Work Text:
Splats 39
Mr. Tenjou
Humanities 39
3 February 2026
Ezinma wasn’t Ekwefi’s crowning glory, but the same void of a promise. After the children’s deaths, she finally thought Ezinma would be the one. Even though her iyi-uwa was broken and her mothers suffering is over. Ezinma always had to pretend to stay as the perfect bride, yet wished to go against that and become an ozo– not an agbala. She questioned why as ogbanje she chose to finally have her iyi-uwa broken as a girl? She hated to feel weak, she despised acting like a lady, yet she continued. The roles given to her were not in her choice, if she disrupted them then the family would break. The bond created between Ekwefi and her was a usual duo, as equals. Ezinma never wanted to ruin the balance between Ekwefi’s, the reason to stay lesser, or effeminate. What bugged her the most was her father’s ideals for her. He wished for her to be the perfect wife, yet saw the strength inside her. She knew she had more assertiveness than all of the other boys, even he said, “She should have been born a boy,” (Achebe 66). The lady tried to even do the man’s job for sake! The future was so promising but so unattainable. During Ezeudu’s funeral, she asked how? How did her powerful father cause them to become exiled? Why does she have to live through his actions? Still she greatly respected her father since his resilience and courage was not something one could under look. As he had failed to protect his family, Enzima had wept along with the others; the ones who rely on Okonkwo. When they sought refuge in Mbana, her father was not able to work the same. He was depressed from losing his life’s work and was no longer an ozo. The weather had felt like a punishment from his chi. The first weeks when he created a new farm there was heavy rain and then extreme dries. All Ezinma could do was cook and provide unwanted support. His other sons did not help the struggling situation enough, especially Nwoye. He was known to be weak, yet his inability to be a man was highlighted. In the wake, Ezinma started to feel an envy for her step-brother; that her soul should have had his body. He was unable to do the manly task, but the only time he was able to was with Ikefuma; a dead man. Two years in their exile, one of those foolish white men came to the town. While Ezinma was helping Ekwefi cook yams, she heard Nwoye rush over to see the white man from the stories. Soon, her mother saw outside her hunt the convention of men and women, and asked Ezinma if she wanted to see. She did not care for the white men, but she had wondered what medicine they had to take out Abame. There Ezinma had to hold in a laugh for herself, “gods of wood and stone” (Achebe 145) or “‘my buttocks’” (144). No matter how much authority they had, anyone would find these men humorous. As she was leaving, she overlooked Nwoye, who listened to their ending tune like an efulefu. All this did was confirm her beliefs, for she should have been him. Weeks later, she was cleaning outside the obi when she saw Okonkwo choke Nwoye. From afar she watched her heated father yell at the kid. Ezinma wished she could express her anger because she should have been inside his body and worked like an actual man. She had not seen Nwoye afterwards, maybe that was for the better. The disease of the converts had risen extremely. Ezinma felt the men were just some agbala who had not overcome their fears to have ranks. They had destroyed all of the norms because someone killed a python. She didn’t find out about this until she overheard her dad's fiery remarks over yams. “This womanly clan! Do they support these abominations?!” From other conversations, with her step-brothers and Ekwefi she learned about the meeting to deal with the Christians. Finally, after seven years they had returned to proper and traditional Umuofia. Ezinma still hasn’t married yet even though she was called the Crystal of Beauty. Okonkwo had not let her marry a man of Mbanta, their treatment of the christians showed their femininity. The wife could not be more masculine than the husband. Ezinma never said it out loud but she understood and agreed with his wish. If she could not live her ideal life, at least let her husband be the man she wanted to be. Somehow this dream was unrealistic. The town didn’t look the same with all the new additions: a prison and the white man’s government. There were no powerful men left to remove the infection, so Ezinma had to made do. She wished she could join the battle against the church, but she had to leave it in the hands of foolish men. The example of a need for change was her father’s imprisonment. She never figured out what the men had to do to get her father out, but they were doing something. After all of this Okonkwo was a shell of who he was. Ezinma had served him food, yet he sat there inattentive, and barely ate. Okonkwo seemed so weak; it couldn’t be because of himself. No! This was because the clan had been weak which left him to fend for himself. She wished to aid her father but wouldn’t that have been as wrong as the church. The next day, Ezinma riskfully followed Okonkwo and went to the marketplace. She got supplies at the market and overheard the conversation. It was about the missionaries which Okonkwo was trying to get the others to attack. Even though he seemed dead set on his plan, he tried to get others to help. She wished she could stay longer, but it now seemed suspicious. She knew she had no purpose there since this is a man's job; an unattainable job. Throughout Ezinma’s boring day of cooking and cleaning the meeting had kept nibbling at her. She never got an answer to what happened, that curiosity had turned into insomnia. Finally at midnight she looked out the window. She saw Okonkwo had made a noose on the rope. Frozen in shock, she had stared at him until he saw his falling body on the tree. It wasn’t processed at first, though when she went outside at sunrise guilt fell upon her. She asked herself why. Why would my father do this? Why did I do nothing? Should I have done something? Ezinma was stuck in a moral dilemma with one side said she should have helped, while the other said a woman shouldn’t step in. Okonkwo had chosen to die through an emasculating act. If a woman saved him it would have made it even worse. Maybe she could have saved him and no one would know this act, but in reality it would have made it worse. If only Ezinma was a boy. She could have saved her father, or protected the clan, or at least knew why. Though Ezinma was a girl stuck in her role, so was unable to control her life and the world around it.