|
|
LITR / CRCL 5734: Colonial &
Postcolonial Literature Jill
Petersen Nigerian
Women and Colonialism: Comparisons Between Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
and Historical Accounts. The
World is big. Some people are unable to comprehend that simple fact. They want
the world on their own terms, its peoples just like them and their friends, its
places like the manicured little patch on which they live. But it is a foolish
and blind wish. Diversity is not an abnormality but the very reality of our
planet. The human world manifests the same reality and will not seek our
permission to celebrate itself in the magnificence of its endless varieties.
Civility is a sensible attribute in this kind of world we have; narrowness
of heart and mind is not. --Chinua
Achebe, Bates College Commencement Address, May 27, 1996. Chinua
Achebe is arguably the best known African writer of the twentieth century. And
more than any other writer, he has shaped the world’s idea of what African
literature is. As Rose Mezu states, “Things
Fall Apart is significant because it began the vogue of African novels of
cultural contact and conflict” (Mezu 1). This is a highly influential position
for a single writer. So what was Achebe’s purpose in writing his novels? What
does he hope to accomplish? According to Cora Agatucci’s summary of Achebe’s
essay, “The Novelist as Teacher,” she writes, “ Achebe describes a dual
mission to educate both African and European readers, to reinstate a sense of
pride in African cultures and ‘to help my society regain belief in itself and
put away the complexes of years of denigration and self-abasement’” (Agatucci).
So Achebe’s purpose for writing is to overcome the stereotypes of Western
readers that Africans are primitive savages with no sense of culture or history,
and to combat the internalization of these stereotypes by his fellow countrymen.
So where does Achebe’s purpose for writing his novels leave women and are the
gender roles as described in Things Fall
Apart culturally accurate? Before this question can be accurately be
answered; gender roles both in history and in Achebe’s novel must be
addressed. Specifically, what roles did men and women play in society in all
three stages of Nigeria’s more recent history? In
the last 200 years of Nigeria’s history, there have been basically three
distinct phases in government: pre-colonial rule overall by Muslims (there were
some tribes unaffected by this rule), colonial rule by the British, and
post-colonial independence from Britain. In the 1800’s up to the early
1900’s Muslims controlled much of Nigeria. The British came to Nigeria late in
their quest for colonization, however, control of the country was given over
fairly easily and with little resistance. After 1960, Nigeria became a
democratic nation. Through all these changes, women have had little to no say in
their own treatment let alone their fates. What
are the gender roles in Pre-Colonial Nigeria? Historically,
the importance of women in Pre-Colonial Nigeria varied greatly from tribe to
tribe but the common thread: their political strength lies in their relations to
important men. Women had some power politically but only indirectly through
their husbands, fathers, brother and sons. Maria Rojas writes, “A woman’s
position varied according to the (1) kinship structure of the tribe and (2) role
of women within the economic structure of the society” (Rojas, Pre-Colonial).
As to the role of women in the economic structure of the tribe, Dr. Austin
Ogunsuyi states: Women
were producers: they grew most of the family food, tended animals, and made
tools and other articles used by the family. They cooked, helped construct
residences and other buildings, hauled wood, and so on ... Women were also
reproducers in societies where children were wealth, old age security and the
guarantors that one would be venerated as an ancestor after death and not
forgotten. (Ogunsuyi) Women
could earn money by selling their extra food in the marketplace and demonstrated
their ability to earn money and run a business. However, power was still
reserved for the men except in cases where women served as priestesses in
goddess-controlled religions, this gave women a chance to “control major
religion-political functions through societies dedicated to the goddess” (Ogunsuyi).
There
are elaborate societal rules governing the acquisition to “titles” in Igbo
culture and government. These rules pertain to males only; women are not
eligible to hold titles or official roles in the governing of the tribe.
Traditionally, the oldest male of the oldest surviving generation held the
position of head of the tribe. Other free or Diala men could buy titles thus
ensuring their position in the tribal leadership. Women gained indirect power
through a more important husband. Women also had a hierarchy: the first wife
received more respect than the second who was higher in the chain than the third
wife of the common husband, all of whom only influenced the larger tribe through
the husband. Achebe’s
version of Igbo society as described in his novel Things
Fall Apart is culturally accurate as it relates to the status of men as
either slave, Osu, or free, Diala. The free men such as Okonkwo could purchase
titles and standing in the tribe regardless of the status of his ancestors. The
slaves, on the other hand, were born slaves and could do nothing to change their
situation; they were without rights just as their fathers and mothers before
them. Thus the status of free men in the Igbo society was not tied to the status
of their fathers; however, the women are totally dependent on the men in their
families to bring them status and power. If a woman’s father is without titles
then she may not be able to find a good husband and bring a high bride-price.
