Memoir Obierika

Things have fallen apart. I sit here, staring beyond the open yam fields. Yams used to be a "man's crop", it symbolized our culture. Now, it is traded with the foreigners, our culture has been sold to them. But for what price? 

The white men had quietly snaked through our homes. They waved their Bible in the air, a white flag of 'peace'. It was all a lie. From the very beginning.And I should have done something. Okonkwo, "a man of great action", my closest friend, had tried. He dreamed for war against the white men. Despite being one of "the greatest of men", a true warrior, he had lost this battle of power. Losing it, Okonkwo could not stomach it. He hung himself.

But what of our own people who are following their way? How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man "has put a knife on the things that have held us together and we have fallen apart."

Before, the harmony of our world was in place, the reality of our beliefs remained throughout the tribe and our father Chukwu, and most of all, the men and woman of Umofia were fighters, strong fighters. Now decades of tradition, knowledge and power from out ancestors have cracked. They've been turned to dust, blown away by this new lunatic religion, Christianity. It has broken us apart.  It is forcing us to bow down. It is our destruction. 

We underestimated them. They were smart and strategic in their moves. Although Mr. Brown was a gentle and curious soul, he used our religion against us. Using our flaws to give the outcasts hope. We no longer faced them as a unified front and this made opposing them that much harder. The white men did not try to eradicate us by force yet, they preached on our village walkways, promising happy lives and afterlives, and by fraternizing with the untouchables of the clan. Our community was lost.

How easily they stripped us of our power and bent us into submission through their promises of religion and education for our sons and daughters. What we didn't realize was that this education they were offering was simply to shape and form us into mere cogs in their large machine. Only to serve for their needs. 

They promised us salvation and gave us destruction. Things have fallen apart.

Discuss the significance of social status on Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization.

In Igbo culture, personal achievement is emphasized. "Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered." (Ch. 1, pg. 6) Hereditary succession to titles contradicted their notions of leadership. A man gains titles through acquisition of wealth through hard work. This is usually achieved though his productivity of his yam fields, his bravery in war or/and his athletic skill as a wrestler. Marriage, wealth and the acquisition of titles enabled individuals to advance socially. Indirect characterization is achieved in Things Fall Apart through social status. 

Okonkwo "won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and has two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars...He was already one of the greatest men of his time." (pg. 6, Ch. 1) He is proved to be both extremely hardworking and physically capable. These principal accomplishments establishes Okonkwo's important position in Igbo society. Through this, Achebe shows us that Okoknwo values achievement, power and recognition. "As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders." (pg. 6, Ch. 1) Furthermore, Achebe sets up Okonkwo as man much respected for his considerable achievements and noble virtues-key qualities of Aristotle's tragic hero. Driving himself toward tribal success and recognition, he is trying to bury the unending shame that he feels regarding the faults of his late father, Unoka. Essentially, Okonkwo exhibits qualities of manhood in Igbo society. This gives us further insight into Okonkwo's perception of his culture and how this leads him to create his own social identity.

Character Analysis of Okonkwo

In Things Fall Apart, a predominant concept is the consequences of European colonization has on African civilization. It deals with the social and psychological conflicts created by the invasion of the white man and his culture into the former self-contained world of African society, and the disarray of the African consciousness that has followed. Achebe shows the disintegration of the tribe, their 'falling apart'. Achebe parallels this in the rise and fall of Okonkwo, who represents the internal weaknesses within the native structure and the divided nature of Igbo society and culture. Thus, Okonkwo himself becomes a symbol of this disintegration. This is further developed when there's not only the weaknesses and mistakes of the hero, but also the weakness of the tribe, who despite their power among the local clans, cannot resist the colonizing effort. 

When the Europeans invade, Okonkwo is one of few who resist and he ends up dead at the end of the novel. His refusal is a form of resistance to conforming to the ways of the white man as well as a rejection of his own culture as he has made a terrible transgression in committing suicide and will not be buried in the warrior style that he deserved. In this way Okonkwo rejects his own tribe members for their cowardice and lack of support. He took his life when he realized he did not have any more power. Ironically, Okonkwo loses his standing in both value systems despite his life desire to be successful and recognized.

Practice Paper 1 Analysis (Political Speeches)

 Tryst with Destiny was a speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Independent India. The speech was made to the Indian Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 14 August 1947.

The purpose of the speech was to capture the essence of the triumphant culmination of the hundred-year Indian freedom struggle against the British Empire in India. It was an inspirational speech made to the members of the Constituent Assembly who had to take their pledge to serve India.The audience of “Tryst with Destiny” included members of the Constituent Assembly and the interim government. The credibility of the speaker influences our acceptance of the person's message. His sociability, appearance, character, reputation, personality, sincerity, dynamism and composure all added credibility to the great speech. The purpose of the speaker was to inspire the people to build a new India which had gained its freedom recently. India no doubt had its strengths and weakness and this message was to inspire the people as well as their representative rulers to build India into a democratic and successful nation. It was a call to the members of the Constituent Assembly to take a solemn pledge to serve India and her people.

