalization in progress f. In Sarawak itself, for example, there are about 32 ethnic groups speaking 32 languages, most of it is growing rapidly while the other half is on the brink of extinction due to the diminishing number of speakers. This is because English language becomes the top language in their conversation. They might think English is very important for them to develop themselves. Development and migration into the city has a lot of changes the culture and way of life of the local community where a long tradition of including native language has largely been forgotten in the name of the pursuit of modernity. This could be the one of the effects in the culture. 

 3.       Yes, there are so many of changes brought in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak. One of them is education. From what we know, education is very important and only education can change someone life. If there is no education in the society, they will leave far behind than the other society. The government built schools near to their community to give education among the tribes. Mostly indigenous in Africa and Sarawak live far away in the jungle. And to make them easy to get the same education as the others, the government take some risks to build schools in their place so that they will feel comfortable with the changes brought.

ROSMAN DRAHMAN

1. Based on your reading of “Things Fall Apart”, what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the British to take over?

• Based on my reading, one of the aspects is the mentality of the Igbo people. With the uneducated mentality of Igbo people, British easily can take over the village. They allow the British to come their land without thinking that the British have a plan to take over the village. In my opinion, the British provide a shelter and be kind to Igbo people is just to make Igbo people to believe and trust to the British.

2. Since Sarawak has also undergone colonization, how has this affected aspect of culture in our society?

• As we know, Sarawak had been colonized by the British. The aspects of culture that had affected in our society are the religions and language. Because of the colonization by the British, some people in Sarawak are Christian. Besides that, after the colonization, people in Sarawak can speak English fluently.

3. Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak?

• There are many changes after the colonization. One of the changes is in term of religion. Before the colonization, the people were practicing superstitious such as they believe wearing an amulet will protect them from evil and harm. After the colonization, the people no more believe the superstitious. Second aspect is in term of education. After the colonization, people were able to speak in English.