Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Silencing and Subjugation

Name of Author : Dr. Anju Bala

Abstract: Things Fall Apart is considered the masterpiece of Chinua Achebe, which is a masterful attempt to reclaim African history which has been perverted by Europeans in their colonial past. A critical reading on the other hand shows that structural unity of pre colonial Umuofia depends more on internal processes of domestic silencing and systemic subordination. In this research article, the duality of oppression in the novel is explored, in which the elements of patriarchal organization within the Igbo society intersects the external forces of British imperialism. Working via the tragic archetype of Okonkwo, the text shows how this hyper masculine ideal imposes the process of internal emotional vulnerability being silenced, delegating women/outcasts (osu) and non conforming people to the subalternity. Such oppression internally leads to structural weakness in Umuofia and the British colonial apparatus coming in takes advantage of this vulnerability with its own laws and administration. Through close reading the conditions of characters, including Nwoye, Ekwefi, and the muted outcasts, this paper attempts to argue that the demise of Umuofia was not merely the result of an external conquest, but that internal social rifts hastened its demise. With postcolonial and feminist perspectives, this paper reveals how Achebe reveals the horrific human price to an unforgiving social structure, which puts power above the human being.

Keywords : Colonial Imperialism, Intersectional Subjugation, Domestic Silencing, Patriarchal Hyper masculinity, African Postcolonialism.

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