OKONKWO'S PARTICIPATION IN THE KILLING OF HIS "SON" IN CHINUA ACHEBE'S

"THINGS FALL APART": A STUDY OF IGNOBLE DECISIVENESS

Author(s): Solomon O. Iyasere
Source: CLA Journal , MARCH 1992, Vol. 35, No. 3 (MARCH 1992), pp. 303-315
Published by: College Language Association

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OKONKWO'S PARTICIPATION IN THE KILLING OF
HIS "SON" IN CHINUA ACHEBE'S THINGS FALL
APART : A STUDY OF IGNOBLE DECISIVENESS

By Solomon 0. Iyasere

No episode in Achebe's memorable novel, Things Fall

Apart,1 is more shocking and heartrending as the execution
of Ikemefuna, an event too dreadful to endure. Circum-
stances surrounding the event make it even more hide-
ous - if that is possible - and invite our moral revulsion
more intensely than the killing of the messenger. Comment-
ing on the significance of the murder of Ikemefuna, David
Caroli writes:

The death of Ikemefuna is a turning point in the novel. The

guardianship of the boy was a mark of Okonkwo's hard-won sta-
tus and the highest point of his rise to power. The execution of
Ikemefuna is the beginning of Okonkwo's decline, for it initiates
the series of catastrophes which ended in his death. But this
event is not only a milestone in the career of the hero. The sym-
pathetic rendering of Ikemefuna's emotions as he is being
marched through the forest to his death has wider implications.4

As crucial as this episode is to the overall thematic and

structural development of the novel, especially in the devel-
opment of the central character, critics have paid only cur-
sory attention to it. With the exception of a brief study by
Daminan Opata, most of the comments on the killing of
Ikemefuna, particularly those treating Okonkwo's participa-
tion, have been superficial and judicial, far less extensive
and vigorous than the event demands.
The vexing, and paradoxical, question raised by
Ikemefuna's death is why Okonkwo takes part, particularly
after Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a respected elder in Umuofia who un-

1 Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (New York: Astor, 1959). All subsequent
quotations from the text are from this edition.
2 David Carroll, Chinua Achebe (New York: Twayne, 1970), pp. 48-49.

303

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304 Solomon O. Iyasere

derstands its values and traditions and the habits of the

gods, warns Okonkwo against participating:
"That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death."
Okonkwo was surprised, and was about to say some things when
the old man continued: "Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him.
The Oracle of the Hills and Caves has pronounced it. They will
take him there. But I want [you] to have nothing to do with it.
He calls you father." (59-60)

In defense of Okonkwo's participation, Damian Opata ar-

gues that Okonkwo has no choice but to comply with the
monstrous decree of the gods; further, because Ikemefuna is
already regarded as a sacrificial lamb, his death already a
fait accomplit, Okonkwo acts only as a messenger executing
the decree of the gods. To stress Okonkwo's place as a vic-
tim who deserves our sympathy instead of our vilification,
Opata writes:
Okonkwo's killing of Ikemefuna is instinctive. No time was left
for him to consider his actions. In other words, his killing of
Ikemefuna was not premeditated. The immediate circumstances
under which he had to kill Ikemefuna seem to have been forced
on him by capricious fate, he was not in control of the situation.
Rather, the situation was controlling him and we should not ap-
ply the principles of morality to a situation in which he was in-
exorably led by uncanny fate.'

The inaccuracies of Opata's view derive from his unin-

formed reading of the text; Opata disregards the particular-
ities of the rhetoric of Achebe's controlled presentation of
Okonkwo's actions throughout the novel and of the circum-
stances leading to his execution of Ikemefuna. For exam-
ples, nowhere in the novel is it hinted that if Okonkwo had
time to reflect on the execution he would have acted differ-
ently, as Opata seems to imply. In fact, a close reading of
the text shows that Okonkwo was informed of the intended
execution by Oguefi Ezeudu two full days before the execu-
tion was carried out (59-60); if Okonkwo had been a man of

3 Damian Opatu, "Eternal Sacred Order Versus Conventional Wisdom: A Con-

sideration of Moral Culpability in the Killing of Ikemefuna in Things Fall Apart ,"
Research in African Literature , 18, No. 1 (1987), 75-76.

