ACHINUA ACHEBE AS STORYTELLER AND MYTHMEKER WITH REFERENCE IF HIS NOVEL THINGS FALL APART

AFRICAN LITERATURE ASSIGNMENT

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC – ACHINUA ACHEBE AS STORYTELLER AND MYTHMEKER WITH REFERENCE IF HIS NOVEL THINGS FALL APART

Name – Dipti Gohil
Semester- 4
Roll number- 6
Year- 2018- 2020
Enrollment number- 2069108420190018
Email Id - diptigohil55@gmail.com
Submitted to – Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar University

Introduction-
Things Fall Apart novel is written by Chinua Achebe who is master of using language of the novel.  Throughout the novel, Achebe shows how dependent such traditions are upon storytelling aso how quickly the abandonment of the Igbo language.  In demonstrating the imaginative, often formal language of the Igbo. He was storyteller and mythmakers this statement prove with his novel study – Things Fall Apart.

Why he attempted Igbo culture or language ?
Because Achebe was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in the Igbo village, so he has influenced by Igbo culture and that why he use to describe and use language of Igbo culture. His full novel is dependent of cultural discourse, he described Igbo culture beliefs, myth, ritual, folk music and people habit of living and use of words in basic conversation.
Storytellers and mythmakers
Most of the author somewhere influced of myth because any cultural is not exist without myth. And myth is part of any literature. For example if British novel To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, her novel has influenced of the Greek mythology.  Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill, his play also influenced of classic Greek myth. Other example of Indian literature Kanthapura novel by Raja Rao novel, his influence of myth of land and tell story to the people,  this novel it is same like Achebe use of method of storytellers and mythmakers.
              Now I come to the point Achebe as storytellers and mythmakers. The African novel is an outgrowth of society in which oral traditions still form a living reality. Major African writers tradition life and culture document in literature. Achebe 's use of Igbo folktales in his novel s demonstrates his familiarity with the storytelling tradition of his people. He employs them to evoke the working of traditional Igbo society. Achebe reproduces folktales in his novel. In this novel Ekwefi's tale myth. Oracle as God people Igbo people has faith on oracle God and do worship of God and do sacrifice for God. Achebe often invokes the folk tale to explain complex concepts and ideas.

Earth and Sky story-
Okonkwo protagonist character who is strongly believe to be masculine therefore Okonkwo insist encourage the boys to sit with him in his obi and he told stories of the land and masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. One of the stories which lingers in young Nwoye's memory in Things fall Apart is about our quarrel between the Earth and Sky, how sky withheld rain for seven years, until crops withered and the dead could not be buried reason is the hoes broke on the stony Earth. At the end Vulture was sent to plead with Sky, and soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the men. Earth sang song of mercy and Sky was moved to pity and he gave to vulture rain wrapped in leaves of coco-yam. The rain fell as it had never fallen before. And so heavily did it rain on vulture that he did not return to deliver his message but flew to distant land, from where he had espied a fire. And when he got there he found it was a man making a sacrifice.  Igbo visualised Earth and Sky as masculine and feminine or brief tale which shows how Earth and Sky, the male and female are interdependent. But Okonkwo reject as womanly stories, he like masculine ideal stories. That type of belief of the Igbo people philosophical ideas describe by Achebe.
Achebe is informed to local conventions about the various oral performance, narrator, occasion, audience etc. He also criticized how folktales arises naturally and organically from real, living situation. He gives not only story but also entire context of the each and every story tale. For example Ekwefi also told stories to women and children.

Ekwefi uses the Snake -Lizard   story   to   educate   her daughter Ezinma about the nature of vegetables and how they shrink after cooking. It  is  known  all   over the  world  that  stories  are a  child's most interesting. These are stories for educate develop for long time, it also described what kind of duties of women and men so mother prepare her child at young age so Ekwefi also tell that type of story to prepare her daughter for future role play for husband.
Ekwefi hints at the story, Ezinma remembers:
Ekwefi  asked.  "And   you  know  how  leaves
become smaller after cooking."
“Yes,   said   Ezinma,   “that   was   why   theˮ
snake-lizard killed his mother.ˮ
“Very true,  said Ekwefi.ˮ
“He   gave   his   mother   seven   baskets   of
vegetables to cook and in the end there were
only   three.   And   so   he   killed   her,   saidˮ
Ezinma.
“That is not the end of the story.ˮ
“Oho,  said  Ezinma. “I  remember  now. Heˮ
brought   another   seven   baskets   and   cooked
them   himself.  And   there   were   again   only
three.   So   he  killed   himself   too. 

