The White Man's Myth

In Umofia, and Nigeria in general, the usual color of skin to find is a dark colored skin, so the thought of a white between a tribe and clan in the times that Things Fall Apart is set is quite odd.  At the end of chapter eight, the narrator foreshadows the first appearance of the white men in Village; the author tells: “it is like the story of the white men who, they say, are whit like this piece of chalk […]. And these white men, they say, have no toes.” (pg. 74) Umofia, like us, and practically any civilization, could stay ignorant for eternity and possibly believe the world is flat and that they are the only ones who populate it. In the times the story is set we can perhaps predict that this soon, in the story, will come the time in which the English colonization in Nigeria and Central Africa begins. The fact that the men are exchanging stories about communities that seem fairly more prosperous and developed in the families’ gathering seems to hint the events that are going to happen; however, the men discard the possibility and consider it ridiculous and rather funny. The Igbo culture might not acknowledge it, but war might be around the corner and while the clan considers fighting wars is the dispute of honor, the Europeans fight for the thirst of conquering the material. The Igbos will not know what hit them.