DECLARATION

I, Jean Damascene NGENDAHAYO, hereby declare that this dissertation entitled The Impact of
women oppression on the societal destruction: a case study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart is my authentic work and has never been submitted anywhere else for any award in any
university or higher learning institution. However, where other people’s works have been used,
references have been provided.

Date: ………/…………/2014

Signature: ……………………..

Jean Damascene NGENDAHAYO

i
 APPROVAL

This is to certify that Jean Damascene Ngendahayo’s dissertation entitled: The Impact of
Women Oppression on the Societal Destruction: a Case Study of Chinua Achebe’s Things
Fall Apart has been under my supervision and has been submitted with my approval.

Signature…………………………

Dr. MUHORO Peter Mwangi

Date: ……. /........... /2014

ii
 DEDICATION

To my Almighty God,

To my beloved father, Moïse Rwarakabije,

And my beloved mother Laurence Nzaripfana,

Thanks for your prayers, support, motivation,

And everything you have done for me,

I cannot give as you have given to me.

To all my sisters and brothers,

To all my relatives who offered me their different support,

And my best girl friend, Berthe,

Thanks for your words of encouragement

To finish my dissertation and your love toward me;

You are one in a million.

Thanks all.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION .............................................................................................................................. i

APPROVAL .....................................................................................................................................ii

DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ vii

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................... viii

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................1

1.1. Introduction to the study ............................................................................................................1

1.2. Background to the study ............................................................................................................1

1.3. Statement of the problem ...........................................................................................................6

1.5. Definition of terms......................................................................................................................8

1.6. Purpose of the study ...................................................................................................................9

1.7. Objectives of the study ...............................................................................................................9

1.7.1. General objective .....................................................................................................................9

1.8. Research questions ................................................................................................................... 10

1.9. Significance of the Study .......................................................................................................... 10

CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................ 13

REVIEW OF LITERATURE ......................................................................................................... 13

2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 13

2.2. Ibo’s Society ............................................................................................................................. 13

2.3. Oppression ............................................................................................................................... 14

2.4. Women ..................................................................................................................................... 15

2.5. Women oppression ................................................................................................................... 16

2.6. Forms of women oppression ..................................................................................................... 18

2.6.1. Patriarchy ............................................................................................................................. 18

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2.6.2. The plight of women in Igbo society....................................................................................... 19

2.6.3. Gender-based discrimination................................................................................................. 21

2.6.4. Inequality .............................................................................................................................. 22

2.6.5. Violence against women ......................................................................................................... 22

2.7. Gender ..................................................................................................................................... 25

2.7.1. Gender difference in Igbo society ............................................................................................ 26

2.7.2. Gender sensitivity in traditional Igbo society according to Achebe ........................................ 27

2.7.3. Gender education .................................................................................................................. 28

2.7.4. Gendering the Economy ........................................................................................................ 30

CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................................ 36

3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 36

3.2. Research Design ....................................................................................................................... 36

3.3. Data sources ............................................................................................................................. 37

3.4. Data collection .......................................................................................................................... 37

CHAPTER FOUR .......................................................................................................................... 39

ANALYSIS OF WOMEN OPPRESSION IN IGBO SOCIETY ...................................................... 39

4.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 39

4.2. Forms of women oppression in Igbo society ............................................................................. 39

4.2.1. The relationship between men and women in Igbo society ..................................................... 39

4.2.2. Women beating in Igbo society .............................................................................................. 41

4.2.3. Women marginalization in Igbo society ................................................................................. 42

4.2.4. Patriarchal Igbo society ......................................................................................................... 44

4.2.5. Women mistreatment in Igbo society...................................................................................... 47

4.3. Ways Igbo society gets destroyed .............................................................................................. 48

4.3.1. Male dominance and women suppression .............................................................................. 48

4.3.2. Undermining women’s rights................................................................................................. 50

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4.3.3. The effects of conflict between Okonkwo and his son, Nwoye ................................................. 52

4.3.4. Violence against women in the special days ........................................................................... 54

4.4. The Women of Umuofia and the Women of Today ................................................................... 55

4.5. Limited Role of women in the ancient Igbo society ................................................................... 56

4.6. Ig o so iety u der white e ’s o upatio due to Oko kwo’s rutality a d death ..................... 58

CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................................ 61

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION .............................................. 61

5.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 61

5.2. Summary of findings ................................................................................................................ 61

5.3. Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 63

5.4. Recommendations based on research findings.......................................................................... 66

5.5. Recommendations for further research .................................................................................... 67

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 69

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, thanks go to the Almighty God who always protects me and enabled me
to complete this present dissertation by favoring me with the gift of life and blessing me.

My heartfelt gratitude is secondary addressed to Dr. Peter Muhoro Mwangi, my supervisor

who helped me from the beginning to the completion of this dissertation. Without his
professional guidance I would not have made it so far. His academic guidance was
undiluted and he displayed a passion and unwavering support that kept me going all the
time. He never tired in encouraging me to attempt new challenges.

The completion of this work is a contribution of many people’s efforts of whom I owe debt
of gratitude. Therefore, I would highly like to thank the Kampala university graduate
school director, Dr. Jean Bosco Binenwa for all his time spent and inconsiderable advice
which stimulated me to work hard and follow my program seriously and successfully.

My gratitude is addressed to my all beloved lecturers who really shaped me in the faculty
of English language and literature education, without their contribution of various forms to
the improvement of my skills and knowledge I would not be who I am now. Along with
that I especially thank my education lecturer Dr. Asiimwe Magunda Specioza whose
determination and motivation in teaching and learning process left me something good in
my mind.

I am extremely thankful for my parents and all their support. Without them, I would have
given up a long time ago. Their financial support and hopeful advice kept me focused and
driven. I also would like to thank my sisters and brothers for their financial support and
encouragement to finish my master’s studies. Without all mentioned above, I could not
have accomplished this goal.

My thanks have no end that is why I cannot leave behind my best friends and student mates
in Kampala university language department. Thank you very much for friendship and help.

May Almighty God bless you all accordingly!!

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 ABSTRACT
The research’s concern here is on women oppression in the Igbo society and with its impact on the
societal destruction. When carrying the research, the forms of women oppression were investigated in this
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart whereby inequality, inheritance deprivation for female gender, women
beating and other abuses against femininity were mainly based on in this research to investigate the
reasons of Igbo societal destruction. Okonkwo who ruled his wives and children with a heavy hand was
both a woman hater and oppressor. Hence, this behavior and belief have to be searched on for the
purpose of finding out how it might lead his society to get destroyed.

This research bears the following objectives: To identify the forms of oppression in Things Fall Apart, to
examine in which ways the society gets destroyed due to women oppression and to emphasize what
women can do so as to get equal chances to their counterparts. Referring to the objectives mentioned
above, the researcher wanted to answer these questions: the first question was how has the Igbo society
demonstrated the forms of women oppression in Things Fall Apart? The forms of oppression were based
on women beating, deprivation of inheritance for female gender and different abuse against women. The
second one is, where did the society get destroyed in the Igbo society in Things Fall Apart? It is identified
that women role is limited to households and children bearing not in economic and political whereby the
women are not able to possess anything like men. The third is how the women oppression contributed to
the societal destruction? The protagonist of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, a woman hater and oppressor
led his society to destruction whereby his son Nwoye abused by him to behave like women became one of
the people who got converted into Christianity unlike traditional and other hatred and violence against the
femininity contributed much to the society destruction. The findings identified that the Igbo society
practiced different women oppression such as inequality, lack of inheritance for girls’ children, and
women beating. It was also noticed here that women were socially and economically undermined by men
through their patriarchal culture and society. The violence against the femininity pushed Okonkwo to
hung himself so that he could not be called a weak or woman for handing himself in white men’s hands
after killing the white man messenger. From this death, Umuofia has completely fallen apart in the white
men’s hands.
The contribution of this research is to help women be aware of their rights and fight against the culture to
which they belong. Men should empower women and consider them like human beings instead of
limiting their lives in the kitchen and in the households. It especially motivates the other researchers who
are interested in feminism and gender to make a comparison about the women life of the past and today in
Igbo society. It is additionally hoped for further researchers to conduct the research in Igbo society for
assessing whether the patriarchal culture has changed and women are no longer oppressed these days.

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction to the study

In many years ago, there have been several efforts to address the oppression between men and
women in Nigeria. Unfortunately, many of these efforts have not produced required results.
These failures have been connected to the men perceptions against women where the last ones
were publicly considered as weak creatures in their society. In the Old Testament, Genesis 1 (v.
27), God stated that men and women were equally created in the image of God and neither
attained more of the image of Him than the other. Therefore, the Bible introduces the equality of
the sexes. In the Hindu religion, men and women are created to complete each other. Both state
and define as well, however, the role of women as that of a form of support and guide for men.
This shows that women are considered significant individuals, but are not completely regarded to
be, in a way, at the same level as men. This concept which was introduced based on religious
views was then wronged in time when people began to react in a stereotypical manner towards
women. People started having views on women which placed them at a much lower level than
men.

1.2. Background to the study

Historically the oppression of women by men pre-dated the development of class-divided

society. That oppression, in different forms, is still widespread in a world dominated by
imperialism. Today, women are divided amongst different classes and different nationalities.
Some are in oppressor nations; some (the majority) are in oppressed nations. A small number are
part of dominant classes; the vast majority are to be found as part of the exploited classes. The
majority in the oppressor nations suffer class oppression. The majority in the oppressed nations
suffer both class and national oppression. All women in the oppressed nations suffer national
oppression. All women, wherever they are, suffer from male domination to varying degrees.

1
All over Africa women are treated unfairly. They have to deal with abuse of all sorts: sexually,
physically, mentally, and verbally. They are told from the time they are born that they are just
tools for men. Oppression means to subject a person or a people to a harsh or cruel form of
domination. Although this great tragedy is all over Africa there are few women who broke away
from the old traditions and made a life for themselves, but in doing so they lost their families.
After a woman decides to not do as tradition she is shunned from community and her family.
Overall, what these women have to go through is tremendously awful. People should learn about
their issues and see what they can do to help. See what they can do to change a life because no
matter how "small" their life may seem to people they're still a person with feelings, thoughts,
dreams, and opinions. They can still do the unimaginable and become what they never thought
was possible like a doctor or lawyer. Hopefully, someday people will realize that they can help.
Traditional African culture had clearly stipulated the different roles of men and women in society
(Bwakali, 2001). For instance, polygamy is still a common practice in Africa (Gaba, 1997).
Because of the rules of polygamy, many women end up being at the beck and call of just one
man. If one woman cannot have a child, her husband will marry another woman for the sake of
carrying on the family lines. This is just something that is known in South African society and
something that women grow up needing to expect. Boys and Girls grew up knowing what was
required for them in society. Boys grew up knowing they had to be strong and wise in order to
take care of and provide for their wives. Similarly, girls grew up knowing that they had to be
hardworking and submissive in order to appeal to a man as a wife. Women were victims of
injustice not because of what society did to them, but because of what society did not do to them
(Bwakali, 2001); Meaning that if society does not change, then it is up to the women to change
society. Because women continued to conform to societal norms with which they were brought
up, society had no reason to change.

A lot of the problem in South Africa lies within the African women themselves. Because the
young men played such a crucial role in the collapse of apartheid, they are eager to collect their
dues, and the women understand and respect such a notion. Therefore, the constraints that the
post- apartheid society has to give priority to the full employment of young men are supported by
the women in South Africa who believe that the young men need the jobs more than they do as
women. The expectation that the young men have to collect such dues from society as a result of

2
the end of apartheid is unmatched by women. Therefore, as the post-apartheid state is under
pressure to develop local black skills, it will be easier for them to concentrate more on the male
component. This concentration will be done obviously at the expense of women; however it will
also be done with the cooperation of these women (Meer, 1992). Despite the segregation and
oppression that still occurs, the post-apartheid system in South Africa is dedicated to equality,
which is one of the basic principles of the new constitution. The constitution guarantees equality
for women and allows for affirmative action to address both gender and race inequality.
President Nelson Mandela said, “freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been
emancipated from all forms of oppression, … unless we see in visible and practical terms that the
condition of the women of our country has radically changed for the better, and that they have
been empowered to intervene in all aspects of life as equals with any other member of society”
(Baden, 1993). Mandela, South Africa’s biggest proprietor in the fight against apartheid is
absolutely dedicated to the people of his country. He believes in absolute equality and wants
women to have the same rights and the same power as men do in order to participate in society
as well as in politics. Sadly, however, despite some progress made toward them, Mandela’s
wishes and ideas have yet to really take hold. In fact, women are still treated as “minors” if they
marry under the traditional African law. The age of majority in South Africa is 21, however
according to traditional law, married women are considered permanent minors and under the
control of their husbands. As one woman so tragically explains, “My husband spends all of the
money he earns on other women rather than on our five children. When I complain, he threatens
to divorce me.” In addition, traditional law says that women have no rights to inheritance. All
property, the home and everything in it goes to the husband’s family.

The widow gets nothing and is put under guardianship of the husband’s family. One widow
explained that even though all the household property was hers and she paid for the funeral
expenses, her late husband’s family received everything. She did not oppose them because she
knew she would be in a lot of ‘trouble’. Women do have access to lawyers, but many women do
not know their rights and they would more than likely be ostracized by their family if they took
any legal action. Moreover, most women cannot afford to hire a lawyer, and all the judges are
men. So even if a woman did have the money for a lawyer, chances are good she would not get
anywhere with a male judge anyway. This can show the reader this kind of oppression that South
African women underwent without any complaints against their brothers.

3
According to European Scientific Journal (2013), women constitute about half of the population
of the Nigerian State and are known to play vital roles as mothers, producers, managers,
community developers/organizers etc. Their contribution to the social and economic
development of societies is also more than half as compared to that of men by virtue of their dual
roles in the productive and reproductive spheres. Yet their participation in formal and informal
structures and processes, where decisions regarding the use of societal resources generated by
both men and women are made, remains insignificant. The Nigerian society has been patriarchal
in nature which is a major feature of a traditional society, (Aina, 1998). It is a structure of a set of
social relations with material base which enables men to dominate women (Stacey 1993;
Kramarae 1992; Lerner 1986). It is a system of social stratification and differentiation on the
basis of sex, which provides material advantages to males while simultaneously placing severe
constraints on the roles and activities of females.

Gender based violence is defined as violence that reflects the existing asymmetry in the power
relations between men and women and that perpetuates the subordination and devaluation of the
female as opposed to the male. This violence exists within the framework of the patriarchy as a
symbolic system that engenders an array of day-to-day practices which deny women their rights
and reproduce the existing imbalance and inequity between the sexes. The difference between
this kind of violence and other forms of aggression and coercion lies in the fact that in this case
the risk factor or source of vulnerability is the mere fact of being a woman. Throughout history,
various forms of violence have manifested themselves in society as a consequence of certain
sectors' or groups' domination over others. In this context, gender-based violence is a key social
mechanism for perpetuating the subordination of women, since male hegemony power being
considered the generic patrimony of men (Amorós, 1990) is based on social control over women.
Therefore, violations of women's human rights are directly or indirectly related to the gender
system and to mainstream cultural values. The violation of women's rights and gender-based
violence are not new problems; they arise out of attitudes which, until very recently, were
socially acceptable and, since they were generally limited to the sphere of private life, were little
known. Nevertheless, it is clear that the racial mix (mestizaje) of Latin America and the
Caribbean is founded upon a paradigm that has its roots in the rape of indigenous women.
Historical studies in some countries show that physical violence or brutality committed by men
against their wives was an accepted fact in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that

4
violence was accepted as a "punitive correction" in cases where women did not comply with
social mandates (Cavieres and Salinas, 1991).

