Thingsfallapart
- 1. Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe A novel about a primitive village in Africa and the devastation caused by the arrival of the white man. Created by Deborah Alcorn Adapted by Mark Salzer
- 3. Village Customs Life in Umuofia was very structured and daily life had many important rituals. There were important traditions for welcoming visitors, for attaining and respecting social status, for treatment of women, for going to war, getting married, and for settling disputes.
- 4. Kola Nut Kola nut was mixed with alligator pepper and eaten. This was served as an appetizer as part of the welcoming ritual.
- 6. A Boy with Kola Nut
- 7. Kola Bowl Kola was mixed and served in this type of bowl. When a guest arrived, the host would ask the guest to break the kola nut. They would politely argue about who should serve the kola. Finally, the host would serve it. The guest would draw chalk lines on the floor and paint his big toe white with the chalk.
- 8. Alligator Pepper Alligator pepper has a spicy flavor in the seeds. It was used as a seasoning by mixing it with kola nut.
- 9. Alligator Pepper A tropical perennial growing up to 5' tall. The seeds are almost oval in shape, hard, shiny, and reddish-brown in color.
- 10. Religious Ceremonies The people of Umuofia believed in many gods, ghosts, ancestral spirits, and even believed certain animals were sacred. They prayed to their ancestors and also had a chi or personal god. They revered the python as the most sacred animal and called a rainbow the python of the sky .
- 11. Ceremonial Masks The egwugwu were the leaders of the community. The women would be afraid of the egwugwu , even though they knew their men were not present at the ceremonies and had to be the egwugwu . Evil Forest was the lead egwugwu in Things Fall Apart.
- 12. Egwugwu Egwugwu wearing ceremonial masks. The egwugwu would make communal decisions, such as settling property disputes or deciding whether to go to war, for the Ibo people.
- 13. Jaw Mask, Another Form of Ceremonial Mask
- 14. Mask and an Ibo Boy in a Mask
- 15. An Elder Meeting The Egwugwu are in Masks
- 16. Ceremonial Dress
- 17. Drinking Palm Wine From a Human Skull Was Part of Religious Ceremonies Okonkwo Had Five Skulls to His Credit
- 18. Boys of the Village It was important to include boys in daily rituals.
- 19. A Tortoise Shell Drum Drums were a very important part of everyday life. They were part of religious ceremonies and rituals.
- 20. Village Life The villagers were warriors, farmers, and craftsmen. The men’s crop was yam, the king of crops. Women’s crops were coco-yams, beans, and cassava.
- 21. "Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten." Among the Ibo people, the art of conversation is very highly regarded. At the time the novel takes place (1890s), the Ibo people do not use the written word. They received their news from the town crier. A Proverb is a short saying that expresses a common truth or experience. Proverbs are very important to the Ibo people.
- 22. Locusts Locusts are related to grasshoppers. They swarm and can destroy whole fields and crops. The Umuofians considered them to be a delicacy. They gathered them in baskets and then roasted them and ate them.
- 23. Tattoos on a Sculpture and a Man
- 24. Cowry Shells Cowry shells were used as money in Africa. They were small enough to carry and were scarce enough to be valuable. 25 bags of cowry shells were paid as bride price during the engagement ceremony in the novel.
- 25. An Ibo Building
- 26. Fishing One of Many Activities Done as a Community
- 27. Dying Indigo and a Craftsman
- 28. The Market An Important Part of Ibo Social Life
- 29. Market
- 30. Drawing of an Ibo Village in the 1800s.
- 32. Nigerian Girl One tribe of people who live in Nigeria call themselves the Ibo people. Women often carry heavy things on their heads.
- 33. Women
- 34. Pounding Yams
- 35. Notice the Tattoos on the Woman on the Left
- 36. The village practiced polygamy . In other words, the men could have more than one wife.
- 37. Okonkwo’s Family Okonkwo First Wife Ezinma Ekwefi Ojiugo Nwoye Obiageli Son Nkechi
- 38. Family
- 42. Palm Wine! Palm wine, also called palm toddy or simply toddy, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree. The drink is common in parts of Africa and South India.
- 44. The sap is collected by a tapper. Typically the sap is collected from the cut flower of the tree. A container, often a gourd or bottle is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap. The initial white liquid that is collected tends to be very sweet and is not alcoholic. In some areas, the entire palm tree is felled and the crown exposed to collect the sap. When this method is used, a fire is lit at the root end of the tree to quicken collection of sap.
- 45. P alm sap begins fermenting immediately after collection due to natural yeasts in the air (this is often spurred by residual yeast left in the collecting container). Within two hours , fermentation yields an aromatic wine of up to 4% alcohol content, mildly intoxicating and sweet. The wine may be allowed to ferment longer, up to a day, to yield a stronger, more sour and acidic taste, which some people prefer. Longer fermentation produces vinegar instead of stronger wine.
- 46. In Africa, the sap used to create palm wine is most often taken from wild date palms such as the Silver date palm, the palmyra (at right), and the Jaggery palm.