Also, the first wife has more status outside the family than the second wife.
For example, Nwoye’s mother is more powerful than Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second
wife, even though Okonkwo seems to favor her above his first wife because of the
daughter she bore him. Another example of the importance of the first wife above
the other wives is described by June Chun when she writes: Furthermore,
the first wife of a man in the Ibo (Igbo) society is paid some respect. This
difference is illustrated by the palm wine ceremony at Nwakibie’s obi. Anasi,
Nwakibie’s first wife, had not yet arrived and the other wives could not dink
before her. (Chun) Thus
the status of wives depends on both their husbands and the order in which they
married him. Women
in Achebe’s novel are seen as the property of the men in the tribe. They first
belong to their fathers who “sell” them for a bride-price to their husbands
who then own them. As Rose Mezu writes: The
world in Things Fall Apart is one in
which patriarchy intrudes oppressively into every sphere of existence. It is an
androcentric world where the man is everything and the woman is nothing. In
domestic terms, women are quantified as part of men’s acquisitions. As wives,
women come in multiple numbers, sandwiched between yam barns and titles. These
three -- wives, yam barns, social titles -- are the highest accolades for the
successful farmer, warrior, and man of worth. These determine a man’s social
status, as illustrated by Nwakibie who has three huge barns, nine wives and
thirty children, and the highest but one title which a man can take in the clan.
(Mezu 2) As
illustrated by Mezu, women are simply property to advance the status of the men
by whom they are owned. This explains the blase attitude toward beating wives
that the men have. If the women are simply viewed as property or less human, it
becomes easier for the men to beat them without consequences. This can be seen
in the account of Okonkwo beating his youngest wife, Ojiugo, for not bringing
him his food (29). Okonkwo is punished not for beating his wife but for
offending the gods during the week of peace. Similarly, “when a severe case of
wife beating comes before the egwugwu, he [Okonkwo] found in favor of the wife,
but at the end of the trial a man wondered ’why such a trifle should come
before the egwugwu’ (Chun). Violence against women was viewed as a
“trifle” but violence against men is more serious and could lead to war.
Toward the beginning of the novel, when a woman from the tribe is killed by
another tribe, the price of her death is a young virgin to replace her and a
young boy, Ikemefuna, who would, three years later be killed as a sacrifice.
Nothing is said about the loss of the woman and revenge is not taken on the man
who killed her. There is no punishment for the man who killed her but the tribe
paid restitution to her husband, not as remorse for her death but as the price
of losing a good farm animal. Women
in Things Fall Apart are not totally
without official power. The Earth goddess who controls the land and harvest and
is as well the goddess of fertility is female and has a priestess who delivers
the goddess’s justice on the men of the village. The
only women respected in Umuofia are those like Chielo, the priestess of the
Oracle of the Hills and Caves, who is removed from the pale of normalcy. Clothed
in the mystic mantle of the divinity she serves, Chielo transforms from the
ordinary; she can reprimand Okonkwo and even scream curses at him . . . Yet if
Okonkwo is powerless before a goddess’s priestess, he can, at least control
his own women. So when Nwoye’s mother asks if Ikemefuna will be staying long
with them, Okonkwo bellows: “Do what you are told woman. When did you become
one of the ndichie [clan elders]?” (Mezu 4) What
is interesting about Chielo is that she is not only the priestess of Ani but,
also, married to a man of the tribe. Thus she is put in a position of power and
one of subjugation. The
only other position of women in the novel is one of comforter. When Okonkwo
commits a “female” murder, an accidental murder, he is exiled for seven
years to his mother’s tribe. His
[Okonkwo’s] uncle, Uchendu, noticing Okonkwo’s distress, eloquently explains
how Okonkwo should view his exile: “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.” A man has both joy and sorrow in his life and
when the bad times come his “mother” is always there to comfort him. Thus
comes the saying “Mother is Supreme.” (Chun) When
they are injured or sad, men run to their mother for comfort. Thus they identify
weakness and sorrow with their mothers. This can be seen in the insults that
they use on other men. Agbala is a term used to refer to either a man with no
title or a woman. In a tribal meeting Okonkwo gets angry with a man who takes a
position opposite of his; in his anger, he says, “This meeting is for men.”
