Ibo's Tragic Flaw

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The Road to Colonization The British succeeded in colonizing Nigeria. The Christian missionaries succeeded in laying the foundation for British rule. The Ibo tribe of lower Nigeria succeeded in letting the missionaries gain a foothold in their society, and as a result they lost much of their cultural identity under the rule of the British. However all of this might not have happened if it was not for the ethically flawed basis on which many of the Ibo’s native customs rested. As demonstrated in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, these customs undermined the Ibo society’s unity during the time they needed it most. On the surface the Ibo society was healthy and lively. They had their own religion, traditions, and system of political organization. They even had secret societies that helped enforce unwritten codes of conduct. Members of the secret societies would disguise themselves as the spirits of ancestors. These secret societies (such as the “egwugwu” in Things Fall Apart) would decide disputes and mete out justice for crimes as they saw fit (Moss 361). However this system of justice had a couple of problems that combined to serve the interests of the missionaries. First, the members of the secret societies were also usually prominent members of the Ibo community. Any decision they made would be affected by their relationship with the people involved. They also might have a vested interest in the issue. Second and more importantly, some crimes were punished whether they were accidental or not. This is shown in Achebe’s novel when Okwonko accidentally killed a man in his village. According to their religion, Okwonko must live in exile for seven years. This sets Okwonko’s friend Obierika wondering. “Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently?” (Achebe 125). Okwonko’s harsh punishment for a complete accident has sown
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