Saturday, April 7, 2018

“Chi” Symbolism in Things Fall Apart


Name: Gausvami Surbhi A.
Assignment Topic: “Chi” Symbolism in Things Fall Apart
Paper no. 14, The African Literature
Roll No. : 22
Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad, M.A. Department of English
MK Bhavnagar University.
Email id: gausvamisurbhi17@gmail.com
Batch Year: 2016-18

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“Chi” Symbolism in Things Fall Apart

Introduction:




Things Fall Apart is a novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Published in 1958, its story chronicles the pre-colonial life in Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans during the late nineteenth century. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world.


The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community.


We have African philosophy, Western philosophy, Oriental philosophy, American philosophy, Latin American philosophy etc., each of which has a plethora of philosophical doctrines, schools and traditions. African philosophy is the rational comments on African way of living and experience of life. Because of its critical nature, African philosophy constitutes the highest form of African thinking and reflection; it is the motor and catalyst of Africa’s entire cultural endeavors and civilization. The picture of an Igbo society that was highly organized and deeply religious, a society which valued bravery, hard work, material wealth as well as eloquence and dignity–a society that possessed an enviable culture.


“Chi” symbolism


Fiction is fiction but ides that are conveyed in that is far beyond one’s imagination. Chinua Achebe is the prominent novelist of Igbo culture and he tried to give “Narration of the Nation” through this novel. He deliberately used various symbols in the novel and ‘Chi’ is most significant symbol in the novel.


When fiction becomes logically established and weighed on the balance of reality, they could stand for philosophy. Etymologically, hermeneutics suggests a sacred origin, being derived from the Greek word “hermeneia” which is related to the name of the god Hermes and the verb “hermeneuein”. These words have three directions of meaning:


To express/expression, to explain/explanation and to translate/ translation. All the three shades of meaning are rendered in English by to interpret/interpretation which in general, means “bring to understanding.” In Greek mythology, Hermes is the messenger of the gods, the go-between between gods and men. Hermes, the wing-footed messenger-god, functions significantly, to render what was beyond human understanding into a form that the human mind could grasp. In order to accomplish his tasks, Hermes had to be conversant with the idioms of both gods and men. He makes manifest the divine thought, translates the infinite to the finite, the divine spirit into sensory phenomenon and therefore he denotes analysis, measure and particularity. On this issue, Ralph Madu says Hermes had to understand and interpret to himself what the gods wanted to convey before he could proceed to translate, articulate and explicate their intention to mortals. Paul Ricoeur sees the history of modern hermeneutics as dominated by two movements, one epistemological and the other ontological. The first is the act of understanding as a mode of knowing and the second as a way of being and a way of relating to being.


Symbol, Paul Ricoeur says in Hermeneutics, is “any structure of signification in which a direct, primary, literal meaning designates in addition another meaning which is indirect, secondary and figurative and which can be apprehended only through the first”.  Thus, one can say that a symbol is any expression which refers to some intuited universal meaning. Symbols are characterized by multiple meaning. They are signs with double references of which the first meaning points analogically to a second which is not given in any other way. There is always a natural link between the signifying and the signified.


The Igbo concept, Chi, has a religious background even though it occupies an enviable position in Igbo sapiential framework. It is used in various forms. Ralph Madu postulates two forms: it could mean simply day as in chi abola (it is day break); from a more sacred origin, it means personal god—divine afflatus—the spirit that animates human beings. Theophilus Okere corroborates that chi is really a personal god. It is the supreme God shared by each individual but more specifically in his aspect as giver and author of destiny. For Madu, destiny is the philosophy and belief of the traditional sage that every life is unique in significant way and is subject to series of unforeseeable hazards and unexpected rewards all mapped out by chi.


Justin N. Ekennia sees chi as the third element of the Igbo metaphysical understanding of person. This 60 Chi Symbolism in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is an additional element to western understanding (27). For him, chi ‘is a unique life force, which each person possesses. No two persons have the same chi. It is regarded as the Igbo principle of individualization…. each person is unique and irreplaceable’. Arinze regards it as an emanation or participation of the supreme God. Arinze calls chi a personal god. Chi is seen as the supreme God as shared by each individual but more especially in his aspect as giver and author of destiny. In another articulation, Mbonu Ojike in his work My Africa asserts: ‘No one chi is like another because no two persons are identical. A rich man’s chi is rich and a poor man’s chi is poor. A man’s chi is masculine and a woman’s chi is feminine. A man’s chi is equal to that man’.


Chi is a good example of a symbol with accumulative intention, a traditional sapiential and religious symbol which has taken on so many contradictory values that tend to neutralize one another. The chi symbol also demonstrates the potentiality of some symbols to Chi Symbolism in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart acquire oppositional values and function that make polysemy one of the prime problems of semantics.


Existentialism and Concept of ‘Chi’:


This universe is very large. We are tiny part of this universe. and it does not get affected by our actions and deeds. it doesn't care for us. Universe will remain as it is weather we do anything for it or not. There is different between what we expect from it and what we find in it. 


