GENDER ISSUES IN NIGERIAN LITERATURE

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 INTRODUCTION

In this unit, we will discuss feminism and gender issues as treated in Nigerian literature. We shall examine select Nigerian literatures in order to understand how they treat gender issues. Nigerian women, who are also concerned about sexual politics, understand that a discussion of feminism must grapple with more than the issue of sex. So many issues are raised when the topic of gender is discussed in Nigerian literature. They include: the representation and mis-representation of women in literary texts; the education of women; the access of women to the economic means of survival; motherhood; women in the domestic sphere; women as part of their communities; women's role in politics and revolution; women and cultural practices; sexuality; and the direct treatment of women by men, and men by women. We shall use Buchi Emecheta’s novel The Joys of Motherhood, Catherine Acholonu’s poetry collection The Springs Last Drop and Zulu Sofola’s play Wedlock of the Gods in treating the gender issues in Nigerian literature.

3.1 General Overview

In gender studies in Africa, Nigerian women have been at the pivot. Flora Nwapa is one of the first writers to give the women voice in African literature. Her novels Efuru, Idu and One is Enough among others set out provocative gender issues in Africa. The role and history of feminist politics or activism on women's rights in Africa is a discourse which African women are studying and clarifying for themselves. The debate over feminist criticism and the development of an African feminist theory has been a concern to African gender scholars. As a Senegalese figure, Mariama Ba represents a kind of feminine Leopold Sedar Senghor. She shows that not only men are important in this world. She also shows that to succeed in this life, women should identify themselves and also trust in themselves to overcome the difficulties that compose life. In showing the importance of women, their role in bringing up families and keeping them together in time of calamity is clearly brought out in the novel.

Buchi Emecheta has a different view. She criticizes the society’s belief that a woman is worth anything if she becomes a mother. Nnu Ego, as did other women in the Ibo society, bore many children in the hope that she would have someone to take care of her in her old age. Again, this was an Ibo custom. Some argue that it is not the responsibility of the children to support and care for Nnu Ego. They argue that Nnu Ego's children had the right to choose in what manner and to what extent they would do so, if at all. Others argue that there was never any real communication with regard to this expectation of Nnu Ego from her children, that this message was never expressed. Although that may have been the case, the understanding was implicit. It was a cultural understanding, a cultural expectation that, although not fully expressed, was always understood. It is a case of motherhood appreciation.

Catherine Acholonu’s poetry examines women in cultural situations. In The Spring’s Last Drop, she examines the expectations of women in cultural things like ritual, rites of passage and cultural hegemony. She is the proponent of the feminist theory of motherism which she interpreted as the Afrocentric alternative to feminism. The theory discusses the place of African women in the feminist discourse and to correct some obvious lapses in womanism and feminism proper.

Zulu Sofola, one of the earliest female dramatists to have come out of Africa, has produced plays that give attention to the issues of female subjugation, culture clash and anarchy. Her plays have been recognized as trail blazers in the discourse on female subjugation and male dominance. She has often portrayed the need for harmony among the sexes in a community; the need for appreciating the place of the man and the role of the women and the need to discard those indices of anarchy that place women in bad positions in society.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1

Examine the role of Nigerian female writers in the propagation of gender issues in Africa.

3.2 Gender Issues in The Joys of Motherhood

One of the many issues raised in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood is the conflict Nnu Ego feels in embracing and accepting new ideas when she moves away from her Ibo society to make a new life for herself in Lagos. Nnu Ego is caught between two cultures. While she sees that her old customs and beliefs are not conducive to a better

life for her or her children, she is unable to come to terms with Lagos's different societal rules. It is shocking to her that money is now the status quo, not children. She finds it hard to believe that gender roles have been exchanged. Men now work as household servants for the "white man." Women are no longer having a large number of children. Nnu Ego finds it difficult to adjust to her new life. Her strong cultural beliefs are in direct conflict with her new life in Lagos. These cultural beliefs are the cause of her enslavement.

