Podcasts about Igboland

New CP Visits 3 Siblings' Family Killed, Kept Inside Fridge In Anambrahttps://osazuwaakonedo.news/new-cp-visits-3-siblings-family-killed-kept-inside-fridge-in-anambra/11/02/2025/#Nigeria Police Force #Agunechemba #Anambra #Ibezim #Ihiala #Ikioye #Nnewi #Nnewichi #Nollywood #Obinabo #Okite #Orutugu #Police #Soludo ©February 11th, 2025 New Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Ikioye Orutugu on Monday visited the scene of crime to condole with the family of 3 siblings that were killed and kept inside the fridge at Nnewichi in Nnewi area of Anambra State while their mother was away for work at Ihiala, this as the State Governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo with the Deputy Governor, Gilbert Onyekachukwu Ibezim being the Operational Commander always leading mostly indigenous team of special security operatives known as Agunechemba to invade and arrest Babalawos or Spiritual native doctors under the practice of Okite, a claimed spiritual practice of printing banknotes which investigations have since unraveled to be false; most especially as wrongly propagated by Nigeria movie industry; Nollywood which human beings are seen in some of their movies to be vomiting banknotes as a sign of money ritual, although, investigations have shown that there is no spiritual or ritual process that print banknotes but what criminally minded Babalawos or Spiritual native doctors do, is to prepare a charm known often in Igboland as Okite to enable the applicants including traders with legitimate businesses to be able to start committing more crimes like internet frauds or Yahoo yahoo, selling fake products, cheating customers, kidnapping, armed robbery, among other numerous inhuma crimes that makes the applicants to get rich quickly. #OsazuwaAkonedo

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is the oldest book we've discussed on the front porch; it was published in 1958 just as the European colonization of Africa was being dismantled. The book's setting is the beginning of colonization in the 1880's in what is now Nigeria, but was then Igboland. Achebe immerses us deeply into the culture of the Igbo people through the eyes of the esteemed, but highly flawed, Okonkwo. Near the end of the book, British missionaries and courts arrive and Okonkwo must decide how he will save his village and his way of life. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/frontporchbookclub/support

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is the oldest book we've discussed on the front porch; it was published in 1958 just as the European colonization of Africa was being dismantled. The book's setting is the beginning of colonization in the 1880's in what is now Nigeria, but was then Igboland. Achebe immerses us deeply into the culture of the Igbo people through the eyes of the esteemed, but highly flawed, Okonkwo. Near the end of the book, British missionaries and courts arrive and Okonkwo must decide how he will save his village and his way of life. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/frontporchbookclub/support

Did you know that prior to contemporary celebrities and social media, Igbo market men have used advanced marketing techniques as influencer marketing for sales? when next you listen to highlife music, pay attention to what is being said. On this episode of Ello, Chris and I are exposing century-old secrets about sales that Igbo men have used to stay on top of the goods trading game for ages. We discuss the history and evolution of markets and market culture in Igboland.

  MP3 Download Link:Click Here To Download: Monday Strikes In Igboland Until Nnamdi Kanu Is Released : Nigerian News Updates{Automated Transcript. Contains Typos. Not Yet Edited By A Human}: hello everybody i'm alfred and i'd like to talk to you about the monday strikes you know in ebola and you know in igbo regions you know that is um being carried out until on the co that is he's been carried out with the condition that unnam de carlo has to be released before it stops what i have to tell um eboos is that you know me both my parents are eboo and i i need to um tell you something what's on this planet has shown you that buhari or the buhari administration cares about hebrews or anybody as a matter of fact he just cares about himself and his familythis man is willing to find ram de kalu and sunday buhu no matter where they run to in any part of the world but he cannot find boko haram in the bush in nigeria he cannot find any of the kidnapped people when someone is kidnapped in the north he cannot find them but he is willing to find hunam dekalu we need to go to the ends of the edge to find unanimous no matter where they run to it shows you his priorities so first of all your monday strike is making buhari happy because first of all buhari's wealth is not based on the nigerian economy let me say that again bohari's wealth and his children's wealth is not based on the nigerian economy if the nigerian economy falls he doesn't care because his what is not based here paris a lot of these politicians have foreign bank accounts their children their legacy is not in africa it is outside africa is just a place where they where they steal money from where they get money from and then they send to their children and their children invest their own their children don't even invest their children just spend it and keep on buying houses and all of that and buying liabilities it's not even like their children are in most cases buying assets that will even make them rich you know their children are spending it on liabilities in in other countries so buhari's world is not based on the nigerian economy let the nigerian economy fall as it wants but he does not care it does not affect him he's not looking at the nigerian economy as oh this is what is i i needhis children are secure in other nations um economy that is what um he's looking at so um people striking on monday you know on in imo state anambra state you know in abba you know all these um places this um where nobody's going to go to work on monday that um people are doing in the name of biafra all this it's actually you are helping buhari is very happy because it is helping you know very serious as well so these people are going to actually become poorer from this thing this is going to affect their finances so now his people are he's really people and and the people that are on his end you know all the market and all the business that you guys have been doing on monday that market share is now going to um worries people of course this kind of thing at the end of the day will affect everybody and pull down nigeria but like i said buari does not care he is not interested in the economy of nigeria he doesn't he does not bother him so um that is something you have to know and like i have addressed with the issue of biafra now you are forcing people who are able to join their biafra movement now you are forcing anybody that is in emo emo state or anambra states that they have to for they have to um fall under what you are saying so you are creating authoritative realism on your own how can you be the solution when you are becoming an authoritarian at this at the very own set of your movements the very onset of you are trying to create your own nation you have already started becoming an authoritarian all of you because you are evil all of you are there for biafra all of you on this piece of land are there for biafra that mentality you know this you're forcing your will i have seen it before first of all they have to be pause taken honest let us know what is it that evils want the evils want to break away or the evils want to stay then what is it that the rest of nigerians want for evil so they want evils to break away or do they want not able to stay then what is it that they not on us wants do they want ebooks to break away and or do they want you know people to stay these posts need to be taken and people need to know let us know what the majority what is it that the people actually want right now we are just seeing people with loud voices saying different things and of course contradicting voices because it's so easy for the baha'i administration to pay a group of evil people in this area and say that oh we are the evil use of this area where we are the evil use of imo we are the evil use of that and no biafra is a french movement and then they say oh we after these people who have been paid we now say oh we are all foreign administration all of that is very easy to do and he and he's been done so um polls need to be taken let people be clear understand that buhari has made up his mind on what he's going to do he hates hebrews and this is somebody that was involved in the first biafra and he's using language like will we speak to them in the language they understand he would like nothing better than to kill more evils he would like to finish what he started in the first biafra he will like a second biafra and he will like to kill a lot of evils and understand that if there is a war the world is going to support the not because it is going to be all these people are terrorists because it is the same thing that happened before one of those who said they were biafra before we were marketed and we were broadcast and the nigerian government were asking the the um the the president of nigeria at the time you know was also given that rhetoric of um oh these are just terrorists that is what is going to happen now you know if there is um a second be afraid though everyone that says this biafra will be called a terrorist and of course for the biafra movement to kick up you are going to have to force people to join your movements and that will be a an authoritarianism and you know it's sort of terrorism oh you have to um join us and fight with us you know so that in itself is is a disaster so you need to first of all let let everybody know what is it that every person wants then we move forward from there if we are going forward with the dividing with with separating um ebola from the rest of nigeria you know it has to be done peacefully at the table and there's nothing wrong with you know people still doing business across across the border you know if it is established that ibo is broken away and then there's igbo land and then there is the rest of nigeria you can still do business across the border and the same way there are people in nigeria who own houses in america you can be in igbo land and own houses in nigeria and you can be nigerian houses in ebola and this all of that so this can be done diplomatically over a tableall of this can be done diplomatically but war is not an option because if there is war everybody will lose the only people that will win are the globalists the only people that win are they bill gates and friends and all those who want to see africa depopulated because so many people will die so many people will die and so many people will run away from nigeria and in their running away from nigeria they will end up being slaves or second-class humans in other countries for those of you in nigeria i'm sure you have seen some kind of um arab looking people that are beggars in nigeria that is going to be you in other countries soon if there is a warthere is going to be you in other countries soon in other african nations soon if there is a war you know so you need to think about it and the women are children going to pick up guns and start fighting each other too are all the men going to be on board with this fight the the priority of it of of a normal man is you know a lot of times is his family or his children so that is what he's going to go for a lot of people are going to leave nigeria and that is not good and you know they are not living on the best of them andreas will end up becoming second classical citizens and slaves in other nations that is not good you know ebola as well so i have said it before multiplications this stats has to start with the pool let us know what people want and then let us if if it is decided that people want the separation let it be done over a table and i would advise the ebooks that you know you could end up creating a smaller nation that we still have the same problems because it is not the same criminals that are running hebrew states that will be running that's biafra let us say that biafra happens it's not the same criminals that are going to be running what measures are you going to make to prevent such criminals from running be afraid biafra is created so that is another topic for another discussion but it starts with let there be post let us know what everybody wants not what unanimous wants or what these people who are in who have already signed up for the biafra movement the fact that they have signed up doesn't mean that every other ebooks have signed up i'm going to force them to not be a part of it if they're not authoritarianism what are you fighting against if you are going to become an authoritarian towards the people that you say you you love your peopleand you are trying to create a future for and that you are angry that nigeria doesn't have a future for evil so therefore you have to create you know your own behavior and of course there are other reasons why people want to be afraid you know there's also the most logical of which is nigeria was a creation of colonialism you know so therefore if how can that which was created by colonialism and an era of slavery be you know sustainable in an era that claims to be free of colonialism and free of slavery you know so that being said um make sure you check out alfred.vip and you know if you've not given your lives to christ click the salvation prayer link in the main menu of vip or just go to salvation prior to alfredo vip thank you and god bless you References: - E Don Set! ESN Commander Sends Serious Warning To Biafra Leaders Over Sit At Home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvkTcAnSjI- IPOB Changes Strategy Over 'Ghost Monday'.Set New Date On Nnamdi Kanu's Release & Biafra Exit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr76KYihuE

  MP3 Download Link:Click Here To Download: Monday Strikes In Igboland Until Nnamdi Kanu Is Released : Nigerian News Updates{Automated Transcript. Contains Typos. Not Yet Edited By A Human}: hello everybody i'm alfred and i'd like to talk to you about the monday strikes you know in ebola and you know in igbo regions you know that is um being carried out until on the co that is he's been carried out with the condition that unnam de carlo has to be released before it stops what i have to tell um eboos is that you know me both my parents are eboo and i i need to um tell you something what's on this planet has shown you that buhari or the buhari administration cares about hebrews or anybody as a matter of fact he just cares about himself and his familythis man is willing to find ram de kalu and sunday buhu no matter where they run to in any part of the world but he cannot find boko haram in the bush in nigeria he cannot find any of the kidnapped people when someone is kidnapped in the north he cannot find them but he is willing to find hunam dekalu we need to go to the ends of the edge to find unanimous no matter where they run to it shows you his priorities so first of all your monday strike is making buhari happy because first of all buhari's wealth is not based on the nigerian economy let me say that again bohari's wealth and his children's wealth is not based on the nigerian economy if the nigerian economy falls he doesn't care because his what is not based here paris a lot of these politicians have foreign bank accounts their children their legacy is not in africa it is outside africa is just a place where they where they steal money from where they get money from and then they send to their children and their children invest their own their children don't even invest their children just spend it and keep on buying houses and all of that and buying liabilities it's not even like their children are in most cases buying assets that will even make them rich you know their children are spending it on liabilities in in other countries so buhari's world is not based on the nigerian economy let the nigerian economy fall as it wants but he does not care it does not affect him he's not looking at the nigerian economy as oh this is what is i i needhis children are secure in other nations um economy that is what um he's looking at so um people striking on monday you know on in imo state anambra state you know in abba you know all these um places this um where nobody's going to go to work on monday that um people are doing in the name of biafra all this it's actually you are helping buhari is very happy because it is helping you know very serious as well so these people are going to actually become poorer from this thing this is going to affect their finances so now his people are he's really people and and the people that are on his end you know all the market and all the business that you guys have been doing on monday that market share is now going to um worries people of course this kind of thing at the end of the day will affect everybody and pull down nigeria but like i said buari does not care he is not interested in the economy of nigeria he doesn't he does not bother him so um that is something you have to know and like i have addressed with the issue of biafra now you are forcing people who are able to join their biafra movement now you are forcing anybody that is in emo emo state or anambra states that they have to for they have to um fall under what you are saying so you are creating authoritative realism on your own how can you be the solution when you are becoming an authoritarian at this at the very own set of your movements the very onset of you are trying to create your own nation you have already started becoming an authoritarian all of you because you are evil all of you are there for biafra all of you on this piece of land are there for biafra that mentality you know this you're forcing your will i have seen it before first of all they have to be pause taken honest let us know what is it that evils want the evils want to break away or the evils want to stay then what is it that the rest of nigerians want for evil so they want evils to break away or do they want not able to stay then what is it that they not on us wants do they want ebooks to break away and or do they want you know people to stay these posts need to be taken and people need to know let us know what the majority what is it that the people actually want right now we are just seeing people with loud voices saying different things and of course contradicting voices because it's so easy for the baha'i administration to pay a group of evil people in this area and say that oh we are the evil use of this area where we are the evil use of imo we are the evil use of that and no biafra is a french movement and then they say oh we after these people who have been paid we now say oh we are all foreign administration all of that is very easy to do and he and he's been done so um polls need to be taken let people be clear understand that buhari has made up his mind on what he's going to do he hates hebrews and this is somebody that was involved in the first biafra and he's using language like will we speak to them in the language they understand he would like nothing better than to kill more evils he would like to finish what he started in the first biafra he will like a second biafra and he will like to kill a lot of evils and understand that if there is a war the world is going to support the not because it is going to be all these people are terrorists because it is the same thing that happened before one of those who said they were biafra before we were marketed and we were broadcast and the nigerian government were asking the the um the the president of nigeria at the time you know was also given that rhetoric of um oh these are just terrorists that is what is going to happen now you know if there is um a second be afraid though everyone that says this biafra will be called a terrorist and of course for the biafra movement to kick up you are going to have to force people to join your movements and that will be a an authoritarianism and you know it's sort of terrorism oh you have to um join us and fight with us you know so that in itself is is a disaster so you need to first of all let let everybody know what is it that every person wants then we move forward from there if we are going forward with the dividing with with separating um ebola from the rest of nigeria you know it has to be done peacefully at the table and there's nothing wrong with you know people still doing business across across the border you know if it is established that ibo is broken away and then there's igbo land and then there is the rest of nigeria you can still do business across the border and the same way there are people in nigeria who own houses in america you can be in igbo land and own houses in nigeria and you can be nigerian houses in ebola and this all of that so this can be done diplomatically over a tableall of this can be done diplomatically but war is not an option because if there is war everybody will lose the only people that will win are the globalists the only people that win are they bill gates and friends and all those who want to see africa depopulated because so many people will die so many people will die and so many people will run away from nigeria and in their running away from nigeria they will end up being slaves or second-class humans in other countries for those of you in nigeria i'm sure you have seen some kind of um arab looking people that are beggars in nigeria that is going to be you in other countries soon if there is a warthere is going to be you in other countries soon in other african nations soon if there is a war you know so you need to think about it and the women are children going to pick up guns and start fighting each other too are all the men going to be on board with this fight the the priority of it of of a normal man is you know a lot of times is his family or his children so that is what he's going to go for a lot of people are going to leave nigeria and that is not good and you know they are not living on the best of them andreas will end up becoming second classical citizens and slaves in other nations that is not good you know ebola as well so i have said it before multiplications this stats has to start with the pool let us know what people want and then let us if if it is decided that people want the separation let it be done over a table and i would advise the ebooks that you know you could end up creating a smaller nation that we still have the same problems because it is not the same criminals that are running hebrew states that will be running that's biafra let us say that biafra happens it's not the same criminals that are going to be running what measures are you going to make to prevent such criminals from running be afraid biafra is created so that is another topic for another discussion but it starts with let there be post let us know what everybody wants not what unanimous wants or what these people who are in who have already signed up for the biafra movement the fact that they have signed up doesn't mean that every other ebooks have signed up i'm going to force them to not be a part of it if they're not authoritarianism what are you fighting against if you are going to become an authoritarian towards the people that you say you you love your peopleand you are trying to create a future for and that you are angry that nigeria doesn't have a future for evil so therefore you have to create you know your own behavior and of course there are other reasons why people want to be afraid you know there's also the most logical of which is nigeria was a creation of colonialism you know so therefore if how can that which was created by colonialism and an era of slavery be you know sustainable in an era that claims to be free of colonialism and free of slavery you know so that being said um make sure you check out alfred.vip and you know if you've not given your lives to christ click the salvation prayer link in the main menu of vip or just go to salvation prior to alfredo vip thank you and god bless you References: - E Don Set! ESN Commander Sends Serious Warning To Biafra Leaders Over Sit At Home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvkTcAnSjI- IPOB Changes Strategy Over 'Ghost Monday'.Set New Date On Nnamdi Kanu's Release & Biafra Exit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr76KYihuE

