Although most Igbo peoples do not have kings or chiefs, some groups do.  Below is a photo of the Prime Minister of Oguta sitting in state in his obi.  Okonkwo was a powerful man in his village – perhaps by looking at this photo you can imagine how he might have looked sitting in his family's obi.

Prime Minister of Oguta in his obi, 1983

Evidently every object in this picture is connected with spiritual power and the ancestors.  In front of the man are bottles of palm wine, metal bowls for serving kola nuts, and a white-dusted wooden bowl for chalk.  The man has eagle feathers on his head and a white mask pattern drawn around his eyes (compare to traces of pigment in a similar pattern around the eyes of the brass head of the King from Ife from the 13^th century – this design must have a long history in this region).  The man’s blue-and-white patterned garment denotes prestige.  His left hand grasps an elephant tusk trumpet. In this photo, the trumpet might be made of plastic, since real elephant tusk is almost impossible to obtain in modern times. There are other modern touches that would not have appeared in Achebe's story - for example, palm wine did not originally come in bottles, kola nut bowls were usually made of wood, framed photos of ancestors were not available, and Igbo people would not have had access to Western furniture or milled lumber.

In Achebe’s story, men of title sit on special stools.  Okonkwo has his adopted son (Ikemefuma, who is later killed) carry his stool to a ceremony.  In fact, titled men must not sit directly on the ground.  Here is a photo of a titled man’s stool:

Ozo (special title society) stool, 40.5 cm.

Here is another, more elaborate titled man’s stool:

Ozo title stool, 46.4 cm.

Finally, here is a photo of staffs that belonged to titled men:

These are made of wrought iron, brass, and copper.  In Things Fall Apart, title staffs are carried by the egwugwu (masked spirits).

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