What are the traditions in Umuofia?
What are the traditions in Umuofia?
The Umuofia follow a traditional ritual to determine a bride-price; the bride’s family presents the groom’s family with a sum (represented by broomsticks) and the other party adds or subtracts sticks as they see fit. They exchange the bundle of broomsticks several times, until the two groups finally agree.
What are two values or traditions of the village of Umuofia?
Lesson Summary Things Fall Apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe, is saturated with the traditions of the Umuofia clan. These include: Ritual etiquette between the host and the guest: They pass a kola nut to each other until the host finally breaks it, honoring their gods and ancestors.
Is Umuofia a village?
The action of Things Fall Apart centers on the fictional village of Umuofia, which is part of a larger political entity made up by the so-called “nine villages.” In Igboland, geography takes on gendered aspects depending on where a person’s parents were born.
Does Okonkwo live in Umuofia?
Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected warrior of the Umuofia clan, a lower Nigerian tribe that is part of a consortium of nine connected villages, including Okonkwo’s village, Iguedo. In his youth, he brought honor to his village by beating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest.
Was really Unoka a failure?
Unoka, the grown-up, was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back. But Unoka was such a man that he always succeeded in borrowing more, and piling up his debts.
What are the values of Umuofia?
Three of the values shared by the clan of Umuofia are reverence for the elderly, belief in a female earth goddess (the source of all fertility), and the practice of polygamy. None of these customs sit well with the Christian missionaries such as Reverend James Smith.
Why was ikemefuna killed?
He tells Okonkwo that the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna must be killed as part of the retribution for the woman killed three years before in Mbaino. He tells Okonkwo to take no part in the killing since the boy calls him “father.” Afraid to appear weak, Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna with his machete.
What does Umuofia stand for?
Umuofia The community name, which means children of the forest and a land undisturbed by European influences. Unoka Okonkwo’s father’s name; its translation, home is supreme, implies a tendency to stay home and loaf instead of achieve fame and heroism.
Why is Ezinma so special to Okonkwo?
Okonkwo – being a man who basically only values masculine qualities – strongly wishes that Ezinma had been born a boy, which, from his frame of mind , shows how much he loves and values her. Because she is her mother’s only child, Ezinma is coddled and often acts in a bolder manner than the other children.
Why does Okonkwo regret his exile?
Okonkwo regrets his exile even though he prospers in his motherland because he feels he would have prospered even more in Umuofia.
Why is Unoka not buried?
Unoka was an ill-fated man. He had a bad chi or personal god, and evil fortune followed him to the grave, or rather to his death, for he had no grave. To prevent divine wrath, Unoka’s family had to banish him from the house, so that he would die outside and remain there unburied.
What are the traditions in Things Fall Apart?
The funeral ceremony in Things Fall Apart involves numerous customs, including the banging of drums and ekwe, and gun firing. Fellow warriors come to the funeral, dressed in smoke raffia shirts and painted with chalk and charcoal. Men would also dress up in ancestral spirits (the egwuwu). Some are very violent.
What is the plot summary of Things Fall Apart?
Plot Summary. Things Fall Apart is set in Umuofia, the hometown of Okonkwo, a proud, angry, and hard-working man in his prime. Okonkwo has always felt a need to prove himself because he is the son of a failure, a man named Unoka who was heavily in debt because he preferred playing his flute and drinking palm wine to farming.
What is the culture of Things Fall Apart?
In the novel Things Fall Apart, the imposing culture is group of European, Christian missionaries, spreading their way of life, and the culture that is imposed upon, and eventually displaced is a clan of Ibo tribesmen in Nigeria.
What are changes in Things Fall Apart?
In the novel by Chinua Achebe , “Things Fall Apart”, the reader encounters the Igbo people at a watershed moment in their history and culture. The incursion of the colonizing force is changing or threatening to change almost every aspect of their society: religion, family structure, gender roles and relations, and trade, to name just a few.