References & Sources For This Video: - E Don Set! ESN Commander Sends Serious Warning To Biafra Leaders Over Sit At Home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvkTcAnSjI - IPOB Changes Strategy Over 'Ghost Monday'.Set New Date On Nnamdi Kanu's Release & Biafra Exit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr76KYihuE

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 4 - The Clash Of Cultures Ends Tragically   Hi, I'm Christy Shriver and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.    I'm Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our fourth and final episode discussing Chinua Achebe's groundbreaking novel Things Fall Apart. In episode one we discussed the country of Nigeria, the history, the cultural context, Achebe's life, the poem from which the book got its name and a little of the life of Okonkwo- our hero in the story. In the second episode we explored the first seven chapters of the novel and talked briefly about the book that inspired Achebe to write it, Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. Last episode we got into more controversial territory as we broached issues of gender as expressed by Achebe.  This week, in case gender wasn't controversial enough, we will focus on colonialism, religion and father/son relationships- Good Lord- Achebe is merciless!!!  He's killing us with controversy.    Killing us- haha- irony!!!  Is that foreshadowing?  It's true, but some how he does it so sweetly and can be confrontational without being offensive.  I really love to listen to Achebe lectures.  His voice is comforting.  Achebe conveys hope when he talks- especially in his later years, he really does, and I encourage anyone  to just google some of his lectures and listen to him.  I'll put some links on our website.  By virtue of his birthplace and age, he confronted issues fifty years ago that today are common problems all of planet earth.   By being born a child of two cultures and two distinct religions, by living in a country plagued with colonialism, civil war, racism and corruption, his perspective from lived experience has credibility, and on that note I do want to draw attention to a contemporary Nigerian author of our day who follows in the same vein as her mentor- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  Adichie first came to my attention through a friend who told her about her TedTalk “The Danger of a Single Story”.  Adichie, just like Achebe understands that things are more than just one thing- that balance must be the goal- and she speaks to our generation about how to apply these things today.  I'm going to link her TedTalk to our website as well.      So, let' begin talking about religion and the introduction of Christianity into the Nigerian landscape which is where we left off last week.  Last week, we were still in part 2 of TWA, Okonkwo was still in his mother's land.  Today we finish part 2 as well as discuss the most important ideas of part 3.     We finished with chapter 15 and the incident of the white man entering into Abame, being killed there by locals encouraged by the oracle and then slaughtered en masse by the full force of the colonial army.  And the pattern is established: The missionaries come first, but after them comes government in that order or as it says in chapter 18, “The white man had not only brought a religion but also a government.”    By chapter 16, we are referencing the white man, but not by missionaries building hospitals or even teaching in schools, but as soldiers.  It doesn't take long for one to follow the other.  We are also led to understand some of the things about Christianity that appealed to the native people. It's the second year of Okonkwo's exile and Obierika comes back to Mbanta to visit, but this time when he talks about the white man, it's about the white man coming to Umuofia, and not just that, it seems Okonkwo's own son has converted to Christianity and had been one of the missionaries to visit the clan.  Obierika was shocked.      Yes, and this again is where we see Achebe hitting on universal issues and setting them in a context that is foreign to most of us.  Okonkwo's issue with his son is more than just an example of colonial intrusion.  Why is Nyowe an early adopter of Christianity?  In large part, the only people converting to Christianity were the what they called efulefu- or worthless people- people that were on the absolute bottom of the Igbo social system.  In fact, this was one of the reasons the clan permitted Christianity- they were collecting all the garbage the clan really didn't want and were living in the Evil Forest, a place no one wanted to be. Here Achebe also explains that Igbo society had a class system, and not everyone was flourishing under it.  Those who were rejected by that system were the first to accept the new system that elevated their worth.  If you're an efulefu or an osu, which literally means outcast, that makes sense.  But Nyowe isn't efulefu?  His father has two titles.  Achebe answers this question very subtly for his audience by again using the narrative technique of gently letting us slip into Nwoye's mind- remember we call that indirect discourse.  Let's read the passage where the missionaries are talking about Jesus Christ and what exactly led Nwoye to convert to this new faith.    Read page 145-147    Now let me read what Okonkwo thought of his son's conversion.    Page 152-153    In some ways, what we see happening with Nyowe is very Freudian.  He basically rejects Igbo faith, in part at least, as a way to reject his own father.  Okonkwo won't bend on what his idea of a man is, so Nyowe embraces more of what Okonkwo hates.  The relationship falls apart. How many sons and daughters have done something just because they knew their parents hated it?  How many of become something their parents hate just to spite them?  Okonkwo himself is a reaction to his own father.  His obsession with masculinity is a direct response to his father as is his son's a response to his.  How complicated is this crazy thing we call the parent/child relationship.  The relationship you have with your parent or child is totally unlike any relationship you will ever have with any other person on this earth- and it goes on through the generations- although not this pronounced- but one generation reacting to the previous one.    And in the case of Okonkwo and Nwoye it brings us back to the imbalance between the masculine and feminine principles.  It is one of the things that divided these two men.      I think it's important to understand that not everything portrayed about the Igbo culture is something Achebe endorses.  Achebe never claims that Igbo culture is a perfect culture.  There is no such thing.  We have seen this raw expression humanity from the beginning.  One example would be the killing of twins.  As we make our way to the end of the book we began to understand more fully why it is important to Achebe to portray Igbo culture in as honest a way as he can.  Igboland is not Adventureland at Disneyworld; it's humanity on display.  Their civilization is not flawless, but it IS a human civilization. That seems obvious from this vantage point, but if we understand a little about colonial education, it becomes an important point to emphasize.       Actually, I heard Achebe talk about his homeland when the book turned 50 years old.  He talked about his love for his homeland.  He clearly loved his homeland deeply, but he also described Nigeria as frustrating.  He called it annoying, but then said, “It is the only home I have.”  There are things about it he loved about his home, his culture.  He loved their admiration of hard work and excellence, their appreciate of dialogue, but there were things about his homeland that he hated- the propensity for corruption as we will see exposed in part 3 is one I heard him talk about specifically- although I will say, if you could name a country that was without corruption, I'd move there now- no such animal exists.  But as he explained himself he made the point that his loyalty to Nigeria and to the Igbo was never contingent on Nigeria' perfection or really even on their commitment to improve- although he longed for the day when a leader would surface that could lead them into a better reality.  He talked about loving home because it is a part of who we are and we are a part of it- the improving part- that's where we do our part.  When we demand our homeland to be a perfect place as a requirement for our acceptance- we create a binary that cannot withstand pressure.     And may I point out that is also true between parents and children.  When we make uncompromising demands from anyone that puts the relationship exclusively on our terms, we create binaries that divide and ultimately makes relationships fall apart.    When I heard Achebe talk about his home country, it made me think about my home country- the United States but what he talks about applies to any country.  Achebe explains that the Igbo worldview is made up of ideals and beliefs- values, but even people who believe strongly in the ideals, like Okonkwo, don't always live up to their own beliefs and it is these weaknesses from within the culture that destroy it.  I understand him to be arguing that the military force was not the biggest threat during the colonization period- it was the cultural colonization that was given an opportunity to flourish because internal weaknesses.  This is kind of how I interpret the final part of the book.  That also seems to be similar to Yate's idea in the poem “The Second Coming” which not only gives us the book title, but if we read the whole stanza sort of outlines what happens in the story- Look at the stanza of the poem where Achebe gets this title    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere     The ceremony of innocence is drowned;  The best lack all conviction, while the worst     Are full of passionate intensity.    Look at these last three lines- The ceremony of innocence is drowned”- that's what we're seeing now in part 2.  We had this ceremony of innocence in part one, but it's drowning.  We also see that The best lack all conviction- - and finally we're going to see with the introduction of the character Enoch and the corrupt government officials- that “the worst are full of passionate intensity“.  This is the recipe that drives things to fall apart.      I agree with you. Humans, families and civilizations fall because of weaknesses from within the system- not without - the center no longer holds, to use Yeats words- and things fall apart.      Yeats actually believed that all civilizations eventually fall apart.  We can talk about that next episode when we feature the poem itself.     Well, he may be right.  How does a civilization evolve with people of integrity doing their best to preserve ideals and values while changing with the times?  How do you fight corruption from within?  There's a lot of opportunity, when things change, for power-grabbing.  People without integrity or wisdom often rise to power.      Achebe illustrates in this third section how all of this creates disaster.  On the personal level, we see a man of integrity, Okonkwo, but he cannot evolve or change.  We also see a society who will evolve, but corruption immediately sets in.  In times of great transition, it's just easier for people without integrity to get to the top.  They are willing to do things people with convictions just won't do- and the center doesn't hold= so  discuss the historical narrative of colonialism and how things break down on a community level, but before we do I do want to make one HUGE clarification- Okonkwo is going to fall, but let us be clear about one thing- the Igbo people have not fallen apart- not by any definition of the term.  It is actually a thriving community all over the world to this day.  Listen to what Achebe said when talking about Igbo culture later;    A culture can be damaged, can be turned from its course, not only by foreigners. . . . [A] culture can be mutilated, can be destroyed by its own people, under certain situations. . . . The Igbo culture was not destroyed by Europe. It was disturbed. It was disturbed very seriously. But... a culture which is healthy will often survive. It will not survive exactly in the form in which it was met by the invading culture, but it will modify itself and move on. And this is the great thing about culture if it is alive. The people who own it will ensure that they make adjustments: they drop what can no longer be carried in transition[.] .. . So I think what has happened is that we still have the fundamental principles of the Igbo culture. Its emphasis is on the worth of every man and woman.      And so there we land once again on this idea of balance and finding balance during transition which is the big takeaway from the middle part of the book.      Christy, as we think about the role of missionaries in Africa, I know we start to get a little personal with you because of your family's involvement with missions all over the world and specifically the many ties you have to Africa.  For those that don't know, Christy was raised overseas and even before that her dad was a missionary in Vietnam during the sixties and her mother was in Nigeria, actually during Achebe's time there, working in education- although she worked with the Yoruba people.  Christy, it's been a long time , literally over 100 years, since the first missionaries were sent to Africa and there is no debating that the colonial government grew in parallel with the missionary efforts.  What are your thoughts on this last section book that looks at the mission work from the side of the indigenous people?    Well, honestly, I truly appreciate the fact that Achebe does not put all missionaries in the same basket.  Christian missions, and that's what I know although it's not the only religion to practice missions, but mission work obviously is cross-cultural by definition.  Historically there is no denying that a lot has been done in the name of missions that is destructive to native cultures and even individuals- sometimes because of ignorance but also sometimes intentionally. There has been a lot of arrogance- many have what today we call the “savior complex”- no doubt. But I don't believe missionaries are the only group that can be accused of that.  Any person or organization if they have a new technology like hospitals or bicycles or even a worldwide trade language like English- in this case, but it could just as easily be a computer or any other technology- Knowing something other people don't brings with it an arrogance- in most people.  I've seen it even in my little work place here in Memphis, but certainly in the US at large.  People with the technological edge in one domain can be led to misunderstand themselves and think they possess wisdom in all domains.  Some but not all  missionaries are like that- the ones that are going to be any good most certainly will not be- and Achebe makes this distinction very clear. Mr. Brown and Akunna have extensive dialogue over spiritual things that are respectful and helpful. There are missionaries like Mr. Brown, who are very aware of differences in cultures and want to respect them.  Mr. Brown holds on to his Christian interpretations of life principles like a Christian definition of human life but introduces the values as something to be discussed and accepted voluntarily not superimposed.      Well, you would think that the value of life would be something easy to define, but it actually isn't.    No, it's definitely not.  The Igbo obviously hold life as sacred; as do the missionaries, but how do we protect life.  How do we protect the lives of most people?  These kinds of ethical questions plague all cultures and Achebe expresses this with the killing of twins- that's the example we see here.  The Igbo see the twins as a threat to the lives of the already living; Christianity sees the value of the newborn babies as trumping the value of the adult members clan.  This is an honest discussion, but there are those like Mr. Smith who don't have dialogue at all.  They don't see differences of moral interpretation as related to culture but instead see  all things as my culture is morally right and yours is morally wrong.  We are good people and therefore you are bad people.  There have always been both types of missionaries and only someone with large amounts of direct experience with both kinds, like Achebe, would be interested in making a nuanced description of both. There do exists culturally sensitive missionaries who do have religious convictions but also seek to respect indigenous values and there are also unreflective cultural imperialists- and this second version is portrayed through the character of Mr. Smith.    Another interesting nuance that Achebe acknowledges is that there was some positive and immediate impact of British education, medicine and even commerce. I am a huge believer in education as a tool for empowerment, and even Achebe's influence on the world scene would not have been possible without missionary schools… Achebe was an individual shaped by two cultures- and he explores the messy nature of the colonial encounter.      Yes, and Achebe underscored more than once that Africa did gain a lot from the missionaries.  The question he raises is if culturally, they did not lose more than they gained, and he's not talking about soldiers or government- he's actually talking about education- and his reasons for this are psychological.  Africans were taught in colonial schools, whether directly or subtextually, that their history was inferior to European history.  That the “great” men to be imitated were all European, men like David Livingston.  