According to Oesi, (2005), noticed in this Novel Things Fall Apart that fathers sold their
daughters off to marriage, and husbands beat their wives. Most men in Igbo society used
tradition as a background to dictate women roles and lives. The Igbo society was a society that
put a lot of emphasis on gender roles, and the importance of masculinity and violence, which
resulted in the abuse of the female's character and the role of women as child barer. “We all
know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding” (p.132). Here, Uchendu
describes the male dominance and female suppression in Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall
Apart. Even though some boys secretly loved their mother’s stories the father’s stories captivated
them and converted them to the male side of the world once and for all. For instance, “Nwoye
knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the
stories that his mother used to tell.”(Achebe, 1958, p. 53) in the Igbo tribe men took advantage of
the contrast between and it resulted in relationships resembling that of a master and a slave. “No
matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children
(especially his women) he was not really a man.”Men treated their multiple wives like property,
and any children they bore belonged to the father as well.

“It’s true that a child belongs to its father.”(Achebe, 1958, p.134) a mother who went through the
pain of bearing a child and rearing the child should be granted as an inalienable right the
ownership of the child. The fact that women barely had claim to their own children is a sure sign
that the males of the society were overstepping their boundaries and becoming like a monarchal
society. Most men in Igbo society used tradition as a background to dictate women roles and
lives. Consequently, when referring to the beating of Okonkwo's wife a disparity exists (Chinua,
1958, p. 30) domestic violence was not frowned upon by the British because it occurred during a
week of non-violence, but rather that the crime of beating anyone had occurred at all. Through
those happenings, it was very demanding to bring this research of Impact of women oppression
on the societal destruction in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall apart. It is moreover raised to
supplement other previous researches done but they left some gaps which one of them is going to
be handled.

5
1.3. Statement of the problem

The novel Things Fall Apart (TFA) (1958) as far as the case study of this research is concerned,
is written by the late Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) who was a Nigerian author. The setting of the
novel is in the outskirts of Nigeria in a small fictional village, Umuofia just before the arrival of
white missionaries into their land.

When reading this novel, the researcher of the present study finds a problem related to the
women oppression based on how women were poorly considered in the Igbo society. The
researcher put much emphasis on different forms of women oppression mentioned by Chinua
Achebe in Things Fall Apart and through these forms it was targeted by the researcher to see
how much the gender issues contributed to the societal destruction. In doing so, it was very
needful to help the reader understand the gap which pushed this research to be concentrating on
women oppression in the Igbo society. Many cases of women oppression such as inequality.
Women beating, lack of inheritance for female children and abusing femininity were hereby
regarded as the big problem between Igbo men and women to the society unity and equality.
Once some people in the society think they are stronger and superior to others should
undoubtedly result in the disunity among them.

Therefore, in Igbo society women were looked as nothing and only blessed with rearing children
and that their lives should be confined to the domestic sphere. The protagonist of Things Fall
Apart, Okonkwo was a man who demonstrated the power and heroism in his life whereby he
feared to be called weak or a woman. Apart from this, he did not show in his life any trait of
kindness except the brutality. Being called a woman denotatively and connotatively in Igbo
society, it is like an offense and weakness.

One cannot read Things Fall Apart without recognizing the oppression of women at the hands of
the patriarchy. In a culture where virility belongs to males, even the term "female" or "women"
comes to represent an insult as it is mentioned above. This is evident when Okonkwo tells
Osugo, who feels guilty over killing his surrogate son, not to "become like a shivering old
woman" (Mezu 1995, 2). Referring to the background of this study. Blacks are marginalized but
women are subjugated not only as blacks but as women also. Women are relegated to an inferior

6
position throughout the novel. They are regarded as mere appendage to a man. They are treated
as chattels. Their status has been degraded. Gender divisions are a misconception of the
patriarchy. But Okonkwo believes in traditional gender divisions. In Things Fall Apart the
number of wives you have affects social status. Okonkwo wishes that his favorite child, Ezimna,
should have been a boy.

This is to say; the more some members of the society like women are marginalized and treated as
inferior, the more the society gets destructed in different stages such as social, economic and
political. When Okonkwo killed a white man messenger, he immediately decided to hang
himself for fear of not being handed himself in the white men’s hands so that he could not be
called weak or a woman through this submission. Though he did this due to the troubled
masculinity he had against womanish title, he ends up his society being converted to the white
people’s authority. His death from his troubled masculinity as a famous person of Igbo leads the
Igbo society to destruction. This study therefore needs to foster women to have the right of
shaping and changing their cultures to which they belong. It is because in Things Fall apart, the
authority lies with the men. As far as the Igbo society destruction is concerned, it is obvious that
women do not have a say in any important matter. The idea of masculinity also puts women on a
remote margin. They are excluded from political, economic and judicial matters of the
community as it is mentioned above.

1. 4. Scope of the study

The scope of this study is looked at in three domains; of course, it is talking about women
oppression that means the lack of social power in their society.

1.4.1. Time scope

The study will deal with the pre- colonial, colonial, and post colonial period that shows that the
post colonial touches the present time.

1.4.2. Geographical scope

This work is classified in one of literary works. It only wants to deal with the society of Igbo, in
Nigeria beginning with pre- colonial to post colonial. Nigeria is located in the western of Africa.

7
1.4.3. Content scope
It is a study which talks about the impact of women oppression on the societal destruction in
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, this novel was published in 1958. The study intends to
demonstrate all kinds of oppression that the woman encounters in Igbo society, in Nigeria. Along
with that, it is very important to let the people know how the society can get destroyed when the
given society is monopolized through gender inequality.

1.5. Definition of terms

Oppression

Oppression is a type of injustice. Oppression is the inequitable use of authority, law, or physical
force to prevent others from being free or equal. The verb oppress can mean to keep someone
down in a social sense, such as an authoritarian government might do in an oppressive society. It
can also mean to mentally burden someone, such as with the psychological weight of an
oppressive idea. (Linda Napikoski, Women’s History Categoey). In a social justice context,
oppression is what happens when people are pushed down by societies. (The word comes from
the Latin root opprimere, meaning "pressed down.")

Woman

A "woman" is defined as the "feminine component of the human species who, apart from serving
as a vehicle for nurturing human life. Is also a producer, a consumer and an equally endowed
agent for fostering a wholesome political, social and economic development in society."The
Concise oxford Dictionary defines 'Woman’ to mean an adult human female, the female sex or
any average woman. Also a woman has been defined as an adult female person or a female
person of any age.

Society

Society is a group of people that may or may not be related to each other but share the same
geographical or virtual territory with the same political authority. It may also be a group of
people who come together in order to achieve a specific purpose. Also, Society is normally used
to refer to the entire human population or to a contextually specific division of people.

8
Patriarchy

Patriarchy is that form of social organization in which males exercise power and thus create for
females an inferior status. In all societies, "men have traditionally been the subject of history" as
Adeola James puts it (In Their Own Voices, 1990; 3). The distinct gender differentiation often
creates women's marginalization. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
patriarchy is defined as a society in which the oldest male is the leader of the family, or a society
controlled by man in which men use their power to their own advantage.

1.6. Purpose of the study

The study intends to investigate how women oppression done in Igbo society and what women
can do so as to fight for their rights. The researcher has used the novel of Things Fall Apart and
few related scientific works as primary data. And the main intention is to help the Igbo men and
other different women oppressors to have the spirit of respecting women as the human being.
The society at large needs to favor men and women equally for the purpose of having unity
among its members. This work also intends to enable Igbo women to change their past bitter
living such as being beaten, abused and among others.

1.7. Objectives of the study

1.7.1. General objective

The researcher’s objective is to investigate all about the impact of women oppression on societal
destruction in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

1.7.2. Specific objectives

This study sought to achieve the following objectives:
i. To identify the forms of oppression in Things Fall Apart.
ii. To examine in which ways the society gets destroyed due to women oppression.
iii. To highlight what women can do so as to get equal chances to their counterparts.

9
1.8. Research questions

The study sought to answer the following research questions:

i. How has the Igbo society demonstrated the forms of women oppression in Things Fall
Apart?
ii. Where did the society get destroyed in the Igbo society in Things Fall Apart?
iii. What can be done by women so as to get equal chances like their brothers’ in terms of
benefiting from their society?

1.9. Significance of the Study

The study is a work of literature which shows the life of people of Igbo society, In Nigeria and
the Africa at large. The researcher, therefore, hoped that the findings of this study will be of
value to the students and readers of the texts under study and those which featured as peripheral
readings. They may use the information from the findings to help them analyze and understand
literary works.

To the feminists
It will help the readers to know how those above people especially women were treated during
colonial and postcolonial, apart from that women right people or every person will stand for
fighting against women oppression in Nigeria and all over the world as well. The present study
will interest the feminists to continue writing about how men can definitely reduce the
oppression against women. They must encourage women awareness of their political and legal
rights and to claim them.

To the African governments

As far as oppression is concerned, this study will inform the concerned governments to establish
new laws protecting women rights and punish all those chauvinists of women oppression. The
governments should be combating cultural practices that oppress women and initiating the new
conceptualization of equality among men and women. The governments will establish the law of

10
women empowerment in political, economic, and social as well. These may be achieved
accordingly due to the contributions of oppressors and oppressed ones in terms of fighting
against gender inequality and culture of patriarchy. This research can enable the government
researchers from the corners the world to know how they should handle the issues of women
oppression in their countries and among others. In doing so, the Nigerian government should
later on be convinced to establish firm laws which support women rights and equality so as to
put an end to women oppression at home, in families, country and the throughout world.

To the researcher
The researcher will get more information about women oppression and suggest the ways women
can be considered like their brothers. Once this study gets finished, it will additionally help the
researcher to fulfill and acquire some requirements related to a good author in the domain of
literature such as conducting a research in various genres of literature by the help of analysis and
criticism. This study brings the spirit of respect, equality and human rights of all genders to the
researcher.

To Kampala university’s library

After doing a final correction of this research, this research is expected to be submitted to
Kampala University library and considered as one of its properties, and then other students or
researchers who will feel in need of this research, they may consult it from there according to
their different carriers and purposes

1.10. Theoretical framework

Orodho (2005) defines a conceptual frame work as a model of presentation of relationship

between variables in the given study. As far as the title is concerned, the women oppression is
hereby taken as the independent variable and dependent variable of this research is societal
destruction. Women suffer from the gender oppression that pervades the prevailing patriarchal
society in the story. Okonkwo as a representation of African men chauvinistically believes that
women’s place is in the home. In doing so, Igbo women are not significantly considered in the

11
society as men. This men supremacy of showing virility against woman leads to the destruction
of the society whereby Okonkwo hangs himself for fear of not being called a woman towards the
white people and his clan. Once Okonkwo as a hero of Umuofia and woman oppressor loses his
life, it immediately indicates the destruction of the Igbo society. The word woman is used in
Things Fall Apart to demonstrate someone who is weak and who does not play any significant
role in their society. Being called a woman in Igbo society is a burden that is why Okonkwo
often likes to fight against the weak and womanish characteristics in his society. Okonkwo’s
son, Nwoye is blamed so many times by him to have the women’s behavior. Besides this,
Okonkwo appreciates his daughter Ezimna to have quality of men though she is born a girl. This
also shows the reader that Okonkwo does not consider females as important human being in the
society building.
As far as Igbo society is concerned, Nigeria is yet to put in place any relevant gender
mainstreaming policy. It is obvious that this men supremacy or domination against women
shows the disunity between the members of the family or society through to the bad picture
women have for their counterparts. This disunity was taken in this research as the destruction of
the society politically, economically and socially. After showing these women stereotypes in
Igbo society, the study has to identify what can be done by women themselves to get out from
that inequality life which became a rampant issue in some African countries.

Some people say that women must accept their inferior position in society because it is part of
their culture. This is very problematic, in some of the countries particularly in Nigeria; women
also face cultural constraints on their mobility. According to the CEC Report (2007), the role of
women in employment and economic activities is often underestimated because most of women
work in the informal sectors, usually with low productivity and incomes, poor working
conditions, with little or no social protection as it is identified in Things Fall Apart. Women, in
Igbo society even in the whole Nigeria, had only to occupy the housework and produce children.
Therefore, this study should precise what women can do so as to have real freedom within in
their own cultures.

12
 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1. Introduction

All over Africa women are treated unfairly. They have to deal with abuse of all sorts: sexually,
physically, mentally, and verbally. They are told from the time they are born that they are just
tools for men. Oppression means to subject a person or a people to a harsh or cruel form of
domination. Although this great tragedy is all over Africa there are few women who broke away
from the old traditions and made a life for themselves, but in doing so they lost their families.
After a woman decides to not do as tradition she is shunned from the community and her family.

Overall, what these women have to go through is tremendously awful. People should learn about
their issues and see what they can do to help. See what they can do to change a life because no
matter how "small" their life may seem to people they're still a person with feelings, thoughts,
dreams, and opinions. They can still do the unimaginable and become what they never thought
was possible like a doctor or lawyer.

This chapter should therefore trace the question of women oppression as one of the causes of
societal destruction within the African, and in particular, the Nigerian context with its specific
region known as Igbo.

2.2. Ibo’s Society

Afigbo has stated in his book entitle Prolegomena to the study of the culture history of the Igbo-
Speaking Peoples of Nigeria, Igbo Language and culture , there, he states that Ibo society is both
hierarchical and patriarchal. Social status is achieved in the community through the earning of
titles. The Ibo, which can also be called the Igbo, live in Ibo land in Nigeria. Ibo land is the home
of the Ibo people and it covers most of Southeast Nigeria. This area is divided by the Niger River
into two unequal sections – the eastern region (which is the largest) and the Midwestern region.

13
The river, however, has not acted as a barrier to cultural unity; rather it has provided an easy
means of communication in an area where many settlements claim different origins. The Ibo are
also surrounded on all sides by other tribes (the Bini, Warri, Ijaw, Ogoni, Igala, Tiv, Yako and
Ibibio)

2.3. Oppression

The dictionary definition (Webster's Third International Dictionary) defines oppression as an

"Unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power especially by the imposition of burdens; the
condition of being weighed down; an act of pressing down; a sense of heaviness or obstruction in
the body or mind." The Latin origin has oppressed us as the past participle of opprimere, or to
press down. Amongst the synonyms: the word subjugation.

The Social Work Dictionary, ed. Robert L. Barker defines oppression as: "The social act of
placing severe restrictions on an individual, group or institution. Typically, a government or
political organization that is in power places these restrictions formally or covertly on oppressed
groups so that they may be exploited and less able to compete with other social groups. The
oppressed individual or group is devalued, exploited and deprived of privileges by the individual
or group which has more power." (Barker, 2003)

The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology has an excellent definition of social oppression: "Social
oppression is a concept that describes a relationship between groups or categories of between
groups or categories of people in which a dominant group benefits from the systematic abuse,
exploitation, and injustice directed toward a subordinate group. The relationship between whites
and blacks in the United States and South Africa, between social classes in many industrial
societies, between men and women in most societies, between Protestants and Catholics in
Northern Ireland - all have elements of social oppression in that the organization of social life
enables those who dominate to oppress others. Relationships between groups and relationships
between groups and social categories, it should not be confused with the oppressive behavior of
individuals. A white man may not himself actively participate in oppressive behavior directed at
blacks or women, for example, but he nonetheless benefits from the general oppression of blacks
and women simply because he is a white man. In this sense, all members of dominant and

14
subordinate categories participate in social oppression regardless of their individual attitudes or
behavior. Social oppression becomes institutionalized when its enforcement is so of social life
that it is not easily identified as oppression and does not require conscious prejudice or overt acts
of discrimination." One of the purposes of the exercise we'll do is to help use better identify the
feelings that oppression produces in us and in our clients. (Johnson, 2000b). In the Igbo culture,
men believe they need to be very masculine and to do this they do not show any feelings other
than anger. They never show happiness or sadness because this is considered being feminine and
showing weakness. If any man shows feelings, he is called a woman, which is a huge insult in
the Igbo culture. Women are considered weak and unimportant because they show feelings and
do not to do all of the hard labor like men do. They only care for the children and make their
husbands.

