Lakshminath Kagyung
Dr.
Lakshminath Kagyung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English,
Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh. The title of his Ph. D dissertation is
“Politics of Power and Authority: a Critical Reading of the Novels of Chinua
Achebe” submitted to Gauhati University.
Abstract
Through a reading of Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart (1958) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), this paper attempts
to examine the Igbo society’s attitude towards gender relations. The paper
would study the gender stereotypes and the existing hierarchy in the Igbo
society to assess the position of the Igbo women. An attempt is made to examine
the provisions for checks and balances of power in the traditional Igbo society
to see how it affects the genders. The paper would discuss the changes that
have come to Igbo society’s attitude towards gender relations by tracing the
trajectory from Things Fall Apart to Anthills of the Savannah.
Finally, an attempt would be made to examine the representation of women in
Achebe’s novels. The paper emphasises the importance of maintaining a balance
between the male and the female principles and posits that the inability to
maintain a balance between the two principles led to the tragedy/downfall of
Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart. The traditional Igbo society depicted in Things
Fall Apart is overtly androcentric; however, the paper contends that
society designed its norms and systems to balance the male and the female
principles. Okonkwo could not appreciate and comprehend the balance of his culture,
and that led to his downfall. The paper argues that Achebe understands and realises
the importance of the balance between the male and the female principles for
the proper functioning and development of the Igbo society and that he is not
gendered/biased in his representation of women characters in his novels. The methodology
used in the paper involves a close reading of the primary texts using African
indigenous ideas on power and gender relations as the theoretical frame of
references. The paper would also take recourse to Buchi Emecheta’s ideas on
gender relations for a clearer understanding of the subject of research.
Keywords:
Gender-relations, gender-stereotypes, hierarchy, power, androcentric and
representation.
In “Re-Imagining Gender in Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Christopher Anyokwo, emphasising the
importance of the balance between the male and the female principles, re-reads
and re-interprets gender relations in Things Fall Apart. He does not
glorify the much-eulogised manliness of Okonkwo; instead, he is critical about
the same. For him, the thoughtfulness and pragmatism of Obierika are more praiseworthy
than Okonkwo’s rigid and unreflecting attitude. Anyokwo believes that Achebe to
highlight and justify the importance of imagination and thoughtfulness over
rigidity and physical energy or brute force brings the downfall of Okonkwo. He says
that Achebe has deliberately played a trick on Okonkwo by imbuing a girl
(Ezinma) with male traits and a boy (Nwoye) with female characteristics. In
“Achebe and his Women: A Social Science Perspective”, Merun Nasser asseverates
that Anglophone African writers in their writings have often portrayed women in
a subservient role. He argues that Achebe, one of the most important and well-known
Anglophone African novelists, has not done much to represent women properly in
his novels. According to him, in his novels, Achebe merely uses the female
characters to develop his male characters. In “Sexual/Textual Politics:
Representation of Gender in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Saba Shouq states
that Achebe has given more significant space to and emphasis in representing
his male characters in his novel Things Fall Apart. Achebe took such a
stance, she opines, because of the overtly androcentric nature of the Igbo
society where a man was all-important and where women played a subservient
role. She claims that the novel’s structure speaks volumes about the Igbo
society’s patriarchal social set up, which often subdued the voice of women. She
highlights that many chapters in the novel begin with the name of Okonkwo, the male
protagonist of the novel. The name of Okonkwo’s mother is never mentioned in
the novel. The Igbo women also participated in the cultivation process, and the
house’s running, but the society seldom acknowledged their role. Precisely, in
the article, she is highlighting the gendered nature of the Igbo society. She criticises
Achebe for participating and encouraging such gender-biased nature of the
society and for not taking any specific measures against it in his writings. There
is an ongoing discussion on gender relations in Achebe’s novels. This paper
would try to participate in and continue the discussion to contribute to the
domain of knowledge.
