Traditionally
Igwa was supposed to be respected
. Back home that night Papa told mama that it was
sinful. You did not bow to another human being.
When Kambili and Jaja
share a home with a heathen water is poured on their feet because they have
walked in sin.
He lowered the kettle
into the tub, tilted it toward my feet. He poured hot water on my feet, slowly
as if he were conducting an experienced and wanted to see what would happen. (Page
19) Kambili and Jaja are both wise
beyond their years and also not allowed to reach adulthood, as maturity often
comes with questioning authority. When Ade quiet, Papa does not laugh. They have
a fear of God. Kambili and Jaja are afraid of their fathers. They are not
encouraged to grow and succeed, only threatened with failure when they do not.
This makes Jaja despise himself, he is ashamed that he is so far behind Obiora
in both intelligence and protecting his family. He ends up rejecting religion
with punishment and rejects his faith.
Aunty Ifeoma encourages
Kambili to reconsider her stance on Papa-Nnukwu. As she has been taught by
Papa, her grandfather is a heathen. But when she searches his face, she sees no
signs of godliness. After witnessing his innocent ritual, Kambili questions the
absolute rule her father.
Religion makes some
people like papa to abandon their culture and condemn the people rooted in the
traditional culture. Father benedict is a white man from England who conducts
his masses according to Europe custom. Papa adheres to father Benedict’s style
banishing every trace of his own Nigerian heritage. Father Amadi on the other
hand, is an African priest who blends Catholicism with Igbo traditions.
He believes that faith
is both simpler and complex then what Father Benedict preaches.
Father Amadi is a
modern African once who is culturally-conscious but influenced by the colonial
history of his country
Papa Nnukwu is a
traditionalist. He follows rituals of his ancestors and he believes in a pantheistic
model of religion. Though both his son and daughter converted to Catholicism,
Papa Nnukwu held his roots. When Kambili witness his morning ritual, she
realizes their faith are not as different as they appear.
Papa is a product of a
colonialist education. He was schooled by missionaries and studied English. The
wisdom he takes back to Nigeria is largely informed by those who have colonized
his country. He abandons the traditions of his ancestors and chooses to speak
primarily in British- Accented English in public. His large estate is filled
with western luxuries like satellite, T.V and Music. Amaka assumes that
American pop stars while she listens to musicians who embrace their African
heritage.
Over the course of the
novel, both Kambili and Jaja must come to terms with the lingering after
effects of colonialism in their own lives. They both adjust to life outside
their father’s asp by embracing or accepting traditional ways.
In
Africa traditions the families are supposed to meet together for celebrations.
But Papa is strict on his children visiting their grandfather for more than
fifteen days. At Christmas, the family returns to the Papa’s ancestral town,
Abba. The family supervises a feast that s feeds the celebrated for his
generosity in Abba as well. However he does not allow children to visit his own
father, Papa Nnukwu for me than fifteen minutes each Christmas. Papa still
fellows the religious traditions of his people the Igbo. When Aunty Ifeoma comes
to visit from her university town of Nnsuka she argues with Papa about his
mistreatment of their father. But Papa is firm for owning a pointing of
Papa-Nnukwu Kambili is kicked until
she is hospitalized. This is due to conflict between traditional and
Christianity. Papa believes that
Christians have nothing to do with the traditionalist because they are
heathens.
Sexuality
Papa Eugene is strict
on his children so as to keep them away from sin. He does not let his children
experience the bodily pleasure he was denied by priest while growing up .He
therefore assuming that any opportunity or little freedom given to his children
would be spent in pursuance of such pleasures. For example Jaja asks for the
key to his room after he had just returned from aunt HEOMA’S place, pleading
for a need to have some privacy. His father assumes that Jaja is only seeking
an opportunity to indulge your be in sexual pleasure with himself.
Father
Amadi notice of her legs makes her join volleyball group on the second day of
school in spite of the whispers and redialing at laughter from her fellow
students.
Father
Benedict and Papa Eugene’s religion thought Kambili never to admire herself, to
cover up anything that made her attractive as a woman, thus causing her to
suffer low self-esteem. Father Amadi’s Catholicism on the other hand recognizes
the woman in Kambili and acknowledges the need for her utilize her potentials
to the fullest.
According
to Eugene anything that draws attention to the body or makes it attractive to
look is considered sin. Kambili therefore must cover her long and beautiful
hair, she must conceal her lovely athletic legs; she must in no way embellish
her face, and must not look at the nakedness of another person, male or female
for all these were considered sins.
Kambili’s
discovery of herself evolves in gradual phases. First she learns to look at the
nakedness of another human like by starting at Papa-Nnukwu naked form while
watching him pray –she stands fascinated at his nakedness, even taking
particular note.
Seeing
Amaka undress on her very first day in Aunt Ifeoma house she could only imagine
that she looked like Hausa goat: brown, long and lean. She quickly looks away
because it was sinful to look upon another person’s nakedness.
Kambili’s
attraction to father Amadi is from the beginning is physical. During his second
visit to Aunt Ifeoma, she notices, “the way his hair lay in wavy curls on his
head like the ripples in stream”.
The
confronting presence of the Father Amadi causes the changes in Kambili’s life.
Her physical attraction to father Amadi expedites her steps towards womanhood.
Father Amadi also greatly influences Kambili’s shifting paradigm of faith. He
tells that the priesthood was able to answer the most questions. Father Amadi
also incorporates Igbo songs and prayer into his sermons. Kambili realizes that
her faith and ancestral traditions do not have to be mutually exclusive. She is
able to forge her identity as both as a sexual woman and more liberal Catholics
Girls
believed in getting a child before getting married so that the men can accept
them.
Marriage
On
several occasions, papa beats his wife and children. Each time he is provoked
by an action that deems immoral. When mama does not want to visit with father
Benedict because she is ill, Papa beats her and she miscarries.
When
mama tells Kambili she is pregnant, she mentions that she miscarried several
times after Kambili was born. Within the narrative of the novel, mama loses two
pregnancies at Papa’s hands. The other miscarriage may have been caused by
these beatings as well. When she miscarries Papa makes the children say special
novenas for their mother’s forgiveness. Even though he is to blame, he insuates
it is Mama’s fault. Mama believes that she cannot exist outside of her marriage.
She dismisses Aunty Ifeoma’s ideas that life begins after marriage as
“University talk. Mama has not been liberated and withstands the abuse because
she believes it is just.
Finally
because mama cannot bear the abuse she poisons Papa because she can see no
other point
That
she must resort to murder to escape.
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