They were taught that the important history of the world was history that occurred far away, not near where they lived or within their social fabric.  None of this is healthy for critical thinking and all of it creates feelings of inferiority in individuals as well as in entire cultures.  Achebe spoke of feeling that struggle within himself.       True and we must remember Achebe speaks as one of the children raised in the church, not in the village.  He went to these schools, did well, and in fact was one of the most successful in the entire nation.  This is what he said and I quote from an essay he wrote in 1976, “I was born in Ogidi in Eastern Nigeria of devout Christian parents. The line between Christian and non-Christian was much more definite in my village forty years ago than it is today. When I was growing up I remember we tended to look down on the others. We were called in our language “the people of the church” or “the association of God.” The others we called, with the conceit appropriate to followers of the true religion, the heathen or even “the people of nothing.” .      Again, we see her in a religious context what we were just talking about in terms of education.  This kind of thing reinforces the psychologically harmful idea that native Igbo or African culture of any kind is inferior-in fact, as far as Africans were taught- they were taught that before the Europeans came to Africa they had no history, no culture,  no civilization at all- that they had been savages- lesser forms of humanity.  That's what enraged Achebe and motivated his writing.    This is what these confrontations at the end of the book are about.  Achebe wants to write his book about his people- to incontroverdibly illustrate their humanity.  In order to do this he chooses to draw attention to the weaknesses within the community and within individuals that gave place to chaos- not the weaknesses in colonial schools or other outside pressures.  Let's look at Nyowe, for example, he had questions that were not being answered within the framework of traditional Igbo culture about his own identity and definition of masculinity.  He had deep wounds over the death of Ikemefuna that were legitimate.We also see other problems.  In chapter 18 this is highlighted through the character of Mr. Kiaga, the native-African missionary leader/interpreter as he tries to balance two contrasting worldviews in regard to the Osu or worthless people. The church, who you remember is mostly composed of people on the lower rungs of regular Igbo society, want to reject people from the church based on their being lower then them.  Mr. Kiaga, as an African leader in his own right, navigates Christian faith in an Igbo context, and Achebe displays how complicated this is.      Page 155    So, having discussed the messy situation as it pertained to the church and even the schools, I think the imperial imposition of colonial government is easier to understand.   Which brings up the natural question?  How does one country just show up in another country and set up government?  It's hard to understand how that happened?  From the view of the natives, these people just showed up.     That's a great question, and it has everything to do with what was happening outside of Africa while all this missionary work was going on inside.  It is outside forces that villagers didn't even know existed that was going to create the cataclasmic clashes we see in part three of the novel.  And honestly, from our vantage point in history, it just seems incredible that this happened.  So, in 1884, Otto von Bismark called together something called the Berlin or the Congo Congress.  Representatives from 14 countries attended, none of them were African, and they organized what was called the “Scramble for Africa”.  By the end of the conference, all of the countries with the exception of the US, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden-Norway, had made a claim to lands in Africa.      You mean, they agreed on where they were going to aggress and not to aggress the lands others were going to aggress?    That's definitely how Africans see it.  And honestly, colonizers had already been doing so- we talked about the Royal Niger company in episode 1. What happened at this conference did not start colonization in Africa, but it contributed to heighten it as well as help override most existing forms of African self-government that had existed up to this point. Colonialism happened with kind of this three prong front: religion, economics and finally military or government.  Could things have been different if only companies and missionaries had come to Africa and there were no political and military invasion?  We don't know.  That's not what happened.  In the case of Nigeria, the British military was associated with and aided by the advent of the missionaries and commercial endeavors, but the military presence immediately resulted in violence, a total upheaval of the political system, and taking away systems that were locally controlled- and in the case of the Southern regions of Nigeria, even the elimination of local languages as the language of state.  All of a sudden, everything is being done in English.  It's also ironic to notice that the British came in with a totalitarian regime and replaced what was, in the Igbo case, a democratic system responsible to the people they were governing.   In the name of progress, the new colonial system was an autocratic system comprised of people from the outside who were accountable to absolutely no one on the continent.  After the British invaded, Crown rule began around 1897, these are the exact years discussed in our book.  These District Commissioners were accountable only to an office in Britain- the mandate was to secure British interests.  Who was looking out for the common man or woman?   The system was not designed to do that.  These district commissioners were despised by local people and the local people who worked for them were viewed pretty much like as traitors.        Achebe uses a word that looks like an Igbo word, if you don't know any better.  When I first saw it, that's what I thought it was. the word Kotma- KOTMA- but it's really a distortion of the English words “Court man”.  He's making fun of them- calling them distortions of words- because that's what they are- distorters of words- of truth- of reality- they are government messengers- but in a distorted way- kotma.    And this distortion of reality is a total shock for Okonkwo as he returns to Umuofia to a totally colonial environment.  Okonkwo wants to rebuild just like he had done as a young man, and he has a plan to come storming back and climb up to the top of the social hierarchy.  He is prepared for the natural setbacks of being gone from home for so long.  He knows the white men are there, and he knows that will be a problem with his oldest son, but he has already decided how to address this. Let's read how Okonkwo plans to deal with the fact that his oldest son is now a Christian.    Page 172.     Well, and although Okonkwo was prepared to deal with the missionary presence, he was not prepared for the colonial government as well as the Africans kotman- many if not most who were not even from the communities they served.  Let's read that part.     Page 174     I will say, I've enjoyed the humor of the locals making fun of the invaders.  Some of the most thematically important lines of the entire book come from this chapter, chapter 20.  Okonkwo just cannot believe that his hometown has lost its self-efficacy.  It does not rule itself.  He cannot climb to the top of the social hierchy by hard work and getting respect from his peers.  Outsiders were coming, people unaccountable to anyone, and they were not honorable people.  These outsiders had control.  He's shock, and we can clearly understand why.  It is shocking to all the readers.  This isn't fair.  And we, like Okonkwo have to ask, how does this happen, to which the wise voice of Obierika once again weighs in.      Page page 176    And once again, Achebe resists the temptation to make the end of the book about the colonial invaders.  We understand what the invaders are doing, but it isn't the focus.  Achebe wants to tell us what has happened from inside the culture.  He wants to also demonstrate what about Okonkwo himself that is problematic.  Why does this great man fall?  And even prior to that, we should ask the question, why is this a great man, and there is no doubt that we are to think of him as great- even if he's imperfect- Achebe does not see perfection as the standard for greatness.  As we look at the ending of this book, we must see that there are three endings here- the first will center around Okonkwo- the personal.  The second will center around the district commissioner- the colonial.  The third centers around the Igbo people- the global.  When we see it this way, I believe, we can see that the colonial elements of this book are actually the most dated and least important of the three endings.  But let's look at how we are to understand the ironic ending of this book.    First, let's look at Okonkwo's personal story.  Okonkwo's story starts in the vein of a classical Greek hero.  He's mythical from the first chapter.  He epitomizes much that is admired by his community- he's strong- but with a fatal flaw- harmatia if you remember that from our study of Oedipus.  He has hubris- excessive pride.  He reminds me in a lot of ways of Achilles- larger than life.  But, just like the classical Greek heros, his excessive behaviors puts him at odds not just with the members of his own community, but at odds with the gods as well.  He defies the gods, but he also takes up their cause as well.  In chapter 22, Mr. Brown, the missionary who is Mr. Smith's successor was not wise in keeping peace between the Christians and the rest of the clan, and one of his hot-headed converts did one of the most disrespectful things anyone could ever do in Umuofia= he unmasked the egwuwu in public, if you remember this was a man who represented the voice of the ancestors.  Nothing could be more sacrireligious to this community.  Mr. Smith hid Enoch from the wrath of the clan and as a result the clan burned down the church.  When the egwugwu came to execute justice these were their words ‘page 190'      And of course, now that we know more of the Igbo civilization, their traditions, their systems, this retribution seems reasonable and understandable, and Okonkwo's anger entirely justified.    Exactly, it is also reasonable that in the next chapter when the six leaders of the community are invited to discuss this with the District Commissioner, they go in good faith.  Dialogue the instrument of balance in Igbo culture is the only way to peace.  It is also entirely understable that Okonkwo burns with rage, when they are deceived, locked up, shaved and humiliated.   This is a government who literally and ironically lies, puts men in handcuffs and ironically claims it's in the name of a “peaceful administration.” The quote is, “Okonkwo was choked with hate.”  He's mad at the District Commissioner.  He's being humiliated by men who have not worked for their place in society.  They are given authority by the British, some outside agent that has not been given any permission by anyone to be in charge.  There is internal agreed upon, locally controlled system of justice.   AND, we, as readers are to clearly understand the people running the show are not ethical or moral people.  They are the opposite- the kotma overcharge the community for the bail- which itself is unethical, keeping a huge bribe for themselves.  The new justice system is totally corrupt at every level.  So, the reason or Okonkwo's anger is justified.  But. His response which comes in the second to the last chapter of the book is foolish.  “In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete.  The messenger crouched to avoid the blow.  It was useless. Okonwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body.”  But the twist to this hero story is the following sentences, “Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man.  He knew that Umuofia would not go to war.  He knew because they had let the other messengers escape.  The had broken into tumult instead of action.  He discerned fright in that tumult.  He heafd voices asking, “Why did he do it?”  He wiped his machete on the sand and went away.”      If we look at this scene, we can be shocked.  Okonkwo didn't kill a white man. He killed a fellow native and furthermore, then he wiped the blood off of his machete.  That was never done in their culture.  He had remained true to his values until he fell apart and violated a core principle- the deliberate killing of a native.  He has been broken as we can clearly see- this is not the honorable man from the beginning of the book. His suicide which we don't see, but find, doesn't really surprise the reader at this point.  It's consistent with what has happened to him.  Okonkwo would rather die than yield to the Kotma.  But even more than that, he has fallen apart in his own culture- he would rather face the wrath of his own gods and commit one more crime against the goddess Ani- suicide- then live in this new world order.  Very Greek, really.  Obierika honors him with his angry words towards the District Commissioner.  The text reads, “Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friend's dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously, “that man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia.  You drove him to kill himself, and now he will be buried like a dog.'  He could not say more.  His voice trembled and choked his words.”    Well, truthfully and rather ironically, the application of British law in Africa was something the British considered to be their greatest contribution.  They considered themselves, and I will quote the journal of African law“The keeper of the conscience of the native communities in regard to the absolute enforcement of alleged native customs.”  As we can see from reading Achebe's book, that is a totally foolish statement.  The British had NO idea what they were doing.  They created nicely phrased attempts at integrating African values with things like repugnancy laws and stare decisis- but neither British or African justice was faithfully implemented.   The whole thing reeks with irony.  This story is a perfect illustration. African natives had already executed justice with no loss of life until the British intervened.  The burning of the church was something the District Commissioner understood nothing about.  It WAS the execution of justice- not an aggressive act at all.    And this is the irony that Achebe uses to end his book.  Let's read the end of the book.  Let me point as we do that Achebe has again taken us into the mind of a character- this time the white District Commissioner.  He gets the final word after they have cut down Okonkwo's body.    Read 208-209    In Achebe's essay “Colonialist Criticism” he says this, “To the colonialist mind it was always of the utmost importance to be able to say: ‘I know my natives', a claim which implied tow things at one: a) that the native was really quite simple and b) that understanding him and controlling him went hand in hand- understanding being a pre-condition for control and control constituting adequate proof of understanding.”     Yet, look how he ends his book- such bitter irony- Okonkwo's story is an epic story, but the District Commissioner understands so little of it, that he can't even fill a paragraph.  He is no better than Conrad's Marlow.  Nothing has changed.       And with this bitter mockery of the colonizers, Achebe confronts and discredits the entirety of the quasi-historical record kept by district commissioners all over the continent for the duration of colonial occupation.      And like I said, he can do this with a gentleness that cuts to the heart.  The final way to understand the ending of this book is to look at the people Okonkwo left behind.  That is where the tragedy goes from Greek tragedy to modern tragedy.  In Greek tragedy the audience finds catharsis or emotional release. It's open; we're free. And with the death of Okonkwo we have a classical Greek ending, but the story is more than just Okonkwo- what about the people he left behind.  What about his son Myowe who changed his name to Isaac?  He he okay now?  Nothing here suggests that he will be.   Modern tragedy provides no release by definition- to certainty.  In this case, we are left with a postcolonial Africa that is ambiguous.  Achebe called it “the crossroads of cultures”-  and that is where Achebe is very much a post. Modern writer of his day- very much in the vein of writers like Eliot, Kafka or even Fitzgerald to some degree.    Well, and as students of history we can also find our current modern moment- today the entire world is at a crossroads of cultures.  Nigeria found itself in a world that was ironically aristocratic and democratic, heroic but ironic and both contemporary but ancient.  And in that sense, the world today very much reflects the clashes of culture Achebe so skillfully represented.      And it's much larger than race or even colonialism.  Are we, as citizens of on planet, going to discard ancient wisdom and tradition in favor of new outside influences and ideas that provide quick economic gains at the expense of a center that holds?  Are the young with their technology going to rule over old?  Are those with the power going to steam role over the many without?   Do our systems promote integrity or corruption?   And in that sense, we are all heirs of Achebe's prophetic message- if I may be so bold and perhaps melodramatic to say.      What a book?  What a man?   Thanks for listening…..etc..and the rest.                 

