Yoruba Women Roles

When the Christian religion is introduced, preaching universal acceptance, many members of the clan who are dissatisfied with the Ibo religion are drawn toward it. Some of the title-less men described as 'women' in the tribe are immediately drawn to it. Nwoye, who dislikes the practice

However, for the sake of this essay, I am going to focus on Islam, its introduction, its practice, and its role in the lives of West Africans in the 8th through 15th centuries. With that being said, historians date the arrival of Islam in West Africa to roughly the 8th century C.E. Islamic scholars who had come from Arabia, through the Savannah, began to write about the history of West Africa and the role their religion played [1]. With the spread of Islam came the expansion of trade routes spanning across the continent. Along these commercial highways, Islamic culture fostered intellectual development and innovation never before known in West Africa. With this philosophical and theological expansion came increased literacy among native peoples and thirst for knowledge that resonated among West Africans for centuries. In short, Islam and its practice had just as much of an effect on the material world of West Africans as it did their intellectual

Ibn Battuta’s 1331 journey to West Africa provides a contrast of two worlds: Battuta’s pre-modern Islamic culture conflicting with African societies’ interpretation of Muslim beliefs and tribal traditions. He is especially critical of the various roles of women he observes—thus, allowing us insight into his own judgments formed by his culture and society.

“The Feast of the New Yam… was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility” (36). The importance of this goddess demonstrates that women have a place of power in Ibo religion as well.

Women have always been partly equal to men in pre colonial Nigeria, having equal but separate roles politically and shared authority in the home. Colonialism changed this form of life of the Igbo culture by imposing Christianity and the idea of the man being the head of the village and the women inferior. Women were also stripped of their rights to have or not have children and forced to be in abusive arranged marriages. Colonialism then ended because the natives felt that self-determination had to replace colonialism and the colonizing nations were bankrupt from World War I resulting in small investment to the colonies. Decolonization was not an effortless trouble, but rather arduous and extensive, especially to women’s rights. Women’s roles in the Igbo culture changed drastically from equal, to less than men and to struggling to get by in each stage of colonialism within the work force, family and rights.

Women are very important in some cultures however in others, such as in the Igbo

African society, influenced by its traditional economy, held strict gender roles, and Ekwefi stayed in the home and focused on traditional female tasks. Although African American society in the twentieth century prized women and elevated females to powerful matriarchal positions in the family, pre-colonial Nigeria in no way tolerated women outside the bounds of the home. Ekwefi lives “in perpetual fear of [Okonkwo’s] fiery temper,” and pours herself into raising her daughter, Ezinma (Achebe 13). Because Okonkwo fails to respect the religious customs and “beat” his wife “very heavily” during the “Week of Peace,” others in clan lose respect for him and his family, and Ekwefi can do very little to change this (Achebe 29) . To deal with her husband’s inadequacies, Ekwefi pours herself into Ezinma and raises her to exhibit strength and bravery. Because Okonkwo and traditional Nigerian society hailed masculinity as supreme and despised femininity, Ekwefi knew that in order to appease Okonkwo’s anger, she must raise her child to exhibit these characteristics, despite her gender. Her strategy proved successful, as “Okonkwo was specially fond of Ezinma,” but only showed his “fondness on very rare occasions” (Achebe 44). Furthermore, Okonkwo repeatedly states that Ezinma “should have been a boy,” (Acehbe 64) because he loves her, but continually

-After Nwoye is lured into the Christian religion and abandons his culture and family, Okonkwo is ashamed and states, "you have all see the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people" (172). Nwoye's father disowns him only because he chooses a path untraditional to his culture. The serious, frustrated, and unhappy mood that is created in Okonkwo's statement gives the reader an idea of how much the Ibo culture values tradition, choice, and family.

In all areas of life and society the treatment and well being of women have always been challenged. In many religions the role and status of its women are usually overwhelmed by the actions and roles of its men this inequality of religions between male and female allows these feelings and ideology of which sex is superior or inferior to bleed into a society’s culture thus shaping their treatment of their men and women.

The description of women provided in Olaudah Equiano's and Venture Smith's narratives compared to the European's descriptions of indigenous and African women provided in Jennifer Morgan's paper are distinctive. Equiano and Smith write highly of their mothers while Europeans talk repulsively about African and indigenous women. As a reader, one can infer many opinions about each of the writer's attitudes about the expected gender norms for women at that time such as caretaking, breastfeeding or working. The European perspective utilizes their claim to authority on women through dehumanizing different races and converting them into Christians.

In the Ibo culture, when a woman was to be married, the family of her suitor would come and inspect her to be sure she was beautiful and ripe enough to be a part of their family. A woman did not have any value other than her beauty and her abilities to cook and bear children. In a conversation between Okonkwo and his friend Obierika, they spoke of two other villages where their ''customs are all upside down'' and ''titled men climb trees and pound foo-foo for their wives'' (73).

In “Heterosexualism and the Colonial/ Modern Gender System,” Maria Lugones offers the idea that gender targets women of color. Lugones brings up the research of Oyeronke Oyewumi, who looked into how gender affected the structure of the Yoruba people, especially since gender was not a concept that was originally part of their culture. Once the idea of “women,” was implemented into the community through colonization, women were identified in contrast to men who were then considered the “norm.” (Lugones). If the women did not have a penis, they were reduced as women, beneath men and they no longer had any power in their communities. The Yoruba men accepted this idea and then collaborated with colonists to further oppress women (Lugones). Paula

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic. He is mainly known for his trilogy that investigates, using fiction, the history of Nigeria. The trilogy begins with Things Fall Apart, followed by No Longer at Ease and ended with Arrow of God. Furthermore, in this critically analytical essay, through a feminist perspective, a chapter of his second novel, No Longer at Ease, published in 1960, will be discussed. The setting of the novel is Lagos, Nigeria and Umuofia, Nigeria during the 1950s, before Nigeria attained independence from Great Britain. The novel, No Longer at Ease begins with Obi Okonkwo on trial, charged for accepting a bribe. However, using flashback, the author takes us back to the point before Obi’s departure

When Okonkwo discovers that Nwoye has found a new faith in Christianity, he claims that Nwoye is a woman and not a man nor his own son and addresses that Nwoye is effeminate and degenerate (Achebe 153). These gender roles for men are problematic because it implies that the men in Okonkwo’s life cannot stray away from highly masculine tendencies or else he will be ostracized or beaten. Feminist theory is applicable to this certain situation because Okonkwo perpetuates the male gender role for his son when Nwoye wishes to break from the roles.

In the patriarchal society of the Ibo, a woman must submit to an older man’s demands specifically of a husband or family member; she is rarely in full control of herself. Emecheta writes that “a girl belonged to you today as your daughter, and tomorrow, before your very eyes, would go to another man in marriage” to suggest the presence of a dominant male figure in all walks of life (17).