UNIVERSITYOF GHANA [ INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES THE DEPICTION OF WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM IN THE WORKS OF SOME SELECTED AFRICAN WRITERS. BY THELMA NARKI AGU (10507150) THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MPHIL AFRICAN STUDIES DEGREE JULY, 2016 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my own original and independent work, except for references and quotations from the works of others which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that this thesis has not been submitted elsewhere either in parts or whole for any award. I claim responsibility for any errors and inaccuracies that this work may contain. THELMA NARKI AGU (CANDIDATE) SIGNATURE: … DATE: 21/07/16 PROF. ESI SUTHERLAND-ADDY (SUPERVISOR) SIGNATURE: … DATE: 21/07/16 DR. EDWARD NANBIGNE (SUPERVISOR) SIGNATURE: … DATE: 22/07/16 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ii DEDICATION To my parents and all those who have contributed to making me who I am today. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I thank the Alpha and Omega for helping me begin and finish the course as a whole, and this thesis. The Lord has been my strength and inspirer. I am also deeply indebted to Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy who has not only been a supervisor, but a mother, advisor, motivator and an inspirer. Aunty Esi, thank you so much for your patience, guidance, advice and close monitoring which has guaranteed my ability to finish this thesis. Dr. Edward Nanbigne, I could not have done it without you. I appreciate your support and encouragement as well as the great amount of time that you gave to me and my work. I am deeply appreciative of your unrelenting guidance and professional assistance, my dear supervisors, throughout all the phases of this research and analysis. Words of gratitude to my parents Mr. Bright Agu and RTD. WO 1 Josephine Tsotsoo Nyengoo Abbey. I thank you so much for your provision and encouragement that has brought me where I am today. As a child cannot pay for its mother's milk, all I can say is ayenyekoo. Finally, my gratitude goes to my brothers, Ned, Obed and Nartey for your love and support and my friends Mrs. Bernice Owusu Agyemang, Mr. Prince Odame, Mr. Lawrence Dankyi, Rev Rosemary Agyeiwaa, Mr. Albert Batsa, Mr. Nana Nyarko Dabo and Mr. Bernard Otu. This is for your advice, encouragement and support. God richly bless you. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iv ABSTRACT Gender stereotypes have existed in African societies for a long time. In these societies, it is generally believed that women are the weaker sex, subservient to men, objects of sexuality, and incapable of taking critical decisions affecting their own lives and those of their communities. Following these assumptions, male writers have often been accused of projecting these stereotypes in their works. Indeed, this is true to a large extent as many male writers seemed to play down the role of women in the African society. While Cyprian Ekwensi presents the city girl as a prostitute, Oyono, in Houseboy, depicts Madame and Sophia as beautiful sexual objects fit only for male consumption. But at the same time that most male authors and indeed some female writers were presenting female characters as second-class human species, others had begun to see the potential in women to assume roles previously thought to be exclusive to men. One of these is Sembene Ousmane. God’s Bits of Wood (originally Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu) is a protest novel that has been given a contemporary political setting, and tells of the strike along the Dakar – Niger railway in 1947/48 in demand for better working conditions. Though they are beaten, murdered and tortured by the white employers, they win in the end with the women playing active roles. There is also Asiedu Yirenkyi’s Kivuli from which he has Blood and Tears which also unearths the wind of change that is blowing with the strong desire of women fight for equality and freedom. We can also make mention of the late Efo Mawugbe in his novel In the Chest of a Woman, which also exposes us to the wind of change in issues concerning women from male perspectives. Mention can be made of Wole Soyinka in his Kongi’s Harvest and Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of The Savannah which are some of the selected texts for this research. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh v This study seeks to examine the economic, political and social roles played by the female characters to alleviate the privations of the daily sufferings they encounter in the society. This will be done by library research involving primary and secondary texts. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................................... i DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .............................................................................................. 15 1.6 RESEARCH PROCEDURE ........................................................................................................... 19 1.8.1 Stereotypes ................................................................................................................................... 20 1.8.2 Gender .......................................................................................................................................... 21 1.8.3 Feminism...................................................................................................................................... 22 1.8.4 Feminity ....................................................................................................................................... 22 1.8.5 Patriarchy ..................................................................................................................................... 23 1.8.6 Sex ............................................................................................................................................... 23 1.8.7 Image............................................................................................................................................ 23 1.9 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................... 24 2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................. 31 2.1.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 31 2.1.3 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEMINIST THEORY ............................................................ 35 3.1 FEMALE PORTRAITURE IN THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE AND FACELESS BY AMMA DARKO ............................................................................................................................ 40 3.2 FEMALE PORTRAITURE IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART. ........................ 41 3.3 FEMALE PORTRAITURE IN BY AMMA DARKO IN FACELESS .......................................... 48 3.4 ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAITURE OF THE FEMALE CHARACTERS IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART AND AMMA DARKO’S FACELESS ........................................................ 54 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vii 3.5 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER .................................................................................................. 62 4.1 FEMALE PORTRAITURE IN ANTHILL OF THE SAVANAH BY CHINUA ACHEBE AND WOLE SOYINKA’S KONGI’S HARVEST .................................................................................................... 64 4.2 THE PORTRAITURE OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ACHEBE’S ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH ........................................................................................................................................ 64 4.3 THE PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN WOLE SOYINKA’S KONGI’S HARVEST .............................................................................................................................................................. 72 4.4 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER .................................................................................................. 77 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................. 83 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1 CHAPTER ONE 1.1 INTRODUCTION Some critics question the ability of male authors to present feminist ideals or write accurately from female perspectives. Stratton (1990:98) is one of these critics, claiming that characters who happen to be females have been depicted in a number of ways in male authors' works, some of which portray gender roles and disparities. She claims that in male writers' works, the majority of female characters are depicted as mothers who are confined to their homes and responsible for their husbands. She also accuses male authors of encoding female characters as morally corrupting and contaminating cultural agents on a regular basis. According to Stratton (1994), female characters are frequently depicted as goddesses who attract men to their deaths, "but they are frequently depicted as murderers and extremely suicidal in texts written by male authors". Stratton (1990:111- 126) blames female political disempowerment on what she calls the "Ghettorization" of female characters in male literary texts. African literature, according to Ogunyemi (1988:66), is "phallic," dominated by male writers and critics who deal almost exclusively with male issues and aimed at a predominantly male audience. How do they then present true feminist values or correctly write from the viewpoint of women? These critics tend to imply that many male authors are clearly sexist Adeleke (1996) explains that the inability of male writers to present women accurately in their works is as a result of the fact that the ‘‘African literature is a male-created, male-oriented, chauvinistic art’’. This is due to the fact that men and women have different life experiences and society’s outlined roles place men mostly in the public, relegating women to the private or domestic sector. Men's abuse of women can be traced all the way back to biblical times, when women were expected to be submissive and obedient to men. (Adeleke, 1996:21-26) ‘‘As between male and female, the former is by default superior and ruler, the latter inferior and subject...." says Aristotle, a well-known Greek philosopher. The female is female due to a lack of certification. