In the culture that Zifa, Ebiere, and Tonyá live in, the ritual sacrifice of a goat would normally be a cleansing one. Zifa's entire family is supposedly cursed, and one would think that under normal circumstances, a sacrifice to the gods would be beneficial for him.

However, because he is betrayed by Ebiere and Tonyá, Zifa's sacrifice comes from a place of anger, rather than a place of worship. He defiles the goat, kills it, and makes his brother put its head into a too-small pot—breaking the pot. Zifa does this as a sort of crude metaphor for the sexual act that happened between his brother and his wife; it is disrespectful to the gods. 

Thus, the symbolic essence of the title is that the sacrifice of the goat in this story is like the relationship between Zifa and his family—what could have ultimately been a good thing (if they had only listened to Orukorere’s prophecies) becomes a senseless tragedy ending in death.