My Thoughts on Double Yoke

The difficult struggle between tradition and progress is a theme that is very prevalent in world literature. I liked Double Yoke, a story of the literal double yoke of pursuing a western education in conjunction with living and being raised in a traditional society with a specific gender hierarchy. I appreciated how it captured through one character’s eyes, an issue that affects a whole section of Nigerian society and has parallels to difficulties faced worldwide. Ete Kamba has a contradiction in his very identity. He has a deep respect for women who do not command respect. He respects women like his mother, who he expects to have no pride or vanity, and to live only to serve their man and the other men around them. He also appreciates intelligence and independence, as we saw on the first page with his excitement towards the work of the female professor. These conflicting feelings seem to be the bulk of the novels issue. We learn that the set up of the society may be such that he cannot reconcile the dilemma in a way that will make him happy.

One of Ete Kamba’s friends sheds light on the exact nature of Kamba’s issue. He tells Ete that his problem is he “wants a wife and a girl friend in the same woman” (128). Any woman strong an independent enough to sustain an emotional sexual relationship is a woman who is not virtuous enough to be a wife. This is a frustrating catch. As the reader I wished to scream at Kamba that he and the males of Nigeria in general need to update the nature of their relationships with women to fit a more liberal educated world. At the end of the novel Kamba is given advice by

Miss Bulewao. He has too move on. The issue of virginity is no longer important to him, and he needs to focus on “individualism – that of knowing we are happier in somebody’s company” (163). Kamba does not really want to listen. It is against his nature to take advice from a woman. That is part of his problem. It is ingrained in his heritage. I am sympathetic to his struggle. Changing your beliefs often means admitting to yourself you’ve been wrong, which isn’t easy. We are given a glimmer of hope at the end of the novel. Perhaps Kamba will be able to change, and after everything that has happened between them, the relationship will succeed.