Post-Colonial Society

Nigeria's colonial experience is at the heart of this story. The British conquered Nigeria in the late nineteenth and ahead of time twentieth centuries and therefore administered the country through a form _or_ system of govern workforcet of divide-and-rule. In the north, the British bolstered the Muslim majority and virtually excluded Christian missionaries, turn in the south, the rulers encouraged Christianity and helped education spread rapidly. Nigeria achieved freedom in 1960. At the time, the Federal Republic of Nigeria was composed of three states--the Northern Region, the Western region, and the Igbo Eastern Region. Conflicts erupted early among these three regions, and this would strain in 1966 to a crisis after the military overthrow of the start-off obligingian government. After the coup, the army divided itself along ethnic lines, leading to a violent power struggle. Tensions culminated in the shambles of up to 30,000 Igbos living in the north. The Eastern region then declared its independence as Biafra, leading to a civil war between Biafran partisans and federal forces that lasted three years and live some two million lives. Military rule lasted until 1979 (Ramsay 55). It is against this score of violence and disruption that Achebe sets his novel.

Village bread and butter is seen as preferent to what we might call "civilized" life in Chinua Achebe's Things spillage Apart, with the traditional roles of wife and mother being perhaps more than broad

Ramsay, F. Jeffress. Global Studies: Africa. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998).

work force like Okonkwo are closely tied to the land, but Okonkwo is squeeze to flee from that land because of the shame he commits:

Okonkwo ruled his fellowship wit a heavy hand.

His wives, especially the youngest, lived in unbroken fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps ingest in his heart Okonkwo was non a cruel man. hardly his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of chastening and weakness (Achebe 13).

ly based than many might expect while also being more immediately necessary as roles than is true in urban society where the battle for subsistence is not so direct or immediate. Achebe understood the plight of the men and women in the village and uses his direct knowledge of that field to stool the story of Okonkwo and his family. Okonkwo's story certainly differs from that of the author, who left village life behind and who achieved much through education and his own ability. The evidence painted of Okonkwo is a picture of a man incrust by fear and lashing out at the world with frustration and anger, beginning with the women in his own household:

The crime had been an accident, so Okonkwo can return in seven years. When he does return, he finds the village changed, for the white missionaries have bro
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