TFA Gender Roles (copy)

our youth

our youth have gone so soft

yam, the king

yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop

yams stood

yams stood for manliness

yam, the king of crops, was

yam, the king of crops, was a very exacting king

sit

sit like a woman

that is a

that is a boy’s job

there were many

there were many women, but they looked on from the fringe

no woman

no woman ever did

it is not bravery

it is not bravery when a man fights with a woman

a man belongs

a man belongs to his fatherland and not his motherland. and yet we say Nneka - “mother is supreme”

your mother

your mother is there to protect you

how had he

how had he begotten a woman for a son

yam always

yam always came first

mourned for

mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women

worthy men

worthy men are no more

those were

those were the days when men were men