It is evident from a reading of Achebe’s novels,
particularly Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah, that
the Igbo societies depicted there were excessively patriarchal, which often
suppressed the voice of women and made them play a subservient role. It was a lopsided
kind of social set up where men enjoyed ultimate power and authority over
women. Some critics believe that Achebe, as a writer, did not do much for the
cause of the Igbo women of his society. According to them, Achebe, in his
novels, simply portrayed the lopsided nature of the society as regards gender
relations without making an effort to give an appropriate voice to and space
for the female characters. However, one may argue that a deeper reading of his
novels speaks otherwise. There is no denying that the Igbo society of Achebe’s
novels is overtly and excessively androcentric. Achebe, who claims himself to
be a novelist and a teacher, considers it his duty to provide a realistic
depiction of the African society in his novels. Since the African society
depicted in his novels is androcentric, it is obvious that the male characters
will find greater representation in his novels. However, the fact that the male
characters find greater representation in his novels does not mean that Achebe
does not think and realise the importance of the female characters. It will be
a biased assessment to say that Achebe did not properly represent the women characters
in his novels.
By male principles, the paper refers to qualities like
raw physical strength, brute energy, aggressiveness, love for violence and
bloodshed, and by female principles, it refers to qualities such as patience,
pragmatism, thoughtfulness, imagination and having cerebral strength. In
“Re-Imagining Gender in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Anyokwo
asseverates that the Igbo traditional culture and society were phallocratic. Society
prioritised male principles like brute energy, aggressiveness, love for danger
and bloodshed over womanly qualities like patience, thoughtfulness, pragmatic
and circumspect behaviour. Moreover, traits like talkativeness,
cantankerousness, feeblemindedness, fearfulness, inconstancy and unreliability
were often associated with women.
The Igbo society represented in Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart is androcentric. It seems men in/of that society enjoyed unlimited
power and authority over their women. Physical valour and courage were
respected in that society. By virtue of his physical prowess, Okonkwo rose to
fame and became successful in life at an early age. His success justifies the
Igbo saying: “If a child washed his hands he could eat with kings” (Things
Fall Apart 6). In the Umuofian society in Things Fall Apart, the
number of barns a man had determined his social position; the more the number
of barns, the greater was the man’s social status. The Umuofian society was
agrarian; to have more barns, a man had to be physically powerful. That was how
the idea of masculinity came into being, and that was why masculine traits were
adored and respected in that society. The number of wives a man had was another
factor to determine the social position in the Umuofian society. A man of
higher social position generally had more wives. It may be argued, to have more
barns, one would need more manpower to work in the field, and having more wives
served that purpose. Moreover, having more wives would also mean that
eventually, one will have more children or, precisely, more hands to assist in
cultivation.
The androcentric nature of the Umuofian society in Things
Fall Apart has put men at the centre. Men had almost become omnipotent in
that society. Many narratives/discourses were framed to valorise masculine
traits and to sustain male dominance. Masculinity or manliness was associated
with the ability to dominate one’s wife. “No matter how prosperous a man was,
if he was unable to rule his women and his children, he was not really a man” (Things
Fall Apart 37). Such kinds of narratives or beliefs encouraged physical
violence in the garb of masculinity. Violence and bloodshed were regarded as
manly attributes; Okonkwo, in Things Fall Apart, tried to inculcate such
traits in his sons. In “Things Standing Together: A Retrospect of Things
Fall Apart”, Derek Wright states that Okonkwo’s cult of virility mistakes
the nature of courage and confuses gentleness with weakness. That was the
reason why Okonkwo abhorred anything that reminded him of his father, Unoka.
Unoka did not fit into Umuofia’s idea of manliness. He liked to spend his time
roaming around idly, playing musical instruments. He was a peace-loving person and
abhorred violence. Umuofia did not appreciate that kind of behaviour of a man.
According to Umuofian belief, a man must be strong, courageous and must love
violence and bloodshed. If a man lacks these qualities, he will be regarded as “womanly”
or “agbala”. The African word “agbala”1 means both “a woman” and/or
“a man who has no title”. In Umuofia, the word “agbala” was often used in a
derogatory manner; it referred to a weak man who did not have a title or a high
social position.
