In Things Fall Apart, what do you think contributes the most to the decline of the Igbo tribe's influence in Umofia?

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the biggest change that negatively affects the traditional Umuofian society is the proliferation of colonial influence into the area. Western settlers disrupt the norms and customs of Umuofia by introducing Christianity and European models of government and commerce. The values of the settlers slowly but steadily upset the belief systems that have been in place in Umuofia for generations:

“The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion,...

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the biggest change that negatively affects the traditional Umuofian society is the proliferation of colonial influence into the area. Western settlers disrupt the norms and customs of Umuofia by introducing Christianity and European models of government and commerce. The values of the settlers slowly but steadily upset the belief systems that have been in place in Umuofia for generations:

“The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia. And even in the matter of religion there was a growing feeling that there might be something in it after all, something vaguely akin to method in the overwhelming madness” (178).

This proliferation of Eurocentric values represents a massive transition for the area. Indeed, the titled men of Umuofia sense that the Christian faith that they initially dismissed has grown into a powerful influence, and has served as a point of entry for other Western conventions. Okonkwo is especially critical of the changes the area experiences, and the marginalization of his clan:

“Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (183).

He laments that the Umuofia he has known and called home has entered a state of flux. Colonial influence has not destroyed Umuofian culture in the way that Okonkwo believes, but it has irreparably altered the face of the region. Indeed, traditional Umuofian influence has decreased in the face of colonialism.