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A Terrible Matriarchy

Easterine Kire

Easterine Kire, the first English- Naga writer. Her works are an insight into the Naga culture, history
and also the customs and traditions of the Angami society. Kire‟s A Terrible Matriarchy is a
Buildungsroman; meaning it is about the protagonist coming of age.

The protagonist, Dielieno is the youngest daughter of Visa and Nino. From an early age she is put
under the tutelage of her grandmother Vibano who‟s very conservative woman and whose sole
purpose is to groom Dielieno to be a good Naga wife and mother. Dielieno suffers from double
oppression; first her grandmother‟s dictates and her Patriarchal subjugation and secondly the
socio-economic discrimination evident in the Naga society. But Dielieno does not feel dejected
and lost because of her conditions. She bravely struggles against all odds. The one thing
remarkable about her character is her fearlessness.

Easterine Kire‟s A Terrible Matriarchy, is the story of a girl called Dielieno who undergoes a hard
life because of her grandmother‟s perspective on girl child. She was the only girl child in the family
followed by four brothers named Leto, Vini, Bulie and Pete. This story revolves around three
generation; which is grandmother, mother and the grand daughter, Dielieno. There is patriarchy
prevalent in this novel and a male child was highly favoured in the family. At the end it all comes to
the conclusion that it is the culture and beliefs and the customs associated with it that has made
people, who they are. Despite the hard times she had encountered, Dielieno came up
triumphantly. Though her grandmother was against her education, she completed her studies. Not
only did she excel in her studies but she even got a job which secured her future. Grandmother
always had a belief that if a girl is educated, she will not have good marriage proposals; as boys
consider marrying girls who were good in cooking and household chores. Dielieno proved it
wrong as she got several marriage proposals despite of her good education. A girl child was
inferior to boy child according to grandmother but Dielieno proved herself that a girl child is also
capable of great things. All the rules that were imposed on Dielieno by the grandmother did not
go in vain as well. She began to do the household chores along with her studies. Also she learned
a lot from grandmother though she was treated in a different manner than her brothers. She was
always obedient to what her grandmother asked her to do, hence it produced a good result for
her. She reaped good harvest at the end and also proved that a girl child is capable of great things.

Eastern Kire‟s novel A Terrible Matriarchy revolves around a young girl Dielieno and through her
the oppression that women face and the role of patriarchy. Dielieno is a young girl as the story
begins, who notices the discrimination meted out to her by her grandmother, Vibano.
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Dielieno feels that her grandmother hates her for being a girl, as she is always addressed as “the
girl” even though her grandmother named her Dielieno. Her grandmother also treats her brothers
Leto, Vini, Pete and Bulie better by letting them sit on her lap and giving them extra servings of
meat, which Dielieno refuses. She was also not allowed to be spoiled by receiving money, but her
brothers could enjoy cash as gifts. Later, it is revealed that Vini is Vibano‟s favourite grandchild as
she constantly gives him vast amounts of money, leaves her house to Vini‟s son Salhou and gives
her field to Vini, although Leto is the eldest son. She even paid for Vini‟s grand wedding because
he married a girl of her choice, unlike Leto, who went against her wishes and married Dielieno‟s
best friend Vimenuo, the daughter of the dead drunk Zekuo.

Vibano called Dielieno to live with her to teach her the qualities of a good woman and teach her to
work accordingly. Dielieno struggled to cope with the pressure exerted on her by her
grandmother, but she learned to live with her after facing a multitude of hardships during the early
years of her stay with Vibano. Vibano denied her visiting her parents and brothers unless it was an
urgent cause; she also rejected Dielieno to visit her best friend Vimenuo, claiming that she came
from a bad family. Dielieno was also denied education by her grandmother, who argued that girls
should not be educated, but she was eventually allowed. However, it only meant that she had to
work harder. Dielieno was an excellent student and skipped a class ahead, leaving Vimenuo
behind. Dielieno grew up hating her grandmother with a vengeance. She stayed with her
grandmother from the age of five till the age of twelve. Eventually, her grandmother‟s redemption
is displayed on her deathbed at the novel‟s end, and Dielieno forgives her grandmother.

Subjugation of Women

A Terrible Matriarchy revolves around the main theme of women‟s oppression or patriarchy. But it
is the obvious glances of double-standard oppression that catch the reader‟s attention. Dielieno is
not only suppressed by the patriarchal society but also by her grandmother Vibano‟s biased
behaviour. This institutionalized patriarchy makes women the victim of their own exploitation.
Women‟s oppression can also be seen in the form of socio-economic discrimination. The males-
only heir system bars the women from inheriting land or money.

This leads to the importance of male children over female children in the Angami society of
Nagaland. It is one of the main reasons why grandmother treats Dielieno as the „errand-girl‟ and
cherishes her brothers, especially Leto (who absolutely loved Dielieno) unconditionally. The
grandmother had faced a similar situation as a child and she irrevocably does the same to her
granddaughter.