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 3 - Religion, Gender Issues, The Importance Of Balance And Chapter 13 - The Heart Of The Book!   I'm Christy Shriver and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.    I'm Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our third episode in our four part series on Chinua Achebe's stunningly complex little novel, Things Fall Apart.  In episode one, we looked at Nigeria the country itself, the historical context of the book, Achebe's life, and also the poem Achebe used for the title of his book.  In episode two, we got into a couple of the cultural features Achebe highlights in part one of the book as well as begin discussing chapters 1-7.  We are quick to notice that although, this is a story about a man, a very relatable man, that could be from anywhere and struggles with issues that plague us all, Achebe situates him in a cultural context that is uniquely Igbo.  So, who are the Igbo?  What do they value?  These are things we learn organically as we read the story.  But this week, as we look at getting through the rest of part one as well as most of part two of the novel, the word I want to highlight is the word complex because like every other great piece of art, when you first engage this book you don't understand the art of it.  This story feels natural, almost simple- the artist in Achebe makes the story feel easy and natural; what we don't realize is how intentional and complicated all that is to do.  It kind of reminds me of Swedish Rock.    Are you really going to compare Achebe to Swedish Rock.    I am, so disclosure- Christy and I watched this Netflix series called This is Pop.  I'm a musician, although not a famous one, but I love learning the stories of great music.  Anyway, what the host Jay McCarrol talks about, in this particular episode, one of your favorite bands- Christy-Abba.  And it's a phenomenon-= how does this little band from a little country change the musical landscape for millions around the entire globe..and actually it's more than just Abba. Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC would all be obsolete without the work of Swedes Denniz Pop and Max Martin.  But here's the connection, when you listen to a song like “Waterloo”- it feels simple and easy.  The listener just thinks, ohh I really like that. It stands out- why, out of thousands of songs- do some stand out?  And how do the same writers do that over and over again?  How do they do it?  What does Max Martin know that the rest of us don't.  He's got some trick up his sleeve.  So does Achebe?  How does his book stand out?       Ha! Fair enough, of course, you had me at Abba, and today what we are going to talk about, among other things, some of the fascinating tricks, if you want to call them that or techniques, Achebe uses to make that human connection with all of us.  And I think structure is a great place to start because it's something that often flies under the radar- but the structure of this novel is very deliberate.  Last episode we ended by reading the end of chapter 7 of the novel, one of the most important chapters of the book.  It's emotional; it's important in terms of plot development.  It's important in terms of character development, but let's notice where it's placed.  There are 13 chapters in part one- and chapter 7 is at the slap dab middle six chapters before- six chapters after.  It's at the heart of the first section.  When we get to chapter 13 we see another big plot point.  It's the end of the first section, but it's also the very middle point of the book- the book has 25 chapters- there are twelve before chapter 13 and 12 after it.  It's the heart of the entire book, and it is where we see Okonkwo commit a feminine crime, an accidental murder and is forced to flee.  Why is an accidental murder at the heart of the book?  What about this event takes us to one of the most important themes of this entire book?  Why is so much attention drawn to the fact that this is a feminine crime? What does crime even have gender? Why is there such a thing as a masculine and femine crime?  Achebe, of course, when asked a similar question answered using an Igbo parable- “Wherever Something stands. Something Else will stand beside it.”  The idea that life is not one thing- life is duality. This duality applies to everything not just issues of gender- but gender issues may help us understand dualities- but it's application as it pertains to issues of gender is of central importance and a focus in this book.  Achebe draws particular attention to man's need for balance between the male and female principles.  He highlights through Okonkwo's extremism the difficulty all of us have- in one way or another-in finding this balance- being okay with who we are- and to support this theme- Achebe has created balance in the very physical aspect of the how the book is laid out.  Just one of those cool things- structure supporting meaning.    It's one of those subtle things artists do that we don't notice.  Another subtle thing that Achebe has done in this book that fascinates me is how he has blended African oral traditions into the genre of a novel which is something of a Western writing style.   I should add, by way of being totally honest that it is a misconception  about Africa to think that African literature is entirely oral.  The truth is Arabic writing of Northern Africa is over 5000 years old- some of the oldest writing on the planet.  However, oral literature does have an important role in Africa and in Things Fall Apart, we understand why this matters and how oral traditions enrich and stabilize a society.     I'm glad you mentioned other African traditions, because that reminds me, I don't want to give the impression that Achebe was the first modern African novelist ever, and there didn't exist other African novels before his because that is not true at all.   There are other writers before Achebe that had written African novels- a famous one among them is Amos Tutuola's book The Palm Wine Drunkard- But Achebe's book  stood out at the time and has stood the test of time because of its popularity and impact on how the world sees Africa.  It focuses on the colonial issues, the native cultures as well as the unifying idea of our human simultaneously- and people really just identified with it.  It had a very large commercial impact, but also a larger cultural imprint than any of the previous books.  And I wanted to clear that up if I'd given a wrong impression.  Okay, let's get into some culture, religion and gender issues.       Oh my- way to stay away from anything controversial there- well, before we get into that, I wanted to make one more comment about structure and how it relates to colonialism that to me is really genius.  As you pointed out, one way Achebe blends African oral traditions with Western traditions is by intertwining myths and proverbs organically into the text throughout the story.  There are 27 proverbs.  However, what's interesting is that they are not dispersed equally.  Most of these are from the first part of the story and the last chapter has no proverbs at all.  The role of myths and proverbs steadily decreases over the course of the story- what an amazing design element.  Just as the Igbo get slowly colonized almost without noticing,  the book itself gets colonized- the reader is getting colonized.  The latter parts of the book heavily quote from the Bible and the myths slowly slip away- just an interesting observation of technique.    For sure- super-interesting and something to notice as we read through.     When we left off, Okonkwo had just killed Ikemefuna.  In chapter 8, he's drinking booze from dawn to dusk and not eating food.  He can't sleep and doesn't eat until Ezinma, his daughter who he is constantly lamenting isn't a boy, sits there and makes him eat.  Okonkwo actually chides himself saying, “When did you become a shivering old woman, you who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war?  How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number?  Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.”    To which I would add, you most certainly have not- I would say most women wouldn't have killed Ikemefuna-     Well, there's a comment- I would argue most men wouldn't either.      You're probably right- I feel my personal biases creeping in there- but I draw attention to these comments because all of this gender talk really has upset a lot of women over the years and has gotten Achebe called a chauvinist on more than occasion by more than one feminist critic.  But, and I know this is going to sound surprising coming from me who has raged at more than one male artist for chauvinism over the years, but I don't see this text that way at all.  It's clear that Okonkwo is obsessed with gender and is a chauvinist- and of course, there is chauvinism inherent in Igbo culture as well as all other cultures that I know anything about- but Achebe, the artist, is not endorsing this.  He's exposing the weakness inherent with obsession with gender.  And I might add, obsessing with gender is NOT just a problem in Igbo culture, I would argue that the world has never been more obsessed with gender than the Western world is at this current moment.  Which for me,  makes Achebe's ideas extremely interesting for us to consider today.      Yes- it's something that literature always does, it allows us to consider sensitive topics that many of can't talk without getting too emotional but somehow in the context of the past it a feels safe and non-threatening.  We can consider more than our own insecure point of view.      Well, let's see if that works as we talk about gender in the context of the the Igbo worldview as well as issues of  faith and religion because in many cases those two issues overlap for all of us.  Garry, how is pantheon of the Igbo gods organized and how do gender roles tie into that?    Great starting point, so let's revisit this idea of balance.  Now, I know we're going to credit the Igbo worldview for this idea, but I want to, and this is something that came up with Tolkien and Christianity, we don't want to say that the Ibgo people are the only people that believe in balance, or that the Igbo faith tradition is the only faith tradition where this value is central because that's not true.  But it is where Achebe gets his values so as we reference the context of balance, we are going to reference it as an expression of Igbo religious thought.  The Igbo caution against excesses in all aspects and promote balance in equilibrium in all things- like the proverb you just quoted- “Wherever Something stands. Something Else will stand beside it.” This proverb comes up a lot when you read things about the Igbo.  Every person, every community, if they are to function without chaos, must have an equilibrium between male and female qualities.  Now, I know we could go down a rabbit trail on what constitutes male and female qualities and which ones are better than the other ones-  but that really is irrelevant to what we want to do- so setting that aside- we will accept what are the male and what are the female qualities as they are accepted for the Igbo- So for the Igbo- the idea of war must be set precisely next to the idea of peace- with equal value. The idea of force must be entirely balanced with the idea of grace, so forth and so on.  What we must understand that in the Igbo societies, even in pre-colonial days, women had self-expression and power- it was just not exactly the same as the male version of these two things.  I know we don't have time to talk about it here, but historically, in 1929, there was even a Women's War where women all over the country cooperated politically.  One thing to see as we move through the story, although women had limited rights in their husband's homeland, they never lost power in their own homeland- that's important. Women always maintained a voice in their natal lands and could come and go as they wished- let me point out that women have not always had this power in many other more “progressive” cultures- so the social institutions themselves have an inherent balance of power between male and female- just like the proverb- Wherever Something stands. Something Else will stand beside it.     When we understand this concept- it's easy to see that Obierika, not Okonkwo is a better example of a balanced man, and therefore a strong and better man.  Okonkwo clearly cannot be the representative of an ideal Igbo man in large part because he is absolutely unable to reach any kind balance between the male and female principles in his own life.  He's angry at himself that he feels love for Ikemefuna- he sees it as weakness and not strength.  His misunderstanding of strength causes internal anxiety and fear.  This seems obvious to an outside observer, but honestly, lots of us, if we are honest, struggle with issues of identity as it pertains to male and female principles.  We have trouble defining who we are as humans because of this very imbalance illustrated vividly from within the Igbo culture- Achebe makes the case that if we do not have a balance between the male and female principles in our lives, the result is internal chaos.   In TFA the female goddess, Ani, who is the most central diety in the book is assisted by a male human helper, Ezeani.  The male oracle Agbala has female priestesses- Chika and Chielo.  In the Igbo religious tradition, even the gods themselves are made to have balance.    Yes- and when we compare the attitudes of Okonkwo to Obierika throughout the book- the contrast between these two men only grows over time.  Let's read the passage out of chapter 8 when after killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo goes to Obierika to ask why he didn't participate in the killing.  Obierika gives us the proper mindset of a balanced Igbo warrior.    Page 66-67    Did you catch the cultural detail of the kola nut?    Well of course- it's funny that after something like that is drawn to your attention, you notice it everywhere.  Another thing that is difficult for those who are monotheists to understand is the complexity of polytheistic traditions- where the will of one god, in this case Agbala, leads straight into conflict or a clash with another, Ani, and only a wise human like Obierika knows how to find that narrow path of balance.      What Okonkwo doesn't understand is having a female characteristic doesn't make you a woman- everyone is supposed to have both male and female characteristics and if they don't come to terms with that they have chaos.   It's kind of a controversial statement to make, even now.  So many people feel and express a struggle in finding balance with these principles in their own lives.  So much of the culture wars that get so aggressive, cruel and chaotic might benefit from some of the Igbo wisdom embedded in their very ancient cultural legacy.    There is NO doubt about that.  When we use the term the “female principle” what we mean is all aspects of female involvement in society- that includes the physical and visible realm but also the spiritual or invisible realm- and in all animistic cultures, not just Igbo culture, there is a lot of crossover between these two worlds.  Remember, most people on planet earth are animists to one degree or another.     Explain to us what an animist is?     An animist is a person that believes there is a spirit world that engages the physical world.  Most people embrace this to some degree. Even in the most secular societies on earth we see elements of animism- the evil eye is a good example, but there are other more secularized expressions of this- participating in seances or reading  horoscopes.  Anything that reaches out to spirits in any way falls into the category of what we call Animism.  Achebe illustrates in his book what that looks like specifically in the Igbo culture.  Animism isn't a certain set of beliefs.  It looks different in every religion or culture.  It just means you believe in the spirit world at some level.  So, in the Igbo tradition, the physical world must balance itself out between the male and female principles, but also the spiritual world must as well. We see it in the kola nuts.  Just like the two halves of the kola nut are still one kola nut- both halves of the female and male principles connect to create completion.  When you upset the moral code designed by the gods and goddesses all of society is put at risk.   The creator god, as we see at the end of the book is Chukwu, but Chukwu is neither male nor female.  It's the lesser gods who are gendered and are under him/her.  Under these gods are the ancestors who have died- these ancestors are close at hand, and we see in this section of the book that they are called on from time to time to weigh in on community life.  The priests and priestesses are the ones who can go back and forth between these two worlds.  We have also seen, and this may be a good place to point this out that in Igbo religion, each individual has their own god or spark of divinity which is called a chi.  There is dialogue between the spirit world and the physical world at every level all the way down to the chi.    Yeah- I'm glad you brought of Chi- that word is a constant in the book, and something that doesn't really have a cultural equivalent for many of us.     Yes- and even anthropologists have a hard time agreeing on a definition while discussing it. One reason it's hard for us to understand is that it too is discussed in Igbo culture as being a part of a duality- Achebe simplifies it for us as well as anyone, honestly.  It's one of those things you have to accept and not try to totally dissect- if I were going to suggest a remote Christian equivalent, I would say maybe the Holy Spirit and the Trinity- something that is difficult to wrap a concrete definition around, but you must accept to ascribe the Christian worldview.      Okay- leaving the spirit world for a minute, let's go back to physical representations of gender in Igbo culture.  That is something where the roles are obvious and visible.  Let's look at the construction of Igbo compound, for example Okonkwo's compound.  Instead of a house, like we have in Memphis, Okonkwo has a hut that he build in the middle and that is where he lives- his Obi.  He clearly is represented as in charge.  Each of his wives, though, has their own home, in essence.  In their home they run things as they wish.  They cultivate crops, raise their children, do whatever they wanted to do.  Every night they bring dinner to Okonkwo- but basically the administration of their world is on their terms.  They even covered for each other, as we saw Okonkwo's first wife doing at one point.  We can see that they are intricately involved in business matters.  They go to the market and negotiate trades.  We can also see they are the are the ones who instill values in the next generation- they transmit history- they are nurturers, but they also hold the power of the purse interestingly enough.      Two things you pointed out- women are highly organized in this community and have economic freedom.  That is not just in Okonkwo's case.  Women in Igbo society are overwhelmly organized in this way- even to this day, but especially during the polygamy days.  We cannot underestimate the power in this.  I know it feels like men are in charge because Okonkwo is sitting in the middle of that hut, the nine justices are all male and seem to be running the show, but what Okonkwo finds out when he goes back to his mother's homeland is that that is a misguided perspective and one that is partly responsible for his own demise.  Okonkwo doesn't understand the balance of male and female roles in the community.  He understands one to be superior to the other in terms of his community and in his own life as well.      So much of this middle section of the book deals with addressing these issues of gender principles and how connected and intertwined they are.  Event after event centers around gender. We are going to see the marriage negotiations.  In chapter 9 we see the events surrounding the birth of Ezinma, and in chapter 10 we see the entire community coming together to address the issue of a man beating his wife.  All of these are specifically discussed as issues of gender.    That court ceremony scene in particular is something that culturally, if you just read it from a Western standpoint may seem strange- almost otherworldly.  It seems these masked individuals are arbitrarily creating justice from spirits; but in all actuality, if we look at what is actually happening in the passage, there is a lot that is very similar to Western justice and really a universally accepted way to think of justice, if you are looking for a system that can be accepted as fair and balanced.      What do you mean by that?    So, in this court scene, if we want to call it that, the entire village is called together to give a public airing of the dispute- and this airing of the dispute will be judged by a group of people that are called “egwugwu” but what are the egwugwu?    Nine justices- one from each tribe- presumably elders who are communing with ancestors.    Think of our courts- in the United States at our highest court- we also have 9 supreme court justices.  Going before this group or any other court is public and full of ceremony. These men embody the wisdom of the American ancestors as codified by the constitution but not just the constitution – judicial review as it has been upheld since the beginning of our court system- the public is to watch to see that the judgements made are according to the agreed upon social norms that transcend any one person, any one group of people, or even any one generation- they are to give a collective understanding that is bigger than one political, cultural or social moment.  They are dressed in a way that clearly indicates that.  Our justices also wear distinctive clothes.  In Britain the costumes are even more pronounced.  In our courts the justices are not speaking for themselves, at least they are not supposed to.  They are not be activists using their own opinions and personal moral codes to chose things as they see fit.  They swear to make their judgements based on principles that predate them and are larger than they are.  It's actually an extremely high pressured job because as we see on tv pretty much every day, people want what they want and they do not want to be held accountable to a tradition that is older than they are or interested in more than just what they as individuals want or think best at that little moment in time.  That is exactly what we see here.  This court is doing the exact same thing that we see in other traditions.  In the American tradition, if the trial is important enough it sometimes is put on tv, like in the famous case of OJ Simpson.  But here- what is happening is that each party gives its testimony and then the agreed upon values determine the outcome.  Achebe is reminding us of the blindness and ignorance of people who can't see beyond their own culture or their own moment in time.  Once again, Conrad's characters, had then been watching would have been thrown off by the drums and ceremony and completely missed the cultural equivalency.  Igbo justice is cross-generational- it looks to the ancestors for wisdom and moral instruction.  The stability of their community survives because the system instills trust, members agree to comply and submit to what is perceived as fair.  It survives because it includes the past into the discussion.     Interestingly again, something that is also a problem in modern life where culture devalues the past by using  negatively connotated words like “out-dated”, or “old-fashioned”.    In this case, it's interesting that Achebe chooses to highlight a case where a man had beaten his wife.  I was a little disappointed that they made the woman return to the mean man, but I will say, being threatened to having his genitals cut off may make him think twice before hitting her again.  And it isn't clear to me if she HAS to go back or she is being given an opportunity to reconcile which is seen to be to her advantage if he does indeed make the changes he's charged to make.      I also want to point out an interesting detail now that we're talking gender politics of power and religion.  In the very next chapter, Chielo shows up possessed by the spirit of Agbala and takes away Ezinma, Ekwefi, Okonkwo's second wife's only daughter.  In a feat of super-strength, she carries the girl away.  This is the only moment in the entire book where we see Okonkwo embrace what the Igbo would consider the feminine principle and show a caretaking emotion of nurture.  He stays out all night and watches over his daughter, he also shows compassion and affection towards his second wife.  He follows her lead.  She is the strong one in the incident, not he, and he readily acknowledges his support of her.  Ironically also here he is closer to the gods then he will ever be at any point in the story.      In the next chapter we have the celebration of Obierika's daughter's engagement- another happy time – there are cultural points to make, but we'll have to skip over them for time's sake because we need to get to the heart of the book- chapter 13 where Okonkwo accidentally kills Ezeudu's sixteen year old son at his funeral.  Okonkwo has now offended Ani, the goddess of the earth,  for the third time- the first time was when he beats his wife during the week of peace, the second time when he kills Ikemefuna, but this time, he murders a clansman- and even though it is accidental, or a feminine crime, there is swift and immediate punishment.     It's pretty immediate, his house is burned down – and I will add that even Obierika participates in this-a sign of agreement- Okonkwo is exiled for seven years to live in his mother's homeland.  Uchendu, his mother's youngest brother explains the thinking around this to us a little later in the story.  It's an often-quoted passage actually.  He says this: “It is true that a child belongs to its father.  But when a father beats his child it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut.  A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet.  But when there is sorrow and bitterness, he finds refuge in his motherland.  And that is why we say that mother is supreme.”    Well, I know we need to move on from issues of gender- but I do want to add one more thing- when we get to the end of the book and Okonkwo commits his last crime- I won't spoil that in case you don't know what happens- but I will say that his crime will again be a crime against the goddess Ani- the feminine principle at work again.  He offends the feminine side of his culture in every possible way from beginning to end- the obvious point being that it is this obsession with gender- this lack of balance between the gender principles in his own life which causes things to fall apart for him on a personal level.      It's certainly an idea worth thinking about.  And if you are reading this book as a class or as a club, a question to talk about- what does this look like in my culture?  Getting back to structure again, Achebe divided his book in three clear parts.  The first part focuses entirely on Igbo land, Igbo culture, Igbo characters.  It is an entirely pre-colonial world.  It's not the garden of Eden, that's for sure, but it is self-contained.  And while a lot of this story is absolutely realistic, the idea that there would be a town in the 1890s totally isolated from colonial or outside influence is obviously not entirely realistic.  Part two is really a transitional part of the book- in this part the focus is adaptation and change.  Achebe places Okonkwo in exile from his clan, in Mbanta, the land of his mother, and in this section he introduces colonizers- the white man, the albinos as they are sometimes called.  Okonkwo hears about the advent of the white man to Umuofia from a second hand source.  We hear about the advent of the colonizers as readers also through the voice of Obierika who visits Okonkwo during his second year of exile.  It is further interesting to see that even as the missionaries are introduced into the Okonkwo's motherland, Okonkwo relates to them from a distance.  He assumes a very stiff posture of defiance and resistance.  He also just assumes Umuofia is still exactly in the state that he left it.  Let's read that part from chapter 15.    Page 137    We see a white man, presumably a missionary, traveling on an iron horse, which we later will understand to be a bicycle, attempting to engage a local group.  When the clan decides to kill him on the advice of their oracle they provoke a revenge attack from the colonial government they pretty much don't even seem to realize is part of a larger world that now geographically overlaps their self-contained one.      There is a man by the name of Robert Wren who very convincedly, at least to me, argues that Achebe drew on an actual event that happened in 1905 in the villages of Obezi and Eziudo- when he creates the Abame story.  There were two villages about 50 miles south of Achebe's home village of Ogidi which of course is the model for Umuofia- and something almost exactly like this happened there.  The real life incident was actually one of the smaller events that were part of what the British called the campaign of “pacification” in Igboland.    I really love how governments or people out to control you do that- whatever something is called, if a government gives it a name, it actually does the exact OPPOSITE of what it claims to do in the name.  If a government act is called a protection of privacy act, you can be assured that it will in fact invade your privacy; if it's called a freedom act, you can be assured it's meant to enslave someone somewhere and so forth.  If something is stated to promote transparency, it actually is being designed to hide something.    Exactly, and the pacification of Igboland was actually genocide- an act of violence.  But what is even more interesting than that, is that the incident Achebe uses in his story to introduce colonial violence is a small event, comparatively speaking.  Around this same time a much larger event occurred in real life in 1901- one that included the overtaking of a culturally significant oracle and involved the buying and purchasing of slaves to take to other parts of Nigeria.  This event today called the Aro-Chukwu conflict was much wider in scale encompassing over 6000 square miles, involved resistance form the Igbo, but is not referenced at all in Achebe's story.  Christy, why do you think that is the case, if indeed, Achebe is wanting to discuss colonialism and colonial violence?  Why not bring a huge conflict into the story?    Well, I'm going to theorize as to why- but most critics agree that Achebe's story does seem to be comparatively light on colonial violence.  Achebe has been criticized for this.  Some argue that if you are talking about the transition from pre-colonialism to colonialism it should encompass all of the atrocities that were involved?  Some critics say it's because Achebe himself was a product of colonialism and was blind to it.  I absolutely don't think that's the case at all.  In his many essays, he often references colonial cruelty unequivocally.  In his essay “The Education of a British-Protected Child” he says, “Colonial rule was stronger than any marriage.  The Igbo fought in the battlefield and lost.  They put every roadblock in its way and lost again”.     So, here's my thoughts on this- Achebe could absolutely have written a post-colonial novel detailing atrocity after atrocity, arousing sympathy, illustrating man's inhumanity to man in great detail.  He could have written the story of brave men and women resisting this change.  But that is not this story.  This book is not meant to be an example of “anti-colonial resistance”.  Okonkwo is not supposed to Mel Gibson in Braveheart.  Remember, Achebe said he wanted to give his people their voice- to display their civilization- to show cultural equivalents- and so there needed to be a very careful exploration of the issues without letting the outside culture overshadow the Igbo one, in the case here, it's very obvious that the British enter the story but they are not center stage.  His accusation of the British, if you remember, is that they first dismissed his culture as if it didn't even exist, then they came in and hijacked his culture through the colonization process.  What Achebe is not going to do is allow the Europeans here to hijack his story.  This is a story about Igboland, about Africa, and it will stay that way all the way until the very last page where we do see an ironic twist and shift, but that's for later.        It is really a very difficult perspective to take- how do you tell the story of a colonized people without focusing on the colonizer?    Exactly.  And so Achebe's novel takes a few liberties at this point and does not enforce a strict adherence to the exact historical events like you might read in historical fiction.  The Igbo stay center stage, and British are introduced initially indirectly through the voice of a wise and respected native, Obierika.                And next week, we will see just how all of this plays out for the people of Umuofia and the comments on the world that Achebe makes through the introduction of missionaries and eventually colonial government agents and soldiers.     

