Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

1. Paper- 14. African Literature
Unit – 4. Things Fall Apart
Topic- Racial Discrimination
Department of English, Maharaja
krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar university
Prepared by Dipti Gohil

2. What is Racial Discrimination ?
 Race is a human construct which has usually found
its manifestation in two forms- the biological
construct and the culture construct. These forms,
which often define ‘race’ are not independent of
each other. Rather it is their dependency which has
enabled the concept to perpetuation is again a
third construct the political construct.

3. Constructions of Race
Biological
construct
Political
construction of
Race
Cultural
construction

4. - The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo("Ibo" in the
novel) man and local wrestling champion in the fictional
Nigerian clan of Umuofia.
- He leads a fine life until he found himself and his village
being intruded on by English men.
- These English men tried to take control of the Igbo people
and imposed their values upon them; this is colonization.
- The colonization of Nigeria is inherently racist, according to
the examples given in Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall
Apart.
- Three characters, Mr. Brown, Reverend James Smith, and
the District Commander, will be used as examples in support
of this claim.

5. Racism is the belief in which certain groups of
people are considered superior (or inferior)
because of their skin color.
 One example of racism is the Igbo peoples’ stories of the British
men. These stories mock the white skin the English men have – the
Igbo villagers call them lepers and albinos. (Achebe, 138-139 and
74)
 In this example the Igbo people believe they are superior. In other
cases, it was the English who thought they were superior and
thought of the Ibo people as uncivilized, using words like “primitive”
when describing them. (Achebe 209) Exploitation of a group of
people is a main part in the process of colonization.

6. Mr. Brown
•
He dismissed the Igbo The first example is of Mr. Brown
who shows There are no other gods,’ said Mr. Brown.
‘Chukwu is the only God and all others are false” (Achebe
179).
• Mr. Brown uses Christianity to establish claims of
superiority through medicine and education.
• Though racism is not obvious in his words, he still
demonstrates racism because he is telling the Igbo people

7. Reverend James
Smith
• He took the place of
Mr.Brown.
• Igbo people converted to
Christianity.
• He clearly implies white is
good and superior than
black.
• Black and white how
deeply rooted racism is
when it comes to
colonization.
• It is clearly representation
of racism.

8. District commissioner
 He write a book on them (Igbo people)
 He could almost write a chapter or at least a paragraph on Okonkwo’s life.
 It is also shows value of non white people.
 This is evidence of “othering” as well as implied racism.
 His book title – “The Pacification of the primitive Tribes of the lower Niger”.
 The key word is “primitive”, he obviously consider the Ibo people to be
uncivilized which again, connects to racism because anything other than the
colour white is evil and primitive.

9. Conclusion-
The examples using three
characters of: Mr. Brown,
Reverend James Smith, and The
District Commissioner are
evidence of racism in Achebe’s
description of colonization.
The title of Achebe’s novel, Things
Fall Apart, illustrates the harm
caused by colonization and
racism.

10. Reference -
 "Racism Colonization And Things Fall Apart English
Literature Essay." UKEssays.com. 11 2018. All
Answers Ltd. 11 2019
<https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-
literature/racism-colonization-and-things-fall-apart-
english-literature-essay.php?vref=1>.

11. Thank you