ABSTRACT
Womanism as a variant of African feminism provides the platform for a holistic analysis of the works of African female writers. In this work, Ogunyemi’s womanist theory is read into the works of two Nigerian female writers, Chimamanda Adichie and Buchi Emecheta, authors of Purple Hibiscus and The Joys of Motherhood respectively. Undertaking a womanist reading of these two novels is aimed at ascertaining the different and similar ways these female novelists articulate womanist theory in the above mentioned novels through a comparative study. The work also aimed at finding out whether there is a continuity of womanist concerns between these two female novelists or otherwise. The conclusions drawn from this study are arrived at through a close reading of the two novels by looking at literary elements of characterization, narrative technique, tone, mood and setting. From the analysis of the two novels, it is clear that Adichie leans more towards challenging and usurping patriarchy while Emecheta valourizes traditional patriarchal society in her work. Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus also resounds with womanist hope as opposed to the tragic end that befalls Emecheta’s protagonist, Nnu Ego. However, both authors lean towards the ultimate womanist goal of unity and survival of males, females and children. The comparative analysis of the two novels only shows womanist continuity in of terms the two authors’ commitment to the ultimate goal of womanism. Apart from this, Adichie is more aggressive in questioning, criticizing and subverting patriarchal authority as compared to Emecheta.
| TABLE OF CONTENT | |||
| Title Page | ……………. | i | |
| Declaration | ……………. | ii | |
| Dedication | ……………. | iii | |
| Acknowledgements | ……………. | iv | |
| Abstract | ……………. | v | |
| Table of Content | ……………. | vi |
| Chapter One: Introduction and Theoretical Framework | |
| 1.1 Introduction to the Study | …………….. …1 |
| 1.1.1 Biography of Chimamanda Adichie | …………………2 |
| 1.1.2 Biography of Buchi Emecheta | ………………….2 |
| 1.1.3 Tradition and Continuity | …………………..3 |
| 1.2 Feminism Universal | ………………….4 |
| 1.3 Feminism in Africa | …………………………7 |
| 1.4 Theoretical Framework | …………………9 |
| Scope of Research Justification for the Selection of Novels | …………………17 …………………17 |
| 1.7 Significance of the Study | …………………..19 |
| 1.8 Methodology | …………………..19 |
| 1.9 Organization of the Study | …………………..19 |
| 1.10 Delimitations | ………………….20 |
Chapter Two: Literature Review
- Literature Review of Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus……………………………………………………. 21
- Literature Review of Emecheta’s The Joys Of Motherhood……………………………………… 24
2.3 Summary of Literature Review………………………………………………………………………… 28
Chapter Three: Articulations of Womanism in Purple Hibiscus
…………………….32
- Kambili’s Womanist Metamorphosis……………………………………………………………………… 36
- The Ultimate Womanist Goal in Purple Hibiscus……………………………………………………… 72
Chapter Four: Articulations of Womanism in The Joys of Motherhood
- Emecheta’s Womanist Artuculations……………………………………………………………………… 76
- Womanist Audaciousness Lacking Change…………………………………………………………….. 76
- Sexist Treatment of Women in The Joys of Motherhood…………………………………………… 80
- Adaku’s Defiance of Cultural Notions of a Good Woman……………………………………….. 91
- The Ultimate Womanist Goal in The Joys of Motherhood…………………………………………. 95
Chapter Five: A Comparative Womanist Analysis of Purple Hibiscus and The Joys of Motherhood
5.1. Characterization………………………………………………………………………………………………… 101
| 5.2 Style | ………………….110 |
| 5.3 Narrative Technique | …………………..111 |
| 5.4 Tone and Mood | ……………………115 |
| 5.5 Setting | …………………..116 |
| 5.6 Continuity in Purple Hibiscus and The Joys of Motherhood | ……………………118 |
| 5.7 Possible Areas of Research | ……………………120 |
| 5.8 Conclusion | …………………..120 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 122
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
- Introduction to the Study
Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood are both womanist novels which propagate the womanist gospel. This gospel is particular to the needs of black/African people and accommodates men, women and children. It also looks at the struggles of African women from a holistic angle incorporating racial, cultural, national, economic and political issues alongside sexist issues with the ultimate goal of ensuring the survival and unity of all in black/African communities. Adichie and Emecheta embrace this womanist gospel in Purple Hibiscus and The Joys of Motherhood respectively by tackling not just the sexist treatment of women but by also showing concern for racial issues, national politics, the patriarchal culture and the economic situation. This multi-dimensional approach to women’s struggles in these two novels underscores the necessity for unity and survival of men, women and children at the end of these two novels.
