Rituals in Things Fall Apart

One of the things I found most interesting about Things Fall Apart from the very start of the novel was the emphasis Achebe placed on tradition and rituals. It was something I could relate to, and helped me understand why Okonkwo was so rigid about things. At times he almost seemed OCD about the way he ate his food and the way he ran his household, but by giving us a background into the Umuofian culture Achebe displaces the rigidity of Okonkwo and explicates it as pretty common.

In particular, I was interested in the way that people greeted each other/visited each other's households. The kola nut was one of those methods that caught my attention, as it appeared in almost every important ritual - from simple decisions, to gatherings, to weddings. After looking it up online, I found that kola is a stimulant of sorts, and as commonplace to the Umuofian culture as tea or coffee is to us. Knowing this helped me visualize, and fully understand certain aspects of their daily life, and I wish Achebe had explained some of the rituals in more depth. I realize that by NOT explaining and simply showing Achebe threw us head first into the culture, and we had to figure out our way around the rituals ourselves, but some explanations to things like the kola or the marriage traditions would have been helpful to me personally.