What is Egwugwu?

What is Egwugwu?

The egwugwu are masked dancers that represent the nine ancestral spirits of Umuofia. These masked ancestral spirits are enigmatic in nature and comprise of nine revered village elders, who ceremonially gather to administer justice.

Is Okonkwo an Egwugwu?

Okonkwo has obviously risen to a lofty position of village leadership if he has indeed been selected as the egwugwu representative for his village. The egwugwu has similarities to a jury led by a foreman or judge.

What are the Egwugwu and what purpose did the serve in Umuofia?

The egwugwu in Things Fall Apart are the gods of the Umuofia. They represent Umuofia’s ancestral spirits and act as judges in the community,…

Who were the Egwugwu in things fall apart?

Egwugwu are high-ranking members of the village, who dress in masks and are filled with the spirits of the ancestors. Each egwugwu represents one of the nine villages in the area. These egwugwu speak with the authority and wisdom of the ancestors of the village and are not only respected, but feared.

Is Egwugwu real?

The narrator makes several comments to reveal to us that the villagers know that the egwugwu are not real. For example, the narrator tells us: “Okonkwo’s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo.

How do Egwugwu settle disputes?

How do the egwugwu solve the dispute? Tell the man to bring the in-laws a pot of wine and beg for his wife once he does so the in laws should give back his wife.

What is Chi in TFA?

The chi is an individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack thereof. Along the lines of this interpretation, one can explain Okonkwo’s tragic fate as the result of a problematic chi —a thought that occurs to Okonkwo at several points in the novel.

How do the Egwugwu settle disputes?

What is Okonkwo’s greatest fear?

Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.

What is Okonkwo’s fate?

Okonkwo dies an outcast, banished from the very society he fought to protect. The novel’s second tragedy occurs on the broader level of history. Achebe signals this second tragedy by ending the novel with a shift from an African to a European perspective.

What do the locusts symbolize?

Obierika tells Okonkwo that the Oracle had warned that the white men were “locusts,” coming in small numbers at first and then arriving in devastating numbers later. The locusts have come to symbolize the white men and their ominous arrival to Africa.

Who is Ekwefi?

Ekwefi. Okonkwo’s second wife, once the village beauty. Ekwefi ran away from her first husband to live with Okonkwo. Ezinma is her only surviving child, her other nine having died in infancy, and Ekwefi constantly fears that she will lose Ezinma as well.