CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The
issue of feminism springs up from women’s consciousness of their situation in
the society and various oppressive acts against them.
In
traditional Africa the woman is an object of
constant scorn, degradation and physical torture. In the past, women did not
exist as individuals with personalities to defend. They rather existed as mere
docile and exotic accompaniments to the males. Throughout that period, women
lacked a voice to articulate their dilemma and their point of view. They, thus,
accepted their fate without resistance.
In
those days, these women, in addition to experiencing the same oppressive social
condition as their male counterparts in a developing world, were subjected to
extra repressive burdens arising from the socio-cultural structures of
patriarchy and gender hierarchy. These years of subjugation have, however,
produced in today’s women relentless questioning of the status quo. They
protest against dehumanization, political enslavement and social oppression.
They rationalize that the running of the African world is not the preserve for
males and thus there should be absolute equality of both sexes in all spheres
of life. Such a reaction is termed feminism, which is an ideology that urges,
in simple term, recognition of the claims of women for equal rights with men.
The
term feminism usually refers to a historically recent European and American
social movements founded to struggle for female equality. Feminism by this
designation has become a global political project.
African female writers have come a
long way from the 1960’s when the few women that published fiction could be
counted on one fingers and they were hardly noticed by critics or if noticed at
all, were not taken seriously. At the end of the twentieth century, it was no
longer out of place to talk about generations of female African writers or
categorize female authors as ‘established’ or ‘emerging’. Nadine Gordimer, a
female writer from South
Africa Nigeria 17 October
1993 , the first printed copies of her three new plays; sycophants
(SIC). A pioneer African Female Novelist, she had published poetry and short
stories before revealing her talents as a playwright, etc.
The
phenomenon of female change was not limited to creative artists. African women
scholars too, were no longer satisfied to have somebody else define for them
the aesthetics of female writing, or patronizingly describe for them the
dynamic and intrinsic reality of being a woman in the African socio-cultural
and political environment.
This
issue of African literature today is entirely devoted to African writers and
the presentation of women in African literature. This in itself is a
recognition of two important facts: first, that African women writers, as a
number of articles in the collection point out, have been neglected in the
largely male authored journals, critical studies and critical anthologies and
secondly, that the last ten years or so have seen a tremendous blossoming of
highly accomplished work by African women writers and it would have been in
excusable to continue to ignore them. The second fact partly, though not
entirely offers an explanation for the first. If the critical attention has
been scanty, it is partly because up-to the end of the 1960’s the literary
output of African women was also rather scanty. This is most probably due to a
number of well known historical and sociological factors. Writing and education
go hand in hand and for all kinds of sociological and other reasons the
education of women in Africa lagged far behind
that of men. Adetokunbo Pearce’s article on Efua Suther Land’s plays suggest
precisely how public the role of the dramatist could be and usually is, but
African societies have been slow in according to women this ‘senior’ position
and public exposure.
In
this regard it might seem strange, perhaps, that the genre in which African
women have featured last is that of poetry, which is the most private of the
genres. The face remains, however, that in so far as Africa
is concerned, the role of the poet also has always been public. The death of
African women writers, up-till the very recent past, is therefore probably in
itself a consequence of traditional African attitudes towards women.
Feminism
is the belief, largely originating in the west on the social, economic and
political equality of sexes represented worldwide by various institutions
committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights in interest.
Feminist
is someone who supports the idea that women should have the same rights and
opportunities as men. The term feminism tend to be used and the women’s right
movement which began in the late 18th Century and continues to
campaign for political, social and economic equality between women and men.
In
Hook’s (1984) explanation in Akorede (1996; 50) feminism is the movement
concerned with the positive promotion of the image of the woman and the
creation of female consciousness and awareness.
Nnolim’s
(1994:248) view is that feminism as a movement and ideology urges, in simple
terms, the recognition of the claims of women for equal rights with men in
legal, political, economic, social and marital situation. For Helen Chukwuma
(1994: IX): Feminism in African Literature, it is a rejection of
inferiority and a striving for recognition, it seeks to give a woman a sense of
self as a worthy effectual and contribution human being. It is a reaction
against such stereotypes of women which deny them a positive identity. It set
out to enhance the position of women in a predominantly male oriented society.
Chukwuma (1994: IX) states that what feminist 
