Chi in Things Fall Apart

Igbo Maiden Spirit Mask

            The Igbo people are profoundly religious people who believe in the supreme god Chukwu.

Chi is one's personal god or guardian spirit. The supreme god Chukwu assigns one's chi before and at the time of birth and which remains with the person for the rest of his or her lives on Earth.

Chi in the Igbo society is similar to the guardian angel in the Christianity. Everyone has his or her personal chi from cradle to the coffin. Chi determins a person's successes, misfortunes and failures throughout his or her lifetime.

Chi can be good and people are successful. If something becomes wrong people blame their personal chi.For example, Okonkwo's second wife Ekwefi suffered a lot in her life with her babies' deaths and after her third child died, she became a very bitter woman. And when Okonkwo's first wife celebrated the birth of her three sons, Ekwefi was the only one person in the happy company who couldn't rejoice with others and "she didn't blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi." In that way, Chi is very strong in belief of Igbo clan, and most people had given their fortunes to the God's decision.


Igbo culture picture

Indeed, we can see that chi is an individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack thereof.

The concept of chi is discussed at various points throughout the novel and is important for our understanding of Okonkwo as a tragic hero. One can explain Okonkwo’s tragic fate as the result of a problematic chi. As we can read, clan believes that “...a man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.” In spite of the fact that personal's chi is very important for the Igbo people, they don't believe that a man's chi controls his entire life.

However, chi could be a conflict with above-stated definition because individuals may decide owns destinies or they can have an influence on chi by their brave or good behaviour. The Igbo people consider that if a man is in peace with god and ancestors, his achievement will depend on himself. "The Igbo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chisays yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed." It means that they can't rely only on personal's chi in their life, they have to work hard. " And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands."

Igbo culture picture

We could realize that Okonkwo’s life was characterized by contradictions - success and failure, greatness and shameful death – and his chi was both successful and unsuccessful. One’s personal god can be affected by one's willpower, as it was demonstrated in Okonkwo's case. This means that a person does not live his life completely dictated by fate or chi they were born with.In short, chi identifies by philosophy or personal fortune in Igbo culture.

Strong people could determine their ideals and actions (like Okonkwo) or else the bad Chi would stamp down their life (like his father, Unoka), but they both could not decide on their fates.

Ibgo culture appears through the story and affects profoundly to the ethnic group. Chi is one important element in people’ lives because it caused many troubles and advantages lead to the success and failure in the life style. The spirit element is always emerged during details of story Things Fall Apart.

Group work

Anh Vo

Natalia

Ebisa

12/01/2011