Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

Minor Traditions
By: Mia Boudreau, Shelby Flory, Saylor Stottlemyer, Owen Potter
General Overview
There are many traditions found in Minor Traditions in Part One
1. Iba and Iba Medicine
Things Fall Apart, with their
2. Kola Nuts
celebrations and festivals being the 3. Locusts
4. Ogbanje
most prominent. However, many 5. Palm Wine
6. Snuff
minor traditions also appear through
7. Yams
Part One that detail the complex

Nigerian society.
Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Rm805mgoQ
Iba and Iba Medicine
Things Fall Apart Evidence

➔ Sickness related to malaria, fever

➔ Igbo peoples make medicine to fight it
◆ “It is iba,” said Okonkwo as he took his machete and went into the bush to collect the leaves and
grasses and barks of tree that went into making the medicine for iba.” (76)

Outside Evidence

➔ Ibà Foundation
➔ Attempting to reduce malaria in Nigeria
◆ “Sub-Saharan Africa suffers more cases of malaria each year than any other world region,
mostly among children under 5 years of age, according to the World Health Organization.”
Kola Nuts
Things Fall Apart Evidence
➔ One of the more important minor traditions.
➔ A nut used by the Igbo as a religious food, often eaten with others, regarded for
its apparent aid in improving health, longevity, and luck.
◆ “As he broke the kola, Unoka prayed to their ancestors for life and health, and for their enemies.”
(Achebe 10).
➔ Used as an offering during prayers, ancestor veneration, and significant life
events, such as naming ceremonies, weddings, and funerals, wherein it is eaten.
◆ “(At a social gathering) He broke the nut saying: ‘We shall all live.We pray for life, children, a
good harvest and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for
me.’” (Achebe 22).

Outside Evidence
➔ Used as a form of tribute both in the present and when this book was written
◆ “They are still used as such today in certain situations such as in negotiation over bride prices or
as a form of a respect or host gift to the elders of a village should one move to a village or enter a
business arrangement with the village.” (Wikipedia, Kola Nuts)
Locusts
Things Fall Apart Evidence
➔ A major food/cultural tradition
➔ Once in a generation
➔ They are captured then eaten
◆ “The elders counseled patience till nightfall...the locusts settled in
the bushes for the night and their wings became wet with dew.” (56)
➔ Igbo culture has a story behind the descending locusts
◆ “They went back to their caves in a distant land, where they were
guarded by a race of stunted men. And then after another lifetime
these men opened the caves again and the locusts came to Umuofia.”
(54)

Outside Evidence
◆ “swarming locusts are described as one of the twelve plagues...in the
Bible...locusts are often associated with destruction and famine.”
Ogbanje
Things Fall Apart Evidence

➔ Defined as children who come and go

➔ Ekwefi’s 10 children were Ogbanje
◆ “After the death of Ekwefi’s second child, Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man, who was also a
diviner of the Afa Oracle, to inquire what was amiss. This man told him that the child was an
ogbanje, one of those wicked children who, when they died, entered their mothers’ wombs to be
born again” (77).

Outside Evidence

➔ Ogbanje/abiku and cultural conceptualizations of psychopathology in Nigeria:

◆ “The Igbos believe that ogbanje results from subversion of human destiny by willful alliance of
the newborn with deities who guard the postulated interface between birth and pre-birth (spirit)
existence, while the Yoruba attribute many abiku to possession of a pregnancy by spirit
pranksters most often referred to as emere”
Palm Wine
Things Fall Apart Evidence

➔ Palm oil is made from the nkwu and the ngwo trees respectively.
➔ Palm used in all celebrations, religious or not.
◆ “On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his
first human head.” (Achebe 14).
➔ Palm wine was used as a social drink in formal situations.
◆ “...Okonkwo brought his palm-wine from the corner of the hut where it had been placed and
stood it in the center of the group.” (Achebe 22).

Outside Evidence

➔ The dregs of the palm wine is reserved for the most respected drinker in the group.
◆ “The last cup of palm wine which contains the dregs (Ugwu mmanya) is usually given as a mark
of honour to the eldest or the host. The Igbo man, you may infer, is actually rich in culture and
tradition.”(Palm Wine, Wikipedia).
Snuff

Things Fall Apart Evidence

➔ Powder Tobacco
➔ Snorted, rubbed on gums, and chewed
◆ “He searched...for his snuff-bottle...when he brought out the snuff-bottle he tapped it a few times
against his knee-cap before taking out some snuff on the palm of his hand. Then he remembered
that he had not taken out his snuff-spoon” (64).

