Mbari: A Ritual Celebration

"The mbari process is an act of cosmic renewal, a harmonization of opposing forces, a fusion through materials and workers of the real world, the sky world, and the underworld, and, above all a celebration of life" (Rosalind Hackett, Art and Religion in Africa, 153).



Reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for the second time is like greeting a friend one hasn't seen in a while.  In fact, I was ecstatic at being able to pick the book up again because I haven't read it since my undergraduate World Literature Class.  Out of any poco book I have read this one holds a great place in my heart because it is the book that changed my college life forever.  After reading it the first time, I knew exactly what it was I wanted to study for the rest of my life.   Things Fall Apart baptised me into the field of Post-colonial studies--I say baptised because I underwent a spirtual change,one that I can't even explain in words, a change that made me want to become a post-colonial scholar.

With that said, I want to approach this post differently--I could explain all the ways in which Achebe tries to un-make the image of the "savage" African, but I feel this has been done many times and then some.  I did so myself after my first encounter, but I want to touch on another important concept.  Plus in doing so, we have missed an important aspect of this brilliant novel which can be seen as a celebration of African Life.

What do I mean by this idea of celebration, and how does it apply to Things Fall Apart?

First off, I want to highlight the fact that Achebe was scrutinized for writing this novel in English--we read about this during the week in which we read about language and colonization.  In doing so some clamied that this novel was not truly a piece of "African" literature.  Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o  was one of his biggest critics.

After reading Things Fall Apart for the first time, I had a literature theory class in which we read an excerpt from Achebe's The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays during the time we covered post-colonial theory.  In this group of essays Achebe, challenges Thinog'o's assertion that his novel was not truly African Literature because it was tainted with the language of the colonizers.    One important concept that Achebe embraces is the concept of Mbari, a practice that every African writer/artist should do when writing and or creating a work of authentic African art. However, he doesn't explain what this concept is, and there is an important reason why. 


SO what is Mbari, and why didn't Achebe explain it, and how can we view Mbari in terms of Achebe's Things Fall Apart?  AND is Things Fall Apart an authentic piece of African Literature?
I will now try to answer these important questions.


Mbari is a ritual and an object (and as such is spirtual/religious) that the Owerri Igbo have been doing before even the time of colonization (Hackett Art and Religion in Africa 150). In order to do the ritual, however, certain shrines were built as places of sacrifice for the earth god  Ala, and "the decision to erect an mbari constitutes a response to a major crises in the community...it is essentially a religious affair in that it is a sacrifice, serving to rebind the community to its deity" (Hackett 150).   Some consider the importance of mbari relies firmly on the process rather than on its form (Hackett 150).  Mbari consists of several stages: the acknowledgment of participation in which a pact is made between the artists and priests, the collection of yam mbari where artist construct clay figures of humans and animals and the first figure is always mishappened when formed to dispel evil, and then a date is set for the testing of whether or not the sacrifice is accepted (Hackett 150-151).  It is curious to note that modern acts of Mbari, European plates, which are also called mbari, are included in the shrine (Hackett 151).   The final stage takes place at night, and all the clay figures are transferred into the most inner part of the shrine, and before the workers leave they cast of all their clothes and pray for evil to leave their bodies (Hackett 150).  The most important part is that the workers do not acknowledge their own part in mbari once they have finished the act (Hackett 150).

This concept of mbari may be strange to our Western senses, but I feel that by understanding mbari, its cultural aesthetic as a artistic object, as well as a cultural process of restoration.

Now that I have outlined, in a very simpliefied way, Mbari I think it important to return to Achebe and the concept of African Literature.   From what we learned before it is obvious that Achebe embraces English and uses it as a weapon against Europeans, but what's most important to the concept of African Literature is the process of Mbari.  Achebe thinks that in order for a piece of literature or art to be authentically African the artists must enact the process of mbari.


With all that said Things Fall Apart is an authentic piece of African art.  It is an object of Mbari, and it is also functions as the process of mbari that serves to cleanse the thoughts of both African and Europeans of the dangers of viewing Africa as the dark and savage continent. 

Achebe creates an authentic piece of African literature by using the process of mbari which can be understood as such:

1) Achebe acknowledges the act of mbari, by first acknowledging that Africa existed before the Europeans even arrived. He outlines a civilized society--one that includes an economy, a work ethic, gender/sex roles, and even a political hiearchy.  Thus the process of mbari is initiated.
2) Achebe collects/creates the yam mbari by creating African characters that are civilized and cultured and have a very clear sense of one's society.   However, he keeps one character misshapen and flawed.  This can be seen through the character Okonkwo.   Okonkwo is a noble man, but he is one with a temper and the inability to understand or accept change. Not to mention, he is a tad prideful, even though he started off with nothing to his name.
3) Achebe moves the mbari into the most innersanctum--this can be understood in the terms of the white men invading the lives of the Igbo tribes, because in the process of mbari even Europeans were included.
4) Finally, Achebe achieves this ritual cleansing by undoing all the stereotypes and colonial attitudes toward Africa.  Okonkwo serves as Achebe's mbari sacrifice--he represents the destruction of a civilized society, yet he also represents away to connect to one's cultural past.

I hope I have done some justice in defending Achebe's creation of authentic African art.  After all his novel can be seen as a ritual of harmonization and cleansing of European thought and colonialization.