Tradition and Modernity: A Binary reading of Tess Onwueme’s the Broken Calabash

Abstract

The issue of culture, tradition, and its unassailable conflict with modernity in certain parts
of Africa, as obvious in several communities in Nigeria, is a challenge that affects our
social development today. As it is often echoed; “it’s a man’s world”, most times women
fall victim of these long-held traditions that have over time become canons we hold dear.
The glib dispositions of these practices situate patriarchy at the epicenter of societal
construction and places women on us, the fringes, mostly becoming unwilling casualties of
unfriendly traditions. Thus, this paper examines how tradition and its attendant problems
impede on the social standing and general development of the woman in society using Tess
Osonye Onwueme’s play ‘The Broken Calabash”. Using the thematic content analysis
approach the paper explored the potential conflict between tradition and modernity, the
paper interrogates Broken Calabash as a reflection of women’s subjugation by obsolete
cultural traditions, presenting alongside this, the consequences of social exclusion and the
denial of rights experienced by women. The paper concludes that the dramatic experience
presented by Tess Osonye Onwueme reveals the intricate relations between tradition and
modernity as a potent means for the reading and understanding of texts depicting gender
relations.