achebe and orientalism

¶ … androgynous quality of Ezinma in "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe

In the novel "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, the apparent display of male dominance have become the focus of the novel, depicted through the character of Okonkwo. Through his character, Achebe was able to illustrate the voluntary submissiveness of women to the male members of the Umuofia and the discrimination between males and females in almost all their everyday activities. However, embedded in Achebe's narration of Umuofia life is the implicit display of female power in spite of the males' dominant display of authority in the tribe.

Ezinma, Okonkwo's daughter, best illustrates this 'power' among females in Umuofia. Apart from being Okonkwo's favorite daughter, Ezinma had shown power by possessing the female trait of beauty while at the same time having the aggressiveness of a male; characteristics that made Okonkwo wish the "she should have been a boy" (64). Similarly, the combination of both male and female characteristics was seen in the character of Ani, the fertility goddess of Umuofia. In the novel, Ani possesses power primarily because she is the one who makes it possible for Umuofia members to have productive harvests and for women to bear more children, yields greater power in the patriarchal Umuofia community (30-1). The power Ani wields to the village reflect the importance given to agriculture and fertility, symbolic and actual concepts related to reproduction, which would not become possible without the participation and presence of women. Thus, Ani embodies the collective power of women in Umuofia, whose ability to reproduce makes them more powerful than the monied and powerful men of their village. Through Ezinma and Ani, female power has managed to emerge and become influential in Umuofia, although male dominance is tolerated in order to maintain the status quo in the tribe.