A FEMINIST READING OF MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS AND HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA

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A FEMINIST READING OF MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS AND HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA

ABSTRACT

African writers have pre-occupied themselves with the happenings in the society. Thus, thematic focus has always been on societal ills, one of which is female oppression. This study examines the feminist perspectives in Hilary Rouse-Amadi’s Amina and Mobolaji Adenubi’s Empty Arms. The sociological approach was adopted, which enabled a better judgment of the characters, as presented by the writers.

This research work has shown how Hilary Rouse-Amadi and Mobolaji Adenubi have raised the female consciousness to withstand the grains of patriarchy. The work also examines what feminism is, and the changes that have taken place in the portrayal of women in the society.

In conclusion, this work is able to portray a vivid description of gender inequality, its adverse effect on women and the steps taken to correct it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE i

CERTIFICATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv-v

ABSTRACT vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii-ix

CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1-7

1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 8

1.2 SCOPE OF THE 8

1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY 9

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9

END NOTES 10

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION 11-12

2.1 THE ORIGIN OF FEMINISM 12-13

2.2 DEFINITIONS OF FEMINISM 12-17

2.3 FORMS OF FEMINISM 17-20

2.4 FEMINIST FORMS ADOPTED IN HILARY ROUSE AMADI’S AMINA AND MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 21-22

END NOTES 23

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 A SYNOPSIS OF HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA 24-25

3.1 FEMINIST ISSUES IN ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA 25

3.1.1 THE SUBORDINATION OF THE FEMALE GENDER 26-27

3.1.2 BRIDE PRICE AND CHILD MARRIAGE 27-29

3.1.2 FEMALE BONDING 29-31

3.1.3 THE CHANGE IN A WOMAN’S STATUS AFTER

MARRIAGE 31

3.2 GENDER PORTRAYAL IN HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S

AMINA 32-35

3.3 CULTURAL FEMINISM IN HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S

AMINA 35-37

END NOTES 38

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 A SYNOPSIS OF MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 39

4.1 FEMINIST ISSUES IN MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S

EMPTY ARMS 40-45

4.2 GENDER PORTRAYAL IN MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTYARMS 45-46

4.3 LIBERAL, RADICAL AND HUMANIST FEMINISMS IN

MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 46-48

END NOTES 49

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HILARY ROUSE-AMADI’S AMINA AND MOBOLAJI ADENUBI’S EMPTY ARMS 50-51

5.1 FINDINGS 51-52

5.2 CONCLUSION 52-54

BIBLIOGRAPHY 55-56

Background of the study

In the society, women are always reminded of their roles as wives and mothers in such derogatory manners. They are saddled with the responsibilities of producing, nurturing children and taking care of the home. Over the years however, women have embarked on a struggle aimed at affirming their identities, while at the same time, doing all they can to transform the societal, cultural or traditional perceptions of their gender. Women are striving very hard to change these perceptions through education and by creating awareness.

Female writers have helped greatly by making the female characters in their works more prominent. Their aim is to have female characters that are powerful and outspoken. This is because women in most male writings are often portrayed as subservient and dull. This is evident in some works of male writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka among others, in whose works female characters are present, only to serve the image of African manhood, especially in Things Fall Apart and The Trials of Brother Jero respectively.

Eventually, this female silence was broken by Flora Nwapa in 1966, when she published her first novel, Efuru, which served as a kind of inspiration to other female writers. These women used literature to explain the state of their societies, either good or bad. They also use literature to explain the importance of female existence in the society. Some of these feminist witers include: Zaynab Alkali, Buchi Emecheta, Mobolaji Adenubi and Hilary Rouse-Amadi.

It has been established by critics that there are cultural practices that are oppressive to women. Such critics believe that culture is a social construct, a way of subordinating the female gender, to make the male gender dominant. Lewis (1995), as cited in Mama (1997) states that:

…African cultural practices have been weapons for enforcing

women’s obedience …culture has been seen as an edifice of

unchanging institutions, traditions and identities…

Also, Meena (1989), as cited in Walker (1991) says ‘women oppression has been located in some practices in traditional African societies’. She further states that ‘in the literary world, fictions of undiluted African culture bolster patriarchal goals and desires, while perpetuating the servitude of women’. It is important to examine some cultural practices that are oppressive to women because these form parts of the themes in the selected texts for the study, which are Mobolaji Adenubi’s Empty Arms and Hilary Rouse-Amadi’s Amina.