African female writers normally focus on resistance to all forms of patriarchal behaviour and the belief that women can live their lives the way they want to and be responsible for their own livelihoods and future. The female novel as a protest novel against patriarchy shows the inequalities and abuses inflicted on women by patriarchal traditions whether they are Christian, Islamic or indigenous. In addition to the focus of these novels as a protestation against patriarchal dominance, they also portray the independent woman. African female novelists hold in high esteem womanist values which promote independence togetherness and survival. African
female writers such as Ama Atta Aidoo, Bessie Head, Calixthe Beyala, Mariama Bà, Buchi Emecheta, Tsitsi Dangarembga and quite recently, Chimamanda Adichie have led the way.
Biography of Chimamanda Adichie
Adichie was born on 15 September 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. She grew up in Nsukka, in the house formerly occupied by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. Chimamanda’s father worked at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Adichie completed her secondary education at the University’s school. She went on to study Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Nigeria for a year and a half. During this period, she edited The Compass, a magazine run by the University’s Catholic medical students. She later studied at Drexel University in Philadelphia for two years, and went on to pursue a degree in Communication and Political Science at Eastern Connecticut State University. Purple Hibiscus was released in October 2003. The book was shortlisted for the Orange Fiction Prize (2004) and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005. Her other novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) is set before and during the Biafran War. Her collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck, was published in 2009. Her third novel, Americanah, was published in 2013.
Biography of Buchi Emecheta
Emecheta was born to Igbo parents in Lagos on 21 July 1944. She moved to Britain in 1960, where she worked as a librarian and became a student in London University in 1970, reading Sociology. She worked as a community worker in Camden, North London, between 1976 and
1978. Much of her fiction has focused on sexual politics and racial prejudice, and is based on her own experiences as both a single parent and a black woman living in Britain. She has written many novels including In the Ditch (1972), Second Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Joys of Motherhood which is an account of women’s experiences bringing up children in the face of changing values in traditional Ibo society. Emecheta is also the author of several novels for children, including Nowhere to Play (1980). In 1983 she was selected as one of twenty ‘Best of Young British Writers’ by the Book Marketing Council.
Tradition and Continuity
Adichie and Emecheta are part of a body of female authors in West Africa who are not different in portraying womanist values as have their counterparts in other African and Black American cultures. While being responsible, natural as well as showing commitment to the survival of an entire people (African people) in their novels, they promote womanist values such as female autonomy and cooperation, values which make women show “outrageous, courageous or willful behaviour” (McEmrys, p.2).
A continuity of concerns in Purple Hibiscus and The Joys of Motherhood will be traced with a view to establishing the generational similarities and differences in the womanist world views of these two West African women novelists who belong to different historical periods. This will lead to the question of whether the difference in generations affirms a difference in their womanist outlook, and how each of these womanist novelists shows their commitment to the ethics of addressing human suffering in their novels. A continuity of womanist critical concerns
will be established in the final analysis and the underlying variations in the novelists’ womanist world views will also be clearly projected.
Feminism Universal
Feminism throughout its long history has always been seen as “women’s conscious struggle to resist patriarchy” (Selden, Widdowson & Brooker, p. 121). However, this definition of feminism does not mean that men cannot be part of feminism. The definition of feminism on the other hand raises the fundamental question of whether men can be feminists in the real sense because men benefit from the social organization of men which puts men in privileged positions over women. Men can be called feminists even though feminism has arisen out of the lived experiences of women in relation to oppressive patriarchal systems. Men have and do experience the effects of patriarchy in different ways from what women experience. Men can therefore be feminists as well as act as agents of feminism in helping to change patriarchal ways of organizing society. Njoku insists that men use the “ideology of patriarchy which emphasizes male importance, dominance and superiority” (195) as a way of enslaving women and making them second class citizens. Njoku’s definition of patriarchy does not capture the entire essence of patriarchy because patriarchy is not only ideology but also practice; it is lived out; it is a practice engaged in by men against women, children and other men.