(26) meaning that the man who opposed him, who had no titles was a woman. At
this point the entire meeting stopped as the other titled men forced Okonkwo to
apologize for the horrible insult. Throughout the novel, men are insulted and
goaded into action with insults similar to this. Anything womanly or feminine is
deemed to be lesser and therefore of less value. However,
it does seem that Achebe acknowledges the near-invisibility of women in his
novel. Mezu states: Describing
a communal ceremony, he [the narrator] confesses, “It was clear from the way
the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but
they looked on from the fringe like outsiders” (87). For centuries, African
women languished on the fringe of their universe -- neglected, exploited,
degenerated, and indeed made to feel like outsides. They were not invited to
stay when men were engaged in any discussion; they were not included in councils
of war; they did not form part of the masquerades representing the judiciary and
ancestral spirits. It
is as if Achebe realizes the lack of status and recourse of the women in
traditional Igbo society but in order to stay culturally true to the culture he
stays aware from giving women any status they might not have had traditionally. How
does Achebe’s portrayal of women in pre-colonial Nigerian society compare to
historical accounts? Achebe takes the traditional androcentric view of society
and women’s position within that society. Women float into the scene, deliver
Okonkwo’s food and rush back to their huts to care for their children and
gardens. “Achebe’s cultural universe is one in which women [are] to be seen
not heard, coming and going, with mounds of foofoo, pots of water, market
baskets, fetching kola, being scolded and beaten before they disappear behind
the huts of their compound” (Mezu 2). This fits with the male centered
historical view of the dominant gender. However, it does not fully address the
issues and roles that women filled during this period. What
changes were affected in gender roles during Colonial times? During
Colonial times, the differences in status and power between men and women were
further emphasized by the advantages offered to men by the colonizers that were
not offered to women. The British colonizers brought western ideals to the
colonized tribes. Along with these ideals came the opportunity for cash crops
and education. But these keys to entry into western society were available
primarily to men and not to women. The
commercialization of agriculture through the introduction of cash-crops altered
the customary gender division of labor in ways mostly disadvantageous to women.
Men were taught to grow new cash crops such as cocoa and coffee for export,
while women continued to grow food crops for the family and local consumption. .
. Schooling and the teaching of new skills were made available primarily to
males. All in all, although both men and women were exploited within the
colonial economy, men gained some access to important resources such as money,
skills, land, and education that were less available to women. (Ogunsuyi 4) The
division in power between men and women before colonization widens to a chasm
during colonization due to the educational and economic influences brought into
play by the British colonizers emphasis on dealings outside of the traditional
tribe. Ogunsuyi further writes, “Europeans imposed their own prejudices about
the proper authority of men over women by dealing with only male leaders” (Ogunsuyi
4). Not only were women inadvertently left out of the colonized tribes’ power
structure but “the colonial state passed legislation restricting women,
indirectly preventing them from performing their duties towards their
families” (Rojas). Achebe’s
novel ends before the colonial influences can change the gender dynamics in the
Igbo tribe. The tribe has not entered the education and cash-crop era of
colonization but the frustration of the men of being invaded and controlled by
white people. In a conversation between Okonkwo and his friend Obierika about
the encroaching “Ashy-Buttocks,” Obierika says, “It’s already too late .
. . Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. . . If we
should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy. There
are only two of them. But what of our own people who are following their way and
have been given power?” (176). The men of the tribe, lured by the power, have
joined with the colonizers and begun to accept the white man’s religion and
economic goals. Where does this leave the women? Achebe does not discuss the
effects of colonization on the women, only the effects on Okonkwo and the men of
the tribe. What
are the Post-Colonial roles of women in Nigeria? Women
have yet to close the gap created by the colonizers and years of Muslim rule
prior to colonization. “Despite women’s contributions to the struggle for
independence and equality for all, the new African states and social
institutions became highly Africanized replicas of their colonial
predecessors” (Ogunsuyi 5).Violence and oppression of women are commonplace in
Nigeria and the law allows men to beat their wives in order to punish them as
long as the beating does not cause serious and permanent harm to the woman.
