I am sure by now you have completed reading the whole novel "Things Fall Apart". There are issues which you might find troubling. You may even disagree with some of the actions taken by the characters in the novel. Your views are important and let not the various articles you've read swayed you into accepting them as gospel truths. Do question what you have read.

In your respective blogs, think reflectively of the issues found in the novel. The following questions should help you in your analysis:

1. Based on your reading of “Things Fall Apart”, what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the 

British to take over?

2. Since Sarawak has also undergone colonisation, how has this affected aspects of culture in our society?

3. Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak?

Answers by Fatin Syazana binti Yahya :

1. Based on my reading of “Things Fall Apart”, the first aspect of Igbo culture that allow the British to take over is the abandonment of twins at birth. I feel that to kill babies just because they are twins are totally not acceptable. The other culture that British are allowed to take over is the superstitious belief that the Igbo people practice. They are quite superstitious and believe in such supernatural creatures as ogbanje. 

2.  Colonisation in Sarawak creates a lot of cultural diversity there.  This leads to the mixture of culture, races and the marriage between the local people and immigrants can create a mix of culture. This is the reason why Sarawak has the most cultures and races in Malaysia. 

3. Yes, there are some changes that had been brought in the lives of indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak. The first change is that people from those tribes get to have education and study in school. . The second change is to lead the tribes to trust only to one God. 

Answers by Nur Izzah Zawani bt Boher @ Bujang Amri: 

1. In my opinion, the aspects of the Igbo culture that allow the British to take over is the different status level among the people. The question about whether change should be honored over tradition often involves the personal status. Okonkwo, for example, objects the new political and religious orders because he feels that they are not manly. He afraid that he himself will not be manly if he agrees to join or even tolerate them. To some extent, Okonkwo’s resistance of cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal status. His sense of self-worth depends on the traditional standards by which the people of Umuofia judges him. This system of evaluating one’s self inspires many of the clan’s outcasts to embrace Christianity and at the same time accept the colonization of British. They feel that they are not appreciated in the society, therefore, these outcasts find in the Christian religion a protection from the Igbo cultural values that place them below everyone else. In the new community, these converts enjoy a higher status.

2. As Sarawak was colonized before, there are many assimilation of culture in the country. One of them is the language used. Sarawak uses English as the language of communication during the British colonization. Only ten years after independence, the medium of communication in Sarawak changed to Malay language.  Besides that, mixed marriages happen because of this colonization. The assimilation of culture between two different ethnics happens due to these marriages.  As Sarawak was divided into eleven divisions, there could be an unbalanced division to the ethnics too. An ethnic may live at a place where there is only their own tribes who live there. Therefore, they are not mixing with other races.

3. The changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak are in the aspect of social and education. When the British colonized, they build schools and hospitals. The British provides the people with education and they also take care of their health. Both male and female also have the opportunity to attain education.

Answers by Nur Afiqah bt Abdul Manap :

1. Igbo people have many culture. They are too believe in their culture and do not take any consideration about the effect of  their culture. Due to this some of them openly receive the Christianity into their village. As they accept the Christianity they have their faith on the religion. Besides, the different of classes between people also had been abandoned after the colonization.

2. We have variety of cultures in Sarawak that make us unique due to the colonization. After all it is a good thing. As we living in multicultural society we learn to respect others culture and we even learn their language. For example, a language. After English colonized Sarawak , they talk in English. Besides, we even sometimes had practiced others culture values. Varieties make society closed.

3. It does has a change in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak. They start to receive different kind of knowledge by attending  schools. They become more knowledgeable that can give their opportunities to improve their life. Besides, many more development that can improve the society life.

Answers by Sir Zafrieyl

Chinua Achebe introduced a lot of Igbo cultures in the novel “Things Fall Apart”. After finished reading the novel, I find that British successfully took over because of Igbo’s superstitious beliefs. They believed that twins bring back luck to the village and they also chase out some villagers just because of their cultural beliefs. British brought Christianity there which accepts anyone. After some period of time, more and more people converted. Even the main character’s son converted. People who needs shelter and safety mostly went to the church. Another aspect that caused British to take over their village is the social class. Social class exists because of their superstitious beliefs. Besides that, Nyowe converted to Christianity because his father did not give support to him.

Sarawak was once colonised by the British. From my observation, the most affected aspect in our society is the clothes that we wear. Our formal attire to attend lectures are long pants, neck tie and long sleeve shirt. Besides that, English language became the second language.  Before the colonisation, Bahasa Melayu and other natives language is used as a medium of communication. Just like the people of Igbo, Christianity was brought to Sarawak too. After being colonised, British brought immigrant from India and China to Sarawak. This made Sarawak a multi-religions state.

                   As we can see, there are many positive and negative changes brought to Africa and Sarawak. From the positive side, British introduced a better way of administrating these two places. A stable and organized structure of ruling which is democracy. The people have the right to choose their leaders. Besides that, schools are built. This is to improve the education received by the citizens. From a negative perspective, we can see that the traditional customs of the original settler are subsiding. 

Answers by Ravi Shankar A/L M. Sarawanan :

1. From my own opinion , one of the aspects of the Igbo culture that allows the British to take over is that the Igbo Culture is not consistent over their culture . They are not protecting their culture . They are easily influenced by the missionaries . After the missionaries provide them the job opportunities , they follow whatever the missionaries told them.

2. For Sarawak , we can see mixed marriage everywhere and this affects the language that their baby would be talking . A foreigner perhaps , might be  married with a rural area people . Hence it affects their children language . Another example would be our formal attire that we used to wear to school , office and etc .

3. Yes . This has improved peoples health . It is because they had build clinics , hospitals and so on . Other than that , British colonialism introduced a rule of law, effective administration, and competitive markets, promoting development in that era.