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2 These critics make their assumption based on the fact that men have not experienced life as women. Ortner (1974) argues that universally, culture is associated with men while women, although are important, are closer to nature. If the purpose of culture is to rise above nature, then this makes the woman and her subordinate role universal. Other authors, on the other hand, dispute the term's universalization, arguing that gendered traditions have deep roots in traditional cultures, resulting in the concept of gender differing from society to society. Oyeronke Oyewami in her book ‘The Invention of Woman’ addresses the concept of hegemonic perspective and external definitions. She addresses the universalization of gender that has been drawn from feminist discourse. She argues that Yoruba language is not gendered and that seniority is the dominant form of organization in disagreement with Western feminist notions that economic roles are gendered everywhere. She argues that the concept of “women” is an alien Western concept and that it is a concept that is inapplicable to pre-colonial Yoruba society. Women's oppression has long been a source of contention in human society. However, in the twentieth century, a theory emerged that aimed to create a society or community that is free of the exploitation and marginalization of women. Feminism is the name given to this theory, and feminists are those who adhere to it. Julia Kristeva, Elaine Showalter, Simone de Beauvoir, and Kate Millett are among the leading proponents of this idea. Because its major or main proponents are women, some people believe that feminist philosophy is an all-female affair. It is worth noting, however, that some male writers have accepted this approach and have attempted to dig into the plight of women in every manner possible, particularly through their creative works. As a result, part of the work's goal will be to debate the notion that "men do agree that they can never be women, but they can certainly be feminists." Huck, Helper, and Hickman (1989) defines literature ‘as the imaginative transformation of life and thought into the forms and structures of language’. The human condition, they believe, is the province of literature. This implies that literature encapsulates the human experience, with all of life's insights, emotions, and feelings. That is to University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 3 say, literature reflects the concerns that concern people, and issues of equality are no exception. Since these subjects are also part of the human experience, both male and female writers look at the plight of women in their works. In terms of sex, sex is divided into two categories: male and female. According to Ford (2002), biological functions of chemical hormones are the only factors that determine whether an individual is male or female. It can be extrapolated from Ford's definition that sex is biologically determined, meaning that males and females contribute differently to human reproduction. This is meant to imply that men and women can never be physiologically the same, and that even males who support women's rights feel they will never be women since they can't change their biological makeup. This does not however, take away the ability of some men who attempt to address issues affecting women from doing so and doing it successfully. In the works of feminist writers, both male and female, the idea of women subordination to men is highly discussed since a conscious effort is made by these writers to deconstruct this idea. The key and major goal of these feminist authors, according to Bressler (1994), is to change the world. He continues, "Feminists aim to deconstruct the illusion that man is the subject, that is, the one who spells out and defines, while woman is the object whose every life is decided and described by her male counterpart." In the quest of feminist writers to arrive at their objective, they make it their responsibility to expose all forms of subordination of women to men. This they do to ensure the valuing of both sexes as being creative, rational beings and capable of contributing meaningfully to the society and the world at large. As a result, feminist authors, both male and female, try to prevent some kind of subordination of women to men as much as possible, and offer their female characters in their works or writings complete social, physical, political, and economic freedom. Adeola James in her work, In Their Own Voices that woman can be understood if more is read on them from a variety of sources and if there are defined approaches for commenting on them. She concludes from interviews with various African female writers that, just like their male University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4 counterparts, female writers are as equally concerned as men to ‘‘to articulate and denounce the poverty, corruption and destructive practices that have impeded development in Africa.’’ To this Carol Mandi, the editor of Eve, an East African women’s magazine, is quoted as saying, ‘‘There are reasons from a hundred years ago that are not relevant today for Africans. Our challenge is to pick the good from the bad….We can’t stop being African women just because we are suddenly thrust into the modern world. What next? They will tell us to stop breastfeeding in public? No way.’’ Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye (1996), in addition observes that women have often been presented in literary works as being frustrated and deprived which according to her is sometimes true. On the other hand, she makes mention of the fact that there have been points in history when ‘‘some women with outstanding gifts, have made their names in administration, business, or the arts. True, they lacked - and most men also lacked – the opportunity offered in modern times for specialization and publicity.’’ She is however, silent in her observation, on how the modern woman today utilizes the opportunities she has now, which her other women before her lacked. Furthermore, to the above Katherine Frank (1987), opines that male writers focus mostly on political, social and historical issues rather than on domestic ones. It is possible that when writing about women, authors are likely to describe them differently depending on the era in which the writing is done, gender, nationality and culture. When writing about women, women writers or authors portray them from the female point of view. Male authors have also taken on writing on the female perspective just like their female counterparts. These two categories of writers are likely to write differently especially based on gender. Formally, the educated African man had the power of portraying the African woman and ‘‘reasserting her presence.’’ This Anthonia C. Kalu (2001) argues that ‘‘because the African’s thought remains significant to his post-independence existence, literature and literary criticism, contemporary African literature must continue to engage viable African literature through continuous University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5 examination and portrayal of the realities of the new dispensation…..A major concern here is the re-entrenchment of women and or female-related aspects of selected statements into contemporary discourse.’’ On the other side, feminist activists think that only an African woman can completely examine her experience. These women who get the privilege to write, when they do actually put women at the centre of their works as a way of portraying the inequalities they go through. They portray the need to emphasize the understanding of African cultures and social systems. Feminism believes that before colonialism, there was knowledge on resolving issues related to gender. Some even blame colonialism for gender disparities in literature. They call for women not to be just the ‘other’ and neither should they also endorse their own subjugation. One thing missing from all this is the fact that, these feminists fail to really acknowledge the gradual trend of male writers who are seen giving leadership roles and roles that exhibit the self-consciousness to female characters. African women did and do produce literature alongside their European counterparts, while receiving less attention from scholars and historians. On the other hand, feminist activists agree that only an African woman will truly explore her experience. Adelaide Casely-Hayford was one of the first women to write in European languages. She was born in Sierra Leone and educated in England and Germany before marrying well-known lawyer Joseph Casely-Hayford. She published a short story in 1961, “Mista Courifer”, which is a novel about the collision between African and Western cultures. Moreover, there were other women from elite backgrounds who were well educated in colonial schools. In their article, ‘‘African Women Writers: Toward a Literary History”, Davies, Carole and Elaine Savory Fido (1993) opine that about the time when many of their countries achieved independence, women started writing. Mabel Dove Danquah of Ghana, or the Gold Coast, Kenya's Grace Ogot and Noni Jabavu, Nigeria's Flora Nwapa are among them. Since the 1970s, African women have published a wide variety of works that have been well received both on and off the continent. Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Mariama Ba, Miriam Tlali, Nafissatou Dialo, Aminata Sow Fall, Zulu Sofola, Fatima Dike, Rebeka Njau University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 6 and Micere Mugo are just a few of them. However, in an already male-dominated field spawned by colonialism, the works of these women writers were not given the attention and recognition they deserved. 'The other voices of Africa are the unheard voices of Africa,' writes Lloyd Brown, "rarely mentioned and rarely accorded room in the repetitive anthologies and the predictably male- oriented studies in this area" (Brown,1981). Brown also points out that "male-oriented" and exclusivist criticism by Africans and other black Africanists has shaped what constitutes African literature: "Those critics and anthologists have viewed the African subject as an exclusively male commodity" (Brown,1981). The exclusion of African women from the African literary canon is due to a variety of factors. The first reason is that in comparison to men, African women writers are underrepresented. Brown attributes the difference to the fact that women have not had the same educational opportunities as men in modern African culture. Then, only a few fortunate women acquired formal education and even to the university level, and acquiring this level of education has been one important prerequisite for writing in European languages. In her essay "Feminist Consciousness," Carole Boyce Davis also mentions African women's position as victims of intertwined oppressive systems, such as colonialism's racism and indigenous and international dominance structures. According to Davies, African women's lack of access to education is due to a mixture of colonial practices and indigenous prejudices. Early critique of African literature, according to Davies, came from European male academics who viewed it through the lens of their western male-oriented point of view. African women's voices have gone unheard, so representations of African women in pre-colonial and colonial times were often portrayed by African men in charge of writing African literature, who used their patriarchal perspective to tell the stories of their female counterparts. It's important to remember that "much of this early literature deals with the social and political ramifications of colonialism, as well as man's struggles both inside and beyond its confines." Women are normally pushed to the margins in all of this, serving as either indicators or University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 7 instruments for the male hero's problem-solving' (Davies, 1986). Some women against all odds crossed over these limitations and found themselves writing to give visibility to African women’s voices. They tackled political issues from the domestic sphere and this is why writings by women were not given recognition because they were had been considered apolitical in an era where most writers, especially male writers were busy tackling political issues on nationalism. Female novelists' proclivity to tell domestic tales, on the other hand, has traditionally correlated with the affirmation of nationalism (Andrade 2011). It is evident that works by women writers were not given due attention and recognition due to the assumption that they tackled domestic issues rather than political. However, it can be made without equivocation that publicizing colonialism is not the only way to tell a political tale. Reading allegorically, it can also be argued, allows for the clarification of new ideas in domestic realms of existence and interpersonal relationships (Andrade 2011). Some of the first women writers in English in West Africa, such as Flora Nwapa, Emecheta Buchi, Mariama Ba, and Ama Ata Aidoo, were involved in a reclamation project, attempting to reconstruct an African historical history before the colonizers, no matter how different the method, and by doing so, to somehow strip away the biases and prejudices of the African culture as has been presented by the colonizers who invented it. These female writers were not only concerned with this reclamation project, but on a project that questioned both the colonizers and their own male contemporaries. This is because just like colonialism, their male folks misrepresented the image of the African woman in their writings and they resorted to changing these misconceptions. These male authors portrayed and continue to portray female characters from a ferociously male perspective, evoking male stereotypes of female sexuality or, more accurately, male misconceptions about female sexuality. Male authors frequently exaggerate the sexuality of their female characters, giving the impression that women have no identity outside of their sexual roles. This is because, according to Njabulo (2003), "the fact of women is determined by society. We have to admit, in this case, that society is that human entity created by men with the compliance University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 8 of women. Men have made the laws and prescribed conditions for breaking them with impunity as long as they benefitted from the situation.’’ These female writers have taken up the challenge and preoccupied themselves with their writings with subjects that pertain particularly to the African woman’s experiences. They try to correct certain erroneous impressions created by their male counterparts about the African woman. African women undoubtedly suffer a great deal of injustice and inequalities such as lack of recognition, denial of their right to education and employment into certain categories of jobs and into certain institutions. By virtue of their shared gender experiences, women writers are entrusted with the task of changing the misconceptions that society and male writers hold against African women through their literary works. Female authors portray female characters in more realistic ways, with greater perspective, and in more positive and respectable interactions with their surroundings. They also intend to create a woman’s world where women can take decisions on their own and live successfully outside the standards set by traditions formulated by men meant to place limitations on the rights of women and to submit them under the power and rule of men. These female writers usually use female characters whom they give voices to and empower to speak against certain vital social issues and misconceptions about the African womanhood. They mostly wrote on themes about issues that militate against the freedom of women and infringe upon the rights of women like rape, incest, widowhood rites, bride wealth, motherhood etc. It may be claimed that these women offered their thoughts on national concerns through the domestic sphere or family, which is only a minor part of the national. According to Andrade (2011), male writers' stories were often told in allegories of colonial resistance or national consolidation, whereas female writers' stories were not. Their female writers often used the family to address issues of resistance to colonialism's biases and the works of their male counterparts, issues that affect womanhood in society. According to Njabulo (2003), a human entity formed by men with the consent of women is described. He goes on to say that men created the laws and set University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 9 the conditions for breaking them with impunity as long as they benefit from the situation. Domestically, female authors addressed political concerns by often using the family as a symbol of body politics. Female journalists, who have historically been seen as unable to engage both nationalist and feminist politics at the same time due to their exclusion from national political hierarchies, have often used one fiction to expose another, according to Andrade. Women use the sphere in which they are most comfortable, namely the domestic, and write from that perspective where they stand and have better understanding. It's no surprise that the family is often used to represent the country in the writings of many female writers. Andrade goes on to claim that historically, female writers' proclivity for telling domestic stories has coincided with nationalism's affirmation of a separate "domestic sphere." She argues that ‘as a result of the dominance of nationalist reading paradigms, readers have not been alert to either the literal or the allegorical relations between private and public spheres and forms of power in their fiction’, Andrade (2011). From the above argument of Andrade, one can confidently say that the works of women writers contributed to nationalism discourses because the public and the private lives thus, domestic and national spheres are related with the domestic labour as part of the public. One of the main tasks of African female authors after they finally began to gain a wide audience was to revise literary portrayals of African women. Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, a Nigerian feminist journalist, claims that African women writers' contributions to the empowerment of African women are to deconstruct stereotyped representations of African women and struggle against the various types of oppression that women still face in Africa. The de-mystification of certain male conceptions of the African woman as a goddess or Supreme Mother, self-sacrificing and suffering gladly and silently, according to Ogundipe-Leslie, is the first step toward a politics of empowerment for African women. This is because some of the male writers like Leopold Senghor who were influential poets of Negritude Movements in the 1930s often portrayed the African woman symbolically as the essence of the earth and of the physical, and above all as the great University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 10 mother. Some others like Ngugi Wa Thiongo used the woman and mother character in their work to symbolize womanhood. In the works of these male authors, the African woman is frequently depicted as the nation's fertile mother, an image that African male writers have helped to perpetuate. The role of motherhood in Africa adds to the mystification of African mothers. Because this theme is so important to African cultures, it will appear in the majority of African women's writings. Despite the fact that motherhood is not solely a concern of black women, the imposition of motherhood in Africa has given it a different meaning to African women. The question is what effect is expected to come out of creating strong central characters. No wonder Mary E. Modupe Kolawole (1997) states that ‘‘whereas most female writers embody some aspects of feminine consciousness, others are not emphatically interested in projecting strong female awareness and viewpoint.’’ Most of the early African writers as explained above were men and they chose to present a patriarchal world. This emanated from the fact that these men lived and dealt with a traditional society that was a patriarchal one. However, recently, there are some exceptions of men who are sympathetic to the cause of women. Some go to the extent of creating a central space for women but they do not necessarily reveal their strengths. There are others who understand and show some ‘‘sincerity in the need to portray female characters as active heroines making meaningful contributions to their societies’’ according to Mary E. Modupe Kolawole. One such male writer is Chinua Achebe. It could be said without mincing words that, in his earlier works, the female characters he created lived in a world of ‘‘male chivalry and macho heroism.’’ This is not surprising since novels such as Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart dealt with and were based on a traditional society where wives cowered before their husbands, which is evident in the lives of Okonkwo and his wives. Due to male prowess and invincibility of men, they handled women roughly. Women in these eras as portrayed by Achebe were only feared in such roles such as priestesses, as clearly exhibited by Chielo. In these traditional eras women were portrayed basically as presented in society, in the works of male writers, as ‘voices’, ‘ears’, and ‘eyes’. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 11 Contrary to this, in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease, we see him beginning to give some attention to women. This is evident in his creation of Clara, a female character who is delicately interwoven with that of Obi Okonkwo. With this, he brings out her strength of character. She is portrayed as a woman who exhibits self-esteem in her refusal to be an appendage to Obi Okonkwo’s dream. It is evident from the above discussion that colonial rule did not only bring an imbalance in the political, social, religious, and economic lives of the African but also marked the beginning of the end for the traditional roles and statuses of African women.’’ Before colonialism, the contributions of women to the community were recognized and the differences between men and women were appreciated and it was accepted that each gender had different needs. This implies that there were two distinct but equally strong and autonomous political structures that dealt with men's and women's affairs separately. The problems of outlined gender roles are likely to make men lead and live a life full of privileges where they are considered to be the benchmark for human experience in patriarchal societies. Women live a more subjugated and subservient life in these cultures, where values are established solely in relation to men. As supported by Njabulo (2003), “And so does society determine the fact of women. We have to admit, in this case, that society is that human entity created by men with the compliance of women. Men, have made the laws and prescribed conditions for breaking them with impunity as long as they benefitted from the situation’’. Traditions and customs which force men and women to fit into societal gendered roles are threats to society as this leads to the assumption or belief that these demarcations and roles are a true reflection of truth and a healthy breeding ground for gender stereotypes to germinate and to grow into inequalities in society. It is due to this that interventions continue to emerge from women’s movement across Africa and other parts of the world as well. Adding his voice to the works of women’s movement, Gwendolyn Mikell opines that, the emerging of women’s movement across the African continent is quite the same as its counterpart University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 12 in the Western world. This she argues is as a result of the fact that they are both based on the same ideology which is the ideology of the woman as a sexual being. She opines further that some critical events or happenings on the continent like political unrests and cultural diversities have contributed to shaping this ideology. She adds the fact that these critical events as named above have created political spaces in which the woman can act to effect change in her structural position within the society. In summary, it is worth noting that men, and especially male authors, believe that they cannot and will never be women in terms of their biological makeup, but that they can make an impact in terms of feminism issues by contributing their quota to fighting women's oppression through their writings. Male authors such as Chinua Achebe and Ngugi have adopted feminist theory and gone to great lengths to reveal and challenge patriarchy. This is accomplished by elevating women to positions of power while also attempting to eliminate gender assumptions about women. This write-up would look at the contributions of men feminists in a patriarchal society and to see if their efforts are worth appreciating. Can male writers work extra hard to totally emancipate women so that they can be labelled feminists rather than semi-feminists who appear to be elevating women while failing to truly empower them, as some feminist activists and portions of society claim? 