There are no laws discriminating against women in the workplace. But there are
no laws against discrimination either. According to the U.S. Department of State
Human Rights Reports for 1999 “Women experience considerable discrimination as
well as physical abuse. There are no laws barring women from particular fields
of employment, but women often experience discrimination because the government
tolerates customary and religious practices that adversely affect them” (State
Department 23). While
women are currently fighting to control their own fates, there still remains the
so-called “traditional” belief that women should not be allowed any standing
that puts them on an equal plain with men. Now they face greater odds than they
did before colonialism fed men the belief that women should not be allowed any
economic or political power. Men believed this lie because they felt their
control slipping away due to the invasion of the colonizers and their superior
firepower. Is
Achebe successful in his goal for writing his novel? Achebe,
as discussed earlier wrote that he wishes to dispel the myth that Africans are
primitive and without culture. He wants to revive the traditions of the tribes
before colonization. Many men in Nigeria believe that their current treatment of
women is in alignment with tradition. This is not entirely correct, while women
were never given official political and economic power and control, they were
allowed some recourse in their position. They are allowed to sell the surplus
food they grow, which was on par with the men’s crops, and are allowed access
to the court or tribal justice system. Now, with the advent of cash-crops, women
are not allowed the same economic freedom that they once were allowed. While
Achebe’s novel does not address the hardships and viewpoints of the women, it
also does not completely advocate imprisoning women and abusing them. However,
many feminists feel he has done great harm to women and in his later novels
Achebe seeks to right the wrongs perpetuated in Things
Fall Apart. “In Anthills of the
Savannah (1987), speaking through his alter ego Ikem, a journalist and
writer, Achebe acknowledges that the malaise the African party is experiencing
results from excluding women from the scheme of things” (Mezu 5). Achebe
realizes that colonialism and the subsequent Nigerian government has mistreated
women and thereby hurt the very society that they wished to develop. Yet he
wishes to remind both the African and Western reader of the cultural identity
that existed prior to colonialism. Like
many other “postcolonial” writers from India, Africa, and other formerly
colonized nations of the world, Achebe attempts to construct an image of Africa
in a language that respects the national traditions of his native land while
recognizing the demands of a cosmopolitan, international audience to who Things
Fall Apart is, in part addressed. Achebe aims to reclaim his heritage and at the
same time indicate directions for constructive change. (Agatucci 2) Achebe
attempts to reacquaint the reader with historical cultural aspects of Nigeria
while pointing out needed changes. In this attempt he is somewhat successful in
his writing. It may be that his purpose is obscured but his need to present a
realistic and traditional viewpoint of an African male thus neglecting the
female perspective. Works
Cited Achebe,
Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: First Anchor Books Edition, 1994. Agatucci,
Cora. “On the Value & Functions of Literature and Story Telling.” Culture(s)
& Literature(s) of Africa Page. 3 July 2001. http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/
hum211/achebe2.htm Chun,
June. “The Role of Women in Things Fall
Apart.” African Postcolonial Literature in English in the Postcolonial
Web Page. 3 July 2001. http://landow.stg.brown.edu/
post/nigeria/women.html “Igbo
Government and Social Structure.” Nigeria Page. 3 July 2001. http://www.parent.
qub.ac.uk/en/imperial/nigeria/govt/htm Mezu,
Rose Ure. “Women in Achebe’s World.” Womanist Page. 3 July 2001. http://www.uga.edu/~womanist/1995/mezu.html “Nigeria.”
Encarta Encyclopedia. 3 July 2001. http://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?
mod=1&ti=761557915&page=2 “Nigeria.”
U.S. Department of State, Human rights Reports for 1999. 30 June 2001. http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/nigeria.html Ogunsuyi,
Austin. “Women in Africa.” African Cultures Page. 30 June 2001. http://africancultures.about.com/culture/african
cultures/library/weekly/ aa011401a.htm Rojas,
Maria. “Women in Colonial Nigeria.” African Postcolonial Literature in
English in the Postcolonial Web Page. 30 June 2001. http://landow.stg.brown.edu/
post/nigeria/colonwom.html -----
“Women in Pre-Colonial Nigeria.” African Postcolonial Literature in
English in the Postcolonial Web Page. 30 June 2001. http://landow.stg.brown.edu/
post/nigeria/precolwon.html |