Gender Roles In The Igbo Culture

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for the Europeans and the Igbo during the early encounters with one another in the 1800’s. The industrialized culture of Europe became the dominant culture over the agricultural based society. Europe being industrialized and having a long term desire to continued their presence in the lower Niger made it almost impossible for the Igbo to resist the clash of culture. After the clash, the reflection of the Igbo culture became foreign, the laws and gender balance that once encompassed this society have diminished because of internal and external forces. Authors Chinua Achebe of Things Fall Apart and Chimamanda Adichie of “The Headstrong Historian: Three generations of Nigerians” understand
A child may belong to a father, but “Mothers [ARE] Supreme” is an important quote that must be analyzed further(133). A child does belong to the father, but “when a father beats his child, the child seeks sympathy in his mother’s hut” (133). Similarly Okonkwo sought refuge in his mother’s land, because the mother is the protector. The balance between the parenting is necessary to ensure that the child have equal joy and sorrow in his life, with “feminine” and “masculine” attributes. In addition, in Things Fall Apart, the husband’s and wife’s roles also enriched one another. During Nwakibie’s wine ceremony, readers witness a hint of marriage balance. Nwakibie was a high-titled man that also shared his titles with his first wife, Anasi. Anasi was an helping hand to her husband’s riches, but the role of the first wife goes undetected by most. The first wife helps the husband start his wealth by bearing him his first sons or daughters and tenuring the crops that feed their family. Because of the importance of the first wife, they wears anklets around their ankles and are the first to drink before other wives
In Things Fall Apart, the first encounter with the Europeans was a violent one. The white man came alone and spoke a tongue that was unfamiliar to the Abame people. Before the people reacted they listening carefully to the warning from the oracles, “more will come and break the clan and spread destruction among them” (138). The Abame people killed the man and shortly afterward more white people came and opened fire at the highly populated market- “Abame was no more” (139). The story of Abame had echoed to surrounding villages and when the next encounters came with the whites, they approached the situation differently; pacification. This pacification behavior however, was out of character for Okonkwo's clan, “What had happened to our people?” Why have they lost the power to fight?” (175). The clan was unwilling to fight because it was no longer an united force, but a force of selfish individuals; “our own sons have joined the ranks of the strangers” (176). Okonkwo, then decided to challenge the “white man’s” law and religion by mistakenly thinking that once he killed an European his clan would snap out of this pacification mind control. Netherless, Okonkwo was alone, his clan did not have his back and pacification had won out, “he knew Umuofia would not go to war, they broken into tumult instead of action”