ABSTRACT
Three-quarters of the way through Chinua Achebe’s remarkable novel, Things Fall Apart, there is an important homecoming. The headstrong protagonist Okonkwo, exiled from his village of Umuofia for seven years, returns to find that things have changed dramatically during his absence. It is the 1920s and the British are establishing their influence. While Okonkwo was gone, missionaries and colonial administrators have made considerable inroads into this Igbo community, challenging and even outlawing many traditional customs and ways of life – and the village leadership is no longer united in the face of this alien influence. New laws have been put in place, and community leaders have been arrested by colonial functionaries who are backed by superior weaponry. The ‘abominable religion’ of the newcomers is undermining traditional beliefs, shrines have been desecrated and internal divisions are fragmenting villages and families.
