Igbo Culture In Things Fall Apart

In the Igbo culture there are many different foods that are staples in their culture but the staples can change or stay the same over time. In the book Things Fall Apart they have several different foods and an abundance of different ways they use foods but the traditions can change or stay the same over time. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about a man who does not like change but likes tradition. White men come into his village and start to change tradition. For example they move away from tradition which means they move away from the traditions that include food but in some ways stay the same. This leads Okonkwo to kill himself. The food staples in the Igbo culture change or stay the same.

If a wife had been separated from her husband for some time and were then to be re-united with him, this ceremony would be held to ascertain that she had not been unfaithful to him during the time of their separation.” (211, A Glossary of Ibo Words and Phrases, Things Fall Apart), currency systems; such as cowries, and cultivation of their resources. When the whites arrived they brought many new things and ideas, however these ended up destroying the Ibo culture rather than improving it. Towards the end of the book, the white men had gained a lot of influence over the Ibo people. Things started to fall apart because only some of the Ibo people had been converted to Christianity. “‘Does the white man understand about our custom about land?’ ‘How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up this religion also say that our own customs are bad.’” (176, Things Fall Apart). Once they started to turn against each other this is when the white people had really won. Once there was a point of weakness, the Ibo people no longer stood together, but rather they started to fight within

Igbo culture who then becomes destructed and taken over by an outside force; The Europeans. To

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the Igbo culture experienced tremendous changes before, during, and after the colonial period as clearly illustrated by the writer. For instance, at first, we notice that there were well established social-economic and political structures in Nigeria based on their traditional customs. They had clansmen, members of the can and village elders. Each of these individuals played a particular role in the community. The Igbo people had a unity of purpose as well as a strong believe and faith in their traditional way of life. However, this was not the case when missionaries invaded their ancestral land. Enormous changes were witnessed. Among them include the conversion of people from their traditional beliefs and customs to Christianity, building of schools so as to introduce education to Nigerians, interference of roles, and gender relations among various families members just highlight but a few. Thus, in this paper, my primary objective was to vividly explore the changes that were experience by the Igbo in the Things Fall Apart during colonization and antithetically compare them in a very comprehensive manner with the concept of international development in the contemporary society i.e., past the colonial period. I have therefore made a hypothesis that the changes which took place in Nigeria Igbo community during and after colonization were of two types: there were those that significantly contributed to development, as well as those whose

The most populous country in Africa with a population of more than 160 million people is Nigeria. Nigeria is home to more than 300 tribes, one of the largest tribes being the Igbo tribe. In the novel Things Fall Apart the igbo culture partly consists of the practice of Polygyny and father-son inheritance. The Igbo tribe are still considered to be harmonious to land through festivals and are famous for their culture around Yams.

Chinua Achebe chose to include a native Igbo religion in for Umuofia Village culture in his novel Things Fall Apart. He calls this Igbo religion Agbala Oracle (the Oracle of the Hills and Caves) which he bases on a historic Nigerian religion. That historic religion was known as Awka Oracle that was destroyed by the British. The events surrounding the destruction of the real Awka Oracle and the fictional Agbala Oracle are strikingly similar. The real Awka Oracle was destroyed and entire villages were wiped out in retaliation for the killing of one British subject. Thomas Liu recounts the events as follows:

Almost all cultures change over time. There are many different cultures, and even more ways that they can change. The Ibo culture changed a lot when the white men came. The men who came were Christians, and they were converting the Ibo people from their religion to Christianity. Achebe shows in the book Things Fall Apart the changes in the culture, but also the aspects of the Ibo culture that were lost.

Assimilation transpires in Things Fall Apart. The definition of assimilation is the process where a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of a dominant culture. Since the Igbo are a tribal society the most important factor is the harmony of the members of the tribe and their complete compliance to the ruling of their elders. They must also be compliant to the gods and goddesses. Later on compliance becomes absent when some of the members of the tribe accept distinct morals brought to them by the missionaries. Once these missionaries came they tried to change some of the tribe members over to their religion and while this was taking place the old members were curious of the loyalty of the other

In the novel Things Fall Apart it looks like women are not valued and do not have any power but if you look closely into the story, it shows how Ibo women are actually an important aspect to the culture and is needed. In the Ibo village is Women are usually known as priestess, and that in itself is consider as a High title name and they are looked up too. During Okonkwo’s childhood, “the priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. She was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared” (chapter 3 pg 14). One of the priestess is Chielo, “the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the hill and the Caves” (chapter 3 pg 13).

Does religion bring things together or does it break them apart? The religion of the Igbo people and their praise for the Earth goddess, Ala, has always been a prominent part of their life, but over time it has changed. Through reading Things Fall Apart and doing online research it can be seen that parts of the traditional Igbo religion have been lost in modern day, but some of the practices still exist. From the past and even until now, there has always been a place to worship traditional Igbo gods. In the book Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has his own personal place to worship the gods that he believes in.

The Igbo people of Nigeria were in dismay when the British imperialism took over their tribe. Like many instances of a larger group overthrowing people there is bound to be backlash from those people. The British completely overturned their traditional way of life to the point that many of the people were leaving such as the sons of Umuofia who have “gone their several ways”. At the start the British provided a new language, allowed Nneka to keep her twins due to the new religion, and introduced trade into their non-existent economy, but as they began to use the tribe Okwonkwo turned on them. They ended up having a negative impact on the tribe rather than a positive one. Forcing them into their own government and violating their religion was

They needed something that stood out. The government that set the rules and the laws that they follow and the root that they stand on. The white men needed to change the way the Igbo society were running the land. They need to make a change to the society by the way they are going to rule. “But apart from the church, the white men had also brought government. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance” ( Achebe 174) The District Commissioners were the ones that judges the cases, unlike Igbo government the elders took control. While the British made their decisions with ignorance they were more strict, more harsh similar like the Igbo. Making decisions in land that wasn't theirs was a way of making the Clan see that the British is taking control and getting what they came for they were not going to leave empty handed but to colonize the land and accustom it as theirs. Civilizing the Igbo society by shrinking it and making it theirs to rule as one whole society without division. In the other hand the Igbo kept working with their government they each other were being judged by one another.

In the novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe the Igbo people encounter the “white man” who brings forward change. He brings with him the religion of Christianity to the clan. Up to this point the Igbo believed in natural spirits and their egwugwu and their oracle provided everything they need to do. The church was becoming appealing because it offered redemption from being ostracized, didn’t require the murder of others, and offered a less punishable god.

“Civilized Society is when the culture has a social order characterized by a government, a system of justice, a social structure, and some kind of belief system”. The Igbo people are indigenous people of Southern Nigeria. The Igbo culture has many unique attitudes. They comprised of polygamy marriages, beliefs in polytheism, farming customs, and showing of masculinity. In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo society is civilized because it established a justice/ government system as well as gender roles/ relationships.

Family plays a big role in everybody’s life. Some families are good and some are bad. But all families are important. In the story Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, family is very important in the lives of the Igbo. The gender roles of the Igbo family are very important. The father, the mother, and the children of the Igbo family all have different roles. They all do different tasks that help the family and support each other. The gender roles of the father, the mother, and the children are important very important to a Igbo family.