I've known about this novel for quite a while, but this was my first time reading it. I'm not certain what I expected. I heard that it was an answer to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and so I thought that it would be something more directly connected to that story, but it was not.
It is the story of a powerful man in a village within what would later become Nigeria. The story takes place around 1890, when Britain and other European nations were rapidly spreading their imperial mandates around the world and, in particular, across the African continent. The plot follows his daily life, showing the time before imperialism, and then watches things fall apart as missionaries and governmental powers from England come to his and the surrounding villages.
Instead of sympathizing with this man and the destruction of his culture and way of life, I found myself hoping for his downfall and cheering on the missionaries (especially the first one). I know that I am supposed to respect other cultures, but the one described in the book was one of misogyny, cruelty, and violence. The "hero" regularly beat his wives and children, crazy people could come and take children away, twins were killed at birth, and children were murdered for the crimes of their parents.
I definitely had more sympathy for the missionaries who were trying to end such barbaric practices than I did for Okonkwo and his attempts to keep things as they had always been before. I have not been able to stop myself from judging that character and his culture as inferior and hateful. I would not want to live in it, nor subject anyone else to living in it.
In this, I find myself intolerant.