The question of civilization is central to the conflict between the Igbo and the British. The idea that the British were responsible for "civilizing" and converting the natives on other continents because they were “savages” (according to the colonizers). Since Igbo societies were structured and functioned differently from societies in Europe, they were deemed as uncivilized. The definition of the civilized is a place or a group of people that have social, cultural, and moral development in their society. By the definition of civilized, the Igbo people are civilized because they have evidence of social, cultural, and moral development in their specific society.
Language, a social development, is one trait that is developed in a society’s
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For example, one way gender roles rules the Igbo culture is shown in this quote, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper” (Page 16). This shows that, in the Igbo culture, men are the dominant sex and they rule over their families. Women are appointed to submissive and unresisting position, where they often live in fear of their husbands. However, Okonkwo’s quick temper with his family is never portrayed as commentable, it is clear that he unquestionably has the right to be aggressive and hostile at home. This also shows moral development because it explains how the Igbo culture allows for men to treat women. Another example can be shown by the Ibo’s use of the hierarchical system, “He could neither marry nor be married by the free-born. He was in fact an outcast...Wherever he went he carried with him the mark of his forbidden caste – long, tangled and dirty hair. A razor was taboo to him. An osu could not attend an assembly of the free-born, and they, in turn, could not shelter under his roof. He could not take any of the four titles of the clan, and when he died he was buried by his kind in the Evil Forest” (Page 146). This shows that the Igbo culture has clear hierarchal system between the titles/successful men of the clan and the titleless/unsuccessful men of the clan. This shows the moral development of the Igbo culture because it defines how the higher class treats and acts toward the lower
Most of the Igbo people try to have the most domains that they can get so they will beat people to show their domains to the other that live in the Igbo society.“Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of at god”(Achebe,1994,p.30). Okonkwo beats his wife to show that he is the dominants between his other wives and the others of the tribe. But the point of the beating that Okonkwo did was to enforce his hierarchy and importance in his society and to the elder’s.Next the village in the Igbo society thing that masculinity is important, but that leads to unfairness in the government system.
Religion and the Igbo People The Igbo are a profoundly religious people who believe in a benevolent creator, usually known as Chukwu, who created the visible universe (uwa). Opposing this force for good is agbara, meaning spirit or supernatural being. In some situations people are referred to as agbara in describing an almost impossible feat performed by them. In a common phrase the igbo people will say Bekee wu agbara.
Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who was “degenerate and effeminate” (133). Okonkwo thought that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" (45).
In the book "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe the treatment of three main different types of women in the Igbo tribe is shown. The wife's treatment in the book is best represented by the author Chinua Achebe with this quote "And when [Ojiugo] returned, he beat her very heavily." (Achebe 29). The daughters are shone in the book to be treated mostly the same as the sons. Last, but not least, the priests are treated better than any other woman because of their closeness to the gods.
...could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. He would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw in him.” (Achebe 30). Okonkwo says, “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands.” (Achebe 30). This clearly shows the prevailing inequality between the genders in the Ibo community.
by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo depicts his masculinity in many different ways, even if it hurts the people closest to him. He feels it is necessary to display his manliness so he does not end up like his father Unoka. “He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father” (4). Okonkwo correlates virility with aggression and feels the only emotion he should show is anger, leaving him no way to cope with the death of his culture.
In the book women are being treated poorly. Okonkwo has three wives in which he expects for them to follow his orders or there would be consequences. Women do not get enough credit in the Igbo culture, they do so much stuff but yet receive so little credit for their work. They cook, clean the house and take care of their kids. They get disrespected by their own husbands. For example, when Okonkwo hit his youngest wife because she left the hut without making
To start with, the advantages of the Igbo social structure included a balanced society, equality, distribution of labor, a surplus of food, separate huts, a collective society, and some form of government. A centralized society was achieved through the Igbo social structure. This structure served the purpose to impose the same religion upon the people to enforce a common belief. By organizing the society, the people could follow the idea of “unity” to prevent any conflicts or disagreements within the community. Along with a unified society, some kind of equal status came as a result of the social structure that has been established within the clan. Although the social hierarchy did not promote equal status between men and women, it did, to some extent, promote equality within the division of labor among the people. It relieved the pressure of stress, which may have been bestowed up...
