What does this quote mean by Chinua Achebe? "Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten"?

Question

In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, what does the quote mean?

Answer 1

Full quote:

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

Basically, community is as important as the food they need to live on.

From SparkNotes:

The metaphor of words as food is highly appropriate, given the almost exclusively agricultural nature of Igbo society. They award the same value that they place on food, the sustenance of life, to words, the sustenance of interaction and hence community.