Nnu Ego's cultural background is one in which women are exploited to men's advantage. Womanhood is defined by the ability to bear children. The more male children a woman has, the higher her status. In this patriarchal society, a woman's duty is to bear male children for her husband to continue his lineage. A childless woman is considered a "half woman," a failed woman. The man, therefore, is of critical importance to the woman, for a woman cannot bring forth a child without a man. This way of thinking can be seen in Adankwko's advice to Nnu Ego: "Have you ever heard of a complete woman without a husband?" (Emecheta 158). A husband who can father male children is greatly admired.

In Nnu Ego's society, a daughter's value to her parents is only as high as the bride price she can fetch. The Ibos' way of thinking is that daughters are raised to glorify another man when her turn comes to produce male offspring. That is why daughters are not as highly regarded as sons are. In Nnu Ego's patriarchal society, women are viewed as tools of production. The younger the woman is, the better able she will be to reproduce. Women are valued in terms of their economic worth. In Nnu Ego's Ibo society, a woman is always owned by a male. First, she belongs to her father until she is of an age where she can be sold. Pre- arranged marriages are normal. How the daughter feels toward her husband is of little importance. After acquiring her, she is chattel and only valuable in terms of "producing" offspring, preferably males. She is his to command. Her duty is to obey him always.

All of these beliefs and customs are embedded in Nnu Ego's subconscious. Her new life in Lagos does not change that. She is not surprised, therefore, when Nnaife chides her for questioning him: "What did you say? Did I not pay your bride price? Am I not your owner?" (Emecheta, 48)

The Joys of Motherhood is a mirror image of today's society in Africa and in many other parts of the world. It speaks of the struggles and conflicts of women and the gender roles imposed upon them. It further speaks of women's struggles to gain independence from their subservient roles as wives and to gain a voice of their own. Women in third world countries are still hesitant to speak out and make themselves heard for fear of being punished by their husbands and society in general. Their objections to being treated unfairly are seen as unimportant.

In Ibuza, wife beating was also common and, indeed, accepted. Since wives were property, husbands had the authority to do as they pleased. Wife beating elevated a husband's self-esteem and gave him a sense of control. In The Joys of Motherhood, Nnaife threatens to beat Nnu Ego when she presses him to find a job. He actually beats the pregnant Adaku when both she and Nnu Ego go on strike for more housekeeping money. Things have not changed very much for women in third world countries. They are still considered second class citizens. Although they work alongside the men in various fields, in addition to taking care of the household, their contributions are seen as insignificant. A woman is faceless. Her identity is forever linked with that of her husband's. They are as one.

Nnu Ego's conflict with her new life in Lagos first becomes evident when Adaku comes to live with them. Although in her Ibo society husbands have many wives who live together harmoniously, Nnu Ego resents Adaku and does not like to share Nnaife with her. Nnu Ego is torn between her Ibo customs and the reality of her poverty filled life in Lagos. As she struggles to put food on the table for her children with the little money Nnaife earns, she comes to the conclusion that she is a prisoner because of her role as mother and senior wife. She reflects on the way her life would have been in Ibuza as a senior wife. She dreams of having the courage to abandon Nnaife and leave her children with him. As senior wife in Lagos, she has many responsibilities but none of the rewards that come with being a senior wife in Ibuza:

On her way back to their room, it occurred to Nnu Ego that she was a prisoner, imprisoned by her love for her children, and imprisoned in her role as the senior wife. She was not even expected to demand more money for her family; that was considered below the standard expected of a woman in her position. It was not fair, she felt, the way men cleverly used a woman's sense of responsibility to actually enslave her. (Emecheta 137)

When Nnu Ego first comes to Lagos, she is shocked to discover that Nnaife works as a domestic servant who washes "women's underwear." She questions his manhood and loses all respect for him. She would have preferred that he had a "real" man's job, like working on a farm. Her constant comparisons to Amatokwu must have been a source of pain and humiliation for Nnaife, who is content with the work that he does and does not understand Nnu Ego's exasperation and disbelief. Nnu Ego comes from a male dominated society where men and women each have their assigned roles.