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The last few years have witnessed the emergence of vigorous, critical and scholarly attention on gendered issues and roles in African literature. According to Gwendolyn Mikell, the emerging women’s movement across Africa like its counterpart in the Western world has contributed to the change in gendered issues and roles in African literature. Literature has come a long way in terms of its diversity and complexity of its concerns. The basis for this argument by these critics emanates from the assumption that the images of women portrayed in literature have been exaggerated and are not dignifying and therefore, do not University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 13 accurately reflect the traditional roles and the socioeconomic reality of the situation of women. This is unfortunate considering the tremendous contributions the cultural, socioeconomic and political advancement of women has done in Africa to their societies and the continent at large. Such criticisms seek to put across the fact that, women and the course of womanhood have not been adequately secured and acknowledged by African writers. Adeola James (1998:36-39) opines that more and more women are getting involved in medicine, social issues, politics and other leadership positions. According to her, these women are venturing into domains previously known to be male-dominated. She continues to argue that, as women access rights formerly denied them, they also protest against any move to take away from their rights. According to her, the world is coming to terms with the ‘intrusion’ of the female in a male-dominated world, as women play more active roles in the society, the economy and on the political scene. This change in the roles of women has affected the depiction of women in literature. The genre of writers who have particularly come under scathing criticism for not portraying women positively in their literacy words are male writers. In support of this assertion, Stratton (1990:98) argues that, female characters have been projected in various ways by writers, some of which are gender stereotyped in nature and full of inequalities. She further supports her claim with the explanation that, writers and especially male ones usually present their characters who are females as mothers who are entrusted with the role of taking care of their husbands, children and their entire household while confined within the home. She further opines that, male writers over the years have presented women in their literary works as being morally corrupt and are often portrayed as goddesses who are guilty of luring men to their death. According to these critics, the limitations placed on women or female characters in male literacy texts, such as Stratton's, is a factor in the political arena aimed at disempowering women. Another critic, Ogundipe-Leslie (1987:15), adds to the debate by defining female characters in literary works as "the all-accepting creature of fecundity and self-sacrifice known as the "sweet mother" University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 14 This mother figure is "often conflated with mother Africa, with timeless and abstract beauty and inspiration," according to the author "Ogundipe-Leslie believes (1987:15). She emphasizes the difference between seeing her as a figure of beauty and seeing her as a romantic and sensual lover, a perspective that, according to Ogundipe-Leslie, transforms females into feminine archetypes as well as sexual objects desired by men. Many male writers, according to critics like Stratton and Ogundipe-Leshie, are hesitant to portray female characters in their entirety and in the true complexity that they deserve. A situation that has, according to them resulted in male writers resorting to the use of stereotypes. This they argue results in the domination of male writers of African literature thus: “African literature is a male created, male-oriented, chauvinistic art”, as opined by Adeleke (1996:21-26) This is supported by Cuddon (1992:54), who claims that the literature area is dominated by men, resulting in many male phallocentric philosophies, patriarchal behaviours, and male interpretations of concepts and ideologies. Cuddon debunks masculine assumptions regarding female character representation in literature by critiquing male authors' representations of female characters in literature. She accomplishes this by focusing on women and explaining how they feel, act, and think, as well as how they respond to life and living in general. As a result, many male authors' prejudices and assumptions about women are called into question. 1.3 AIM OF STUDY The goal of this dissertation is to conduct a comparative analysis of women's images in a number of literary works. The goal of this research is to look at how female characters are depicted in some carefully chosen African writers' works to see how important female status is in comparison to male status. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 15 1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Achebe declared during a speech he delivered to a convocation audience at the University of Ife in 1978 that “art is man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given him; an aspiration to provide himself with a second handle of existence through his imagination’’. Also, Ngugi, in his book, Home Coming opines that, “literature does not grow or does not develop in a vacuum. It is given impetus, shape direction and area of concern by social, political and economic forces in a particular society…There is no aspect of our life which has not been affected by the social, political and economic needs’’. Mudimbe, V.-Y (1991) also adds his voice to literature as an art by writing that “The literary world could well be a mythical space which unveils the concrete experiences of human communities’’. From the above observations two things are worth noting; The first is the inventive and reorganizational function that art plays in the community from which it emanates and the second, the fact that art can be said to be the product of the author’s imagination and the concrete experiences of human societies. In other words, art and literature for that matter, reflects even if in a minimal way, the place from where the writer is writing. With this explanation, considering the peculiar circumstances in which the African writer, whether male or female finds himself or herself, the question of the inventive and reorganizational function of art becomes fundamental and this must manifest or be seen not only in the immediacy and appropriateness of the author’s concern but, more importantly, in the portrayal of characters who live in the mythical space created by the author. This means that the writer must within the framework recognize and portray the importance of both sexes in the development of society. The image of women then becomes very important just like that of men, in view of the fact that women are confronted with numerous debilitating and stress-related problems and this cannot further be compounded by literature. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 16 Some critics are of the view that since men and women have different life experiences, it manifests in their writing as well. This is the issue and the foundation for this research. As a result, male authors are not likely to be able to write accurately when presenting feminist ideals in their literary work or give an accurate portrayal of women in their works from the female perspective because they have no experience in this field of women. This research is to explore into the claim that, men who write about women in their works face the possibility of describing women differently depending on gender, nationality and culture and that it is only female writers who succeed in portraying the life of the woman accurately in their works since they write from the female point of view. Do male writers only concern themselves with giving much attention and glorious moments to male characters and fail to present the African women in her totality but only resort to the use of stereotypes as some critics argue? In their treatment of issues like polygamy, childbearing, motherhood and other issues that concern women, do these male writers only appear to be creating a stereotyped picture of the African women as they are accused of doing? To investigate these issues, I would like to examine how women are depicted in the struggle for political, economic, and social liberty in the works of a few different authors, and see if the author's gender influences how he writes or depicts women in his literary work. I would like to investigate whether some African male authors, in their attempt to see life through the eyes of a woman, are able to do so correctly by portraying women accurately, or whether prejudices exist in all male writers' works. 1.5 METHODOLOGY This work will make use of primary and secondary sources. The study is essentially through library and internet research involving primary and secondary texts. The primary texts which will be used for this research are novels selected because they portray women in various perspectives. They portray female characters in their struggle for political, economic and social freedom University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 17 The secondary texts will also comprise critical works on the image of female characters in various texts especially that of men writers. The emphasis of this thesis will be on the examination of some novels written by African writers in order to achieve the study's goals and objectives, which include examining how some male writers attempt and succeed in presenting the importance of females' or women's status in their literary works by making their status equal to or above that of their male counterparts. My decision was influenced by Myers (2009:242), who discusses why qualitative analysis is the best approach for studying social and cultural phenomena. This, he explains, is due to the fact that this approach is more concerned with people's perception of themselves and the social-cultural background in which they reside, as well as their comprehension of why people behave the way they do. It also reveals people's views, values, and fears in a culture. My decision is again influenced by Taylor (1984:141) who opines that the best way for a researcher to interpret and analyse primary and secondary resources is through the use of the qualitative approach. He states that this is the only option or solution that can assist the researcher in producing high-quality, reliable results or outcomes. The qualitative method of study is the most appropriate for my research because it will be focused on the use of primary and secondary sources. The research will again employ the use of some literary theories which will be the lens through which the texts will be analysed. The feminist literary approach will be used to investigate how gender power imbalances are expressed in or questioned by literary text in a given culture. (Guerin 1999) This approach will be applied in the text analysis to examine the perception of the subordination and oppression of women in the literary works of male writers through their portraiture of women and how they describe them in their novel. Gynocriticism, a second wave feminism pioneered by Elaine Showalter with her book A Literature of Their Own (1977), which includes three major aspects, will be one of the lenses through which the chosen texts will be examined. The first will be about female authors and their place in literature. The second element of gynocriticism will be the consideration of the portrayal of female characters in books by both University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 18 male and female writers, and the third will be the discovery and exploration of a corpus of women's literature. Elaine Showalter does some feminist identification which will be very helpful in the use of the feminist theory as a tool for analysis of the texts of this research, namely-the