Living in sedentary agricultural communities, they relied from year to year on the success of their harvest. Yams were the staple crop of the Igbo diet. To facilitate trade among the villages, the Igbo used small seashells called cowries as a unit of currency.
The Igbo believed in a hierarchy of gods, ranging from Chukwu, the all-powerful, to the chi, an individual's personal god. A malevolent chi would thwart a man's ambitions, whereas a kind one would ensure success. But the Igbo did not believe that a man's fate was entirely determined by his chi. "When a man says yes," they declared, "his chi says yes also" (Achebe, Things Fall Apart, p. 28). In other words, a man's will and his chi work together. The saying resembles the Christian adage that the Lord helps those who help themselves. The Igbo believed also in the importance of their ancestors. Failure to preserve traditions might anger the spirits of their forefathers.
Within the independent villages, political organization was based on ancestry. The smallest unit, the nuclear family, was under the rule of the husband, who often lived in a hut separate from his wife or wives and their children.
This is a free page. This page contains 196 words. This
article contains 3,878 words (approx. 13 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Things Fall Apart Access Pass.
