Spiritual and Traditional Aspects of Things Fall ApartChinua Achebe describes in his book Things Fall Apart (1958) some interesting features of what life might look like in an African village during the late 19th century. The society presented by the Nigerian author is in many ways significantly different from our Western society today. Life in the African village of Umuofia was, among many other things, spiritual and traditional. The spiritual aspect of life in Umuofia is well illustrated by the episode in which Okonkwo and one of his wives finally have a son who does not die at a young age. After having to bury many of their children, a witch doctor tells Okonkwo and Ekwefi that all the children are actually a so-called ogbanje; a child who dies repeatedly and returns to his mother's womb to be reborn. Parents are also told that it is almost impossible to raise an ogbanje without it dying, unless its iyi-uwa is first found and destroyed. An iyi-uwa is a special type of stone that forms the connection between the child and the spirit world. And so, aft...