Things Fall Apart - Chapter 3

These traditional expressions demonstrate the great respect and courtesy that the Igbo people show to one another because the speaker uses veiled language when making comments about himself (Okonkwo in the lizard example, and Nwakibie in the Eneke example); about others (Ogbuefi Idigo talking about Obiako in the toad example); about the person he is addressing (Nwakibie speaking to Okonkwo in the corn example); and about life in general even to oneself (Okonkwo in the old woman example).

This symbolic language represents a high level of cultural sensitivity and sophistication.

An especially significant concept introduced in this chapter is the belief in personal chi.

At its simplest level, chi parallels the Western concept of soul, although chi is a more complex idea.

The Igbo believe that an individual's fate and abilities for the coming life are assigned to the chi, and each individual is given a chi by the Creator (Chukwu) at the moment of conception.

Before each reincarnation, the individual bargains for improved circumstances in the next life.

The chi thus becomes one's personal god that guides one to fulfill the expected destiny.

On the one hand, the individual is ruled by his chi, but on the other hand, only the individual can make the most of the fate planned through the chi.

Notice that Achebe's first name, Chinua, begins with chi.

Achebe explained the usage of chi in the following excerpt:

When we talk about chi, we're talking about the individual spirit, and so you find the word in all kinds of combinations.

Chinwe, which is my wife's name, means chi owns me; mine is Chinua, which is a shortened form of an expression that means may a chi fight for me. My son is named Chidi, which means chi is there.

So it's in almost all my family members' names in one form or the other.

Our youngest girl asked me why she didn't have chi in her name.

She thought it was some kind of discrimination, so she took the name Chioma, which means good chi.

Glossary

Agbala, the Oracle the prophet of the Igbo.

Achebe bases the Agbala Oracle (the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves) on the Awka Oracle that was destroyed by the British.

Chielo was the priestess who spoke to Unoka on behalf of the god Agbala.

Ani the earth goddess who owns all land.

Chi a significant cultural concept and belief meaning one's personal deity; also one's destiny or fate.

Nna-ayi translated as our father; a greeting of respect.

Sharecropping working land for a share of the crop, especially as a tenant farmer.

Here, Okonkwo works as a sharecropper to obtain seed-yams.

Coco-yam the edible, spherical-shaped tuber of the taro plant grown in the tropics and eaten like potatoes or ground into flour, cooked to a paste, or fermented for beer.

Here, the round coco-yam (a woman's crop) is a different tuber than the elongated-shaped yam (a man's crop).

Cassava any of several plants (genus Manihot and especially M. esculenta) of the spurge family grown in the tropics for their fleshy, edible rootsticks that produce a nutritious starch.

Here, the plant also provides valuable leaves for livestock feed as well as tubers, which are prepared like coco-yams.