Welcome students of English 401.

Today I am going to lecture you about the two-dimensional

interpretation of the commissioner’s book “ The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes in the Lower Niger “
as perceived by the imperialistic white people and contemporary writers like Chinua Achebe. Although
some of you may argue that this book is a theoretical book that Achebe included at the end of his novel
and so it’s not worthy of analysis , yet it is important to speculate the impact books can have in the
domain of influencing the people’s judgment of other nations and on the rise of new stereotypes . No
one denies that nowadays certain groups of people are stigmatized either because of their race, religion,
beliefs or practices, but what intrigues me is the process that led to such stigma; the answer lies in the
influence of the written materials on them. The exposure to certain ideas, especially by a reader whose
only source of information is the written records leads to forming new impressions and judgments that
might be biased and subjective .Thus, had this book been published in reality, its content would have
reinforced the White Man’s superiority over the less advantaged African nations and would have
conveyed the commissioner’s impeded aim of suppressing the value of the Igbo culture. Therefore , the
lecture will be focused on how the commissioner’s book demonstrate the biased colonizing country’s
perception of its superiority, sophistication ,and advancement as legitimate reasons to subjugate the
African people in an effort to help them rise in the domain of humans rather than the savage domain .

By the end of this lecture, you will be able to answer questions like: why did Achebe intend to refer to
the commissioner’s book towards the end of his novel “Things Fall Apart “and not earlier in the book?
How does the title of the book “ The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger “ reflect the
imperialistic biased views of the white people ? ,and you will have the ability to make your own
judgment about the Nigerian culture and the Igbo.

To have a good insight into the commissioner’s book it is important to get a glimpse at the historical
context of that book, the 1800s which marked the beginning of the age of imperialism in Africa, Asia and
other parts of the world. Most imperialistic countries justified their imperialistic intentions as a burden
bestowed upon them to help the disadvantaged nations rise from darkness; Jules Ferry, the French
prime minister in 1883 once said “I repeat, that the superior races have a right because they have a
duty. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races .... “. It is obvious that the genuine intention of the
white imperialist wasn’t to enlighten such nations, but to eliminate their cultural identity and replacing
it with the foreign sophisticated identity.

I believe that your understanding of these focal points will help you understand many contemporary
occurrences like the current conflicts in some countries such as Iraq and Syria as the conflicts in such
countries are escalated by the published books and articles since every writer presents the case or
struggle from his subjective perspective. Thus, readers form their understanding of the events and their
judgments of who to blame for the suffering as a result of this influence .

“The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger “ is a mere imperialistic book that presents
the biased beliefs of the white imperialists who are biased to their own advanced and superior,so
incidents which demonstrate the White Man untruthful, deceptive and harsh methods wouldn’t be
referred to in this book because the core message of the book is to elevate the White man’s status.
Incidents such as when the district commissioner’s deceptive invitation the Igbo tribal dignitaries to
discuss certain alterations in the tribe rules just to trap them and imprison them won’t be referred to in
the book or might be presented from another different perspective astray from reality. However,
incidents like killing the twins, casting the eflufu, deforming the fetus of a miscarriage and killing
innocent kids like Ikemfuna will be highlighted in the book to prove the commissioner’s judgment of the
Igbo as people who lack both reason and passion. In short, the District Commissioner, the representative
of the European colonizers, is so inculcated with the notion of racial and cultural superiority that he
wrote his book from one dimension and that is of the white biased imperialist portraying to the whole
world that the Igbo are primitive and savage nations that lacked all the aspects of civilizations, humanity
and sophistication. However, this isn’t the true picture of the Igbo culture which the novel elucidates;
Achebe exposes us to the Igbo culture with its pros and cons and through this we were able to eradicate
all the misconceptions about the Igbo which the Westerners spread to justify colonialism. Take for
example, the organized social hierarchy in the society and the organized justice system as evidence of
civilization. I don’t think that such society is a primitive one as its not anarchic and the responsibilities
and societal expectations are aligned with each category. Another point that proves the mistaken
presentation of that culture is its justice system that relies on consultation, seeking evidence and
avoiding violence like in the case of the accidental murder of the Umuofia woman; her family didn’t
pursue revenge but rather justice. A radical question would be whether the white people were civilized
and superior in the way they unjustly imprisoned the tribe leaders and humiliated them during
imprisonment. Think about that and make your own evaluation in such case.

To sum up the content of this lecture, the commissioner’s book can be read from the point of view of
the 1800 imperialists as a reflection of their important mission of civilizing the primitive nations, but in
reality it is a true evidence on the biased attitude of the imperialists and their inability to comprehend
the Igbo culture that rivals their culture at certain points. Now, suppose that this book is published and
you have access to it, how would reading this book be different hadn’t you been exposed to the ideas
discussed in today’s lecture?
Studying about imperialism and the imperialistic biased presentation of the colonized nations inspired
me to lead a discussion about the book which Achebe referred to towards the end of the novel “ The
Pacification of the Lower Tribes of the Niger “. I chose the lecture text form for many reasons: first, I
intended this analysis to be addresses to college students with the understanding of the impact written
materials can have on people in terms of forming their judgment about other nations, so lecturing
provides me with chance to elaborate on the issue .Second, the lecture involves raising questions and
proposing certain situations which lead to highlighting focal points in the topic discussed. Third, the
lecture structure facilitates the transition of ideas in terms of organizing them in a way that meets the
educational needs of the students, the targeted audience. To support the two readings of the book, I
referred to well-known quotes about imperialism as well as to incidents and examples from the novel to
support the idea of how writers can be subjective in their approach to achieve a certain goal, such as the
commissioner’s goal of justifying colonization in Africa and the white man empowerment of the less
advantaged people.