Jean Gathoni
English 10
23/11/2015
Things Fall Apart vs. Kenya Many societies all over Africa have beliefs rooted deep in ancient religion. Some beliefs in those societies include, polygamy, polytheism, and patriarchy. One such culture that followed these were the nine Ibo-speaking villages of Umuofia. Umuofia is the village in which Okonkwo, prospers in everything to secure his manly post in the tribe. The role of each family member in Umuofia is much defined. The men are overly intimidating. The women and children are treated defectively and often abused. Life in Umuofia is very different from life in Kenya before colonial times. Before the arrival of the Europeans, there was a dominant tribe called the Maasai. Like Umuofia, the Maasai’s were feared by other tribes because they had a fierce reputation, engaging in frequent raids against their neighbors, that gave them power beyond the number of warriors. But the Maasai were quite different from Umuofia. The Umuofia people did not engage in frequent attacks against their neighbors. They made the opponents choose whether they wanted to go to war or present them with a young man and a virgin woman to spare their village from devastation. The Maasai also had some beliefs similar to Umuofia. They had a god called Enkai who they believed gave them all the cattle in the world. For the Umuofia people it was different but on a small-scale level. They had a god called Chukwu, who is their only God and all the others are false. He made the whole world and the other gods. He made the other gods so that they could do work for him, for he had too many responsibilities. The Maasai god Enkai, had messengers to help him spread his word but he did all his work himself. Like the Umuofia men, the status of the Maasai men was determined by the size of the man’s herd and the number of his children. For the Umuofia men, their status was determined by how rugged they are, how durable their crops are, and how he can deal with his family. When Europeans started establishing their developments on their lands, they both the Maasai and the people of Umuofia were afraid of change. The Maasai fought for their land unlike the Umuofia. The Umuofia people were terrified to fight for they did not want what happened to the village of Abame to happen upon them. The Maasai, unfortunately lost a lot of warriors when they were trying to reclaim their grazing lands back from the British. But the chief of the Maasai signed a petition the British generated that stated that the lands would be divided equally and that the British would not attach themselves to the other half of the lands. Instead of them getting hanged for breaking their agreement they would be whipped on their backs. The people of Umuofia would immediately get hanged after judgement in court for disobeying the law.
Lastly, both tribes had numerous similarities and differences. Considering the pros and cons of both colonizations, The Maasai tribe and the people of Umuofia have different aspects of seeing how the British worked or the “white man” as they both called it. The Maasai thought the British would bring more water and cattle and go back to their homeland but that did not happen. The people of Umuofia thought that the “white man” would bring change upon them and it did, people started following their God and became their own person instead of staying as one. Whether there is change or not it can make us realize that it is for the better or for the worse.