This paper intends to interpret Chinua Achebe`s works from the perspective of nationalism as theorized by Tom Nairn and Ernest Gellner. Nairn and Gellner, despite their several crucial differences, agree on the two aspects of nationalism: one is its face turned towards the “immemorial times,” and the other its face towards the future promised by “unceasing progress.” Keeping in mind the possible fallacies resulting from such sweeping, European-originated, theories of Nairn and Gellner, I would like to analyze how Achebe`s Things Fall Apart and several important essays illustrate the two faces of nationalism and, at the same time, raise the issue that these Western theorists failed to address seriously in their conceptualizations. The strong tendency of nationalism to look back upon or even invent the historical origin of the nationhood manifests itself in Achebe`s efforts to recover and place the cultural and tribal origin of the Igbo within the historical time and space dimension, as well-materialized in both his detailed description of the first nine ancestors of the Igbo and his emphasis on their on-going influence upon the present community of Umofia. Viewed from the perspectives of Nairn and Gellner, this project of Achebe`s is reflective of the urgency on the part of the peripheral nations of the world economy, to assert their cultural originality and autonomy. And the advocacy of their “own” cultural originality is meant to help them resist the political and cultural assimilating pressures from the metropole. The future-oriented face of nationalism is not so manifest in Things Fall Apart as its counterpart. Yet, the impulse towards the future and modernization, albeit a weak one, can still be detected in a group of natives alienated by the dominant culture of Umofia. These outsiders become the first target group for the British missionaries looking for the opportunity of infiltrating the native society, and they, in turn, become the first recipients of Western education. The novel seems to suggest that the modernization of Nigeria can be prepared for by this group of people who, due to their `weak bond` with the traditional society, stand in a better position to reform society. The author`s stress on the need for the modernization of Nigeria can also be felt in his very act of narrativizing the inevitable fall of Umofia in contact with the advanced European nation. Given these facts, Achebe`s novel can be said to illustrate Nairn`s and Gellner`s theory about “Janus-faced nationalism.” However, this alone does not constitute the significance of Achebe`s novel. Its importance also lies in its pointing out the so-called “internal colonization” or the inequality within the native society as illustrated by the presence of outsiders within the traditional society. By directing our attention to the presence of this disempowered group within the traditional culture, Achebe seems to utter a strong warning against the possibly dystopian aspect--at least to some traditionally alienated members of the society--of the nationalist project of recovering the traditional culture and, above all, against the anti-democratic practice, often found in history, of nationalism in general: silencing and containing the internal dissidence in the glorified cause of“national unity.”
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