2.4. Women

The concept of “women” is derived from our perception of the sex in animals or plants that
produce or are capable of producing eggs and bearing young ones. It also relates to any re-
productive structure that contains elements to be fertilized by male elements. Hence the word
women incorporates adult females, girls and babies since they all have attributes of feminine
gender, (Arinze, 2008). In Nigeria, the concept and role of women are biologically, culturally,
historically, institutionally and situationally defined. Biologically, women in Nigeria are
understood as the concept explained above i.e. feminine gender. Culturally, women are perceived
as profane creatures that de- serve no respect and as such should be treated as sub-ordinates to
men. They should not be heard in any discussions or decision-making. Their place is always in
the kitchen. They cannot think for themselves and their thoughts are considered worth- less.
They should not eat certain foods or meat. They should not have access to any inheritance
including land. The married ones are regarded as men’s property that could be beaten up or
thrown away at the least point of provocation. Any wrong doing in society is attributed to the
women especially bad behaviors of children in society. Historically, women were under- stood as
inconsequential creatures who could not contribute meaningfully to societal development. But
today some women in top national, state and local government positions have proved that
women possess the potentials for societal development. So, women are today understood as

15
useful partners in societal development. Institutionally, women in Nigeria are seen as an
institution in themselves. They are regarded as the second class citizens of the society doing
things in groups and in their own way. They should not be regarded as having the same nature
with male folk and as such are not equal in the eyes of the society. Women are perceived as
catalysts in certain situations and as agents of doom in other situations. For instance, in conflict
resolutions and management the women are seen to be the force that could calm down the
situation after all efforts of the males have failed. But at the time of benefits and dividends
sharing, women are conceived to be sub-ordinate and inconsequential group in society. Against
these various perceptions of the concept of women in Nigeria society, the various treatment of
women in society were derived. Hence, the idea of discrimination, degradation, disrespect,
deprivation of rights and privileges etc. emerged. The idea of gender is simply derived from the
state of masculine and feminine. It is a division into male and female groups in society. It has to
deal with sex structure in human being making them behave the way they do. Thus it refers to
men and women in society which in turn affect their perceptions of domestic violence and
women in Nigerian society. Philosophically, women in domestic violence in Nigeria should be
understood from the African world View or philosophy. This world view is based on the theistic
charter that explains the interaction or relationship of human beings in the society including
marriages from the system of values existing in that society, (Dukor, 2010). Thus, for Africans,
every sex group, Dukor continued, is organized on the existence of certain division of labor, and
distribution patterns of privileges and duties. These subsequently require skills, habits and legal
standards for satisfying needs, Hence, in pre-colonial Africa, Nigeria inclusive, the
epistemological foundation specified that there was no intention for inequality, injustice and lack
of freedom

2.5. Women oppression

Women are exploited and face oppression every day. In the workplace women are forced into
low paying, insecure and unskilled jobs. Women's problems do not stop at the workplace. When
we come home they have to face another shift of housework with little help from their husbands
or boyfriends. If this is not enough, women have to deal with violence. Thousands of women a
year are raped, beaten or emotionally abused.

16
In a social justice context, oppression is what happens when people are pushed down by
societies. (The word comes from the Latin root opprimere, meaning "pressed down.") Here are 1
ways people tend to be pushed down. Note that in many cases, these categories overlap in such a
way that one person has to deal with multiple forms of oppression.

Sam, R. and Paul, S. (1990) says that historically the oppression of women by men pre-dated the
development of class-divided society. That oppression, in different forms, is still widespread in a
world dominated by imperialism. Today, women are divided amongst different classes and
different nationalities. Some are in oppressor nations; some (the majority) are in oppressed
nations. A small number are part of dominant classes; the vast majorities are to be found as part
of the exploited classes. The majority in the oppressor nations suffer class oppression. The
majority in the oppressed nations suffer both class and national oppression. All women in the
oppressed nations suffer national oppression. All women, wherever they are, suffer from male
domination to varying degrees. Class exploitation and national oppression are products of
imperialism. Thus, women who suffer class exploitation and national oppression have a vested
interest in overthrowing imperialism in order to rid themselves of those two types of exploitation
and oppression. A separate question arises as to whether women, as a group oppressed by men,
have a vested interest in overthrowing imperialism as part of the struggle to rid themselves of
male oppression.

The new era of capitalism, and its subsequent development into imperialism, was built on pre-
existing sexist societies. The form they took mirrored those sexist societies. The forms of male
domination may have changed but the new systems perpetuated that male domination. Indeed, it
is clear that capitalism and imperialism were male-dominated from the outset. Through the
“family wage” system, capitalism formalized a new type of economic subordination of women to
men. In other respects, capitalism increased the forms of the oppression of women. A system
based on a one-sided emphasis on individual competition and inherent violence was to the
disadvantage of those already at the bottom of the system, i.e. women. The development of mass
communications and advertising under capitalism has enforced a stereotyped image of women
and turned them into commodities. Women as women have been manipulated and exploited in
the labor force. “Women’s work” is traditionally low-paid. Women have, at specific periods of
history, either been encouraged into or excluded from the workforce. It has to be recognized that

17
women have struggled within capitalism to win various reforms (for women). They have done
this despite opposition from both capitalism and male attitudes.

The key area in which imperialism will be defeated is in the oppressed nations of the Third
World. The women in the Third World are the largest group of the most oppressed and exploited
people in the world. Women make the largest contribution to the agricultural sector of the pre-
capitalist forms of society, incorporated into the imperialist system’s peripheral sector. That
sector is essential to the production of super profits from the peoples of the world. Women’s
subordinate role in pre- capitalist society was taken on board by imperialism, integrated into it
and perpetuated by it. Women’s work was made harder, further split from male activities. The
form of integration destroyed and devalued specific tasks that were traditionally women’s role,
without replacing them with other roles that were valued. Women’s role was further
marginalized. Women’s role in the family and agriculture was excluded from wage labor in
general. Men were used in wage labor which was recognized by the system as valued labor. That
oppression was created by men, and perpetuated by men, for their own advantage, under
imperialism. It must be recognized that the destruction of national oppression and the ending of
class exploitation do not automatically lead to the ending of male domination.

The struggle of women against male domination must go on now under imperialism, continue
throughout the struggle to overthrow imperialism, and remain a major issue in the period of
striving to build socialism. Obviously, in the real world, areas of struggle will always have
aspects of class, national and women’s struggles. The emphasis will differ from struggle to
struggle. Men must always recognize that they are oppressors of women, and that women have
the right to decide their own priorities in fighting their particular oppression

2.6. Forms of women oppression

2.6.1. Patriarchy

The word “patriarchy” has been recreated in the past two decades to analyze the origins and
conditions of men’s oppression of women (Kamarae, 1992). Originally used to describe the

18
power of the father as head of household, the term ‘patriarchy’ has been used within post 1960s
feminism to refer to the systematic organization of male supremacy and female subordination
(Kamarae, 1992; Stacey, 1993; Aina, 1998; etc.). The term has been defined as a system of
male authority which oppresses women through its social, political and economic institutions.
Feminists’ theorists have argued that in any of the historical forms that patriarchal society takes,
whether it is feudal, capitalist or socialist, a sex gender system and a system of economic
discrimination operate simultaneously. They characterize patriarchy as an unjust social system
that is oppressive to women. As feminist and political theorist writes, "The patriarchal
construction of the difference between masculinity and femininity is the political difference
between freedom and subjection." (Carole, 1988).

2.6.2. The plight of women in Igbo society

According to Olumide, (2014) the patriarchal paradigms that prevail in the Igbo society, it is not
surprising that women have a lower place in the socio-political hierarchy of Umuofia. ‘Between
boys and girls the comparison is all in favour of the former, the latter only counting as a useful
accessory in the life of a man’ (Basden 1983:78). It is a kind of place where ‘men … consider …
submission to masculine superiority as the only possible attitude for a woman’ (Firkel 1963:194).
The general attitude towards women (and hence femininity) is that they apprehend attributes of
effeminacy, dependence, self-abnegation, submissiveness and vacillation. That is why men who
are perceived to possess these attributes are called ‘women’ male chauvenists like Okonkwo,
which is pejorative. Indeed, a man who has no title is called ‘agbala’, meaning woman in Igbo.
There are sustained references to these attributes whenever there are ‘unmasculine’ men to be
admonished. The female personality is not viewed as a necessary balance to the male, but an
inferior complementarity. When Okonkwo fails to make his son behave like ‘a man’, he
describes him thus; ‘I have done my best to make Nwoye into a man, but there is too much of his
mother in him (TFA, p.147).
The most powerful woman in Umuofia is undeniably Chielo, who as an ‘ordinary’ woman sells
in the market, but also functions as the priestess of the powerful god Agbala. It is only when she
functions as the priestess of the god that she relates with the men, not as a woman but as the
voice of a god. Hence she speaks with an authoritative or superior tone. All the other women are

19
not so lucky. Ability to control the woman/women in a man’s life is one of the chief attributes of
masculinity, ‘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’ (TFA, p.37).
Prejudice and discrimination contribute to the collapse of the group. In Things Fall Apart (1969),
women are viewed mainly as child bearers and help mates for their husbands. Let us focus on
Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second wife, and Ezinma (Ekwefi’s daughter). As two major females
Ekwefi and Ojiugo, she characterizes the image of women, and several people consider her as
minor female character.
If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. She has the right spirit.” (TFA, Chapter 8,
page 66). Achebe places the characteristic of Ezinma to tease the circumstances at the time. The
woman, who lives under pressure and places in a subordinate position, can get up and feel
stronger than Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son, even than Okonkwo. Ojiugo is the youngest of
Okonkwo’s wives. There are a little bit stories about her, only about the Okonkwo’s brutal
beating. What happen to Ekwefi, it also happened to Ojiugo. When Ojiugo goes to her friend’s
house, Okonkwo looking for her to ask his meal. Okonkwo was very angry when he looked for
her everywhere. And after she returned, he beat her very heavily.
Okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger by his youngest wife, who went to plait hair at her
friend’s house and did not return early enough to cook the afternoon meal. (Chapter 4, page 29).
In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. He did not forgive her fault. With his
arrogance, he still defends his self. He should hear the wise man say ‘if man cannot forgive
woman with her little bit mistake, he never enjoy her greatness virtue’. It proves that woman’
role as female in society was emphasized in domestic sector. Woman is expected and constructed
to take care of the children or manage household. The woman’s place is only in the kitchen. It is
the woman’s range.

According to Somera, K. (2010) overall, male against female discrimination contributes to

Okonkwo's tragedy, but I don't think it contributes to the collapse of the tribe. White against
black racism and Christian monotheism against tribal polytheism contribute more toward the
collective unraveling of culture.

Whether this is gender discrimination or sexism depends on which culture is framing the
question. Our independent modern culture, which champions integrated gender roles and

20
feminism, would certainly call this male prejudice against women. Specifically, Okonkwo has
rigid roles that he feels he should play, as well as his wives and male and female children. For
example, Nwoye acts a bit feminine and Enzimna acts a bit masculine, but Okonkwo makes sure
that neither crosses over into the gender duties of the other. These roles contribute to Okonkwo's
fear of being weak, which--in turn--leads to his exile and eventual suicide. These differences
alone, though, do not cause the group to fall apart. In short, they tolerate what we call sexism.

2.6.3. Gender-based discrimination

In regions especially where poverty and ignorance are widespread, people generally live in
despair. Living in such hard conditions and being unable to get rid of the situation, the man opts
to unload his suppressed resentment by using brute force on his household. The man who is not
satisfied with his achievements and don’t have dignity in his social life, tries to establish
domination over women through aggression. Therefore masculinity is associated with aggression
and violence. And that situation leads to discrimination and conflict between the two genders.
But unfortunately, the gender-based discrimination happens everywhere, even in the western,
industrialized nations that are thought to be closest to an ideal modern egalitarian treatment for
women. Although western women have legal freedoms, the right to vote and to own property;
they still don’t enjoy full equality with men, nor are they socially valued or esteemed as men.
The concept of ‘gender based discrimination’ may be analyzed in the aspects of; interpretation of
gender, domestic life of women, women and sexuality and the roles of men at various times and
cultures.

Based on the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ we deduce that in Nigerian community women led a
domestic life, being in charge of breeding their children, cooking and serving their husbands as
well as not being able to participate in the social life and ceremonies, while the men are in charge
of taking all decisions about the community. (Chapter 10, pages 77-78). Also, a man’s power
was measured by his physical strength. If one hasn’t got a name by bloodshed he was called as
agbala which also means woman. As a consequence of being strong men they frequently beat
and threaten their wives. Similarly, plural marriage is widespread and virginity is considered as a
merit. Since a woman is not valuable herself, she is always described whether as a daughter or a
wife of a man.

21
2.6.4. Inequality

According to Andrew, (2003) inequality is typically thought of as differences between

individuals within a population, normally a country, though it can also be considered for smaller
or larger populations (for instance, within local communities or at a global level). In practice the
most widely used measures of inequality (i.e. income, consumption or assets) are generally
looking at inequalities between household-based measures. This fails to take account of intra-
household inequality, clearly an important issue in practice which then needs to be considered in
terms of attributes that can be measured at the individual level (nutritional measures are
commonly used for this purpose) and looked at within the household. It is also important to
consider inequality between groups of people, including global inequality between countries,
inequality between regions or communities within a country, and inequality between groups of
individuals or households classified according to various criteria (for example gender, class). The
last is often referred to as horizontal inequality, though as seen later is easily considered as part
of a more general analysis of inequality.

2.6.5. Violence against women

According to Hadiza, I. B. (2009), violence against women in the home is pervasive. Globally,
domestic violence accounts for nearly one quarter of all recorded crimes. Surveys indicate that
10–58 percent of women have experienced physical abuse caused by an intimate partner in their
lifetimes National Demographic Health Survey.

Preliminary results from a World Health Organization (WHO) multi- country study on women’s
health and domestic violence indicate that “in some parts of the world as many as one-half of
women have experienced domestic violence. Although the degree differs from community to
com- munity and society-to-society, women have been preponderantly at the receiving end in an
approximately 95 percent of known cases.