One of the cultural practices in Nigeria is the issue of bride price. In some parts of the country, a lady’s bride price is inflated in such a way that it would seem the bride is being sold. Although some African feminists do not see any evil in this practice, some feminist authors have expressed their displeasure, through characters in their works. Some of these writers include Buchi Emecheta in The Bride Price, Hilary Rouse-Amadi in Amina, Mobolaji Adenubi in Empty Arms among others. These writers try to prove that a female child is not a commodity. In Empty Arms, Auntie Pat refused to accept a bride price from Jide. She informed Mrs. Lawal that she was not selling off her niece. Mrs. Lawal also commented:

…Your Nike is being given away practically. Don’t

we know the amount of money usually demanded

of the groom’s families by the bride’s families as

payment?

In The Bride Price, Akunna was allowed to stay on in school until she completes standard six after her father’s death because according to the narrator, ‘the longer she stays in school, the higher the bride price that is expected on her’.

Also, in Amina, Amina could not further her education because her father said it was time for her to get married. Amina was so sad that she asks her mother:

Why was I sent to school?

Was it a mere excuse

To swell the bride price?

Is money all the honour

That my laboured father seeks?

In some families, a female child is seen as an avenue of getting money. Such girls are usually married off at tender ages, sometimes against their will. Some of them who have the courage to protest against such arrangements are usually cursed by families and rejected by the society. Apart from being literally sold off by her family, the husband also sees her as one of his possessions, an object he has bought with a huge amount of his money and could treat as he pleases. Such wives are often subjected to different kinds of marital oppression and they are expected to take everything in good faith. Hilary Rouse-Amadi points this out in Amina. According to Amina:

It seems we are marketable objects

To be disposed off with speed

To the highest bidder and when

We have been sold into marriage,

It seems we are expected to sit

Meekly in the houses of our lords

Nursing our thoughts and feelings

Within the enforced privacy

Of a silence we have never asked for…

There is also female subjection to oppression in widowhood. In some parts of Nigeria, especially in the Eastern parts, a widow is compelled to mourn her husband officially, by going through some dehumanizing rituals. In these parts of Nigeria, a widow mourns her husband by having the hairy parts of her body shaved. After that, she is forced to drink the water that was used in bathing her dead husband. She then mourns her husband by wailing publicly at the top of her voice for days. According to Nzewi (1931):

…Widowhood practices in certain parts of Imo state begins

after the burial ceremony. A woman becomes a widow

(Isi nkpe) when her husband dies. It is from the point of

death that a woman begins to go through the rituals

associated with widowhood.

While interviewing widows, a widow a widow revealed to Nzewi (1931 :

When my husband died, the Umuokpu took me to the

back of the house. They first of all put their left and

right fingers into my mouth… They gave me food in a

broken calabash and fed me with their left

and right hands simultaneously… I was required to cry

in the morning and at night for four days…

Any widow who refuses to be subjected to this kind of treatment is tagged a witch, she is blamed for her husband’s death, she is exempted from social privileges and she is not allowed to transact in the market.

Also, in Nigeria, some husbands forbid their wives from working. It is believed that a woman’s place is in her husband’s house and as a result, she is not allowed to engage in any form of work. Such women are forced to be dependent on their husbands for survival. In most cases, the man is expected to have provided her with the basic necessities and anything else she after that would be considered immaterial. Such women find it difficult to survive on their own when the marriage turns sour or the husband dies. Feminist writers have tried to create awareness in their works on this issue. Many women now refuse subservient roles and are now seen in offices and other places of work, combining marriage and motherhood with work. This makes them less dependent on their husbands.

Feminists are doing all they could to point out that cultural practices that are oppressive to women should be changed, that women should be treated as humans and respected. So far, feminist writers have succeeded in this quest, because women around the world are now struggling to liberate themselves from all forms of oppression. They are now raising their voices to fight for their rights.

Many feminists believe that education is a major agent in the liberation of women. With Western education, more women are now empowered to express themselves. Unfortunately, in some parts of Nigeria like the Eastern and mostly the Northern parts of the country, female education is still considered irrelevant. Women in these parts are usually subjected to early marriage or other means of preventing them from being properly educated. This research work examines the struggle of an African woman to gain better access to formal education in Hilary Rouse-Amadi’s Amina .

Also, women are mostly seen as being good only for reproduction in the society. In a childless marriage for instance, the woman automatically assumes the role of the barren party. This is irrespective of the fact that the man may be responsible for the couple’s inability to bear children. This research work explores a situation where the barren party in a marriage is the man, in Mobolaji Adenubi’s Empty Arms.

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