In “Sexual/Textual Politics: Representation of Gender in
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Saba Shouq states that Achebe, in his
novels, supports and glorifies the androcentric nature of the Igbo society. By
doing so, she argues, Achebe is participating in encouraging and propagating
patriarchy. She asseverates, Achebe has consciously ordered his text in a way
that by reading the opening lines of the first chapter, one can understand the
position of males in the African culture. It has been rightly pointed out that six
chapters of the novel, namely— chapters 1, 2, 3, 8, 14 and 24, begin with
Okonkwo’s name. The reason Achebe foregrounds his hero’s name and gives details
about his personality is perhaps to highlight the social positioning of the
male protagonist and to delineate the social structure of male dominance in the
Igbo society. Saba Shouq is also critical of Achebe’s lopsided representation
of his male characters in relation to his female characters. She is of the
opinion that the female characters in Achebe’s novels do not find the same
space as that of the males. It is pertinent to mention here that Achebe,
throughout his novel Things Fall Apart, do not tell the readers the name
of Okonkwo’s mother. On the contrary, Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, has been
described at length in the first chapter. In “Sexual/Textual Politics:
Representation of Gender in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Saba Shouq
criticises Achebe for such a biased representation on the basis of gender. However,
it would be unfair and superficial to label Achebe gendered on the basis of the
above example. For, later in the novel, one can see Achebe emphasising the significance
of a mother in a man’s life. When Okonkwo was exiled, he was provided shelter
in his mother’s place. That was perhaps the reason why the Igbos buried their
women with her kinsman and not with the kinsman of her husband. Therefore, the
mother was regarded supreme. When the father beats the child, it is the mother
who gives shelter to the child.
Achebe has given greater space for the description of
Unoka; however, he does not provide the same space for the description of
Okonkwo’s mother. It should be noted that though Achebe has provided greater
space for the representation of Unoka, however, he has not presented Unoka in a
positive light. According to the social standards of the Igbo community, Unoka
is not a successful man. However, it seems that in presenting the character of
Unoka in such a light, Achebe is cautioning people not to be like Unoka. Thus,
Saba Shouq’s argument that Achebe is gendered in his representation of male and
female characters holds some ground. However, it would be too superficial an
assessment to say that Achebe is taking side with the patriarchal man; he is
simply trying to present a realistic picture of the Igbo societal set up.
In the Umuofian society shown in Things Fall Apart,
there was a gendered division of crops. Crops were categorised as men’s crop
and women’s crop. Yam, the king of crops, was called a man’s crop because of
the intense muscular effort involved in its cultivation. In contrast, crops
like cassava and beans were regarded as woman’s crop because they did not
involve much physical strength for their cultivation. So, one can comprehend
how the Igbo society upheld masculine traits like raw physical strength. In
“Re-Imagining Gender in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Christopher Anyokwu
has referred to the cultivation of Yam as an exclusively sexist occupation that
gave primacy to the open demonstration of strength. It is not that only men
contributed their labour in the process of cultivation; woman also participated
equally in the process; however, the efforts of the women were not given equal
appreciation as was given to the efforts of the men.
Cultivating food crops in a distant land by clearing
virgin forest was considered masculine while tilling the ground near homestead
like Unoka was regarded as womanish or unmanly. In the traditional Igbo society
shown in Things Fall Apart, there was a gendered division of crime.
There, crime was of two kinds— male and female. Okonkwo’s crime of killing his
kinsman was regarded as a female crime because it was committed inadvertently.
If the crime was committed intentionally, it would have been considered a male
crime. The punishment for the male crime was more severe than that of the female
crime. It may be pointed out that the Igbo men did not only receive the larger
share of the good, they also had to receive the greater share of the worst.
In “Sexual/Textual Politics: Representation of Gender in
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Saba Shouq posits that the similes used by
Achebe in Things Fall Apart to represent the African culture were also
gendered. This is evident in Okonkwo’s reference to Ikemefuna: “He grew like a
yam tendril in the rainy season…” (Things Fall Apart 37).
It is obvious from a reading of Things Fall Apart
that Umuofian man was at the centre of the social set up and his honour was of
utmost importance. However, an objective reading of the text reveals that for
Umuofia, the honour of their daughter was also of equal importance. When a
daughter of Umuofia was killed in a market in Mbaino, Umuofia did not hesitate
to go to war against Mbaino for the honour of their daughter.
