The chapter ends with a light-hearted exchange that seems ominous only when the ending of the novel is revealed: More information about the incident and its consequences appears in the earlier section "A Brief History of Nigeria." The Abame disaster is based on an actual event in 1905, in the community of Ahiara. From this point on, the two groups are depicted as adversaries, and future conflict seems inevitable. But this excessive action is Achebe's way of beginning the novel's characterization of extremist whites and their oppressive, often uninformed and insensitive attitude toward the natives. Of course, the retaliation by a large group of white men later - wiping out the entire village - is out of proportion to the initial crime. The Oracle never accepted a war with the white men, but it warned the villagers that the white men would spread destruction like "locusts." Ironically, the white men represent the coming of the locusts from Revelation in the Bible the village will be destroyed, and among the villagers who aren't harmed, nothing good will come to them. Although Okonkwo agrees that the men of Abame were foolish for killing the white man, his response, "They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to the market," illustrates that Okonkwo defies the Umuofian custom not resort to violence without first trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement and seeking the acceptance of war by its Oracle. Only then do the villagers take violent action against this individual white man, an action criticized as premature by Uchendu.
When the villagers consult their Oracle, however, it predicts that white men will be instruments of disaster for the clan.
Achebe things fall apart skin#
Now, in Chapter 15, Obierika tells a story of how the first white man ever seen in Abame is initially a matter of curiosity, especially his skin color and perhaps his bicycle. Recall from Chapter 8 the joking reference to white men as lepers. He promises to continue giving Okonkwo the profits until he returns to Umuofia - or until "green men to our clan and shoot us." They have heard stories about white men coming with guns and strong drink and taking slaves away across the sea, but they never believed the stories.Īfter their meal together, Obierika gives Okonkwo the money that he received for selling some of Okonkwo's yams and seed-yams. Okonkwo and Uchendu agree that the Abame villagers were foolish to kill a man about whom they knew nothing. Many weeks later, the whole clan was gathered at the Abame market and then surrounded by a large group of men they shot and killed almost everyone. After the visitors saw the bicycle on the tree, they left. Weeks later, three other white men and a group of natives - "ordinary men like us" - came to the village while most villagers were tending their farms.
They killed the white man and tied his bicycle to their sacred tree.
Confronting the villagers, the white man seemed only to repeat a word like "Mbaino," perhaps the name of the village he was looking for. The elders of Abame consulted their Oracle, which told them that the white man would destroy their clan, and others were on their way, coming like locusts. One day a white man rode into the village on a bicycle, which the villagers called an "iron horse." At first, the people ran away from the man, but the ones who were less fearful walked up to him and touched his white skin. After his introduction to Uchendu, Obierika relays tragic news about the village of Abame. During Okonkwo's second year in exile, his good friend Obierika and two other young men pay him a visit in Mbanta.
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