Drowned Innocence: The Decline and Fall of the Ibo Civilization

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart documents the decay of the Ibo society through internal erosions and external catalysts. The title of the novel originates from William Butler Yeats’ 1921 poem “The Second Coming” which asserts Yeats’ view of a catastrophic end to the world brought on by mankind. In borrowing Yeats’ words and subsequently his apocalyptic concept, Achebe places the decline and fall of the African civilization in Western imperialism and the coming of Christianity.
In the name of the noble cause, the Europeans gain a foothold in the lives of the people of Umuofia and through that begin to spread their power of colonialism by suffocating the tradition of the Ibo. Tradition and custom are the center of the Ibo culture. When the people loose faith in that lifeblood, the glue or “the center [of the culture] cannot hold” (Yeats 3). The center cannot withstand the pressure exerted by the teachings of the missionaries combined with the inherent corros...