Nnu Ego feels obligated to her family, her husband and her children. Everyone makes demands on her. Although she takes care of the household, the children and her husband in the traditional way, she also has to take charge of supporting her family when Nnaife is unable to do so. Although at times Nnu Ego expresses her anger and exasperation to Nnaife, her attitude changes when she realizes that because of him, she is a mother, she is a woman, therefore she is complete. To Nnu Ego, Nnaife proves his manhood by fathering many children. According to the Ibo ideology, Nnaife has made her a woman. That is why, although Nnu Ego loses respect for Nnaife when he doesn't find a job, she still clings to the Ibo custom of silence. "All the same, like a good woman, she must do what she was told, she must not question her husband in front of his friends" (Emecheta 114).

Nnu Ego's hesitancy in expressing her emotions and anger is common in many African societies even today. The woman's role is to obey her husband and accept any decisions he makes in silence. To express your opinions could mean a night of abuse. Nnu Ego's conflict further comes into evidence when Adaku receives a visit from Igbonoba's wife. When she sees how elegantly dressed this woman is, she feels desperate and angry. Not at the visitor, but at herself. She has begun to realize that the high status she so desperately sought by having so many children is of little value in her new society in Lagos. Values have changed. Money is now the status symbol. Yet all because she was the mother of three sons, she was supposed to be happy in her poverty, in her nail-biting agony, in her churning stomach, in her rags, in her cramped room . . . Oh, it was a confusing world. (Emecheta 167) Nnu Ego is in a state of transition. She is slowly moving away from her Ibuza customs and beliefs but is still hesitant to fully embrace new ideas.

SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

Nnu Ego is a mother who desired the joys of motherhood. Does this expectation reveal her gender roles?

3.3 The Feminist Poet: Catherine Acholonu’s The Spring’s Last Drop

Catherine Obianuju Acholonu’s position as the first daughter of a chief is significant because she plays the role of helping to organize her father’s household even though she is married. She claims in the poem “the message” to be the reincarnation of the spirit of her dead father. She is a chronicler of tradition, and in her poems she sets out to restore order through expert crafting of words, and in continuation of her father’s mission, as a chief in her village. Since in Igbo culture, politics is not separated from religion, Acholonu finds her father’s role as the leader of her community tied to his religious role, which tie has the potential to produce a richer and more balanced life for the individual and the people. She attempts to show the spiritual and traditional roots of her poetry as a testimony of her cultural roots and privileges of a poet in her community. Her social positioning and role in her father’s house testifies to her Africana womanhood in seeking for a more egalitarian society where women participate in the political, cultural, and religious life of their community by right. Catherine Acholonu in The Spring’s Last Drop demonstrate in their poetry a consciousness of the spiritual as a tool for creative empowerment, making spirituality both subject matter and source of diction so as to be relevant in their societies.