Outside Evidence

➔ Snuff addicts in Igbo-Nigeria

◆ “Methaemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin concentrations and some haematological parameters were
studied in fifty tobacco snuff addicts (40 males and 10 females) in some villages of Anambra
State, Nigeria. The aim was to investigate possible adverse effects of tobacco snuff in addicts in
Igbos of Anambra State.”
Yams
Things Fall Apart Evidence

➔ Major food source

➔ Very reliant on yam crops
➔ Males farm the yams (gender and status)
◆ “Yam, the king of crops, was a very exacting king. For three or four moons it demanded hard
work and constant attention from cock-crow till the chickens went back to roost.” (33)

Outside Evidence

➔ New Yam Festival

◆ “New yam festival is one of the most prominent annual celebrations in Igbo land.”
◆ “The traditional name for Igbo new yam festival is “IKE JI” which… means the “Strength
inherent in Yams.”
Parallels
Southern Nigeria: Ogbanje Ancient Egypt: Locusts Rocky Mountains: Locusts

In Ancient Egypt, locust

plagues were extremely common
and occurred often. Locusts This species of Locusts went
consume all crops and food, extinct in the late 1800’s. In
The idea of children that
continuously reincarnate and die leaving many people without total, they did around 200
within the same womb, usually food. million dollars worth of crop
associated with a devil or damage throughout their
demon. existence.
Parallels (cont.)
Southern Nigeria: Ogbanje
“It is held among the Yoruba and
Urhobo southwestern Nigeria that in
the distant past, some children were
born into this world but realized that
the world would be too difficult for
them to make any significant mark
due to the stiff competition that
characterizes it. Acknowledging their
laziness and their inability to compete
with others, they decided to die and
go back to heaven. On getting to
heaven, the gatekeeper interrogated
them and found that their lack of zeal
to work had brought them back. To
discourage indolence, this group of
children was not allowed entry to
heaven and was told to go back to the
world” (Asakitikpi).
Ancient Egypt: Locusts
“The Ancient Egyptians carved
locusts on tombs in the period 2470
to 2220 BC, and a devastating plague
is mentioned in the Book of Exodus in
the Bible, as taking place in Egypt
around 1300 BC. The Iliad mentions
locusts talking to the wing to escape
fire. Plagues of locusts are also
mentioned in the Quran,”
(Lichtheim).
Rocky Mountains: Locusts
“The invasion of Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado and Western Missouri, by
the grasshoppers; or more properly
speaking, the Rocky Mountain
Locusts, in 1874, occurred in the
month of August; and was fraught
with great disaster to the agricultural
interests of those States and to the
trade of Kansas City. The locusts
came in immense clouds and literally
covered the territory mentioned,”
(Union).
Works Cited
1. About Us - Iba Foundation, www.ibafoundation.com/aboutUs.php.
2. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Books, 2017.
3. “Kola Nut.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_nut.
4. “Childhood Illness Inspires Nigerian to Malaria Action | YALI.” U.S. Department of State, U.S.
Department of State, 4 Jan. 2018, yali.state.gov/childhood-illness-inspires-nigerian-to-malaria-action/.
5. Full Text of "The History of Jackson County, Missouri, Containing a History of the County, Its Cities,
Towns, Etc., Biographical Sketches of Its Citizens, Jackson County in the Late War... History of
Missouri, Map of Jackson County ..",
archive.org/stream/cu31924028846505/cu31924028846505_djvu.txt.
6. “New Yam Festival in Igbo Culture.” Obindigbo, 2 Jan. 2016,
obindigbo.com.ng/2014/06/new-yam-festival-igbo-culture/.
7. Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/the-locusts-in-things-fall-apart.html.
8. “Things Fall Apart.” Full Glossary for Things Fall Apart,
www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/things-fall-apart/study-help/full-glossary-for-things-fall-apart.
9. Ureme, S O, et al. “The Concentrations of Methaemoglogin, Carboxyhaemoglobin and Some
Haematological Parameters in Tobacco Snuff Addicts in Igbo of Nigeria.” Nigerian Journal of
Physiological Sciences : Official Publication of the Physiological Society of Nigeria., U.S. National
Library of Medicine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18379614.
10. “Vermin.” Vermin and Pests in Ancient Egypt,
www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/pests.htm.
11. Ejiogu, Vitus. “Palm Wine and Its Importance in Traditional Igbo Society.” Ezine Articles, 5 Dec. 2010,
ezinearticles.com/?Palm-Wine-and-Its-Importance-In-Traditional-Igbo-Society&id=5498205