Shija reports that here in Nigeria, an average of 300–350 women are killed every year by their
husbands, former partners, boyfriends, or male relations. Most times the incidences are
considered family feuds, which should be treated within the family. Most police refuse to

22
intervene and advice the victims to go back home and settle “family matters”. Domestic violence
affects women in Nigeria irrespective of age, class, educational level and place of residence.
Nigerian law and custom categorizes a woman as an object who is not quite human. Gender-
based violence is perhaps one of the most terrifying illustrations of inequality between male and
female. Women are more at risk from violence than men in all sectors of the society. This is
because of the deferential access to prestige, power, control of materials resources, freedom to
obtain knowledge and other basic needs of life among the gender. Violence against women is
entrenched in the family, institutionalized by the social structure and driven by patriarchal
arrangement, or class/gender stratification. The family which has been regarded as the ideal basic
unit of the society where there is support, love, understanding and care, has turned out to be and
can be the most oppressive institution for serious violence, hostility and conflicts. Yet according
to Nwankwo, the law still ignores the gravity of the problem. Domestic violence constitutes a
violation of women’s human rights. It contravenes the fundamental rights provisions contained
in the constitution: for instance, the right to life and all the basic civil and political freedoms
including freedom of association, assembly, expression and worship and freedom from
discrimination. The United Nations sponsored Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by UN General Assembly in1979 and is often called a
bill of human rights for women. It calls on governments that signed the treaty to remove all
forms of discrimination against women to ensure women’s equal access to political and public
life, education, health, and employment and to protect their reproductive rights. In 1979 Nigeria
signed the convention and in 1985 ratified it without reservations. Other conventions that address
the specific rights of women include the convention for the suppression of the traffic in persons
and the convention on consent to marriage, the minimum age for marriage and the registration of
marriages. In spite of these, one problem with these protections is the long, technical and
cumbersome procedures necessary to enforce these human rights.

2.6.6. Gender-based violence as a human rights violation

Women enjoy the same rights and freedoms as men, and autonomy, under the terms of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and the Convention on the

23
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In addition to respect for the rights
enshrined in these instruments, voices have been raised in Latin America and the Caribbean
calling for the recognition of the specific contextualized rights of women. For example, they
demand the right to be agents and beneficiaries of development, in view of the intensification of
social inequality and the impact of the crisis, the social cost of structural adjustment policies and
the limitations of social policies in compensating for the effects of economic changes. They also
demand the right to participate socially and politically within the framework of an equitable form
of development that gives decision-making power to everyone. Reproductive rights are also
called for, with such rights being understood to include a woman's right to receive suitable care
during pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium, to have access to duly controlled contraceptives, to
decide when she wants to have children and how many children to have, and especially to
exercise control over her own body. Although since the 1970s women have participated widely
and visibly in the movement to defend human rights, they have not always been able to place
their gender- related demands at the centre of that struggle. It was not until the late 1980s that
women became fully aware of their status as persons having a legal identity and began to act
accordingly, questioning the essentialist view of social hierarchies and the "normality" of their
subordination. In this context, their demands for human rights are also a consequence of their
demands for new ways to exercise their citizenship and their desire to do so on an equal footing
in accordance with the principle that the most basic right is the "right to have rights" (Lefort,
1987). Linking the issue of gender-based violence with human rights offers new possibilities for
analysis and for the struggle to end discrimination against women.

2.7. Sexism

Sexism has been an almost universal condition of civilization, probably due to the fact that men
tend to be larger and to have more upper body strength than women. This brings with it a greater
average capacity for violence, violence is the language of despotism, and we are only slowly
moving beyond despotism. Sexism tends to force women into subservient, restrictive roles that
many women do not want, and to force men into dominant, competitive roles that many men do
not want. Things Fall Apart, creates a number of characters who seem sexist and, in fact, some
argue that Achebe himself through his authorial voice seems to condone sexism. The women are
silent, voiceless and invisible, waiting for the commands of their masters. Decisions are made by

24
men, as evidenced by their dominating behavior in the wife abuse trial conducted by the elders.
What's more, some would argue that even Achebe's authorial voice employed in the novel seems
to condone the questionable behavior of Okonkwo when he abuses his wife (TFA, p.39). Some
readers in addition question Achebe's silence when women are ordered about (p.44) or treated as
property.

2.7. Gender

According to (Alamveabee, 2005), gender is the socially and culturally constructed roles for men
and women. For instance, gender roles of men as owners of property, decision makers and heads
of household are socially, historically and culturally constructed and have nothing to do with
biological differences. It is important to note the difference between sex and gender. Sex refers
to the biological differences between male and female. For instance, the adult female has breast
that can secrete milk to feed a baby but the adult male does not have. Gender roles differ from
place to place and change with time. But sex roles are naturally fixed.

Gender is a social construct, which is brought about by different societies ascribe to the two
sexes. It is a culturally determined concept based on beliefs and traditions of a given society or
community. It refers to the rules, behaviors and qualities ascribed to male and female folks.
Gender can best be understood when sex is mentioned. Sex is the biologically determined
characteristics or functions of male and female. Gender refers to those characteristics and
functions society ascribes to male and female (Alade, 2006). As a child grows, he is socialized to
fit into those societal expectations. This results into the categorization of roles, activities,
responsibilities, and careers suitable for female or male. Thus, gender permeates every human
endeavor. Indeed, it has led to what is described as stereotyping. Gender stereotyping refers to a
collection of commonly held beliefs or opinions about behaviors and activities considered by
society as appropriate for male and female. Prior to the Nigerian civil war (1966-1970), the
traditional role of home-making was the main duty of women. Although, the socio-cultural
background of Nigerians differs significantly depending on which part of the country or ethnic
group an individual comes from, though there are still common beliefs and attitudes which
transcend geographical or ethnic peculiarities. Among these are beliefs, values and attitudes
about women. They believe in the indigenous traditional Nigerian community is that the

25
woman’s role is in the home where she is a wife, a mother, and a housekeeper. She is on the
whole catered for by the male members of the society, the husband playing a major role. It is
considered odd for her to cater for herself or engage in occupations or activities considered
reserved for men such as apprenticeship in carpentry, dying and bricklaying.

2.7.1. Gender difference in Igbo society

Gender difference is an issue that is well depicted in the novel "Things Fall Apart". In feminist
theory, gender difference perspective examines how women's position in and experience of
social situations differ from men's (Crossman, 2013). In the novel, women in the patriarchal Igbo
society are expected to fulfill their gender role as a homemaker and a caregiver in the community
while the men are the protector and the breadwinner of the household; the women are the
subordinate to the men. As Beauvoir stated, women are seen as the "Other" as compared to the
men who are seen as the Subject and the Absolute. This situation can be clearly seen in the
protagonist, Okonkwo's wives. They are the homemakers and caregivers of the household. Each
wife has to obey him at all costs and they also have to endure Okonkwo's temper and sudden
outburst. The consequence in failing to fulfill him will cost them to be physically abused. For
example, Okonkwo is "provoked to justifiable anger" when his third wife, Ojiugo, fails to come
home on time to prepare him meal; Okonkwo beats her heavily even though it is the sacred week
where the occurrence of violence is an offend to the earth goddess, Ani. Living in the patriarchal
society, the subordinate status of a Igbo woman is a norm that has been practiced since their
forefather; the position of man and woman is unquestionable.

Women are seen as replaceable, as they can be exchanged for the one another. “As a matter of
fact the tree was very much alive. Okonkwo’s second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to
wrap some food, and she said so. Without further argument, Okonkwo gave her a sound beating
and left her and her only daughter weeping”. They are expected to be there for the men to beat if
something goes wrong (even if it was not their fault). Women are seen as little better than slaves
to men. Men take on more than one wife, many times within years; more wives mean more
power to a man. The wives are expected to be there for the children but not to stand up for them.

26
Gender differences in Things Fall Apart is definitely one of the issues in the novel. We can see
how Okonkwo treated his wives with domination and violence. He never aks or respect any of
her wives thoughts. For example, when one of his wives went out to her neighbour place, and she
forgets to cook for the children, Okonkwo, without hearing any explanations, brutally hits her.
Plus, if a woman gives birth to a baby girl, they will immediately dump and buried the baby in
the Evil Forest which is a cruel thing to do. In my opinion, the members of the community seem
to agree with the status quo because of lacking in the awareness. They do not have a proper
space to voice out their feelings and opinion on what matters. (Crossman, 2013)

2.7.2. Gender sensitivity in traditional Igbo society according to Achebe

A reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart provides us with the portraiture of the
traditional Igbo family with its genderized roles and functions.

In the family, if a child is born, the sex is determined and if the baby was a male, that meant
greater joy for the parents. For the man, joy, because he has a man who will take his place after
his death and continue with his family line. Joy for the mother because that will properly
entrench her in her husband’s heart. Having a son means for her that nothing can uproot her from
the family. A son further means having a voice to defend you in the family. But if the child is a
girl, the husband and wife receive it with mixed feelings. And if female child is coming as the
third, fourth, fifth or sixth female in the family without a male child that is enough reason for
sorrow. For the man, it brings sorrow because his hope of having a male child to continue his
lineage is becoming slimmer, the females will soon be married off to other men. Having female
children is like “tending other people’s vineyards while your own is unkempt”.

As the children begin to grow, the males and the females are socialized differently. The boys are
made to see themselves as superior, stronger, more important and indispensable. The females are
trained to see themselves as appendages of the men. In Things Fall Apart, we see Okonkwo
telling Nwoye and Ikemefuna masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. These stories are told
so as to toughen them and prepare them for their future roles as the protector, guardian and head
of their families. On the other hand, the mothers told their daughters feminine stories about how

27
to behave themselves so as to attract worthy husbands and how to serve their husbands in order
to win their hearts. Achebe goes on;

Nwoye somehow still preferred the stories that

his mother used to tell… stories of tortoise and

his wily ways… But he knew that they were for

foolish women and children, and he knew that

his father wanted him to be a man. And so he

feigned that he no longer cared for women’s

stories. And when he did this he saw that his

father was pleased and no longer rebuked him

or beat him (38).

The gender roles were in some cases so cut out that the males getting into the areas meant for the
females and vice versa was regarded as abomination (nso ani). For example, it is abomination for
a girl to go and handle her father’s dane gun. The boy can do that. Again, it is unacceptable for
the boy to hang around the kitchen when the women are cooking and cracking jokes that touched
on female genitals, puberty rites and the like. The boy’s duty ranges from washing his fathers
clothing, taking care of the flock (of sheep, goat, etc), getting the yam seedlings ready, getting
the knives sharpened, the hoes and other farming implements ready for farm work.

2.7.3. Gender education

The general trend in Igbo pre-colonial educational system was aimed at classification of
perceived gender-suitable occupations. According to Benedicta Ozoemenem Egbo, although the
pre-colonial educational system was more or less vocational, it was not designed for gender
exclusionary purpose. Instead, it was designed to inculcate into women the necessary social

28
skills to run the affairs of their family and to be able to cater for themselves and the men; the
techniques for more physically related occupation. Accordingly, “everybody received
appropriate education”, (Egbo 1997; 41). Hence, men and women were free to choose whatever
occupation they like, regardless of whether the occupation was male or female-related.

In the same vein, according to Karibu Nwanesi, the pre-colonial period saw the use of formal and
informal systems of education in the areas of commerce, defense, religion, social studies,
medicine and politics. While men were trained mostly in areas such as defense and politics, the
women were mostly trained in social studies, medicine and religion (Nwanesi; p.35).

With the introduction of British educational system, education in the colonial era excluded
women from the mainstream occupational skills. According to Nwanesi, while men were
allowed to study religion and other professional disciplines, women were relegated to the study
of home keeping and how to be maids. Hence, Steady would maintain that the colonial
educational system was “tailored along sexism and gender roles, with the notion of men as the
bread-winners‟ and women as „the homemakers” (Ibid; 38). Interestingly, in Mohammadi‟s
essay above, Gann and Duignan had already maintained with paradoxical benevolence that
though the colonization of Africa was act of imperialism, it provided Africans with much needed
British educational system, medical system and so on; the same educational system that brought
gender discriminatory policies (Mohammadi; 51), thereby altering the gender unrestricted‟
educational system inherent in pre-colonial Igbo nation.

According to Nwanesi, Gilman argues that division of labour during the colonial era allocated
work for men and home-keeping for women. To confirm the latter‟s assertion, Nwanesi argues
that the colonial educational system was gender discriminatory (Nwanesi; 38). Skill acquisition
was exclusively meant for the men. It was against this back-drop, that the then British Governor
General asserted that the essence of women‟s education was to equip them only for the house-
wife and mother role which presumably were the only roles women could play (Egbo; p. 43).
Consequently, the pre-colonial industries usually coordinated by women were rendered non-
functional (Nwanesi; p.38). The home-keeping role restricted women from participating in

29
economically vibrant skills which were pivotal in piloting the economic enterprises of pre-
colonial period. According to Egbo:

Although colonial education was essentially limited to the liberal arts, its emphasis on the
training of boys systematically reduced the role of women within the society…. women
found themselves even more devalued. Western capitalist economic ideology… values
that were incompatible with traditional African culture - became national goals.
(Egbo 1997; p.44)
Similarly, the post-colonial era, especially the period after Nigerian independence (1960), would
not see a different turn in educational gender balance. It was only very recently that the
government started ensuring some equitable yet unrealistic educational policies for men and
women. According to Egbo, particular consideration for women in educational policies was first
witnessed about two decades ago. That notwithstanding; women’s involvement in education in
post-colonial period remains relatively poor. Though statistics cannot not show how many
women drop out of school within the same period, scholars believe that there is a huge number of
women who dropped out after the time of Nigerian independence (Ibid; 50). In ascertaining the
factors responsible for this female decline in education, studies have shown that apart from post-
colonial government policies, social-cultural policies in gender education during the colonial
administration might have necessitated a recurrent gender bias in post-colonial socialization of
women. More so, international economic influence has also been implicated as one of the causal
factors (Ibid; 24 and 50-61).

2.7.4. Gendering the Economy

The pre-colonial economic activities in Igbo nation was characterized by women-driven

economic wheel. According to Nwanesi following F.K Ekechi, these women traded in various
kinds of agricultural products, ranging from palm product, yam, Cocoa-yam and so on. Some
Nigerian economists have noted that prior to the advent of colonialism; Igbo men regarded
Merchandise as women’s occupation. Sequel to this, the money accruing from these enterprises
gave Igbo women the power to be independent and to provide them with material needs
(Nwanesi 2006; 33).

30
The advent of colonialism made the economic status of women insignificant. According to
Nwanesi, in a study of Ngwa people (an Igbo tribe), S.M. Martins maintains that colonialism
induced poverty on Igbo women by transferring economic power first to the colonizers and more
recently to the African men. The British colonizers were said to have considered what was
obtainable in Britain while changing the economic power of women to men. Nwanesi following
Cornwall maintains that with regards to economic gender roles in Europe in 19th century, men
were regarded as intellectually superior to women. Hence, they were regarded as breadwinners,
who should be authoritative and self asserting. On the other hand, women were regarded as the
weaker sex and less intelligent. The British colonizers took their own gender roles as a model
which should be incorporated within their colonies (Ibid; 51). According to Nwanesi, this
economic power-shift paved way for foreign corporations: Lever brother, John Holt INC and
then United African companies and so on (Ibid: 37, Adu; 50), all of which were under the control
of men. These changes have been labeled sexist by some scholars.

