Why Do Igbo People Commit Suicide

The Igbo tribe has been consumed, for lack of better words, with the idea of perfection. This is revealed throughout Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe by means of Okonkwo, the clan, and the religion. Okonkwo, for instance, is very adamant about being the most exemplary in his village. He wants to have the perfect family, the best crops, and a stellar reputation. Igbo tribes were very strict on their expectations of their members, if somebody doesn’t conform to their gender, religion, or they commit a crime they are automatically deemed an outcast.
For example, suicide is one of the worst ways to die in Igbo society. “Someone who commits suicide is more looked down upon than someone who commits an act of murder. To commit suicide brings shame on one's family, village and friends” (Swanson 1). They do not allow them a funeral, and their friends and family are not allowed to mourn their passing. If somebody was to mourn them, they would have to do it in the privacy of their own hut. Unlike in America, where the deceased would still be given a proper funeral, the Igbo people moved the body to another …show more content…
“Even as a little boy, he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him his dad was agbala” (Achebe 13). Agbala was another name for women, or a man without a title. After seeing how much of a disappointment his father was to the tribe, he had to do everything in his power to avoid that fate, and when his own son, Nwoye, had a more feminine side to him, he was determined to do everything he could to make his son a man. On the other hand, when his daughter Ezinma showed masculine qualities: wisdom, courage, and stamina, she was praised by Okonkwo who said that, “If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. She has the right spirit” (Achebe