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These Igbo men, photographed in 1921, were professional guinea fowl dancers. Each part of their costumes has a symbolic meaning. Dancing plays a big role in the life of Umuofia.
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Click Here where The Village of Umuofia website takes you on an interactive journey to and through an Igbo village.
An Interactive Learning Environment: Village of Umuofia
An Interactive Learning Environment: Village of Umuofia
This video introduces the world of the Igbo, whose civilization is threatened by the colonial advances of the British into their lands in Nigeria. You'll see this native world in all its logic, beauty, and problems, and then watch it begin to crack under internal and external pressure.
http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/things-fall-apart/watch/
http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/things-fall-apart/watch/
Every border you see on this map was drawn by a European power; Nigeria, which contains the Igbo lands of the novel, was created by the British. The map of Africa looked very different before the 1800s, before the arrival of colonizing European powers. The Igbo lands in the heartland of the Niger River valley (now southeastern Nigeria) were not expansive, but they created and nurtured a distinct culture for many centuries. Despite the artificial divisions and boundaries created by empire, the traditional cultures of Africa live on.