things fall apart

interesting book. didn't know where it was leading, which caused me not to have any pre-conceived endings. Though at times, I anticipate that a certain part is the turning point of the book and that the main novel revolves about that event and its consequences, with the hint coming only from its title...it turns out not to be so. In fact, it is great because it is like life. just going though, and yet not boring. and yet all the parts of the novel served a purpose. skillfully done, with all the previous parts turning out to be a good foundation for the last part and last events, which aren't too heavily harped upon either. it is like taking gathering information about many things over time, and one day encountering a period when all those u gathered became useful the understand one momentful week of your life. good book.

spoilers ahead. i recommend reading the book without wiki-ing it or anything. it is short after all. and preferable without reading the summary if any on your book back cover. :)






how ignorant and arrogant are we when we don't actually fully understand a type of people and make judgments on them...more so when we have power over them. shows ignorance and arrogance of the westerners colonizing africa. like how different classes may look down on the lower classes. personal experience for me was in the military when i mingled with people different from those i was more naturally meeting in school.

also, religion...terrible...won't argue about the validity of the religion. but the way it is used...abused....the initial aims of the missionaries may be good.....i expect the things they belief and talk about to be what i experience in church when i was young...sounds all good and all that...like going out to convert ppl...to the one true God....face difficulties....must reach the lost....oh the devil has strong hold over the lost....etc. but from the other point of view, especially since missionaries tend to be imperfect, and in the book even had their own government set up according to their rules...which they deem fair. they think throwing away twin babies is evil....fair enough i can undestand. but the igbo people have long believed they were evil babies of some sort. they had their rituals. religion is powerful....gets into the minds of people...crusades, islamic terrorists...etc but maybe not merely abused by misinterpreted...or just interpretated differently and is realized differently. First pastor in missionaries had gentle approach. peaceful. 2nd was more radical. both probably have their justifications. district commissioner doesn't understand the people. concerned with his career and thinks he knows enough to write what he was going to call "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger". What an insult to the africans. pacification? primitive? moreover, a man had hung himself. and they were more peaceful and forgiving that the missionaries in the book whose company beat and hanged people.