The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger

This is a written task of about 1100 words written in English A2 on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Its full title was “Excerpt from The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger“. It is an excerpt from the book that the District Commissioner plans to write in the last chapter of Things Fall Apart.

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As you are probably aware of, our glorious Queen has sponsored a mission on behalf of the Church to tame the wild, native population of Africa. I was chosen as the District Commissioner for the District of Lower Niger, and in an attempt to ease the pacification of further tribes, I will share my experience here.

Seven years ago, our first ships arrived on the west coast of the continent. We began – as planned – by setting up a simple base of operations, after which we sent a missionary on a bicycle to the closest village. Unfortunately, his arrival in the village, which they called Abame, ended in a violent murder of the missionary.

Our research had led us to the conclusion that these natives, as expected, wield a very simple mindset. Upon encountering an unknown situation, they instinctively act in favour of their own well-being, just as animals do. That is why they killed our messenger. In a successful attempt to remove this unwanted behaviour, we went on to display the Queen’s might and thereby induce terror into the tribes. It is a well-known fact that simpletons are easily affected by fear. By entering the village with our army and punishing their hostility by executing the entire village, we succeeded in our task. Their futile resistance was of no danger to us.

Immediately after this victory, we sent more men to nearby villages. It is important to act quickly after such an act, because the natives might otherwise draw the conclusion that we are in doubt after the execution. The missionaries, who were sent to the village which the natives call Umuofia, managed to set up a church. It was built in a remote forest, which was thought to be haunted. Since the belief that the forest was “evil” was widespread among the natives, we could use this superstition to our advantage by displaying the power of God. Doing so was an important step in making the natives realise that their gods were false.

Mr. Brown was sent as the head of the church in Umuofia. He spent much time both collecting followers and communicating with the head of the natives’ religion. Their beliefs are very peculiar: they are certain that there is a personal god for every habitant in their tribe, who decides the success of that native in life. Clearly their so-called gods are less, if any at all, capable than our omnipotent God, because they are unable of looking after more than one follower each. They also make regular sacrifices to other gods, who have divided the world amongst them. An example is Ani, who is given sacrifices in the form of animals, and Ifejioku, for whom dry bushes are burnt. The natives believe that their gods will reward them for sacrificing. Of course, this would not work since the only God rewards he who deserves it.

The tribe seemed to be held together with a primitive, hierarchal structure, where the natives who possessed the largest farms and most palm-wine ruled. Since the rulers were the ones most eager to conserve their heathen ways in order to retain power, we systematically attracted the natives to the true religion in an ascending order of social status. We began with offering acceptance to the outcasts from the village, and thus gained a strong base. At first it seemed difficult to enjoin even the lower-class natives because of their firm belief that the outcasts were of no good, but when they were enlightened by the teachings of God, they realised that they were as much worth and that the differences between them posed no problem.
Soon, the converted natives were taught to write. This, too, was an important part of the pacification of the wilds, since we were able to promise good lives with jobs of high status to the educated ones. Although the process took several years, the natives slowly realised that the new order was advantageous and thus joined us. Another important factor was that we baptised the turned natives and renamed them. A young boy, who was formerly called “Nwoye”, we renamed to Isaac. I believe that this contributed to the connotations of education and superiority that the natives seemed to have about us.

As our settlement grew, a functioning court was built, and logic law was enforced upon Umuofia, as opposed to the primitive ways of justice that were practiced by the heathen. An example of a completely illogical custom was to abandon twins in an “evil forest”, as if they were less liked by God than other natives. This is clearly a cause of their praising to the false gods, who demand sacrifices and esoteric rituals. We consider this the point were our success was given, since the false gods’ will did no longer govern.

A series of interesting events occurred shortly after the establishment of the court, probably as the consequence of the return of a native who had been in exile for several years. Note that this never would have happened under the Queen’s rule, and was only caused by the tribe’s incorrect ways of justice.

The newcomer convinced the clan that the church had to be razed, and so a command squad was sent to do so. Thanks to the effective ways of our government, we quickly arrested the perpetrators and jailed them for a couple of days. Note that this, just like the battle of Abame, was done in order to both make justice and induce fear. A short time after the release of the captives, the troublemaker killed a messenger in a completely unprovoked manner. A squad was swiftly sent to bring justice to him, but we were surprised when we encountered his corpse, hanging from a tree. I let one of my men cut the body down – it is very important that the natives retain their respect for the district commissioner, and thus I could not be seen cutting down someone from a tree.

Suicide was seen as a crime, even by this simple tribe. Therefore, it is interesting that the troublemaker had committed it: one would have thought that he would attempt to pull his clan back to their old beliefs, or flee to another village. One explanation is that he realised that it would be impossible of no use to attempt to convince the clan, because they were already enlightened and knew that the ways of the false gods only led them wrong. Since this man was much respected in the formerly primitive clan, I believe that he had realised that the end of his reign had come, and thus saw no way out but committing suicide.

It is mesmerizing, what an end a false religion can lead to.

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