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 Achebe's Things Fall Apart 305

thought and not of blind action, he would have reflec

the moral consequences of his action during those two
To demonstrate his eagerness to participate in the
tion, "Okonkwo got ready quickly [when] the party
with Ikemefuna carrying a pot of wine" (60).
To suggest, as Opata does, that Okonkwo is a vict
fate, one forced by circumstances beyond his control
Ikemefuna, is inaccurate. Although the capricious g
creed that the innocent Ikemefuna should be killed,
gods did not specifically order Okonkwo to partic
the event. The fact is that Okonkwo was free to choose not
to participate in Ikemefuna's execution, as the following
conversation between Okonkwo and his friend Obeirika
makes plain:
"I cannot understand why you refused to come with us to kill
that boy," he [Okonkwo] asked Obeirika.
"Because I did not want to," Obeirika replied sharply. "I had
something better to do."
"You sound as if you question the authority and the decision
of the Oracle, who said he should die."
"I do not. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to
carry out its decision."
"But someone had to do it. If we were all afraid of blood, it
would not be done. And what do you think the Oracle would do
then?
"The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her messenger,"
Okonkwo said. "A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of
hot yam which its mother puts into its palm."
"That is true," Obeirika agreed. "But if the Oracle said that
my son should be killed, I would neither dispute it nor be the
one to do it." (69)

Opata's argument that Okonkwo is a victim of fate denies

him his tragic stature and thereby robs him of our deepest
sympathy.
More responsive to Ikemefuna's execution and Okon-
kwo's role in it is David Carroll, who writes:
This incident is not only a comment on Okonkwo's heartless-
ness. It criticizes implicitly the laws he is too literally imple-
menting .... As we watch him [Ikemefuna] being taken unsus-
pectingly on his apparently innocent journey, the whole tribe

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306 Solomon O. Iyasere

and its values is [sic] being judged and found wanti

first time in the novel, we occupy the point of vie
sider, a victim, and from this position the commu
cruel.4

Carroll's comment is to the point in direc

tion to Okonkwo's heartlessness and his literal minded ac-
ceptance of the decree of the gods. However, it does not
specifically address the crucial question of whether or not
Okonkwo had the choice of refusing to participate in the
gods' hideous decree nor why Okonkwo interprets the gods
so literally.
Okonkwo was faced with a paradoxical situation in par-
ticipating in Ikemefuna's death. On the one hand, his rela-
tionship with the boy had evolved into a strong paternal/
filial relationship; on the other hand, the gods decreed that
the boy must die - a decree which had to be obeyed without
question - as did the decree that the twins must die, as
Obeirika recalled:
[W]hat crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that
they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed. And if
the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the
goddess, her wrath was loosed on the land and not just the of-
fender. As the elders saw, if one finger brought oil, it soils the
others. (130)

The important question raised here is why does Okonkwo

participate in executing Ikemefuna? Does he fear and re-
spect the wrath of the gods? Judging from Okonkwo's ac-
tions, we have to say that the answer is "no"; habitually,
Okonkwo acts too impulsively, too violently, to think of the
consequences of his actions. This habit of impulse is made
clear, for example, when Okonkwo beats his wife during the
sacred Week of Peace - a week of harmony, restraint, and
decorum: "And when she returned, he beat her heavily. In
his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace.
His first two wives ran out in great alarm, pleading with
him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the

4 Carroll, p. 49.

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 Achebe's Things Fall Apart 307

man to stop beating somebody halfway through, no

the fear of a goddess" (31). In fact, because of his ex
pride; because he would not admit his error, "people sai
had no respect for the gods" (32). Though not afrai
goddess, Okonkwo is not fearless, for he fears failure,
narrator tells us:

[H]is whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of
weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil
and capricious gods and of magic. . . . Okonkwo's fear was
greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within him-
self. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resem-
ble his father. (14)

Robert Wren emphasizes Okonkwo's freedom to choose

not to participate in killing Ikemefuna, "[I]f a man says 'no'
strongly enough, his 'chi' says 'no' also. Okonkwo had that
within him which said 'no' to the killing of Ikemefuna."5
Does he act, then, out of his own selfish motives - his in-
ordinate ambition to be acknowledged as one of the coura-
geous and brave men of Umuofia? Does he perceive the de-
cree of the gods as a challenge to his manhood and, as a
result, exceeds in his actions even what the gods demand?
Based on a careful analysis of Achebe's controlled presenta-
tion of Okonkwo's character, his habit of mind and action,
as this paper contends, Okonkwo's participation results not
from obedience to the gods. Instead, like Ezeulu in Arrow of
God, Okonkwo is in competition with the gods and acts out
of his pathological fear of being thought weak - his fear of
being perceived as like his father Unoka.
Because of the centrality of the scene in which Ikemefuna
is killed to our understanding of Okonkwo's role in it, it is
necessary to cite the passage of length:
At the beginning of their journey the men of Umuofia talked
and laughed about the locust, about their women, and about
some effeminate men who had refused to come with them. But
as they drew near to the outskirts of Umuofia, silence fell upon

5 Robert Wren, Achebe's World (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press,

1980), p. 44.

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308 Solomon O. Iyasere

them too.
The sun rose slowly to the center of the sky, and the dry,
sandy footway began to throw up the heat that lay buried in it.
Some birds chirruped in the forest around. The men trod dry
leaves on the sand. All was silent. Then from the distance came
the faint beating of the ekwe. . . .
They argued for a short while and fell into silence again, and the
elusive dance rose and fell with the wind. Somewhere a man was
taking one of the titles of the clan, with music and dancing and
a great feast. . . .
Thus the men of Umuofia pursued their way, armed with
sheathed machetes, and Ikemefuna, carrying a pot of palm wine
on his head, walked in their midst. Although he had felt uneasy
at first he was not afraid now. Okonkwo walked behind him. He
could hardly imagine that Okonkwo was not his real father. He
had never been fond of his real father, and at the end of three
years he had become very distant indeed. . . .
As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his
machete, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. The pot fell
and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry, "My father,
they have killed me!" as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear,
Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. (61-63)

This tragic event takes place during or immediately after

the celebration of the coming of the locust - an occasion of
joy, laughter, and excitement, especially among the children
of Umuofia. "Locusts are descending" was joyfully chanted
everywhere, and men, women, and children left their work
or their play to run into the open to see the unfamiliar
sight. Ikemeufuna's death comes only two days after
"Okonkwo sat in his obi cruching happily with Ikemefuna
and Nwoye and drinking palm wine copiously ..." (59),
sharing with Ikemefuna the joy which enveloped the whole
community. The feast of the locust thus serves as a foil for
and throws into sharp relief the killing of Ikemefuna.
These contrasting events are presented as occurring al-
most simultaneously to underscore the brutality and inhu-
manity of the Umuofia society. On the very day that
Ikemefuna sits happily with his "father" Okonkwo, Ezeulu
reports, "Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him" (59). The
narrator's terse, mournful description of Ikemefuna's death
intensifies both the horror of the event and the dastardli-

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 Achebe's Things Fall Apart 309

ness of Okonkwo's participation: His "son" runs to hi

protection only to be felled by the hard steel of Okonk
machete. Okonkwo's deliberate participation makes
death of Ikemefuna too horrible to endure.
Okonkwo is consistently presented in the novel, as in the
above episode, as a man of ignoble decisiveness, one who
acts strong but is mentally weak. He is a man who rushes
headlong into action and will not allow himself to be con-
tained, as he should be, by the bonds of interpersonal rela-
tionships, by the prickings of conscience, or by the customs
and values of his society.
Okonkwo's predisposition to commit himself with tragic
intensity to irrevocable violence is made clear in the narra-
tor's first description of him:
He was tall and huge and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose
gave him a severe look. He breathed heavily, and it was said
that when he slept, his wives and children in their houses could
hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the
ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to
pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often.
He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could
not get the words out quickly enough, he would use his fists. . . .
(4)

Emphasis here and throughout is on Okonkwo's intimi-

dating physical strength and his reliance on force to achieve
his ends. As Eustance Palmer observes, "In a sense,
Okonkwo is presented as a life-denying force. He was al-
ways associated with death, whereas his father, with all his
faults is associated with life . . . always charged and tense
like a loaded cannon. . . . [0]ne expects his fiery temper and
nervous energy to find outlet in violent action in that he
will plunge headlong into self destruction."6 Equally impor-
tant, the narrator's emphasis on Okonkwo's monstrous en-
ergy and brute strength calls attention to Okonkwo's pri-
mary weakness - his inability to think, to use language to

6 Eustance Palmer, An Introduction to the African Novels (London: Heine-

mann Educational Books, 1972), p. 54.

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310 Solomon O. Iyasere

channel and communicate his thoughts and

act meaningfully with his environment.
To Okonkwo, words are mere shapes to f
prime instruments for conceptual expressions
outward experience its form and making i
clear. According to Susan Langer, "all genui
symbolic, and the limits of expressive medium
really the limits of our conceptual powers. Be
have only blind feeling, which records nothin
nothing, but has to be discharged in action
impulsive demonstrations."7 Because of his limited
metacognitive power, Okonkwo habitually resorts to blind
and impulsive actions; he approaches every problem - no
matter how complex or paradoxical - with a single-minded,
preconceived solution: force without thought, action with-
out regard for consequence. Unlike his friend Obeirika, his
uncle Uchendu, and his father Unoka, Okonkwo is too im-
patient, too much a man of action to deal with subtleties,
with nuances that do not fit easily into his monochromatic
view of life. Okonkwo's rigid use of language corresponds to
his rigid approach to life. (In significant ways, his attitude
towards life and language help explain why he accepts the
decree of the gods literally, without questions). Okonkwo's
rhetorical ineptitude further alienates him from Umuofia,
further divorces him from his goal of being Umuofia's
champion, because Umuofia prides itself on its rhetorical
refinement. In Umuofia, as among the Ibos, the art of con-
versation is regarded highly, and proverbs "are the palm oil
with which words are eaten." As Wren observes, Okonkwo
"does occasionally use a proverb - four or five times in the
course of the novel - but they do not seem to flow from
him. . . . "8 In general, Okonkwo finds words poor substi-
tutes for action. As C. L. Innes observes, "Phrases or state-