biological model, which examines if the text under study somehow mirrors the body, that is, whether it reduces women merely to bodies. The second is the linguistic model which will be used in the textual analysis to test for language of sexism. Showalter's psychoanalytic model would also be useful in this study to recognize gender disparities as the foundation of the psyche, with an emphasis on the relationship of gender to the creative process. Finally, we use the cultural model, which, according to Showalter, places feminist issues in social contexts, recognizing class, ethnic, global, and historical differences among women, but provides a common experience that unites women through time and space and acts as a binding force. (Showalter, 1979) These ideologies will be the basis for our textual analysis. It will act as the lens through which an examination of the primary and secondary sources will be done in this study. We'll also look at feminist critique, which sees cultural and economic barriers in patriarchal societies that have hampered or discouraged women from realizing their creative potential, as well as women's cultural identity as a merely negative object, or "other" to man as the defining and dominant "subject." The textual analysis will be conducted once more using the historical criticism literary approach proposed by (Guerin 1999), which, according to him, is very useful in determining whether the social, political, economic, cultural, and/or intellectual climate of the time an author writes influences the way issues are presented in his or her work. This is to examine if the system of patriarchy and the absence of feminism, in any way influenced the portraiture of female characters in the works of early male writers to juxtapose their later works. Such works are thought to be devoid of autonomous female role models, leaving the female reader feeling alienated or encouraging her to identify with male ideals of perceiving, feeling, and acting. The selected text will be used to test this hypothesis. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 19 Another literary theory that will be employed is the psychological and psychoanalytic criticism. This will focus on how the state of mind of the author, his or her feelings and desires reflect the write up of the author in fictional forms. The work is seen more as a literature, primarily as an expression, in frictional form, of the personality, state of mind or feelings of the author more than a reality. (Guerin, 1999) In this study, we will use the aspect of Marxist criticism that focuses on human consciousness in any era. Human consciousness in a given age is defined by an ideology, which is a body of concepts, beliefs, moral standards, and ways of thinking and feeling through which humans experience and justify what they believe to be true. The Marxist critic's goal is to expose the economic, class, and ideological determinants of an author's writing style, as well as to investigate the text's relationship to the social reality of the time and place. The representation of female characters in their struggle for political, economic, and social freedom in the works of some selected male writers across the African continent guides the research to look at the understanding of some aspects of gender equality, contrary to some critics' claims that male writers only use stereotypes in their literary works. 1.6 RESEARCH PROCEDURE This study focuses on reading novels by a few select authors as well as other similar studies that have previously been conducted in this area. In this study, literary theories such as gynocriticism, a second wave feminism championed by Elaine Showalter in her book A Literature of Their Own (1977), will be used. The study would also look at patriarchal ideology in the context of feminist critique theory, which pervades works that have been deemed great literature. Another literary theory that will be employed is the psychological and psychoanalytic criticism which deals more with how the state of mind of the author, his or her feelings and desires reflects the write up of the author in fictional forms. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 20 The Marxist criticism, as a literary theory which focuses more on human consciousness in any era will be employed in this research. It will be employed to mainly examine or to contest the perception that the undesirable and unacceptable effects of tradition which is caused by patriarchal perceptions influence the way male writers depict their female characters in their works. They are often accused of denying female characters their fundamental human rights in their literary works. The most important aspect of this research is to determine whether there are character differences in African writers' works that contribute to gender stereotypes, and whether these stereotypes in turn lead to social, political, economic, and cultural inequality in the novels under investigation. The selected novels will be analysed using some of the literary theories named above, and some texts or write up related to the topic under discussion, sourced from academic and public libraries. Some literacy theories will be used as the foundation for evaluating these texts written by African writers. This study aims to investigate how women are depicted in the struggle for cultural, political, and economic freedom in the works of African authors, especially writers who are males. 1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS The following words are established because they are important to the study's understanding. Before diving into the subject, it's critical to define and clarify these main concepts because they're the foundation for a thorough understanding of the topic at hand. 1.8.1 Stereotypes A stereotype is a collection of psychological and social distinctions to which a person has already adhered. Stereotypes may also be described as a pattern of behaviour in which people believe they must do, think, and act in a way that is clearly stated and appropriate in their culture or society. Stereotype is described by Sekhukhune in Mtuze, (1994:3) as being exemplified by proverbial and idiomatic and expressions. He goes on to say that prejudices have reduced women's social status University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 21 to that of a nonentity. This is apparent in the conventional roles and positions allocated to men and women, which favour men over women because men seem to have total control and authority over women while performing their duties. As a result of the above finding, gender role stereotypes depict contrasting behavioural patterns in males and females, with men expressing social superiority and females expressing submissiveness and helplessness. In terms of their own emotions and those of others, men are generally considered to be non-expressive and emotionally stable. Women, on the other hand, are historically associated with emotionality, nurturing, dependency, and obsessive concern with their physical appearance. These preconceptions and stereotypes seem to give men the idea that they have the power to control women. 1.8.2 Gender Gender can be described as the socially formed roles of males and females, as well as their relationships. In most cases, gender is defined by unequal authority, which often grants men exclusive rights and obligations. It is socially formed, not biologically determined or as a function of sexual characteristics of either women or men. There is a common misconception that gender is concerned only with the advancement of women. Men and women's relationships, roles, access to resources, division of labour, expectations, and needs are all studied in gender studies. According to Bravo-Baumann (2000), gender relations have an effect on household cohesion, family well-being, planning, development, and many other aspects of life. Gender relations, he continues, are the ways in which a community or society decides what men and women's rights, obligations, and identities in relation to one another should be. However, as Scott explains in Zinsser (1993:54), "gender" refers to a concept of gender that has long been a cause of disagreement for many people around the world. She goes on to suggest that University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 22 the term "gender" has been abused to refer to the social, cultural, and psychological components of male and female identity. Gender may be used to determine a person's "amount" of masculinity or femininity based on the factors mentioned above. Gender is, without a doubt, the perceptional package to which a culture has assigned each sex's position, such as females as family keepers. Men, on the other hand, have traditionally been assigned the roles of protectors and caregivers for their families. 1.8.3 Feminism Feminism is a feminist movement that advocates for men and women to be treated equally in social, political, and economic matters. This is due to the fact that society treats women and men differently, and has done so in the past. Women have traditionally and systemically been unable to fully engage in all social arenas and institutions, according to the report. According to Billington (1985:158), feminism is a movement that aspires to rebuild the world on the basis of gender equality in all human connections, a movement that rejects any gender distinction. This would strive to eradicate gender privileges and obligations, as well as establish the common humanity of women and men as the foundation of law and tradition. From the above, it is clear that feminism is an idealistic viewpoint that seeks to drastically reduce male-female disparity. 1.8.4 Feminity Kramarae and Treichler (1985:157) claim that this is a reasonable portrayal of the female object, or "female eunuch," as they refer to her. Femininity is described by "delicacy, gentleness, girlishness, womanhood, and womanliness," according to them. Femininity is a concept that contrasts with the patriarchal view's machismo masculinity stereotype. As a consequence, the term has a definition. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 23 1.8.5 Patriarchy Patriarchy is a patriarchal structure in which men rule over women. It demonstrates that men wield more social influence in almost every significant institution of society, while women have no real access to these structures. Patriarchy, according to Rich in Kramarae and Treichler (1985:323), not only prevents women from holding positions of power in society, but it also fosters men's negative social perceptions of women. A patriarchal society is one in which men have more status than women. 1.8.6 Sex The biological traits that distinguish humans as female or male are referred to as sex. Sex can be classed in two ways, according to Kramarae and Treichler (1985:409), however, Tim Newman as written in his article published in the Medical News Today, on May, 2021 defines sex as the physical differences between people who are male, female, or intersex- which is an umbrella term that describes bodies that fall outside the strict male or female binary. To begin, sex is the attribute through which organisms are divided into male and female divisions based on their reproductive capabilities. Second, it applies to both males and females as a group. The term "sex" will be used in this analysis to refer to both men and women, as well as a specific gender. 1.8.7 Image It is very important to undertake a terminological definition of image which will become increasingly relevant in our understanding of the issues at stake. Such a definition is important because it will define the parameters of our study and at the same time eliminate any ambiguity that might arise from the use of the word image in this work. According to the New Websters Dictionary of the English Language, College Edition, 'image' among others is "(a) a picture drawn by the memory or imagination: (b). the mental picture created in a poem or story by descriptive wording". In our analysis of the images of women emphasis is on what picture we derive from the University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 24 situations and actions women are involved in and how integrated they are into the main plot of these novels. 