Related Papers
African Journal of Social Policy and Administration
WOMEN'S QUEST FOR SELF ACTUALIZATION IN A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY; THE FICTION OF AKACHI EZEIGBO
2008 •
Nonyelum C H I B U Z O Mba
In African patriarchal societies, women are generally not only unfairly treated but suffer different forms of oppression and prejudice. However, for some time now and especially in the 21'st century, many African women are very much aware of the societal changes they need to effect to meet their needs. There is massive effort among African women to assert their individual personality and live self- fulfilling lives. These developments are reflected in the female 's characters in Akachi Ezeigbo s House of Symbols, Kaine Agary 's Yellow Yellow and Tanure Ojaide 's Sovereign Body, which though .from a male writer, handles this theme of self-actualization very well. The discussion of the comparative Theme of self-actualization in these works include Cultural Transformation; Productivity, Wifehood and .fatherhood, Women Empowerment: Relationship, Love and Sexuality and Women 's Drives for Self-actualization. The internalized yearning for sex and the extent of satisfaction. denial and abuse are equally relevant. In real society and in fictional works, There is respect for and deference to post-menopausal elderly women, who are more or less looked upon as women-males and people endowed with spiritual powers and wisdom because of their old age and so are granted pivotal roles in the patriarchal society 's governance. The paper is concluded with a summary of the different approaches of the three authors and the individual ways women struggle for self-actualization that could be successful or not.
AFRREV LALIGENS: An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies
Changing the concept of womanhood: male feminists and the Nigeria feminist novel
Gloria Fwangyil
Feminist Positionality: An Overview of Nigerian Literary Scene
2017 •
Afamefuna C Ezeaku
University of Kurdistan
African Feminism in the Nigerian Context: A House of Affirmations and Denials
2021 •
Critical Literary Studies (CLS)
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 their huge critical substances. This paper rather attempts to strike a balance in-between, ultimately with a view to delineating its own critical perspective. By drawing instances from three prominent Nigerian female writings, the study moves away from the aforementioned established critical patterns to a novel paradigm which conceives feminism in African literature, with specific reference to the Nigerian context, as rather ‘a house of affirmations and denials.’.
THE PLACE OF THE GIRL-CHILD IN A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY: A STUDY OF EVWIERHOMA'S SELECTED POEMS
Nonyelum C H I B U Z O Mba
Issues in Women\u27s Liberation Struggles in Contemporary Nigeria: A Study of Ezeigbo\u27s \u3cem\u3eHands that Crush Stone\u3c/em\u3e (2010)
2015 •
Osita Ezenwanebe
This paper evaluates some contentious issues in women’s liberation struggles in Nigeria as recreated in Ezeigbo’s play, Hands that Crush Stone. The particularities of gender are neglected in the anti-colonial struggle for Nigerian independence, and women’s issues are subsumed within the nationalist literatures of cultural regeneration. With the influence of feminism, many Nigerian women embark on the identification of women’s personhood by controverting the representations of Nigerian women in male-centered works. African theatre, in particular, is very skeptical about the feminist ideology aimed at changing the status of women in society. Similarly, many people are suspicious of women’s liberation struggle and its consequent effect on the society. Hence feminism in Nigeria is rent with many contentious issues. Taking Marxist and feminist perspectives in the analysis of Hands that Crush Stone, the researcher explores some of the major issues in the character’s revolutionary gender-c...
Evolutionary trends in Nigerian feminist novels
Nneoma Otuegbe
critical essays : “ A House Divided : Feminism in African Literature ” and “ A House Integrated : Reflections on the Nuances of African Feminism
2021 •
Issa O M O T O S H O Garuba
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...
Journal of international women's studies
Issues in Women's Liberation Struggles in Contemporary Nigeria: A Study of Ezeigbo's Hands that Crush Stone (2010)
2015 •
Osita Ezenwanebe
Introduction It is a welcome development that the multiple award winner and literary giant, Theodora Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo extends her creative genius to Nigerian Theatre. Ezeigbo is Professor of English Literature, a foremost feminist scholar and women's rights activist who premiered the teaching of gender studies in the department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria. In her numerous writings--novels, children's literature, plays, poems, critical essays and short stories, Akachi Ezeigbo has demonstrated an unequivocal commitment to women's issues. In her works, she contends patriarchal attitudes and sex-centric ideologies that dislodge Nigerian women from the centre to the periphery and reconstructs the image of women in her female characters in the hope of freeing them from the bonds of social oppression, making them visible and powerful enough in modern, democratic Nigeria. She is also determined to uncover the unacknowledged strength of African womanhood sideli...
Abuja Journal of Gender Studies and Youth Advancement
WOMEN AND ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE IN FLORA NWAPA'S EFURU AND AKACHI ADIMORA-EZEIGBO'S THE LAST OF THE STRONG ONES
2018 •
Ogochukwu Ikeagwuonu
One of the challenges faced by the society is the controversy surrounding the status of the female gender. While some describe the woman as the weaker sex, others refer to the female as a second class citizen. Both claims could be said to be rooted in cultural, social and religious orientations. To this end, many female writers have written to debunk these stereotypes and reconfigure women's identities as part of the needful project to recover the distinctive tradition of African female stories (her stories). Flora Nwapa's Efuru and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's The Last of the Strong Ones are two selected literary texts to discuss women and economic independence as they define the role and status of women using a historic and womanist postulations as the theoretical framework. The paper argues that the novels are part of a corpus in African fiction which contests certain images in popular male authored works by offering a perception radically different from the portraits we are familiar with. The paper concludes that women can take responsibility of their lives amid gender biases with examples of remarkable women who transformed their societies through economic self-sustenance via agriculture.
