The Role of Women in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay -- Things

More than those of any other African writer, Chinua Achebes literary works have helped to develop what is known as African literature today. And the single book which has helped him to launch his revolution is the classic, Things Fall Apart. The focus of this essay includes 1) Achebes portraiture of women in his fictional universe, the existing sociocultural situation of the period he is depicting, and the factors in it that condition male attitudes towards women 2) the consequences of the absence of a moderating female principle in his fictions 3) Achebes progressively changing attitude towards women s roles and 4) feminist prospects for African women. In the context of this study, the Igbo people whom Achebe describes will represent the rest of Nigeria -- and a great many of the nations of Africa. Sociocultural Background Were Nigeria and Africa oppressively masculinist? The answer is, Yes. Ghana was known to have some matrilineal societies, such as the Akans but Nigerias traditi onal culture, Muslim as well as non-Muslim, had been masculine-based even before the advent of the white man. The source, nature, and extent of female subordination and oppression have constituted a vexed enigma in African literary debates. Writers such as Ama Ata Aidoo of Ghana and the late Flora Nwapa of Nigeria have insisted that the image of the helpless, dependent, unproductive African woman was one ushered in by European imperialists whose women lived that way. On the other hand, the Nigerian-born, expatriate writer Buchi Emecheta, along with other critics, maintains that African women were traditionally subordinated to sexist cultural mores. I ally myself to the last mentioned camp. I believe that, in creating a masculine-based society, Ac... ...Function of Folk Tradition. Approaches To the African Novel Essays in Analysis. London Saros International, 1992.Nwapa, Flora. Efuru. London Heinemann, 1966.---. Idu. London Heinemann, 1970.Ogunyemi, Chikwenye Okonjo. Women and Nig erian Literature. Perspectives on Nigerian Literature. Vol. 1. Lagos, Nigeria protector Books, 1988. Okonkwo, Juliet. The Talented Woman in African Literature. African Quarterly 15.1-2 pages.Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York Norton, 1976.Thiong o, Ngugi wa. Petals of Blood. London Heinemann, 1977.---. Devil on the Cross. London Heinemann, 1982. Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers Gardens. In Search of Our Mothers Gardens Womanist Prose. New York Harcourt Brace, 1983. 231-243.Weinstock, Donald, and Cathy Ramadan.