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Recalled...
“Things Fall Apart is a novel written by a Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Published in 1958, its story chronicles pre-colonial life in the south-eastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans during the late nineteenth century.” The novel serves as a mirror to me; I’m from West Africa, Liberia. I came to the United States as an exchange student when I was sixteen. The older I got; I was also able to understand some of the beliefs most African countries shared.
Liberia and Nigeria have much in common when it comes to cultures, but to go back in time when the novel was written; Liberia was still engendering. I want to go in-depth to share with you my personal involvement while I was in Africa, Liberia; regarding the superstitious ideology that was taught from generation to generation. Some of those ideologies have to do with becoming a man, ideas of traditional marriage, worshiping their gods, the return of the dead, and the values of women. For one to be measured as a man in Grand-Bassa County #2 district Buchanan, Liberia, he should be able to hunt and make good farms. In Liberia, there are two seasons, the dry and wet seasons. Each of those seasons lasts for six months. As a farmer, you should be intelligent enough to know when to cultivate and plant. As a young man, when you are able to farm and hunt, then you are equipped for a woman. From 1990 to 2000, the greatest crops that were in Liberia's grand Bassa were: rice, cassava, sugar cane, banana, and plantains, Also, cutting palm for oil.
Different regions of the country have different dialects or languages. Depending on the location, the food type is different. To be a man, you should be able to take care of your family. A family is one of the most vital things that a man can possess. You are categorized based on the well-being of your family. I’m not sure which age you have to be before getting married, but most folks are married when the man is prepared. For your first marriage, you must live with her and provide for her for a couple of years, depending on the man’s capability to care for his wife, you can now marry as many wives as you can and want. All the decisions in the homes are made by the man.
One woman is not permitted to marry more than one man, but the men can. In my present, I have seen many guys beat their partners. I don’t know the reasons; I was little and did not comprehend what was going on. I recalled one man beating his wife because she did not cook on Christmas day. Another beat and censored his wife's hair bald because she came out of the bathroom sitting on the bed naked doing her hair in her room. I remember nameless fights. All of these images came back to me while I was reading Things Fall Apart. I also recall, that there was a regulation in the village, when a hunter kills a certain animal, you are to give the right front leg to the villagers.
The head of the animal belongs to the first wife. I don’t know the reason why. Also, there were days for cleaning up the village. All the men come with their cutlets and machetes and the women come with their truper hooks and other gears I don’t know in English, but it sounds like capita, wheelpia, and so on. Children will take the trash to certain locations to dump. One of my favorite things was when the darkness fell, people gathered together to tell stories. Stories of slaveries, giants, gods, and some great people who are gone. This was a time for teaching younger ones the history of their descendants. Sometimes, there will be dancing and singing. It was a time of happiness and celebration. I think this is what Chinua Achebe referred to as a feast in which things fall apart. There is so much that I can remember that I admired and some, not so much or not at all. One has to do with their mindset of death.
When an older person is deceased, the villagers will build a hut with palm taches and keep the dead body for seven days. Within seven days, there will be a feast for days and nights. People will sing and dance. Villagers from different villages will come together to celebrate the homegoing. On the other hand, when a child dies, people think that the child only came to get something and take it back. The distress of the dead returning, they will mistreat the dead by burning or cutting out the dead child to pieces or leaving the dead body on a driver ants’ bed. There were many children who died at birth. Child motility was very high due to lack of medication and sometimes, they will lose both the mother and child. If they lose both child and mother, they will take the dead bodies to their gods.
There was a giant tree not far from the village, the villagers believed that the god lived in the tree which is why the tree was so big. I believed that might be a redwood tree. In front of the tree, they will sacrifice all kinds of animals. Before the dead are buried, they will take the body to the tree for hours before burring the dead. There is a belief that the African driver ants are a messenger for the dead. The driver ants come for food for the dead. The driver ants could take over your house at night or day. It was also believed that whenever the driver ants came to the village, it was time to feed the dead. African driver ants travel in millions or billions, they are capable of taking over the entire village. I remember one night while I was lying down, I felt something walking on me, not too long they started to bite. Their bite is very painful, I jumped up crying in the middle of the night. When a light was brought to see what was going on, the entire house was covered in this black ant. The ants do not do well with heat. That is how people get rid of African driver ants.
All these memories came back after reading Things Fall Apart. 90% of what was mentioned in Things Fall Apart is true and even as we presently speak, some still believe in this ignorance. I said the novel is a mirror to me because of my personal experience while I was in Africa. The African's ideas of life are somehow too far from reality, but with their superstitious belief, I admired their way of becoming a man. Also, the idea of marrying more than one woman sounds interesting to me just because I’m a guy. I also made my first rice and cassava farm at the age of nine. My first farm was about 20 to 25 acres of land. I was gradually ascending the ladder of becoming a man when I moved to the city for school. After my departure, I forgot about everything until I read the story, “Things Fall Apart.” This brought so many memories back about how the Africans treated dead bodies, their farms, and how they worshiped their gods. Things Fall Apart is truly a reflection for me, that is why I entitled this essay, “Recalled.”
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