As a result, many families started witnessing poverty. According to Nwanesi, Steady maintains
that these changes not only removed women from the mainstream of economic activities, but
also “women were denied access to medium and large-scale loans which were vital in operating
the bulk purchase level of the colonial economy” (Nwanesi; 37).
According to Women in Academics (JOWACS) Vol. 1 No. 1 Sept. P.111., The colonial period
did not improve the status of women economically at all. As mentioned earlier the type of
education set up by the colonial master was male- oriented, and the only course that were left for
women were those that would assist them in building their homes as African women. Generally
speaking, African women were peasant farmers with no capital since they were not economically
independent they solely depended on their husbands. In order to produce more food, African
women needed to borrow money from their neighbors, for they had no access to credit facilities
such as bank loans unlike their male counterparts. Banks did not make loans available to them
(women) because of the traditional position of women in Africa. Peasants do not always
represent good risks and therefore the commercial banks made practically no loans available to
their organization. Also, the traditional farming system whereby the hoe culture was still the
main method used by African women in the rural farming process, even with the new system of

31
agriculture, only men were taught how to apply modern methods in the cultivation of a given
crop, while the women continued to use the traditional method in cultivating the same type of
crops. Hence, they were into subsistence farming system rather than the mechanized embarked
upon by their male counterparts. As a result of this, the gap between labor productivity of men
and women continued to widen. Therefore, the only way which African women could produce
money in the peasant economy was by going through various forms of hardship of lifting and
carrying on their heads, basket of cassava, yams, and bags of gari to the market place for sale.
Thus, while the western women and some few educated Africans were pushing for equality, the
majority of these peasant African women were crying out for economic liberation.

2.7.5. Gender theme in Things Fall Apart

Much of the traditional Igbo life presented in this novel revolves around structured gender roles.
Essentially all of Igbo life is gendered, from the crops that men and women grow, to
characterization of crimes. In Igbo culture, women are the weaker sex, but are also endowed with
qualities that make them worthy of worship, like the ability to bear children. The dominant role
for women is: first, to make a pure bride for an honorable man, second, to be a submissive wife,
and third, to bear many children. The ideal man provides for his family materially and has
prowess on the battlefield. The protagonist in the novel is extremely concerned with being hyper-
masculine and devalues everything feminine, leaving him rather unbalanced. Much of the gender
theme in the book centers around the idea of balance between masculine and feminine forces –
body and mind/soul, emotionality and rationality, mother and father. If one is in imbalance, it
makes the whole system haywire.

The gender issue is a theoretical issue engaging the contestatory or superstructural ideology that
would end the oppression of women. It has many spaces for engagement, though the spaces have
not been explicated fully. The cultural spaces that might empower women are yet to be worked
out in gender theories that are specifically African. The African situation is unique in that the
oppression of women is a cultural, religious and moral binary exacerbated by colonial and
capitalist exploitation. The latter two created their own binaries of class and gender. As some
sections of this analysis show, women are women in discourse and there are many discourses on
women that make their marginality putative. There are many guises of women’s oppression and

32
theoretical stances need to be worked out for women to break out of those discourses that
victimize them.

2.8. Philosophy, Culture and the Role of Women and Family

In the traditional Igbo society, women were subservient, subjected to some very dehumanizing
treatment. We no what widows passed through; barren women were seen as scums and
offscourings of the earth. Women were beaten, harassed and deprived of their rights. In all good
sense, all these aspects of the traditional era were condemnable and must be jettisoned
completely. Man and woman are created in the image of God and they stand equal before God as
human beings. But, then, equality does not mean abdicating God’s assigned roles. Today, we
hear of surrogate motherhood, we hear of single female parents, lesbianism, etc. These are
negative ways of responding to gender inequality.

In keeping with the Igbo view of female nature, the tribe allows wife beating. The novel
describes two instances when Okonkwo beats his second wife, once when she does not come
home to make his meal. He beats her severely and is punished but only because he beats her
during the Week of Peace. He beats her again when she refers to him as one of those "guns that
never shoots." When a severe case of wife beating comes before the egwugwu, he finds in favor
of the wife, but at the end of the trial a man wonders "why such a trifle should come before the
egwugwu." (Things Fall Apart, p.89). Okonkwo disrupts the Week of Peace by beating his wife.
For violating the sacred holiday, he is forced to pay a penalty. Although Okonkwo knows that he
is in error and regrets his act against the gods, he does not show his regret to the villagers
because he does not want to appear weak. But his pride makes his neighbors believe that he no
longer reveres the gods and that his success has gone to his head.

Achebe shows that the Ibo nonetheless assign important roles to women. For instance, women
painted the houses of the egwugwu (Achebe, TFA 84). Women in Things Fall Apart are the
primary educators of children. Through storytelling and behavior, they educate and socialize the
children, inspiring in them curiosity about social values, relationships, and the human condition.
The stories the women tell also develop the artistic consciousness of the children, in addition to
entertaining them. Furthermore, the first wife of a man in the Ibo society is paid some respect.

33
This deference is illustrated by the palm wine ceremony at Nwakibie's obi. Anasi, Nwakibie's
first wife, had not yet arrived and "the others [other wives] could not drink before her" (Achebe,
p.22).

2.9. Family in Things Fall Apart

For the Igbo, there are a few key ideas that form the basis of an ideal family: mutual respect for
each other, a reverence for all past fathers, and unity. The father is not only the provider for the
family, but defender of its honor and teacher of his sons. The mother’s main duty is to add to the
family line by bearing healthy children and also to please her husband. Children are the
inheritors of the future and are raised to continue the values of the older generation. This family
unit is the most fundamental unit of society and its structure can be expanded to fit a whole
community or even a pantheon of gods.

According to Soren, H. (2010) Women in the Ibo society are lower in the hierarchy than men;
however, they are still holders of very important roles in the Ibo society. Women seem to be
useless and without any power, but at a further look into their role, a bigger significance is
revealed. Even though wife beating is allowed and women are discriminated in several other
ways, they still possess significant roles, such as householders, educators of the children and
caretakers of crops. Women also function as spiritual leaders and other important roles in the
Igbo religion.

Women in Things Fall Apart are in general thought of as the weaker sex. At a first glance,
women are the laborers, and the producers of children. They are not respected as real people, but
are more just the men’s property. All they have to do is to be good housewives, and make sure to
please their husband at all times. For this reason, women have no identity of their own; but are
defined by the status or position of their husband. Women are discriminated in several ways
throughout the novel. As an example on page 21, Okonkwo beats up his first wife for not
returning home to cook the afternoon meal. In this specific example, he has to pay a penalty for
beating up his wife during the ‘week of peace’, although it seems perfectly normal and
acceptable for the men to beat up their wives on other times of the year. Similarly, it is okay for
the men to talk down to the women, and treat them however they want. The men are in control,
and women have no say when it comes to decision-making around the house.

34
It is an insult for a man to be called a woman. For instance, Okonkwo call his own father, Unoka,
a woman because of the way he lived, taking loans and surviving in debts. He is ashamed of him
and of being his son, so Unoka is only worth the title of a female. Another example is where
Okonkwo kills his new ‘son’, Ikemefuma and command himself to not “become like a shivering
old woman.

35
 CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Introduction
According to Oxford Advanced Learners’ dictionary (2007) defines methodology as a set of
methods and principles used to perform a particular activity.

The research method aims at presenting the methodology that was used in the course
ofconducting this study. Therefore, the research method in this section mainly covers research
design, data sources, data collection, and the last is data analysis referring to the type of research
being carried out.

3.2. Research Design

According to Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr. (1992:108), research design is the framework plan for a
study that guides collection and analysis of the data. The study was referred to a case study of
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and it was given an adequate picture of descriptive and
analytical research design based on the results from reading and responding of the researcher.

This study is taken both an analytical and work of criticism. As a literary work the researcher
reads the novel of Chinua Achebe known as Things Fall Apart with much criticism and
analytical process. In other words, a literary criticism methodically, precisely, and literally is
aimed at helping how the writer shows the data used.

In this study, the writer wants to analyze a novel Things Fall Apart in which Achebe tells about
how women in the Igbo society are taken like weak creatures, housekeepers and children bearers.
This picture assigned to women, caused the men to consider themselves as high ones and
decision makers against women rights through their oppression. Okonkwo as one of the
prominent character of this novel is the origin of Igbo society destruction where he dislikes
behaving like a woman. This internal oppression of men against women destabilizes women
rights whereby the researcher notices the disunity between men and women as the societal
destruction. It is obviously that the research design must use qualitative and quantitative
approaches. However, this present research leaves out quantitative to qualitative. Through the

36
reading activities made by the researcher, it is needful to analyze and interpret data related to
independent and dependent variables of the study being dealt with.

3.3. Data sources

The data of this study is taken from Chinua Achebe’s novel entitles Things Fall Apart; it is
contained 197 pages and published in 1958 by Penguin Books Ltd. The data of this study is all in
sentences form of written dialogues, monologues and expression, which are collected from novel
Things Fall Apart. The writer of this research has tried to look for other scientific books which
talk about the Igbo women who experience different forms of oppression and how this endangers
and destroy the society unity and development as well.

3.4. Data collection

The data was collected through intensive and analytical reading of the novel Things Fall Apart
written by Chinua Achebe. For the first step, the author of the present study carefully read and
understood the novel to expand the understanding of the depiction Achebe’s thoughts when and
why he wrote this novel. Throughout the novel, Achebe shows how African cultures favored
men to treat women as the property or the outsider etc. This belief which marginalizes and
undervalues women in certain societies especially in Igbo has resulted in poverty and disunity
between men and women as well as the society to which they belong. After this understanding, it
is obvious to choose the helpful data which is related to the problem being studied. As Igbo
women oppression is concerned, the researcher writes about all challenges women encounter in
their society where beating women, abusive words against women and lack of inheritance etc are
exhibited in this work so as to let the reader know clearly the picture and poor consideration
which the Igbo women have in their society. Men domination is supported by their culture and
beliefs whereby women are only subordinated and submissive to men, this disunity between two
genders are taken as the Igbo society destruction in terms of inequality to political and social-
economic factors. The research data was collected through the library research where reading
and answering helped a lot to achieve the objectives of this work.

37
3.5. Data Analysis

Data analysis is the last method of the writer to conduct this study. There are some steps in doing
data analysis, whereby this researcher is keen on identifying different forms of women
oppression in Things Fall Apart and how these forms have contributed to the societal
destruction. In doing so, the research aims to talk about both men and women situation from Igbo
society. The researcher will let the reader know in which ways the society gets destructed
through the oppression made by husbands.

The research is also going to analyze the language use and the picture assigned to a man and
woman in general in Things Fall Apart.

38
 CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS OF WOMEN OPPRESSION IN IGBO SOCIETY

4.1. Introduction

African women's oppression was depicted in literature in many ways. Women in Literature:
Reading Through the Lens of Gender, edited by Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber show women
are depicted in literature by giving examples from different literary works. One of these literary
works that had been given as an example of women in literature, that also presents the status of
women in Igbo society is Things Fall Apart (1959), by Chinua Achebe. In one section of the
book which is suggestively entitled "Fragmenting Culture Fragmenting Lives," the writers tackle
the issue of gender in this novel. They say that "one of the norms of Igbo culture is the sharp
division between what is feminine and what is masculine. From simple farm crops to complex
human actions and emotions, Things Fall Apart portrays a culture where real and symbolic
gender distinctions abound" (283). So, the Igbo society differentiates between feminine and
masculine in all the aspects of life, including the crops. In other words, all what shows strength is
related to men and all what shows weakness is related to women. Women, according to the Igbo
society, represent the weakness in the culture of their society. Thus, these men supremacy causes
the women underwent their counterparts ‘oppression.

4.2. Forms of women oppression in Igbo society

4.2.1. The relationship between men and women in Igbo society

According to Amy F. (2011, English 12) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was originally
written in 1958 to illustrate the colonization of the African lands by Britain. However,
throughout the novel Achebe shows how there were struggles between gender, identity and class.
The main struggle that the Igbo people witnessed everyday of their lives was the relationship
between the men and women in the African culture. In most ways the Igbo view of the
39
relationships between men and women is very different to the Western view of the relationships
between men and women. Achebe shows us that even though women in Umofia and other tribes
do not have much freedom and do not play big roles, they do, however, make up the Igbo society
and hold it together.

From the beginning of the novel, Achebe has given Okonkwo, the protagonist (being male), all
the importance and manly actions as that of a leader. This has directly put the women (mainly his
wives) on a lower level than him. In Chapter two, Achebe gives Okonkwo the chance to explain
his character by telling the reader about his father. He associates his father with a woman
because women, according to him and his culture are weak. “Even as a little boy he has
presented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had
suffered when a playmate has told him that his father was an agbala”(Things Fall Apart, p.13).
Agbala literally means “woman”. If a man is called an “agbala” it means that he is weak and that
he has not taken a title. Calling men “agbala” shows the reader how weak the women were in
comparison to the men in society and how, without doing anything or even given the chance to
prove themselves, they were at the bottom of society. Within the families and villages, women
are given the “easy” jobs of cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. Men, on the other
hand, have to support their families, harvest and uphold their titles. Wrestling is a common
activity that was held for the men to play and the women to watch. This activity shows the
villages, and the women, how macho the men really are. Activities like this in the societies also
brainwashed the women into thinking that their men really were the leaders of the family and
that they could never do anything like their husbands, fathers and brothers. Significance is given
to the male gender again when Ikemefuna became one member of Okonkwo’s family. Ikemefuna
is given to Okonkwo to look after because his father had murdered a woman from Umofia. The
young boy quickly merges in with the family and Okonkwo soon becomes very fond of the boy,
although he would never show it since showing any feelings meant that a man was an agbala
according to Okonkwo. Okonkwo became close to Ikemefuna quickly because they were able to
bond by sharing their manly fighting stories and activities. Okonkwo is always happy to spend
time with his sons because they showed him that they would “be able to control [their] women-
folk… [because] no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and
his children (and his women) he was not really a man.” (Things Fall Apart, p.53). When you
analyze this page, the only result found is that women should be controlled and taken like

40
properties. In the Igbo society, women are mainly regarded as servant, children bearers and
housekeepers as well.

4.2.2. Women beating in Igbo society

There are many cases in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart which show that Igbo women are often
beaten by their husbands because of little things that they do or because the men easily lose their
tempers. The men punish women because they know that they will never fight back and because
it is acceptable in their culture. Okonkwo is a person who doesn’t show any type of emotion
except for anger. He believes other emotions symbolize weakest, therefore he uses his “heavy
hands” as his strength towards people (Achebe p.28). Okonkwo allows his anger to take control
at times, in one particular case his anger took over, was the “Week of peace”. During the “Week
of peace” also known as the sacred week, was the time before people started to plant crops. The
“Week of peace” meant everyone were to live in peace to honor their goddess of the earth that
will in turn bless, their crops to grow. Because of his anger Okonkwo broke “the peace and was
punished” by the earth goddess Ezeani. He had broken the peace by beating his youngest wife
Ojiugo with a passion. Ojiugo had went to get her hair done and didn’t come back in time to
cook lunch. Okonkwo continues to beat Ojiugo even after his other two wives begged him to
stop beating her, after all it was ‘sacred week” (Achebe, p.29-30). Another time Okonkwo
displayed his anger was during “The New Yam Festival” when his second wife, Ekwefi, had “cut
a few leaves off of the banana tree” to wrap food. Okonkwo gave her a “sound beating”. He then
left her to cry, however she made a comment and he pointed a gun to her (Achebe, p.38-39). For
her sake he put the gun down. As a result of his anger everyone especially his wife and children
are very much afraid of him.

The researcher puts much emphasis on how women in the Igbo society are poorly considered. As
it is said women experience different oppression against them such lack of inheritance, equal
rights to men, and they are beaten by their husbands without protection. In Things Fall Apart the
case of beating is seriously done repeatedly by the men. In this novel, Achebe tries to identify the
culture of Igbo men for beating their wives; the known example is for Okonkwo when beating

41
his wife Ekwefi, Ezimna’s mother. Along with that he attempts to kill him with his gun but he
fails to shoot her.

