(toc) #title= (Table of Content)
INTRODUCTION
In this unit, we discuss feminism and gender issues as treated in two African novels. We shall examine select African novels to understand how African novelists treat gender issues. African women, who are also concerned about sexual politics, understand that a discussion of feminism must grapple with more than the issue of sex. As a result, the debate concludes that African women have to modify the word “feminist” in order to articulate their own concerns fully. Again, black women who claim the word feminist as part of their identity are often criticized by African men and women who reject the notion of African women being subjugated. So many issues are raised when the issue of feminism is discussed in African 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; sexuality; and the direct treatment of women by men, and men by women. Underlying this array of specific interests are questions of gender in representation and of the reality or realities of life for women in Africa - past, present, and future. All these offer much for the consideration of feminist thought with respect to African literatures.
General Overview
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 multiple darknesses 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. This still is a powerful expression of the unheeded voice of the previously silent woman in Africa. Ba is actually calling on women to take responsibility for their lives throughout the novel.
Buchi Emecheta has a different view. She believes that a woman is worth anything if she becomes a mother, a symbol of greatness and height of womanhood. 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. As Nnu Ego herself tells her father: "When one grows old, one needs children to look after one. If you have no children, and your parents have gone, who can you call your own?" (Emecheta 38). 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. Some would further argue that because Nnu Ego's children were not raised in their native culture, they would not have known this was expected of them. Although it is not right for mothers to bear children with the sole intent of having caretakers in their old age, it is a moral obligation for children to take care of elderly parents, in poor health or not. It is a case of motherhood appreciation.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Buchi Emecheta and Mariama Ba are novelists with feminist background. Explain their various views of gender.
Issues of Feminism in So Long a Letter
Mariama Ba is a novelist, a teacher and feminist, who was active from 1979 to 1981 in Senegal, West Africa. Ba’s source of determination and engagement came from her background, her parent’s life and her schooling. Indeed, her contribution is significant because she explained and portrayed the disadvantaged position of women in general and especially married women. This situation led her to focus her work on women’s consideration and to show people how this grandmother, this mother, this sister, this daughter, this cousin and this friend is the “mother of Africa” and how important she is for the society.
Mariama Bâ was raised a Muslim home, but at an early age came to criticize what she perceived as inequalities between the sexes resulting from African and Islamic traditions. Raised by her traditional grandparents, she had to struggle even to gain an education, because they did not believe that girls should be educated. Bâ later married a Senegalese member of Parliament, Obèye Diop, but divorced him and was left to care for their nine children. Her frustration with the fate of African women—as well as her ultimate acceptance of it—is expressed in her first novel, So Long a Letter. In it she depicts the sorrow and resignation of a woman who must share the mourning for her late husband with his second, younger wife.
Bâ died a year later after a protracted illness, before her second novel, Scarlet Song, which describes the hardships a woman faces when her husband abandons her for a younger woman he knew at youth, was published. In 1981, So Long a Letter was awarded the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. In this book, the author recognized the immense contributions African women have made and continue to make in the building of their societies. This book has already been published in more than a dozen languages and is about to appear in more.
The book is written in the form of a letter, or a diary, from a widow, Ramatoulaye, to her childhood girlfriend, Aissatou, who lives in the United States. The discriminatory use of power forces Ramatoulaye to deal with its consequences. This discriminatory power is in the novel a form of male domination coming from society's construction of a patriarchal ideology. Because Ramatoulaye is a woman, she seemingly has no right determining her destiny. Aissatou rejects this notion and chooses her own life without being denied a life of her own by her husband Mawdo. This strong exploration of feminism is perhaps what makes the novel a strong voice for the oppressed women in Africa. The woman is oppressed by culture and by virtue of her position. Aissatou rejects this and slowly Ramatoulaye realizes she cannot look to her culture for much. To demonstrate how males are instinctive, Ba uses female rationality and responsibility. She also portrays men’s irresponsibility by using their sexual instincts. Mawdo, Aissatou’s husband, differs from her. He emphasizes the bestiality of men’s instincts, while she urges her daughter against them. She argues that a man’s instinct is “through his self-control, his ability to reason, to choose his power to attachment, that individual distinguishes himself from animal.”(MariamaBa, 1981).
