Igbo Tribe

Culture/History
The protagonist in Things Fall Apart, Okonwko, is a member of the Igbo tribe. The Igbo tribe, or called Ibo tribe, is located in Southeastern Nigeria with a population of eight million. Their land is divided into two unequal parts; the larger eastern region, and the western region. Though it may seem like a division of the tribe, it is actually an easy source of communication between distant villages.

The first contact between Igboland and Europe, started with the Portuguese in the mid-fifteenth century. Soon after, the Dutch and the English soon found Igboland. These three countries began to take the Igbo people as slaves and then used them in the slave trades. Eventually in 1807, slave trade was abolished, so Igboland became important, not for the people, but because of the goods that could be taken from it. Elephant tusks, spices, timbers, and palm products all became massively popular within the trade across Europe.

In 1929, due to the rumor that Igbo women would receive assessed taxation the Aba riots began. It was a short-lived riot, the first in Igbo history. But the power of the imperials could not be stopped, leaving Igboland changed forever.

Art
Because of the diversity and size of the Igbo tribe, it is very difficult to pick one main style of art used by all. It is however, very common to carve and decorate masks, but the reasons of use for these masks vary from village to village. Because there are so many variations of Igbo art, it is nearly impossible to say which village created certain pieces of art. But the majority of the tribes create pottery, small statues representing the gods or deceased ancestors. Also, much jewelry was made by the Igbo people, mainly spiral shaped bracelets and necklaces.

Religion
With the same reasons as for art, it is not possible to choose one religious belief by the tribe as a whole due to the hundreds of different dialects used by the villages. Before the Christian missions and Europeans came to influence religion, the majority of Igbo villages focused on praising their ancestry. Many believed that in order to succeed in life, they must thank the ones who have come before them. Also, most villages had some sort of Mmo, which is a secret organization for men that allowed them to please the spirits in many unknown ways.

One view of the Igbo is the belief that Chukwu created the visible universe, uwa. Also, that the universe is divided into two parts; the natural level, or human world, and the spiritual world, like the sun, sky, and earth. Through taboos, the Igbo create a category of relations with nature and specific animals, such as pythons, crocodiles, tigers, turtles/tortoises, and fish.

The living, the dead, and the unborn form part of a continuum. Enshrined ancestors are those who lived good lives and were given a proper burial by the village. These ancestors live in one of the worlds of the dead that mirrors the world of the living. The living also pays amends to their dead relatives by offering sacrifices, (usually animals).

http://www.stfrancis.edu/en/student/achebe/chinua/igbo.htm

http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Igbo-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

The Metamorphosis

I agree, but not fully, with expert # 2. In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor Samsa is a man who lives with his parents and his sister. He is the main provider for the family. Gregor is working for a man, which whom his parents have a large debt owed to. Gregor is forced to work in a job that he has absolutely despised ever since the beginning. I do not believe that Gregor has like much about his life ever since his family needed help with their debt. Also, no one else, in the beginning of the story anyway, has an actual job. It seems as if Gregor is the only one trying to help with the debts, everyone else just gets on his case about it when they are doing nothing themselves. Gregor says while still in bed, “If I didn’t have to hold my had because of my parents I’d have given notice ling ago, I’d have hone to the chief and told him exactly what I think of him. That would knock him endways from his desk!” (Page 69) He is very un-happy because he sees the job and his family as a burden. Gregor wishes that he could just live his life for himself.

I do agree with expert # 2 on the fact that there is a vision of a vermin-like, cringing, abject and worthless person in this story. Not from Gregor’s point of view to his father and chief, but rather everyone else’s vision of Gregor. As noticed in the first part of the story, while Gregor is still behind the closed door, everyone can understand the short “yes” or “no” answers that they are being given, but after seeing Gregor, they can no longer understand anything he says. This view does begin to take control of Gregor. He begins to act more and more like an insect everyday. When receiving a meal, “Gregor’s legs all whizzed towards the food.” Also, “…the fresh food, in the other hand, had no charms for him.” (Page 91-92) Gregor is losing control of how his body and mind work, being slowly transformed into the vision seen by everyone he knows best.

Gregor slowly became a vermin to his family. As the time goes by, his family sees him less and less as “Gregor,” and more and more as a pest in the next room. Many of the views from one another in “The Metamorphosis”, reflect the views that Kafka believed his father had towards him. “This made him realize how repulsive the sight of him still was to her, and that it was bound to go on being repulsive, and what an effort it must cost her not to run away even from the sight…” (Page 99) This previous quote sounds exactly like Kafka’s “Letters to Father”, in which Kafka wrote as if his father were saying it to him. It sounded a lot alike the way Gregor thought of himself. Also, there seems to be a trend about Gregor and his father, in a way that if one is feeling good, then the other must be feeling bad, they never seem to both be happy. It seems to flip-flop in the story several times.

At the end of the short story, after the family has gotten word of Gregor’s death, they seem to be much better off. SOMEHOW, each member of the family now held what seem to be very steady jobs. Which does not explain why they did not have them earlier in the story. Also, they seem to not be worrying about the debt any longer and apparently are doing very well financially. After his death, the family seems to act as if they had a huge burden relieved from their shoulders because he was gone. But it seems a little ironic/hypocritical because Gregor felt that they were each a burden to him while he was the one supporting them. His sister soon after becomes much happier with a lot more energy along with the parents. Expert 2 was correct that those were views in the book, but was incorrect on whom they were to.



Just something cool....

In the fable “Metamorphosis”, by Edwin H. Friedman, also follows the same direction as Kafka’s story. The fable it begins with the lines, “One morning Mrs. K. awoke and found that her husband had been transformed into a caterpillar.” Which is very similar to the introducing sentence of Kafka. In the fable, the man’s wife tries to take care of her “caterpillar husband.” When realizing where her husband was, she went over to touch him. But as soon as she became close, he curled into a spiral. Trying to calm him down she talks to him for several hours without any responses. Seeing that he cannot/will not talk nor move to her, she grabs a shoe box and fills it with grass and leaves, trying to interest him into moving. But he will not, the caterpillar just stays as stiff as he can. Mrs. K. knows that he is able to move because whenever she leaves that room for any amount of time, the caterpillar is in a different spot than before. The entire time she just thinks (to herself) about how it will not be much of a difference without him because she always did everything anyway and it did not seem as if she’d miss him. After staying with the caterpillar for months she decided that she would be able to leave him in the box in the closet while she visits a friend. Forgetting about her husband completely while she was away. Even after coming back she forgot to look in the closet. After a few days she remembered and when she looked in the box and he was gone. There was no evidence of him anywhere. After searching everywhere she gave up. But, suddenly the front door swung open, and there stood her husband in the flesh. After embracing her as he did in their earlier years of marriage he said, “My God…where have you been? I thought I’d lost you.”

This does have the same sort of idea that Kafka’s story did. Because as soon as people forget who the person is, it was as if they became a completely different “person.” Everyone in his family saw Gregor as vermin, which is what he became. And in Mr. K’s case, he was as important to his wife as a caterpillar. But as soon as they were forgotten, such as Gregor’s family believing that the insect was not actually Gregor and Mrs. K forgetting that her husband was more than a caterpillar, the thing that represented them disappeared.


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