Surviving War, the Educated Igbo Wo/Man, and Changing Gender Roles in Chimamanda Adichie’s War Novel
Conference: The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Igbo Studies Association (ISA) (2026)
Presenter(s): Ogbu Chukwuka Nwachukwu
Presentation Date: May 14, 2026 @ 15:33 PM
Tags: Alex Ekwueme Federal University Nigeria Ndufu-Alike Ebonyi
Abstract
Aggregate scholarly inquiries into Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s war novel (2006) tilt heavily toward certain strands of Feminism that inveigh against maleness as if maleness and femaleness are mutually exclusive and perpetual adversaries. Many scholarships fail to reckon, for instance, that if gender roles become fluid and social functions are relaxed rather than fixed, all humanity will benefit. Subjectively, some gloat over the prospects of fluid gender roles as if it is tantamount to a defeat of the tyrannical male by the redoubtable female enemy. A lot of these critics pinpoint female education as an empowering tool for female self-assertion and independence, which compulsorily results in changing gender roles. They fail to underscore the strategic importance of male education for a symbiotic relationship that leads to improved gender relations. This article, “War, the Educated Wo/Man, and Changing Gender Roles in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s War Novel,” investigates primarily the impact of education, class primarily, and by extension, elitism in the shaping of the philosophy and psychology of men and women in war and at peacetime that leads to changing gender roles. The article x-rays some relevant gender theories as a bastion of textual analysis. The article observes that war activates changing gender roles. It posits firmly that education, class, social pedigree, and elitist orientation of both male and female characters, not female alone, as claimed by existing scholarship, are the key instigators of changing gender roles in war and in normal contemporary African society.
17 views