In the Umuofian society shown in Things
Fall Apart, certain gender stereotypes are evident. Okonkwo shouted at
Ezinma to “sit like a woman!” and she “brought her two legs together and
stretched them in front of her” (Things Fall Apart 32). Further, Okonkwo
always regretted that Nwoye was not manly in his behaviour. He was fond of
Ikemefuna because the boy had the manly traits of the Unuofian standard, traits
which Okonkwo wished his own son had. Okonkwo wanted “Nwoye to grow into a
tough young man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and
gone to join the ancestors” (Things Fall Apart 37).
The Igbo society shown in Things
Fall Apart is an androcentric and phallocratic society. That society had
well defined hierarchical set up as regards its men and women. Such hierarchy
is evident when Achebe mentions: “It was clear from the way the crowd stood or
sat that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on
from the fringe like outsiders” (Things Fall Apart 63). The above
instance speaks volumes about the position of women in the Igbo society. They
were pushed to the periphery, and their voices were subdued. It may very well
be argued that for the proper development of a society, the opinions of both
the male and the female members are important. However, when the women are not
provided with an opportunity to place their opinion, or if placed, their
opinions are not given due consideration, then such a practice or mindset is
harmful to the good health of the society.
Hierarchy could be noticed even in the
Igbo ways of eating. In communal feast and festivities, the male members were
privileged to eat first and had the best part of the food; after that, the senior-most
wife of the family ate and only after that the other wives could eat.
Irrespective of how hungry one was, one had to strictly adhere to that
hierarchy while eating.
The structure of the Igbo house or
“obi” also demonstrates the hierarchical nature of the Igbo society. The Igbo
society shown in Things Fall Apart was a polygamous society. The
compound of the Igbo man consisted of the male member’s hut and the huts of his
wives built in a semi-circular manner in front of his. Achebe describes,
Okonkwo “had a large compound enclosed by a thick wall of red earth. His own
hut, or obi, stood immediately behind the only gate in the red wall. Each of
his three wives had her own hut, which together formed a half moon behind the
Obi” (Things Fall Apart 10). This kind of architectural pattern of the
huts, perhaps, provides the male head with a vantage point to keep surveillance
over the huts of his wives. One can perhaps relate this pattern of surveillance
to Jeremy Bentham’s “panopticon” and Foucault’s idea of “panopticism”. Moreover,
the male head’s hut is strategically built near the gate so that he can protect
his wives and children from any external threat or invasion. Being the male
head of the family, it is his responsibility to protect them from external threats.
However,
as regards funeral rights, it was the woman who got priority over the man. If a
husband and a wife died on the same day, then the funeral right of the woman was
done prior to that of the husband.
In the Igbo society shown in Things
Fall Apart, the capacity of a woman to bear children determined her social
position. Moreover, if a woman could give birth to a male child, she was
admired more. That was perhaps the reason why Akueke’s suitor and his relatives,
when they came with her marriage proposal, “surveyed her young body with expert
eyes as if to assure themselves that she was beautiful and ripe” (Things
Fall Apart 50). Two things might be interpreted from such behaviour of the
Igbos. One, the Igbos believed in community life, so the more the number of
children better it was for the community. That was why the suitor and his
relatives surveyed the bride’s body carefully and ensured that the bride was
“ripe”. The word ripe here perhaps refers to the maturity of the bride’s body to
give birth to healthy children. Secondly, this kind of attitude throws light on
the Igbo mindset, which perceives that the only function of women was to give
birth to healthy children and preferably male children. In “Feminism with a
Small “f”!”, Emecheta states that in most African societies, the birth of a son
enhances a woman’s authority in the family. In Things Fall Apart, when
Okonkwo’s first wife gave birth to three sons in succession, he “slaughtered a
goat for her, as was the custom” (Things Fall Apart 57).
