The changing faces of marriage in selected works by Anglophone and Francophone African women writers (original) (raw)
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Mukt Shabd Journal, 2022
Most of the study of African literature has largely been the domain of post-colonial theorists and any other aspects like the social setup, gender studies or human relationships have found lesser space for themselves as subject of in-depth study. Even the most vocal writers, who through their works might appear like iconoclasts, remain traditionally, distinctly patriarchal in their personal approach, supportive of motherhood and focused on issues of bread, butter, culture and power. But what has gone largely unnoticed in literary criticism is the strong socio-cultural roots of the Africans, especially related to marriage –the primary denominator of an aesthetically evolved civilized society. Marriage has been one of the most binding instrumentsof social cohesion and strong inter-personal relationships not only between two individuals, but their family, clan and community as well. The African wedding, that can come to pass through various means –love, arrangement, barter, inheritance or even capture, are all equally sacrosanct and have the involvement of the whole community from its initiation till the end, if at all there be a case. This article looks to study the relevance of marriage and its integration in the African society through the novels of the likes of Buchi Emecheta, Elechi Amadi, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Exploring the Issue of Marriage Rites in Selected African Novels
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature
For generations, marriage has been one of the major events in the life of an African. Young adults must do whatever it takes to reach that level of his or her life in order to climb the African social ladder. The issue of marriage in African literary works has been complex because it is on part of African life that has undergone transformation in the various regions in Africa. This is due to the encounter with different cultures and diverse horizons. This article explores the issue of marriage as one of the major rites of passage in African life through some selected works by prominent African writers. The exploration of marriage in this article is done to shed light on these vital periods in the life of Africa, from pre-colonial to post-colonial.
Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology, 2021
The task of this paper is to highlight some of the marriage relationship tendencies that have changed in the modern African Marriage, in relation to the traditional norms, as manifest in two texts of two African Feminist writers. The study thus examines how Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes and Chimamanda N. Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus explore the marriage institution in Africa and unearth the changing dynamics in it, as it pertains to the modern or post-modern African society. The study concluded that though the dignity of marriage coupled with its necessity as a social institution is unquestionably maintained in our focused African texts, its dynamics, in modern society, must yield to positive change, at least, to reflect the emerging socio-economic trends in African society today.
Marriage and Childbearing: Gender Stereotyping in two African Female Writings
African female writers feel unperturbed reverberating the socially signified identity constructions of the female gender in the male contested society today. Their literary pieces seek gender parity by deepening understanding of the social responsibilities of the female compared to their male counterparts. This essay examines the context of gender stereotyping in two African female writings. Specifically, it undertakes a reading of Ama Ata Aidoo's Anowa (1970) and Doreen Baingana's Tropical Fish (2005). By drawing insight from Lorber's (1994) social construction theory and using content analysis, the study analyzes the social construct of Aidoo's heroine, Anowa and Baingana's heroine Christine in both texts as socially conditioned characters pottered for marriage and childbearing. The paper argues that marriage and childbearing are traditional, customary and socially acceptable roles and conventions created for the female gender in the society. The paper reveals that such gendered roles were socially policed by the society of the female characters in the texts, and therefore, could not be skipped. The paper is a contribution to the studies on gender roles of female characters in literary texts.
Review by Insa Nolte: New Histories of Marriage and Politics in Africa
Gender and History, 2017
The three books reviewed in this article (Osborn, Our New Husbands Are Here; Jean-Baptiste, Conjugal Rights; Burrill, States of Marriage) make an important contribution to Africa's social and political history. Defying explorations of marriage as a product of the political economy and avoiding a consideration of marriage simply as an example of social or legal transformation, Emily Lynn Osborn, Rachel Jean-Baptiste and Emily Burrill focus on marriage, sexual relations and the household as important and contested categories of historical production. Their emphasis on the implication of marriage in wider social relationships resonates with historical-anthropological reconstructions of precolonial and colonial forms of gendered agency. It also reveals marriage as a vantage point for research that transcends conceptual boundaries between the private and the political, and by implication also boundaries between different fields of historical inquiry. The authors' shared emphasis on marriage as a 'messy engagement', embedded in family relationships, social obligations and political interests, makes for fascinating reading.
Africana Womanist Perspectives in the Selected Works of African Women Novelists/Writers
Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2023
The issue of women subjugation in the social, cultural, political and economic space has been and still is a very active debate. Flora Nwapa in her novel Efuru, stresses on the dichotomies of marital subjugation. Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta and Ama Darko in their respective novels, Changes, Second Class Citizen and Beyond the Horizon, respectively, present these very challenges of women in marriages and the professional/work space. As such this paper takes a look at the subjugation of women in marriages and professional/work space, using the already mentioned writers and their respective novels. The discussion will be done against the backdrop of Clenora Hudson-Weems theory of Africana Womanism where she highlights the most salient tenets and attributes of Africana Womanism thus centering on, self-naming, motherhood and recognition and flexibility. Following from the study, it is conspicuous that the fight for women liberation (Hudson-Weems, 1993) in marriages and the professional work space are ancient challenges that continue to journey with the female gender. If given good education and the chance to own their world, the African woman can change the world together with her counterpart which is the call of all these women writers.
2021
Theorizing the roots of feminism in the specific African experience has been a quest by a number of prominent African female writers. They have avidly reflected on it in their various creative and critical outputs. The inherent ideological differences among these writers in their quest for an African variant of feminism, owing to the peculiarities of their respective sociocultural settings, has led to what critics have contentiously regarded as ‘voices’ in African feminism. Against this backdrop, on the one hand, Charles Nnolim (1994) [2010] argues that feminism in African literature is “a house divided”. On the other hand, Chioma Opara (2013), in contention with the former, posits that it is rather “a house integrated”. The present study thus establishes the two critical poles as wherein the entire gamut of critical and theoretical points of contentions in African feminism is largely subsumed. Neither of the two paradigms is discredited in favor or defense of the other, noting thei...
Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae
This article discusses the challenges which the institution of marriage faces within the African indigenous societies. Marriage is understood to be one of the most vital mechanisms in maintaining the consistency of all societies on earth. Scholars, such as John Mbiti, understand marriage to be a drama in which everyone becomes an actor or actress and not just a spectator. While this sounds truly ideal, the reality is that most Africans understand marriage to be an institution primarily knotted within African cultural norms and traditions with disparity roles between the couple. The article argues that such an imbalance unleashes toxic masculinity and manhood ideologies which are chiefly designed to deny women the rights to be fully actresses in the theatre of marriage. It also argues for the need of liberative frameworks within which to challenge the dominative traditional and cultural dogmas which are creating disparities between men and women in marriage. Musimbi Kanyoro’s cultura...