The novel describes the traditional ways of life of the Ibo (or Igbo), with its religion, its proverbs, its laws, its rituals, its family and social structure ... The protagonist, Okonkwo, is a warrior from the town of Umuofia, a man characterized by action and strength rather than by reflection and prudence. Contrary to show any form of affection, which considers a weakness, governs his family with a firm hand and aspires to become one of the leaders of the clan. However, Okonkwo is expelled from the clan for seven years for offending the spirits, and when he returns, after the deadline, the white man has installed in the village the first Christian missions, and nothing will be the same.
The novel shows us a sexist tribal society, superstitious, rigid and capable of cruelly treating its members, even the most defenseless. But what comes with the arrival of the white man is not at all better: religious fanaticism, legal arbitrariness, corruption, repression or even genocide ... Hence the final irony of the narrator, when he says that one of the European officials are writing a book entitled “The pacification of the primitive tribes of Lower Niger”, in which undoubtedly present the natives as savages who needed to be civilized (with the cross and the shotgun in equal parts).
Achebe has portrayed the process of destruction of traditional ways of life and power at the hands of colonialism. In other novels, such as “A Man of the People”, he has told, with the same critical spirit, the future of his country immediately after decolonization.