It proves that woman role as female in social was emphasized in domestic sector. Woman is
expected to take care of the children and manage the households. The woman place is only in the
kitchen. It is the woman range.
We also point Okonkwo’s neighbor, Mgbofo who tortured by his husband, Uzowulu, even when
she is pregnant.
“Last year when my sister was recovering from an illness, he beat her again
so that if the neighbors had not gone in to save she would have been killed. We
heard of it, and did as you have been told. The law of Umuofia is that if a woman
runs away from her husband her bride-price is returned. But in this case she ran
away to save her life….” (Chapter 10, page 92)

The harshness did not happen only in Okonkwo’s life or families, but in all of Umuofia culture.
And the tradition of Umuofia people is polygamy. Woman is only like a jewel, used when they
are need. A mistake from a man is only a little accident like getting grazed, but when a woman
make mistake, it call a big dangerous like getting crashed by truck.
Almost men in Umuofia do polygamy. Okoye, Okonkwo’s neighbor has three wives. Okonkwo
also has three wives. Nwakibie, the rich man in Okonkwo’s village has nine wives. It is about
useless people. This shows the reader that polygamy is given much value in Igbo society
whereby women are taken like properties and unvalued human being. When you think behind
this polygamy, you may find that society has to face many challenges such poverty and the
inequality among women who share one husband. This act of beating wives shows the little
value given to woman in Igbo society.

4.2.3. Women marginalization in Igbo society

Everybody thanked Okonkwo and the neighbours brought out their drinking horns from the
goatskin bags they carried. Nwakibie brought down his own horn, which was fastened to the
rafters. The younger of his sons, who was also the youngest man in the group, moved to the

42
centre, raised the pot on his left knee and began to pour out the wine. The first cup went to
Okonkwo, who must taste his wine before anyone else. Then the group drank, beginning with the
eldest man. When everyone had drunk two or three horns, Nwakibie sent for his wives. Some of
them were not at home and only four came in.

"Is Anasi not in?" he asked them. They said she was coming. Anasi was the first wife
and the others could not drink before her, and so they stood waiting. Anasi was a middle-
aged woman, tall and strongly built. There was authority in her bearing and she looked
every inch the ruler of the womenfolk in a large and prosperous family. She wore the
anklet of her husband's titles, which the first wife alone could wear. She walked up to her
husband and accepted the horn from him. She then went down on one knee, drank a little
and handed back the horn. She rose, called him by his name and went back to her hut.
The other wives drank in the same way, in their proper order, and went away. The men
then continued their drinking and talking. (Achebe, TFA, chap 10).

The above paragraph shows that women are not equal to men. And the first wife is not given the
respect the same as her co-wives as it is exhibited to Nwakibie’s wives. Though you can notice
that women are called for drinking, they are not allowed to continue drinking together with men.
They take the horns and then after they leave men alone drinking. It shows the culture of gender
inequality in Igbo society whereby men and women have not the same value. The world in
Things Fall Apart is an androcentric world where the man is everything and the woman nothing.
“The greatness of a man in this society is measured in terms of his muscle power, wealth, titles
and number of wives. It is a polygamous society.”(Reddy 30). Men of titles occupy a place of
importance in the society and are treated with honor and respect. In Things Fall Apart no matter
how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children he was not
considered to be a man. In Things Fall Apart, the authority lies with the men. Women do not
have a say in any important matter. The idea of masculinity puts women on a remote margin.
They are excluded from political, economic and judicial matters of the community. They are
confined to the domestic sphere only. When Ekwefi murmured about the okonkwo’s gun that
has never shoot, he heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun, ran out again and
aimed at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn. He pressed the trigger and there
was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his family. He threw the gun and jumped into the

43
barn, and there lay the woman, very much shaken and frightened but quite unhurt. He heaved a
heavy sigh and went away with the gun. (Achebe, p.35).

Thus, we see that her attempt to question anything is immediately castigated. Okonkwo was
obsessed with masculinity to the extent that his family, especially his wives suffered greatly at
his hand. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo did many things to prove his masculine quality and
one such thing that Okonkwo repeatedly did throughout the novel was to beat his wives. The
only thing which has significance in his life is masculinity. He demeans everything that is
considered feminine. In fact the Igbo life is so much gender based that even in case of gods they
place a male god at the apex and next in the hierarchy is a female goddess.

Moreover they categorize crime as male and female. When Okonkwo kills someone by accident,
it was called a female crime. Not even the crops are exempted from such discrimination. Yams
were an important crop for these people. “Yam stood for manliness, and he who 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, p.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. And the analysis also finds out Okonkwo wishes his son to replace him
when being dead and he does not mention where Ekwefi’s daughter, Ezimna can be given the
equal chance to Nwoye. It is obviously that women are not considered like people who can be
leaders of the family or the clan, this is because the majority consider female gender as the weak
people who are nothing.

4.2.4. Patriarchal Igbo society

Inheritance and other issues relating to positions of authority in Igbo land were seen as the
preserves of the male. Though gender division was usually strict among the Igbo, there were
some unique exceptions that suggest more fluidity between gender roles. Ifi Amadiume explores
this in her classic book; Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African
Society. It would appear that the patrilineal base for power and authority was not without a
44
check. The matrilineal or mother lineage, Umunne mediated in any conflict arising from
patrilineal functions and power. For instance, as depicted in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart:

Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart. The
confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. Violent deaths
were frequent but nothing like this had ever happened. The only course to Okonkwo was
to flee from his clan. It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman: a man
who committed it must flee from the land… and before the cock crowed Okonkwo and
his family were fleeing to his motherland.

One was accorded and treated with the highest respect and regard when one visited one’s
mother’s home (mother’s lineage). Similarly, whenever one was in any serious trouble with
one’s father’s lineage, Umunna, the Umunne ’s (mother’s lineage) decision or opinion on the
matter remained decisive. This regards for the mother’s lineage was not unprecedented. Indeed,
it derived from the two Igbo positions of esteem that were formally institutionalized in the
patriarchal Igbo family; the Opara (first son) and Ada (first daughter). The first two Opara and
Ada, were accorded higher status in an Igbo family.

In the Igbo world view, importance was attached to a male child more than a female or indeed
any full grown woman. The obsession for a male child in every Igbo family, and in Africa
generally stood a restriction to the efforts and further contributions of women. This cultural
preference for the male child and restrictions against the female had hindered the development of
women and denied them self-actualization. It is within this obsession for the male child that the
‘pregnancy’ of the concept of the female husband in Igbo land was conceived.

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart indicates the existence of matrilineal and pro-matriarchal societies
with practices that largely contradict aspects of patriarchy, but the novel is based on a patriarchal
community, namely: Umuofia that was in the process of being controlled by the male-dominated
British authority of the Victorian era, which would strengthen traditional African male-authority
and entrench heightened male domination in the postcolonial society. As a system of
institutionalized male-dominance, patriarchy enables the centering and privileging of men as
well as the subordination of women. In many parts of the world, the situation of women in
patriarchy has given rise to women’s movements with diverse strategies for ending women’s

45
oppression generally referred to as feminism, which connotes sociopolitical thinking and
advocacy for women’s upliftment in terms of their unbiased integration and equal opportunity
with men in all spheres of society, as well as transformation of knowledge to be gender inclusive.

Waves of feminist struggles and empowerment have created feminist awareness that help to
expand the rights of women and their integration into the educational, political, governmental
and other public spheres in many parts of the world thereby moving women towards the center of
sociopolitical affairs. These invariably have effect on reforming ways of thinking about gender,
and rearranging gender spaces, as well as critical thinking about gender-driven role-sharing and
expectations. Men’s Movement and Studies now exist in some societies with a focus on
reevaluating what it means to be a man in the changing world; an examination that has invariably
expanded the notion of manhood to include emotion and sentiment that were previously taboo to
masculine men. Unlike women’s movement, men’s movement is not about centering men
because as a body they constitute the centered although other hierarchies of power such as class
and race mediate their individual access to their goals. Their positioning at the center of
economic, political, religious, educational, military and other societal institutions gives them
latitude for socio-political maneuvering and expression of power, but their emotion is largely
compromised by masculine aggression that involves strangling of emotion.
Contributing also to the plight of women as a result of patriarchy, Iwe (1985) observed that the
perpetrators of these violent cultural practices against women were yet to acknowledge that the
dignity of women was equal to that of men. He stated that the splendour of womanhood, which is
based on human personality, the prerogative and quality of every human being, man or woman,
is fundamentally, essentially and unquestionably equal to the dignity of man. Furthermore, he
affirmed that, the truth of this statement is unassailable in spite of sex differences, for human
dignity rests not on sex but on personality; and personality as such has no sex. In Things Fall
Apart, boy children are very considered differently from girls children because the patriarchal
society of Igbo does not favor the females at all to access equal chance of inheritance like boys.
That is the reason why okonkwo wishes Ezimna to be born a boy due to her determination unlike
his son, Nwoye.

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4.2.5. Women mistreatment in Igbo society

There are constant struggles between gender, identity, commoditization, 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 to drive the
novel Things Fall Apart by showing how important women are to the men, yet they do not
receive the treatment they deserve.

An additional circumstance that further limits Nnu Ego is her first marriage to Amatokwu. He is
paramount in shaping her mindset before she leaves for Lagos. His mistreatment of her increases
her desire to please others by having a male son. It appears that the relationship Nnu Ego has
with Amatokwu contributes to her later downfall by crushing what little identity she has while
still in her Igbo home. First she is unable to produce a child for her first husband, so he takes a
second wife and places Nnu Ego on the farm. Amatokwu tells her, I am a busy man. I have no
time to waste my precious seed on a woman who is infertile. I have to raise children for my line.
If you really want to know, you don’t appeal to me anymore. You are so dry and jumpy. When a
man comes to a woman-he wants to be cooled, not scratched by a nervy female who is all bones.
But now if you can’t produce sons, at least you can help harvest yams. (Emecheta, The Joys of
Motherhood, p. 32).

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4.3. Ways Igbo society gets destroyed

4.3.1. Male dominance and women suppression

According to http://www.writework.com/essay/things-fall-apart-oppression, we all know that a

man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding” (TFA, p.132). Here, Uchendu
describes the male dominance and female suppression in Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall
Apart. Uchendu exemplifies one of the few male characters who understood and displayed
gratefulness for the important role women played in his Igbo society. In this Igbo culture based
on male prosperity—men were higher up on the social scale and earned more respect and honor
if they possessed more riches, titles and wives. Women are regarded as unnecessary except for
rearing children and performing tasks such as the equivalent of domestic chores. Suppression of
women, false perceptions of their ability, and blatant disrespect for their rights are all reasons
that masculine dominance is a highly important theme in Achebe’s book. This poor consideration
that the female gender was attributed leads Okonkwo to kill himself for fear of being considered
weak or a woman.

One very prominent reason for the suppression of women in the Igbo tribe was manifest in their
lack of opportunity to excel. Women everywhere have a desire to prove their worth—the Igbo
tribe warranted no exception. Women were not physically or legally barred but an unwritten
code understood and lived by all Igbo was the definite reason for their restricted freedoms. Every
wrestling match consisted of solely male competitors -“The contest began with boys...” (TFA, p
47)...and it ended with boys. The egwugwu who remained masked at all times and maintained a
commonly known yet supposedly hidden identity could not even tolerate a woman among them,
blatantly disregarding any consult or opinion a woman had to offer to the tribe. Along with
restraint from participating in certain activities women of the Igbo tribe were not allowed to take
the titles of the clan that represented honor and achievement. Generally women do not possess
such strong physical characteristics or competitive, violent natures that were venerated in the
Igbo culture. Many of these manners came naturally to male clansmen therefore these men did
not have to work so hard for the respect and dignity they deserved even as human beings.
Women are not so commonly blessed in abundance with these traits as men are—they are very
talented with child rearing and have the patience to deal with the continuous amount of

48
monotonous women were expected to do every day. Terms related to women were considered
offensive and insulting. “Agbala was not only another name for a woman; it could also mean a
man who had taken no title” (TFA, p 13). All of these examples of disregard for women’s worth
clearly illustrates Achebe’s message of masculine dominance in the Igbo society.

This male dominant approach is reflected in Things Fall Apart (1958) and Arrow of God (1982).
His Things Fall Apart famous for the macho image of the protagonist-Okonkwo leaves little
room for the projection of feminine values. Okonkwo vents his anger at his son Nwoye, who
preferred his mother’s stories of the “tortoise and its wily ways” to his father’s “masculine
stories of violence and bloodshed” is very instructive. When Nwoye committed the ultimate
‘abomination’ of establishing links with church goers, Okonkwo repudiates him “How then
would he have begotten a son like Nwoye… Perhaps he was not his son! No! … how could he
have begotten a woman for a son? Looking at his favourite daughter, Ezinma, he had thought:
‘she should have been a boy (Achebe, p.61-63). Sons were considered as belonging to the mother
when they were involved in some malpractice. This is illustrated in Arrow of God when Oduche
attempted to kill the sacred python. This was an abomination and Ezeulu could only protect his
integrity as the head of the deity by being indifferent. He interrogates the mother as to the
whereabouts of “her son”. But the same Ezeulu rebukes his wife for questioning the rationale of
sending Oduche to study the whiteman’s religion by saying “what concerns you with what a man
wants to do with his son”

In Things Fall Apart, women in the patriarchal Igbo society are expected to fulfill their gender
role as a homemaker and a caregiver in the community while the men are the protector and the
breadwinner of the household; the women are the subordinate to the men. As Beauvoir stated,
women are seen as the "Other" as compared to the men who are seen as the Subject and the
Absolute. This situation can be clearly seen in the protagonist, Okonkwo's wives. They are the
homemakers and caregivers of the household. Each wife has to obey him at all costs and they
also have to endure Okonkwo's temper and sudden outburst. The consequence in failing to fulfill
him will cost them to be physically abused. For example, Okonkwo is "provoked to justifiable
anger" when his third wife, Ojiugo, fails to come home on time to prepare him meal; Okonkwo
beats her heavily even though it is the sacred week where the occurrence of violence is an
offence to the earth goddess, Ani. Living in the patriarchal society, the subordinate status of an

49
Igbo woman is a norm that has been practiced since their forefather; the position of man and
woman is unquestionable. Even so, there is a minority of women who hold a high position in the
society. They are the spiritual figures and are respected by the communities. In "Things Fall
Apart", Ezeani, the priest of the goddess of earth, Ani, is the respected woman that even firm-
believer-in-patriarchal-system Okonkwo would bow to.

The importance of woman's role appears when Okonkwo is exiled to his motherland. His 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". It is self-explanatory that good things reserved for men and bad
things for women. This picture which is compared to women identifies psychological oppression
and it is where society gets destructed if men consider themselves good and women bad.