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 2 - The Clash Of Cultures, Foreshadowing, Irony And Rage!   Hi, I'm Christy Shriver and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.     I'm Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  This is our second episode in our four part series discussing the great Nigerian work Things Fall Apart and its author, Chinua Achebe.  Last week, we looked at the historical context of Nigerian history- pre-colonial up to the colonial period.  We looked, albeit briefly at the life of Achebe himself,  how the book got published, and a little bit about the poem that inspired the title.  We also introduced the great tragic hero of the novel, Okonkwo.  Today, we are going to continue exploring Igboland as we look at some of the cultural traditions that are important to the story, we are going to look at little bit at the structure of the book and hopefully, we will discuss all the way through chapter 7.  Did I miss anything, Christy?    I think that's it, but you never know, we may go down a tangent.  There are so many things we could talk about that would be culturally relevant to understanding this work.  I heard Dr.  Achebe do a question and answer session for the BBC one time and a girl asked a question that stood out to me.  She said something like this, I am an aspiring writer and it is obvious that you have written a story about the unique particulars of your culture, but you also write about universal things that apply to all people.  I think I know how to write about my own experiences, but how do I write about the universal?  His answer was interesting to me because I thought- oooh, I need to write down this tip, maybe I could also write a great world renowned novel.  He said this and I paraphrase, “You can't.  You can only write about your reality, and if it take on universal qualities it is because the work took on a life of its own.”  The poor little girl was likely disappointed in the answer because he couldn't give her a formula.    I'm sure she was, but haven't we talked about this so often before?  And of course musicians are the same way, a writer writes about what he knows and somehow I as a reader or a listener can identify with him/her- their reality touches me, although the setting may be totally different, somehow their world is also my reality.      This is what Achebe wanted to communicate more than anything- the story of the Igbo is a human story- the reality of us all is present in Igboland.  The relationships in the fictional Igbo community of Umuofia and Mbanta between groups with different pigmentation, between genders and between individuals are complex.  And that is really one of the great advantages of novels as opposed to just lectures on culture or history, through novelistic discourse the author is not just telling us information, or explaining rules or models of social and political orders, we are getting someone's unique perspective on them- an understanding of them.  One example that makes me wonder is- What is it like to live in a polygamous society?  The gender politics in this book are unapologetically masculine.  Achebe doesn't apologize for that; he isn't sanctioning it really either as a preferred mode of existence.  It's just the reality.  The story is told in the third person omniscient perspective.  Things were the way they were.      Well, in the case of the Igbo people specifically, it was important to Achebe for the world to understand the unique and deep cultural roots inherent in the way of life in this part of the the world.  This is what the Europeans refused to see and understand when they arrived in Africa.  The people of this land were not savages simply because they didn't live or speak like European peoples.  There was a culture, a deep culture, with a complex religious tradition, moral values, social structures, political structures, and meaningful recorded histories.  As is so often the case with highly educated people even today, there was an arrogance of superiority to which Achebe responds- Just because you don't see or understand something, doesn't mean you are not looking straight at it.      Goodness, I totally understand that.  My very first teaching job right after college was teaching English to business men in Japan.  I worked for a company called Interac in the town of Shizuoka.  Anyway, after I first moved there, I looked around and saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a mall, a Denny's restaurant, and I remember thinking.  wow- well this place is just like the US just in a different language.  A year later, I remembering that thought and thinking about how foolish it was.  The culture of the United States and the culture of Japan are extremely different and the differences are historical, deep and multi-faceted.  When I left Japan after living there only one year, I remember thinking, the only thing I really knew about Japan is that I don't know almost anything about Japan.  The main lesson I had learned over the year was humility.  I had learned that so often did not understand what I was looking at.  When I had entered classrooms at Mitsubishi or Pioneer and saw men and women interact with each other, I had misjudged the dynamics of the groups.  When I had bowed to elders, I had done it all wrong. When I spoke, I had misused words, often accidentally disrespecting people I was trying to honor.  I was seeing things and people, but I had often lacked the lens of cultural understanding to know what I was seeing and engage appropriately.      And this is what Achebe wanted to do for Nigeria in particular, but in some sense for all of Africa.      He wanted to give us a lens of cultural understanding- the metaphor would be a good pair of glasses so we can see clearer and understand what it is we're looking at.     Yes, we mentioned that Joseph Conrad was the one who really inspired him to write his first book, if inspiration is really the right word.  A good place to start today, before we get into the text, I think is to start with Conrad's famous book Heart of Darkness as Achebe's piece, “An Image of Africa; Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness” in some ways is a rebuttal to it.  I'm familiar with Conrad's book, as many of us are, but I haven't read it myself…yet.       Sure, So in 1899, Joseph Conrad wrote a book that has since been considered one of the greatest works in the Western Canon.  It has inspired great artists, like Ernest Hemingway, Francis Ford Coppola and it is even alluded to in popular tv series like Lost.  Pretty much everyone who is serious about reading English language literature reads it.  It explores colonization and imperialism for sure, but it's not just a political book, it explores alienation and ultimately moral corruption.  The reason it caught Achebe's attention is because it takes place in the Belgian Congo.     I do want to point out that the Belgium Congo is generally considered to be the most notorious European colony in Africa, known particularly for the colonizers immense greed and brutal treatment of native people.     Exactly, and in the book, Conrad, just like Tolkien, uses the genre of a quest- but it's kind of an ironic take on the quest – the idea is, and this is a total oversimplification, that “civilization” as the Europeans thought of themselves wasn't as civilized as they fooled themselves into thinking.  People are, in their essence, savage and cruel, as are the most “civilized” cultures- the idea being that at the individual level, the heart of man is deceitful, dark, and unknowable- hence the title- heart of darkness.      It doesn't seem that any of those ideas you just mentioned conflict with anything Achebe believes, and honestly, are similar to ideas in Things Fall Apart.      True, it's not those ideas that offended Achebe.  It was the idea of making the native Africans the outward representation of savagery that he found offensive. Achebe's passion-filled perspective is very interesting to read in its full context.      I'll put a link to Achebe's essay on Conrad on our website with the Things Fall Apart listening guides if anyone wants to read the full essay.        IAchebe often spoke his experience with reading Conrad's book.  It was his epiphany really that inspired his entire career.  When he read the book the first time as a young student, he identified with the colonizers and saw himself as the man on the boat.  He references it as the the seductive power of Conrad's writing ability.  However, when he read it again as an adult, he read it differently- by that point in his life he was a more developed scholar, a more critical thinker really, and that's when it struck him- wait- I'm not on the boat, I'm one of the savages.  I'm an African.  I'm black.  That's when he made the controversial statement that the book is- and I quote- “an offensive and totally deplorable book where Conrad adopted the role of purveyor of comforting myths.”= those are his words.    Well, I can certainly see where he's coming from.      For sure, When. Achebe reads Conrad, he is offended that native people are never given a voice- literally, they just grunt.  He sees that local populations are dehumanized and degraded.  They are seen as grotesque, howling mobs with no culture, no organizational systems, no human feelings of any kind really. And, of course, when I read Heart of Darkness, it's really not deniable that what he says is absolutely the case.    But the way you are phrasing all that, it makes me think you want to defend Conrad.    Well, not me personally- and I'm not sure anyone disagrees with Achebe because his point in some ways isn't arguable , but it's also possible not the whole of it- I've also read other perspectives that also make sense and bring up other issues.  Lewis Nkosi, another black playwright and critic is another interesting voice.  He says this, “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves is not a pretty thing when you look into it.”  In other words, it's a deeper, older and wider spread problem than just colonialism-human conquest is the story of humanity at large, which is also of course true.      In 1899, when Heart of Darkness was published the world was a different place than in the 1950s when Achebe was reading it or even now in 2022.  In 1899 barbaric conquests of people was more visible than how people conquer and control others today, but it's naïve to think we've moved passed any of this.  In general humans just relabel everything using words that we consider more progressive and palatable.    No doubt, although there is a lot of evidence to support Conrad thought of himself as progressive and liberal.  Today he doesn't look that way.  He would be called a racist, an anti-Semite nevermind a chauvinist- if we just want to name-call- and Achebe did want to.  He called Conrad a “bloody racist.”    Well, as I've said many times it is the arrogance of the present that dares us to think we are any different or especially more evolved than people of the past- it's certainly self-righteous to try to censor others as morally inferior. But what's so great about Achebe's name-calling is that it serves a larger purpose- he's not asserting personal superiority- he name-calls to draw attention to a conversation he wants to have- and feels the world should have.  He is no way wants to cancel Conrad.  He's trying to do exactly the opposite- engage him directly.  Achebe's famous essay about Conrad sparked an amazing historical  conversation- one that's important to have.  It never called for censorship of Conrad at all, and today the books are read together.         Which is an incredible difference than the social media exchanges we see today, But that's another conversation.  There's another reason I want to consider Achebe's perspective on Heart of Darkness, and where I want us to start when we engage this book today.  No matter Conrad's personal attitudes towards native people- whether he was or wasn't “a bloody racist' to use Achebe's term , what Conrad writes as he describes what his characters thought as they floated down the Congo river is most definitely an entirely plausible understanding of what a British traveler to the Congo would see and think in the year 1890.  The descriptions ARE realistic.  The Europeans DID see and interpret Africa through a European lens.  What Conrad inspired Achebe to do is to give voices to those natives in Conrad's book who were grunting and howling.  The Europeans didn't understand their words, so they interpreted them as grunts.  The Europeans didn't understand the rites of passages of the culture, the societal organizations that existed in Africa, so they assumed there were none.  What Achebe does in Things Fall Apart is demonstrate the cultural equivalencies.  And that is what I want us to notice as we read the book.  Achebe is saying, you know how Europeans conduct justice; this is how we conduct justice.  You know how Europeans arrange marriages, this is how we arrange marriages.  You know how Europeans live in community, this is how we live in community.  You know how Europeans worship God, this is how we worship God.  What Achebe wants to do is open the eyes of the Europeans and really to the entire world to the complexity and order of the rural societies that seemed so mysterious.      It's also important that Achebe does NOT reduce Africa and Europe to a binary opposition.  He never tries to make the case that Africa is all good, Europe is all bad.  There are men who beat their wives in Africa just like there are in Britain.  There are men who get depressed when their lives unravel in Africa just like there are in England.  There are corrupt Europeans; there are corrupt Africans.  There are missionaries that are good people- there are others that are ignorant; there are Africans that are wise people- but there are fools as well.      Exactly- I like that- he doesn't construct binaries- like Tolkien does.  We don't have orcs versus hobbits- one evil, the other good.  Okonkwo as a character is extremely complex.  He's great but flawed.  Things Fall Apart is not a parable.  I would argue that both Heart of Darkness and TFA are paradoxical and in some of the same ways and make a lot of the same arguments.  In Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz, the white colonizer is actually a genius.  He could have been a great musician or a political leader, but in the jungle by the end of the book, we see sheer inhumanity as he screams out, “Exterminate all the brutes.”  He's both hollow and full.  He has no moral backbone and he disintegrates.  In TFA, Okonkwo is a brave warrior, but he's driven by fear.  He could have a been a revered leader in his tribe.  That's what he wanted.  But he's unable to adapt- he's also hollow and full but in a different way.  We can admire him, but we can also pity him.  He wants so much to be the epitome of manliness, but ironically he commits a female crime.  What Conrad does is show how European values are subverted by African energies; Achebe shows how Africa is subverted by European energies.  Both writers talk about about man's inhumanity to man.      I'm not sure I'd recommend either book for elementary or middle school children to read because they lay out some complicated moral issues that are further complicated one) because they cross-cultures but two) also because no culture is morally perfect in any sort of universally accepted sense- not even murder is universally wrong in all instances.    True, and so Achebe introduces to us some of the complexities of Igbo culture.  One of the fun parts of the book is learning about the culture.  In this story, we're Igbo- we're inside the culture even if we are seeing it from the first time.  His narrative style with this ambiguous third person narrator positions us inside the clan and not as an outsider- So, let's get into some Igbo culture.      Well, in terms of culture, I thought it was fun that Achebe starts with sports, the competitive Missouri boy in me liked that.  Wrestling is to Igboland what football is to the West- be it American football or traditional football.  How much manhood and hierarchy is established through sports?      But more importantly than that- we should notice that unlike Conrad's European observer who couldn't understand anything he saw, we should immediately observe and understand that in Igbo society, there is also a very defined social structure.  The village of Umuofia is one of nine villages in a clan.  The clan lives in a state of equilibrium and relative harmony because of a governance code members follow and enforce.  There are conflicts with other clans, but they are relatively small-scale- Okonkwo boasts at one point that they lost two men in a war but the other side lost twelve.  These clashes however are important.  How a man performs in these wars gives him prestige.  In Okonkwo's case he has taken several human heads in his career and even drinks from one of them.  This gives him respect as a warrior, and  village life is run by a merit-based system- not an inheritance-based system.  The book states early on that in Igbo culture you are not judged by your family but by your own accomplishments.  