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The Image Of African Women In A Patriarchal Society
[A CASE STUDY OF BUCHI EMECHETA’S THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD AND AMMA DARKO’S BEYOND THE HORIZON]
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In her
Faceless, Darko portrays the manner in which women and children are
abused sexually and physically. The perpetuators of this abuse are men
embodied by Onko, Kwei, Kpakpo, Macho and Poison who brutalise women and
children. Onko for instance defiles Maa Tsuru’s daughter, Baby T. who
is just about twelve years old; Kpakpo on the other hand rapes the same
girl. Kwei on the other hand subjects Mama Tsuru to severe beatings
every now and then and one of such scenes is highlighted as he “pounced
on her like a cat on an unsuspecting mouse and began a vicious pounding
spree… landing blows anywhere and everywhere and on every part of her
pregnant body†( p.153). At the end of it the attitudes of these men in
the patriarchal society shown in this text is comment on by Anyidoho:“
Men with devilish intentions towards vulnerable children, such as wily
rapist Onko pretending to be every child’s uncle, the bully Macho, or
“the no-nonsense street lord†appropriately named Poisonâ€(p.17).
On
the basis of how these women writers discussed above have presented
African women in their novels, the research seeks to find out how Buchi
Emecheta and Amma Darko present African women in their novels, The Joys
of Motherhood and Beyond the Horizon respectively.This investigation
will be done by the researcher using African feminism and post- colonial
African literarytheory as theoretical framework.
The research design
for the thesis is qualitative research and the data that will be used
for the research is the content analysis of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of
Motherhood and Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon. To analyse the data,
the researcher will look at how Amma Darko and Buchi Emecheta have
presented African women in their novels and whether these authors have
presented Africa women similarly or differently. The sample technique
for the work will be purposive sampling and these texts have been
selected purposely because they contain more information about how
African women have been presented in novels.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Women
have been presented in various ways in literary texts. Most literary
writers have presented them negatively in texts and to buttress this
Ruth (1998: 104) says “women have long been portrayed in negative and
derogatory terms over the years in many African literary texts
especially those written by menâ€. Women have been presented as docile,
unintelligent and illiterate folks whose voices must not be heard in the
assembly of men.
Consequently, in contemporary African literature,
many female feminist writers have used their novels to praise women
characters by given them prominent roles to play with the view to
portraying how chauvinistic some men writers have been. However, there
has not been much study about how female writers have presented women in
their novels. The researcher, therefore, seeks to find out how these
two female writers, Buchi Emecheta and Amma Darko present African women
in The Joys of Motherhood and Beyond the Horizon respectively.
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