Introduction
Identity and selfhood play a pivotal role in the discourse of postcolonial literature. The works of literature that sprung from the cultural clashes and civilizational eruptions borne out of colonial subjugation exerted a dominant voice for those people who were displaced, dehumanized, and had their ways of life destroyed by the forces of imperial expansion. These tales show the degrees to which the foreign hegemons extract the deep psychological and societal costs as they grow in strength and abrogate the traditions, sever cultural roots and put up the rigid binaries of self-versus-other, local-versus-foreign, homeland-versus-alien-land.
The authors of postcolonial literature, such as Chinua Achebe and J.M. Coetzee, involve readers in these turbulent collisions. Therefore, the reader comes to understand how characters must find themselves in such circumstances where they need to question and redefine their notions of who they are and what determines individuality. The novels above by these authors, Things Fall Apart and Waiting for the Barbarians, are a revelation of the intricate relationship between how power structures during colonization and the subsequent break of the colonized and colonizers’ self-identity.
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is centered on an Igbo man, Okonkwo, who becomes a tragic example of the ways colonialism can eradicate one’s entire cultural framework which he had been a part of. In the heart of the Igbo village of pre-colonial Nigeria, Okonkwo’s sense of self as a man, a patriarch, a warrior, and a champion wrestler is heavily dependent on his conformity to the patriarchal norms and ritualistic traditions embodied in this specific cultural setting (Jefferson-James 167). The sentence has been written in an active voice, but His haughtiness, testicularity, success, and physical strength are the ultimate ideals determining what exactly a man is and what is honor.
Nonetheless, the bloody invasion of British colonial powers and the Christian missionaries who seek to undermine the very foundation of Umuofia society makes Okonkwo’s persona meaningful and grant him status. With colonialism comes the imposition of alien legal systems, foreign cultural hegemonies, and religious dogmas. The pillars of Igbo society that have defined Okonkwo’s identity as the eldest man and embodiment of masculinity will be eroded. As it becomes hard for him to find purpose or to redefine his position within the society that is being more and more replaced by the colonial order in terms of their laws, customs, and values, Okonkwo chooses to kill himself.
The Waiting for the Barbarians of Coetzee presents a contradictory pathway: the devastating realities of colonialism and dehumanization of the colonized can make one awake to their moral consciousness and struggle against these very oppressive structures. The character of a magistrate firstly is an impassive figure who is just involved in interrogating and torturing the so-called savage nomads to a large extent with the help of toxic societal myths of ethnocentric superiority and racial hierarchy. Nonetheless, an encounter with a Barbarian woman who is subjected to the most vicious outrages triggers the transformation of the Magistrate down to his core humanity and selfhood (Bookchin 67-99).
He develops a relationship with the woman and begins giving her kind care, refusing the woman’s state-authorized punishment; the Magistrate’s actions are more and more contrary to the sociopathic colonial enterprise he nominally represents. He regains his autonomy and resolve to seek the human instinct, which was the act of utmost defiance – the returning of the woman’s remains to her people against the possibility of heavy punishment. Here, then, the Magistrate’s inner emancipation of selfhood denounces the despotism of colonialism and the crude cultural myth-making of the civilized vs. the Barbarians.
The essay will delve into a close reading of the narrative, taking into account key scenes and characters’ psychological states. The diverging paths that embodied both destruction and emergence through the complexities of colonial power structures and upheaval will be explored through the lens of the single identity being obliterated and another one being born through subversive self-actualization. Consequently, Achebe and Coetzee, in their novels, vividly depict self-seeking journeys of identity against the backdrop of the world-shattering disturbances through imperial conquest. This is a unique way of postcolonial literature’s persistent focus on creating an affirmation of being and telling of stories that are ordinarily marginalized and ostracized by the attempt of cultural erasures.
Things Fall Apart
Achebe’s novel, which is the forerunner of African literature, and unravels the events that took place in pre-colonial Nigeria; Okonkwo, the main character, cannot be separated from the traditions and beliefs and the patriarchal structures of the Igbo culture. Unoka, the father, is often remembered as a man who was not adept at wrestling, farming, and warfare, the professional pursuits that exemplified the masculinity of the Igbo. Okonkwo’s persona is opposed to Unoka’s “feminine” style of life (Jean Damascene 156-179). He laments: “When he spoke of unsuccessful men, he did not have any patience for them. He has had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had had no patience with his father.” (Achebe 4).
Through great rigor, Okonkwo has perfected the ultimate portrayal of Igbo manhood – winning titles, having lots of wives and children, winning honor through success in inter-village competitions, and imposing harsh discipline on himself to become a man of iron. The boy’s death was also partly his fault since he felt compelled to participate in the killing of a young boy named Ikemefuna due to ancient customs. As Okonkwo argues, “I was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 61) – instead of softness, anything that is associated with a break in masculinity and honor.
