Chi and Chinua Achebe: Author of “Things Fall Apart” says belief in duality is part of his Igbo Nigerian culture

“…the word chi in Igbo…is often translated as god, guardian angel, personal spirit, soul, spirit double, etc…In a general way we may visualize a person’s chi as his other identity in spiritland—his spirit being complementing his terrestrial human being; for nothing can stand alone, there must always be another thing standing beside it…

“When we talk about chi, we’re talking about the individual spirit, and so you find the word in all kinds of combinations. Chinwe, which is my wife’s name, means ‘Chi owns me’; mine is Chinua, which is a shortened form of an expression that means ‘May a chi fight for me’…

“One of the most typical Igbo tales is about a proud wrestler who has thrown every challenger in the world, and so he decides to go and wrestle in the land of the spirits…the spirits come out to wrestle with him—one after the other—and he beats them all…The spirits have a consultation and tell him, ‘Well, there is somebody, but we think you shouldn’t fight him.’ He responds, ‘No, if there is anybody at all here now, I must wrestle with him.’ And this person is his chi—his personal spirit—and when he comes out he’s very unimpressive…‘Who is this?’ the wrestler asks. They tell him that this is the man who will challenge him, and he laughs. But his chi moves toward him and with one finger picks him up and smashes him on the ground. And that’s the end of our great wrestler” (1, p. 84).

“The duality. Things come in twos. ‘Wherever something stands, something else will stand beside it’—this is another very powerful Igbo statement. It’s absolutely true, and it’s when someone refuses to see the ‘other’ that you have problems” (1, p. 87).

In Things Fall Apart, “Okonkwo is cut off from reality, and becomes a victim of illusion, of a false perception of himself. Hence his self-governing chi cannot hold him together, he falls apart…” (1, p. 89).

1. Bernth Lindfors (Editor). Conversations with Chinua Achebe. Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 1997.