The speech also employed certain strategies to persuade the audience.It provided
Logos, about India's struggle to freedom and how freedom and power bring responsibility. It talks about the future of India and how the members of the assembly should "strive to fulfill the pledges to serve the millions who suffer and bring an end to poverty, ignorance, disease and inequality of opportunity."

It provides Pathos which appeal to the feelings of the audience, here the members of the Constituent Assembly. It states "A new star rises, the star of freedom in the east, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes. May the star never set and that hope never be betrayed!" It appeals to the emotions of the members to never lose hope and as freedom brings in responsibilities and burdens they have to face them in the spirit of a free and disciplined people. Satyagraha was a major root for success of the seemingly never-ending struggle for freedom in India and this is deeply acknowledged in Nehru’s speech. The reference made to the concept and its pioneer, coupled with particularly effective pathetic appeal would only cause fierce patriotism and love in the heart of any Indian who listened to it because of the fervor with which they respected and idolized the Father of the Nation and his ideas.

The speech provides Ethos, by building of source credibility by making a reference to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who "held the torch of freedom and lighted the darkness that surrounded us." It also makes a reference to the "unknown volunteers and soldiers of freedom who without praise or reward had served India even unto their death." Also to "the people who had been cut off from us by political boundaries." It demonstrates the intelligence,character and good will.

The speech is paced well, slow enough to be comprehensible and concise. Yet, he also makes the necessary pauses to exaggerate. His tone is authoritative and believable rather than commanding. He starts of with "what is" and "what could be" at the phrase level. Tells audiences about the "long quest of India, but have opportunity for greater triumph." Then "acknowledge pain and sorrow and believe the suffer of India would end." He jumps between the past and present constantly. "Before it was a fragment country but now they have united and become a joined country." "Past that clings on India then having a new hope that rises." This further motivates the audience. They remember the misery and problems they faced, and they look to the present as a chance for change. "Difficult problems they have to solve" then telling audiences to "face those problems with a spirit of discipline." He goes to the darkest history of India and then ends with the new bliss of what the future going to be.

The speech uses a plethora of literary devices to persuade the audience. In the line: "It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.",polysyndeton is used to stress the significance of each and every word spoken. An allusion is present in: "...and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially." to refer to the agony of partition. An anaphora to stress the importance of what he is saying."Peace has been said to be invisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments."An antithesis uses parallel ideas to let the assembly and the people of his country know what is and what could be. "The future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the One we shall take today.He omits conjunctions to make his speech fluent and meaningful, which is an asyndeton. "A new star rises, the star of freedom in the East, a new hope comes into being, a vision long cherished materializes."

Practice IOC

https://sites.google.com/site/eruditemedia/mp3

Where do we see evidence of linguistic imperialism in the Anglophone world?

Nowadays, we can clearly see that linguistic imperialism is widespread in the Anglophone world.  The two major forces which spread English throughout the world are British colonialism from the 17th to the 19th and American capitalism in the 20th century. In his book, Linguistic Imperialism (1992), Phillipson describes the spread of English as 'a post-colonial endeavor of core English-speaking countries to maintain dominance over periphery (in many cases developing) countries.' From history, we can see that the dominance of English is asserted and maintained by establishing continuously, 'structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages.' 

Well-known scholar, Max Weinreich said "A language is a dialect with an army and navy". This is true;, a language has traditionally become and international language for one main reason: the power of its people-especially their political and military power. It can be seen throughout history. It takes military power to establish it but it takes economic power to maintain and expand it. English could operate on a global scale with the introduction of new technology. This helped foster English into mass entertainment, international marketing and advertising, and even pop culture.

Why do we learn English? Individuals want access to scientific and technological information, international organizations, global economic trade and higher education. English makes this all possible. English provides linguistic power.Many countries now see English as key to their economic survival. It has an ideological function of modernity and efficiency. Even among parents, there's been pragmatic realizations that their children's lack in English could mean a marginalization of their children. It would deny them access to extensive resources. The growth of English into a 'lingua franca' certainly increases efficiency as an international medium for communication.

However, despite the advantages of such a universal language, there are damaging impacts on individuals and the community. We associate English with power which makes other languages seem 'unrefined' or 'primitive' in comparison. People who write up their research or scientists who write their reports in languages other than English, will have their worked ignored by the international community. English is now seen as a skill that educated and cultured people must have. This can be seen in many of the education systems we establish today. For example, there is now a standard English Language Testing System. Many students have to take the IELTS or TOEFL to gain acceptance into university or work in a country. Without these qualifications, it is rather difficult to maintain a stable economic lifestyle. 

If you go further, you have to ask yourself, will the emergence of a global language hasten the disappearance of minority languages and cause widespread language death? Well, statistics show that at least 50% of the world's 6,000 or so living languages will die out withing the next century. When a language dies, so much is lost. It is similar to the conservation of the species and the environment. 

