preview

Things Fall Apart Religion

Decent Essays

In Things Fall Apart, the witch doctor’s many unorthodox forms of treatment for Ekwefi’s ogbanje, or evil spirit, show how the values of religion and society can lead the members of the Igbo tribe to commit atrocities. After the witch doctor diagnoses the cause of death, he gives Ekwefi many treatments for getting rid of the ogbanje, one of these being the mutilation of a baby’s corpse in order to keep the evil spirit away. The witch doctor then throws the scarred body of the child into the Evil Forest, where it presumably rots away and is eaten by wild animals. Unnecessary violence like the murder of twins, and the murder of Ikemefuna is not the fault of an individual, but the result of a society that has told African people these acts of violence are not only good, but necessary in order to maintain order. …show more content…

He performs a ritual of sorts to discover where Ezinma’s iyi-uwa, a stone in this instance, is located. To a villager, it seems as if this unorthodox method actually works, and Ezinma has finally been freed from her mysterious, antithetical oppressor. Whether it is a willful ignorance or the trickery of the witch doctor, the people wholeheartedly believe that the removal of the iyi-uwa has saved Ezinma. To the reader however, it is a stretch to say that the witch doctor has miraculously cured Ezinma of her affliction, and instead more likely that the witch doctor placed the stone in the hole using his sleight-of-hand. Because the villagers belief the cutting of the baby and the removal of the iyi-uwa has played a part in Ezinma’s survival, the authority of religious leaders is extended. As a result, a spiraling vortex forms, justifying increasingly immoral crimes as the villagers begin to believe that these acts of violences are

Get Access