Title:   WITCHCRAFT AS A SYSTEM OF SOCIAL ORDER IN THINGS FALL APART

Abstract
Colonialism was a total system of oppression which found force in its various argument of
superiority and classifications and did various reclassifications of African ways because of its
agency of power backed by its military might and economic power. The first casualty of such
colonialist classification is the belief system of the traditional African people and their religion, a
representation of their indigenous gods was redefined through the agency of language. Witchcraft
is reappropriated by the colonialist having the agency of power and language in an attempt to
reduce African religious practices as a narrow reality of evil and harm without the possibility of
such religious social practices having varied interpretation beyond this restricted imposition of
meaning. Through the application of postcolonial theory this paper observes that Witchcraft
performs the function of social order in Things Fall Apart. This concept of social order is multiple
dimensional, which is interrogated from such concepts as: political, economic, socio-religious
structures of the indigenous African society within the world of the novel. It accounts for various
meanings of witchcraft within in the Igbo traditional society. This paper further observes that the
dawn of colonialism disrupted traditional belief that has guided the African society as seen in
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Keywords: Witchcraft, Social Order, Politics of Classification, Colonialism, Deconstruction.

Citations:

Publication Date: 2021-07-09