Igbo Culture

In Things Fall Apart, Chinua shows us what it is like in Igbo culture in Nigeria. In the culture of the Umuofia women and men each have different roles in the village such as the type of work they do ,how they are supposed to behave and what place they have in the society. It is up for the people higher on the society to decide the rules and to enforce the law, such as village elders or men with titles. In this story Chinua narrates Okonkwo a hyper-masculine man living with perpetual anger and his perspective of himself and the members of the tribe. Okonkwo is one of the only few men who have many titles and is wealthy According to the book misfortune comes after him after he kills his adopted son. He later is banned from the clan after accidently
“ They {women} scrubbed and painted the walls under the supervision of men.” pg 89. Most of the gender roles focus on women to please the men. Sometimes the men beat their women with an exception on the Week of Peace. Okonkwo gets angry most of the time with his son and wives but always has a soft side for people that have power or are more like him. Sometimes he calls weak men “agabala” or woman when he wants to insult them. Some Igbo men mistreat their women because they are considered inferior. Sometimes women are considered more like pieces of property. The more wives you had the more powerful and rich you are. More women means and extra hand on the crops . This could mean the husband could be even more richer if he has a healthy crops. “Okeye}...was not a failure like Unoka. he had a large barn and had 3 wives . And now was going to take the Idemili title the third highest in the land.” pg 6 There are 3 things that define a man in Umuofia , how many houses , tiles and wives you have. Men do not always focus on belittling women because they do care for them and also have very important roles of their own. Women provide the extra hand in working with crops and also taking care of the
The men in the Igbo society must work in the farms in order to support his family. Some crops are meant for different types of genders. For instance men tend to the yam crops because they are the staple food for the village.”Yam, the king of crops, was a very exacting king. For three or four moons it demanded hard work and constant attention from cock-crow …” pg 23. Yams require a good deal of attention to grow successfully. They are the staple food and is such a burden that women aren't allowed to grow them.Sometimes men who fight in wars are considered more brave and may earn more titles.Since men were subject to such potential in the tribe they have to earn the most power they can in the tribe so they could support the generation. The women are not allowed to earn titles. The Igbo revolve around a government not of the greed to obtain the most power but to earn the titles given to help the village. Okonkwo is well known warrior and very proud of the titles he earned. “His fame rested on solid personal achievements."pg 3 The value of what a man can earn in the Umuofia tribe consists of hierarchy of skill and strength not of wealth and power. Okonkwo lived his life trying to do the opposite of what his father did. Okonkwo was powerful and persistent enough to build his own house and fight for the clan in order to earn titles. Unfortunately the titles earned by the Igbo were ignored during the colonization of the Europeans.