You may not know, but it is a fact that TFA was based on the cultural
setting in Ogidi and environs, which are parts of Igboland. Key
aspects of Igbo culture include, but not limited to roles to be played
by the men folk(Umunna), Umunwanyi(wives), Umuokorobia(youths) and
Umuada(daughters).
As to who determined what the key aspects were, the answer was some
how provided in my first post in which I made reference to hierachy of
decision making. Decisions ran through the gamut of hierachies before
they were ratified by the Council of Elders(Ofo holders). This is not
to say that there would not be slight variations from one community to
another.
Ken, I would like to respect your viewpoint, if you say you do not
agree that literature mirrors life, I however do not agree with you.
As a Poet, I do not operate in the void.
You also wrongly stated that in the past, people are less in touch
with each other. There may not be cars, ships, aeroplanes and
Internet, but there were very active traditonal fora for interactions
like marriage ceremonies, funerals, wrestling and dance competitions,
inter-community trading, etc.
Lastly, in your earlier post you wondered why female African writers
did not portray women better after Achebe. My take on this is that
writers are human and writing like every other human endervour has its
own politics. The politics of publishing before the advent of
Internet, even now, albeit to a lesser extent, would not permit most
writers to disagree with the viewpoints of writers before them no
matter how erroneous, who had grown so influential that they as
Editorial Consultants to publishing houses, determined who got
published and promoted. What is the use writing without being
published and promoted?
Chidi Anthony Opara
"Away with arts for arts' sake!"
On Jul 23, 4:05 pm, kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
> chidi
> i don't agree that literature mirrors life; i
> think literature create discourses which, at
> times, give us the impression they are mirroring
> life (when in the realist mode, of course): the
> more they give us that impression, the more they
> hide the fact that they are constructing, not
> mirroring, a portrait of life. in that regard
> some theorists regard realism as fundamentally a
> conservative genre in that it always winds up
> reaffirming the premises on which it begins.
> this is an interesting point to be debated.
> on the second point, i have no experience with
> which to dispute your claim that " key aspects of
> Igbo culture like the role of women, is general."
> i really want to ask, is this so true? aren't
> there differences in regions, among villages, and
> even within the same towns or villages? what are
> the "key aspects"? who gets to decide? from whose
> point of view? for instance, the key aspects we
> see in TFA are not the same as those in Women Are
> Different, or Joys of Motherhood. not at all. or
> take So Long a Letter--doesn't begin to share the
> view of "key aspects" in say Xala.
> my examples are literature--pretty poor basis for
> arguing this question. but not only am i asking
> about regional or local differences now, but even
> more in the past when people were less in touch with each other.
> ken
>
> At 04:32 PM 7/23/2010, you wrote:
>
>
>
> >"i agree with chidi that the depiction of women in TFA was narrow,
> >with the exception of the chapter where one wife tells the tale of
> >the tortoise, and with the exception of the priestess.
> >i do not agree that faithfulness to "traditional igbo society" is the
> >issue; i believe fidelity to some notion of reality has nothing to do
> >with literary value or truth, and in this case chidi is generalizing
> >that all villages in the late 19th c were marked by women's roles
> >that would be identical".
> >------------Ken Harrow
>
> >Ken,
>
> >If we agree that literature should mirror life, it follows then that
> >even fictional works like TFA should be faithful to the realities on
> >the ground. TFA as you have agreed with me failed in an aspect of this
> >important requirement. I did not make "faithfulness to traditional
> >Igbo society" the issue in my post, I was only using that reference to
> >buttress my position on the narrowness of portrayal of women in the
> >novel.
>
> >On what you called my generalization of the role of women in Igbo
> >land, I would like you to know that key aspects of Igbo culture like
> >the role of women, is general.
>
> >Chidi Anthony Opara
>
> >"The best way to serve God is to serve humanity".
>
> >On Jul 23, 11:04 am, kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
> > > i agree with chidi that the depiction of women in TFA was narrow,
> > > with the exception of the chapter where one wife tells the tale of
> > > the tortoise, and with the exception of the priestess.
> > > i do not agree that faithfulness to "traditional igbo society" is the
> > > issue; i believe fidelity to some notion of reality has nothing to do
> > > with literary value or truth, and in this case chidi is generalizing
> > > that all villages in the late 19th c were marked by women's roles
> > > that would be identical.
> > > aside from that, it is more than of interest to note that women did
> > > not portray women in african literature for a dozen years after TFA
> > > was written, more or less. in francophone lit, it was still longer.
> > > my favorite remark on women in TFA was by lemuel johnson, one of the
> > > foremost commentators on african literature ever. lem said at an ala
> > > conf, and wrote it later, that "we," the readers, did not follow the
> > > women into the menstrual huts in TFA, or in
> > any other african lit at the time.
> > > women's spaces were not only places from which men were excluded,
> > > they were not the subject of african lit.
> > > we saw the world, and read the world, entirely through men's eyes.
> > > it took nwapa, emecheta, aidoo, to break that monovision. now they
> > > are called the Mothers of African Literature, rightly. they gave us a
> > > different vision of the world, of gendered
> > society, from that of the Fathers.
> > > ken
>
> > > At 11:40 AM 7/23/2010, you wrote:
>
> > > >Achebe's portrayal of Igbo women folk in TFA is in my opinion narrow.
