Idea of Colonialism in Cesaire’s Discourse on Colonialism and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart can be explored from the perspective of Césaire’s “Discourse on Colonialism” to identify the interaction between the whites and the Igbo people with negative and positive consequences. Césaire portrays the effects of colonialism and capitalism on both the colonizer and the colonized, revealing the hypocrisy implicit in the Western notion of “civilization”. Césaire points out that the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized gave rise to Nazism and that this link reveals the barbarian nature of the European colonial enterprises that existed before the rise of Hitler.

Césaire explains that no one colonizes innocently, and claims that a nation which colonizes, and a civilization which justifies colonization, is already a sick civilization. Césaire defines the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized as one based on “forced labor, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft, rape, compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self-complacency, swinishness, brainless elites, degraded masses.”

In the point of civilization Things Fall Apart has walked a long because the first part of the novel has shown the systematic Ibo society. The purpose is served here because the culture of Igbo people, their religion, rituals, economy and social relationship of a pre colonial society is much better than the colonial period. Césaire claims that the European civilization is disguised to dominate is proved in Things Fall Apart. Achebe shows how the colonizers colonize the mind of the colonized. Colonization itself creates savagery in the mind of the colonizers.

According to Césaire, before colonialism, indigenous cultures were both “ante-capitalist” and “anti-capitalist”. They were “democratic”, “cooperative”, and “fraternal”, with no traces of capitalism and colonization. Their economies and their food crops were destroyed, and their lives changed forever. Césaire takes a stand against civilization promoted by the Europeans and explains his defense of the non-European civilizations.  Achebe describes the history of Igbo; he does so by describing both the perfections and imperfections In Things Fall Apart the Ibo people always tried to follow rituals before the coming of the colonizers. They have respect for the senior and their ancestors. In the writing of Things of their culture and traditions that made them different from Western cultures. For example, their beliefs in the power of ancestral gods, the sacrifice of young boys, the killing of twins and the oppression of women to name a few. In the novel, the reader is also made aware of the arrival of white missionaries in Umuofia as well as the reactions of Igbo to their arrival. Although the arrival of the missionaries had some benefits to Igbo, there were also a number of challenges that faced the future of Igbo. The fact that Césaire wants to emphasize is that these societies were not primitive. Even though they functioned at a high level of sophistication and complexity, they were described as primitive. Césaire paints a picture of these societies as they really were.

According to Césaire as the colonized people are mentally biased by the colonial ideology they started hating their own culture and the culture clash begins. Mental colonization teaches them to hate Ibo’s own past. They lack freedom because they think that they have no glorious past as the Westerners have. Religious rituals are such a thing that being is established through rituals. Along with the villagers Okonkwo’ s son Nowye also joins with the colonizers and receives a new name Isac. As Okonkwo had nothing to belong he loses his sense of belongingness and finally commits suicide.

In the question of civilization, Césaire focus the western perspective of civilizing the Barbarian. It is “the white men’s burden”. In fact, it seems that Igbo are more civilised than the missionaries themselves. In their traditional courts, for example, if two parties are at conflict with each other both parties are given the chance to tell their story before a ruling is taken as opposed to the case of the British courts. When the villagers commit any form of crime they are imprisoned without first being questioned whereas Igbo courts question those at conflict before a ruling is taken. For example, Okonkwo beats up his youngest wife during the Week of Peace for petty reasons and although wife beating is allowed in Igbo culture, she is given the chance to take the matter before the courts. Okonkwo is not found guilty for beating his wife but for doing so during the Week of Peace where acts of violence are not allowed.