4.3.2. Undermining women’s rights

Women in Umuofia’s society are women seem to play a minor role in everyday life. Respect to
the husband is the main role in Umuofia’s women. Their husband like the God that whatever
their husband wants they should follow it. If do not, they will be considered as a wife that cannot
keep an honor of their husband. In every situation and condition, women should feel what their
husbands feel. As described as below:

She could not be expected to cook and eat while her husband starved. (Things Fall
Apart, p. 22)

Women should ignore themselves to respect their husband, whatever happens. They should be
willing to feel starved when their husband feel it. It will make women become a good wife. The
women of Umuofia are treated very poorly. Women are required to cook, clean and take care of
the children. If these duties are not taken care of, the women of Umuofia can be beaten. The Igbo
tribe not only allows, but encourages wife beating. Being a good wife is not an easy thing to do
in Umuofia. Everything should base on the rule. Apart from this family situation, it shows that

50
women have many heavy duties to carry out in the family and society as well. When they are not
able to fulfill them, they have to suffer much such as being beaten like Okonkwo’s wife, Ekwefi.
Okonkwo treats his wife like a servant, demanding that she does whatever he commands her with
no questions asked. Women, as demonstrated by Okonkwo's eldest wife here, are taught to be
silent and obedient. In fact, women count for so little in Igbo society that they are often not even
addressed by their given names, but referred to by their relationship with men. Throughout the
entire novel, the narrator rarely calls Okonkwo's first wife by her name; she is almost always
identified in relation to her husband or son, Nwoye. For example, "He belongs to the clan," he
told her ( Okonkwo’s eldest wife). “So look after him”. “Is he staying long with us?” She asked.
“Do what you are told, woman,” Okonkwo thundered, and stammered. “When did you become
one of the ndichie of Umuofia?” And so Nwoye's mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no
more questions. (Things Fall Apart, p.14).

Regarding the situation happened above, it shows that Okonkwo is not a good man to consult
and all what he does, he does not consult his wife before. As their Igbo culture states, woman
should respect her husband, want it or not. When Okonkwo brings Ikemefuna, he has not taken
time to sit together with his wife to see if it is possible and easy to adopt him but the dictatorship
mind of Okonkwo as a man, he at once responds to his wife harshly “Do what you are told,
woman,” Okonkwo thundered, and stammered”. This also shows the poor value that men gives
women. Ikemefuna who is brought and put at home by Okonkwo, is said to be the first failure of
Okonkwo when he himself kills him with machete. This death of this boy leads Okonkwo to a
terrible end of his life. When this women oppressor dies, the society including culture faces
many problems and heavy changes because he denies to be called a weak or woman and decides
to kill a white man messenger then after he hangs himself. His belief of being dominant and
superior to everybody is not permitting him to be submissive to the white people new leadership
in Umuofia.

According to Brandon, B (2012) It is natural for a mother to prioritize protecting her children
over her responsibility in the community. In the novel, Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie, Beatrice, better referred to simply as Mama, is the gentle mother of Kambili and Jaja
who abides by Papa’s every will. That is until she has her second miscarriage from her husband’s
abuse and she poisons him to death. She loved her husband and held him in high regard but when

51
her children are threatened and killed, she did what she believed was necessary to protect them.
Ekwefi is not much different from Beatrice, although she has a stronger and bolder personality.
She has a tendency to provoke Okonkwo but is different than his other wives because she has
one daughter, Ezinma, who is Okonkwo’s favorite. Not only that but Ezinma is the sole
surviving child of the ten that Ekwefi tried to have. In this way, Ekwefi resists the oppressive
forces that act against her, such as her bad chi, personal god, and her husband, Okonkwo. One of
the major forces acting against Ekwefi is her own chi, which is her personal god. While the
subject of even the existence of spirits and gods is debatable, there is no doubt that Ekwefi has an
issue with childbirth. In the eyes of Igbo culture, the blame would go to both the bad chi of
Ekwefi and the ogbanje, an evil child spirit who reincarnates, that continues to torment her by
dying. Ekwefi suffers a great deal because of this and “as she buries one child after another her
sorrow gives way to despair and then to grim resignation.” (Achebe, p.77). Despite the agony of
consistently losing children, she never gives up physically trying and goes to a powerful
medicine man for help. Her character at this point is very bitter and doubtful of ever having
children. When hope is almost lost, she gives birth to Ezinma, who survives longer than expected
and revives love into Ekwefi. As the Igbo culture states that a woman should be only children
bearer. This shows how Ekwefi is not happy with the death of her childbirth.

"Without looking at the man, Okonkwo had said.”This meeting is for men." The man who had
contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how
to kill a man's spirit." Being called a woman is clearly an insult that has the ability to "kill a
man's spirit." Therefore, we can infer that women aren’t highly valued in Umuofia. (TFA, p.26)

4.3.3. The effects of conflict between Okonkwo and his son, Nwoye

Okonkwo is frustrated by Nwoye because he reminds him so much of his own father, Unoka.
Equally, he is disappointed that Nwoye resembles Unoka in that he's sensitive and often lazy.
Okonkwo views these as sign of femininity which he believes are one of the most disgraceful
traits an Igbo man can display. Because of this, Okonkwo is constantly criticizing and even
beating Nwoye in hopes that it will help him become more masculine and less humiliating to his
father. When Ikemefuna comes to live with their family, Nwoye begins to demonstrate more
masculine behavior which makes Okonkwo proud, although he never admits to it. Nwoye

52
develops a strong brotherhood with Ikemefuna and remembers their three years together as the
happiest time in his life. When the oracle decides that Ikemefuna must be killed, Okonkwo ends
up being the one to follow through with the order. Nwoye is enraged and devastated by the
murder of his brother. He develops anger towards his father that never dissipates and eventually
leads him to convert to Christianity when the Europeans arrive and begin to colonize the villages.
When Nwoye accepts to be converted, it shows Okonkwo that his son behaves like his father
Unoka and this one is known as a man who dies without a title or woman. It is obvious that
Okonkwo is ashamed of his son in all his clan and even for the new settlers who bring the
Christianity. This action which happens to Nwoye represents weakness of the society. And then
as he is a son of the famous conservative man of Umuofia, this change from traditional to
Christianity exhibits the society which falls apart because Nwoye whose father considers him as
a woman he has immediately been converted to the Christianity.

Okonkwo the woman-hater taught his son Nwoye biased and generalizing ways regarding
women. “Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their
troubles.”(Things Fall Apart, p.52) One example that reflects this contrast between common
personality traits lays in the stories mothers and fathers told their children. Boys/men grow out of
their mother’s stories on reaching that certain age and move on to listening to stories appropriate
for their gender. Even though some boys secretly love their mother’s stories the father’s stories
captivate them and convert them to the male side of the world once and for all. “Nwoye knows
that it is right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still prefers the stories that his
mother used to tell.”(p.53) In the Igbo tribe men take advantage of the contrast between and it
results in relationships resembling that of a master and a slave. “No matter how prosperous a
man was, if he is unable to rule his women and his children (especially his women) he is not
really a man.”(p.53) Men treats their multiple wives like property, and any children they bear
belongs to the father as well. This boy who is taken as woman by his his father is the first Igbo
people who comverts into Christianity. Therefore this act done by Nwoye, symbolizes the
failure of the Igbo society.

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4.3.4. Violence against women in the special days

The novel thoroughly describes two instances when Okonkwo beats his second wife, once 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. He beat her again when she referred to him as one
of those "guns that never shot." When a severe case of wife beating comes before the egwugwu,
he 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.

During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo notices that his youngest wife, Ojiugo, has left her hut to
have her hair braided without having cooked dinner. He beats her for her negligence, shamefully
breaking the peace of the sacred week in a transgression known as nso-ani. The priest demands
that Okonkwo sacrifice a nanny goat and a hen and pay a fine of one length of cloth and one
hundred cowries (shells used as currency). Okonkwo truly repents for his sin and follows the
priest's orders. Ogbuefi Ezeudu observes that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani has
become mild in Umuofia. He also criticizes another clan's practice of throwing the bodies of all
who die during the week of peace into the evil forest.

When Okonkwo breaks the peace during the sacred week, the priest chastises him for
endangering the entire community by risking the earth deity's wrath. He refuses Okonkwo's offer
of a kola nut, expressing disagreement peacefully. This parrying of potential violence on the
interpersonal level reflects the culture's tradition of avoiding violence and war whenever
possible. Although traditional Igbo culture is fairly democratic in nature, it is also profoundly
patriarchal. Wife-beating is an accepted practice. Moreover, femininity is associated with
weakness while masculinity is associated with strength. It is no coincidence that the word that
refers to a title-less man also means "woman." A man is not believed to be "manly" if he cannot
control his women. Okonkwo frequently beats his wives, and the only emotion he allows himself
to display is anger. He does not particularly like feasts, because the idleness that they involve
makes him feel emasculated. Okonkwo's frustration at this idleness causes him to act violently,
breaking the spirit of the celebration. Through this anger of Okonkwo liked to have, it also brings
him to kill a while messenger as the result of his suicide.

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Referring to the above data, this men’s behavior of beating their wives keeps showing both the
conflicts and disunity which take place in Igbo society. Women live on fear of their husbands.
These so called rights of men for beating wives express the picture of the society which is falling
apart. For example, in the Igbo society it is prohibited to quarrel with someone or to do anything
wrong when preparing their feasts. As presented above Okonkwo too is reprimanded for his
treatment of his wives, and when he beats his wife during the Week of Peace, he is publicly
humiliated and told he has committed a great evil. So, the women of the Umuofia society did not
have many advantages, if any, over the women in today's society. One trait that does exist is that
women of the Umuofia society are in a way valued by men

4.4. The Women of Umuofia and the Women of Today

Throughout many years women have always been inferior to men in all cultures and places.
Maybe it's because men are physically stronger than women and have always had the ability to
control them that way. There are also sayings that men are more intelligent than women but that
is an arguable statement. Whatever the case, women have always been a few steps behind men
since years ago and still today.

In the society of the Umuofia, women were treated more as objects and tools than human beings.
Women were personal slaves to all the men and each man had more than one wife because the
more wives a man had, the more respect he received from the rest of the village. A woman's
purpose in the Umuofia society was to cook her husband's dinners, grow crops in the fields, and
care for the children. Wives were mistreated, disrespected, and even beaten at any man's will.
The only time a woman was safe from a beating would be during week of peace.

There ways and lifestyle is almost completely different then the women in today's society. In
most cases a man has only one wife and women with any self-respect would not stand for a
second wife. Women are not beaten like they were in the Umuofia society since it is now against
the law to disrespect your wife in such a manor. They have jobs and no longer need to depend on
their husbands for money or well being. The women of today are very independent and are
treated as equals according to the law. A woman can easily achieve a career and receives the
same opportunities as any male today. Also, a single woman with a child receives financial

55
support from the government or from the man who impregnated her. Regarding the novel of
Things Fall Apart, one can make a clear comparison of women consideration of the past and the
present whereby in the past time women were taken as nothing but today women have started
being given their rights as their counterparts, men. Though the majority of women are still
domesticated like in the previous traditional time.

4.5. Limited Role of women in the ancient Igbo society

According to Dudka (2006), women in Ibo society, although having only a few rights and
serving their men, are important and inalienable parts of the tribe and its religion. Basically, the
role of women in African society is to give birth to numerous children, to take care of them, to
cook, to clean, to serve and obey their husbands and fathers. However, Chinua Achebe in his
book "Things Fall Apart" shows that African women are actually strong and important for the
religious ceremonies and life in general. They are needed even for such a strong, aggressive and
manly person as Okonkwo, who hates woman and everything related to them.

For the characters in the book, women are not persons, but rather "things" that are to be used and
exploited. Females are abused by male part of the society and have to serve them, almost as if
women were slaves for their men. Their main duty is to give birth to children, as many as
possible. Women have to take care of their kids, tell them stories and feed as well.

However, those two duties are considered to be the most important things in life and nature.
That's what all female animals do - give birth to a baby and take care of it while it is growing up.
Ibo tribe and all other societies in the world respect and admire women because they are the
source of life. It's due to the biological function that females have in the life-giving process, that
the society has an idea that woman know the secret of life. The ability of women to give birth to
a new life influenced a subconscious belief in their power.

This state of affairs is generated and sustained by the traditional perception that men were natural
leaders, born to rule over women, and that women‟s perspectives were regarded as being of little
worth. Consequently, in Mineke Schipper‟s words, „men are not used to taking the female
perspective into account when it does not coincide with their own‟ (p.54). This has resulted in

56
problematic representations of women in literature. One of the earliest and most famous African
works of literature, Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe, emphasizes „macho heroism
and masculinity in an attempt to recapture the strength of the African past‟ as Fonchingong
contends (p.137). In such a scenario, the depiction of female experiences and perspectives was
limited, and thus, as Linda Strong-Leek (2001) argues, „women were indoctrinated to view the
world from a patriarchal perspective‟ (cited in Fonchingong: 138). For example, Charles
Fonchingong describes how in Things Fall Apart (1958) Okonkwo is said to „vent his anger on
his son Nwoye, for preferring to listen to his mother‟s tales to his father‟s masculine stories of
violence and bloodshed‟ (p.138).

Things Fall Apart examines the Umuofia society of Igboland; a society in which women do not
only own nothing, but are regarded as part of the material acquisitions of men. The status
symbols of the society are a large barn full of yams, wives, children and titles as illustrated in

Okoye… was not a failure like Unoka. He had a large barn full of yams and he had three
wives. And now he was to take the Idemili title. The third highest in the land.(TFA, p.5)

Okonkwo… [though] still young… was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams,
and had just married his third wife. To crown it all, he had taken two titles… and so
although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time.
(TFA, p.6)

There was a wealthy man in Okonkwo’s village, who had three huge barns, nine wives
and thirty children. (TFA, p.13)

Women are grouped together with yams (a man’s crop) and act as a barometer of a man’s wealth.
The irony of the situation is that it was the women and children who would work in the fields,
but they were undifferentiated from the produce of those fields. Women could not take titles, nor
could they have barns full of yams. The harder the women worked, the more wives they would
help acquire for the husband. Traditionally, the senior wife even had the responsibility of
recruiting co-wives for the husband and if she refused she would be accused of malice and
sometimes beaten up. A wife then was not a wife till she learnt to act in complicity with customs

57
that had no regard for her feelings. Madume in Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine sends his wife to
go and ask Ihuoma to be his second wife.

Traditional Africa was built on manhood, a discursive space with many positive aspects but
which many men reinterpreted to mean power to subjugate their women. Patriarchy, therefore,
established solidarity among men for dominating women. As a mode of production, patriarchy
established women as part of the material wealth of men. In that way tradition sanctioned the
economic dependence of women on men that is still apparent even today. In The Concubine,
Ihuoma has to reduce her farming area because no one expects her to grow a lot of yams after her
husband’s death. The yam is, in any case, a man’s crop. Women would be expected to own
nothing because they were insubstantial themselves. As Ezeulu in Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of
God points out "My wife’s cock belongs to me because the owner of a person is also the owner
of whatever that person has.”

In spite of the hard work women put into working in the fields, the society had admonitory
images about women which were the normative yardsticks for judging the worthiness of male
members of the community. Women owned nothing and therefore any men who had no titles or
yams was considered weak and labelled ‘woman.’ The traditional discourses that describe
women’s location in economic, cultural and religious practices explain women’s oppression in
the domestic sphere even today.

4.6. Igbo society under white men’s occupation due to Okonkwo’s brutality and death

The killing of Ezeudu's son, however, is slightly more problematic. On the surface, there is no
way that Okonkwo could not have purposefully forced the gun to explode, consciously or
unconsciously, nor could the immediate effects of this be seen as anything other than tragic. By
way of punishment for accidentally killing another member of the clan, Okonkwo is forced to
leave the village and live in Mbanta for seven years. This not only takes away his status as a lord
of a clan and ruins his carefully planted farm, but it also robs his son Nwoye of the chance of
taking a title and becoming a prominent member of their society. At the same time, the fact that
Okonkwo is removed from the village shortly before the arrival of the missionaries is somewhat
fortuitous.