Through her character Ramatoulaye, Mariama Ba has expressed herself. This includes the statement that she: “has not given up waiting to refashion her life. Despite everything (disappointment and humiliations) hope still lives within her… the success of a nation depends inevitably on just such families." She also shows that books can be a weapon, “a peaceful weapon perhaps, but they are weapon.”(Mariama Ba, 1981). According to her:
The power of books, this marvelous invention of astute human intelligent. Various signs associated with sound: different sounds that form the word. Juxtaposition of words from which springs the idea, Thought, History, Science, Life. Sole instrument of interrelationship and of culture,unparalleled means of giving and receiving. Books knit generations together in the same continuing effort that leads to progress. They enabled you to better yourself. What society refused you, they granted …
Let us examine the characters of Ramatoulaye and Aissatou in order to appreciate the feminine power in the novel.
Ramatoulaye
The protagonist, Ramatoulaye, is inspired by her friendship with Aissatou and by her resolute behaviour in the face of adversity. At the beginning of the story, Ramatoulaye was stressed. She writes to her friend to relieve this stress. As a Muslim, she refers to God when her husband Modou Fall died. She also refers to him and to Sharia law concerning polygamy, when her husband, after twenty five years of marriage, marries her daughter’s friend Binetou. Even though Modou abandoned her and spent his money on Binetou, Ramatoulaye decided to stay with him because of her faith. Having any choice, because life goes on, Ramatoulaye has done everything which is needed in the house. Taking care of her family and paying duties and bills and finding food, Ramatoulaye was lonely and she misses her “warm” husband. To overcome these shyness or shame, she use to go to the cinema to change her mind, but alone. She has only found peace and warmth in her religion, so she started living for it. Ramatoulaye started to forbid trousers and occidental clothes to her daughter. In talking to Aissatou about the hardships in her life, Ramatoulaye is actually reflecting on her own experiences. Because the two have reacted to their husbands' polygamous states differently, Ramatoulaye wants to know if it was worth it staying in this marriage. One thing is for sure however, they both take the right decision. Aissatou's is so radical but still represents a woman who wants to be free from the bondages of tradition. She therefore is a character worth admiring in the novel.
Aissatou
Aissatou rises out of her position to disprove oppressive culture. She is a radical woman and an inspiration for Ramatoulaye and her daughter Daba. Aissatou takes her life into her hands and chooses to walk out of a polygamous relationship. It is clear that she cannot be anywhere the same as young Nabou but the fact that she still has a life to hold on to, an integrity to move by and an enslaving culture to challenge is an apparent aspect developed through this woman. She therefore still acts as an inspiration for a woman suffocating under the whims of culture.
CONCLUSION
Mariama Ba is a novelist, a teacher and feminist, who was active from 1979 to 1981 in Senegal, West Africa. Ba’s source of determination and engagement came from her background, her parent’s life and her schooling. Indeed, her contribution is significant because she explained and portrayed the disadvantaged position of women in general and especially married women. This situation led her to focus her work on women’s consideration and to show people how this grandmother, this mother, this sister, this daughter, this cousin and this friend is the “mother of Africa” and how important she is for the society. So Long a Letter is a novel written with deep concern for the African woman who is under the chain of religious and cultural manipulations that deprive them of their freedom.
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.
SUMMARY
Nnu Ego and Ramatoulaye are two different African women in two different cultural and religious backgrounds. Both of them are interested in their self assertion and independence in a man’s world. They see themselves in a male dominated culture and seek to redefine their future. Ramatoulaye believed that being independent would give her her long lost independence. Being the first wife of a polygamist in a religion that is compliant with polygamy places her at very tight corner in attacking polygamy which Moslem religion appreciates and African culture practices. On the other hand, Nnu Ego is woman who believes strongly that man gives a woman her relevance. She needed children from her husband who would eventually grow to be her joy. She toils to feed her family and raise her children. Her children made her relevant. Nnaife remains complacent even as he marries a second wife just for fun. Nnu Ego becomes a victim of her cultural belief that children make motherhood great while husbands should be adored even in their imperfections.