The novel is set during the late 1800s – early 1900s in a small village called Umuofia situated in the southeastern part of Nigeria. The time period is important, as it was a period in colonial history when the British were expanding their influence in Africa, economically, culturally, and politically.
Umuofia is an Igbo village with very well defined traditions. It is a village that is respected by those around it as being powerful and rich. Each person has a hut or obi that is located in the center of a compound.
Each of the wives has a separate obi with a shed for goats and an attached chicken coop. The main occupation of the men is sowing and growing yams since yams are considered the most important crop. The women grew less significant crops like coco-yams, beans and cassava.
When Okonkwo is banished from his village, he takes his family to his mother‟s native village called Mbanta, where he is given two or three plots of land to farm, and a plot of ground on which to build his compound. The next seven years of Okonkwo‟s life are spent in the village of Mbanta. He then returns to Umuofia where the rest of the novel takes place.
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