Book Club: Things fall apart Chapter 1

THINGS FALL APART 1

The first chapter of this book is striking, it starts off sounding like a folktale. We are firstly informed "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond." Okonkwo had just conquered Amalinze, the strong undefeated man with a funny nickname: "THE CAT". The village description feels like a small neighborhood that sees wrestling as a form of recreation. Old men sat, watched the fight between Okonkwo and Amalinze and agreed it was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town
engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights. So The founder of the village himself conquered with wrestling little wonder the villagers see it as a sport of interest. At this point you might ask yourself, how many African sports do we still play?

Wrestling, Ayo and our make-belief games seem to be going extinct. Although most have been modernized into Boxing, Chess, D&Ds nevertheless, these games played in our local way fostered a sense of community. Old and young cheer and jeer feeling joyous. Do we still have that in the African society?

Unoka, the father of Okonkwo is a debtor and a lover of the art of music. One might not conclude he is irresponsible, he simply loved playing the flute more than making money but his wife and children weren't going to eat the music from his flute definitely. He represents artists comfortable with loving art more than hustling, although this invites poverty. Unoka is fine with it nevertheless.

At the end of this chapter we are introduced to Ikemefuna, the boy sacrificed to the village gods. Why?

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