"What do we mean when we say that the greater part of Africa is uncivilised? Surely the mere enjoyment of such things as railways and telegraphs and the like do not necessarily prove their possessors to be in the front rank of civilised nations." (Bishop Tozier, 1875). Discuss the treatment of "civilisation" as portrayed in two or more works.
One of the problems faced by the contemporary reader when examining texts dealing with the issues of colonisation and empire, is how to deal with the idea of civilisation. From our late twentieth century viewpoint, we are aware that what was regarded by the founders of the British Empire as uncivilised was merely a different type of culture from that with which they were familiar. To them, the tribal societies went against everything that they saw as important in a civilisation. As far as they were concerned, the colonised peoples had nothing in the way of law and education, while their religion was nothing but heathen superstition. Feeling threatened by this alien society, the colonialists imposed European values on the colonies, thus making them more familiar, and subsequently easier to control. However, the potential problems caused by the clash of cultures were not considered. In Chinua Achebe's two novels Things Fall Apart and No Longer At Ease, these problems are presented form the viewpoint of the colonised, and we see the disastrous effect the imposition of "civilisation" has on an already civilised society. In both novels the decline of the native culture is traced through the downfall of an individual, Okonkwo, in the first novel, and his grandson Obi, in the second. This essay will show how the imposition of alien values on a culture leads that culture to be all but destroyed, leaving the people with something far worse than the "uncivilised" sights faced by the colonisers when they arrived in the country. .
From the opening pages of Things Fall Apart we are presented with a highly structured society with its own religion, laws and social organisation.