ABSTRACT
African writers have
pre-occupied themselves with the happenings in the society. Thus,
thematic focus has always been on societal ills, one of which is female
oppression. This study examines the feminist perspectives in Hilary
Rouse-Amadi’s Amina and Mobolaji Adenubi’s Empty Arms. The sociological
approach was adopted, which enabled a better judgment of the characters,
as presented by the writers.
This research work has shown how
Hilary Rouse-Amadi and Mobolaji Adenubi have raised the female
consciousness to withstand the grains of patriarchy. The work also
examines what feminism is, and the changes that have taken place in the
portrayal of women in the society.
In conclusion, this work
is able to portray a vivid description of gender inequality, its adverse
effect on women and the steps taken to correct it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv-v
ABSTRACT vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii-ix
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1-7
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 8
1.2 SCOPE OF THE 8
1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY 9
1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9
END NOTES 10
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRODUCTION 11-12
2.1 THE ORIGIN OF FEMINISM 12-13
2.2 DEFINITIONS OF FEMINISM 12-17
2.3 FORMS OF FEMINISM 17-20
2.4 FEMINIST FORMS ADOPTED IN HILARY ROUSE AMADI’S AMINA AND MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 21-22
END NOTES 23
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 A SYNOPSIS OF HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA 24-25
3.1 FEMINIST ISSUES IN ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA 25
3.1.1 THE SUBORDINATION OF THE FEMALE GENDER 26-27
3.1.2 BRIDE PRICE AND CHILD MARRIAGE 27-29
3.1.2 FEMALE BONDING 29-31
3.1.3 THE CHANGE IN A WOMAN’S STATUS AFTER
MARRIAGE 31
3.2 GENDER PORTRAYAL IN HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S
AMINA 32-35
3.3 CULTURAL FEMINISM IN HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S
AMINA 35-37
END NOTES 38
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 A SYNOPSIS OF MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 39
4.1 FEMINIST ISSUES IN MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S
EMPTY ARMS 40-45
4.2 GENDER PORTRAYAL IN MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTYARMS 45-46
4.3 LIBERAL, RADICAL AND HUMANIST FEMINISMS IN
MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 46-48
END NOTES 49
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA AND MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 50-51
5.1 FINDINGS 51-52
5.2 CONCLUSION 52-54
BIBLIOGRAPHY 55-56
INTRODUCTION
In the society, women are always reminded of their roles as
wives and mothers in such derogatory manners. They are saddled with the
responsibilities of producing, nurturing children and taking care of the
home. Over the years however, women have embarked on a struggle aimed
at affirming their identities, while at the same time, doing all they
can to transform the societal, cultural or traditional perceptions of
their gender. Women are striving very hard to change these perceptions
through education and by creating awareness.
Female
writers have helped greatly by making the female characters in their
works more prominent. Their aim is to have female characters that are
powerful and outspoken. This is because women in most male writings are
often portrayed as subservient and dull. This is evident in some works
of male writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka among others, in
whose works female characters are present, only to serve the image of
African manhood, especially in Things Fall Apart and The Trials of
Brother Jero respectively.
Eventually, this female
silence was broken by Flora Nwapa in 1966, when she published her first
novel, Efuru, which served as a kind of inspiration to other female
writers. These women used literature to explain the state of their
societies, either good or bad. They also use literature to explain the
importance of female existence in the society. Some of these feminist
witers include: Zaynab Alkali, Buchi Emecheta, Mobolaji Adenubi and
Hilary Rouse-Amadi.
It has been established by critics
that there are cultural practices that are oppressive to women. Such
critics believe that culture is a social construct, a way of
subordinating the female gender, to make the male gender dominant. Lewis
(1995), as cited in Mama (1997) states that:
…African cultural practices have been weapons for enforcing
women’s obedience …culture has been seen as an edifice of
unchanging institutions, traditions and identities…
Also,
Meena (1989), as cited in Walker (1991) says ‘women oppression has been
located in some practices in traditional African societies’. She
further states that 'in the literary world, fictions of undiluted
African culture bolster patriarchal goals and desires, while
perpetuating the servitude of women’. It is important to examine some
cultural practices that are oppressive to women because these form parts
of the themes in the selected texts for the study, which are Mobolaji
Adenubi’s Empty Arms and Hilary Rouse-Amadi’s Amina.
One of the cultural practices in Nigeria is the issue of bride price.
In some parts of the country, a lady’s bride price is inflated in such a
way that it would seem the bride is being sold. Although some African
feminists do not see any evil in this practice, some feminist authors
have expressed their displeasure, through characters in their works.