The wave of feminist thought was firstly inspired by Women’s Suffrage movements across America and Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a way of advocating social, political and economic reform. Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) is
recognized as the ground-breaking treatise on feminist thought within European and American circles. This was followed by a shift in thought from advocacy for social, political and economic reform to the “politics of reproduction, to women’s experience to sexuality as at once a form of oppression and something to celebrate” (Selden, Widdowson & Brooker, p. 128). Most notable among feminists who advocated women’s experience and sexuality as the focal point of feminism was Kate Millet’s radical feminism termed Sexual Politics which saw patriarchal culture as a way of demeaning the female and treating her as an inferior human being. Millet’s Sexual Politics established ethnocentrism within feminist studies. “Educated, middle-class white women devised theories about middle class white women and gave them a universal stamp, thereby erasing or invalidating the experiences of majority of women who were excluded from one or both of these categories” (Jita Allan, p. 2). Feminism became ethnocentric, exclusionary, and controversial, and mirrored the same male social structures it decried.
Daves and Graves assert that both Western and African feminisms share the common focus of identifying gender-specific issues and recognizing women’s position internationally as one of second class status and otherness (Opara, p. 5). In her conceptualization of second class status and otherness, Helen Cixous presents a “hierarchical definition of ‘she’ in relation to ‘he’ in a psychoanalytical oppositional arithmetic in which ‘he’ towers above ‘she’ in every sphere of existence” (Adjei, p. 149). The crust of radical feminism (a la De Beauvoir, Millet and even Cixous) was and still is very Western in thought and outlook. Njoku contests that African women do not share a common identity with their Western counterparts (195). Western feminist thought and practice therefore sees all women as being involved with the same struggles, sharing the
same experiences and voicing the same oppressions meted out to them by men, to use Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s term, “we are all sisters in struggle.” Mohanty writes:
By women as a category of analysis, I am referring to the critical assumption that all of us of the same gender, across classes and cultures, are somehow socially constituted as a homogeneous group identified prior to the process of analysis. This is an assumption which characterizes much feminist discourse (Mohanty, p.337).
In addition to this error of universally analyzing women’s oppression and suppression, women are also characterized by much Western feminist ideology and praxis as victims of male violence and universal dependents. The characterization of women’s experiences in families, women’s experiences in relation to religious ideologies which suppress them, women’s lack of opportunities to development is the same for women across borders as radical feminist discourse will have us believe, according to Mohanty (p. 338-46). This is what she refers to as ‘methodological universalism.’ Methodological universalism has serious shortcomings in portraying women’s struggles and oppression, and therefore calls for a feminist analysis that correctively takes into account culture-specific challenges of women; a feminist analysis that recognizes that even though women may face similar struggles against patriarchal domination, these struggles are not identical.
Feminism in Africa
African feminism has been defined as an “abnegation of male protection and a determination to be resourceful and reliant” (Davies, p.561). It has emerged as a response to what has been referred to by Filomina Chioma Steady as “the dominant voice of the feminist movement” which “has been that of the white female” (p. 1). African feminism must be responsive to the needs of black/African women and must therefore take into account freedom from structures created by manifold oppressions. It must be “free of the shackles of Western romantic illusions” because the African woman lives for many things such as a sense of sisterhood and not just cultivating herself and enjoying sex. It also “tends to be much more pragmatic” (Buchi Emecheta, p. 554). Most significantly, “African feminism, unlike Western feminism does not negate men, rather it accommodates them. Men are central to their lives and so their continuous presence is assured” (In Maduka, p. 10).
Steady calls for an African feminism which “combines racial, sexual, class, and cultural dimensions of oppression to produce a more inclusive brand of feminism thought through which women are viewed first and foremost as human, rather than sexual, beings. She defines African feminism as that ideology which advocates freedom from oppression that is based on the political, economic, social, and cultural manifestations of racial, cultural, sexual and class biases (p. 2). This definition by Steady shows that mainstream feminism has failed to theorize aspects of the struggles of black women and African women which do not affect white women. For example, white women only face the struggle of fighting for sexual equality in opposition to white men. On the other hand, black women/African women must contend with oppression from
their black/African male counterparts while also being suppressed economically, politically and racially by white patriarchal systems along with their men. She therefore calls African feminism “humanistic feminism” because it is dedicated to the total liberation of humanity. The majority of black women in Africa and the diaspora have developed characteristics of cooperation and rejection of male protection, though not always by choice (In Davies, p. 561).