> > > >Apart from the priestess of Agbala who was presented from a position
> > > >of strength, other female characters were cast in the male
> > > >chauvinists' notion of the "weaker sex", whose roles were limited to
> > > >that of domestic servants and sex objects. This was not and still not
> > > >the reality in Igbo land.
>
> > > >In the traditional Igbo society, The women folk, either as
> > > >umunwayi(wives) or Umuada(Daughters) occupied and still occupy
> > > >influential positions in the decision making hierarchy, this important
> > > >role was not highlighted in TFA, even the role of Matriarchs as
> > > >custodians of ofo(symbol of authority) in cases of serious disputes
> > > >among the men folk was not presented.
>
> > > >The above would not be surprising when one takes into consideration
> > > >the fact that when TFA was written, Achebe was "marooned" in Radio
> > > >Nigeria as a Producer and shared cold beer with his friends at elite
> > > >club houses after work, with may be occasional short trips to
> > > >Ogidi(his home town), which was not enough to adequately understand
> > > >the cultural setting in which the events he chronicled in TFA
> > > >occurred. This point would become clearer when the age at which Achebe
> > > >left home (for high school and college) is also taken into
> > > >consideration.
>
> > > >This problem also manifests in present day African writings,
> > > >especially literary criticisms, most of which emanate from the
> > > >Diaspora community. When the works of these writers are viewed
> > > >critically, one would notice inadequate understanding, due largely to
> > > >absence from the homeland, of the issues they write on, the advent of
> > > >Internet technology notwithstanding.
>
> > > >Chidi Anthony Opara
>
> > > >"The best way to serve God is to serve humanity".
>
> > > >On Jul 22, 9:52 pm, "Mario Fenyo" <MFe...@bowiestate.edu> wrote:
> > > > > Dear Colleagues:
>
> > > > > i am grateful for all the comments on Chinua Achebe, on his (or
> > > > our) Things Fall Apart and on the dialectics of history and
> > > > literature. I spent much of my life studying the relationship
> > > > between history and great literature (i am a student of history by
> > > > profession) and have published a number of essays on that
> > > > subject. Nevertheless, i do not claim to be an expert on anything.
>
> > > > > Some of my ideas on the subject are discussed in the last chapter
> > > > of my Literature and Political Change, published by the American
> > > > Philosophical Society many years ago. The motto of that chapter is
> > > > taken from Anatole France, a rather popular author (e.g. "The Gods
> > > > are Athirst"--about the Terror during the French Revolution) of
> > > > fiction from the turn of the previous century. He
> > > > writes: "History is more an art than a science, because it
> > > > requires IMAGINATION."
>
> > > > > Indeed, Achebe, like most great writers, has a high degree of
> > > > sensitivity and intuition, which allow him to perceive or visualize
> > > > and describe the past and the present more acutely and perhaps more
> > > > acurately than most social scientists. PLease tell me that i am
> > > > misguided, that i don't know what i am talking about. ... and i
> > > > will listen and learn.
>
> > > > > respectfully, mario
>
> > > > > Dr. Mario D. Fenyo
> > > > > President
> > > > > Association of Third World Studies
> > > > > c/o Department of History and Government
> > > > > Bowie State University
> > > > > Bowie, MD 20715
> > > > > USA
>
> > > > > ________________________________
>
> > > > > From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com on behalf of Okafor, Chinyere
> > > > > Sent: Thu 7/22/2010 1:55 PM
> > > > > To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > > > > Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series -Things Fall Apart again...
>
> > > > > Thanks for bringing this up - women in
> > Umuofia as women in Igbo or Africa.
>
> > > > > A historical novel is fiction and cannot stand for reality. Is
> > > > TFA a historical novel? What history? What real life characters are
> > > > represented in that superb fiction? People may regard it as fiction
> > > > or historical fiction, but it is an imaginative work from one
> > > > person's brain (in this chase a man). Non-fictional piece done in
> > > > one Igbo community cannot stand for all Igbo communities because of
> > > > the variety of gender arrangements, which Achebe alludes to in the
> > > > novel - areas like Anita where men pound "fufu" for their wives and
> > > > tribes where women own the children etc. - clearly telling the
> > > > reader that his imaginative representation cannot stand for the
> > > > diversity of communities in Igboland or Africa. If an Igbo woman
> > > > says that she cannot recognize women of the fictional Umuofia in
> > > > the world/community of her mother and grandmothers, then the
> > > > professor should not dismiss her but try to reconsider his/her old
> > > > reading of the text as history that fits all. S/he should also
> > > > consider the portrayal of women by women
> > writers from Achebe's culture area.
>
> > > > > Professor Chinyere G. Okafor, Ph.D
>
> > > > > Department of Women's Studies & Religion
>
> > > > > Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260, USA
>
> > > > > Phone: (316) 978-6264, fax (316) 978-3186
> > > > > E-mail: chinyere.oka...@wichita.edu
>
> > > > > URL
>
> > <http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1222<http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1222>
>
> > <http://webs.wichita.edu/wmstudy/faculty.html<http://webs.wichita.edu/wmstudy/faculty.html>
>
> > > > ><http://www.chiwrite.com/<http://www.chiwrite.com/> >
>
> > > > > ________________________________
>
> > > > > From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > > > [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oluwatoyin
> > > > Ade-Odutola
>
> ...
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment