'He has put a knife on all things that held us together and we have fallen apart' (Things fall apart, page 156, Chinua Achebe). I have taken this quote as the best illustration of how colonisation destroyed indigenous cultures in Africa and in particular Nigeria. I also look at the experience of colonisation in Kenya and the power struggle during the Mau Mau rebellion, which was brutally put down by the British. Colonisation is the intention of one people to exploit another for the purposes of gaining both territory and economic benefit through occupation (benign or brutal) and suppression of the country's indigenous population, usually codifying them as people devoid of intellectual capacity and in need of the steadying hand of western influence. In the early 19th century Europeans looked towards Africa as offering access to new resources and extending territory for the purposes of settling an expanding European population.
I will be looking to analyse themes of power and power relations in the works of Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart, Chimamanda Adichie in Half of a Yellow Sun and Ngugi wa Thiong'o in A Grain of Wheat. It is interesting to note that 'Achebe called for a rejection of the term universal as applied to African literature, arguing that the term simply masked the narrow, self-serving parochialism of Europe' (Post Colonial Criticism, p. 20). In my opinion, these three novels carry their fare for all to see; they are overtly political, and in spite of any amount of effort put into purely critiquing their literary content, one will eventually be led back to the political overtones; in fact the writers are committed to their political content. This essay therefore will hold the politics to the foreground.
In Nigeria, the things that held the tribal cultures together were precisely the close bonds of their tribe (their clan kinships), their unified allegiance to their gods and the expression of the more functional democracy practiced by tribal society, which placed emphasis on justice and fairness arrived at through a general consensus by the village council.
At the turn of the 20th century a lot of European writers based their writings on anthropologies of African exploration that consciously ignored the effects of European colonialism on Africans. In Things Fall Apart, which is a landmark in African writing and which describes the effect of colonisation leading up to independence in 1960, Achebe sought to change the imbalance of a Eurocentric ideology and tried to address past pejorative representations (such as Joseph Conrad's fictional character of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness which symbolically represents the Congolese as 'savages').
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o also writes about the need for Africans to reject the 'Eurocentric ideology,, underpinning the importance of African Literature written in the mother tongue, so that one has a more intuitive understanding about their ideologies and culture. Even though European centrism had a significant impact on world literature, 'Ngugi and his co-authors emphasize the importance of the oral tradition, Swahili literature, and the Caribbean novel and poetry' (On the Abolition of the English Department', 1968), to paint a more lucid picture of what colonisation actually brings to the indigenous population and give them a chance to archive their history from their own perspective rather than that of the colonisers. Achebe in contrast, opted instead to tell the story of the Igbo in English, as a way of deliberately drawing in a western audience so that they could more deeply identify with the Igbo people, while still using language that the Igbo themselves use; words such as 'kwenu, (a shout of approval and greeting) and 'chi' (a personal god).
Half of a Yellow Sun explores the effects of the Biafran war of seccession (1967-70) immediately prior to and during the civil war. A documentary style is adopted by the author as Adichie herself had no frontal experience of the war. She relied on the reading of books and interviews of people she knew from the days of secession to provide the background. Thus fiction and fact becomes blurred within the novel. However, Adichie herself writes from a very privileged (Harvard-educated) perspective and the history she writes of has perhaps been corrupted by the western values she has undoubtedly internalised. Achebe makes this point about African writers from privileged backgrounds, which I refer to in greater detail later in this essay. Gayatri Spivak too, her essay 'Can the Subaltern speak? explains how 'dependence upon western intellectuals to "speak for" the subaltern condition rather than allowing them to speak for themselves', creates a question mark on the credibility of the author's work (Political Discourse, see bibliography).
In A Grain of Wheat Ngugi writing very much within the oral tradition of storytelling, describes the experiences of five friends as the Mau Mau rebellion erupts in colonial Kenya in the 1950s (the title of the book refers to the rebellion aka 'The Movement', whose strength was born of its identification with rural Kenya). Ngugi refers to the initial encounter with the white man through the arrival of missionaries and describes them as 'strangers with a scalded skin...skin so scalded the black outside had peeled off' (p.10). The missionaries tried to convert the indigenous people with a 'faith foreign to the ways of the land' (p.11) and this deliberate enticement away from attachment to their soil, eventually sparked off rebellion.
