In this paper I will compare and contrast one aspect of pre and post colonial Ibo culture and the way that lives are lived and the way they are affected, in the Ibo agricultural culture era, wealth is not displayed by riches but by yams!? In the Ibo cultures yams are used to show wealth as compared to the U. S that had grew wheat, corn and a lot more to show that they were successful, in the Ibo culture they use yams as a trade/currency due to its rarity and its flavor/delicacy and the difficulty level to harvest the yams especially in the harsh weather that costed most armers there whole heaps of yams.
Respect, Honor, Status Okonkwo was brought to wealth and respect by becoming a warrior of the Umuofia clan, the Umuofia clan is a lower Nigerian tribe that is part of a consortium of nine connected villages, apart Okonkwo’s village Iguedo. In his youth, Okonkwo brought honor to his village by beating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. People have believed that the Amalinze Cat was unbeatable because he was never beaten until his match with Okonkwo, The Amalinze Cat had been undefeated for seven years straight.
Okonkwo unlike his deceased father Unoka, who feared the sight of blood and was always drinking and wasting money which meant that his wife and children often went hungry and starved. Now in order to be honored and respected is to either be in there military militia and serve their country or be a very successful businessman and or farmer in today’s nigerian agriculture 30% of their jobs consist of farming and harvesting. Okonkwo built his fortune alone as a sharecropper because Unoka was never able to have a successful harvest of yams.
When he visited the Oracle, Unoka was told that he failed ecause of his laziness and couldn’t take care of the harvest, after his father’s death Okonkwo cannot count on Unoka’s help anymore in building his own wealth and in constructing his obi. he now has to work hard to make up for his father’s negative burdens against him. Okonkwo succeeds in exceeding all the other clansmen as a warrior, a farmer, and a family provider. He begins by asking a wealthy clansman, Nwakibie, to give him 400 seed yams to start a farm.
Because Nwakibie admired Okonkwo’s hard-working nature, he gave him eight hundred seed to cultivate his yam farm, but it was one of the worst years n memory because the rain was late all the time and the sun started to blaze the crops but in the end of the day he still had eight hundred seeds to fresh start and then the rain had started to rain as it never had before they villagers began to call it a mad year where for days and nights it had violently rained and ripped the yam heaps out of the ground even from their roots.
Unoka was not that useless unoka was a skilled flute player and had a gift and love of the language of the flute. Like ethnic groups in nigeria today, each have their own techniques and instruments, and songs. ronze carvings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries have been found depicting musicians and their unique instruments, like unoka and his unique instrument and creative way of playing it is similar to the way people play their music and instruments today in nigeria.
In addition to his creativity and ability to play the flute is very rare in this day and age in the us beside school bands, it could be a very sought upon talent in nigeria and would have lead unoka to more opportunities to succeed and okonkwo may have not thought of his father was worthless okonkwo may have not been how he is oday.
In addition to the previous paragraph Okonkwo, the son of the foretold to be effeminate and lazy Unoka, may not be to different from each other and may possibly be polar opposite, for example okonkwo strives to make his way in his own world that seems to value manliness over successfulness, Okonkwo achieved great social and financial success by embracing these ideals of being masculine and getting everything you desire he stated that “was not afraid of war. He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood.
In Umuofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. ” Okonkwo says this to prove that he is unlike his father and has no fear of violence and revels in it that Fearlessness in war is a highly respected quality in Umuofia. (nigeria) He married three women and had several children. Nevertheless, just as his father was at odds with the values of the community around him, so too does Okonkwo went find himself unable to adapt to changing times in his life as the white man comes to live among the Umuofians.
And tries to take over, while he was oncerned with the traitor he said that “How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has a put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. this quote means that he has trust issues and is trying to stay strong even when he has to slay his own brothers. In comparison to okonkwo, unoka looks weak but has talents up is sleeves and he is mentally strong and believes that pride is unbreakable, like the way okonkwo thinks about being masculine and masculinity is basically a lot of pride, example of unoka’s unbonded pride “who was then an ailing man, had said to him during that terrible harvest month: “Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart.
A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and bitter when a man fails alone. ” so he was showing compassion for okonkwo and saying that is it’s better to fail together then for im to fail alone but okonkwo saw that as being effeminate when he was showing emotion that he didn’t like. Even though Unoka’s words are given generously to keep hopes high, Okonkwo still did not appreciate unoka’s speech. Okonkwo doesn’t value words he prefers action over speech.
However, this renders him unable to appreciate the little sincerity’s of others words and keeps him from expressing himself in a way that most people understand, so we can conclude that both unoka and okonkwo are polar opposite because okonkwo disapproved of unoka’s bad habits and wanted nothing to do ith him after the feeling of betrayal of village In addition to okonkwo having problems with his father unoka he also has altercations with his family at home to begin he has a departed sun named ikemefuna and he is loved by the rest of okonkwo’s family but is not really a blood member of the family, he is in fact he was apart of the neighboring clan Mbaino and the Mbaino clan had killed a member of okonkwo’s clan and they did not want war so they gave okonkwo’s clan ikemefuna and okonkwo being the head of the clan in negotiating and talking for the clan because of his manliness and the way his nemies feared him, okonkwo gladly accepted ikemefuna and ended up not killing him at the age of fifteen and letting ikemefuna live along okonkwo and over time ikemefuna began calling him father when okonkwo took him on his journeys “Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy – inwardly of course… there was no doubt that he liked the boy.
Sometimes when he went to big village meetings or communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him, like a son, carrying his stool and his goatskin bag. And, indeed, Ikemefuna called him father” and okonkwo approveds. Okonkwo also had a oldest sun named nwoye being Okonkwo’s oldest son, who Okonkwo believes that is weak and lazy like he had thought of his father, Okonkwo constantly beats Nwoye in hope that the beatings will correct nwoye’s faults and habits making him a man. Nwoye was Influenced by Ikemefuna and Nwoye began to exhibit more masculine behavior, which pleases Okonkwo And However maintains doubts about some of the laws and rules of his tribe eventually converts him to Christianity, and the act of converting to christianity was looked down upon by Okonkwo, okonkwo criticizes as “effeminate. “like aid about his father, Okonkwo believes that Nwoye is afflicted with the same weaknesses that his father, Unoka. As ikemefuna turned seventeen the oracle made the decision that ikemefuna must be killed “he informs Okonkwo in private that the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna must be killed.
He tells Okonkwo not to take part in the boy’s death, as Ikemefuna calls him “father. ” Okonkwo lies to Ikemefuna, telling him that he will be returning to his home village. Nwoye bursts into tears. ” Okonkwo was not to take part in the killing of ikemefuna and in spite of is pride in being a warrior and not caring for nything in the world, okonkwo takes place in the killing of ikemefuna and begins to reconcile the fact that he is going through with killing his stepson ” As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machete, (Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. ) The pot fell and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry, “My father, they have killed me! ” as he ran towards him.
Dazed with fear” in this part okonkwo’s fear of being seen as weak to his other tribes mean he did take part in the killing that the oracle said should not happen “Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak. ” okonkwo’s fear of being weak made him even weaker because he had killed ikemefuna when said not to and as the story carries on okonkwo begins fall into this state of being lost due to killing a person he had known for quite awhile, okonkwo began to stress about the killing of ikemefuna and he wanted to forget about him so he began to fall into the same path as his father and began to drink for days on in, then came to realization that he was indeed becoming his father and got back on track and tried not to show emotion after the killing.