7 Susanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key , 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Harvard

Univ. Press, 1987), p. 87.

8 Wren, p. 57.

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 Achebe's Things Fall Apart 311

ments which reaffirm rather than extend the existing

view of a person or his society are typical of Okonkwo.
His contributions to a discussion are generally shor
commonplace. . . . For Okonkwo talking is never a pr
to action, it leads nowhere."* Lacking rhetorical
Okonkwo overcompensates for his deficiency in this ar
being too quick to act, by doing more than Umuofi
even the gods demand.
Okonkwo possessed a momomaniacal commitment
placing success and achievement above everything
else - even the need to love and be loved - and identifying
his whole existence with gaining power as one of the lords
of the clan of Umuofia. This commitment to and drive for
power ruled his life. Worse still, this habit of mind leads
tragically to Okonkwo's denial of his true self and makes
inevitable his suicide. He resorts to force instead of dia-
logue, acts violently when flexibility and compassion are
called for.
The murder of Ikemefuna, though the most deadful, is
the climax of a series of extreme actions Okonkwo takes to
assert his manliness - his existence. Other key moments
arise when he savagely beats his son, repudiates his father,
Nnoka, kills the messenger, and ultimately turns his own
violent hand against himself.
Okonkwo's impulsive violence marks his relationship with
his only biological son, Nwoye. The boy seeks his father's
love and understanding, but Okonkwo is incapable of re-
sponding to these basic human needs; he considered them
unmanly and effeminate. When Okonkwo is confronted by
the failure of his own rigid code as Nwoye turns to Christi-
anity for love and succor, Okonkwo responds in the only
way he knows - with violence:
It was late afternoon before Nwoye returned. He went into the

9 C. L. Innes, "Poetry and Doctrine in Things Fall Apart ," in Critical Perspec-
tives on Chinua Achebe , ed. C. L. Innes and Bernth Lindfurs (Washington, D.C.:
Three Continents Press, 1978), pp. 114, 120.

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312 Solomon O. lyasere

obi and saluted his father, but he did not answer. N

around into the inner compound when his father, su
come with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him
"Where have you been?" he stammered. Nwoye s
free himself from the choking grip.
"Answer me," roared Okonkwo, "before I kill you!
a heavy stick that lay on the dwarf wall and hit him
savage blows.
"Answer me!" he roared again. Nwoye stood look
and did not say a word. The women were scream
afraid to go in.
"Leave that boy at once," said a voice in the outer
It was Okonkwo's uncle, Uchendu. "Are you mad?
Okonkwo did not answer. But he let hold of Nw
walked away and never returned. (157)

In another crucial event, the final gatheri

everything seems to point toward the need fo
flexibility in responding to the clan's increasi
tion, "They have broken the clan and gone
ways. . . . Our brothers have deserted us and
ger to soil their fatherland. If we fight the s
hit our brothers and perhaps shed the blood
(210). Okonkwo reacts predictably, decisive
Early in the morning, under a somber silence
Umuofia gather in the marketplace to dec
what action they will need to take to stop
Smith and the District Commissioner's ruthless violations
of the customs and traditions of Umuofia. A foreign judicial
system has been established in place of indigenous laws; a
foreign religion, Christianity, has begun to supplant the lo-
cal gods. Umuofia's existence and all that gave the people's
lives substance and meaning are being destroyed from
within and without. As the elders deliberate, five messen-
gers from the District Commissioner arrive, and tragic
drama unfolds, with Okonkwo at center stage:
He [Okonkwo sprang to his feet as soon as he saw who it was.
He confronted the head messenger, trembling with hate, unable
to utter a word. The man was fearless and stood his ground, his
four men lined up behind him.
In that brief moment the world seemed to stand still, waiting.
There was utter silence. The men of Umuofia were merged into

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 Achebe's Things Fall Apart 313

the mute backcloth of trees and giant creepers, waiting.

