DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB

___________________________________________________

MA ENGLISH (REPLICA)

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. Amir Aziz

SUBMITTED BY: Amna Hussain (19 )
Faryal Noreen(16 )
Amna Abid (30)
Kayniat (32)
SUBJECT: Postcolonial Fiction

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 Gender Stratification and Power Relations in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe offers detailed view of gender stratification and power

relations of the Igbo Society as existed before colonization and reveals astonishing arrangements

existed in the apparently illiterate Igbo Society to maintain a gender harmony. Gender

stratification that is the male and female status vis-a-vis the level of their empowerment in Igbo

Society that has been revealed through Chinua Achebe’s novel. Okonkwo on one part

represents the role of the male and his wives and daughters represent the female part to illustrate

unequal power. Further, it will divulge that the general concept guided by the colonizing powers

that their colonies, being comprised of purely ignorant inhabitants, had been previously

adversely suffering from gender disparity, was not entirely based on facts. The African Igbo

Society, as is evident from the text, appeared to be the one that had astonishingly been

maintaining a substantial gender harmony even before being embittered by the lurid gift of

colonization. . It is seen that the male and female genders dance unequal dance in a socially,

politically and economically stratified society where the generic male gender wields untold

influence over women in that pre-colonial Igbo society.

Gerda Lerner cited in Butler maintains that, ‘gender is the costume, a mask, a strait jacket in

which men and women dance that unequal dance’ (Butler, 1990). ‘Unequal dance’ as used by

Gerda entails socio-cultural inequality scaffold by language. Gender is therefore, the outcome of

human interactions, social life and the structure of a particular society. West and Zimmerman
(1987) posit that gender is a human production just like culture and, it is dependent on everyone

constantly ‘doing gender’. In society, one gender is usually assumed to be superior to the other

leading to structured inequality where the subordinate gender has less power, prestige and

economic rewards than the valued and dominant gender. In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart it is

stated, ‘No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and children

(and especially his women) he was not really a man’ (Achebe, 1991). Through this kind of

gender construction, the idea of masculinity is obvious in all aspects of the pre-colonial Igbo

society. It is “the socially constructed roles of and relations between males and females” (Zola,

2010). Gender stratification pays a great deal of attention to the various similarities and

differences between men and women with respect to their experiences and viewpoints. Achebe

used language in Things Fall Apart to glorify masculine gender while portraying the female

gender as docile, foolish, weak and irresponsible second-class citizen. These dimensions are

captured succinctly in the excerpts below:

He had a large barn full of yams and he has three wives (P. 5).

Okonkwo is portrayed in this excerpt as a wealthy man. His wives and children depend wholly

on him for their survival. Okonkwo was not only wealthy, but could conveniently keep and

control three women. In this portrayal, Okonkwo is the provider, sustainer, saviour and ruler of

his wives. The ideology here is that irrespective of the number of women a man marries, he can

rule over them because he has the capacity, wisdom and authority to do so. Okonkwo’s wealth

points to his industriousness which the masculine gender is known for in Achebe’s Things Fall

Apart, while his masculinity enables him to marry three wives and keep them under his control.

Thus the male and female genders have been unevenly portrayed. In the other excerpt below, it
is further shown that marrying many wives and having total control over them is a mark of

wealth and an exclusive attribute possessed by men. Let us consider it.

He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams and had just married his third wife (P.7)

Okonkwo is still the character being described in the excerpt above. Men are painted as those

who work very hard, acquire wealth and marry as many wives as possible. The ideology of men

controlling all the resources aids patriarchal hegemony in society. Also, the logic underlying the

role and attributes assigned to men reinforces the belief that men are naturally superior,

intelligent and responsible.

On the other hand, one may acknowledge that Achebe is not suggesting that all men are

intelligent and responsible especially when one considers the difference between Okonkwo and

his father Unoka who is considered a worthless man in society. His projection actually agrees

with the traditional trend in a patriarchal society which Achebe creates. We are introduced to a

patriarchal society that privileges the male children over the female. Men are rated based on their

ability to feed their families on yams from one season to another. Okonkwo declares that he

began to own farms at the age of his son, Nwoye. This implies that he became a great man at a

very young age. Any great farmer is a great man and because Okonkwo is a great man, he wants

his son to be a great man too. This further demonstrates gender role specification. No mention

was made to Okonkwo’s daughters. This shows how the girl-child is neglected in the pre-

colonial Igbo society. Yam planting is an exclusive reserve for the men and this is a mark of

honour. ‘Women planted maize, melons and beans between yam mounds’. This is a lesser work

that does not require tact or energy but ‘yam, the king of crops, required a lot of energy. The

ideology here is that men are superior to women.In the extract below, Okonkwo is projected as a
wealthy, non-pleasure-seeking and hardworking man. They are fearless, courageous and heroic

in character. It was always said that Ndule and Ozoemena had one mind’, said Oberika..... ‘I did

not know that’ said Okonkwo.

‘I thought he was a strong man in his youth’ (P. 54).

It captures the psychology of the society that is depicted in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Any

man who shares ideas with women before executing them for his wife’s consideration and

possible approval is a weakling. Societal belief is evident here and polarizes between men and

women.

