Igbo Culture

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart depicts the Igbo culture and way of life, including both the positive and negative aspects of life in Umuofia. One of the more noticeable negative aspects of Igbo culture is violence. The Igbo culture is quite violent when compared to Western civilization. This violence is included in the novel in order to give the reader the most unbiased image of Umuofia as possible. David Hoegberg criticizes this use of violence, pointing out several occasions where its use contradicts other Igbo rules or practices. Although some of the violence depicted in the novel is unnecessary, none of the violence that contradicts Igbo customs is left unpunished.
The first example of violence that Hoegberg cites in his article, “Principle …show more content…
By examining the circumstances that lead to Ikemefuna being taken from the village of Mbaino, the author has determined that there exists a principle that “villagers should not kill aliens or visitors in their midst” (Hoegberg 60). Hoegberg claims that this principle was violated when Ikemefuna’s original father kills a woman from Umuofia, which leads to Ikemefuna being taken from Mbaino. When Ikemefuna is killed three years later, Hoegberg states that “[f]or Umuofia to punish this crime by taking a boy from Mbaino into their midst and killing him is to violate the very principle they would appear to be enforcing, thereby spoiling the peace they meant to preserve” (Hoegberg 60). However, the killing of Ikemefuna was entirely within principles of the Igbo culture. If this principle of not killing visitors is indeed present in Igbo society, it is not violated, because Ikemefuna has become a resident of Umuofia. After living there for three years, Ikemefuna “gradually became popular in Okonkwo’s household, especially with the children. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, who was two years younger, became quite inseparable from him because he seemed to know everything” (Achebe 28). Nwoye’s attachment to his new adopted brother shows just how well Ikemefuna has been assimilated into the village of Umuofia. He becomes Okonkwo’s favorite child, earning honors like carrying Okonkwo’s stool for …show more content…
This practice is the primary reason that Okonkwo is so respected among the people of Umuofia; although his father was lazy and did not work hard, Okonkwo was able to be judged independently from Unoka and become a successful man. Hoegberg believes that this principle was completely ignored when Ikemefuna is sent to Umuofia after his father kills a woman. He claims that “[t]he boy himself is innocent of any wrongdoing but he is not selected at random from the young men of the village. He is judged according to the worth of his father” (Hoegberg 60). However, the novel does not specify who exactly this principle applies to. It is unknown if the term “these people” applies to just Umuofia or to all of the Igbo. In the novel, Okonkwo never selects Ikemefuna and the other girl to take back to Umuofia with him. This is revealed when Achebe is describing the aftermath of the murder of the woman: “An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between war on one hard, and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation” (Achebe 11). If this principle does not apply in Mbaino, then they are not breaking anything. They have chosen to punish both Ikemefuna’s father and Ikemefuna himself by sending him away to Umuofia. Perhaps in their

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