The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Purwarno.
Purwarno
Faculty of Literature
Islamic University of North Sumatra, Medan
Abstract
At first glance, the role of women in Chinua Achebe's
“Things Fall Apart” may appear to be unfairly limited in terms of their authority and power. People have not paid much attention to it beyond going along with the assumption that this novel presents women as a sadly oppressed group with no power.
This assumption may appear to be right, but upon delving beneath this deceiving surface, one can see that the women of the clan hold some very powerful positions. Thus, this article is an attempt to show the important role of women both in family and in
African patriarchal society. The women’s powerful positions in the clan deal with their functions, i.e. spiritually as the priestess, symbolically as the earth goddess, and literally as the nurturers of the Ibo people, the caretakers of the yam crops and the mothers and educators of the Ibo children.
Keywords: femininity, patriarchal society, gender stratification, behavioral custom, earth goddess, nurturers.
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart portrays Africa, particularly the
Ibo society, right before the arrival of the white man. Things Fall Apart analyzes the destruction of African culture by the appearance of the white man in terms of the destruction of the bonds between individuals and their society.
Achebe, who teaches the reader a great deal about Ibo society and translates
Ibo myth and proverbs, also explains the role of women in pre -colonial Africa.
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In Things Fall Apart , masculine and feminine social identity and language patterns reflect a distinctly negative social at titude towards feminity, and associated of women and weakness. This novel is also a testimony to the social attitudes towards gender. By emphasizing the weakness of feminity and benefits of masculine behaviours, the Igbo people emphasize the gender stratification of their culture, ensure the continuation of patriarchy. It can be traced if the reader follows the trials and tribulations of Okonkwo, a tragic hero whose tragic flaw includes the fact that "his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness." (9) For Okonkwo, his father Unoka embodied the epitome of failure and weakness. Okonkwo was taunted as a child by other children when they called Unoka agbala. Agbala could either mean a man who had taken no title or "woman." Okonkwo hated anything weak or frail, and his descriptions of his tribe and the members of his family show that in Ibo society anything strong was likened to man and anything weak to woman. Because Nwoye, his son by his first wife, reminds Okonkwo of his father Unoka whom he regards as woman-like. After hearing of Nwoye's conversion to the Christianity, Okonkwo ponders how he, who is called "a flaming fire” could “have begotten a son like Nwoye, degenerate and effeminate?" (108) On the other hand, he wishes his daughter Ezinma “were a boy" (122), and he thinks that “she should have been a boy” (44). He favored her the most out of all of his children, yet "if Ezinma had been a boy [he] would have been happier." (46) After killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo, who cannot understand why he is so distraught, asks himself, "When did you become a shivering old woman?" (45) When his fellows look as if they were not going to fight against the intruding missionaries, Okonkwo remembers the
"days when men were men." (141)
In his On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism ,
Jonathan Culler (1982) addresses these issues and forms several interesting conclusions. What does it mean to read as a woman? Culler's answer is brief and relatively problematic: "to read as a woman is to av oid reading as a man, to identify the specific defenses and distortions of male readings and provide
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The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Purwarno. correctives".
http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v5/v5i2a2.htm - en1 Though Culler fails to outline these defenses and distortions, he does p rovide some fundamental guidelines for such a reading. Accordingly, to read as a woman requires that one approach a work from a feminist vantage and therefore, not regard the work from the purview of patriarchy. Consequently, in order to read Chinua
Achebe's 1969 literary masterpiece, Things Fall Apart , as a woman, one must query readings which suggest that Okonkwo is the only major figure in the novel, and alternately analyze the motivations of principal female characters who are thoroughly developed within the work. ( Linda Strong-Leek : http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v5/v5i2a2.htm
)
In the 19 th
century, in Nigeria, women were socialized to fill specific roles in their society. However, it is important to note that these women, while assigned to different social strata, did not necessarily view themselves as victimized or downtrodden. Women’s roles in pre-colonial Nigerian society were often complementary to those of men. Nigeria, home to the Igbo people, is made up primarily of patriarchal societies. Igbo society shows prominent male dominance. In Igbo society, anything strong is likened to men and anything weak to women. Husband is the head of the family. Bigamy is allowed because the measure of man’s success is mainly based upon the number of wives he has, the size of his barn, and the title he has taken.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is one of the novels, which exposes the roles of women. In this novel, masculine and feminine social identity and language patterns reflect a distinctly negative social attitude towards femininity and an association of women and weakness. This novel is also a testimony to the social attitudes towards gender. By emphasizing the weakness of femininity and the benefits of masculine behaviour the Igbo people emphasize the gender stratification of their culture, ensure the continuation of patriarchy.
