How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
She would have to put up with things. She would rather die in this town called Lagos than go back home and say, "Father, I just do not like the man you have chosen for me." Another thought ran through her mind: suppose this man made her pregnant, would that not be an untold joy to her people?
"O my chi," she prayed as she rolled painfully to her other side on the raffia bed, "O my dead mother, please make this dream come true, then I will respect this man, I will be his faithful wife and put up with his crude ways and ugly appearance. Oh, please help me, all you ancestors. If I should become pregnant—hm…" She nursed her belly, and felt her rather sore legs. "If I should ever be pregnant." (4.20-21)
If Nnaife can give Nnu Ego what she wants, she will respect him as a man.
Quote #8
"Well, your second son is at St Gregory's. Who pays his fees?"
"I do, I pay his fees with the profits I make from selling firewood and other things."
There was a suppressed ripple of laugher in the court.
"But your husband told us he pays the school feels, how is that?"
"Yes, he pays the school feels."
"Do you mean the two of you pay Adim's school fees?"
"No, I pay."
The laughter that followed this could no longer be suppressed. Even the judge smiled unwillingly.
"Mrs Owulum, will you please explain."
"Nnaife is the head of our family. He owns me, just like God in the sky owns us. So even though I pay the fees, yet he owns me. So in other words he pays."
"Oh, I see. And you clothe and sometimes feed the family, too?"
Nnu Ego nodded, not knowing that with that one nod, she had nailed the last nail in Nnaife's coffin. It became clear that she was doing nearly all the providing…(18.43-54)
Nnu Ego doesn't realize that she is emasculating her husband in the courtroom. In traditional west African society, men did provide for their families, but it was always the woman's responsibility to heavily supplement the men's hunting and farming of yams with their own farming activities. In Victorian-influenced Great Britain, a man who didn't provide for his family wasn't a man at all.
Quote #9
And he went on probing Nnu Ego, "When your husband returned from the army did he not go to Ibuza?"
"Yes, he did.'
"What did he go for?"
"I don't know, to see his family at home. Ibuza is his home."
"Did he bring anything with him?"
"Yes, he brought a new wife."
"And did he not do something else in Ibuza, say give someone a child?"
"Yes, he made my senior wife pregnant. Her husband died, you see."
Three-quarters of the court was filled by Yorubas to whom this kind of custom was strange. They looked at the pathetic figure of Nnaife sitting there, being responsible for all these children. Even the judge looked at him with a kind of masculine admiration.
"Your husband is a very strong man," the prosecuting lawyer said cynically and the court roared in laughter.
"You say your husband is an ideal man, a very nice man."
Nnu Ego nodded.
"Has he got a nasty temper?"
"No, he hasn't. He only gets angry when he is drunk."
"And he drinks often, every day?"
"Well, he is a man, isn't he? Men are expected to be like that. My father—"
"Ahem. We are talking about your husband, not your father."
"My husband is like any other man. I would not have married any man who did not behave like a man." (18.55-72)
Nnu Ego sees all of Nnaife's behavior as normal, including his anger and his drinking. The court, however, holds up Nnaife's behavior for the world to see as dirty laundry. In fact, they realize, Nnaife has done nothing but sire children, which he barely cared for, leaving his wives to do the hard work of providing for them.