Acholonu belongs to the second generation of modern Nigerian poets, who are neither confronted with the task of fighting for independence as the pioneers poets were, nor experimenting with different poetic forms and individualistic romantic concerns as the first generation of modern Nigerian poets were. The vision of the poets in the second generation of modern Nigerian poets is to give poetry back to the masses (i.e. to make poetry the voice of the masses) and to use their art to correct the evils and corruption that swept the nation after the Nigerian civil war (1967- 70). The Nigerian civil war contributed to the erosion of traditional values, and marked the onset of armed robbery and other forms of violence, as common crimes. Acholonu attempts to use her art to reconnect the people to the traditional values they knew before. It is in her collection The Spring’s Last Drop that she suggests that the solution to most societal problems lies in turning back to tradition, even to its mystic experience. Obi Maduakor in “Female Voices in Poetry: Catherine Acholonu and Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie as Poets” acknowledges Acholonu’s commitment to traditional values and faith. Maduakor summarizes her themes and structure in the collection: “To a certain extent all her poems sum up to one supreme statement on the need to be rooted; to be anchored to tradition, to a faith or some kind of supernatural agency. The absence of anchorage she calls “Cultural loss,” and the consequence of cultural loss is “Social death” (76). Even Acholonu’s social criticism is guided by her commitment to traditional virtues; hence commenting on her role as a chronicler of the virtue of traditional life, Maduakor says “her poetry [. . .] has passion, for it flows from the heart and is conceived from within” (81). Her position in her family, training, and in the nation affirms her commitment to upholding spiritual, traditional, and Africana womanhood principles for liberation and restoration of the dignity of Black cultural values. Acholonu is rooted in both the tradition and spirituality of her community, and she find such rooting inspiring to her creativity and in articulating themes relevant to her experiences as a Black woman and to that of her people.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Discuss Acholonu’s perception of the role of women in culture and ritual in The Spring’s Last Drop

3.4 The Feminist Drama: Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods

Zulu Sofola believes that Black women, in publicly reclaiming what has always belonged to them in terms of creative empowerment, present

evidence that there exist relationships among creativity, religion, community, and gender. Even though there were existing forms of patriarchy, colonialism heightened male superiority and did not leave room for other forms of governance “while the African traditional system in concept and actualization [had] room for many or more”. For instance, education that ought to empower Black women helps to divide them into socio-economic classes and makes it difficult for them to agree, organize, and believe to a woman that they can revoke any decision made by men that is contrary to women’s interests. Sofola laments the loss of traditional egalitarian values and writes about the difference between the educated Black woman who lives in delusions of grandeur and speaks in a demeaning manner about her illiterate, rural, ‘traditional’ counterpart. It never occurs to her that while she parrots the phrase, ‘What a man can do, a woman can do better,’ her illiterate counterpart asserts: ‘What a woman can do, a man cannot do.’ While she quotes the European saying, ‘Behind every successful man is a woman,’ her illiterate counterpart affirms: ‘The strength of a man is in his woman,’ or ‘A soldier with a mother does not die in a war front. ’

In Wedlock of the Gods a girl was bundled off to marriage because her parents needed money from her dowry to pay medical bills for her sick brother. She considers herself as been in bondage for three years the marriage lasted, then the husband dies. Rather than wait for three months as stipulated by custom or agree to the obnoxious custom of leviration, she becomes pregnant for her erstwhile lover. Custom is broken, the consequences are severe - the plot thickens as the tragedy unfolds. The dynamism that marked the pre-colonial African societies is not completely destroyed but it needs to be rebuilt. Cultural alienation has made familiar the once alien notion of the powerlessness of women; Black women seem therefore to be losing hold of their ability to organize and exert pressure on the patriarchal set-up in order to meet their needs. As well, instead of the society being run by decisions made by recognized socio-political groups and women’s lines of authority, the instituted foreign male-centered system of governance completely eliminated women’s leadership.

Zulu Sofola in her article “Feminism and African Womanhood” writes about the political powerlessness of women as a result of imperialism: “Chaos set in and women were dislodged and made irrelevant, a fact that is now full-blown in today’s European / Arab systems of governance in contemporary Africa where our women have been rendered irrelevant, ineffective, and completely de-womanized” (59). The greatest problem of modern African woman is herself because she lacks knowledge about how to effectively combine existing traditional egalitarian values with her Western education so as to recover the collective memory of African womanhood and so refuse to be “de- womanized,” being backed by both the physical and spiritual mandates replete in African cosmologies. According to Sofola there is always available a “particular traditional power-line” under which Black women can mobilize themselves to overcome obstacles against the full expression of their humanity (61). By going back to the culture, especially to their spiritual heritage, Black women may be able to recover their ability to negotiate for their rights in patriarchal societies.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4

