Representation of Woman in African literature ?

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 19^th 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.