Igbo Culture Analysis

The Igbo people The author, Chinua Achebe, writes in the novel Things Fall Apart about a Nigerian man named Okonkwo, whose main goal is to not become like his father. The novel starts after he successfully becomes the village wrestling champion at the age of eighteen. After Okonkwo makes a mistake he and his family are forced to leave his village for several years. By the time he and his family returned it had been taken over by Catholic missionaries. Okonkwo and his family in the novel are from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. The Igbo culture consists of occasional wrestling matches, less clothing, and no official ruler. Before Christianity was introduced, Igbo practiced their own religion. The Igbo people migrated to Nigeria and were colonized by British who assimilated their nation. The religion of the Igbo people is a large part of their culture which was effected by British colonization. The Igbo culture …show more content…
They have a polygamous religion and believe in supernatural, being such as Gods, spirits, and ancestors. “This man told him that his child was an ogbanje, one of those wicked children who when they died, entered their mothers’ wombs to be born again,” wrote Chinua Achebe. This is talking about what the medicine man told Okonkwo after his third wife, Ekwefi, had lost her second child. The man advised Okonkwo, to stop the ogbanje, to let his wife stay with the her people to elude the ogbanjes’ evil cycle. In their religion they believe that sacrifices are used to dispose of sins, ask assistance, and give thanks. For example, white chickens are sacrificed to Chuckwu who is the highest god over all their other gods. They make offerings at family shrines and theses are done by priests of the spirit or ancestor you choose. The Igbo religion is polygamous and they believe in many things such as Ogbanje child and