While reading the part in which Ikemefuna appears in the novel. It was inevitable for me to think of the pain his mother must have gone through when Okonkwo separeted them. I am a mother too, and I am completely sure that it must be awfully dreadful in any culture since the bounds that we create with our child are stronger than any. That may be a reason why Okonkwo conceived affection related to femininity. However, the Igbo culture saw femininity as weakness which was Okonkwo's major fear. Therefore, he tried to hide his "feminine feeling" of affection towards Ikemefuna and Ezinma.
Even though Okonkwo was a very tough man and constantly fought to avoid resemblances to his father (gentleness, idleness, weakness, failure) his attempt to leave feelings aside failed when talking about Ikemefuna. During the three years Okonkwo looked after Ikemefuna, they built a father-son relationship in which Ikemefuna showed that manhood does not exclude gentleness and affection. But Okonkwo was so afraid of looking weak that he even ended up killing Ikemefuna.
Regarding his daughter Ezinma, he felt a special relationship with her; in fact, she was his favorite child because she became a source of comfort for him. He even wished she had been a boy, which means that he indeed loved her as he only valued masculinity.
It was interesting to find these aspects of parental love after the sad ending of Ikemefuna's life. No matter the personality, goal, culture and chin parents may have, there's always time to love our little ones.
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