Achebe gives a balanced projection of the situation when he says that a man ‘whose arm was

strong’ invites large number of guests for the festival. Men are constructed as individuals who

are not pleasure-seeking. While women and children are painted as being enthusiastic over

feasting. As for Okonkwo, ‘He could be happier working on his farm’. This shows that men are

industrious while the women are lazy and pleasure-seeking. Thus, the writer creates the ideology

which determines the role patterns and norms that make inequality appear natural and inevitable,

especially in the Igbo society. Men are presented as heroes, bravery and valour are ascribed to

men . The asymmetrical portrayal of the emotional configuration of the two genders in Achebe’s

language is obvious from the extract below:

‘Ezinma is dying’, came her voice, and all the tragedy and sorrow of her life were packed in

those words. Okonkwo sprang from his bed, pushed back the bolt of his door and ran into

Ekwefi’s hut.. ‘It is Iba’ saidOkonkwo as he took his matchet and went into the bush to collect

the leaves and grasses and barks of trees that went into making the medicine for Iba (P. 60).
There are sharp contrasts between men and women as projected in the extract above. While

Ekwefi is portrayed as being emotional and confused, Okonkwo is portrayed as a courageous

man who could promptly arrest any situation. Women as represented by Odukwe’s sister,

Mgbafo, are helpless in a patriarchal world of Achebe as aptly captured using the indicative

mood in the excerpt above.

Achebe’s linguistic choices reflect the different ways men and women are perceived in the pre-

colonial Igbo society. Gender bias and gendered role specifications assigns more privilege,

honour and wealth to the masculine gender, while the feminine gender is an appendage to man.

In our society, one gender could be seen as superior to the other and this causes some structural

inequality in power and economic distribution. Further the chauvinistic and feministic traits of

domination, oppression, marginalization and derogation of the female gender are evident in the

language and diction of the author, a reflection of the unconscious mind and socio-cultural

beliefs about men and women in a patriarchal society. This is the result of the common belief of

the people. Women are falsely represented, giving a false impression of their identity and

orientation. On the whole, it is evident that uneven power relations place men and women on

uneven positions. Women are therefore presented as common being who can only be seen but

not to be heard in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

In the notions of Van Dijk approach on ideological expressions. It is said that, power in

discourse reflects the fact that “powerful participants control and constrain the contributions of

non-powerful participants. (Fairclough 2001, pp. 38-39) Okonkwo’s exercise of power is not

only for his wives, but also for men who had taken no titles. This made clear when the village

kinsmen gathered to discuss the next ancestral feast, without looking at the man Okonkwo had

said: “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him has no title. That was why
he had called him a woman. It is an implication of unequal relation between the titled men and

untitled ones. This implies that women are not allowed to attend such a meeting. As such it is an

ideological. This clearly shows gender inequality, the weak are called “women” as if Achebe

wants to say that women are second class citizens in African society. Achebe wants to say that

Africans emphasize on “I” the use of pronoun “I” by the writer implies absolute power of

Okonkwo over his wives. This indicates unequal power relations. Okonkwo’s refusal to

collaborate with his wives in the turn-taking conversation is a practice of individualism rather

than collectivism, the family unity is maintained by the use of force. In African traditions, being

polygamy is assign of wealth, so, it is an ideology Okonkwo has three bands full of yams and he

is crowned by three wives and eight children, this is what the Africans called it is an

achievement, so, Okonkwo derived his power from the achievements. This is consistent with

what has been stated by Van Dijk (1993) that “having access to socially valuable children who

revealed in the thought of being spoiled with the visitors from the mother land, In terms of

contents, Okonkwo is required to show who killed the tree, the social relations is the relation

between the controller (Okonkwo), and the controlled (i.e. his wives and the children), the

occupying (subjects) the subject position of Umuofian women or rather Okonkwo’ wives.

In a nutshell ,it is clear that Chinua Achebe has a good command of English, and he has used his

power of writing to enable him to portray unequal power relations between the two groups (i.e.

Okonkwo and his wives). However, the novelist has been shifting between the two named

groups, as in the case, in the first part, Okonkwo was in full control of his wives, and on the other

part, Okonkwo was being controlled by the priestess the of Agbala. We can conclude that, the

first part of the encounter between Okonkwo and his wives highlights gender inequality while

the second part expresses the power of an ideology. Achebe successfully portrayed gender
inequality in Igbo society, revealing the fact that gender stratification is often marked by

unequal power relations that assign definite entitlements and responsibilities to men only. This

leads to the emergence of gender sensitivity, a situation whereby people become aware of what

others think about gender to challenge the orthodox views and assumptions of the roles of men

and women in society. Gender sensitivity neutralizes the patriarchal status quo where ‘men have

social power in every important structure of society and... women do not have any real access to

such structures’ (Zola, 2010).

 Work Cited List

Achebe, C. (1991). Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest.

Afolabi, O. A., & Abosede, A. O. (2014). The Depiction of Women in Achebe’s Things Fall

Apart and Soyinka’s The Jero Plays’. Journal of ELT and Applied Linguistics (JELTAL),

2(3), 28-35.

Behringer, M. (2008). Gender in Contemporary Literature. New York: May and Baker.

Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Identity Subversion. New York: Routledge.

Cameroon, D. (2005). Language, Gender and Sexuality: Current Issues and New Directions.

Applied Linguistics, 26(4), 482-502. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ami027

Guthrie, A. (2011). Language and Identity in Postcolonial African Literature: A Case Study of

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart’ MA Thesis, U of Liberty.

Moreblessings, Chitauro-Mawema. (2006). Gender Sensitivity in Shonia Language Use.A

Lexicographic and Corpus-based Study of Words in Context”.Ph.D Thesis.University of

Zimbabwe and Oslo.

Ogunyemi, C., Akindutire, I., & Adelakun, O. (2011). A Study on Gender Consciousness in

Nigerian Autobiographical Narratives and Power of the Interview. Journal of Education

and Practice, 2(4).

Smyth, J., & Rogers, H. (2003). Male Voices and Perceived Sexual Orientation: An experimental

and theoretical approach. Language in Society.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503323024

Zola, W. P. (2010). The Depiction of Female Characters by Male Writers in Selected Isixhosa

Drama Works. Ph.D. Thesis.