Things Fall Apart: Character & Key Quotes: District Commissioner
Things Fall Apart: Character & Key Quotes: District Commissioner
District Commissioner – Character Analysis
A symbol of colonization
- The District Commissioner serves as a representative of European colonialism in “Things Fall Apart”. He embodies the presumptuousness, paternalism and lack of understanding often associated with the colonisers towards the native African cultures.
Depersonalization of the colonised
- Achebe presents the District Commissioner as a character that fails to recognise or appreciate the complexity and humanity of the Igbo people. This characterisation reflects the general colonial attitude towards the native cultures, which often led to dehumanisation and derogation of the colonised.
His book: ‘The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger’
- The book that the District Commissioner plans to write, satirically titled ‘The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger’, highlights the Eurocentric interpretation of African cultures. Given his lack of real understanding and empathy, it is implied that his book would be filled with distortions and simplifications of the Igbo culture.
Key Quotes and Analysis
“The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading…“
- This quote demonstrates the District Commissioner’s disconnectedness from the human tragedy of Okonkwo’s fate. Okonkwo’s life and death are reduced to mere “interesting reading”, showing the Commissioner’s lack of understanding of the cultural significance of Okonkwo’s actions and the ensuing upheaval.
“in the book which he planned to write…“
- Through the mention of the Commissioner’s planned book, Achebe satirises the way African cultures were typically portrayed in European literature. His intent to devote only a paragraph to Okonkwo signifies his unwillingness to acknowledge the complexity and worth of the native African cultures.
“… had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.”
- The title of the District Commissioner’s planned book itself is deeply ironical and highlights his condescending attitude towards the Igbo culture. The term ‘pacification’ positions the European colonisers as pacifiers of ‘primitive’ cultures, emphasising the inherent ethnocentric bias in the colonial narrative.