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Since this work is a feminist analysis so that this study focuses on the roles of the female characters in the novel. The writer analyzes the female characters according to their self-perceptions, as well as societal awareness of them as women, wives, mothers and daughters. Exploring t he relationships between these women reveals not only alliances between mothers and their offspring, but also alliances between comrades in arms. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power, and this characterization is true to some extent. http://ads.associatedcontent.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a14de4a9&cb=1575783584 Howe ver, this characterization of Ibo women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once the reader uncovers the diverse roles of the
Ibo women throughout the novel.
In keeping with the Ibo view of female nature, the tribe allowed wife beating. The novel describes two instances when Okonkwo beats his third wife, when she did not come home to make his meal. He beat her severely and was punished but only because he beat her during the Week of Peace.
And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace.
(Achebe, 2000: 21)
Then he also beat his second wife when she cut off some leaves of
Okonkow’ss banana tree in order to wrap some food to celebrate the Feast of the New Yam, and then referred to him as one whose "guns that never shot."
When a severe case of wife beating comes before th e egwugwu, he found in favor of the wife, but at the end of the trial a man wonder s "why such a trifle should come before the egwugwu." (66)
2.1 The Roles of Women in Their Family
Family is a group of people who create a set of relationship to ensure the life of people who love each other and give affection to create welfare.
Family is people related marriage, blood or emotional commitment who usually help each other with respect to subsistence and emotional.
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The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Purwarno.
Woman is usually a person who has great roles in family because the harmony of a household is mostly determined by women. If a housewife is good, her household will be good, and if a housewife is not good, her household will be broken apart.
In Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart, we find some roles of women, i.e. as the primary educators for their children, as the caretakers of their children, and as the assistants of their husbands in farming.
2.1.1 As the Primary Educators
Woman is usually the closest person to her children. As a mothe r, she knows much about the growth of her children. Therefore, if a child is successful or unsuccessful in life, the first question thrown will be “who his/her mother is?”.
In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , women also show their important role as the primary educators for their children. They usually educate their children through the ritual of story telling and showing good manner as well as behavior to their children. They educate and socialize the children, inspire their curiosity to the social values, relationships and the human conditions. The stories the women tell also help the children develop their artistic consciousness, in addition to entertain them. Okonkwo’s wives also tell about some stories to their children in order to entertain and give them some valuable lessons. They join together when they hear a folk story told by their mother. The narrator describes:
Low voices, broken now and again by singing, reached Okonkwo from his wives’ huts as each woman and her children told folk stories. Ekwefi and her daughter, Ezinma, sat on a mat on the floor. It was
Ekwefi’s turn to tell a story”. (Achebe, 2000: 67)
The quotation above shows that Ekwefi tells a story to Okonkwo’s children. Ekwefi tells the story not only to entertain them abut also to give them some moral values that they can apply in their daily life. It is through storytelling that the children learn important lessons about the human
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JULISA, Volume 9 Number 1, April 2009, Page 1 – 13. condition, are taught the Ibo creation myths, such as the birds and the tortoise story, and master the art of communicating by retelling the stories themselves.
As stated in the novel, "Among Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten" (5). The Ibo women are playing a significant role in the facilitation of this learning, which is vital to their children's ability to function within the Ibo culture.
2.1.2 As Caretakers of Their Children
In Igbo culture, it is practically a disgrace to be borne as a female. The attitude is apparent in considering the emphasis placed on women to bear sons in order to carry the honour of the family. When a woman has given birth to her third son in succession, her husband slaughters a goat for her, and it has been the custom in the society. Woman is honoured if she could bear strong sons to carry on a great famiy’s name and honour. It means that in
Things Fall
Apart , women are viewed mainly as child bearers and help mates for their husbands. Due to the phallocentric notion that women must produce many hardy, male progenies to be valued within their cultural milieu, Ekwefi is considered a cursed woman because after ten live births, only one child, a daughter named Ezinma, survives.
Okonkwo’s first wife has already had three sons, all strong and healthy. When she gave birth to her third son in succession, Okonkwo slaughtered a goat for her, as the custom. This condition is diverse in the case of Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second wife, who has given birth to ten children but nine of them have died in infancy, usually before the age of three. Ekwefi, who is actually a well of knowledge, love, and fierce independence, has endured much heartache and stigmatism. However, instead of continuing to lament her adversity, Ekwefi devotes her time and energy to the one chi ld who does live, and finds solace in her relationship with her only daughter, Ezinma.
