Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s wife, had given birth to a total of ten children but nine had died under mysterious circumstances. Enzima was the only child who survived. When Ekwefi was pregnant with Eznima, she had a complication because the medicine man had said that Ekwefi would deliver a wicked child. A wicked child was referred to as an Ogbanje. An Ogbanje was a child who was said to return to the womb of the mother after dying so that the child could be born again and then die again.
Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, was widowed and had two children. The people of Igbo respected the spirits and that was why they feared Chielo and treated him with great respect (Chinua 1652). Even though the women were subject to men in Umuofia, we find that Chielo had a significant role in making major decisions concerning the village of Umuofia. To show how powerful Chielo was Chinua Achebe says, ‘As soon as the priestess stepped into this ring of hills, her voice was not only doubled in strength but was thrown back on all sides.’
There was the offering of human sacrifice in Umuofia and that was why Ikemefuna’s death was viewed as a sacrifice on behalf of the society. However, Okonkwo’s participation in the killing of Ikemefuna was wrong to the gods and it was punishable because Ikemefuna referred to him as a father. Okonkwo’s attitudes had been shaped by the culture of the Igbo people although he was an extremist. When twins were born in Igbo they were taken to the forest and they were abandoned to die there because they were seen as an indicator of evil in the village. They used religion to find meaning in things that happened in society (Chödrön 182).
Egwugwu was a cult in Umuofia which had men as its only members. The ceremony of the Egwugwu was carried out so that justice could be administered in Umuofia about societal and domestic issues. Basically, men had the final say in the decision-making process during that ceremony. The families who had issues that needed to be looked at came forward and presented their cases before the Egwugwu.
The Egwugwu in charge of listening to the cases was called the Evil forest. In saying that, “Okonkwos wives and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second Egwugwu had a springy walk of Okonkwo” (Chinua 1644) meant to show that Okonkwo was a great man in the village. Even though they recognised this fact, they kept it to themselves. The ceremony was accompanied by the beating of drums and dancing thus bringing people together through entertainment (Chinua 1644).
When conducting the ceremony, the Egwugwu consulted with each other to come up with sentences for those found on the wrong. There was a case presented by Uzowulu who said that his in-laws had taken his wife away after having beaten her and they had not returned his bride price. We find that when a bride ran away her family was supposed to return the traditional bride price to the woman’s husband.
The beating was bad that she was said to have had a miscarriage at one time. The neighbors to Uzowulu also came out to testify against him. We find that there were values in Umuofia which did not allow men to beat their wives. The rights of women in the village of Umuofia were respected and that was why Chielo was surprised that Okonkwo almost murdered his wife Ekwefi using a gun.
Works cited
Chinua, Achebe. Things Fall Apart.Germany: Heinemann,1996.Pg 1632-1670.
Chödrön, Pema. When things fall apart. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2005. Pg 178-187.