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

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.

7. A Boy with Kola Nut

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 .

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.

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.

22. Tattoos on a Sculpture and a Man

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

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