Although ailing she seems determined to live. Ekwefi believes deep inside her that
Ezinma has come to stay. She believes because it is that faith alone that gives her own life and kind of meaning. She is determined to nurse her child to
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The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Purwarno. health, and she puts all her being into it. Her love to Ezinma can be seen when
Ezinma, late one night, is brought by Priestess, Chielo, the powerful Oracle of
Umuofia to a cave for a spiritual encounter with the earth goddess. Terrified as well as feared harm might come to her daughter; Ekwefi follows the Oracle at a distance.
Ekwefi broke into a run as though to stop them. As she stood gazing at the circular darkness which ha d swallowed them, tears gushed from her eyes, and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. She would die with her. (Achebe,
2000: 76)
The quotation above shows that Ekwefi loves her daughter so fiercely that she is even ready to challenge gods. She would do anything to keep her child surviving. She regards her child as part of herself. She feels that Ezinma is her life and soul.
Ezinma did not call her mother Nne like all childre n.
She called her by her name, Ekwefi, as her father and other grown-up people did. The relationship between them was not only that of mother and child. There was something in it like the companionship of equals, which was strengthened by such little conspiracies as eating eggs in the bedroom (Achebe, 2000: 54)
The relationship between Ekwefi and Ezinma is more than that between a mother and a child. It is like the relationship between two true friends. Ekwefi devotes her time and energy to Ezinma as s he is the one child who does live. She is the only child and the center of Ezinma. Ezinma calls her mother by her name, signifying the development of an autonomous, effectual being. Ezinma and Ekwefi share a bond that is unlike most other parental ties in the novel: they are virtually equals. Their affiliation is based on mutual love, respect, and understanding. They share secret moments, such as eating eggs in the confines of her bedroom (eggs are considered a delicacy) .
Thus, this maternal connection becomes a caveat for Okonkwo and traditional society because he cannot control the depths of love and the shared
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JULISA, Volume 9 Number 1, April 2009, Page 1 – 13. enthusiasm between mother and daughter. This is most evident when, for example, Okonkwo forbids Ekwefi to leave her hut after Ezinma is carrie d off by the chief priestess. Ekwefi ignores her husband and risks a flogging to follow Chielo and her daughter throughout the night, until she is certain that her daughter will return home safely. When Okonkwo asks, "Where are you going?" Ekwefi boldly asserts that she is following Chielo. But instead of attempting to detain her, Okonkwo joins the journey, following from a safe distance, also to ensure the safety of his beloved child.
2.1.3 As the Assistant in Farming
The division between male and female even goes beyond individual persons in Igbo society, and it applies to both physical and moral acts. Women are reserved only for some certain light works, while men performs other more hard works. Women have household and farming duties. There is no concept of full time housewife. Each woman has responsibilities ranging from children and agricultural activities.
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.
(Achebe, 2000: 16)
Although women’s contribution is less significant overall to the status of the group, women have an important jog in growing the crops that constitute the supplement for the family’s income. Okonkwo’s wives and children also help him in farming. Although they are not so strong as Okonkwo, they try to lighten Okonkwo’s work. They always help one another. Okonkwo’s three wives live in harmony. They do all works together so that all works can be done well and faster. Though they cannot do the work as well as Okonkwo does, they attempt to do their best.
Ekwefi rose early in the following morning and went to her farm with her daughter. Ezinma, and Ojiugo’s daughter, Obiageli, to harvest cassava tubers. Each of them carried a long cane basket, a matchet for cutting
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The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Purwarno. down the soft cassava stem, and a little hoe for digging out the tuber. (Achebe, 2000: 116)
The quotation above shows that women also help their husband and father in farming. They perform lighter job. It is pertinent to the condition of women in Igbo society, who are regarded weaker and less capable in work than men. Women may grow some women’s crops which are regarded can be grown more easily, such as corn, watermelon, beans, and cassava.
In addition to these notable examples of the power of women, we observe women performing various roles sprinkled throughout the novel. We are told that it is "the women [who] weeded the farm three times at definite periods in the life of the yams, neither early or late" (33). Thi s is an extremely important duty, considering that if this task is not carried out correctly, the yam crops will fail.
2.2
The Roles of Women in Society
Society is a group of humans that form a semi-closed system, in which most interaction are with other people belonging to the group. It is a network of relationship between people. The Igbo people’s patriarchal society has a strict system of behavioral custom according to gender. This custom strongly restricts the freedom of the women and help to reinforce generation after generation the notion that Igbo men are superior to the women of their tribe.
