Summary Of Growing My Hair Again

In the short story ‘growing my hair again’, the author explains how women in the African traditions are held captive by the traditional culture and their struggles to trying to break away them using the main character Nneka. In Nigeria as well as in the other parts of Africa, culture was and still is given a lot of emphasizes especially when it comes to the traditional practices and beliefs. The culture however vary from one community to the other and ranges from the rights of passage, religious beliefs to other religious practices such as offering sacrifices and the role of women in the community .Nneka was married to a rich man in traditional Nigerian community and as in other areas, women had a role of being submissive to their husbands

The burial and mourning practices regarding the death of Okpala is used by the author to demonstrate how historical cultural practices were deep rooted in African communities. The author again tries to show the struggle widows who wish to break away from the traditions experiences. This is easily realized from Nneka strong despise for the traditions. She hated the oppressive marriage, strongly loathed the widow traditions and the burial rituals and the fact that she had to be confined by the practices with limited freedoms for a period of one year. During the one year mourning period according to the cultural practices, the believed was to remain in the bedroom and surrounded by other mourners who were presumably supposed to comfort her. “…Bored and hungry and sick of sitting on the bedroom floor to be besieged by crying relatives, I had gone to raid the pantry…” (p.76, 77). Further during the mourning period, the wife was not supposed to enjoy the freedom of eating their favorite dishes. The food she ate was not supposed to have neither salt nor pepper. At one point the mother in law caught Nneka eating some raisins soaked in brandy and what followed was a lengthy lecture to express her displeasure in the acts of her daughter in law and emphasize on the importance

In this society, the first born boy was to be the heir of the father’s wealth when they died. Okpala new this very well and that is why he was keen to have more sons to carry on the business of the family. On the other hand one of the things that propelled Nnerka’s defiance towards the culture and traditional practices was that the husband had left behind a lot of wealth and a son who will be the heir of this empire. According to this phrase the author was trying to bring in the factor of the wife being denied the wealth of the husband in the absence of the husband in the historical culture of this society. It has happened in many communities that upon the death of the husband, the wife is denied inheritance of the property and instead the in-laws take advantage of the situation. The issue of upholding traditions are clear indication of the historical culture and the society and the family expects Nneka to observe them since his husband has died. Nneka knew very well that despite her being reluctant to observe the traditions especially after the one year mourning period, she would regain her freedom and the son was a guarantee that there would be no efforts from the extended family to disposes her of the late husband’s wealth. Even the mother in law and the others had to