Igbo Tribe Things Fall Apart

“If a child washes his hands he could eat with kings”(8). In the Ibo culture in Umuofia any man can rise to greatness and they are not held back by their ancestors failures and misfortune. “There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts”(140). Those who raise their voice will take no action.They are to cowardly to do something, so they fight with their words. “When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its

Yams are a vital part of Igbo life, especially when it comes to the men of the tribe. They are generally considered the manly crop and men treat the task of farming them very seriously. “During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms

Proverbs are an important part of everyday life for the Igbo tribe. Someone who used them was very highly respected and was

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the Igbo people objectify woman which shows that men are seen as superior in the Igbo culture. On Okonkwo’s first year of farming, Okonkwo worked for a prominent man in the village. He worked for a rich man “who had three huge barns, nine wives, and thirty children” (Achebe 18). The barns are filled with yams, the main currency of the Igbo. If that allows the man to be rich, the nine wives do too. Along with yams, women are seen as something that makes a man rich. Next, When Okonkwo was a young boy, a friend came and told him that his father was an agbala. He came to the realization that “agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title” (13). Women, in the Igbo

In the Igbo culture, everyday activities demonstrate the strict gender expectation of men and women. While planting, the coco-yams, beans, and cassava are described as “women’s crops” but the yam, the “king of crops”, is “a man’s crop” (23). The crops which are a crucial part of the Umuofian culture have gender associated names. Yam, because it is the staple of the Igbo diet, is considered to be the “king of crops”. The New Yam Festival, the Week of Peace, and many other daily celebrations are organized around the “man’s crop”. The women are still held responsible for producing their crops, which are not idolized or even appreciated. The value that the Igbo tribe places on the women’s crops allows the men to maintain the position as the primary providers in the community. The men’s work is celebrated versus the women’s that is just required. The women are also expected to honor the men’s work. During an Igbo ceremony, “It was clear from the way the crowd stood that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders” (77). Women are not meant to “look”, not speak, or listen. They have no voice when the “men” are engaged in a

Chinua Achebe’s portrayal of the role of women is significant because it disproves the stereotypes of non-western society. In Igbo society, women have many roles both in the household and in the village. “Igbo women [have] rights and freedoms”, such as “cook[ing] for themselves and rais[ing] their own children” (Ohadike xxxii). Because women are tasked with these important duties, women are very important. In Igbo society, sometimes women have more freedom than in other societies (such as western).

The culture of the Igbo tribe relies heavily on traditional and structured gender roles. From agriculture to legal issues, every aspect of the tribe is gendered. Women are seen as subordinate to men, but still maintain some authority worthy of worship such as the ability to bear children. In the Igbo tribe, the ideal man was is someone who is able to provide food and shelter for his family and dominate the battlefield. On the other hand, women were expected to maintain purity for an honorable man, to bear children and to be a submissive wife. Okonkwo’s obsession with masculinity and hostility towards femininity creates an unbalance within his character, and ultimately leads to his demise. The novel centers around the idea of balance between masculine and feminine forces. These masculine and feminine forces can be seen in the religious, legal system, emotional, and agricultural traditions of Umuofia. Although gender roles seem to oppose each other in each of these areas of Igbo culture, life in Umuofia would not exist if not for the balancing out of masculine and feminine elements.

Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop” (Achebe, 1994, p.22-23). This proves that there are gender roles in every aspect of the Igbo culture including the growing of crops. It is a man job to do the yams because yams are the main food staple of the Igbo culture. In this culture is a man’s job to provide for the family. The yams also show masculinity because it shows they're not afraid of hard work. Even if Igbo faction are sophisticated in male/ female jobs and partnership others may argue that Igbo faction are

On a smaller scale, Igbo families generally lived in compounds, each a small segment of the village group. The head of the compound was usually the oldest male and within each compound were clusters of huts belonging to different domestic groups. The head of each domestic group is responsible for its members. In Igbo society, seniority by age regulated social placement. Married life was the normal condition for adults, and polygamy for the men was the ideal - in fact it acted as an important indication of status. Wives were ranked according to the order in which they married the common husband. Another important feature of Igbo kinship apart from the precedence given to the male, is the idea of seniority by birth. The first male and female children of the domestic group, irrespective of the ranking of their mothers, were given special status, and occupied very important and responsible social positions in

Much of their work was required in the agricultural field, so women often grew small crops. Crops such as coco-yams and beans were produced because they were considered “woman crops”. A notable example is according to the National Industrial Studies, “ women became more susceptible to hard labor during the industrial revolution. The created new age of evolution sparked the flame for a global success change.”. While having multiple wives and rankings displayed a clansmen status in society, it further illustrates the importance of the patriarchal society the Igbo people live in. However, women adapted to their circumstances and still found a way to provide for their families just like the men. Through the polygamous marriage, social status determined the success of a man and deemed them superior to the women.

In this society, many people grow yams, a difficult vegetable to produce. The farmers that are capable of producing large amounts of yams are ranked higher in society because yams “stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.” (33) Igbo people think that being a hard worker and providing for one’s family makes someone masculine. Food is very highly valued in their society, especially for Okonkwo because he grew up in poverty. His father was lazy and did not take proper care of crops so they ended up hungry. Okonkwo does not want to be weak like him so he works extremely hard to prove that he can grow crops. He also teaches his sons to do the same because he wants to pass his success on to the next generation. (say something about women being incapable)

Achebe portrays that the African culture of the Igbo tribe as worth knowing about by sharing their culture and description of people. Often times tribes are not as advanced like in first world countries so their social customs and gender roles “His mother and sisters . . . was a man's crop”(3 p.22-23), for men and women are different. In this quote Achebe explains that even when it comes down to planting there are things women can and cannot do, the same goes for men. He says that women grow women’s crop, like “coco-yams” and “beans” which is assumed by the reader to be crops that are smaller and need less maintenance. But men grow the yams which is one of the tribe's main source of food. If the men did not plant and harvest the yam, the family would not be provided for, which makes them the main provider for the family in a sense. Achebe shows Igbo culture and customs to be important. Igbo tribesmen outside of the family everyone is respected as shown, “I have

It is noteworthy to pinpoint how our culture and way of life has changed nowadays compared to the Ibo men. But have gender stereotypes changed? Are we still introduced from a young age on how society expects us to behave based on our gender; and are women still treated as an inferior race? Although China Achebe novel, Things Fall Apart, displays primitive male dominance of the 1880's Nigeria; ironically, many of the same gender stereotypes remain in our society even in present day.

In Umuofia, culture defines a huge portion of the ethnic identity. As Achebe illustrates, “age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered” (8). Members of this village honored their elders and defined a person by what one would do, rather than where one came from. Titles were also another important part of their culture and the more that one had, the greater they were. To extend this idea further the author points out, “yams stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed” (Achebe 33). In Umuofia, men had to provide for their families and if they did well they were honored. Men worked their farms hard, just as Okonkwo did and those who succeeded had a sense of self dignity and righteousness. Above all, members of the

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the protagonist, Okonkwo, is living in his fatherland, Umuofia, along with his wives and children. The Igbo culture is extremely strict, traditional, sexist, and reliant on men. They have high expectations for men and if a man didn’t fit within those standards, they would be considered as a woman, which meant that they were weak or cowardly. Throughout this novel, Okonkwo perseveres to have such masculine qualities, as a result of peer pressure and expectations of the Igbo society. Ironically, this same reason, along with his fatal flaws become the cause of his demise.