In Igbo people, the condition of weakness is strongly associated with the state of being female, but women are socialized to fill specific roles in their society.
2.2.1 As the Goddess
Religion also plays important roles in gender stratification of Igbo people. Female gods are emphasized as fertile and social caretakers, reinforcing the social roles designated by society. Religion is also used to prevent women from overstepping the social order by inspiring fear of retribution from spiritual powers of disobedience.
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JULISA, Volume 9 Number 1, April 2009, Page 1 – 13.
An excellent example of powerful women in the Ibo village is found in the role they play in the Ibo religion. The women routinely perform the role of priestess. The narrator recalls that during Okonkwo's boyhood :
The priestess in those days was a woman called
Chika. She was full of the power of her god, and she was greatly feared. (Achebe, 2000: 12)
The present priestess is Chielo, "the p riestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the hill and the Caves" (49). In ordinary life, Chielo is a widow with two children. Anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believe that she is the same person who prophesies when the spirit of Agbala is upon h er. She can do something that is impossible to be dene by a woman.
How a woman could carry a child of that size so easily and for so long was miracle. But Ekwefi was not thinking about that. Chielo was not a woman that night. (Achebe, 2000: 75)
Then, there is an episode during which Chielo has come for Okonkwo and Ekwefi's daughter Ezinma. We are told:
Okonkwo pleaded with her to come back in the morning because Ezinma was now asleep. But
Chielo ignored what he was trying to say and went on shouting that Agbala wanted to see his daughter .
. . The priestess suddenly screamed. ‘Beware,
Okonkwo!' she warned" (Achebe, 2000: 71)
There is no other point in the novel in which we see Okonkwo "plead" with anyone, male or female, for any reason. We witness a wom an not only ordering Okonkwo to give her his daughter, but threatening him as well. The fact that Okonkwo allows this is evidence of the priestess's power. The ability of a woman to occupy the role of a priestess, a spiritual leader, reveals a clear degree of reverence for women being present in Ibo society.
Another example of such reverence for women is unveiled in the representation of the priest of the earth goddess, Ani. Ani is described as:
…the source of all fertility. Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She was
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The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Purwarno. the ultimate judge of morality and conduct. And what was more, she was in close communion http://ads.associatedcontent.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a14de
4a9&cb=1161742007 with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to earth. (Achebe,
2000: 26)
It seems illogical that a society that views its female members as inferior beings would represent their most p owerful deity as being a woman.
However, it happens in Igbo society, and in order to honour the earth goddess, the Feast of the New Yams is held before the harvest begins.
Ezeani's power is further illustrated through her role in the yam harvest.
It is important that all the members of the clan observe the Week of Peace prior to the harvest in order, "to honor [their] great goddess of the earth without whose blessing [their] crops will not grow" ( 22). For a female spirit to possess such an important role in the success of the yam crops is indicative of the actual deep-rooted power of women. When Okonkwo breaks the Week of
Peace by beating his third wife, Ojiugo, Ezeani, the earth goddess, proclaims:
‘The evil you have one can ruin the whole clan. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase, and we shall all perish.’
(Achebe, 2000: 22).
The ideas of women's power being attached to nature is also found in
Chapter fourteen, when Okonkwo returns to his mother's clan after being exiled from the Ibo village. Uchendu, reproaching Okonkwo for his sorrow about having to come to live with his mother's clan, explains:
It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme. (Achebe, 2000: 94-95).
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Uchenda's words reveal that women are viewed as the foundation of the clan and its people. They are the constant that can be relied upon; they are the nurturers and caretakers of the people. These are not insignificant, powerless roles.
Women are also regarded as the sacred people in Igbo society as
Egwugwu’s house can only be painted and drawn by chosen women. Egwugwu is the masked spirit, representing the ancestral spirit of the village . Egwugwu’s house is a sacred place for the clan to call the soul of the dead man; therefore, the house of Egwugwu is made specially and can only be drawn by chosen women at regular intervals. Women “scrubbed and painted the outside walls under the supervision of men” (63). Although the women never see the inside of Egwugwu’s house, they have an important rule as the drawers of the sacred house.
At first glance, the role of women in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall
Apart may appear to be unfairly limited in terms of their authority and power.
Upon delving beneath this deceiving surface, one can see that the women of the clan hold some very powerful positions: spiritually as the priestess and the sacred women, symbolically as the earth goddess, and literally as the nurturers of the Ibo people, the helpers of husbands in farming as well as the caretakers of yam crops, and the mothers and educators of the Ibo children .
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