Preview

Monique and the Mango Rains

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
282 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Monique and the Mango Rains
Monique and the Mango Rains
Monique and the mango rains is a touching story about a peace corps volunteer and a Malian midwife. The story is set in the small village of Namposella and is narrated by the Peace Corps volunteer Kris Holloway. The book gives you an in depth perspective on the life of a woman in Mali and their culture as a whole. In this paper I will be discussing anthropological concepts including rite of passage, patriarchy, and religion and how they apply to Monique and the mango rains.
Religion is defined as beliefs and individuals concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces. Most people in Mali and Namposella practice Islam. Upon arriving at the village Kris is given an Islamic name they call her Fatumata. Approximately one in ten villagers is Christian. There is a catholic church in the village where Monique had attended services. Behind the church there is a small hut that represented another religion. The hut was home to ritual objects known as fetiches that belonged to the local minianka religion that had its own complex belief system that protected and helped maintain order in the village. Monique referred to the practice as animism.
Patriarchy is a term used to describe a political system ruled by men in which women have inferior social and political status, including basic human rights. The book itself is an example of patriarchy in my opinion. The life that Monique lives daily shows a lack of power that Women have in her society.
One of the main events that caught my eye was in chapter six. The chapter is named cutting, Kris Holloway explains the Malian custom for female

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    the bite of the mango

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As the book begins, Mariatu is a happy little girl growing up in Magborou, a village of 200 near Port Loko, Sierra Leone. The first chapter teaches the reader about life in extended families where children may grow up under the care of relatives, men may have two or more wives and several generations live and work together. Mariatu tells us about her friends, her attraction to a possible boyfriend, Musa, her hopes of going to school one day, and her scary dream of standing in palm oil, a signifier of bad things to come. We learn about village life from preparations for a funeral, rotating crops of cassava and rice, dances, secret societies, and a child's daily chores of carrying water and collecting firewood.…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Mali culture, it is the contribution to material welfare to be one of the most important influences in gender stratification. In the book Monique and the Mango Rains, Monique is a hard-working midwife that was a pillar of her community. She was who new mothers and pregnant women turned to most often. She could accomplish a great deal with what little supplies she had. Monique contributed a lot to her community and was given a higher status for it. An example of this was her starting the “baby-weighing day”. If a woman wanted a higher status in the community she would have to make contributions to earn it. Control over key resources influenced gender stratification by men had more control over resources that women needed. An example from…

    • 242 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Patriarchy- A social system in which the male is the primary authority figure central to social organization and the central roles of political leadership, moral authority, and control of property, and where fathers hold authority over women and children. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bell Hooks Summary

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In other words, patriarchy is a political system that insists that males inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak,…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    macbeth and antigone

    • 1105 Words
    • 1 Page

    feminism, patriarchy is a male centered and controlled society and is arranged to make women…

    • 1105 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the changes that occur in societies across the world. The novel immediately projects the fear and misunderstanding felt by the people of Bambara due to the unexpected early changes that are taking place in Africa. “A white man...There’s a white man on the bank of the Joliba” is exclaimed by Dousika’s pregnant wife Sira (Conde 5). The family is instantly struck with a curious mind but also one that is uneasy. The sight of this white man causes great despair already for the man of the house Dousika: “White men come and live in Segu among the Bambara? It seemed impossible, whether they were friends or enemies!”(Conde 10). The unexpected appearance of this white man marks the beginning of anguish for Dousika and his four sons, especially for Dousika at first for he is embarrassed by the council due to this stranger’s intrusion. This white…

    • 1939 Words
    • 56 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Around the time of Katie Makanya’s childhood, South Africa was beginning to change rapidly due to the discovery of diamonds, which ultimately kept bringing Europeans into their territory causing their cultures and race to blend together. This book illustrates the black South African life that Katie lives and how she uneasily adapts to the incoming European culture during those years of colonization.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Patriarchal describes a general structure in which woman are dominated by men who are presented with power. A Patriarchal Society is composed of a male with dominated power structure throughout an organised society and in individual relationships.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the text Johnson uses the word patriarchy; meaning a social system where males hold all power. He uses this word a lot in the excerpt…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    palace walk

