Importance Of Colonialism In Nnu Ego

Another thing that colonialism brought was the implementation of some kind of governance for the people through the establishment of chiefs and noblemen. Because these chiefs were not elected, but were rather put in place by the colonizers, they were told what to do and how to govern the people. And in the absence of the colonizers, as written in history, these chiefs abuse power and only focus on the benefit of themselves in Eastern Nigeria. That happened in colonial time and it is still happening today in modern forms in some African countries and all of these are result of these African chiefs treating the fellow countrymen as the British treated them. For example in the novel, if Nnaife is treated bad at work, he comes home with anger and …show more content…
It is bringing out the role and the voice of woman during the time of colonialism that had been ignored for so long. And through Nnu Ego, Emecheta is telling a story on how African women fought against the male domination and cultural assumption and she did this by giving Nnu Ego a wholistically approach on what it means to be a women. That is why in the book, Emecheta had Nnu ego not only caring for the well being of her sons, and her husband, but for daughters as well. She wanted to give her daughters an education and while she was contemplating that, she began to question male dominance and some of the standards that men have for women in their society such as the aspiration to have children or to be demeaned. She comes to the realization that woman subscribe to man’s law more than anything and unless they change certain things, such as sending their daughters to school “ it is always going to be a man’s world, which women will always help to build”. That statement is one of the many statements that make this novel an African feminist novel, because it is portraying a woman that is voicing her view and fighting for women, because after all, in this Ibo society, the girls belongs to their mother and their sons belongs to their …show more content…
From religion, economy, to politic, this novel covers everything that most African countries can relate to in terms of their response and experiences with colonial powers. It can be seen as a collective voice of African men, children and specifically women responding to colonial presence in Africa. Because after all, Western books and writings seems to dismiss the feelings of these people, or do not know the impact that their presence and powers had on the colonials. And this book is able to bring all of these voices together, because the colonizers use the same strategy that they used in Nigeria to dominate and oppress other Africans in all of Africa. For example, the abduction of African men to fight in the wars was common in Africa and this cause one character to question “Why can’t they[British] fight their own wars? Why drag us innocent Africans into it?”. The illusion of “us Africans” signify that the abduction of men in their society was not only happening in Nigeria, but in other African countries and questioning “why us” was the right question, the right nationalistic feeling that all of them were sharing at that