Name: Radha B. Ghevariya
STD: M.A (Sem-4)
Subject : The African Literature
Roll No. : 22
Submitted to : Department of English Maharaja
krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Topic : Representation of Woman in African literature ?
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Introduction:
The Representation of women in
African literature play vital role in African literature also portrayed women
in different shades. incomplete and inaccurate female characters littered early
African works.
The study of women characters,
portrayed in African colonized literature is an interesting, with that one can
know human nature of colonizing marginalizing or making other race gender
religion subaltern. does African culture do the same with their women ? do they
also colonizing women ? how is she portrayed in African literature how is it
capturing their woman characters and men’s behavior with them?
The Swamp Dwellers
“ The Swamp Dwellers”
written by Wole Soyinka . Akinwande oluwole ‘wole’ Soyinka is a Nigerian
writer, notable especially as a playwright and poet; he was awarded the 1986
noble; prize in literature ; the first person in Africa and the diaspora to be
so honoured.
“The Swamp Dwellers” by wole
Soyinka is placed in backward village of Nigeria in the Delta region. but the
character of the play often have important interaction with the town life .
because we can see the young man went for the city life because they have to
hope and desire. so called the “Gifts of Colonialization” . here we can say
that,
“All
Temptation in whole the world”
However, the play focuses the
struggle between the old and the new ways of the life in Africa. ‘The Swamp
Dwellers’ examines the suffering and hardships of the people living in Nigeria
Dealta . this story focuses on the society operating through modification
between the city and country. although there are many characters in the play.
the woman characters like Alu, Desala etc,.. the female character of Alu. Alu as a wife of Makuri and mother of Igwezu and
Awuchike. she was 60 years old. also her ideas and believes in the custom of
the Swamp. and more concern about Awuchike . Alu is traditionalist,
“Tradition
is a belief or behavior passed down within group or society with symbolic meaning
or special significant with origin in the past”
So, here we can say that she replaced
her identity as a traditionalist. the character of Desala. she does not appears
in the play. but she is spoken off. she is the embodiment of the corrupt nature
of the city life. Desala marries Igwezu. Igwezu later becomes poor owing to bad
return from his business. Desala found Awuchike prospering in his business. so,
Desala leaves Igwezu and marries
Awuchike. so it shows how African city life has become morally void. also she
leaves in modern life so change in society . also we can see the play shows
village life and city life so here, it shows the village life connected with
the tradition and the city life connected with modernity.
However, we can find that his
family tie with Desala is so strong that she even leaves her instances of
powerful family bond in Soyinka’s . the
swamp dwellers , parents and Ignores the socio-cultural practice to win
the love of Desala . he shows honesty to his love and beloved by shifting
himself from the swamp to her urban. in a dialogue Alu reveals secret :
“Alu : she
(Desala) made him (Awuchike) promise to take her there (the city) before she
would wed him”
At last we can say that female
characters have not their own identity or story to be called or celebrated .
but they are always portrayed as less heroic than men and in periphery.
A Grain of Wheat
“ A Grain of Wheat” is
a novel by Kenya novelist Ngugi Wa Thiogo. the novel weaves together several
stories set during the state of emergency in kenya’s struggle for independence
focusing on the quite Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret.
Though being a political
narrative the presence of women to strengthen the quality and reality of the
novel is undeniable.
Ngugi wa thiogo through the
depiction of the ideal patriotic women pays great tribute to the African women
especially in those dark days. the strength and courage of certain black women
is incontestable in relating the fight for freedom. Ngugi wa thiogo through the character of Wambai and Mumbi
clearly shows as that though the men were ighting openly , the war led by the
women was as much important as theirs.
However, also we can see the
character of Wambai’s “ now famous drama at the worker’ strike in 1950,
“how
through her words and the common action of women they had revived the strength of men”
There is also the comic episode of how
Wambui “once carried a pistol tied to her things near the gronis”. where behind
the comic account of the incident.
Here, we can say that ngugi wa
thiogo portrays the courage and role of
women in freedom fighting. also he wants to demonstrate that of African
women had not been such an inner force , Kenya would have never been what it is
to-day.
The character of Mumbi. the argument
is illustrated by Mumbi’s inner force during the emergency period. she is in
fact the character who depicts the ideal African women according to Ngugi wa
thiogo. strong , beautiful. both and father more mother of a child, her
strength during that period. if far than admirable,
“in the
end, she tied a belt around her waist and took on a man’s work”
The novel “ Grain of Wheat” in the
chapter 7 Ngugi wa thiogo light on the sensual woman. ngugi wa thiogo as a
writer of protest literature wants to demonstrate to what extent the African
woman can prove to be both anmanly and take the role of men when need be
through being portrayed as very strong ,
one specific character of the African woman according to the author is the
ability to play a completely different role which is that of the submissive
woman or rather wife.
“Things Fall Apart”
Chinua Achebe is one of
the africa’s most well- known and influential contemporary writers. his first
novel ‘things fall apart’ is an early narrative about the European colonization
of Africa told from the point of view of the colonized people. the novel
recounts the life of warrior and village hero Okonkwo , and describes the
arrival of white missionaries to his Ibo village and their impact on African
life and society at the end of the 19th century.
Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart(TFA)
requires an attentive and unbiased reading of the novel. At first glance,
the women in TFA may seem to be an oppressed group with power, and this
characterization is true to some extent. However, this characterization of Ibo
women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once the
reader uncovers the diverse roles of the Ibo women throughout the novel. An
excellent example of powerful women in the Ibo village is found in the role
they play in the Ibo religion. The women routinely perform the role of
priestess. The narrator recalls that during Okonkwo’s boyhood,
“the priestess in those days was a woman called Chika. She
was full of the
power of her god, and she was greatly feared”
The novel describes two instances when
Okonkwo beats his second wife, once when she did not come home to make his
meal. He beat her severely and was punished but only because he beat her during
the Week of Peace. He beat her again when she referred to him as one of those
"guns that never shot." When a severe case of wife beating comes
before the egwugwu, he found in favor of the wife., but at the end of the
trial a man wondered "why such a trifle should come before the
egwugwu."
Waiting For The
Barbarians
J.M.Coetzee was born and raised
in south Africa . he is one of the most highly honored contemporary writers.
this novel contains several characters as given below;
v the magistrate
v colonel joll
v the girl
v the boy
v officer mandel
v old man
v mai
The novel “waiting for the
barbarians” is about morality and violence and about exploring human cruelty.
it challenges humanity in several ways. it focuses on the impact of fear in
human psyche and impact realism’s self- destructive person.
Barbarian
girl is a prisoner of Colonel Joll’s but after their release she is left
behind by her folk in the outpost, begging, semi-blinded and disfigured from
the torture. This symbolizes in extremes that how people can be transformed to
be perceived as the other by an ideology and how the normal can turned out to
be abnormal by the system.Relationship
between the Magistrate and the barbarian girl.
she will always stay as the other, both
as a barbarian in the eye of the Empire and as carrying the marks of the
Empire in her uncanny body, in the eyes of her folk.
Barbarian girl blinded and crippled by
the Third Bureau, she is left behind by her people and taken in by the
Magistrate. as a prostitute— she lives and works in the inn, visited by the
Magistrate. also she represented the Two conscripts and a guide— they travel
with the Magistrate to return the girl to her people, they give testimony
against him to the Third Bureau.