This, of course, is very different than the class system of Britain or other places in Europe, and something European readers would be quick to pay attention to.  This is actually a highly sophisticated way of developing a social structure.  To many of us today it seems way more fair than some people being positioned in society higher than others because of birth status or other forms of unmerited privilege.      Another thing I notice pretty early on is the role of gender.  Okonkwo assesses his own worth through a comparison of his masculinity with his father.  A childhood friend told him his father was “agbala” another name for a woman- and that is meant to be a bad thing.  Prestige and manliness seem to be the same thing- at least for Okonkwo.  For Okonkwo, that becomes the entire basis of his fear- he doesn't want to look like a girl- and this hyper-masculinism turns out not be a strength at all.  It will lead him to behave in ways we, as readers, may find to be immoral, but also it is going to divide him and his son who isn't interested in this kind of masculinity.  It's also important that Achebe leads us to understand that Okonkwo's drive for extreme masculinity isn't necessarily a value endorsed by the Igbo culture.  One of Okonkwo's friend's, Obierika, who is very likable and wise, repeatedly counsels Okonkwo to be more balanced and later on when Okonkwo is exiled back to his mother's homeland this lack of feminine balance is referenced specifically addressing him.    Another very important cultural trait in the Igbo culture that is highlighted is the importance of titles.  It becomes obvious over course of the book how important titles are.  They are actually things you purchase- I have read one article that in some ways it redistributes wealth.  But the idea is, as you get wealthier and wealthier you can afford to pay for them.  You wear ankle bracelets to show that you have them, and they give you prestige.  And of course, we have all these same things in Western culture as well, we pay for titles, we work for them, and the whole point of them is to give us prestige.  The titles in this book seem strange to us because we are unfamiliar with them, but things like he's the CEO or she's a Dr. confer status in our world as well.  Even things like, she's verified on TikTok, or has a check mark on Twitter are all status symbols in our world that would seem very strange and insignificant to an outsider.  And of course, we wear our titles in the forms of overpriced purses, overpriced cars, overpriced watches- all of these are ways to denote status.  In Umuofia, there are only four, but they fourth one is so expensive it's very rare for someone to have all of them.  Just to give you a little context of how much a title costs, today, one of the titles mentioned in the book is the Ozo title.  I am not an expert in Igbo culture in any way, but I thought I would Google how much that costs today- I saw a couple of figures but one was that a lower title can cost over $25,000.  The point I want to make is that, ranking and status in Igbo society is something that you have control over if you work hard and establish yourself.  It is not arbitrary, and we will see that in many ways as we go through the book.      And of course, we understand that Okonkwo has to start at the bottom.  He is born with no privilege of birth.  The fact that Okonkwo's father dies heavily in debt and has no titles is a source of shame, and building up status is a noble goal.  Okonkwo, for the entire book, tries to build himself up in the most honorable way possible- following the norms of his society.      Another big culture idea in chapter one is the important of the kola nut.  I honestly didn't realize kola as I read about it in the story is the same as cola  as in coca-cola.  Kola nuts are important among all Nigerian people even among Nigerian people who live in other parts of the world.  Wherever the Igbo gather, the kola-nut is always used as a symbol of brotherhood and togetherness.      Kola, of course is the fruit of the kola tree which is native to the tropical rainforest of Africa.  But, as most of us know, one great thing about kola is the caffeine.  Achebe points out very quickly the role of the kola in Igbo life- the Igbo believe that kola is life.  For the Igbo Kola symbolizes peace.  That's why an Igbo man welcomes others in his home with a kola nut and a phrase which translates into English as, “he who brings kola, brings peace.”  There are actually more than one types of kola, but that's getting into the weeds maybe a little more than we have time for, but the important idea is that the kola has a social and even a ceremonial function in the culture and Achebe demonstrates this throughout the book.  The breaking and eating of the kola nut is something we want to notice as we go through the story.     The last big culture point I want to talk about before we talk story- because it shows up in many places is the importance of yams- the king of the crops.  You can see, even if you know nothing about yams, that it serves as a sign of a man's capability as a provider and manhood.  Unoka, Okonkwo's father is a bad yam farmer as well as lazy human being as we learn when the priestess tells him to “go home and work like a man.”  We can also see that it's a path to wealth, but what exactly is a yam?  Are the ones here like sweet potatoes here in the US?    Well, not exactly.  Yams are a tuber kind of like a potato or a sweet potato but they have a different texture and are different in other ways as well, but that's a good way to think of them if you have never seen one.  They are a primary agricultural commodity across a lot of West and Central Africa, but honestly, and you can see this in the story as well, they are very labor intensive to cultivate- even to this day.  They are planted between February and April and harvested 180 to 270 days later in August or September.  They can get very large, and the stages of their growth actually mark the calendar.  If you look at pictures from various Yam festivals across Africa, you'll see some that can weigh over 100 lbs.  Yam Festivals, like we see in Things Fall Apart, are also still a big part of Nigerian culture today.  Christy, if you don't mind, read this quote from Things Fall Apart.  I think it demonstrates the celebratory nature of the festival and kind of reminds me of what we do around here on Thanksgiving and Christmas.    “The pounded yam dish placed in front of the partakers of the festival was as big as a mountain. People had to eat their way through it all night and it was only during the following day when the pounded yam “mountain” had gone down that people on one side recognized and greeted their family members on the other side of the dish for the first time."    You can see a lot of effort and energy associated with the festival.  Children go through cleaning rituals, the streets are fixed up, guests come in, dances are prepared.  It's religious because it's purpose is spiritual, but the spirituality is just one part of it.  It does serve to thank the gods for the harvest, but it's also designed to express gratitude to all of society for their part: friends, family as well as ancestors.  It is also important to note that the goddess Ani, who is the earth goddess is also the judge of morality and conduct.  Again, if we want to make a cultural comparsion to try to understand, here in our religious communities we do this same thing at Christmas- we thank God who also administers moral authority over our lives, but it's also about family and friends.      And of course in TFA, yams clearly symbolize success- wealth- power.  The more barns you have containing yams, the richer you are as well.  If you were a great man, you could feed your family from harvest to the next on yams.  Okonkwo wanted to be a great man, so when his father died, he went to this man for a job.  Let's read this part.  Now that we understand a little about yams and about the kola nuts, maybe we can understand a little more of the cultural context of this exchange.  They drink palm wine too, but drinking wine together as a way of bonding is something most of us no matter where you live in the world understands.      Read pages 18-22.    And that is how he started out his career.     To quote an Igbo proverb, “if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.'  In other words, if a person works hard he can be successful.  One of the core values of Igbo culture is definitely hard work.      Another value of Igbo culture that we see is the art of conversation.  I think it's interesting that Achebe, even though he writes a short book, spends three pages on this one conversation.      “Yes- and to quote another Igbo proverb-  “Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.”  The art of conversation and then later on of oratory are extremely important in this society- ironically something Joseph Conrad's characters completely misunderstood.      Achebe once said in an interview that proverbs are both utilitarian as well as vignettes of art.  This novel puts that on display pretty much on every page.  Achebe tries to write in English but uses a lot of the writing phrases and ways that people express themselves using the Igbo speech patterns.  This is super-complicated to do.  What he is trying to do is use the English language, but strip it away of the entire cultural context of British or American cultures- take away the idioms or anything that would be foreign to Africa.      How is that possible and still create meaning?     It's a challenge for sure, but using African idioms and proverbs was one important tool.   By using a lot of proverbs in the text of the story, not only does it move along the story, but it makes Igbo logic easier for those of us who only speak English.  It's pretty incredible- although it feels so simple when you read it.  You might not understand how intentional you would have to be to write like this.    Another thing the proverbs do for me is help me to understand why things are important to the Igbo.  It's through the proverbs that we see that for the Igbo people- the most important values are things like generosity, duality, reciprocity, humility, industry and tolerance.  They have little proverbs for all of those things. I know we're going to talk about this when we talk about the colonists, but it's interesting that because I've read so many proverbs at the beginning of the novel, I totally understand how these clashes in values leave the Igbo people at a disadvantage when dealing later with the British who in many ways take advantage of these values without reciprocating them.      True- There is a lot more we could say about culture, and obviously we're going to get into it every episode.   We definitely want to feature religion as well as polygamy, but let's shift gears and  talk about Okonkwo again    He definitely dominates the novel.      Yes- Okonkwo IS the story and he's such a complex human. Okonkwo isn't a superhero or exceptional really.  Okonkwo isn't even a likeable person.  Okonkwo is a flawed hero.  He wrestles with issues with his father.  He wrestles with being a father.  He's entirely relatable- all of us have something to identify with in this character.  Maybe we know him. Maybe we are him- at least part of him.      Okonkwo is such an interesting person- and it's kind of surprising that Achebe was bold enough to make his hero so flawed when in some ways he wanted to demonstrate what was good about his home culture.  I like understanding that Okonkwo is not held up as this archetypal image of what a perfect Igbo man is supposed to be.  Achebe painted the portrait of a flawed man- not an ideal one.  Although in some important ways, he does meet criteria of being great man.   He's self-made; he's a warrior.  He's very dutiful to his community.  He has integrity.  There is certainly no one more hardworking than Okonkwo.  But it's the other things about him which of course ultimately make the story tragic.  Okonkwo is rash.  He's impulsive-  excessive.  For a culture that is so bent on balance- there isn't a lot balance about Okonkwo.  He's over the top in many ways- not just one.    True and a lot of what he's over the top about is negative- at least to me.  He's too rageful.  This comes out of chapter 2, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand….page 13-resemble his father”.  Then again in chapter 4 look what he does to his youngest wife…page 29…Okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger…it was the sacred peace.”and then again in chapter 5…”and then the storm burst…he heaved a heavy sigh and went away with the gun.”  Okonkwo flaws would get you in trouble in any culture.  He is a warmonger; he's a bully; he worries too much about what other people think of him.  He's haunted by fear.      The characteristic that stands out more than all of these others is that he lives in mortal fear of being feminine.      So true, this is one man that doesn't want to be in tune with his feminine side at all.  And, this may be the thing- more than any other thing- that dooms him.  Although I know that's debateable.    At the beginning of chapter one, we find out about an ill-fated character named Ikemefuna.  Ikemefuna is a hostage taken from a neighboring clan because of a death his father was directly involved with.  He is sent to live in Umuofia and the clan has designated Okonkwo to be his guard.  For three years he lives as one of the family; Okonkwo treats him as a son and raises him with his own son, Nwoye, who is two years younger than Ikemefuna. Nwoye and Ikemefuna became best friends.  Okonkwo who never shows any emotion except anger likes him.  The text says that Ikemefuna called Okonkwo father.  Ikemefuna blends well with the family and the village, and it seems like this is how life would go for him until one year the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves pronounced that they should kill Ikemefuna.  Ezeudu, the oldest man in that part of Umuofia was the one who approached Okonkwo and broke the news that the clan was going to kill the boy, but he told him that Okonkwo himself should have nothing to do with the killing because of his close relationship with the boy.  The next day a group of elders from all nine villages that made up the clan came to Okonkwo.  When Nwoye and Ikenefuna woke up Okonkwo lied to them and told them Ikemefuma was going home.  Garry let's read what happens as the men take Ikemefuma away to be murdered.    Page 59- “Thus the men of Umuofia pursued their way, armed with sheathed machetes,…' to the end of the chapter.        It's so sad. From a narrative perspective it's interesting for a lot of ways- for one, as you can see Achebe cleverly shifts the perspective and instead of an outside objective observer, we get to see the world from inside Ikemefuna's head.  This technique helps build this emotional climax.  The death of Ikemefuna is a turning point in the novel.  The guardianship of Ikemefuna was a mark of Okonkwo's high position in society- his rise to power.  But his involvement in his killing is the beginning of the decline.  I want to point out here is that we are led to empathize with Ikemefuna- we see his emotions something we haven't seen much of before this part of the book.  Why did Okonkwo murder a child he loved?    One reason might be respect for the gods, but we just read where he beat his wife during the week of peace in defiance of the gods.  So that doesn't seem likely.  What do we know about Okonkwo?    He's rash and solves every problem with brute force.  That's really his go-to.  You don't see him engaging in a lot of dialogue.  He's unfeeling- even towards people he loves.  For Okonkwo, words don't matter, thinking almost doesn't matter, violent action solves everything.    Exactly, this murder scene is set up in direct opposition to this feast of the locust which Achebe cleverly uses as a way to mark an ironic change- let me show you how it's working here .  In the book of Exodus in the Bible, locusts are a plague and come down and destroy the land of the Egyptians, but that's not what we have here.  In this culture, it's a good thing- although Achebe being raised a Christian and knowing he's writing to a Western audience, deliberately plays around with this dual meaning of locust- the locust to the reader can foreshadow future descent of destruction and the irony is that the people don't know it yet.  The locust have descended on Umuofia and it's a joyful thing.  It's free food.  Everyone's excited, drinking wine- and then all of a sudden we have this awful murder.  Okonkwo's rash action is set up against the Igbo culture of great rhetoric and festivity. .  How important is dialogue in this culture- extremely.  Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.  Umuofia prides itself on its great rhetoric but not Okonkwo- he doesn't solve things with words.     Next episode, we'll pick up here beginning in chapter 8 and discuss the after math of this death-filled action. Okonkwo has asserted his manliness, but at what cost? We'll answer that question in the next episode as well as explore more of the culture and faith of the Igbo people as it clashes with the outside forces of Christianity and colonialism.      

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 1 - Meet Nigeria's Most Famous Author , Teacher and Philosopher!   Hi, I'm Christy Shriver and we're here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.    And I'm Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  I am very excited this series on Nigerian author Chinua Achebe and his first groundbreaking book- Things Fall Apart first published in 1958.  There are not many books that have had the kind of positive worldwide impact that this book has had, and the reasons are numerous.      The reasons are numerous.  I first met Dr. Achebe's work late as an adult.  I was teaching English at Bolton High School here in Memphis, and we had just started the IB program or the International Baccalaureate program, a college prep curriculum acknowledged around the world.  In the IB program students must read works from English language writers from around the entire English speaking world, not just from the UK or the US which is what had been traditional for me up to that point in my education even as a teacher.  His was the first book I read from an African writer, and it was impactful for so many reasons, some personal, others academic.  I became like many readers of his work, all of a sudden aware of new way of thinking about Africa or aware of a way I had perhaps thought about Africa, albeit completely unawares.  I have mentioned before that my parents were missionaries and I was raised mostly in Brazil, but for a time we lived in Zimbabwe, Africa.  My time in Zimbabwe was my first experience with the continent of Africa.  My time in Africa had made a strong impression on me.  We lived in a missionary compound in what they called back then “the bush” which means we didn't live in a village or a town; we just lived in the interior.  I had never seen a place like the interior of Zimbabwe.  We lived about 30 minutes away from the town of Gweru.  The first essay I wrote in college was called, “The African Sunset” and it was about how overwhelming just the physical landscape was.  As a 13 year old girl, I would run down the twin-stripped back road for a couple of miles every day.  I still remember many times on my way home, I would look out across the Savannah and just stare at the beautiful sky- the many colors against the savannah.  Since those days, I've always loved Africa.    But Christy, Nigeria is not Zimbabwe nor located anywhere near it on the African continent- correct?    That is absolutely correct- and what a horrible misconception for people that think of Africa as one place- nothing could be farther from the truth.  And you are also absolutely correct in assuming that the landscapes of Zimbabwe are NOT the landscapes of Nigeria- just as the landscapes of Tennessee are not the landscapes of Florida or Minnesota.  There are 54 independent countries in Africa.  Compare that to North America where we only have 23.  Nigeria is in West Africa- it is farther north as well- although you have to remember- much Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere.  Nigeria is in the Northern hemisphere, like the United States of Europe, but Zimbabwe is in the Southern Hemisphere- it's also farther away from the equator than Nigeria so it has a much more moderate climate than Nigeria.      Another big difference is that Nigeria is on the coast while Zimbabwe is totally landlocked.   Exactly,  if you think of Africa like an upside down capital L, think of Nigeria at the bend next to the Atlantic ocean, where as Zimbabwe is way down at the bottom- the second country to the bottom from South Africa.  They are far from each other, but I will say Nigeria, like Zimbabwe has savannahs with all of the amazing wildlife like elephants, hippopotamuses, crocodiles and cheetahs!!  Nigeria just has more variety of climates than Zimbabwe does including a tropical forest that has gorillas.      Another difference from our reality here in North America and an even more complex reality than climate and biodiversity is language. While the majority of people in North America speak either English, French or Spanish as their first and heart language.  That is not the case in Africa.  In Africa, there are more than 2000 distinct languages.  Africa has a third of the world's languages with less than a seventh of the world's population.  Of course Arabic is the most widely spoken language in Africa, but after Arabic, English is the second most widely spoken language.      However, what we need to understand is that English is often not a person's first language.  Many times African students will learn one language at home as in the case of Achebe, that would be Igbo, but English is the language of school and commerce- it's what we call a trade language.  It is not the language of indigenous stories, of traditional music, of the people.    An important point, English has become a trade language for a lot of the world.  Even though over 1.5 billion people on planet earth speak English, only 400 million speak it as a first language.      That's why, even in Brazil, where I grew up, most students will study English as a second language as early as elementary school because most international business will be conducted in English.  It's also why when Achebe first chose to write his books in English instead of Ibgo there was push back.  Was his choice to write in English a betrayal?  You could see it that way, but that's not now he looked at it.  He wanted to his book to be for the world, and so it had to be in a global language.        Well, it certainly accomplished that goal, but the diversity of cultures undoubted has created unique challenges for the continent of Africa as well as a richness of cultural thought and perspective- all of which can be seen specifically in the history and culture of Nigeria.     True, but before we leave my personal experiences I wanted to bring up one other thing about my life; I told you I had lived in Zimbabwe as a child, but I also wanted to mention that my mother was a missionary to Nigeria early in the life of the of the country.  Nigeria became independent in 1960. My mother was an elementary school teacher there in 1968.  When I read Things Fall Apart, although it takes place much earlier, Achebe references clashes with the missionaries and their portrayal is not necessarily.  At first I didn't like that because it felt he was personally aggressing my mother- judging and condemning her.  Her little school was also in the bush outside a town called Oshogbo.  From my perspective as a child of a missionary, I knew that my mother had no desire to gain financially from the people she served.  She did not view herself as a colonizer.  She loved the people.  The missionaries in her mission learned the local languages.  They had a hospital where they provided medicines and much needed services to local people.  My initial gut reaction was to oppose Achebe's portrayal to say- you've got my mother all wrong.   But, of course, that is not Achebe's way-and he makes it hard to argue with him.  His own grandfather was an orphan saved by missionaries, so he understands that reality.  But he also saw his people- beyond the physical loss of patrimony- lose their confidence and culture.  He saw his people see themselves as inferior through financial coercion of Westerners- not just missionaries, but missionaries cannot be excluded from this group.  Some of it not indirectly linked to hierarchies and exclusions of people within his own Igbo system- something he illustrates in the book.  Achebe leads readers to understand things are not simple.  It is also not about any one person.  It is not even about anyone being a good person or being a bad person. It's not about any one group of people.  He is not out to villainize the person of my mother.  He's not out to glamorize the character of Okonkwo.  He wants to tell the story of his people told from his point of view- a point of view from within.  The story of Nigeria, like the story of humanity is messy.  It is a human story.  And the more I read the speeches and non-fiction writings of Achebe as well as the many who have come after him, the more I realize it is humanity that Achebe seeks to express above all else- something I want to get into in a different episode when we talk about his writings on Joseph Conrad.      And It's an important story for the world to understand. The book is more relevant today than it was when he wrote it because technology is shrinking the world but it still has many different languages, worldviews, religions, and value systems.  Also, we are more aware than ever of the tragedies and aggressive nature of human history.   The book seems to resonate because he addresses where on a worldwide scale, and has an informed central vision on how we should proceed forward if something close to peace and mutual respect are ever going to exist.    I think that is why when Achebe finally succeeded in publishing his book (it literally took something of a miracle), it became an instant success- selling millions and has since been translated in over 50 languages worldwide.  There is something universal in all of his writings that resonates intuitively in the heart of every person who reads it even though the Igbo culture is new and maybe even mysterious.  Things Fall Apart was the first book written by an African to be introduced into the English curriculum -even on the continent of Africa.     Since my initial introduction, I have watched him lecture on many YouTube videos.  His persona later in life reminds me of Elie Wiesel's in many ways.  Like Wiesel, he was a soft-spoken man.  He exuded kindness, gentleness and wisdom- after many years of war and conflict in his country, he understood peace and purpose in a special way- in fact, listening to him lecture in some ways reduces some of the world's most complicated problems to a resolvable hope found in humility and forgiveness.    And that is the legacy of the entire story of Nigeria- where we must start as we give context to the book Things Fall Apart and to the life of Achebe. American historian John Patton says and I quote, “Nigeria must be the most complicated country in the world.”  And I don't know if anyone tries to argue differently.  There are 520 different languages spoken there.  There are 100 different ethnic groups.  Nigeria is the ONLY country in the world whose population is split 50/50 equally between Muslims and Christians- neither has a clear majority.  Those facts alone create challenges unparalleled anywhere else on earth.  But beyond that, we must not overlook the incredibly tectonic impact of the British empire as it altered and changed the lives of the millions living not just in Nigeria but all of Africa.      Hence- Things Fall Apart- Achebe was not the first writer to write about Africa, but he was one of the first to publish in English from an African perspective- and his voice was an important one.      As we've mentioned many times before, history is recorded by those who write it down, and in West Africa, where Nigeria is located, history had been written primarily by the British soldiers themselves.  And so, of course, this perspective was always skewed leaving out the perspective of the indigenous people.      Isn't that always the case?    Well, pretty much, but not always.  In India for example, the atrocities of colonialism were much better recorded by Indian nationals, and so they have a higher profile and we have much more knowledge of what happened in India as opposed to the things that happened in West Africa, for example.    Well, the story Things Fall Apart takes place sometime during the final decade of the 1900s in a little village of the Igbo people.  What do we need to know to get to that place?  Tell us about Europe's interaction with that area as well as the people themselves.    Well, that's a very tall order.  But let's start with the make up of the land itself.  So, Nigeria really is culturally divided- today 50% of it is Muslim, 50% of it is Christian.  There is a reason for this and it very much has to do with Europe.  The African slave trade started early- 1500s even.  But Europeans did not really go into the continent.  They only went to the coast and bought slaves.  The Africans didn't want them in the continent so they fought them out but also, Europeans strangely kept dying when they went into the interior.  For centuries they assumed it was the climate; that the heat was killing them.  But in fact, it was malaria, a disease you get from a mosquito- they just didn't know that in the 19th century.  In 1808 , Britain abolished slavery, notice that's almost 60 years before the United States, but Britain still wanted African resources- in Nigeria's case back then it was palm oil.  Today, Nigeria's largest revenue source is its oil, but that wouldn't be discovered until the 1950s.  Anyway, after the abolition of slavery the relationship between Britain and Nigeria went from extracting people from the continent to its natural resources and this was still done through mercantilism- today what we understand as mercantile colonization.  Still, it was still physically difficult for the British to go themselves into the continent.  This all changed when two technologies emerged- one was the steam boat, and the other was quinine.  Quinine was a medicine that treats malaria.  This changed the reality.  And the British companies began to colonize the land- why pay and compete for resources when you can just go take them for yourself essentially is the idea.  In Nigeria's case, this dirty work was done by a company called the British Niger Company today known today as Unilever.  The story of what happened there is too much to get into here, but it's bloody and crooked, as you might imagine. The. British didn't actually revoke the charter of the British Niger Company until the year 1900- this is the year that the British Government actually began to openly colonize Nigeria- this is the outside context where we drop the book.    What about the part of Nigeria where Okonkwo lived specifically.    Okonkwo's village is an Igbo village.  Now we must remember that Nigeria is not just one place, and the Nigerian people are not just one people.  The easiest way perhaps for us to understand this in the Americas is to think of the indigenous people on the American continent.  The Cherokee are not the Arrapaho who are not the Sioux who are not the Iroquois who are not the Hawaiian- every nation has its own unique culture, a language, a way of life.  Some nations are warriors; some are farmers.  In the case of Nigeria, the Northern nations were Muslim and highly organized.  They were ruled by Emir's and these were connected.  When the British colonized Northern Nigeria they asserted indirect control- an easier and less-messy way to colonize.  They controlled the Emir, the emir controlled the people- so the average person was not as aware of the arrangement.  Local people had less contact with white Europeans.  In the South, that was not the reality- especially with the Igbo people;.  The Igbo people historically were very democratic by tradition.  There is a famous saying, “The Igbo knows no king”.  They believed strongly that every free born person had a right to have a say in the running of his society.  The British had a much more difficult time subduing a nation with this kind of de-centralized structure.  Also, as we see in the book, the Igbo as well as the other Southern tribes were animistic.  They had many gods, not unlike the Hawaiians we talked about last week.  We see that in Things Fall Apart as well.  I know we're going to talk about the religion in another episode as well as the relationship with missionaries, but I want say- this was a problem for the British.  There were millions of people all speaking different languages, 500 to be exact, they had no central government and no common religion.  So, the British came in as teachers, both secular and religious.  And in teaching English and Christianity they were successful.  The two most important legacies today of the British are the English language and the Christian religion.  And here is one of life's interesting ironies- today there are more people that speak English in Nigeria than speak English in Britain.  Also, there are more Christians in Nigeria than in Britain and even more surprisingly, Nigeria sends out more Christian missionaries around the world than almost any other nation, in spite of its financial challenges.  The largest Evangelical church in Europe is a Nigerian church.      Things Fall Apart is the beginning of this colonial period.  Some European books make it sound like it was a mostly peaceful thing, and the British were well-received.    Yes- that would be the soldiers accounts.  But that is absolutely NOT the case.  It was bloody and intensely violent.  Whole villages in some cases were wiped out- every person murdered, every structure burned and even every tree flattened.  After the initial war of conquest, there was a secondary wave of indigenous people fighting back called the Ekumeku movement.  This means the silent ones.  They went around at night as guerilla warriors starting in the early 1800s with the Royal Niger Company all the way through 1915.  Also, I might add, often the British would hire warrior nations of the North to come down and subdue Southern nations.  So, you can see this does not unite a people in any way.  It also breeds a culture of corruption.  There should be little wonder that six years after Nigeria won its independence from the British it plunged into a bloody civil war that cost the Igbo alone 3 million lives.      Well, although that's not the context of this book, Achebe has other books that express that continuing story using fiction as the tool of language, but he even wrote a personal memory about the civil war years called There was a Country.      Yes and worth reading.  Let me just add this one thing before we leave the history side of things, although Nigeria has many challenges, some natural, some imported from the colonial experience, it is important to note that the Nigerian story today is in some ways a qualified success and something the world should pay attention to.  By the end of the century there will be ¾ of a billion Nigerians.  Today 2/3 of the population is under thirty.  It is a young country in every way.  The people there are as different as you can imagine, but they do share one belief- they have a desire to preserve their country.  They know they did not create their own borders, but today those borders are sacrosanct.  They know they have cultural and religious differences that have caused more violence than we can ever understand in the West, but today they have innovations to cope with these problems- a federal affirmative action system for example to ensure that no ethnic group is favored above other groups and a presidency that must alternate between one being a Christian to the next being a Muslim and back and forth.  All of these are aimed at forming peace and keeping it.  So, we must respect and understand the history we are reading, but also the promise of the Nigerian Project which the country has purchased at so high a price.      So, going back in time, not to the story but to Achebe's life; he was born in 1930.  His parents, and this should make more sense now, were deeply Christian and raised Achebe as a Christian.  In fact his first name was a British name, Albert- Albert Chinualumogwu Achebe- we'll talk more about that next week.  He read the Bible daily; attended church services, all the things Christian children do.  However, he was also very much interested in his Igbo tradition and that included religion.  His little village, as a child, was half Christian and half traditional in their beliefs.  Achebe's father, a Christian minister, ensured that his son attended English and Anglican schools, but the village life was all around him.  He enjoyed traditional festivals and heard all of the tales and stories of the Igbo.  His mother, although a Christian, told him  many stories, proverbs and traditions that had been handed down through the oral tradition.  So, Achebe grew up a child of two worlds- an Igbo world and the colonial world.  Because he was such an incredibly bright student, he was identified as a student capable of working for the British empire and received scholarships to attend the prestigious University College (now the University of Ibadan) as a medical student.  He hated studying medicine, and instead changed his course of study to English literature.  That was no small decision because it caused him to lose all of his scholarships.  For that degree  he and his family had to pay out of pocket.  It was during those years that he started to write.  One of the biggest influence on Achebe's writing career was his reading of Joseph Conrad's famous novel about Africa- Heart of Darkness.  He had read it even as a child.  "Conrad was a seductive writer. He could pull his reader into the fray. And if it were not for what he said about me and my people, I would probably be thinking only of that seduction,"   Today we would find Conrad's portrayal of any group of people alarmingly offensive.     Of course we would,  and Achebe realized it immediately because they were talking about HIM, his family, his people.  "The language of description of the people in Heart of Darkness is inappropriate," says Achebe. "I realized how terribly terribly wrong it was to portray my people — any people — from that attitude."    Well, his reaction is a model for all of us.  He recognized a bad idea- and he fought it by countering with a better one.  He chose to write and publish his own story- the story of his people from his perspective.      Exactly, years later, he was asked if he thought Conrad's book should be banned.  He was emphatic that the answer was no.  And amazingly, today a lot of English teachers teach both books together.      I love that- don't shut someone up by force- just have a superior idea.    And his superior idea changed the course of not just his life but the trajectory of African literature for all time.  Achebe received over 30 honorary degrees during his life time.  Published political essays, novels, poetry and short stories.  He published Things Fall Apart in 1958 at the age of 27.  He'd worked on it for a long time.  He wrote it out by hand and sent his only copy to a typesetter in England who just sat on it.  It almost got lost.  He has said, if it had, he likely would have never written anything again, but a friend who lived in England got that worked out.  2000 copies were published and the rest is history.  I do want to say, he married a girl named Christiana, but they called her Christy. They were married over 50 years all the way to the time of his death in 2013.    I want point out in 1999 Things Fall Apart inspired and was the title for the fourth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots- and that album went platinum which means it sold over 1 million copies.      I think we can safely say, Achebe had a better idea.  Are we ready to start it..    Sure.  Let's do it.      Things Fall Apart the book starts with an epigraph from a poem by W. B Yeats.  Yeats is a Nobel Prize winning Irish writer.  The poem Achebe quotes was published in 1920- one year after the end of WW1. The name of the poem ironically is “The Second Coming”. As we know from Eliot and many others, this War was supposed to be the war to end all wars but really it murdered millions and created despair in Europe like nothing that had come before it.      Yeat's first stanza starts with these famous first four lines that contain the title of Achebe's book.  Let me read the first stanza of Yeats poem:    Turning and turning in the widening gyre  The falcon cannot hear the falconer;  Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,  The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere  The ceremony of innocence is drowned;  The best lack all conviction, while the worst  Are full of passionate intensity.    The epigraph to Achebe's book is the first four lines.  In its own right it is easily one of the most famous and frequently quoted poems in all of Western literature.  The context in Yeats mind was the realization that basically European society had pretty much broken down.  While some people were optimistic about the future, Yeats wasn't.  He thought the deconstruction of society had left his world in a terribly vulnerable place.  His poem is a terrifying prediction of future violence.  Of course, from our vantage point we know Yeats was absolutely right and Hitler was right around the corner.     Achebe uses these lines as an epigraph to his book.  An epigraph is a short quotation at the beginning of the book.  By using lines from “The Second Coming” as the introduction to his book, Achebe makes parallel between what the Europeans had done in WW1 and what the British had done in Igboland- as European had de-structured Europe and left it devastated, European colonization of Africa had done the same thing.    What's brilliant about that is that Achebe uses the language of the colonizer (literally and figuratively) to enlighten the European heirs of colonialism on the point of view of the people who had been colonized.    Exactly, and it's worth looking  at the poem more closely which we'll do in our poetry supplement, but it is a brilliant parallel. The specifics of the poem are also incredibly relevant to Things Fall Apart.  The poem begins with the image of a falcon flying out of earshot of its human master. In medieval times, people would use falcons or hawks to track down animals at ground level. In actual falconry, the bird is not supposed to keep flying in circles forever; it is eventually supposed to come back and land on the falconer's glove. In this image, however, the falcon has gotten itself lost by flying too far away, which we can read as a reference to the collapse of traditional social arrangements in Europe at the time Yeats was writing- and is how Achebe sees what has happend to the Igbo social and religious structure that had supported his society for hundreds of years.    Yeats will make the argument in his poem that living as Europe was living to use his words, “the center cannot hold” which is exactly the point Achebe is making in Things Fall Apart.. As a result of the colonizing efforts of the British, the Igbo people were stripped of the social or moral rules that had given their lives a center for centuries.      The term “Second Coming” in the poem makes you think you're talking about the second coming of Christ- the one where Christ comes to earth and makes a heaven or a Utopia out of earth.      This, of course, is ironic- because WW1 did not usher in the second coming of Christ with peace and prosperity, but it instead it opened the door to greed, destruction and chaos.  This is Achebe's parallel.  The coming of the Europeans let “loosed anarchy on the world” of Africa to use Yeats words – for Achebe the horrors of imperialism were marked by the coercing and brutalizing of his people fueled again mostly by Greed.  I'm not sure TS Eliot, the king of Allusions could have make a more effective use of the technique.      So, I think that's enough said.  I hope we brought a little of the context of the country of Nigeria, we talked about where Achebe got the title and why he picked it.  Now, let's read the first page of the novel and introduce our hero- Okonkwo.  That is the last piece for setting up this amazing story.  And I know we're getting into a lot of context- but it's necessary.  This book is important; it's groundbreaking, but it's context is so foundational to understanding the complexity of the concept, it must not be overlooked.    Oh, for sure. I totally agree.  Let me read page 1- read through “he had no patience for his father.”    I read one time that one of the questions Achebe was most often asked was why he made his hero so flawed?  Wasn't he supposed to be showing the greatness of the Igbo culture.  Achebe's response is so nuanced and so understated, it's genius floors me.  He said, no.  He had no interest in glamorizing Africa, Ibgo culture.  Africa does not consist of savages; Africa does not consist of angels.  Africa is filled with people.  The cultures of Africa, like every other culture on planet earth are also a mixed-bag.  There is no perfect culture.  There is no perfect place..which is something I think we lose sight of in America, I might say.  We must love and accept all of it.  In Okonkwo's case, Achebe creates  an Ibgo hero.  Now, we've read how the Greeks felt about their heros.  We saw a little hero in Bilbo, but let's look at Okonkwo.  Patrick Nnoromele, who is a member of the Igbo people, says that A hero in the Igbo culture is one of great courage and strength.  A man who works against the destabilizing forces of his community and affects the destinies of others.  His life is defined by contradictions, ambivalence because his actions must stand in shart contrast or ordinary behavior.  A hero cannot exist outside of the community because he has to stand out in the community by definition.  If he is ambitious he has obligations to his society, but sometimes that creates a problem if your self-interest comes in conflict with the society you're in.  This is really a complicated paradox.  So, when we get to Okonkwo, we immediately understand that the single passion of his life is to be of of the lords of the clan.  Acebe says it is his “life-spring” and the first challenge he faces is that his dad is loser.  So, the first chapter sets up Okonkwo in contrast to his father.  His father was a male, but among the Igbo, he was never a man.  In order for Okonkwo to become a hero, the first thing he had to do was overcome his father's reputation.      That's where we will stop for today.  We get more into Igbo culture next week.  I really really love this stuff, so I hope I don't go overboard.  I'm very excited about this book, so I hope you enjoy reading it with us if you haven't already.    Oh, and I love it too.  I've never been to Africa, so this is opening up a new world for me.  I'm excited and look forward to discussing the next few chapters next week…..      Peace out! 

