Something I enjoy about Things Fall Apart are the descriptions of human feelings; the author mentions so many little things that are rarely put into words but which a lot of people feel. For example, even in describing a certain way of walking or state of tiredness, the descriptions are so vivid. I also loved when the ritual was described with the masks and dancing, and so I wanted to look more into the Egwugwu; they were indeed masked elders, but they were not seen or treated as such. Here are some pictures.
2 comments:
Wow Natalia. Great find! I don't know why, but reading about the egwuwu reminded me of something that I cannot think of. Maybe its voodoo or something. I feel like that could be it. The egwuwu spirits are somewhat like the voodoo spirits we have down here in Nola. I actually have some friends from out of town that I took to some voodoo shops this morning. They were so intrigued by how much our culture is surrounded by these crazy beliefs and deaths stories. The egwuwu are somewhat similar in that they are the spirits of past ancestors.
I was curious of the importance of egwugwu and it's role in the Igbo culture after seeing this blog post, so I did some research on it and I found something quite interesting. In the "egwugwu" ceremony, there is a judicial process. In this, men of the clan put masks on the represent the spirits of the ancestral spirits. They do this in order to pass on judgement for those who have done something wrong or to settle some sort of dispute between two parties. It should be noted that all ceremonies take place within a house that women are forbidden to enter. This truly captivates the importance of culture within Igbo society.(In doing my research I found something that happens later in the story so minor spoiler but I guess you can predict it lol) This culture is all lost, however, with colonization. The Egwugwu judicial system is replaced by the judicial system of those who colonize the area, causing the Igbo to lose an important part of their identity and history.
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