His whole personality is a product of the patriarchal cultural milieu of Umuofia and the other Igbo-speaking villages famous for their adherence to Igbo tradition. Okonkwo’s character, with his frequent outbursts of anger, his displays of physical strength, and his suppression of any show of vulnerability, defines the behaviors that were considered to be manly and proper for a man according to Igbo culture. Every manifestation of Okonkwo’s concept of himself as a man flows from his strict obedience to the Igbo customs, traditions, and system that are the source of his meaningfulness, purposefulness, and recognition.
However, the entrance of the British colonial powers, Christian missionaries, and authoritarian rule uproots the pillars on which Okonkwo’s self-hood was dependent. Under the influence of new religious dogma and laws that are being violently enforced, ritual practices are banned, native authorities are removed, and so is the invitation of Western cultural hegemony, Okonkwo’s view of the world is demolished beyond repair. Even the patriarchal customs and gender constructs that defined his role as a traditional and valiant warrior, to begin with, are being undermined by institutions that, by their very nature, are the ones enforcing colonial dominance (Leidig et al. 239 -267)
Okonkwo aggressively refuses the abrupt transformation of traditions and attacks a European messenger who he believes is ready to lead a strong rebellion. But he remains in prison, and when he comes back, he finds that his tribe is gradually being transformed into Christians, and they are tolerating the dominance of the British rule. The Igbo traditions that were the pillars of Okonkwo’s masculinity and individuality rapidly and inexorably crumbled. This proved to be too much for the hero. On the other hand, Okonkwo makes the ultimate sacrifice as he is unable to continue in a society that no longer has cultural touchstones such as communication through storytelling, worshipping clan ancestors, and leadership by masked elders after they have been eradicated, so he commits suicide – having “lost the name of a man among his people” (Achebe 207) as traditional Igbo.
Okonkwo’s path to the tragedy is a dramatic and striking image to illustrate that colonialism does not triumph over its victims just by overwhelming them with material and physical subjugation (Uchechukwu Peter 233-244). Unlike other mental disorders, it is not just that the foundations of meaning, symbols, and identity systems that create the entire worldview, self-sense, and life purpose are dismantled. Once stripped of his position, his role in society, a masculinity which was defined through ritual practices and superiority over non-Igbo “others,” the colonial forces bring to the fore an Okonkwo who is nothing but hollowed anachronism – an artifact of the civilization being systematically erased.
Waiting for the Barbarians
Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel that highlights the other view of identity destruction while the dynamics of the colonial power regime are being explored. The story centers on an unnamed Magistrate of a small colonial outpost tasked with maintaining control through military force and the interrogation and torture of nomadic groups called “Barbarians.” Initially, the Magistrate feels a detachment from any strong sense of identity rooted in his role facilitating colonial violence, musing: “I wasn’t born into any of the cultures, Catholic or non-Christian, which I have had to live in.” (Coetzee 30)
The Magistrate no longer sees a distinct cultural realm from the Empire upon which the paradigms of meaningful existence, such as Okonkwo’s Igbo heritage, are based, but rather the cipher of an Empire bent on subjugating the lawless tribes of the frontier through the use of raw power. Characterized by its power to deprive people of their individuality and merge into the unjust colonial system in which the colonizer colonizes his “other,” the colonized.
Nevertheless, a meeting with a horribly tortured Barbarian girl sparks in her mind the foundation of an internal transformative journey that leads to a new concept of identity in such atrocious times. As the Magistrate is looking after her crushed face and finally realizing that he has feelings for her, the personalized compassion, which is the opposite of the savagery between the colonialists, appears in front of his eyes.
The last and most defiant act of resistance and rebellion against the individualistic thought that we encounter in the story is the act of the Magistrate. He buries the body of the Barbarian woman in secret and returns what is left of her to her people, namely her bones, despite the strict orders and the threat of severe punishment. He is no longer a “figure of uncovering, figure with mask becoming a face” (Coetzee 119). Still, a real human being with an individualized conscience who dares to defy and challenge the established ethical and moral codes of colonialism.
Suppose Okonkwo’s journey shows how colonialism can turn one’s cultural framework upside down and completely obliterate one’s identity. In that case, the Magistrate’s arc signifies the opposite, which is how it can also inspire the reclamation of selfhood and redefinitions of selfhood through the small acts of subversion and refusal to be a part of oppression. The growing connection between the Barbarian woman and him represents the antipode that brings about a new self-identification that is repulsed by much of the violence and embraces the fact that we are all of the same race, regardless of the difference of nationalities.
