Pics from the Village of Umuofia

I chose this image first because I did not think that any buildings would be two stories. It is just an odd personal bias that I had, even knowing that the Europeans were there and they would try to make it look as much like home as possible, I never thought they would try and take a building two stories. Oddly to me, it looks like the structure was made with clay just like Things Fall Apart said. This seems like poor planning on the part of the Europeans because after the rainy season every year clay will deteriorate and it will get harder and harder to make the structure stay standing or not leaning like the Tower of Pisa. The more I spend time looking at the picture the more I think it might just have vaulted ceilings. How odd is it that that second floor would be a balcony. Very European, reminds me of antebellum South.
Apparently I am stuck on looking at the buildings of the Ibo people, probably because they are different than what I expected to see. Like I said before there was always mention of clay, having to rebuild the walls, cover them with palms so they would not wash away in the rains and so on. This structure shown is more of a thatched structure taking the roof almost all the way to the ground. When I was thinking of buildings from Things Fall Apart I was thinking that they would have large clay walls with only the thatching on top as a roof. To me this makes more sense as perhaps a barn to store the yams, aside from water seeping in on the ground. I think I can wrap my head around that more because we never get a description of what the barns look like and because this seems very large for one persons house. As people brought up in class it did not seem like the Ibo were very wasteful with their goods and this too would mean space. This large of a structure would seem like a waste of space on a compound.

I don't have many insightful things to say about this picture I just liked how intricately carved the walking sticks are. I for one thin we should all have canes such as these because it adds flair. Ladies, you could have different colored ones to match the outfit of the day, it could be the shoe of the 21st century. I imagine these walking sticks were either for elders or respected members of society. It might be that the figures carved on the sticks are that persons chi; it could act as a little way to keep them with you at certain events or functions. Better yet they may belong to the people who act as the nine gods in the ceremonies, like the trail. Since the designs are so intricate I imagine they have something to do with stature, not everyone woukld be able to acquire one.