1. Things Fall Apart
By:Jonah Crooker, Griffin
Glover, Cole Gruninger, and
Shep Medlin

2. Introduction
Post-colonialism can be seen in Things Fall
Apart through the invasion of the Europeans
into the Igbo land and culture. Some areas
of Igbo life that they tried to change were
the Igbo culture, religion, and government,
just as the Europeans tried to do during
post-colonialism.

3. Missionaries
The first part of Igbo culture that the Europeans started
to replace was religion, they did this through
missionaries. The missionaries tried to convert the
native population from their traditional native religion
to Christianity. Since they were trying to shove
Christianity down the African's throats, tension started
to build between the missionaries and the natives. The
invasion of the missionaries caused the natives to have
to choose a side: the Christians or the native Igbo
religion. This caused an identity crisis within the
villages. All of these examples are actually examples of
post-colonialism that really happened between the
Europeans and the natives.

4. Government
Example How It Relates to Post-
Colonialism
European government takes over During Post-colonialism the
traditional Igbo government Europeans tried to establish order
by setting up their own forms of
government.
Tribes cannot get rid of the During Post-colonialism the
government without getting rid of natives wanted to get rid of the
Christianity. If they get rid of Europeans but they didn't want
Christianity they would have to kill the Europeans to come back and
or banish members of their own kill their tribe members.
tribe.
The Europeans control the courts During Post-colonialism the
so they have control over the Europeans came over and took
African population control over the African
population, which had no say in
their fate, much like how they had

5. Culture
• Chinua Achebe Voki on Culture
• Languages can not be understood making it hard for
interaction.
• Europeans do not understand the culture of African
natives.
• More often than not, two cultures cannot coexist at
the same time.

6. In the End ...
In the end of Things Fall Apart the commissioner wrote a
book called The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of
the Lower Niger.
This shows that the Europeans whole purpose was to rid
the villages of their fighting spirit and convert them to
European culture and society.
In real life the Europeans did the same thing, they tried to
erase the "primitive" African culture by slowly taking it
over and replacing it with their own.

7. Quotes
• "But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors
that he was in error. And so people said he had no
respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said that
his good fortune had gone to his head." (Achebe 31)
• "After such treatment it would think twice before coming
again, unless it was one of the stubborn ones who
returned, carrying the stamp of their mutilation--a
missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine
man's razor had cut them." (Achebe 79)
• "The Elders consulted the Oracle and it told them that
the strange man would break their clan apart and spread
destruction among them." (Achebe 138)

8. Quotes Cont.
• "And they began to shoot. Everybody was killed,
except for the old and sick who were at home and a
handful of men and women whose chi were wide
awake and brought them out of the market." (Achebe
139-140)
• “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and
peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his
foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won
our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one.
He has put a knife on the things that held us together
and we have fallen apart.” (Achebe 176)

9. Conclusion
The three mains ways that Postcolonialism can be
seen in Things Fall Apart are through religion,
government and culture. The Missionaries slowly
replaced the Igbo Gods with Christianity, and in the
process, also robbed the community of much of their
way of life and culture. This follows the pattern of the
Europeans in Africa during Post Colonialism. At the
same time, the Igbo tribal leadership was overtaken by
the English court system, as it was in Post Colonial
Africa as well.

10. Works Cited
• Achebe, Chinua. 1st edition. Things Fall
Apart. 1959. New York: Anchor
Books. 1994. Print. 21 March 2013.
• Yuran, Susan. Things Fall Apart. 1994.
Rising Pyramid. Web. 21 Mar.2013.