Colonial Encounter and Indigenous Resistance in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

MOUMITA BISWAS

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.69801

Colonial Encounter and Indigenous Resistance in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Author(s)	Ms. MOUMITA BISWAS
Country	India
Abstract	This paper discusses the colonial encounter and resistance of the indigenous people in Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, and is centred on how the Igbo society reacts, in a complex manner, to the intrusion of the British colonial rule. Instead of showing colonialism as something abrupt and violent, the novel demonstrates how the imperial authority works through religion, administrative bureaucracies, and cultural reorientation. According to the study, Achebe attributes indigenous resistance to being multifaceted and multifractured, and he goes a notch higher to include the cultural salvaging, communal ethics, and assertive narration. The paper reveals the ways in which traditional belief systems, kinship structures, and collective memory as means of resistance to colonial domination are observed through a close textual reading based on postcolonial views. Specific focus is put on the nature of the character Okonkwo, whose unyielding resistance is a symbol of the acuity as well as of the constraints in personal resistance to the changes of history. The tragic end of his life highlights the criticism of strict masculinity and the solitude of rebellion Achebe is expressing. The article also reveals that lack of cohesion in Igbo society, which was the result of intra-communal conflicts and the attractiveness of colonial institutions, helped to consolidate the colonialists. Finally, the current question is that the novel Things Fall Apart provides a subtle view on the idea of resistance and its ethical power along with the historical limitation and establishes the importance of the novel as a starting point in the history of postcolonial African literature.
Keywords	Keywords: Colonial, Indigenous, Communal, Resistance, Cultural
Field	Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-05
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.69801

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Colonial Encounter and Indigenous Resistance in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

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