The spell was broken by the head messenger. "Let me pass
he ordered.
"What do you want here?"
"The white men whose power you know too well have ordered
this meeting to stop."
In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger
crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo's machete
descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed
body.
Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that
Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the
other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead
of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices
asking: "Why did he do it?"
He wiped his machete on the sand and went away. (210-11)

To understand the reason why Okonkwo acts as he does,

we need to examine Okonkwo's relationship with Nnoka.
Okonkwo's relationship with his father, Nnoka, is devoid of
love and marked by hate. Okonkwo violently and decisively
repudiates Nnoka, obliterating his father's existence from
his mind because Nnoka is known to be weak, a failure:
"[H]e had long ago learned how to slay that ghost. When-
ever thought of his father's weakness and failure troubled
him, he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and
success" (68-69). At his death, Nnoka had no title; when he
died, he was not accorded the proper traditional funeral but
was buried like a dog. In trying to obliterate all Nnoka rep-
resents, Okonkwo casts off not only Nnoka's undignified ir-
responsibility but also those positive attributes - love, com-
passion, creativity - which Nnoka embodies. What
Okonkwo does not recognize is that by attempting to oblit-
erate his father's reality, he symbolically destroys his own
existence and his own place in Umuofia society and ends
up, in death, just like his father. To Umuofia, Okonkwo's
death by hanging is an abomination, an offense against the
earth; as a result, Umuofia buries Okonkwo, as Obeirika
mournfully observes, "like a dog." The clan's attitude to-
ward Okonkwo's death is tersely summarized: "His body is
evil, and only strangers may touch it. ... We cannot bury

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314 Solomon O. Iyasere

him. Only strangers can. We shall pay you

When he has been buried, we will then do
shall make sacrifices to cleanse this deserted land" (214).
Okonkwo's fatal gift is his predisposition to violence; he
commits himself with tragic intensity to become the cham-
pion of the heroic tradition of Umuofia through extreme
and decisive action. These attributes appear to serve him
well, especially when he channels his strength towards in-
dustry. He threw himself into whatever he did like a man
possessed. For example, during the planting season,
Okonkwo worked daily from cock-crow until the chickens
went to roost. He was very strong and rarely became fa-
tigued. Consequently, Okonkwo became prosperous and
well known throughout the nine villages and beyond; he
had a large compound enclosed by a thick wall of red earth,
and his own hut, or obi, stood immediately behind the only
gate in the wall. Each of his three wives had her own hut
and "the barn was built against one end of the red wall and
long stacks of red yam stood out prosperously in it" (15).
Okonkwo was respected for rising so suddenly from great
poverty and misfortune to be one of the lords of the clan.
Paradoxically, the same qualities that contribute to
Okonkwo's greatness also account for his isolation, his
blindness, and his ruin. To achieve success, fame, and
power, Okonkwo habitually resorts to and comes to rely on
thoughtless violence. Without regard for consequences,
Okonkwo acts: he kills Ikemefuna, beats his son, repudiates
his father, butchers the messenger. He becomes the apothe-
osis of violent action and as such ultimately destroys
himself.
Yet Okonkwo is not a classical Machiavellian. Although
bound to violence to achieve his goals, deep down in his
heart, he is not an evil, heartless man. As I have argued
elsewhere,10 he is capable of love, warmth, and compassion.

10 Solomon O. Iyasere, "Narrative Techniques in Things Fall Apart, New Let-

ters, 40, No. 3 (1974).

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 Achebe's Things Fall Apart 315

To maintain the image of his "grandiose self," he st

and succeeds in burying these positive human attr
within himself because he considers them unmanly
lows his buried humanity to surface only in priva
guarded moments: for example, it is in the dark t
shows his spontaneous response and deep-felt angu
saving his dying daughter Ezinma from Chielo, and
his private dark room that he shows brief remorse af
brutal killing of Ikemefuna.
On the one hand, we admire Okonkwo's heroic det
nation to achieve personal success and applaud his
commitment, though futile, to preserve the legac
Umuofia's heroic tradition. At the same time, we co
and despise him when his determination to succeed
commitment to preserve the tradition become an
preoccupation leading to inhuman acts and violenc
as his slaughtering his "son" Ikemefuna.
All in all, Okonkwo is a man of uncommon achieve
and uncommon failure. The overriding paradox of
and death is that if he had not been obsessed with a
the life of failure which his father Nnoka lived, he
have been less prone to violence, but if he had bee
violent, he probably would not have achieved succ
lord in Umuofia. He is, as tragic heroes often are, a
of the defects of his virtues.
California State University
Bakersfield, California

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