Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is an historical narrative. It's written with the historical knowledge of Britain colonizing Nigeria. Yet, it is from a view point which we are not used to reading from. Things Fall Apart is from the eyes of the colonized. The perspective is from Okonkwo, a respected elder, who can't resist the invasion of western culture in his village.
Africa was seen as an uneducated continent and very little was known by the Westerners about its land or people. Their culture was based on religion and nature. They worshipped many different gods and goddesses who represented every aspect of the nature, living and non living. According to the tribes, everything was living and should be respected. .
I've learned that the people in Africa lived in harmony with Nature. This is shown by the many references to nature in the novel. Some examples include: Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush fire in the harmattan, he drank palm win from morning till night and his eyes were red and fierce like the eyes of a rat when it was caught by the tail and dashed against the floor, he felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito, and the earth burned like hot coals. I believe all these sayings indicate how important and alive nature is to the tribe. Yam appeared to be used to describe manliness, "yam stood for manliness and he could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed." Only the men were allowed to grow yams, not the women. It was considered the king of crops, the man crop. Another example is the kola which symbolizes prosperity, "He who brings kola brings life.".
The tribes had a very spiritual side. Their priests could heal people, either physically or they could use their psychic powers. For example, Ezinma was believed to be out of danger when the medicine man found her iyi-uwa. They also believed in people who could predict the future.