In Things Fall Apart, the
Igbos had the custom of observing the “Week of Peace” before plantation. They
observed the week of peace to honour the great goddess of earth, Ani, whose
blessings the Igbos believed was essential for the crops to prosper. During
this week, people lived in peace with their fellows and refrained from using
harsh words. However, by beating his wife during the week of peace, Okonkwo had
invited the wrath of Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess, Ani. It can
perhaps be said that the custom of observing the week of peace was an exercise
in restrain for the Igbo people. This is a wonderful example of the checks and
balances practised in the Igbo culture. The earth goddess, Ani, was revered and
feared in the androcentric society of the Igbos. Further, the earth goddess had
a male priest to follow her bidding. The existence of such a power structure among
the Igbos establishes the fact that the Igbos cared for maintaining a balance
of power in the society. Umuofia “was powerful in war and in magic, and its
priests and medicine men were feared in all the surrounding country” (Things
Fall Apart 8). However, it is interesting to note that “the active
principle in that medicine had been an old woman with one leg. In fact, the
medicine itself was called agadi-nwayi, or old woman” (Things Fall Apart
8-9).
In Things Fall Apart, the
Umuofian society did not have courts and prisons. The disputes were often settled
by the “egwugwu”. Egwugwu were the masked spirits, representing the ancestral
spirits of the village. The egwugwu listened to both the parties before
providing their judgement on a matter. They often provided impartial and
unbiased judgement; they were not gendered in their judgement. The objectivity
and impartiality with which they settled a case were very much evident in the
statement made by one of the egwugwu: “Our duty is not to blame this man or to
praise that, but to settle the dispute” (Things Fall Apart 67). In the
dispute between Uzowulu and Odukwe, the egwugwu reprimanded the former for
beating his wife. They told him, “it is not bravery when a man fights with a
woman” (Things Fall Apart 67). Here, one may argue that the above
statement demonstrates the male ego that considers a woman to be no match to
him. However, the paper would contradict such an argument and opine that such a
view is gendered. Rather than considering the judgement provided by the egwugwu
to be gendered, the paper believes that it shows the sensitivity of the Igbos
towards the trouble of their women. One should see it as a measure by the Igbos
to restrict the man from committing atrocities on his woman.
Odukwe looking at the innumerable
atrocities committed on his sister by Uzowulu, warns him that if he does not
mend his ways and beats his wife again, he will “cut off his genitals for him”
(Things Fall Apart 66). In “Re-Imagining Gender in Chinua Achebe’s Things
Fall Apart”, Anyokwo posits that Achebe, through that statement, must have
hinted “at the generally held notion that the male organ, the penis, is the
symbolic signifier of power” (Anyokwo 27). By threatening castration, Oduke is
telling his in laws that he would make Uzowulu “a ‘woman,’ thereby effecting
‘gender equality’” (Anyokwo 27).
Thus, one can see that the
traditional Igbo society devised measures to maintain peace and gender equality
in the society. Okonkwo could not appreciate and comprehend the balance of his
society, and that led to his downfall. Okonkwo’s obsession with masculinity,
brute energy and his abhorrence for patience and pragmatic thinking, considering
those to be womanly traits, led to his disaster. Precisely, Okonkwo’s inability
to comprehend and maintain the balance between the male and the female
principles brought his downfall. Okonkwo was rigid and had an unreflecting
understanding of the laws of the land, while Obierika was more pragmatic and
circumspect. Obierika was an example of the balance between the male and the female
principles. People like Obierika are the need of the hour. In “Re-Imagining
Gender in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart”, Anyokwo has very rightly
posited that “Okonkwo’s pathetic death signifies the demise of androcentric
arbitrariness in Umuofia” (29).
If one traces the trajectory from
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) to Anthills of the Savannah
(1987), one can locate a change in society’s attitude towards gender relations
in that course of time. In Things Fall Apart, one could see that the women
did not have much say in decision making; the male head decided matters, and
the women followed his orders without any protest. In Things Fall Apart,
Achebe mentions, Okonkwo’s wives “lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper”
(Things Fall Apart 9). Okonkwo, handing over Ikemefuna to his senior-most
wife, told her that the boy belonged to the clan and she needs to look after
him. When his wife asked for how long the boy was going to stay with them,
Okonkwo gets angry and thunders at her: “Do what you are told woman…. When did
you become one of the ndichie2 of Umuofia?” (Things Fall Apart
11). So, it very well evident that the women of the traditional Igbo society did
not have much say in the decision making process of the family and the society.
