decreasing significance of Ibo culture

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The Feast of the New Yam was approaching and Umuofia was in a festival mood. It was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility. Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct. And what was more, she was in close communion with the departed father of the clan whose bodies had been committed to the earth. (5.1) - WAS THERE A MENTION OF FEAST AFTER WHITE MEN?

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It was well known among the people of Mbanta that their gods and ancestors were sometimes long-suffering and would deliberately allow a man to go on defying them. But even in such cases they set their limit at seven market weeks or twenty-eight days. Beyond that limit no man was suffered to go. And so excitement mounted in the village as the seventh week approached since the impudent missionaries built their church in the Evil Forest. The villagers were so certain about the doom that awaited these men that one or two converts thought it wise to suspend their allegiance to the new faith.

At last the day came by which all the missionaries should have died. But they were still alive, building a new red-earth and thatch house for their teacher, Mr. Kiaga.

The Igbo people’s superstition that no man may trespass upon the gods after twenty-eight days backfires. Nothing happens to the missionaries living in the Evil Forest, so instead of questioning the veracity of their own faith, they chalk it up to the unprecedented power of the missionaries’ Christianity. Consequently, the Christians win more converts.

[Ezeudu]: “Yes, Umuofia has decided to kill him [Ikemefuna]. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it.” (7.16)

harsh, even though Okonkwo loved Ikemefuna he had to kill him as he strongly believedi in his religion

“He [the white man] was not an albino. He was quite different…And he was riding an iron horse. The first people who saw him ran away, but he stood beckoning to them. In the end the fearless ones went near and even touched him. The elders consulted their Oracle and it told them that the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them.” Obierika again drank a little of his wine. “And so they killed the white man and tied his iron horse to their sacred tree because it looked as if it would run away to call the man’s friends.” (15.19)

The Igbo people rely on their oracles to advise them on what to do when faced with new, strange situations. As the Oracle has access to divine information, he offers correct but cryptic information about the threat the white man represents. Though always right, divine knowledge cannot always be correctly interpreted by humans. - dependence of spirits -

people listen to anything the oracle says because they believe it is very wise (come to for advice)

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And in fairness to Umuofia it should be recorded that it never went to war unless its case was clear and just and was accepted as such by its Oracle – the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. And there were indeed occasions when the Oracle had forbidden Umuofia to wage a war. If the clan had disobeyed the Oracle they would surely have been beaten, because their dreaded agadi-nwayi would never fight what the Ibo call a fight of blame. (2.9)

always chose important political movements after consulting gods via the Oracle

As soon as the day broke, a large crowd of men from Ezedu’s quarter stormed Okonkwo’s compound, dressed in garbs of war. They set fire to his houses, demolished his red walls, killed his animals and destroyed his barn. It was the justice of the earth goddess, and they were merely her messengers. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. His greatest friend, Obierika, was among them. They were merely cleansing the land which Okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansman. (13.15)

When missionaries came to convert the villagers evil forest mentioned: missionaries wanted a piece of land to build on, the clan did not want them to they gave the europeans an offer nobody in their right senses would accept - the evil forest, uchendu says ‘let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory’ (mysterious evilness) (negative feelings towards missionaries) (worrisome nature of evil forest)

graveyard of those who were non-honourable and considered to be plagued - white men were non-honourable and considered to be plagued

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[After the unmasking of the egwugwu]: That night the Mother of the Spirits walked the length and breadth of the clan, weeping for her murdered son. It was a terrible night. Not even the oldest man in Umuofia had ever heard such a strange and fearful sound, and it was never to be heard again. It seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming – its own death. (22.10)

To mourn the death of her son, the Mother of the Spirits laments loudly and strikes fear into the hearts of the Umuofia. The ancestral spirits are closely tied to humans and the land they live on. Thus, it seems the murder of one ancestral spirit portends the coming death of his people and the desecration of his land. - THINGS FALL APART

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references to the spirits (spiritual references) everywhere - on almost every page

the clan's lives revolve around their religion and beliefs - influence, control, motivation

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Okonkwo’s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo. And they might also have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat behind the row of egwugwu. But if they thought these things they kept them within themselves. The egwugwu with the springy walk was one of the dead fathers of the clan. He looked terrible with the smoked raffia body, a huge wooden face painted white except for the round hollow eyes and the charred teeth that were as big as a man’s fingers. On his head were two powerful horns. (10.15)

SHOWS HOW MUCH THE PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THEIR RELIGION THAT THEY DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT THER SUSPICIONS BECAUSE THEY ARE PROBABLY JUST COINCIDENCE

some people have guessed the identity of the egwugwu. why don't they say anything? Does Okonkwo believe in the gods less than other villagers becuase he knows the egwugwu are not spirits

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And then the egwugwu appeared. The women and children sent up a great shout and took to their heels. It was instinctive. A woman fled as soon as an egwugwu came in sight. And when, as on that day, nine of the greatest masked spirits in the clan came out together it was a terrifying spectacle… Each of the nine egwugwu represented a village of the clan. Their leader was called Evil Forest. Smoke poured out of his head.The nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan. Evil Forest represented the village of Umueru, or the children of Eru, who was the eldest of the nine sons. (10.6-8

DID THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN FLEE WHEN THE EGWUGWU CAME AFTER WHITE SETTLEMENT

gods of Umuofia demand respect: they are terrifying not loving

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One of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu in public, or to say or do anything which might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated. And this was what Enoch did. The annual worship of the earth goddess fell on a Sunday, and the masked spirits were abroad. The Christian women who had been to church could not therefore go home. Some of their men had gone out to beg the egwugwu to retire for a short while for the women to pass. They agreed and were already retiring, when Enoch boasted aloud that they would not dare to touch a Christian. Whereupon they all came back and one of them gave Enoch a good stroke of the cane, which was always carried. Enoch fell on him and tore off his mask. The other egwugwu immediately surrounded their desecrated companion, to shield him from the profane gaze of women and children, and led them away. Enoch had killed an ancestral spirit, and Umuofia was thrown into confusion. (22.9-10)

Unmasking an egwugwu spirit in public is akin to murder because it reduces the god to mortality.

symbol of the culture and independence of the Umuofia - NOW DESTROYED THE UMUOFIA PEOPLE HAVE NO INDEPENDENCE

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egwugwu lose power in community when replaced by the white court therefore the culture and independence is lost (independence of the right to follow their customs and spirits - not the independence to do what they please)

Christian covert, Enoch, unmasks an egwugwu - equivalent to murdering a god, irreparable damage, “it seemed as if the very soul of the clan wept for the great evil that was coming” - mother of spirits mourns death of her son (god) that was ‘murdered,’ she doesn’t avenge the death of her son, and neither will the Umuofia people avenge the crimes the white men commit against them,