Kire‟s work brings about conflict and gender in Nagaland with a powerful and engrossing tale. The
history and culture of the Angami society that has through years of belief that men are superior to
women bring about a soul-touching story of women of three generations that are not only stuck in
the vicious circle of patriarchy but also in some way internalize it, making them victims of their own
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doings. Along with their subjugation, readers also get a taste of the lost identity that the citizens of
this exotic state face. The prime example is the mother of Dielieno who plays a passive character in
the story- she doesn‟t have an identity including no name herself, her story is narrated in
fragments and not only is she suppressed by her husband but also Vibhano.

Tradition vs Modernity

Kire highlights the traditional view versus the modern one in her reflection of the Angami society‟s
approach towards education for girls. Dielieno is shown to be growing up at a time when the
importance of education for Angami girls was still being debated and not prioritized. Grandmother
Vibano has very clear ideas about the fact that girls do not need education as it does not help
them in any way to attain their most important goal, that of becoming a good Naga wife and
mother.

Dielieno‟s parents, however, have quite modern views and are of the opinion that Dielieno should
receive education as much as her brothers had the rights to. For Dielieno, her entire life seemed to
be centered on going to school and do well in her studies. In order to not make her grandmother
angry, she would wake up earlier than usual, finish all her household work, so that she would be
allowed to go to school. Once permitted to go to school, she puts her heart and soul in learning
and achieving the most out of her education. She proves to be a good student, also a hardworking
one and over time is able to gain the admiration of her teachers as well. Dielieno is one of those
few girls who completes her education and takes up a job as a teacher to support her family. Kire
depicts the evolving Angami society amidst tremendous changes and that is mainly showcased by
the modern ideas of parents who consider it important for their daughters to get an education and
take an avid interest in the girls‟ careers as well

In the evolving Angami society where modern ideas and thoughts are dawning in, it is interesting
to see how a natural process such as menstruation is referred to as „the curse‟. Young girls like
Dielieno feel terrified of such „grown up matters‟. Kire‟s portrayal of how Dielieno and her friend
hesitate to approach shopkeepers to buy sanitary napkins conveys much idea of the society‟s
perspective of such situations. However, true to the genre of a Bildungsroman, Dielieno too sheds
her cocoon and is finally able to deal with such situations in a practical way

Supernatural Elements

The story also has many supernatural elements. There were talks of hauntings that took place in
Kohima; people were superstitious and could connect any regular event to a paranormal activity.
The villagers saw many spirits in the unrest several times, some even victims of the ghostly
encounters. The older people were okay with it, but the younger generation feared it deeply.
Vibano saw her dead husband working in the garden; Zekuo‟s spirit was also seen in the drinking
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house a few days after his death, and Pete‟s spirit was also seen by his mother, Nino. But the most
prominent and neatly described haunting in the text was of grandmother Vibano‟s spirit. Vibano
showed herself to Dielieno after her death; she was sitting on a chair when Dielieno saw her.
Nisano, Bano and Dielieno heard her grandmother‟s heavy footsteps in the corridor; they also
listened to her exhaling air, making a “heish” sound. She lifted the bolt of the door and walked out
of the house, but it was found to be locked upon inspection. Vibano‟s house was rented for twelve
months, during which four different families lived there. Vibano haunted the four families to the
extent that all were driven away with fear.

In a pastor‟s dream, Vibano‟s spirit said, “My house is not for strangers. It is for my family
members. How can I be at rest when they have thrown out of my house those who cared for me
and tried to make money out of it?” referring to her children who asked Bano to move to Neikuo‟s
house because they wanted to make money out of the house by renting it out even though she
left the house to Vini and Nisano‟s son Salhou. After Bano moved back, Vibano‟s spirit did not
return.

Social Criticism—Struggles of Naga

The novel gives us an insight into what life was like in the 1960s –the struggles that the Nagas
faced pre and post-independence, the introduction of electricity, the misconceptions of what
education allegedly did to a girl, i.e., making her bold and not worthy of finding a suitor quickly,
the attitude of servitude that a woman is expected to have towards her husband, the extreme
superstitions and the looking down of families because of their “bad blood” or something
ridiculous that their ancestors did, the obsession with women bearing male heirs not to lose
property upon the death of their husbands and having someone to care for them. These are
elements which continue to prevail in modern-day society, like the untimely deaths caused by
alcoholism, neighbourhood gossip, superstitions, etc. What stands out the most is that reading this
novel is like going through history at a personal depth, not just knowing the social, political,
religious, and economic issues but also having a close peek into the people‟s lives in the 1960s to
1970s. The story acts as a time machine that enables us to experience the kind of love and hatred
that existed ages ago, which is no different from the one that exists now. Love and hatred as terms
are narrow, but in action, they can be manifested in many ways.