Nigeria is particularly interesting as colonisation has never been fully or successfully implemented in this artificially created nation (created by Britain in 1914) As Katy Hughes puts it 'the arbitrary drawing of borders which was so common to Africa in colonial times paid little attention to the natural ethnic lines of the tribes.' (Causes for Conflict in Nigeria, April 2008)
There has been tension in the region of Nigeria both before and since independence in 1964. The success of British colonisation rested on the idea of co-opting Africans themselves to put in positions of power; but the British remained unaware the Igbo were unfamiliar with the idea of a 'chief' or 'king' as their society had always been based on general consensus through discussion and debate. The Igbo therefore did not understood the role of imposing power from above or the way in which the British singled out those they enrolled to exert power on their behalf. The British tried to instil a sense of loyalty to the western style government it set up in Nigeria but this only created further confusion for Nigerians who felt their loyalty split between that of British demands and their own tribal roots and loyalties, e.g. Katy Hughes again, 'whilst the Western world regarded them all as Nigerians, they considered themselves as primarily members of whichever tribe from which they originated'. (Causes for conflicts in Nigeria)
But integrating Eurocentric imperialistic schemes realistically creates problems, as Katy Hughes points out 'Capitalism inevitably creates high levels of competition and with individuals' natural loyalty being attached to the tribes, division became further drawn along ethnic lines' (Causes etc). This is particularly true in Half of a Yellow Sun with the portrayal of the twin sisters (Olanna and Kainene), who are both products of the new bourgeoisie in Nigeria. Even though they are valued as daughters, they are still used as commodities, where Olanna becomes Odenigbo's mistress, a respected Nigerian lecturer.
Another important colonizing tool used by the British was the establishment of a western style education that used only English as means of communication. Achebe is openly critical of other African writers who not only have been the beneficiaries of a western education, but no longer speak their native tongue. He feels that the privileges these writers gained are used in a subtle way to discredit the very ideals of the indigenous people that they apparently endorse. 'Does the white man understand our customs about land' asks Onkonkwo and is answered 'how can he when he does not speak our tongue' (Things fall apart, p.124) In his book Decolonising the Mind: The politics of Language in African Literature (1986), Ngugi also wrote 'that African writers should express themselves in indigenous languages in order to reach the African masses'. Adopt, Adapt and Adept theory talks about the idea of colonised nations taking on some of the colonial discourses (like the novel and poetry) and reworking them for a new and specific purpose: to oppose the Eurocentric position.
Adichie is the product of a Harvard education and having spent most of her life outside of Nigeria is one of those beneficiaries referred to by Achebe. Consequently, in Half of a Yellow Sun there is some stereotyping in the description of middle-class characters - Odenigbo, the radical maths lecturer; the twin sisters, Olanna and Kainene, whose relationship subtly echoes that of the warring political groups; Richard, who sees himself as a white Biafran but who is not prepared to stand and fight. However, Adichie, I feel, also recognizes this ambiguity and attempts to counter it with the portrayal of Ugwe, the simple house boy taken in by Odenigbo, who through his experiences during the war renders him the only true Biafran capable of writing its history (see further below).
The British neither spoke nor learned to speak Igbo (or indeed other African languages) adequately and demanded that those occupying official positions speak only English, all of which naturally created a powerful tool of control. In Things Fall Apart on page 98, Achebe describes the first white man killed because of the language barrier.
This insistence on only English being spoken created a net of attitudes towards material wealth and corrupted those Nigerians and Kenyans who were attracted to the additional benefits of position, power and high income. A relationship with a definite victim and oppressor, according to Achebe (Post Colonialism Criticism) is a disempowering one for the labelled victim, so topography is all important. For Ngugi, the ways in which the politicians, not the fighters or their families, are the true benefactors of the rewards on independence are a particular cause for bitterness.