Some of these writers include Buchi Emecheta in The Bride Price, Hilary
Rouse-Amadi in Amina, Mobolaji Adenubi in Empty Arms among others. These
writers try to prove that a female child is not a commodity. In Empty
Arms, Auntie Pat refused to accept a bride price from Jide. She informed
Mrs. Lawal that she was not selling off her niece. Mrs. Lawal also
commented:
…Your Nike is being given away practically. Don’t
we know the amount of money usually demanded
of the groom’s families by the bride’s families as
payment?
In
The Bride Price, Akunna was allowed to stay on in school until she
completes standard six after her father’s death because according to the
narrator, ‘the longer she stays in school, the higher the bride price
that is expected on her’.
Also, in Amina, Amina could not
further her education because her father said it was time for her to get
married. Amina was so sad that she asks her mother:
Why was I sent to school?
Was it a mere excuse
To swell the bride price?
Is money all the honour
That my laboured father seeks?
In some families, a female child is seen as an avenue of
getting money.
Such girls are usually married off at tender ages, sometimes against
their will. Some of them who have the courage to protest against such
arrangements are usually cursed by families and rejected by the society.
Apart from being literally sold off by her family, the husband also
sees her as one of his possessions, an object he has bought with a huge
amount of his money and could treat as he pleases. Such wives are often
subjected to different kinds of marital oppression and they are expected
to take everything in good faith. Hilary Rouse-Amadi points this out in
Amina. According to Amina:
It seems we are marketable objects
To be disposed off with speed
To the highest bidder and when
We have been sold into marriage,
It seems we are expected to sit
Meekly in the houses of our lords
Nursing our thoughts and feelings
Within the enforced privacy
Of a silence we have never asked for…
There
is also female subjection to oppression in widowhood. In some parts of
Nigeria, especially in the Eastern parts, a widow is compelled to mourn
her husband officially, by going through some dehumanizing rituals. In
these parts of Nigeria, a widow mourns her husband by having the hairy
parts of her body shaved. After that, she is forced to drink the water
that was used in bathing her dead husband. She then mourns her husband
by wailing publicly at the top of her voice for days. According to Nzewi
(1931):
…Widowhood practices in certain parts of Imo state begins
after the burial ceremony. A woman becomes a widow
(Isi nkpe) when her husband dies. It is from the point of
death that a woman begins to go through the rituals
associated with widowhood.
While interviewing widows, a widow a widow revealed to Nzewi (1931 :
When my husband died, the Umuokpu took me to the
back of the house. They first of all put their left and
right fingers into my mouth… They gave me food in a
broken calabash and fed me with their left
and right hands simultaneously… I was required to cry
in the morning and at night for four days…
Any
widow who refuses to be subjected to this kind of treatment is tagged a
witch, she is blamed for her husband’s death, she is exempted from
social privileges and she is not allowed to transact in the market.
Also,
in Nigeria, some husbands forbid their wives from working. It is
believed that a woman’s place is in her husband’s house and as a result,
she is not allowed to engage in any form of work. Such women are forced
to be dependent on their husbands for survival. In most cases, the man
is expected to have provided her with the basic necessities and anything
else she after that would be considered immaterial. Such women find it
difficult to survive on their own when the marriage turns sour or the
husband dies. Feminist writers have tried to create awareness in their
works on this issue. Many women now refuse subservient roles and are now
seen in offices and other places of work, combining marriage and
motherhood with work. This makes them less dependent on their husbands.
Feminists
are doing all they could to point out that cultural practices that are
oppressive to women should be changed, that women should be treated as
humans and respected. So far, feminist writers have succeeded in this
quest, because women around the world are now struggling to liberate
themselves from all forms of oppression. They are now raising their
voices to fight for their rights.
Many
feminists believe that education is a major agent in the liberation of
women. With Western education, more women are now empowered to express
themselves. Unfortunately, in some parts of Nigeria like the Eastern and
mostly the Northern parts of the country, female education is still
considered irrelevant. Women in these parts are usually subjected to
early marriage or other means of preventing them from being properly
educated. This research work examines the struggle of an African woman
to gain better access to formal education in Hilary Rouse-Amadi’s Amina
.
Also,
women are mostly seen as being good only for reproduction in the
society. In a childless marriage for instance, the woman automatically
assumes the role of the barren party. This is irrespective of the fact
that the man may be responsible for the couple’s inability to bear
children. This research work explores a situation where the barren party
in a marriage is the man, in Mobolaji Adenubi’s Empty Arms.
You either get what you want or your money back. T&C Apply