Discuss the violation of the marital rights of women in Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Being a woman from Nigeria, Buchi Emecheta knows firsthand the unfairness of a patriarchal society and the conflicts it causes. Although she is reluctant to be called a feminist, Ms. Emecheta writes about the plight of African women and their struggle for freedom and equality. We can see that she does not think very highly of the patriarchal society from which she came. Through her writings, Ms Emecheta hopes to be able to empower women, especially women from third world countries, to educate themselves. Only through education can these women overcome the many obstacles in their paths. The Joys of Motherhood is about a woman from a third world country who, because of the patriarchal society which she lives in, cannot liberate herself from the chains of poverty. It is an honest look at women in the society of a colonized nation who, before, during and after colonization, do not quite fit in. They are still enslaved by men and their society.

Going back to African roots and origins, Black women writers and theorists demonstrate that there is no traditional politic of an irrevocable nature that enshrines discrimination against or limitation of Black women in the physical realm; then how much less could there be in the spiritual realm, which is genderless? This has been Catherine Acholonu’s proposition. She believes that Black women’s future in the African world has the potential for development and freedom despite the cultural ambiguities that on one hand uphold the importance of women in the society and on the other hand marginalize them. Nevertheless, there are loopholes in at least some African societies that provide the platform on which Black women can negotiate for their rights. Zulu Sofola provides a secure basis to argue that most traditional African societies in pre-colonial times were dynamic so that an average woman pragmatically manipulated her circumstances and potentials and achieved independence and visibility. The colonial intrusion that gave way to cultural alienation, capitalism, and class distinction compounded the problem of average modern Black women in their struggles to achieve the independence and visibility their foremothers had. This has been Sofola’s proposition in her plays that the result of colonialism on Black women has been to reveal indigenous and foreign structures of male domination on the women.

5.0 SUMMARY

Buchi Emecheta is concerned with the domineering attitude of African men because of their cultural placement in society. She advocates for a reversal of the attitude. She also pleads in her works that the women deserve to earn the fruit of their labour; to be properly cared for and adored. However, Catherine is of the opinion that women ought to work out their respect. She believes that motherhood is a symbol of honour and must be revered. She also criticizes the subjugation of women when it comes to cultural issues like: birth, death and other rites of passage. She believes that women have the potential to perform what the men do especially where the mantle falls on them. Zulu Sofola decries the effect of colonialism in compounding the tighter gender disposition of African people. She sees western culture as a problem. She advocates a rethink at the way African women are seen as people with no spiritual, physical and emotional essence. Her plays go back to the primordial beginning examining what has been in comparison with what is. In their works, these women writers feature characters that see themselves in a male dominated culture and seek to redefine their future.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Answer these questions carefully:

1. Discuss the various issues of gender that Nigerian female writers have been projecting in their works.

2. Catherine Acholonu believes that women can perform ritual and other spiritual essence. Explain how she revealed this The Spring’s Last Drop?

3. Nnu Ego is mother who knows the worth of her husband and

children. Explain how her roles helped her achieve motherhood.

4. The male characters in present in the works treated here are very queer. Does this reveal anything about Nigerian gender literature?

5. Appreciate Zulu Sofola’s dimension of gender trend in Wedlock of the Gods.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Acholonu, Catherine (1984). The Spring’s Last Drop. Owerri: Afa

Publications.

Emecheta, Buchi(1979). The Joys of Motherhood. London: Heinemann.

Okolocha, H. Oby. (2012). “Rethinking Feminism and the Nigerian Woman’s Identity in Tess Onwueme’s Tell it to Women.” Journal of the Literary Society of

Nigeria: JLSN, 4, 32-41.

Otokunefor Henrietta & Nwodo Obiageli 1989). Nigerian Female

Writers. A Critical Perspective. Lagos: Malthouse Press.

Sofola, Zulu (1976). Wedlock of the Gods. Ibadan: UPL.