Locust Myth-

Locust myth is mentioned first in chapter seven. According to the myth “locusts came once in a generation, reappeared every year for seven years and then disappeared for another lifetime. ‘Locusts are descending’ was joyfully changed everywhere, and men, women and children left their work or their play and ran into open to see the unfamiliar sight. The locusts had not come for many, many years and only the old people had seen them before. (Chap-7 page number – 40)
The fact that the Igbo eat that locusts result how benign they take them to be. Same thing those who convert to Christianity and they fail to realize their damage and they believed that colonized culture is better than their culture.
The second year of Okonkwo's exile at that time his friend, Obierika came to visit him. Obierika description also alike storytelling ,he begins his clan description – ‘During the last planting season a white man had appeared in their clan’. ‘He was not an albino. He was quite different. He sipped his wine. And he was riding an iron horse. (Chapter-15, Page number-101)
 So there Obierika description of white man, it is like also like storytelling.

Myth of Mosquito –

Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna after he sleep but he woke up once in the middle of the night because of mosquito mooring near his ear. He slapped the ear and hoped he had killed it. And after he thought about that –‘ Why do they always go to one's ears? At that time he remembers his mothers had told him story about it. But he believes that it is silly as all women ‘s stories. ‘Mosquito, she had said, had asked. You are already skeleton. Mosquito went away humiliated, and any time he passed her way he told Ear that he was still alive.
Mosquito proposes to marry Ear but she lets him down and makes fun of his   frail   body   and   that   he  has  a   very  short   life   span.   Mosquito   feels humiliated and swears  to take revenge. Ever since, whenever Mosquito passes by Ear he buzzes as to remind Ear he still alive at that time he thought that women's stories is not silly.

Story of Tortoise and the bird –

Chapter 11 page number – 71, Ekwefi tell a story to her daughter Ezinma, she start that story as tradition way – ‘Once upon a time, all the birds were invited to a feast in the sky. And They were very happy and began to themselves for the great day. They painted their bodies with red cam wood and drew beautiful patterns on them with uli. ‘Tortoise saw all these preparation and soon discovered what it all meant. Nothing that happened in the world of the animal ever escaped his notice, he was full of cunning.
Tortoise said that “ you do not know me”. ‘ I am a changed man. I have learnt that a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself’.  ‘Tortoise had a sweet tongue, and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man, and they each gave him a feature, with which he made two wings.  Then after Tortoise become powerful over the others birds. Few time ago Tortoise order to bring out all the soft things in his house and parrot promise to deliver the message and then flew away. It is story of white colonial power over the black culture. It suggests that Tortoise as white colonial and parrot as black people. It is story of white colonial power how it becomes Imperial over the black culture. Achebe make this kind of story in his novel and described whole things which contented with each other.
The story told by Ekwefi in Things Fall Apart to an audience of women entertainment while imparting a moral lesson. Achebe is also faithful to other conventions of African storytelling, for example, those of time and place. Achebe has spoken of the existence of satiric songs in Igbo villages, which were often employed to excerpt social pressure.


Conclusions –

Thus, we can say that ‘Achebe as storyteller and mythmakers writer, there are other example of his novel like ‘Arrow of God'  in this novel he also use myth as well as make story on situation. Along with other oral forms like stories, myth and saying constitute the social, religious and ethical framework of the society, which forms the background of Achebe's novels.

Works Cited
Abbady, Amel. "Myths and Folktales in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart." April 2017. ResearchGate. 7 March 2020 <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318431561_Myths_and_Folktales_in_Chinua_Achebe's_Things_Fall_Apart>.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Classics , 2001.
Gera, Anjali. Three Great African Novelists. New Delhi: Creative Books, 2001.