CULTURAL INFLUENCE ON WOMEN EMANCIPATION IN:
ACHEBE’S ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH AND BUCHI
EMECHETA’S SECOND CLASS CITIZEN
ABSTRACT
This research
project deal with the cultural influence on women emancipation, which is the
concept of feminism as worldwide theory, ideology and political movement
directed at changing the existing power relation between
man and woman. This work attempt on re-analysis of gender equality from the
pre-colonial to post-colonial period and also reveal how the themes of gender
discrimination, exploitation, and hardship are carefully handled in Buchi Emaecheta’s second class citizen and Chinua
Achebe’s Anthills of the savannah. This works identified the sociolinguistic
factors such as age, gender, religion, education, occupation, and culture as
factors affecting the use of language in terms of what one says and how it is
concerning feminism. It also identified the numerous forces militating against
the right of African women especially in the traditional setting and blamed
them on some cultural beliefs and customs which are destructive enough to keep
women perpetually at the background. The paper concludes with some contemporary
showcase and Metanarratives by both male and female writers like Buchi
Emecheta and Chinua Achebe. The study has shown that as long as men wield
power, women will continue to be subjugated, oppressed and suppressed.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to
the Study
When we talk
about “culture” we often mean intellectual and creative products, including
literature, music, drama, and painting. Another use of “culture” is to describe
the belief and practice of another society, particularly where these are seen
as closely linked with tradition or religion. But culture is more than that.
Culture is part of the fabric of every society, including our own. It shape
“the way things are done” and our understanding of why this should be so. This a more comprehensive approach is proposed in the definition if culture adopted at
the world conference on cultural policies (Mexico,1982) and used in the ongoing
discussion of culture and development.
“Culture is the whole complex of
distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize
a society or a social group. It includes not only art and letters, but also
mode of life, the fundamental right of the human being, value system,
traditions and belief”.
Feminism exists in a rich diversity of
forms, reflecting a complex historical development. According to Guerin
(1992:82), this diversity has been especially important as feminists try more
and more to examine the experience of women from all race and classes and
cultures.
Lives of women were (and still are) often
portrayed in negative terms. Although it is difficult to generalize about the
lives of women from a different cultural, racial, economic and religious
background in a century of steady change, women are agitating for a change in
status in a various way where generalization can be made. African women are
treated as second class citizens, disempowered and subjected to all kinds of
discrimination and oppression.
According to Gwendolyn Mikell, the
emerging women movement across Africa is quite like its counterpart in the
western world. They are both based on the same ideology: the ideology of the
women as a sexual being. The continent’s political unrest and cultural milieu
have helped to shape this ideology. In Anthills of the savannah, Achebe’s
presents women as protagonists. Beatrice in Anthills of the savannah inspires
the men around her, especially as she tries to get them to mend their
relationships that are falling apart. Emecheta uses gender and sexuality to
express the many ways in which society treated women and the obstacle that they
had to overcome.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
It is believed women are the bulwark
of society undoubtedly, their
contribution to the over the development of mankind and nature in general is
great starting from raising children at home and other routine work of the
family up to the country’s top leadership, they are as important as men. This
is because they are considered to be half part of their husband and the family.
Unlike this fact, women have been marginalizing from their own respected culture
for ages. Traditional gender role cast men as rational, strong, protective and
decisive. In contrast, women are presented as emotional (irrational), weak and
submissive. Gerda Lerner quoted in the lodge:
Women have been left out of history not
because of the evil conspiracies of men in general Or male historian in
particular, but because we have Considered history only in male-centered terms,
we Have missed and their activities because of history Which are inappropriate
to women.(345).
1.3. Objective
of the study
This study explores the gender, races, class and
cultural experience of African women. The main argument of this study is based
on the notion that even though gender oppression against women is widely
discouraged and is in the process of being eradicated, unequal power relations
between the sexes still lingers. Women still suffer a daily violation of their
basic rights as human beings and live with the ever-present experience of
cultural influence. We shall take a look at Buchi Emecheta’s contribution in
her novel second class citizen and how she has achieved her goals. Also, Chinua
Achebe’s Anthills of the savannah will also be treated with a focus on how they
achieved their own feminist goals.
1.4 Significance
of the study
The significance of this study
focuses mainly on issues from women’s perspectives and experiences, such as gender,
politics, education, and employment. In essence, African women’s portrays their quest
for emancipation from male dominance. Also, this work will serve as a reference
point to other researchers.
1.5 Scope
and Limitation
In this study, the scope of the study shall be limited to the feminist concept in Buchi Emecheta’s second class
citizen and in Chinua Achebe’s the anthills of the savannah as touching the
force militating against women’s self-actualization in a patriarchal society
and how they can and have been able to
reform themselves in such a society.
1.6. Methodology
of the Study
The researcher used qualitative
research as a suitable research method for this study. The major source for
the material in the writing of this project work will be restricted to the
library and the internet dues to the inability of conducting a private
interview with the novelists.
1.7 Emecheta’s
Background
Buchi Emecheta was born in Lagos
(1944) Nigeria she was born of Ibuza heritage. She is a Nigeria writer with a
B.Sc. degree; she attended Methodist girl’s high school, Yaba in Nigeria and The University of London, the United Kingdom where she studied sociology. She was
appointed senior research fellow, department of English and literary studies, The University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria in 1980. She was a teacher, a librarian
and community worker. A member of art council of Great Britain, member of the advisory council, home secretary on race equity, London, united kingdom. Her
awards include the best black writer in Britain, 1978. Jack Campbell awards, 1979,
daughter of mark twain, an American literature award. She has many publications to her credit, they
include the following: in the ditch published in 1972, second class citizen
(1974), the slave girls (1976) the joys of motherhood (1979), destination Biafra
(1982) her auto-biography, head above water (1986) and many others. She is a
mother of five children. She is a sociology graduate of London University. All
her novels centered on the plight of women as wives and makers and at the same
time, a contributor to society growth in the typical African society.
Bio-data of Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe born Albert
Chinuaumogu Achebe; (10 November 1930-21 march 2013) was Nigeria novelist,
poet, professor, and critic. His first novel things fall apart (1958)
considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.
Raised by his parent in the Igbo town of Ogidi in south-eastern Nigeria, Achebe
excelled at school and won a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his
studies to English literature at university college (now the University of
Ibadan). He became fascinated with world religion and traditional African
culture, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation,
he worked for the Nigerian broadcasting service (NBS) and soon moved to the
metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for his novel. His later
novels include: no longer at ease (1960), arrow of God (1964), a man of the
people (1966), and anthills of the savannah (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in
English and defended the use of English, a “language of colonizer” in African
literature. In 1975, is lecture an image of Africa racism in Conrad’s “heart of
darkness”. When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe
became a supporter of Biafra independence and acted as ambassador for the
people of the new nation. Achebe novel focus on the tradition of Igbo society,
the effect of Christian influence, and the clash of western and the traditional
African value during and after the colonial era. His style relies heavily on
the Igbo oral. Tradition, and combine straight forward narration with
representation of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a
number of short stories, children’s books and essay collection.
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