Welcome back to episode 14! In this episode, I discuss the oath-taking practices from Igboland, Nigeria to Southern plantations in the United States. Twitter/Instagram/TikTok: @bythefire_pod Facebook: By The Fire Podcast Support: ko-fi.com/bythefire_pod Email: bythefire.mail@gmail.com

The Osu caste system is centuries long tradition that has negatively impacted the life of many Igbo people who are considered as unfit to join proper society. On this episode, we talk about the origin story and how it has affected many lives till date.

Discussing the age grade system in Igboland - using Abiriba as a case study. Also, playing back some of my favourite fan messages and mails.

Discussing the age grade system in Igboland - using Abiriba as a case study. Also, playing back some of my favourite fan messages and mails. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Discussing the biases about Igboness shared by both Igbos in diaspora and Igbos in Igboland. Plus a shot discuss on Igbo marriages.

Discussing the biases about Igboness shared by both Igbos in diaspora and Igbos in Igboland. Plus a shot discuss on Igbo marriages. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this unapologetically African-centered monograph, Nwando Achebe considers the diverse forms and systems of female leadership in both the physical and spiritual worlds, as well as the complexities of female power in a multiplicity of distinct African societies. From Amma to the goddess inkosazana, Sobekneferu to Nzingha, Nehanda to Ahebi Ugbabe, Omu Okwei, and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020) documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. Chronologically and by theme, Nwando Achebe pieces together the worlds and experiences of African females from African-derived sources, especially language. Achebe explores the meaning and significance of names, metaphors, symbolism, cosmology, chronicles, songs, folktales, proverbs, oral traditions, traditions of creation, and more. From centralized to small-scale egalitarian societies, patrilineal to matrilineal systems, North Africa to sub-Saharan lands, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa offers an unparalleled history of the remarkable African women who occupied positions of power, authority, and influence. Madina Thiam is a PhD candidate in history at UCLA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this unapologetically African-centered monograph, Nwando Achebe considers the diverse forms and systems of female leadership in both the physical and spiritual worlds, as well as the complexities of female power in a multiplicity of distinct African societies. From Amma to the goddess inkosazana, Sobekneferu to Nzingha, Nehanda to Ahebi Ugbabe, Omu Okwei, and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020) documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. Chronologically and by theme, Nwando Achebe pieces together the worlds and experiences of African females from African-derived sources, especially language. Achebe explores the meaning and significance of names, metaphors, symbolism, cosmology, chronicles, songs, folktales, proverbs, oral traditions, traditions of creation, and more. From centralized to small-scale egalitarian societies, patrilineal to matrilineal systems, North Africa to sub-Saharan lands, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa offers an unparalleled history of the remarkable African women who occupied positions of power, authority, and influence. Madina Thiam is a PhD candidate in history at UCLA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this unapologetically African-centered monograph, Nwando Achebe considers the diverse forms and systems of female leadership in both the physical and spiritual worlds, as well as the complexities of female power in a multiplicity of distinct African societies. From Amma to the goddess inkosazana, Sobekneferu to Nzingha, Nehanda to Ahebi Ugbabe, Omu Okwei, and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020) documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. Chronologically and by theme, Nwando Achebe pieces together the worlds and experiences of African females from African-derived sources, especially language. Achebe explores the meaning and significance of names, metaphors, symbolism, cosmology, chronicles, songs, folktales, proverbs, oral traditions, traditions of creation, and more. From centralized to small-scale egalitarian societies, patrilineal to matrilineal systems, North Africa to sub-Saharan lands, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa offers an unparalleled history of the remarkable African women who occupied positions of power, authority, and influence. Madina Thiam is a PhD candidate in history at UCLA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this unapologetically African-centered monograph, Nwando Achebe considers the diverse forms and systems of female leadership in both the physical and spiritual worlds, as well as the complexities of female power in a multiplicity of distinct African societies. From Amma to the goddess inkosazana, Sobekneferu to Nzingha, Nehanda to Ahebi Ugbabe, Omu Okwei, and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020) documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. Chronologically and by theme, Nwando Achebe pieces together the worlds and experiences of African females from African-derived sources, especially language. Achebe explores the meaning and significance of names, metaphors, symbolism, cosmology, chronicles, songs, folktales, proverbs, oral traditions, traditions of creation, and more. From centralized to small-scale egalitarian societies, patrilineal to matrilineal systems, North Africa to sub-Saharan lands, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa offers an unparalleled history of the remarkable African women who occupied positions of power, authority, and influence. Madina Thiam is a PhD candidate in history at UCLA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this unapologetically African-centered monograph, Nwando Achebe considers the diverse forms and systems of female leadership in both the physical and spiritual worlds, as well as the complexities of female power in a multiplicity of distinct African societies. From Amma to the goddess inkosazana, Sobekneferu to Nzingha, Nehanda to Ahebi Ugbabe, Omu Okwei, and the daughters or umuada of Igboland, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020) documents the worlds and life histories of elite African females, female principles, and (wo)men of privilege. Chronologically and by theme, Nwando Achebe pieces together the worlds and experiences of African females from African-derived sources, especially language. Achebe explores the meaning and significance of names, metaphors, symbolism, cosmology, chronicles, songs, folktales, proverbs, oral traditions, traditions of creation, and more. From centralized to small-scale egalitarian societies, patrilineal to matrilineal systems, North Africa to sub-Saharan lands, Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa offers an unparalleled history of the remarkable African women who occupied positions of power, authority, and influence. Madina Thiam is a PhD candidate in history at UCLA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Fola and Feyi discuss the implications of the Imperial Era in Benin and Igboland and the European foreign policy environment in which it happened. They also discuss the fascinating Aro regime which ruled over Igboland and the methods they used to achieve their dominance. They take some very thoughtful questions from listeners to previous episodes as well. Formation is still available to pre-order from Cassava Republic. Please go to nigeria-formation.com to get your copy. There is now an option to pre-order the e-book or the hardback edition. You can also pre-order from Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3aawamc And Foyles UK - https://bit.ly/31SqpWH --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nigeriaformation/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nigeriaformation/support

Daniel besøker, Daniel prater og Daniel is the rightful heir og Igboland.

Womyn, #1 of 4. King Ahebi Ugbabe was unique among the men of Igboland in colonial Nigeria. There weren’t many kings in Igboland at all. But the infrequency of kingship is not what set Ugbabe  apart: more importantly, in a world dominated by councils of old men, where political, social, economic, and spiritual roles were meted out in a complimentary but rigid dual-sex system, King Ahebi Ugbabe was a female who “became a man.” Find Show Notes and a complete transcript of this episode at digpodcast.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Black History Month at Gospel Tangents.  This is our final conversation with Russell Stevenson and we'll talk the LDS Church in Africa.  Did you know that Nigerians in the 1960s and even in the 1950s I learned have asked for LDS missionaries to come teach the gospel to them.  It's pretty surprising that they did this without any LDS presence in Nigeria.  Russell Stevenson will talk more about this in our next conversation. https://youtu.be/QG4Oab2VMDI Russell:  Throughout the 1950s, a number of church leaders are getting letters from various Nigerians across the river in Igboland, elsewhere begging for missionaries, asking for some kind of missionary presence.  The initial response by David O. McKay and others was some level of skepticism.  Maybe they are just looking for an opportunity to make money.  They are just looking for white people to give them business, maybe looking for a new source of patronage now that the British influence was beginning to recede.  By 1960 it was officially turned over to Nigerians. In 1960 David O. McKay and the First Presidency, they send Glen Fisher, who has once been a mission president in South Africa to see what's happening on the ground.  Are these potential converts legitimate?  Do they in fact want to join the LDS Church, or are they just looking for some kind of business opportunity?  Glen Fisher returned with a report that was gushing by saying these people are the real deal.  They crave Mormonism.  They crave the LDS Church. ... So they go there and they come away with the same conclusion that Glen Fisher had come away with, that these people are the real deal.  They are legitimate.  They in fact crave Mormonism.  In fact Lamar Williams went further.  He said, “Ultimately we cannot keep the priesthood from these people.”  Essentially it's only a matter of time. GT:  What year is this? Russell:  This is in 1961. GT chuckles:  '61.  That's pretty prophetic! Russell:  Yes.  I should note too, this isn't the very first time you have Nigerians communicating this kind of thing to missionaries.  We have evidence all the way back to 1950 of a Nigerian reverend approaching missionaries in New York City asking for a missionary presence.  This is all throughout the post-war period.  I'm only talking about the period in which the activity is most sustained. Find out more about what happened with the LDS Church in Africa!  I hope enjoyed our previous conversations with Russell on Elijah Ables, his mission, the temple/priesthood ban, and his attempts to get his endowment.  Check out all of these episodes for #BlackHistoryMonth!…..  

Along with Frederick Douglass, the most famous slave in history was probably Olaudah Equiano.  On Equiano’s Middle Passage, he shared space belowdecks with other Africans from possibly dozens of ethnic groups, speaking different languages. Once loaded into the ship’s hold, they were all outsiders.Music by Kai EngelFurther ReadingsRobin Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800. London: Verso. 1997.Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History. London: Penguin Books. 2007.Vincent Caretta. Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man. London: Penguin Books. 2005.Selections from Snelgrave: “Slavery’s Defenders vs. the First Abolitionists” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Igboland (Nigeria), Catholic couples who at the time of death are living in irregular marriages, i.e. without observing the canonical form of marriage (Church marriage) which is binding on all Catholics - these people are denied ecclesiastical Funeral Rittes. And this is so irrespective of any amount of attachment or remorse the person or persons may have shown while living (in accordance with c. 1184 CIC). With the aid of the Code of Canon Law, the teachings of the magisterium, cultural as well as traditional arguments and relevant tools for the interpretation of Canon Law, the author has been able to prove and come to the conclusion that there is no legal, moral, liturgical or cultural justification for this denial. He calls on the Church authorites in Igboland to stop this practice which by the way is no longer practiced elsewhere in the universal Church so as to offer pastoral relief to bereaved families who look unto the Church for consolation at their time of grief.

When I saw Nwando Achebe‘s book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011), I thought: “Really? A female king? Cool!” It turns out Ahebi Ugbabe was not only a female king, but also a female husband and father. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ahebi Ugbaba was born late in the nineteenth century in Igboland, in present-day Nigeria. She fled home to escape her community's dedication of her in marriage to a deity to compensate for a crime her father had committed. The marriage would have reduced her to the status of a slave. After twenty years as a prostitute and trader in exile, she returned and established herself: first as headman, then as warrant chief, and finally as king. For a biological woman to transform herself into a social man was a familiar practice in Igboland. But for anyone to be chief or king was not. The Igbo had practiced communitarian rule by groups of elders; it was the British who imposed rule by a single person. It was perhaps inevitable that Ahebi's rule would be troubled. The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugabe is a fascinating exploration of the fluidity of gender and the nature of political authority. And it's a remarkable reconstruction not only of colonial rule at the local level, but also of pre-colonial life and post-colonial memory. I highly recommend Nwando Achebe, Professor of History at Michigan State University, is the winner of both the Barbara “Penny” Kanner Prize and the Gita Chaudhuri Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I saw Nwando Achebe‘s book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011), I thought: “Really? A female king? Cool!” It turns out Ahebi Ugbabe was not only a female king, but also a female husband and father. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Ahebi Ugbaba was born late in the nineteenth century in Igboland, in present-day Nigeria. She fled home to escape her community’s dedication of her in marriage to a deity to compensate for a crime her father had committed. The marriage would have reduced her to the status of a slave. After twenty years as a prostitute and trader in exile, she returned and established herself: first as headman, then as warrant chief, and finally as king. For a biological woman to transform herself into a social man was a familiar practice in Igboland. But for anyone to be chief or king was not. The Igbo had practiced communitarian rule by groups of elders; it was the British who imposed rule by a single person. It was perhaps inevitable that Ahebi’s rule would be troubled. The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugabe is a fascinating exploration of the fluidity of gender and the nature of political authority. And it’s a remarkable reconstruction not only of colonial rule at the local level, but also of pre-colonial life and post-colonial memory. I highly recommend Nwando Achebe, Professor of History at Michigan State University, is the winner of both the Barbara “Penny” Kanner Prize and the Gita Chaudhuri Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I saw Nwando Achebe‘s book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011), I thought: “Really? A female king? Cool!” It turns out Ahebi Ugbabe was not only a female king, but also a female husband and father. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Ahebi Ugbaba was born late in the nineteenth century in Igboland, in present-day Nigeria. She fled home to escape her community’s dedication of her in marriage to a deity to compensate for a crime her father had committed. The marriage would have reduced her to the status of a slave. After twenty years as a prostitute and trader in exile, she returned and established herself: first as headman, then as warrant chief, and finally as king. For a biological woman to transform herself into a social man was a familiar practice in Igboland. But for anyone to be chief or king was not. The Igbo had practiced communitarian rule by groups of elders; it was the British who imposed rule by a single person. It was perhaps inevitable that Ahebi’s rule would be troubled. The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugabe is a fascinating exploration of the fluidity of gender and the nature of political authority. And it’s a remarkable reconstruction not only of colonial rule at the local level, but also of pre-colonial life and post-colonial memory. I highly recommend Nwando Achebe, Professor of History at Michigan State University, is the winner of both the Barbara “Penny” Kanner Prize and the Gita Chaudhuri Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I saw Nwando Achebe‘s book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011), I thought: “Really? A female king? Cool!” It turns out Ahebi Ugbabe was not only a female king, but also a female husband and father. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Ahebi Ugbaba was born late in the nineteenth century in Igboland, in present-day Nigeria. She fled home to escape her community’s dedication of her in marriage to a deity to compensate for a crime her father had committed. The marriage would have reduced her to the status of a slave. After twenty years as a prostitute and trader in exile, she returned and established herself: first as headman, then as warrant chief, and finally as king. For a biological woman to transform herself into a social man was a familiar practice in Igboland. But for anyone to be chief or king was not. The Igbo had practiced communitarian rule by groups of elders; it was the British who imposed rule by a single person. It was perhaps inevitable that Ahebi’s rule would be troubled. The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugabe is a fascinating exploration of the fluidity of gender and the nature of political authority. And it’s a remarkable reconstruction not only of colonial rule at the local level, but also of pre-colonial life and post-colonial memory. I highly recommend Nwando Achebe, Professor of History at Michigan State University, is the winner of both the Barbara “Penny” Kanner Prize and the Gita Chaudhuri Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I saw Nwando Achebe‘s book The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (Indiana University Press, 2011), I thought: “Really? A female king? Cool!” It turns out Ahebi Ugbabe was not only a female king, but also a female husband and father. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Ahebi Ugbaba was born late in the nineteenth century in Igboland, in present-day Nigeria. She fled home to escape her community’s dedication of her in marriage to a deity to compensate for a crime her father had committed. The marriage would have reduced her to the status of a slave. After twenty years as a prostitute and trader in exile, she returned and established herself: first as headman, then as warrant chief, and finally as king. For a biological woman to transform herself into a social man was a familiar practice in Igboland. But for anyone to be chief or king was not. The Igbo had practiced communitarian rule by groups of elders; it was the British who imposed rule by a single person. It was perhaps inevitable that Ahebi’s rule would be troubled. The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugabe is a fascinating exploration of the fluidity of gender and the nature of political authority. And it’s a remarkable reconstruction not only of colonial rule at the local level, but also of pre-colonial life and post-colonial memory. I highly recommend Nwando Achebe, Professor of History at Michigan State University, is the winner of both the Barbara “Penny” Kanner Prize and the Gita Chaudhuri Prize of the Western Association of Women Historians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices