Igbo Words & Phrases in Things Fall Apart:



Igbo Words & Phrases in Things Fall Apart:

Musical Instruments

ekwe (drum)

udu

ogene (gong)

egwugwu (ancestral spirits)

Buildings & Spaces

obi (hut)

medicine house (shrine)

ilo (village playground)

Foods

goat meat

men’s crops: yams

women’s crops: coco-yams, beans, cassava, maize, melons

yam pottage

yam foo-foo (mashed yams?) eaten with soup

egusi soup

bitter leaf soup

eze-agadi-nwayi (teeth of an old woman—poor corn)

calabash (container made from a dried gourd)

harmattan season

People

ndichie (elders)

nna ayi (our father)

Ogbuefi (title of brother or neighbor?)

Nne (mother)

ogbanje (child who reenters womb to be born again)

imuada (relations)

efulefu (worthless, empty men; sold machete & wore the sheath to battle)

ummuna (gathering of clansmen)

umuada (gathering of clan women)

ozo (a title that had become lowly because it had become common)

agbala—woman or man without title

Adornment

uli (used to draw black line patterns on women)

red cam wood (used to paint women’s bodies)

jigida (waist beads)

Market Week Days (4 total)

Oye

Eke

Afo

Religious Terms, Beliefs, & Rites

nso-ani (crime against Ani?)

agadi-nwayi (war medicine, one-legged old woman, shrine)

sacrifice to avoid war:

• Ikemefuna (belonged to clan, 3 years with Okonkwo, cared for by his first wife,

2 years older than Nwoye)

• virgin to replace Udo’s wife

silk-cotton tree—good children’s spirits wait to be born

fight of blame—when the Oracle forbids war and the people disobey

iyi-nwz—ogbanje buries it in order to return to torment mother

Feast of the New Yam

ogwu—medicine

chi—personal god

isa-ifi—ceremony to ensure fidelity

ikenga—carving

Religious Figures:

Agbala—Oracle of the Hills and the Caves

Afa—Oracle that told Okonkwo about Ekwefi’s second child, an ogbanje

Akalogoli?

Ani—owner of the land, earth goddess

Ifejioku—god of yams

Amadiora—thunder/lightening storm god

Chukwu—god’s house/god of all minor gods

Ogwugwu

Ekwensu—Evil Spirit

Evil Forest (1 of 9 masked spirits of clan justice; dancers in costume during ceremony)

Group of egwugwu who destroyed the church after one egwugwu was unmasked by Enoch:

Ajofia (leader of Umuofia, spokesman of 9 ancestors)

Otakagu from Imo

Ekwensu from Uli

Other Words & Phrases

ege (wrestling style move)

Umoufia kwenu! (greeting)

Yaa! (reply)

ochu (male/female crime)

iba (fever—Ekwefi’s daughter, Ezinma, suffered from this)

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