Genuine African feminism regards self-reliance, cooperative work and social organization as values which must be treasured by African women while also, rejecting over burdening, exploitation and relegation of the African woman into a state of inhumane misery. It objectively looks at women in societies which have undergone the struggle for national reconstruction and encourages them to engage in another struggle against the African men they united with to fight for the liberation of their African countries. African feminism must also embrace traditional and contemporary avenues of choice for women as it seeks to uncover other modes by which African women can access power other than the outward demeanours of submissiveness. The essence of African feminism is not antagonism towards African men, even though it prods African men to recognize the subjugation of women, but a common struggle with African men to remove the yokes of foreign domination and European exploitation. It boldly admits to the role played by colonialism in enforcing certain inequalities that existed in traditional societies and therefore addresses the realities of the lives of African women. The fact that African women have and will always address their own problems is a view strongly held by African feminists who also assert that some African societies have structures which give women equality. Institutions which promote the status of African women are given recognition within African feminism and those which do not are rejected. African feminism therefore sees usefulness in motherhood, polygamy
and traditions which have been distorted by colonialism and continue to be distorted by urban settings (Davies, p. 564).
Theoretical Framework
This research employs womanist theory to articulate the concerns of two West African womanist authors, Chimamanda Adichie and Buchi Emecheta. A womanist analysis of the novels of these two authors is justified because womanism functions as a variant of African feminism, which emphasizes the basic idea of the survival of both males and females and cooperation and complementarity as necessary to Black/African feminism. It can be argued that Ogunyemi’s womanism is just one of the many forms of African feminism including motherism, a theory propounded by Catherine Acholonu, which places motherhood, nature, nurture and respect for the environment at the centre of its theorizing ; ‘stiwanism’ which comes from “Stiwa,” an acronym meaning “Social Transformation Including Women in Africa developed by Molara Ogundipe-Leslie ; and Obiora Nnaemeka’s negofeminism, a feminism of negotiation and “no ego” feminism which captures central concerns in many African cultures – including negotiation, complementarity, give-and-take, and collaboration. However, womanism when considered from both Alice Walker and Ogunyemi’s overlapping notions of the term has an extensive reach and does not only include African and African American women but also women of colour as well. And so womanism is a social change perspective that is not only rooted in the unique and specific experiences of African women but African American women and women of colour as well. On the other hand, African feminism is solely focused on the experiences of African women and how to engender social change by involving both men and women. Womanism is
therefore appropriate in an analysis of these two West African novels in the sense that it can be applied within an African as well as an African American context without generalizing the experiences of women because the experiences are varied.
Ogunyemi, in her article, “Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English,” asserts that “ the ultimate difference between the feminist and the womanist is thus what each sees of patriarchy and what each thinks can be changed” (69). By this she gives a clear boundary between radical feminism and womanism. Radical feminism focuses on sexism as the only patriarchal system that subordinates and subjugates women, and by women, radical feminists mean white middle class educated women. This of course leaves out Black/African women. And so for the radical feminist, if sexism is challenged and changed, that is the victory for all women all over the world in different cultures. Apart from this shortcoming, radical feminism’s aim is a separatist idyllic existence away from the men’s world.
Womanism does not just focus on sexist treatment of black/African women. When white South African journalist Beata Lipman was quizzed about the state of women’s writing in South Africa she said that “Racism is a more urgent matter than sexism” (Ogunyemi, p. 67). This statement by Lipman gives womanism an extensive but also culture-specific coverage to include racism alongside sexism as the foci of black feminism, and to be specific, womanism. Womanism does not only dwell on sexism and racism but also incorporates cultural, national, economic and political considerations in challenging oppressive patriarchal systems. What the womanist sees of patriarchy is therefore not just sexism but racism, cultural, national, economic and political
subjugation of Black/African people by white patriarchal systems. What the womanist sees of patriarchy is the oppressive reality she encounters, first as a woman in relation to her Black/African male counterpart and second, together with her counterpart, as a people subjugated and taken advantage of politically and economically by the white race. In addition, womanism does not aim for exclusivity but togetherness in the sense that it advocates a sense of wholeness and unity which includes both men and women, and even children. It is not separatist and antagonistic towards men as radical feminism is.