1.9 LITERATURE REVIEW SOME CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN AFRICAN LITERATURE ‘‘If human beings were not divided into two biological sexes, there would probably be no need for literature. And if literature could truly say what the relations between the sexes are, we would doubtless not need much of it then. It is not the life of sexuality that literature cannot capture: it is literature that inhibits the very heart of what makes sexuality problematic for speaking animals. Literature is not only a thwarted investigator but an incorrigible perpetrator of the problem of sexuality’’. (Johnson, 1980) Whatever one may think about Barbara Johnson's critical censure of literature there is no doubt that it encompasses the views of most literary critics, largely feminists, that gender informs and complicates both the writing and reading of literary texts. A survey of critical literary writings on African literature, particularly the novel indicates that one of the dominant issues in contemporary criticism is the image of women in literature especially in the works of male writers. Literary critics, whose views will be examined below, have drawn attention to the dichotomous relationship between the social and economic reality of women in African societies and the image of women in literature. We will, therefore, in the subsequent pages of this chapter take a closer look at some of the prevailing opinions or perspectives of literary critics on the question of gender roles in African literature. Such an approach we believe will serve as an appropriate scaffolding from which we can look at the images of women in some selected literary works by African writers. However, it is important to emphasize, even before taking a look at the various opinions that the literary approach of looking at gender roles as portrayed in literature is relatively new to Africa. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 25 In fact, the systematic approach of looking at the issues of women and the female point of view in literature broadly called feminist criticism, has its origins in Britain and America. It is a literary approach that has been added to other established critical orientations like Neo-Aristotelian, Freudian, Structuralist, Post- structuralist, to mention a few. According to Elaine Showalter, the feminist approach to literature everywhere can be categorized into two. The first category is concerned with "woman as a reader" and to Showalter ‘‘this is a historically-grounded enquiry which probes ideological assumptions of literary phenomena’’. (Showalter, 1981) Photos and perceptions of women in writing, as well as omissions and myths about women in criticism, are all part of this method. The second approach, dubbed "Gynocentric" by Showalter, is concerned with women as writers: "as producers of literary definitions, themes, styles, and frameworks of literature." (Showalter, 1981). Both approaches to the issues of women in literature as enumerated by Showalter are found in African literary works and the novel in particular. Exponents of the first category called feminist critique have concentrated on delineating the various images and stereotypes that are dominant in African literature particularly the novel. Apart from this there have emerged female writers like Flora Nwapa, the late Mariama Ba, Buchi Ernecheta, Bessie Head and Ama Ata Aidoo to mention a few who are committed to presenting the female point of view in their novels. ‘‘If at this stage our analysis seems to have veered into feminism and its ramifications, it is simply because an objective analysis of the images of women in the selected works of African writers is predicated on a valid comprehension of what feminine criticism entails. Without this we cannot understand the views of the critics on gender roles in African literature. In any case, the idea of the image of women in literature stems from the feminist recognition that literature is not only a thwarted investigator but an incorrigible perpetrator of the problem of sexuality’’. (Johnson, 1980) As noted above, the question of gender roles has provoked several critical perspectives. According to Molara Ogundipe Leslie the images of women one finds in African literature are not realistic University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 26 but stereotypes. One of the dominant stereotypes argues Ogundipe, is the ‘‘all accepting mother of fecundity and self-sacrificing’’. Closely related to this is the figure of mother Africa which one finds in many novels and poems for instance in the poems of Birago Diop, L. S. Senghor, and Dennis Brutus. Under this kind of stereotype, it is difficult to delineate the African women as flesh and blood from the rather romanticized transformation of the continent into a feminine entity. (Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994-29) Another stereotype Ogundipe identifies is the sophisticated city girl and her popular antithesis, the naive rural girl. The sophisticated city is portrayed as the embodiment of all the destructive tendencies of modernity. The result is that the sophisticated city girl is couched as a prostitute, a sex object. A very good example of the portrayal of the city girl can be found in Cyprian Ekwensi's Jagua Nana (1961). In this novel, the city girl, Jagua Nana, is portrayed as a sex symbol and as Helen Chukwuma notes, ‘‘in the city novels of Cyprian Ekwensi, characteristically, a woman's individuality is asserted only through prostitution’’.(Chukeman, 1981) The naive rural girl or woman on the other hand is portrayed as the upholder of traditional values and therefore adamant to change. The naïve rural girl or woman is portrayed as one who steadfastly and whole-heartedly takes on the roles assigned her by society without complain. Molara Ogundipe describes this stereotype as a 'lobotomised idiot' not found in the real African situation. For women cast in this stereotype, motherhood is almost the accepted norm and they appear as mere appendages of men. Literary critics have condemned such images of women as dismal and retrogressive and do not reflect the cultural, social, economic and political realities of women in Africa. Consequently, various theories have been advanced to account for the predominance of these stereotypes in literature. In her article “Second Sex”, Simone de Beauvoir (1949) attributes the stand male writers take on the issue of womanhood and motherhood to the position of African women in the society. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 27 According to her, African women are seen as inferior to men, which she opposes, stating, "There is no natural excuse why women should be treated or consider themselves as inferior to men in society. Because of a mode of thinking in which man is seen as the standard and ideal, and woman is the defining 'other'; the being who validates his value due to her difference from him, women are seen as lesser in almost every known society” Prominent among the various theories is the conceptual matrix that traces the issue to the dominance of African literature by men. Hence Femi Ojo-Ade (1983) argues that "African literature is male-created, male-oriented, chauvinistic art… the woman is supposed to be relegated to the gilded cage: she is not a contributor to, creator of, civilization. In fact, this writer goes further to assert that writers like Achebe, Ngugi and others have portrayed women who complacently continue to fulfil roles expected of them by society and to accept the superiority of men".6 It is partly in the same vein that Palmer (1983) laments that the "African novel has been remarkable for the absence of what might be called the female point of view" 7. For critics like these, the crux of the problem is the dominance of literature by men who portray women in images that fulfil their own biases. Men are often portrayed as writers who share universal experiences. Women novelists believe that "only a man can stand for the full spectrum of human experience, moving by action and search to success or failure," according to Carolyn Heilburn (1979). As a result of this stereotype, many women writers will believe they are incapable of writing stories about life and meaning, and will not attempt to do so. Gender roles will never evolve if readers believe the assumptions made in novels. This is because stereotypes cause readers to form preconceived notions about a text and the author's ability. Ruth Robbins (2000), in her book Literary Feminism, on her take about the image of women in literature especially early female writers, opines that, ‘‘self-expression was mediated through the lens of whatever ideologies of femininity were current at a given moment’’. Robbins' point is based University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 28 on the social construction theory, which argues that everything, including one's personal identity, is shaped and created by experiences with other members of society. This she explains further to mean that a female writer who had never been exposed to feminism will not have feminism being part of her identity and therefore, is not likely to portray it in her writing. According to her ‘‘the images we see or read about are part of the context in which we leave’’. It only makes sense according to her judgment that novels written in the past would reflect different ideas about women than modern novels with the various interventions that have influence feminism. The story would be different if modern feminists focus more on contemporary novels by male writers than concentrating on past works. This turn of attention, one can assume will produce different conclusions than what is heard today on the way women are portrayed in the works of male writers. In a nutshell, the growing trend of feminist issues has influenced the works of many writers. Male writers in patriarchal societies are likely to exhibit elements of this concept in their literary works. Others have advanced a mythological theory to explain the problem. Myths, it is believed, contain the truths and dogmas by which a people live. Therefore, myths embody the people's attitude to and cognition of the ethereal and the mundane. That these have continually influenced and shaped people's thoughts and perception have been acknowledged since the beginning of the century. (Levis-Strauss, 1990) Literary critics, Mineke Schipper, for example, have pointed out that a close study of the myths of origin or creation of various African societies, and in particular, Christianity and Islam, two religions, that have had much influence on the continent, shows that myths are perhaps the starting point for looking at the less than significant images of women in literature. In the Christian myth of creation recorded in Genesis, for example, woman was created from a part of man who was created first. In this myth and many other passages in the Bible the woman is relegated to the background. Beyond this, when we come to the question of original sin, woman is portrayed as the destroyer of the primeval paradise situation. This image of the woman in Christian University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 29 myth is no different in Islam. For example, the Quran says: ‘‘Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that Allah has preferred in bounty one of them over the other’’ (Sura 4:34). Mineke Schipper notes that while the Akan myth emphasized ‘‘that man and not women committed the first transgression, he made his way to the woman's camp’’, (Ibid, p. 34-52), yet it is woman who is unjustly punished. The point being made by exponents of the mythological theory is that the religious and cultural mythologies portray women in images that are dismal and undignified and therefore what we find in the