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After Okonkwo returns from exile, he learns that the missionaries have further encroached into
his culture than he could have believed. He is saddened because his people have “so
unaccountably become soft like women” (168) and have lost their martial spirit. Tension
between the church and the village escalates until finally Enoch, a convert, tears off the mask of
an egwugwu, killing an ancestral spirit (171). The village retaliates by burning the church to the
ground, which redeems the village in Okonkwo’s eyes: “It was like the good old days again,
when a warrior was a warrior” (176). With Okonkwo back in the village, it seems as if the clan is
returning to its war-like state, and he has reason to hope that the village might actually gain
enough courage to “kill the missionary and drive away the Christians” (176). This hope is
important to the scene in which Okonkwo kills the messenger, which takes place shortly after
Okonkwo and several of his peers are tricked into captivity as retribution for the destruction of
the church. In the meeting that follows, it appears as if the village has had enough. Okika, one of
the “great men” of the village, gives this speech:

If we fight the stranger we shall hit our brothers and perhaps shed the blood of a clansmen. But
we must do it. Our fathers never dreamed of such a thing, they never killed their brothers. But a
white man never came to them. So we must do what our fathers would never have done . . . We
must root out this evil. And if our brothers take the side of evil we must root them out too. And
we must do it now. (p.187) .Okika’s speech is then interrupted by an Igbo messenger who tells
the assembly that “the white man whose power you know too well has ordered this meeting to
stop” (188), at which point Okonkwo kills the messenger, his “machete descending twice and the
man’s head lay beside his uniformed body” (188). Unlike the accidental killing which led to
Okonkwo’s exile, this murder is specifically designed to incite the village to revolt against the
white man. If Okonkwo had not killed this messenger, Okika’s speech would have been
meaningless—what would have been the point of an immediate call to action if the men of the
village had meekly shuffled off at the first sign of trouble? His chi was not against him when he
killed the messenger; he killed him because he was attempting to uphold the culture of his people
in the face of the impending colonisation by the white men and their collaborators. When
Okonkwo discovers, then, that his village does not in fact support his actions because they “had
let the other messengers escape,” he does not rave, he does not go out and attack the court, but he

59
contemplatively “wipes his machete on the sand and goes away” ( Achebe, p.188). We discover
shortly thereafter that Okonkwo has hung himself on a tree behind his compound.

Consequently, death by suicide is believed to be an evil and “a bad death.” If one committed
suicide, that person was never (and never will be) at peace with him/herself, the community (i.e.
village), relatives, and most importantly the gods. There is no other alternative, then, than the
interpretation that Okonkwo chooses to commit suicide rather than being executed by the white
man. For him, to be converted and killed by the white men were taken as weakness or
womanism. This belief of Okonkwo of conservativeness and gender biased freely led the society
to fall under the control of whitemen.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1. Introduction

The novel Things Fall Apart is used to analyze data related to the topic of this thesis whose title
is the impact of women oppression on societal destruction in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart. The reading and analysis of data done are only helping different people to understand the
image of a woman in the Igbo society from the pre-colonial to post colonial period. Therefore,
the conclusion which is drawn from the analysis done in Things Fall Apart and suggestion which
are proposed can direct and help the writers or different researchers who will specifically
conduct their studies easily in this novel mentioned above.

5.2. Summary of findings

Chinua Achebe writes 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. As far as this research is
concerned, it found that in the Igbo society women are oppressed by being beaten. The main
cases mentioned are Okonkwo who used his heavy hand against his wives where he beat both his
second and third wives without any protection. Uzowulu was also identified to seriously beat
several times his wife, Mgbofo until his in-laws came to take her sisters to their home.

The ineqauality as one of forms of Igbo women oppression, it was pointed at when Okonkwo
said that he wished Ezimna to be born a boy, this critically showed the researcher how the female
children were not respected as the male children though Nwoye, a son of Okonkwo was taken as
weak to adhere to his father’s sensitivity and wishes towards masculinity. It was clear that
women were not equal to men because they were beaten and no one punished the husbands for
inconveniencing their wives. The research took one example of the sacred week and the yam

61
plantation where Okonkwo beat her wives. These situations of misbehaving against women
rights brought about the Igbo society to fall down. Having been limited in the households and
rearing children, women have no say and any other alternatives to defend their rights being
undermined by the men. This internal disunity exhibited between women and men drives the
novel Things Fall Apart to help the researcher fully understand how the Igbo society faced many
problems up to its decline. The femininity was associated with the weakness while masculinity
associated with strength but the Okonkwo’s own understanding; he failed to submit to the British
colonizers who came for ruling Umuofia. Through his conservative thoughts, he denied the
colonizers’ new leadership in their Umuofia whereby he kills the white man messenger and then
after he weakly advised himself not to hand his live in the white men’s hands. As a result
Okonkwo who was known throughout the novel and this research as a woman hater and
oppressor, he hung himself not to be called weak as a woman though this event done by him was
taken in Igbo society as an abomination by showing how important women are to the men, yet
they do not receive the treatment they deserve. The findings show that the world in Things Fall
Apart is one in which patriarchy intrudes oppressively into every sphere of existence. It is an
andocentric world where the man is everything and the woman nothing.

The Igbo women are perceived as being weak. They received little or no respect in the Igbo
society and were harshly abused. The gender conflicts or gender differentiation gives much time
and place to the oppression of women due to how in Igbo society women are dominated by their
counterparts. This internal disunity exhibited between women and men drives the novel Things
Fall Apart by showing how important women are to the men, yet they do not receive the
treatment they deserve. The findings show that the world in Things Fall Apart is one in which
patriarchy intrudes oppressively into every sphere of existence. It is an andocentric world where
the man is everything and the woman nothing. Women are viewed as second-class citizens,
powerless and defenseless to the authority of men. Women are not respected as people, but as
property, laborers, and the producers of children. A woman has no identity of her own; the status
and position of her husband defines her. Achebe offers an accurate depiction of the role of
women in a male-dominated society in Things Fall Apart.

The Igbo women are never to act without orders or question them when they are given,
illustrating the level of submissiveness a woman must display to be socially acceptable. In the

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second chapter, Okonkwo brings Ikemefuna, a prisoner of war with a neighboring clan, into his
home until the clan decides what should be done with him. Okonkwo tells his senior wife to look
after him. She asks if the captive will be staying for a long period of time. Okonkwo furiously
replies, "Do what you are told, woman" and she "asked no more questions". This sort of
disrespect paints the picture of life as a female in Umuofian society. As a result, okonkwo’s
women domination and the poor consideration he attributes to women as weak people brings him
to death where he refuses to hand himself in the white people's hand so as not to be called a
woman by his clan. Along with this, the death of Okonkwo, the woman oppressor and hero of the
clan is taken as the end of the Igbo society.

5.3. Conclusion

The rights of women and female folks in the socio-political space of Nigeria on her democratic
agenda has been a matter of public debate and, hence attracts serious concerns by individuals,
academic, public analysts and the wider international community as a whole. The plight of
Nigerian women, like their counterparts in other parts of developing countries, have been
characterized by lack of adequate representation, lack of access to well-developed education and
training systems for women’s leadership in general; undue dominance of men in the socio-
political scheme of things; Poverty or lack of money or resources; lopsided political
appointments and the general imbalances associated with very unjust treatment of the female
citizens in its entirety. There is no doubt that this trend negates the collective interests of human
fundamental rights and the rights of equality, freedom and personal dignity of women in society
this is the reason why the writer likes to write about women oppression as it is found in Igbo
society, in Nigeria whereby women have no speech to defend their spoiled rights and
marginalization based on gender as the analysis keeps making clear in the previous chapters.

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, who consistently strives for
perfection, is a microcosm of the Ibo society because both suffer a downfall of major destruction
from internal and external forces including exposure to Christian settlers, violent actions, and a
lack of social structure. The external Christian settlers cause a downfall due to the negative

63
effects that they leave on Okonkwo and the society. The internal violent actions of Okonkwo
cause him to grow farther and farther away from everybody else as well as creating him to be
unstable. Finally, Okonkwo’s lack of social structure clearly reflects that of the Ibo because he is
unable to raise loyal children and cannot maintain a structural mentality when placed in a
troubling situation. It is for these reasons that Okonkwo, who strives for perfection, effectively
represents the Ibo culture as a whole because he is destroyed by internal and external forces.
Some people say that women must accept their inferior position in society because it is part of
their culture. This is very problematic. Women play an important part in their culture. Women
have the right to strive for liberation within in their own cultures. Women have the right to shape
and change the cultures to which they belong. If something in a culture oppresses women, we
oppose it just like we oppose anything that oppresses men.

As far as women are concerned in this research, it is clear that in the pre-colonial period women
play different roles in Igbo society and they are also given a value. However, they have to
concentrate on domestic activities such as cooking and looking after the children but some
family members try to help women to fulfill this duty of bringing up their children. When the
European colonizers arrive in Nigeria, they change many things related to the society and
culture. Henceforth, women start losing their value in the society whereby men dominance
obviously takes place against women. According to the British colonizers in Nigeria, the society
has to be more patriarchal than matriarchal. This means that women are deprived from parents’
inheritance and they should do everything regarding the men’s needs. The boy child is allowed to
be given his father inheritance but for a girl, it is prohibited. This women oppression through
being beaten without any protection and another crime against women demonstrate the readers
that culture changing of Igbo people brings about the societal destruction since the Nigerians
accept to follow their colonizers’ policies which make women lose their rights from the society.

This disunity brought by the British colonizers in Nigeria causes many problems in the society,
for example if you try to look at the situation of pre-colonial period, you at once notice that men
and women work together for their family development and interests.

Though white men criticize the polygamy in Nigeria, they do not think of the men and women
equality. The first time before the British arrival, Ibo are known as people who have very rich of

64
culture, but it cannot stand for a long time because the white men arrive and destroy all. The
downfall of Ibo society is a product of both the white man’s external influence and increasing
internal disunity. In the Igbo world, men are dominant sex and they rule over their families,
including their wives. Women are relegated to a more or less servile position, often living in fear
of their husbands. Though the protagonist of Things Fall Apart known as Okonkwo; his quick
temper with his family is never portrayed as admirable, he unquestionably has the right to be
aggressive at home. Oftentimes women and female children are synonymous with the kitchen.
Some of these women are voiceless no matter the treatment meted to them. In effect domestic
violence in Nigerian society is applied as a mechanism for controlling the ambitious tendencies
of some women. It is clear that when the British colonizers arrive in Igbo, they turn things
around by treating men as “main providers” and women as housewives and dependents, they
take away women’s power and along with this women have to undoubtedly respect men, and one
example which may be provided is for Okonkwo and his wives. Qkonkwo rules his household
with a heavy hand. His wife, especially the youngest, lives in perpetual fear of his fiery temper,
and so do his little children. This oppression and marginalization mentioned above prevent the
society from being developed due to that family disunity basing on men independence and
women dependence which differ from the pre-colonial period where all members of the family;
men and women work together for their family’ interests.

The analysis finds that while it cannot be gainsaid that in the novel Okonkwo is a male
chauvinist, who disrespects the personhood of women including his wives, this is entirely his
own flaw, and not Achebe’s. The society in Things Fall Apart accorded great respect and
importance to men like Okonkwo and Uzowulu who maltreat their wives should neither be
supported by the society nor are they backed by the writer. As far as Things Fall Apart is
concerned," Okonkwo's youngest wife Ojiugo decides to have her hair braided during the Week
of Peace. She decides to have her hair braided instead of cooking dinner. Okonkwo is furious
with Oijugo. He beats her during the Week of Peace because she neglected to cook dinner. He is
supposed to observe the Week of Peace with no violent behavior. Okonkwo shamefully beats his
youngest wife for her negligence in not preparing dinner. The priest demands that Okonkwo will
pay a fine for breaking the peace during the sacred time known as the Week of Peace.

65
During the New Yam Festival, Okonkwo becomes angry when he has nothing to do. He beats
Ekwefi. He accuses her of killing a banana tree. Okonkwo has anger issues and cannot rest
during festivals when there is no work to do. Okonkwo relieves his stress by beating his wives
and children: He rules his family unit with an iron fist and expects everyone to act on his
commands. Okonkwo plans to go hunting. He is not a very good hunter and Ekwefi makes a
snide remark because she is upset with Okonkwo for beating her. She claims that his gun never
shoots. Okonkwo, in anger to her snide remark, fires his gun at her but misses”. This situation
above related Okonkwo and his wives gives the picture and speechless of woman in the Igbo
society and that event is described as the disunity between men and women and the society
destruction as well due to the fact that the two entities are socially united.

By concluding, the researcher wishes to remind different governments especially the Nigerian as
far it is concerned that society needs both active and equal men and women in terms of
collaboration, social, economic, and political so as to strengthen the society unity and
development because the research indicates that Igbo women’s activity is limited by civil life and
households affairs in Things Fall Apart. Besides this, women are advised to shape and change
the cultures to which they belong. Goefe (via Sugihastuti, 2000:37) tells about feminism as a
theory about similarity between man and woman in politic, economic and social; or activity to
struggle for women basic rights. Women should stand for their rights whereby men have to
understand women’s problems related to the man supremacy and their culture beliefs which
place woman as an inferior human being. Igbo women should not be domesticated and be
oppressed the way it is identified in Things Fall Apart, they have to enjoy right to work and
associated benefits as men. Equality, respect and rights of all, women and men should be the
endless culture of Igbo society in order to displace all inequality minds and wrong beliefs against
women as one members of the society.

5.4. Recommendations based on research findings

The research was much keen on talking and describing the Igbo women oppression on societal
destruction. According to the findings, it is noticeable to recommend the following category of
the people: men, women and the government.

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As far as women oppression is concerned, it is better to advise men to stop their bad culture for
beating women because this culture does not build the society anymore.

Women should not be considered as the inferior persons because they can do many things good
like being leaders like priestess Chielo etc.

Husband’s parents should not be overcome by the gender differentiation which can bring about
the societal conflicts. It is good to equally consider all genders due to how all of them are created
equal.

The society needs to protect the rights of its citizens. That is, women, men and the children as
well. Along with that society should especially make laws to protect women from these violent
and obnoxious cultural practices. .

The Igbo culture should protect and favor men and women equally, yet it should also be giving
value every person from the society. This is because the Igbo society does not favor females.

From these situations mentioned before, women need to speak for themselves so as to be heard
by their husbands and the government.

Government at all levels should empower women through making the follow up which aims at
protecting women against the men’s oppression such as beating, abusing and inequality as well.

This should help them to change this culture which puts women behind the margin and be taken
as the men’s properties.

5.5. Recommendations for further research

The poor consideration given to the Igbo women demonstrates different forms of oppression
which can involve everybody to plead and make a real advocacy for women. That is to say
women should be given equal rights to men and work together in order to completely change the
culture norms or beliefs which undermine and marginalize women. It is good for the other
researchers to carry out their researches about Igbo women’s rights for changing their patriarchal
society and culture in order to initiate the strong gender equality in Nigeria. Women authors need

67
to bring their researches in Igbo society, in Nigeria, to completely assess whether women are still
living or working these days under fear and inequality whereby the society itself cannot be
developed basing on men dominance. It is known that two heads are better than one. Igbo society
needs both the real contribution of its men and women because the society needs to be
constructed by those two genders.

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http://www.writework.com/essay/things-fall-apart-oppression. (2007, September 24). Retrieved 13:01,

June 05, 2014

http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Portrayal-Of-Women-In-Things-1351252.htm,Retrieved on June
23,2014l

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