Chinua Achebe and the Feast of Paradoxes

By

Obododimma Oha

Where does one begin: is it from the idea of things falling apart itself or Okonkwo committing suicide, a great man to be buried "like a dog"? OK, let us begin from things falling apart. Naturally, we start from chaos and lack of order to order, to form, to pattern. The author of Genesis knew that and so had to say that in the beginning there was void and disorder, from which the creator as an artist looked for and achieved a form, and said that was good. So, things falling apart is disintegration, a descent into the beginning when there was disorder. In the beginning, there was disorder....

Now, Achebe linked this disorder up intertextually to the prophetic poem by W.B.Yeats, in which instead of the three wise men going to Bethlehem to see and offer gifts to the new-born saviour, we have the spiritus mundi or world spirit, a demonic force, crouching towards the crib to be born! Looks so much like the narrative of the anti-Christ and that is probably why the poem is captioned “The Second Coming.” This ultra-terrorist wishing to be born paradoxically as a “saviour” is systematic, gradual, “crouching,” and deceptive! How is "he" different from an anaconda wishing to swallow the real saviour?

Then, an industrious Okonkwo, a son, being a sharp contrast of Unoka his father. Okonkwo will work hard to rise in fame, but Unoka will descend deeper into infamy, resting finally in the evil forest  a swollen corpse!

In addition, Okonkwo would be angry and impatient but his father would be calm and unperturbed with his flute.

Okonkwo would become a great wrestler and warrior on whom Umuofia depends, but Unoka would be a shameful coward, known for being nothing in his community.

Okonkwo would confront outsiders, like the colonialists, but Unoka does not feature there at all. Has he finished enjoying the fantasy of his art, its sublimity?

To sum it up, success versus failure. A sharp contrast. And where can we best see it at work? Where can we recognise it better? In the domestic setting!

Now, this is even more painful than any other paradox: Okonkwo killing Ikemefuna, a boy that calls him “father.” That means killing your own son! You would say that is sheer appeal to pathos. But that is another paradox: choosing the show of bravery over familial emotion? So, those security agents obeying orders and shooting unarmed pro-Biafra protesters in a democracy not a military rule (another paradox) could shoot their parents or members of their families if commanded to do so? So, duty is duty and they have become "unhuman" by virtue of their employment? Live with this crime, Okonkwo!

Another paradox: why should Ikemefuna pay for the sins he has not committed. The Igbo say: ometara, buru! (whoever commits an offence should carry it with their head). So, how  responsible was Ikemefuna for his father’s crime in the head hunt?

Also, it is a paradox that outsiders (colonialists) are ruling Umuofia as if God sent them. What is the justification for colonialism, internal or external? So, the colonialists should come back or have come back? So, on leaving, they appointed caretakers to continue their clear brigandry?

And yet another paradox, a disturbing one: Africans (represented by the Umuofia community) were not guiltless in the colonial experience. It is not just a matter of fighting to the death to remain free. No! Not that. One could be clearly that the disorder and bickering were already on ground, assisting colonisation. The local people were not cohesive. They were even slaughtering guiltless Ikemefunas. The terrorism was already there, internally, and was helping the external terrorism!

Chinua Achebe, I like your feast of paradoxes.