In both Half of a Yellow Sun and A Grain of Wheat those corrupted by their relationship to the oppressor are the first to fall victim when trouble strikes. Odenigbo, the "revolutionary freedom fighter" with his endless certainty and self-belief, precisely because of his sophisticated education at the hands of the British is the first to succumb to drink and despair as soon as the suffering of Biafra becomes acute.
In A Grain of Wheat, Karanja chooses to support the more powerful British masters and behaves like a bully with his own people. There is a nice illustration of this on page 35 when Karanja shouts at another African to knock louder when announcing himself at the door but who himself is shouted at by Major Thompson as knocking too loudly when he in turn appears at the major's door. Karanja lived on the good name he had built up for himself with the white people - "He lived on that name and the power it brought him" (p.36) but his fear of the British and of the vulnerability of his position is always present; "his heart would thunder violently when he came near the white man". Karanja, of course, goes so far down the road of appeasement that when he comes to shooting his own people, "it made him feel a new man, a part of an invisible might, whose symbol was the whiteman" (p.199)
Religion was also used to devalue tribal culture and impose western 'white' ideals. The Igbo believe that their ancesters kept a close watch on them. One of their most profound beliefs is that it was a benevolent creator, called Chukwu, who created the universe (known as uwa to the Igbo). There are also many smaller less powerful gods who both protect and demand allegiance from the clans. However, with the advent of the missionaries, the white man tried to impose their own idea of 'God' and what must be done to please him. The British exercised a shift of power through showing how their knowledge was so much greater than that of the tribes. Ritual, magic, belief that the spirits of their forebears were actively present in their lives, were all ignored by the British. When the Igbo were confronted by the reality that the British remained unaffected by any of their powerful taboos, they became vulnerable to the idea of the white man's 'superior' magic and their own beliefs become discredited.
When one of the tribe in an over-zealous act of conversion kills and eats a sacred python in Things fall Apart, (p.135), Okonkwo, himself a Christian, feels that things have gone too far and burns down a church in retaliation. This in turn results in Okonkwo and his council, being brought to justice by western laws. The next obvious stage, of course, in the colonisation strategy was to enforce rules and laws and thus made an example according to the idea of 'white' justice and hung a man for killing a missionary (p.110).
In A Grain of Wheat the missionaries attracted the Gikuyu (Kenya's largest ethnic group) to their faith with talk of the then Queen Victoria as the all powerful white woman who "sat on the throne while men and women danced under the shadow of her authority and benevolence" (p.11) A matriarchal society was one already known in Kenya (in the past women had been leaders and "ruled the land of the Agikuyu" (p.11). Then came the arrival of strangers 'not with bible but sword' (p.12).
The third strand of the colonization process was to expose tribal society and self-government as 'naive', unsophisticated and unequal to the ideals of government as envisaged by the British. Achebe depicts the Igbo as a people with great social institutions. They place great concern on justice and fairness, and are ruled by a much more functional democratic system than England, who were governed at the time by a monarch. Both Achebe and Ngugi show an indigenous culture rich with traditions and laws.
The pun on palm oil (on page 5), shows how Igbo conversations and way of talking is done at social and democratic functions and at the same time, also demonstrates the exploitation of palm oil in southern Nigeria. Unlike the British who were prepared to beat people with sticks if they spoke or acted out in overt ways (page 5 again), Nigeria had already in place a full democratic structure with freedom to express contrary views. However, the British tried to discredit the power of the clans by insisting on the better knowledge and understanding of white people in the world. It was considered important to alter the perspective of how these 'natives' think, and thus use their very ignorance as a weapon of corruption;
The image of using the stick as weapon of punishment is echoed in A Grain of Wheat when van Dyke quoting Dr Albert Schweitzer (who said "the Negro is a child and with children nothing can be done without the use of authority" (p.55)) continues "one must use a stick. No government can tolerate anarchy.......savagery (an interesting correlation!). Mau mau is evil. (This) movement if not checked will mean complete destruction of values on which our civilisation has thrived." (p.55) It is interesting to note that Dr Schweitzer represents contemporary thinking of the day that would now be regarded as utterly racist!
