Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.

Chinua Achebe uses this line early in his novel *Things Fall Apart* (1958) while introducing Igbo social life in precolonial Umuofia. The remark comes amid scenes of public meeting and negotiation, where elders and titled men speak with care and rhetorical skill. Achebe, writing during the late-colonial/early postcolonial period, deliberately foregrounds the sophistication of Igbo institutions and aesthetics—especially oratory—countering stereotypes that African societies lacked complex culture. The image of “palm-oil” draws on everyday Igbo cuisine to explain to a broad readership how proverbs enrich speech and make communication persuasive, memorable, and socially appropriate.

The quote argues that in Igbo culture, speech is not merely functional but an art governed by communal standards of elegance, tact, and wisdom. Proverbs serve as a kind of seasoning: they make language “go down” smoothly, adding flavor, authority, and shared cultural reference. The metaphor also implies that effective communication depends on tradition—proverbs condense collective experience into portable forms that guide judgment and social harmony. In Achebe’s larger project, the line signals that the society he depicts possesses refined rhetorical practices and intellectual depth, and that understanding it requires attention to its idioms rather than judging it by external (colonial) measures.