Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart depicts life in a traditional Ibo village in Nigeria before European colonization. The novel aims to portray the village's customs and culture, rather than portraying their past as "one long night of savagery." The summary provides examples of the village's rituals involving kola nuts, alligator pepper, and masks as part of religious ceremonies. It also describes yam as the most important crop and the role of proverbs in conversations.

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

2. Your Essay Assignment: ( Keep this in mind as you read.) In musing about the role of the novelist as an educator, acclaimed Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe once wrote: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.” In your opinion, does Achebe succeed in doing this with his novel Things Fall Apart ? Whether you argue that he does or does not succeed, support your position through reference to at least three specific examples from the novel.

4. 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.

5. Kola Nut Kola nut was mixed with alligator pepper and eaten. This was served as an appetizer as part of the welcoming ritual.

6. Alligator Pepper Alligator pepper has a spicy flavor in the seeds. It was used as a seasoning by mixing it with kola nut.

7. A Boy with Kola Nut

8. 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.

9. 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 .

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Jaw Mask, Another Form of Ceremonial Mask

13. Mask and an Ibo Boy in a Mask

14. An Elder Meeting The Egwugwu are in Masks

15. Ceremonial Dress

16. Drinking Palm Wine From a Human Skull Was Part of Religious Ceremonies Okonkwo Had Five Skulls to His Credit

17. Boys of the Village It was important to include boys in daily rituals.

18. A Tortoise Shell Drum Drums were a very important part of everyday life. They were part of religious ceremonies and rituals.

19. 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.

20. "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 (1930s), 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.

21. 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.

22. Tattoos on a Sculpture and a Man

23. 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.

24. An Ibo Building

25. Fishing One of Many Activities Done as a Community

26. Dying Indigo and a Craftsman

27. The Market An Important Part of Ibo Social Life

28. Market

29. Drawing of an Ibo Village in the 1800s.

30. Tailor and Carver

31. Nigerian Girl One tribe of people who live in Nigeria call themselves the Ibo people. Women often carry heavy things on their heads.

32. Women

33. Pounding Yams

34. Notice the Tattoos on the Woman on the Left

35. The village practiced polygamy . In other words, the men could have more than one wife.

36. Okonkwo’s Family Okonkwo First Wife Ezinma Ekwefi Ojiugo Nwoye Obiageli Son Nkechi

37. Family

38. Your Essay Assignment: ( Keep this in mind as you read.) In musing about the role of the novelist as an educator, acclaimed Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe once wrote: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.” In your opinion, does Achebe succeed in doing this with his novel Things Fall Apart ? Whether you argue that he does or does not succeed, support your position through reference to at least three specific examples from the novel.