Both authors pay attention to the various routes one can take when trying to create a persona and personal style while living between the power of colonizers and the limitations they impose. The portrayal of a people experiencing a profound dislocation occurs when cherished cultural systems are systematically dismantled and uprooted; this makes their identity and sense of selfhood unmoored without such grounds of meaning. On the other hand, Coetzee proposes a more viable concept of individuals who, despite the colonial system of discriminating and dehumanizing hierarchies, were still able to create identities based on compassion, morality, and common dignity.
This is how these complex novels and protagonists show us that the experience of the colonized is never a monotonous, one-dimensional story. Certain oppressive power structures aim to eradicate cultural identities and reduce the diversity of individual lives to mere binary oppositions; however, the movements of resistance and attempts to redefine selves keep on existing. Achebe and Coetzee, as well as others, in their turn, so eloquently put it the colonial environment can distort an issue to the same as obliterate one’s identity. These disruptions, however, are, in a way, a force that generates new identities and individualities from loss, dissent, heartbreak, and unwavering persistence of our humanity – despite having attempted to erase us.
Conclusion
The search for identity and individuality as projected in a dual pattern of Okonkwo’s and the Magistrate’s lives in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians show that colonialism brings about a very complex set of processes that can destroy the sense of self and help one to find it again. For Okonkwo, everything: his manhood, the meaning of life, and his purpose is bound to his adherence to patriarchal norms, gender roles, and Igbo cultural rituals. The process of violent imposition of British colonialism systematically destroys this indigenous culture with the drastic consequence of obliterating his hyper-masculine persona. The dominant Western cultural hegemony is gradually replacing the Igbo culture as Okonkwo finds no meaning in society anymore, so he ends up committing suicide. His death embodies the capacity of colonialism to eradicate people’s cultural heritage and meanings of existence utterly.
The Magistrate’s plotline offers an alternative way out; the enlightening nature of colonial rule helps the abandonment of the dehumanized selfhood that embraces individualistic morality and rejects the cruelty of its colonialism. The Magistrate, by being a caring mistress to a savage “Barbarian” woman, sheds his detached guilt for facilitating colonial violence and realizes that all people are equal under humanity regardless of the myths of racial hierarchy. By his brave act of returning her remains, instead of submitting to the oppressors, he affirms that selfhood is firmly grounded in the compassion of returning her remains rather than the oppressors’ submission.
On the one hand, Okonkwo’s identity is completely altered by colonial upheaval. On the other hand, the Magistrate’s journey shows us how these dramatic historical events can also be the building blocks of subversive anti-colonial individuality through transformational awakenings of consciousness. Individually, they portray the dichotomy in colonial power structures between the breakdown of the native identity and the creation of selfhood, which is driven by resistance.
In conclusion, the two writers skillfully shine a spotlight on the diversity of postcolonial narratives regarding identity and its disintegration then reemergence in the midst of cultural chaos. The tacit message of these books is that colonizing societies are full of dehumanizing forces that tear out people’s cultural identities if we pay attention to the views of (Bhatia et al. 422-436). On the one hand, these turbulences also contain the sparks of selfhood’s revival, which come along with the self-assertion of human dignity, dissent against subjugation, and finding one’s inner source of strength in the sea of all the upheavals. The quest for identity emanating from the center of the postcolonial literary tradition has the effect of creating room for voices that were previously marginalized and stories of selfhood that were birthed from a time of intended cultural erasure.
Works Cited
Bhatia, Sunil, and Kumar Ravi Priya. “Coloniality and psychology: From silencing to re-centering marginalized voices in postcolonial times.” Review of General Psychology 25.4 (2021): 422-436.
Bookchin, Murray. From urbanization to cities: The politics of democratic municipalism. AK Press, 2021.
Chinua, Achebe. “Things fall apart.” (2021).
Dagamseh, Abdullah M. “JM Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians Revisited: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism.” SAGE Open 12.4 (2022): 21582440221129848.
Jefferson-James, LaToya. Masculinity under construction: Literary representations of black masculinity in the African diaspora. Lexington Books, 2020.
Leidig, Eviane, and Gabriel Bayarri. “Not your grandma’s fascism: Fame, femininity, and race in far-right postcolonial india and brazil.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 30.1 (2023): 239-267.
Ngendahayo, Jean Damascene. “The Protagonist’s Masculine Perceptions in Things Fall Apart as the Sign of Igbo Society Breakup.” (2021).
Umezurike, Uchechukwu Peter. “Receptive Subjects: Gender and Sexuality in Novels by Igbo Authors.” (2021).
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