Before the arrival of the Europeans, Achebe did a excellent job portraying how the life of Igbo was before they were forced to oppose their own culture. To support this theme, Achebe included detailed descriptions of social rituals within each family, the justice system, religious practices and consequences, preparation and indulgence of food, the marriage process and the distributing of power within the men. Achebe shows how every man has an opportunity to prove himself worthy to achieve a title on the highest level, based merely on his own efforts. One may argue that the novel was written with the main focus on the study of Okonkwo’s character and how he deteriorates, but without the theme that define the Igbo culture itself, we would never know the universe qualities of the society that shaped Okonkwo’s life. The lives of the Igbo people was no different to the actual lives of the Ibos people back in the early days of Africa. Just like in Things Fall Apart, in actual African tribes there was never a ruler. “Very interesting thing about these villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the population. Decisions are made by including almost everyone in the village” (AfricaGuide). Using the theme, Achebe educated readers on by mirroring real African life in her
In the novel, Things Fall Apart, the effects of colonialism were extremely evident in the Igbo society. As the white Englanders moved into the native's land, their cultural values changed. Examples of these changes were evident in all aspects of the Igbo people's lives, in their religion, family life, children, and the dead. Many of the Igboians were upset by the colonialism of their society, but in the end they were completely incapable of doing anything to reverse the changes that had already taken place in their society.
There are constant struggles between gender, identity, commodification, and class. Among the men and women in many African tribes that still exist today, there are divergences, which will always remain intact because of the culture and the way in which they are taught to treat each other. Chinua Achebe wrote the novel, Things Fall Apart, which is a great piece of African literature that deals with the Igbo culture, history, and the taking over of African lands by British colonization. The ongoing gender conflict is a prominent theme in Things Fall Apart presenting the clash between men and women of the African Igbo society. Throughout history, from the beginning of time to today, women have frequently been viewed as inferior, men’s possessions whose sole purpose was to satisfy the men’s needs. Maybe it's because men are physically stronger than women and have always had the ability to control them that way. In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo women were perceived as being weak. They received little or no respect in the Igbo society and were harshly abused. The recurring theme of gender conflicts helps drive the novel Things Fall Apart by showing how important women are to the men, yet they do not receive the treatment they deserve.
The novel Things fall apart depicts the cultural battle between the Igbo and the British: one was trying to keep its tradition, and one wanted to change those traditions by replacing them with a new religion. Finally, the British won because of they could figure out the falsehood in the indigenous people’s degenerate customs and attack it. Nothing in this world is perfect, and it is hard for a culture to be perfect. However, if a culture wants to develop and thrive, it should respect the value of its entire people. That was the reason why the Igbo culture was destroyed, because of its conservativeness, gender differentiation and superstitiously killing of the innocent.
Sometimes, there is a misconception of the phrase, gender roles. Society has always seen a gap between men and women and their individual roles, viewing that men have always been more dominant. This belief is even seen throughout literature, take Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart for instance. As played through the novel, it can be seen that the Igbo culture has aimed men as the dominant sex in society. Okonkwo, the protagonist, is seen as the man of the house, he is in control of his wives and his children. Women are the silent ones, they are the outcast of society, “It was clear from the way the crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. Women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders” (Achebe 87). In the Igbo tradition, women have no say in their world. They are excluded from judicial hearings like such. Only men have the right to speak, to converse issues, even though women might have important issues themselves. Quotes like these provide more information for my thesis, it shows that even in cultures around the world, the gender gap theory is true. T...
]k Adegbite O. came to a similar conclusion about Okonkwo’s views on masculinity and femininity when he makes the remark in his essay that, “Okonkwo is of the opinion that traditional men have lost their place in society and cannot be termed ‘worthy’ anymore as Western culture has softened their resolve; men have been turned to weaklings by colonisation and the white man’s religion” (Tobalase, “Masculinity and Cultural Conflict in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”).
First, the book introduces the many inequalities between men and women. In the novel, Achebe tells of Okonkwo beating his wives and it still being socially acceptable. A woman is never allowed to fight back or stand up for herself because she is the equivalent of a servant to a master. Achebe also mentions, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man” (Achebe 53). This excerpt from the novel exemplifies the controlling and dominance the men have over women in this Nigerian culture. Unfortunately, this inequality, although not completely tolerated, still exists today. It is proven that every woman has or will experience discrimination from men in their life (Crawford). While the abuse of women is not generally accepte...