literature is a perpetuation of something that has its origin in the sacred beliefs of the people. To conclude that the image of women in African literature is not well portrayed because it is dominated by male writers would indicate an inconclusive and parochial assessment of the literature. A critical appraisal of male novels and plays reveal that some male writers, at least, have portrayed women who play significant roles. We would take a look at Ousmane Sembene and Wole Soyinka to substantiate this point. A classic paradigm of a male writer who has shown his recognition of the potential of women as agents of socio-political change in society is Ousmane Sembene in his novel God's Bits of Wood. Written against the background of the strike on the Darkar-Niger railway in October 1948, the novel questions the issue of male dominance. Ousmane portrays women who play prominent roles in the struggle for economic, political and social survival. The novel seems to make the point that the struggle for the change requires the involvement in both sexes in the society. This is shown with the role played by women during the match of the strike against the white authorities. For example, Maimuna, the blind mother of twins, in spite of her physical handicap, is portrayed as a woman with great strength of character, imbued with strength and dignity, a source of inspiration and, a symbol of endurance and capacity to survive. Another woman with sterling qualities is Ramatoulaye who is given real moral stature as she rebukes the police and the Imam. It is this recognition of the significant role Ousmane gives to women that leads Eustace Palmer to write; University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 30 ‘‘one can say, in fact that his world is one in which women seem to be supreme. They are always much more powerfully portrayed and demonstrate much greater moral courage than men’’. (Palmer, 1974) Wole Soyinka cannot be left out as far as gender role in literature is concerned. In Kongi's Harvest for example, Soyinka sees a specific role for women, that of catalyst in revolutionary socio- political change. In Kongi's Harvest, Segi, a woman, plays a very central role in plot and thematic development. She is portrayed as resourceful and energetic. But, above all, she is intelligent and through her political struggle she identifies with a progressive force like Doudu to overthrow the dictatorship of the power drunk and selfish, Kongi. All the above paradigms seek to show the issue of gender roles in much broader, in fact, than we seem to present in this study. The use of Ousmane Sembene's God's Bits of Wood and Wole Soyinka's Kongi's Harvest as paradigms is to illustrate the-fact that it would be symptomatic of gross over generalization to conclude that the predominance of stereotypes, as far as women are concerned, in the literature stems from male dominance of African literature. Nevertheless, the fact remains that women have been portrayed in stereotyped images. Again, Katherine Frank in documenting ‘‘Women Without Men: The Feminist in Africa’’ also gives credence to some African male authors who have gone past these stereotype characterizations of the female to create female characters who have destinies of their own. She also cites Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood and nearly all the novels of Nuruddin Farah as examples. This of course depicts that there are some male authors who are quite appreciative and recognize the female species and their contributions in their communities and are willing to project them in a more considerate limelight. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 31 CHAPTER TWO 2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1.1 INTRODUCTION The goal of this chapter is to employ the essential literary theories as a guide for interpretation in order to make practical reading of settings easier and to expose the true meaning of the literary texts under discussion. This will be achieved by applying these concepts to a sample of a few African authors' works. The ideas that will be explored in connection with this research have been accessed as resources that will be used by this research in an effort to help us understand how female characters or women in the struggle for cultural, political, and economic freedom are depicted in the works of some selected African authors. Culler (1997:145-149) claims that literary theories are used not only to enrich and extend understanding of research work, but also to demonstrate a new approach to literature analysis. These theories, according to Eagleton (1983: viii), are a collection of interconnected literary studies. Theories can also be used to guide research and provide some textual validation. 2.1.2 THE LITERARY DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER THEORY The systematic compilation and study of data on gender inequality and social interactions propelled gender theory to prominence in academia. It was important that vital facts be made public in order to understand gendered social imbalances. It started out as a feminist theory that sought to use a diagnostic approach to streamline gender roles. It has, however, gone beyond that, including the investigation into both gender and sexual identities as part of its initial agenda. The impact of political feminism on gender theory can be traced back to specific concerns such as women's rights in western societies, female roles, and University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 32 women's inclusion in literary texts and cultural contexts. It's a theory that arose in the 1960s after the resurgence of political feminism in the United States and Western Europe. According to Showalter (1986:134-138), the theory converged with early literary feminist practices, which emphasize the study and inclusion of works by female writers, as well as the portrayal of women in male-authored canonical texts. Gender is not a principle with which humans are born, according to various schools of thought. Eckert and McConnel – Ginet (2003:10) agree with this statement and add that gender is something people do, not something they have. This view is supported by Butler (1990:19) who supports her claim with a scenario of a young man who follows his father proudly. According to her, “As he swaggers and sticks out his chest, he is doing everything he can to be like his father”. Butler succeeds in showing that, despite his father's lack of swagger, the youngster is creating a character that reflects the qualities he admires in his adult male role model. She illustrated her point with a drawing of a young girl donning her mother's high-heeled shoes, applying make-up from her mother's make-up kit, and scurrying around the room. A thorough examination of both cases reveals a high likelihood that both children will swagger and mince as they mature. However, elements of childhood performances will undoubtedly appear in adult male and female behaviour patterns. Adults are prone to assume it's not "cute" if the girl swaggers every now and then, and will have the same opinion as the boy who tries a little mincing. They consider the boy's swaggering and the girl's mincing to be natural and sweet. To put it another way, the above implies that a gender expression is open to all, but it is limited by social restrictions on who can openly perform which personae. Gender and sex overlap when society tries to balance or spell out desired ways of behaving with biological sex assignments. Gender development, according to Moser (1989:112), does not end with childhood activities. He claims that as people advance in their careers, such as secretaries and managers, their gender tends to shift. The transition continues as people's family situations change and they adopt the various University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 33 gender roles established by society, such as wives, mothers, husbands, children, and so on. Growing older means discovering new social behaviours that are dictated by one's status as a man or a woman. Gender education teaches people not only how to be males and females, but also how to behave and look in some ways. It also teaches them how to engage in relationships and cultures in specific ways. It also teaches how to see the world from different angles. Gender, according to Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003), is a social system in which each person's gender is embedded in the social order. This supports the notion that gender interacts with other socially defined hierarchies such as ethnicity, colour, age, class, and grades, among others. Gender is profoundly ingrained in higher education teaching, clothing and movement, art work and literary works, in reality, in every aspect of society, according to Molyneux (1998:93). This demonstrates that gender-based activities and spheres wield much more power and prestige than non-gender-based activities and spheres. A division of labour, in other words, may be linked to a division of social values. This is due to the fact that the division of labour entails various levels of power and prestige. In most civilizations, men have more access to positions of power, public power, and influence than women, according to McDonald (1994:131-135). Females in these communities, on the other hand, have exercised significant power in their homes and non-public spheres. It's not surprising, then, that the assigning of female roles to areas of domestic or private concern is heavily emphasized in most literary works, such as being depicted as child bearers, caring for the family, raising and nurturing children, and so on. This, according to McDowell and Pringle (1992:15), has resulted in females being relegated to the home sphere, and might be used as a universal explanation for female subjugation. This is based on the premise that depictions of female characters stem from the idea that they are close to nature, and hence are limited to domestic duties and reproductive functions. Ortner (1974) argues that universally, culture is associated with men while women although are important participants in University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 34 culture are more closely to nature. If the purpose of culture is to rise above nature, then this makes the woman and her subordination role universal. However, other scholars question the universalization of the concept arguing that gendered practices have deep roots in traditional societies resulting in the concept of gender being different from one society to another. Gender theory has been labelled as post-modern because it questions Western thought's paradigms and intellectual premises. It is often seen as taking an activist approach, promoting regular interventions and actions aimed at potentially changing the current social order. One of the most well-known gender theorists, Butler (1990:13-14), stated that gender is a human construct based on a large duplication of social behaviours. However, since gendered traditions have deep roots in traditional cultures, it could be argued that gender is defined differently in different societies. However, in support of Ortner’s argument, despite the diversity, cultures still possess shared values which may exhibit some common features of the concept of gender in different cultures. There is the need for researchers to make analysis which is grounded in a deep sense of historical and cultural diversities that exist and avoid making a generalization. In sum, it is misleading to draw a conclusion that what constitutes gender from one culture is the same as that of another despite the similarities because gender means different things to different people since it carries the ideologies of the culture from which it is constructed. This backs up the idea that the gender theory is solely concerned with exploring the biological distinctions between men and women. This same tool was ultimately scrutinized by the same scholars who had come to the same conclusion that sexual distinctions are cultural products. The representation of gender relationships and other gender distinctions in literary works, particularly those produced by men, is the subject of gender theory. The primary focus of the research is on supposed gender-specific authorship concerns, as well as literary gender-specific reading and reception behaviour. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 35 2.1.3 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEMINIST THEORY The feminist criticism theory was formed when powerful women like Cooper (1892:149) questioned the customs and trends of their period in order to speak out openly against gender inequities and in favour of women's rights. Despite the fact that the majority of these women did not identify as feminists, their attitudes and actions helped to establish a history of anti-sexism agitation and philosophy that has come to define Black American feminism. Due to the inspiration derived from these actions of these women, most Black American women have and continue to work and fight towards the eradication of gender inequalities. In addition to these inequalities are the eradication of systems of oppression which has long subjugated women, black women especially. Over the years, these Black women’s right movements have continued to seek to have a voice in various liberation struggles. Black feminist criticism, according to McDowell (1995:56-58), is influenced not only by gender but also by cultural attitudes. She continues, "It is mainly made up of Black feminist critics who have looked at the works of Black female writers from a feminist perspective.". One male specifically addressed men who write from a female viewpoint. In the introduction to his novel, "Almost a Girl: Male Writers and Female Identity," Allan Williamson ((2001), discusses his thoughts. He reflects on the challenges that many male writers face while writing from the viewpoint of a woman. He mentions the possibility that male writers who write from the viewpoint of women might feel self-conscious or not be recognized as "true men" because of their decision to identify with women. He also states the problem of these male writers having to deal with backlash from female feminist. These backlashes result from feminist ideas from men in the past which was normally seen serving as propaganda. This is what produces suspicion from women which has resulted in what male writers experience at the hands of feminists today. (Williamson, 2001) University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 36 Williams denounces feminist critics by arguing that “feminist criticism has felt the need to emphasize how hard it is for men really to imagine what women experience. It has been quick to smell pre-emption, rather than legitimate empathy, whenever male writers attempt to represent a female point of view. They fear that will perpetuate stereotypes, offer up straw men, or rather straw women, so that the patriarchal side can have the last word, or, at best, steal insights women writers deserve the chance to express for themselves”. (Williamson, 2001) Male writers today, according to Williamson, are still being held responsible for past male authors' use of feminist concepts against women. This, he condemns as a depressing thought, because, in his opinion, it is past time for today's feminist critics to go beyond the blunders of early male writers, or else they will miss out on the possibility to read and study literature that would offer new perspectives on the sexes, separate from the biases they have established in the past. He goes on to say that feminist opponents' unwillingness to embrace change simply serves to maintain gender stereotypes that can be as harmful to males as they are to women. He warns against guys viewing themselves just as what they're supposed to be, patriarchal and sexist, and always rejecting change, seeing it as fruitless based on how they're perceived or what they're said to be. Feminist goals, on the other hand, might be understood as efforts to actually improve women's quality of life by developing unbiased literary texts in which women and men succeed equally and without discrimination. Feminists seem to have looked at multiple aspects of social issues and come to differing conclusions about how to accomplish their goals. One of which is through their literary works. Dr. Helen Chukuma proclaims in an editorial that the diversity of current African writing, particularly those written by women, is a very welcome phenomena since it bridges the gender divide between male and female portrayal and reveals the other side of the coin, in her opinion. She goes on to say that the place of the rural, passive, subservient, drab, illiterate and naive woman has been successfully replaced by her urban counterpart, who is "a full-rounder human being, University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 37 rotational, individualistic, and assertive, fighting for, demanding, and holding her own" (Chukwuma,1997) 2.1.4 FEMINISM AS THEORETICAL CRITICISM Feminist theory is a multifaceted field of research that incorporates a variety of critical theories such as psychoanalysis, gender, and anthropology. Feminist literary theory's main purpose is to understand the role of women and gender conflict in works by male authors. It contains art from a variety of disciplines. Females are not the only ones who are encouraged to lift their voices in unison by feminist philosophy. It not only inspires women to struggle for their rights in order to end the long-standing myth of female protagonists in male literary works being portrayed as inferior, but it also emphasizes women's equality. It also has a role to play in assisting women in achieving gender equity in the workplace and in achieving equality in their societies. Traditional literature portrays females as individuals who have made little to no contribution to literary works, according to the belief and interpretation. These are the problems that feminist theorists address by laying out their campaigns at all stages. Many female scholars, according to Blain (1983:47), do not offer reasons for male authors, claiming that male literary texts portray females living in a time marked by gender differences, where they are forced to remain subservient to male characters who are portrayed as superior to them. Susan Gubar's (1981) essay "The Blank Page" claims that male writers frequently use literature to create women in the way they want them to be created; women are the "blank page" on which the male writer writes. To put it another way, the female author isn't finished until the male author is. When a man sees a woman as a "blank screen," she is never the author and never has the power to create herself. For example, Judith Kegan Gardiner's gender theories in literary criticism are based on the differences in men and women's life experiences. She acknowledges that finding differences between the works of male and female writers is unsurprising, considering that University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 38 men and women have different life experiences. She attributes the difference in men's and women's portrayals of women to the fact that men and women live differently as a result of their gender, and thus their writing will reflect these gender disparities. “Women's perspectives vary from men's in profound and frequent ways,” writes Gardiner (1981) in her essay “On Female Identity and Writing by Women.” “In a male-dominated culture, being a man means not being like a woman,” she continues (178). As a result, the behaviour that each gender considers acceptable becomes severely limited and polarized” (189). According to many female critics, men authors are more likely than female authors to write ineffectively from a masculine perspective. As a result, it's unsurprising that they conclude that female authors are better at writing from a female perspective. When it comes to addressing female authors, many theorists believe that identity plays an important role. Susan Gubar undoubtedly believes that women are portrayed by male writers as blank pages”, but it could be said and proven without mincing words that, not only men see women as “blank pages” but women sometimes also see themselves as such through their attempt to re- create themselves and to re-shape themselves. This explains the reason for the female author’s deeply involvement in her work. This is contrary to the male author’s position of creating something outside of himself. Judith Kegan Gardiner is one theorist who believes in the major role identity plays in the literary works of female writers. She opines that identity plays a vital role in gender issues and literature. She explains that, “Female identity formation is dependent on the mother-daughter bond, the maternal metaphor of female authorship clarifies the woman writer’s distinctive engagement with her characters and indicates analogous relationship between woman reader and character (179). A woman writer is likely to recognize this and easily relate same with the created character who shares her identity and with whom she bonds easily. She argues further that, “The woman writer uses her text, particularly one centering on a female hero, as part of a continuing process involving her own self-definition and her empathic identification with her character” (187). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 39 It is evident from the above that female writers are more attuned to their works or writings and to their female readers because their work and female characters are true reflections of themselves. In conclusion, it could be said that feminist movements have succeeded in arguably influencing women in a more positive way. These feminist theorists through their work have helped to define women as being the more morally refined between men and women. This has placed women as the better and suitable guardians and custodians of morality and social cohesion. They have succeeded in doing this by using their portrayal of women positively in their literary works. This Bennett (1929:67) confirms in her argument that “social transformations, that are largely biased and responsible for the female’s status being defined in terms of domesticity and morality, have also worked to provoke gender consciousness and reform, as the roles assigned to females become increasingly at odds with social relatives”. She explains that women are often depicted in contradictory roles literary works, culture, and society placed on them. They have given themselves as a mouthpiece and have used their works as a medium to share the thoughts of many females who are unable to speak, bringing attention and encouragement to these women's concerns. However, the act of focusing on the past mistakes of some male writers by some female writers or critics and closing their eyes to the changes in modern works and even some traditionally literary works of male writers have blinded these feminist movements into accepting the fact that some male writers have indeed against all odds and critics in society chosen the stance to write from female perspectives and have succeeded in doing it perfectly. This effort made by these male writers can be appreciated should feminist critics attempt or adopt a different lens through which they view works of male writers contrary to using stereotype lenses since such lenses may portray gendered related biases which may not be present. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 40 CHAPTER THREE 3.1 FEMALE PORTRAITURE IN THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE AND FACELESS BY AMMA DARKO INTRODUCTION This chapter deals with the portraiture of female characters in the works of Chinua Achebe and Amma Darko, Things Fall Apart and Faceless respectively. As mentioned earlier in the methodology, these two books are carefully selected based on their differences in eras of writing by the two authors. This enables textual analysis to be carried out using the historical criticism literary tech