Igbo Society

nfMaria Paula Briceño Juan David Pava Ana Maria Barrios The Ibo society. On the book “Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe a very important element in the story is the Igbo society. This African society is formed by 9 tribes, but the one the author talks the most is the Umofia tribe because there is where the main character lives. In the reading we can find many characteristics of the culture told by the author. This shows how structured and complex this set of tribes is. When talking about the beliefs of this culture, we first have to mention they believe on natural gods. With this we want to say that they believe that on gods who control natural things. Like the god of rain or the god of the crops. They prayed to them on the peace week so they would be generous with them on the crop season. They also believed in the Chi, that is, what we understand, a persona god who determines the faith or luck of its individual. They also believe in the oracle, that is a person who speak directly with the gods and she says the gods’ messages. She could predict peoples destiny. In this culture they cherish different values. First, for them Honor was very important. When someone offended them, they wanted revenge. Second, they valued the art of speaking. Also, they were really impressed and someone got respect based on personal achievements, hardworking was really important. Wining wrestling contests also provided good reputation for people. They considered their tradition very important; no one could violate what their ancestors told them. When these values were not followed by the people various things could occur. Many of the times it made the society not to respect or see in a good way those who didn’t. Also, if the tradition was not followed, as seen in Okonkwos peace week incident, they could be punished (or killed) by the Elders or had to make sacrifice to the god asking for forgiveness for violating tradition and offending them. In Umofia there are various roles. One of...