Language is a tool of knowledge, it's how we communicate ideas. We see the history and the culture people. We see their identity. Language is a chief means of showing where we belong, and of distinguishing one social group from another. All over the world, we continuously see evidence of linguistic divergence rather than convergence.  

However, in recent times, the rising dominance of English has actually stimulated a stronger response in support of local languages. Movements for language rights have played an immense role in many countries like the Maori in New Zealand or the Aboriginal languages in Australia. This is because of people's need for identity and language provides this. 

Paper 1 Text 2 Analysis

The article titled "Food Crisis in Sahel" is an online piece released December 2011 on the Oxfam International Website, informing the reader on the predicted food crisis across West and Central Africa and Oxfam's contributions. At first glance, this article may seem like the typical charity piece yet during closer inspection, we see that it is merely an advertisement for the Oxfam charity foundation.

The author's outlook on Western and Central Africa is seen through their language and structure. He refers to them as places to be 'helped' and 'vulnerable'. The lack of personal terminology suggests that the audience is not from the same region. In fact, it would infer that the audience would originate from more economically developed countries. The purpose would be to inform their readers of the situation in Sahel and subtly persuade them to donate towards Oxfam, in support of their efforts in the region.

The article begins with a picture of a woman riding a donkey in a desolate, dry and vast land. This sets the tone of the text and gives us a face, a person to identify with. It also gives us an idea of the conditions they are living in, making it easier to imagine what the author is saying. The text begins with a general introduction that discusses the possibility of an upcoming food crisis in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa and directly indicates the issue. Saying that if effective action is not taken, the consequences will be severe. They support this with the experiences of past food crisis going on to say it 'affected more than 10 million people'. This immediately puts a number and image in your head, tugging on your emotional strings, urging you to read on. It goes on supporting their claims with the suggestion of a well-thought-out strategy and the claim 'we can work to break the hunger cycle', again pulling the reader into the situation.

The structure is a close resemblance of the Problem/Benefit technique that many advertisers use to persuade people. This can be seen by the sub-headings; 'The situation in the Sahel' and 'What Oxfam is doing'. The first part, is mainly to inform the reader. Using Logos, it states the current status of the situation, basing it on facts and statistics. Moving on to 'What Oxfam is doing', the purpose becomes to introduce the possible solutions. Notice how the author does not say what the reader can do to help. It is implied repeatedly through the tones of urgency and language such as 'early response', 'action' and 'support'. Furthermore, the article only presents Oxfam's solutions. It does not give any space for other charities or even suggest other actions. Almost, as if subtly forcing you to focus on what Oxfam is doing. This implies that they are only trying to persuade you to donate to Oxfam. Despite this being a good cause, it does imply that there is not as much care for the situation in Sahel, in comparison with Oxfam. Although, being quite informative, the article only provides us with one action they've started, the rest are goals. Thus the majority of the work is 'so what?' claims. We don't see any evidence of effect or change or even the possibilities. Combining these two sections, portrays Oxfam in a positive light as the noble and ethical organization.

The mood of the article is urgent using words such as 'crisis', 'insecurity' and 'erratic'. Yet, the mood is also surprisingly neutral since it does not demand sympathy but rather allows the reader to focus on the message. The tone is serious and maintains the level of professionalism needed for such a large organization. The large bold quote jumping at you first is "the humanitarian response must tackle the underlying causes of crises like this to prevent them recurring." The mood is immediately set as critical with words such as 'crises' and 'must tackle'. Also appealing to Ethos with words such as 'the humanitarian response', effectively implying that if you don't do this, how can you be a human?
Yet despite this, the tone also seems to be didactic. We see the use of many statistical facts and how the straight-forward claims leaves an air of confidence and security despite the magnitude of change that they are implying. Similar to what we analysed in the introduction.

The main literary devices utilized in the article are logos, pathos and ethos. Ethos is persuading people with ethics, reputation and credibility. This is done using words such as 'humanitarian aid', 'protect' and etc. It provides us with a sense of urgency, pushing us to support Oxfam. The introduction gives us the responsibility to take action and prevent more lives lost. It uses ethos to encourage us to do the right thing. Logos is spread throughout the article, especially in the statistical analysis of the current situation in the Sahel.  This gives an internal consistency to the message. To make sense to the audience. It assures legitimacy to the article and thus to Oxfam as well, sealing their reputation.
Pathos is an appeal to the audiences' sympathies and imagination. This is seen especially when the author combines image and language. For example, the final passage with the line; "300,000 children dies from malnutrition-related diseases in a 'non-crisis' year". Pathos is being used with the claim of using children, we associate this with innocence and thus we feel more for them. As the last sentence, this leaves us with this image as our final thought as thus are more likely to help.

In conclusion, we can see how Oxfam has employed a variety of advertising techniques and literary devices to persuade the audience.