Gabriel Chan
Humanities 1c
Pre-colonial Compare/Contrast Essay
3/25/10
The Ibo people in the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and the Bantu settlers in modern-day Gabon have large differences in their lifestyle; While the Ibo and the Bantu both farmed and hunted for food, the Ibo’s society was militaristic and martial compared to the Bantu’s smaller fishing communities. Right after the Week of Peace in Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo and his family begin to plant the yam seeds. “. . . Okonkwo and his family went to the farm with baskets of seed-yams, their hoes and machetes, and the planting began” (Achebe 33). Okonkwo and his family begin to plant the common Ibo crop, yams. Since the entire family is involved in the planting, the yams have a high level of importance to the Ibo. While the Ibo grew yams and other crops, the Bantu in modern-day got food from oil palms, bananas, yams, fishing, and hunting (“Gabon”). The Ibo in Things Fall Apart grew crops that were similar to the Bantu, but the Bantu were also able to fish because they lived along the coast of Gabon. The Ibo and Bantu live in totally different places, but they share the similarity of farming yams.
Even though the Ibo and Bantu are similar in terms of farming, the Ibo’s villages in Umuofia were martial and organized, while the Bantu settled in small fishing villages along the coast with a lack of organization. In Things Fall Apart, a man from Mbaino kills a woman from Umuofia and Umuofia offers to wage war against them. “Umuofia was feared by all its neighbors. It was powerful in war and in magic,. . .” (Achebe 11), so the people of Mbaino decided to avoid war with them. This shows that Umuofia’s neighbors fear Umuofia and the Ibo’s martial society. In contrast, the Bantu settlers in modern-day Gabon lived in small fishing villages because of the lack of threatening neighbors (“Gabon”, Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students). Even though the Bantu settlers did not need to develop a warrior society like the Ibo, the two groups of people both grew yams for survival.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Kikuyu vs. TFA
Compare and Contrast: Kikuyu vs. TFA
Pre-Colonial time in Kenya greatly affected the beliefs and cultures of the present. The Kikuyu people can be said to have come from the north high in the mountains of Kenya in around 1200. They have been known to be the largest of Bantu people. The Kikuyu settled south of Mount Kenya and highlands of central Kenya. During the 10th century the spread from this region into many other areas South of Kenya. The tribe was originally formed from a man named Gikuyu (“Pre-Colonial Times in Kenya”)
The social life of a Kikuyu is very similar to the clans in the town of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart. Kikuyu men and women both think that the males should be the leader of the household, and in Things Fall Apart there are many similar roles that are given. One example is when Ojiugo, Okonkwo’s youngest wife, “went to plait her hair at her friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal…and when she returned he beat her very heavily. (Achebe 29)” Woman of the Kikuyu people are usually viewed as having more control when it comes to crop growing and disciplining small school aged daughters. Baptizing children and deciding on whether they should go to school or not is both the role of the men and women to decide.
Throughout Things Fall Apart the boys are classified more as farmers picking yams, than working with farm animals in the Kikuyu culture. “Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. (Achebe 33)” Girls of the Kikuyu are raised to work in farms and boys work with animals (“Kenya: Social Life”), the girls also have the responsibility of taking care of a baby or a sibling and helping the mother out with chores around the household.
Kikuyu history states that the head god, Ngai, took Gikuyu to the top of Kirintaga and told him to stay atop the mountain and build his home there. He was given a wife, Mumbi. Together they had nine daughters. There was actually a tenth daughters but the people of Kikuyu considered it bad luck to say the number ten. Usually when people counted, instead of ten they would say “full nine”. From these nine daughters there was then formed the Kikuyu clans- Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu- were created (“Religion in Kenya”). In TFA, the author mentions 9 villages in the first line of the beginning of the book; there is much evidence that there were nine different clans in each of the villages. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. (Achebe 3)”
In Conclusion, the compare and contrast between the Kikuyu and the social life in Things Fall Apart are very similar and slightly different.
Pre-Colonial time in Kenya greatly affected the beliefs and cultures of the present. The Kikuyu people can be said to have come from the north high in the mountains of Kenya in around 1200. They have been known to be the largest of Bantu people. The Kikuyu settled south of Mount Kenya and highlands of central Kenya. During the 10th century the spread from this region into many other areas South of Kenya. The tribe was originally formed from a man named Gikuyu (“Pre-Colonial Times in Kenya”)
The social life of a Kikuyu is very similar to the clans in the town of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart. Kikuyu men and women both think that the males should be the leader of the household, and in Things Fall Apart there are many similar roles that are given. One example is when Ojiugo, Okonkwo’s youngest wife, “went to plait her hair at her friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal…and when she returned he beat her very heavily. (Achebe 29)” Woman of the Kikuyu people are usually viewed as having more control when it comes to crop growing and disciplining small school aged daughters. Baptizing children and deciding on whether they should go to school or not is both the role of the men and women to decide.
Throughout Things Fall Apart the boys are classified more as farmers picking yams, than working with farm animals in the Kikuyu culture. “Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. (Achebe 33)” Girls of the Kikuyu are raised to work in farms and boys work with animals (“Kenya: Social Life”), the girls also have the responsibility of taking care of a baby or a sibling and helping the mother out with chores around the household.
Kikuyu history states that the head god, Ngai, took Gikuyu to the top of Kirintaga and told him to stay atop the mountain and build his home there. He was given a wife, Mumbi. Together they had nine daughters. There was actually a tenth daughters but the people of Kikuyu considered it bad luck to say the number ten. Usually when people counted, instead of ten they would say “full nine”. From these nine daughters there was then formed the Kikuyu clans- Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu- were created (“Religion in Kenya”). In TFA, the author mentions 9 villages in the first line of the beginning of the book; there is much evidence that there were nine different clans in each of the villages. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. (Achebe 3)”
In Conclusion, the compare and contrast between the Kikuyu and the social life in Things Fall Apart are very similar and slightly different.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)