In Half of a Yellow Sun, the Nigerian lecturers at the university think of themselves as sophisticated, knowledgeable people far removed from the experience of Ugwe, the innocent and barely educated house-boy, who takes pride in his cooking and cleaning but begins to develop as he listens of the talk of his 'master' and lecturer friends and reads voraciously. Ugwe is portrayed at the beginning as reactive, rather than active; nonetheless at the end of the book it falls to Ugwe to write about the war
Through Ugwe's forced conscription he has moved from a position of reaction to action. However, this involveds him in the rape of a bar girl (p.365) which provokes a terrible shame in him. He is, in fact, the only valid character to have the right to talk of the Biafra experience. As Richard puts it, 'This war isn't my story to tell really and Ugwu nods. He had never thought that it was.' (p.425) It is because Ugwe retains his own identity that has not been 'tainted' or altered by exposure to western idealism.
Richard, is a 'white liberal' who identifies with the Biafrans through his relationship with Kainene.; but it is his over-weaning dependence on Kainene as his means of self-fulfilment that prevents him for understanding the role of the British-funded Nigerian squeeze on Biafra. "White racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unremarked'. (Postcolonial Theory, Contexts, Practices, Politics, (p.173). As Odenigbo points out on p. 204 of Half of a Yellow Sun, 'it is the white man (who) brought racism into the world. He used it as a basis of conquest. It is always easier to conquer a more humane people'.
The characters in this novel are constantly pushed to their limit, but their inability to take control and instil stability reveals their lack of identity. This is the true effect of colonialism (the deliberately encouraged confusion of identity) and shows how a country once exposed to the west can never turn back. 'White culture was regarded (and remains) the basis for ideas of legitimate government, law, economics, science, language, music, art, literature - in a word, civilization.' ro(Robert J.C. Young, post-colonialism, a very short introduction)
In the final chapter of Things Fall Apart, Achebe writes of the commissioner who intends to write a "sociological-anthropological narrative of Africa" (Nahem Yousaf, Chinua Achebe in the series, Writers and Their Work, p.38) denying Okonkwo, one of the greatest warriors of his tribe, the right to represent his tribe's struggle to oppose European influence by consigning him not even to a "chapter but perhaps a reasonable paragraph, at any rate" (p.148). The commissioner's book, "The Pacification of the primitive tribes of the lower Niger" itself reveals the level of white condescension towards the natives who they saw as little more than helpless infants. The tone here is highly ironic since it is the colonialist values expressed by the commissioner in the first place that has caused all the ensuing distress.
In Grain of Wheat, the constant evocation of white superiority is always present. "You people" is an oft-used phrase of contempt (p.39, 42, 138) and another example is found on pg.48 when Margery Thompson complains to her husband "I suppose they're Africanising everywhere now". She is concerned about her possible loss of privilege as "no other place had given her such a sense of release, of freedom, of power" (pg.50). It is also illustrated in the paternalistic attitude of Dr Lynd, scolding her house-boy one moment, giving him presents the next (pg.45) in a pure exercise of control and power. Van Dyke, the white settler and white supremacist declares on pg.54 "to be English is basically an attitude of mind: a way of looking at life....at the just ordering of a society superior of course in every way to native society". Keeping the idea of white superiority constantly to the fore reinforced the negative self-image of the Kenyans.
Throughout the period of colonial rule, those colonized, continued to contest this domination, through many forms of active and passive resistance and the Europeans sought equally to abolish any form of threat towards their own ideologies.
In the late 19th century this resistance against Europe evolved into coherent political movements and through most of the 20th century, nations affected took up this struggle and seemingly eventually triumphed against colonial rule.
However, even today although not referred to in the same terms, we see Americans actively encouraging its own hegemony. Iraq, economically important to the west because of its oil reserves, has been rendered completely dependent on American political intervention and thus no longer capable of making decisions in its own interests. Afghanistan, strategically important to the west because of its oil pipeline has been the intense focus of both Russian and American imperialism. Nigeria and Kenya too continue to flounder under the impact of British colonialism that has changed the face of their countries for ever.
