Women as the Unsung Breadwinners in Igbo Cosmology in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God

Abstract

The realistic portrayal of the chauvinistic, pre-colonial Igbo society in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God helped to advance the supposition that men were the breadwinners of the family. However, reading beyond the surface, one would discover that the role of the men and women in the traditional Igbo society was a replication of what obtains in the African jungle among lions. In the wild, lionesses do much of the hunting but the lion, as the leader of the pride, feeds first before the actual hunters. The only time the lion joins in the hunt is when the game is huge—buffalo, giraffe, elephant. The key role of the lion is the protection of his pride and territory. This compares with the role of Igbo women in Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. In addition to the traditional women’s roles of fetching water and firewood, cleaning the house, raising the children, the wives of a man also had to engage in farming of cocoyam, cassava, plantain, vegetables and rearing of chickens to feed their husband, children and themselves. The only thing their husband provided for them was yam, which women were forbidden to plant.

The study dissects the arduous roles of women providing for their family, while men take the glory as the breadwinners.