Symbol of Male Chauvinism or Patriachy
In the book, the author uses the crops yam and cocoyam to show the patriarchy in the society. The yam being the crop which is considered the better crop of the two, is only allowed to be cultivated by men. It was only grown and distribute by men. Cocoyam on the other hand, was cultivated by women. Cassava which was considered an inferior crop when compared to yam, was also cultivated by women.
These two crops can be used a symbols that show that in the society, women were not allowed to perform important tasks like leadership and judging cases because they were considered to be inferior to their male counterparts. They were instead only allowed to do tasks like cooking, serving and taking care of children.
Symbol of Wealth
Wealth in the Nnobi society was symbolized by material things such as land, livestock, food trees, agricultural produce, textiles, household goods and textiles.Human labour such as women's productive and reproductive ability was also considered wealth. The number of children that one had especially sons were also a symbol of wealthy.
Ojukwu, who is a priest of the Land Spirit, is wealthy in material things because he has a lot of yam and was a successful farmer. He is also considered poor by the community because he has no sons to inherit him .
Symbol of Power and Title.
The wearing of ivory anklets and bracelets by women was a symbol that they held a particular social title in the society. The author gives the example of the woman, Egoeme who was an ogbuefi titled woman. She had gained this title because she had successfully killed a cow and was the favorite of his father. The bracelets that she wore were very heavily priced and costly. Hence as she walked around the streets, people recognized her as a woman who had the ogbuefi title and accorded her respect at that.
Symbol of the Goddess
The goddess of the people of Nnobi was a water spirit. As such, her shrine was always next to a stream. All of the creatures in that particular stream were considered a taboo to kill or eat and also sacred. One very important creature was a python which symbolized the goddess herself. The people associated the qualities of the goddess with the python for they believed that it represented the goddess herself whenever it was sighted. If anyone killed a python, it was such a great crime that the person had to mourn its death for a year.
Symbol of Government
Since,the community of Nnobi did not have any centralized system of government like a monarchy; its titled men and women were a symbol of the government. Ekwe titled women ruled over the women while their male counterparts ruled over the men. The power of these men was felt in the current resident village but would sometimes also be felt in an entire town that comprised of several villages. These men and women were very powerful in Nnobi and represented law and order or a system of government for the people.