However, in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, we meet a woman like
Beatrice who is educated, independent and empowered. She dares to question and
subvert certain traditional Igbo beliefs and traditions. For instance, in the
traditional Igbo society, the naming ceremony of a baby was performed by a male
member; however, here, we see Beatrice performing the naming ceremony of
Elewa’s daughter. Beatrice had to perform the naming ceremony because Ikem, the
father of the baby-girl was dead. So, one can see, with the changing times,
women are becoming educated, self-dependent and empowered. In “Feminism with a Small
“f”!”, Buchi Emecheta emphasising the need for women’s education states that
she very much wants “to further the education of woman in Africa, because…
education really helps the women” (553). Education makes women empowered and
enables them to attain a respectful position in society. In Anthills of the
Savannah, MM proudly mentions Beatrice’s intellectual calibre to his
friends, “that girl there sitting meekly and called Beatrice took a walloping
honours degree in English from London University. She is better at it than
either of us, I can assure you” (57).
Critics like Merun Nasser and Saba
Shouq are critical of Achebe’s stance on the representation of women in his
novels. They believe that Achebe, in his novels, deliberately takes side with
the males of the androcentric African societies. However, this paper would like
to contradict such a claim. If one objectively looks at the representation of
women in his novels, one will realise that such claims do not hold ground. The
women in Achebe’s novels have less voice than their male counterparts; however,
they are represented well by Achebe. It would be too immature to criticise and
call Achebe gendered. There is no denying that the Igbo societies shown in
Achebe’s novels are androcentric and phallocratic. In such a social set-up, men
would definitely find prominence. Being an objective narrator, Achebe presents
a realistic picture of such a social set up to his readers. A close, unbiased
reading of the novels reveal two things: one, the Igbo society, though overtly
androcentric, was sensitive towards the rights of women and had devised
measures of checks and balances to maintain gender equality in the society;
secondly, Achebe realises and very well understands the importance of the
balance between the male and the female principles for the proper functioning
and development of the society. Achebe, an erudite novelist, who claims to be the
teacher of the society, in/through his novels tries to present an unbiased,
realistic picture of the Igbo society. It should be noted that Achebe does not
blindly romanticise one and all customs, rituals and traditions of the Igbos.
He is critical of the ill customs and traditions of African society. He does
not shy away from criticising the flaws of his society in his writings. In Things
Fall Apart, one can see that the women characters did not have much voice;
however, in Anthills of the Savannah, one can see them having more voice
and greater representation. It is so because society’s attitude towards gender
relations has changed. Achebe is not gendered; he simply tries to objectively
locate, highlight and represent the Igbo society’s attitude towards gender
relations in his novels.
Endnotes:
1.
In Course in General
Linguistics, Saussure posits that meanings cannot be produced in isolation.
He further points out that the relationship between the signifier and the
signified is arbitrary and based on convention. So, the meaning of the word
“agbala” will depend on the context in which it is used. It may refer to a
woman, or it may refer to people like Unoka, who did not have a single title.
2.
The African word
“ndichie” refers to the elders, who meet in councils and make important
decisions.
Works
Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Anthills of the Savannah.
Anchor Books, 1987.
---. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann,
1958.
Anyokwu, Christopher. “Re-Imagining Gender in
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, vol.
12, no. 2, 2011, pp. 16-31. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41210316.
Emecheta, Buchi.
“Feminism with a Small “f”!.” African Literature: An
Anthology of Criticism and Theory, edited by Olaniyan,
Tejumola and Ato Quayson, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010, pp. 551-557.
Foucault, Michel.
“Panopticism,” Discipline and Punish: The
Birth of the Prison, translated by Alan Sheridan, Vintage Books,
1995, pp. 195-228.
Nasser, Merun.
“Achebe and His Women: A Social Science Perspective.” Africa Today, vol. 27, no. 3, 1980, pp. 21-28. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4185940.
Saussure, Ferdinand
de. Course in General Linguistics.
Translated by Wade Baskin, Columbia University Press, 1893.
Shouq, Saba, et al.
“Sexual/Textual Politics: Representation of Gender in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Pakistan Journal of Women’s
Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, vol. 22, no. 1, 2015, pp. 65-77.
Wright, Derek.
“Things Standing Together: A Retrospect of Things Fall Apart.”
Kunapipi, vol. 12, no. 2, 1990, pp.
76-82.