The Role of Women in the Ibo Culture Essay

In Chapter 8 page 45 of “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, there is a conversation between the men, “All their customs are upside-down. They do not decide bride-price as we do, with sticks. They haggle and bargain as if they were buying a goat or a cow in the market.” Comes to show that women are treated as objects like trading goods. Then they continue their conversation, ‘The world is large,’ said Okonkwo. ‘I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family.’ That cannot be,’ said Machi. ‘You might as well say that the woman lies on top of the man when they are making the children.” The Umuofia are pretty straight forward with the meanings of masculine and feminine. Where a man named Machi can’t even agree with other cultures, where instead of men “owning” their children it is the women and her family who own the children. So then he goes on comparing that type of social structure to where it is impossible for a women to be on

In the Ibo tribe, women and children were seen as inferior compared to men in the eyes of society. Women have weddings arranged by their parents. After getting married, the women are considered to be the property of the husband. The main purpose of women in the Ibo society was staying home and taking care of the home and children. It was very important for a woman to give birth to a child, preferably a boy so that

Domination and authority over women are reflected by the male characters in Things Fall Apart, specially the protagonist Okonkwo, as he oppresses his wives and overly abuse his power as the male dominator. At the beginning of the novel Okonkwo displayed, this trait as the monarch of the household “He ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (Acebe, 10). In the Igbo community men were the domineering sex and ruled over their families especially their wives. They treated their wives with disrespect and continuously let women live in fear. As stated above, males being more powerful than women limit woman capabilities and let them fear their husband. Throughout the book the author gives a clear idea that within the Igbo culture they live in a patriarchy society and as proven above the males continuously withhold this dominate role in their household.

1. In traditional Ibo culture, women are not treated as equals and are equivalent to possessions. In a family, the children always belong to the father, not the mother. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family” (74). Okonkwo appears appalled to this blasphemy. It is common and ideal for a husband to possess multiple wives, and men beat their wives for even the smallest infractions. During the Week of Peace, the goddess forbids wife beating, such as when Okonkwo beat Ojiugo. “And when she returned he beat her very heavily …It was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week” (29-30). To live in a culture with so many threats to them, women are required to be mentally and emotionally

Before the arrival of European influence, villagers of Umuofia had a single option for a way of life. It was a place to be feared, dominated by war and violent practices. Ibo culture is centered on a patriarchal system based on hierarchy; the highest titles held by male egwugwu in the legal system and the osu at the bottom. The main character, Okonkwo, represents the ambition to strive for a higher position in society in order to gain status: “His life had been ruled by a great passion-to become one of the lords of the clan” (131). Another aspect in Ibo culture is the representation of women. They are undermined in order for men to achieve success; bride prices are used to able men to marry more than one wife and husbands are

The nurture of a child is what governs what the child will be like when he/she gets older. In the Ibo community, the men were not responsible for the upbringing of children and if anyone was to blame if a child acted up in public it was the women’s fault for not properly teaching the child the customs

Gender roles played a crucial part to the understanding of the people of Umuofia; especially to Okonkwo. But just as in today’s world, one person of a group cannot define the entire group, it was the same back then, which further proves how the District Commissioner’s view of Umuofia would not represent the entire clan, let alone Africa as a whole. Okonkwo’s motivation behind his views of patriarchy stem from his father Unoka; he wanted to be such a great man of the tribe, unlike his “agbala” of a father. Okonkwo’s son “[n]woye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell, and which she no doubt still told to her younger children…but he now knew that they were for foolish women

In the novel Things Fall Apart, the use of violence in Ibo culture was fairly frequent, especially among the men in the village. In the Ibo village of Umuofia, it was obvious that the men rule the household with a heavy hand, meaning if they felt a beating was necessary they would carry it out with full force. In chapter four of the novel, Okonkwo’s youngest wife decided to plait her hair at a friend’s house. When she did not come home early enough to cook the afternoon meal and failed to ask another wife to feed her children, Okonkwo decided to take it upon himself to give her a hefty beating. The fact that it was supposed to be the Week of Peace did not stop him. The reality that the men take it upon themselves and are expected to control

Imagine a modern day society where women were treated differently because of their gender. We know women in the United States have not too long ago just received equal rights, to withhold the same rights as men. Taking it a long time for the “greatest independent country” to develop such society, it will take some time for other countries to develop equal rights as well. In Igbo culture, women are viewed as less important that men, and we see this in Things Fall Apart through the practice of polygamy, the jobs assigned to men, and the society’s acceptance of domestic abuse. Women in the Igbo culture are often busy doing things for their children and their husband, that there is not a lot of time for them to spend on themselves.

Historically, women have been viewed as inferior to men due to a female's lack of physical strength. In the candid novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe clearly defines gender roles; women are the caretakers and cooks- simply existing to satisfy men’s desires. Although “Things Fall Apart portrays the women as weak ,inferior, and being put in their place by men; however, Achebe also notes their importance during several parts of the story. By incorporating powerful dialogues and scenes to develop gender conflicts, Achebe uses the completely divergent character of Okonkwo, who constantly strives to achieve manliness to demonstrate that although women in the Igbo society are important, they are not treated as such. Chinua Achebe, the author suggests that there is a constant conflict which exists between the two genders and the expectations of the roles in which each of them must play.

The wives in Umuofia were made to cook a meal for the husband and child. If a man had many wives then each wife would make a part of the meal for him. Woman like the men in Umuofia planted and grew crops, but theirs were not equal to the most prized crop yams. “His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.”(pg.8).

Anthony writes his research of gender relations in the Igbo nation: “Igbo men regarded Merchandise as women‟s occupation.” (Okonkwo 14). The role of women in the Igbo culture is distinctly inferior to men as shown by the jobs that women are obliged to perform, along with the abusive actions that wives are forced to

Within the tribe, women do have a few roles that make them just as important. “His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.” (28).

The society that Chinua Achebe described in his book, Things Fall Apart, is also based on agriculture. The major crop the Ibo tribe grew was the yam, which was said to be the symbol of virility. The coco-yam, which was a smaller size and had a lesser value than other yams, was regarded as female. The "yam also stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another is a very great man indeed" (33). To produce a great harvest, the Ibo farmer would have needed a lot of help. The women ran most of the workforce by farming, tending animals, and raising the children so that they could help out on the farms.

Okonkwo illustrates the use of gender roles and lack of feminism in his daughter, Ezinma and his regret of her being a girl (Achebe 137). Okonkwo’s desire for his daughter to be a man is problematic and represents the patriarch’s refusal to view women as equal to men. Throughout Ezinma’s life time, Okonkwo expresses his desires for Ezinma to be born a boy ( Achebe 137). He explictly states to himself that he, “wishes she were a boy,” because she “understands him perfectly” (Achebe 136). Okonkwo expands on this desire as he continue to express how Ezinma is his favorite among the daughters and that she understands the ways of his consciousness and his moods (Achebe 137) . Although these expressions are subtle, Okonkwo’s regret of Ezinma’s gender plays a role in the patriarchal induced gender roles that women are socially lesser than men. Society’s standards