Either people believe in God or they find life as meaningless. once we find it meaningless then we start thinking that does it mean that 'life is not worth living?'. So some people may committed suicide but we can give our own unique meaning to life rather than committing suicide. 


Unlike Rene Descartes, who believed in the primacy of consciousness, existentialist asserts that Human being is "thrown into" a concrete, inveterate Universe. We don't know that weather it is our choice or not to be human, to be Hindu or Muslim, Man or Woman. Sometimes we can choose something but sometimes we remain choice less. Here we find Choice v/s choicelessness. Albert Camus said that "Existence precedes essence". We are indifferent to material things such as chair,fen or any material thing. The essence of material things are predetermined so they act accordingly. But the essence of human cannot predetermined. therefore we are creator of meaning of our life. as a human being we are free to make choices. But after that we are responsible of consequences that may arrive as a result of our choices. Generally what happened is that people make their choices but they try to escape from its result. Existentialism is not escapism.


 Existentialism is not Nihilism. Nihilism denies that there is ultimate meaning of life. it completely believe in objectivity. While existentialism believe in subjectivity. in a way this not a pessimistic idea but optimistic idea by giving subjectivity or hope to individual's life. 


It does not believe in “Karmic philosophy". It does not believe in God as divine power, but it believes in self. Some existentialist is believer also, so they argue that there is God as divinity. but He will not do anything for you. But we have to do work for our existence. According to existentialism one should live with passions. we are the creator our "own work of Art". We can give variety of colors to our Universe. 


Life is full of adversity; there cannot be a best teacher rather than your sorrow and sufferings. One can learn new things only through pain and grief. Therefore we become habituated to sorrows and suffering.


Existentialism and concept of ‘Chi’ is directly connected because both believe in making the destiny by one’s choice and also responsible for the consequences that may arrive at the end.

Chi Symbolism in Things Fall Apart:




Achebe has described the Chi through the main character Okonkwo. the son of the lazy and unsuccessful Unoka, by dint of his industry, rose to power and prominence in his community. He became a successful farmer and thereby acquired wealth, and so took traditional Igbo titles. In his observation with important implications for both Okonkwo and his chi, Achebe argues that: anyone who knows his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune cannot say he has been lucky. If ever a man deserves his success that man is Okonkwo. At an early age, he had achieved fame as the greatest wrestler in all the land. That was not luck. It seems that Okonkwo strongly believe in Nietzsche’s concept of “Superman” that man is capable of doing everything.  At most, one could say that his chi or personal god was good… Okonkwo said yes very strongly, so his chi agreed. But like the little bird nza who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi, Okonkwo began to lose fame through arrogance and brusqueness in dealing with less successful men. In one incident, he had called a fellow clansman a ‘woman’ because the man in question had merely contradicted him at a village meeting. This meeting is for men, Okonkwo had said. In another instance, he beat his wife during the week of peace when such an act was an abomination–nso ani. For this, Okonkwo had to placate the earth goddess by offering a she-goat, a hen, a length of cloth and a hundred cowries. In yet another incident, Okonkwo defied the warning from Ezeudu and took part in the killing of Ikemefuna ( a slave entrusted to his care for more than three years and who like his children grew to regard him as a father), thus committing a second offence against sacred laws and tradition of his clan. (kush)Finally, at the funeral of Ezeudu Okonkwo killed his son accidently. That is the point of no return. He got punishment from village people and he had to flee to Mbanta(his maternal land) with his family. While in exile he lost his taste of work. He becomes charmless, without enthusiasm of youth. When he returns from exile he found that Umuofia people have accepted Christianity.  It was great shock for him. He thought that how people can accept other religion. Thus, he was in state of ‘Ambivalence’. He could not accept the other religion. At the same time he committed suicide which is considered ‘Taboo’ in Igbo culture. Okonkwo tried to burn Church with the help of his fellow members. After knowing the fact that Igbo people will not fight against British people he committed suicide. Obereika, Okonkwo’s best friend complained to the district commissioner, ‘that man (Okonkwo) was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself and now he will be buried like a dog’.


As is evident from the above account Okonkwo’s life was filled with ups and downs, climax and anticlimax, praise and dejection and finally shameful death. How best can one interpret Okonkwo’s fate vis-à-vis his chi? As his life was characterized by contradictions –success and failure, greatness and shameful death–could one say that he had two chis or only one that was both successful and unsuccessful? Here what is important is not the raising of particular philosophical problems but the spotting of the general philosophical orientation of the chi/personal destiny issue in Igbo culture. Like most African tradition, Igbo have a participatory culture. To have created man, God is to bear a hand in his cause and be involved. (Okoro)


Conclusion:


‘Chi’ means personal God who drives someone to act In particular way. Each person has his own unique chi which different from other. One can have more than one chi. as in the case of Okonkwo, he has two chis or we can say that one chi that is both successful and unsuccessful.


Works Cited


kush. Chi in Igbo cosmology. 20 March 2014. 5 April 2018 <https://youngafrikanpioneers.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/chi-in-igbo-cosmology/>.

Okoro, Edward. "CHI SYMBOLISM IN ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART:A HERMENEUTIC UNDERSTANDING." (n.d.).






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