Essay on Images of Africans in Things Fall Apart and...

Images of Africans in Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darknessnbsp;nbsp; In my reading of Things Fall Apart, it has better informed me of a culture that I did not know of before, and by reading it helped correct some broad misconceptions that I previously held of the people and their cultures of Africa. Reading the novel also gave me another perspective on the effects of imperialism/colonialism by the Europeans on the Africans. I believe Achebe has succeeded in enabling the West an opportunity to have them listen to the weak (Achebe interview), but whether or not Western society decides to listen will come down to the individual within the society--if they do choose to listen to the call of the weak. In this essay I will share†¦show more content†¦When I came to realize that the Igbo people arent that much different from us, I looked for further examples that supported my belief. For examples, at the first reading of the ritual of breaking the kola nut and drinking palm wine, during the visit of a guest or during a festive occasion, I was intrigu ed but then understood its principle by relating it back to our culture. Do we not have similar customs, of asking a friend whom we havent seen in a while if she would like to go out and get a beer, of when we go to a party to bring some party favors to share with people? There are other examples of positive similarities, but I then decided to focus on the faults we have in common with the Igbo. A rather hilarious fault of the Igbos/Africans is their misinterpretation of what white people looked like. They believed that white people had no toes (1453). This misperception was due to all of their ideas of white people probably coming from hearsay or from individuals who had seen a white man once. The reality of their perception possibly is, if and when they saw a white person, he/she had shoes on and, this idea being completely foreign to them, they perceived the white man as having no toes. Was there not a time when Western society viewed Africans as aShow MoreRelatedPostcolonial Literature: Uncovering Western Myths Essay1309 Words   |  6 Pagesof concepts such as deep darkness, mystery, and madness, a place in which attrocities arise at any time of the day, and people are savages and chaotic. From that colonialist viewpoint, Africa was a place that needed help and control urgently in order to save it form itself and civilize it; therefore, white European men felt the need of accomplishing this mission and bring civilization to black men, which only meant to do thing as Europeans did. 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