Western Standards of Humanism and Cultural Violence in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

The

concept of violence that is encouraged by the beliefs and traditions of a

certain culture and committed upon its own components can be referred to the

phrase of ‘cultural violence’. In this sense, it would, of course, embody some

specific ritual acts of sacrifice, banishments, infliction or imposition of a

penalty or communally approved retribution. Contradictions within a given

culture shared by the majority of its assemblage may result in some serious

acts of violence in accordance with the western standards of humanism. Achebe

in The Things Fall Apart tries to

disclose this insight through an indication of violence in a colonial setting

causing both chaos and disruption among the representatives of the

aforementioned culture. The Igbo culture in this post-colonial plot upon which

British colonial practices have been implemented through violence intermingles

with the statements, beliefs and actions of the main character Okonkwo. The

forms of violence condoned and enacted by the Igbo members make known to others

the cultural forces that foster violence as a kind of cultural consumption.<o:p></o:p>

The

aim of this study is to show that violence and cultural conflicts, when

combined with the imperial powers’ attitude towards the colonized [as we

witness today on a global scale the problematic process of Syrian people’s

migration due to violence, terror and hostility], reveal the core relation

between individual choices versus contradictions between principle and

practice. Using traditions of violence, alienating members of a community due

to prevarication, and forcing people to migrate because of moral principles may

pinpoint Achebe’s demonstration of victims of violence as others, otherized

ones, hybrids and/or assimilated characters.<o:p></o:p>