    • 2815 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Patriarchy in simple terms can be defined as a system or government in which men hold the power and status, in comparison to women who are largely excluded. Throughout this assignment, particular attention will be placed upon issues surrounding patriarchal culture and the effects of the British colonial rule. Furthermore, the manners in which patriarchy manifests itself in regards to human relationships and behaviour will also be discussed, as well as the effect of power relations on the ability of people to self-actualise. Examples of two of the characters from within the book ‘Palace Walk’ will be used, in order to assist our understanding further on situations which relate to patriarchy. Other points which will be taken into consideration will focus on the secular and religious challenges faced by Muslim intellectuals, activists and reformers. The views and ideas of Ramadan, Ibrahim, Mahmood and Badran will be looked into and discussed throughout this assignment, alongside other theories/theorists relating to these issues.…

    • 2815 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Patriarchy is the idea of a male oriented society where women, children, lower-class men and slaves were below the elite upper class of white men. On of the ideas behind patriarchy is that the man is meant to have absolute control over anyone that is in a lower social class. Slaves seemed to have a harder time in these relationships since slaves were property not people. (Brown). A natural social hierarchy was the goal; a lawyer in Virginia said, “Societies of men could not subsist unless there were a subordination of one to another…. That in this subordination the department of slaves must be filled by some, or there would be a defect in the scale of order.” Basically meaning without slaves the entire social balance would be disrupted (Morgan). Through the making of the constitution patriarchy was practiced. When the Constitution was being drafted Alexander Hamilton gave a patriarchal speech. He too believed that people in charge should have stable life. He believed that the people in lower classes had lives that were too turbulent to make good choices (Young).…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Johnson, Allan G. "Patriarchy, the System." Women 's Lives : Multicultural Perspectives. By Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities, Social Sciences & World Languages, 2006.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Feminism is a conflict theory and views society as being patriarchal. They believe that functional parts of society such as, education, family and religion are used as tools of women subordination. However, there are 3 types of feminists that have different conflicting views on this, often resulting in the weakening of the overall arguments of feminism.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    happy momen us

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Question: Analyze the relationship between men and women in the African culture as Achebe presents it. Explain how this relationship is similar or dissimilar to the Western view of the relationships between men and women. Focus on both positive and negative aspects of the relationship. What comment is Achebe trying to make about the dynamics of the relationship in his culture.In Things Fall Apart Achebe shows us how the relationship between men and women in the African culture is defined. Achebe illustrates the similarities and the differences between the genders. However, one has to keep in mind that the society Achebe portrays is not a modern Nigerian society and therefore it would be unfair to compare the gender roles of his society to the gender roles in a modern Western society. Nevertheless, it is clear that women do not play a big role in the society, the men always take control over their wives and do not treat their wives as equals. But there are events in the story that indicate that this role may be changing just as much as the Ibo society as a whole is beginning to undergo changes.To a modern reader the portrayal of women in Achebe’s novel may come as a shock. As harsh as life appears to be for society as a whole, for men, life is that much harder. Women live under the man’s rules and appear like his property, because the men have total control over them; farm work is considered women’s work, and at any rate, there are no other jobs available to them. None of the women have their own property, they cannot get a divorce, even though the husbands can easily get rid of their wives when they do not want them anymore. Women could also be mistreated by the husbands without being able to go to the police or to court. However, their culture is not without its own rules, and in fact, although Okonkwo is…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This view is held by Radical feminists, they believe that patriarchy is society is the reason that women are oppressed and exploited by men, and Marxists for example hold the view that the capitalist system is the reason for the gender inequality. Feminists believe that women are unequal to men, and as a result society benefits men whilst exploiting men. Feminist investigate the effects that this inequality has on women’s power, status, roles and life chances. They believe that gender inequality is socially constructed an example is gender roles; these are taught to children at very young ages and encourage these gender inequalities to become part of society’s norms. The different type of feminists believe different reasons for gender inequality, there are liberal, radical Marxist and postmodern feminists, radical are arguably the most extreme and controversial feminist group.…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays