CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSION
WHY DEBBIE IS A 'FLAT. CHARACTER; OR,
THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION
"If you shut your door to all errors,
truth is also shut out~"
- Nepalese proverb
391
In
her- essay titled "Women without Men:
The
Feminist
Novel in Africa", Kather-ine Fr-ank talks of Debbie Ogedem<::')l3e,
the feminist her-oine in Emecheta's Destination Biafr-a, as
'flat·
char-acter-.
a
In her- own wor-ds:
Debbie unfor-tunately is a flat, unchanging
figur-e
something even of a puppet at times in
contr-ast
to Ramatoulaye, Am~~a.,
and
figur-es
fr-om
Emecheta's other- novels like Ojebeta in The Slave
Gir-l,
and
Nnu Ego in The Joys of Mother-hood.
Debbie does not gr-ow or- develop.
Ther-e
is no
depth or- complexity in her- char-acter-ization
because she mer-ely per-sonifies an ideology, with the
r-esult
that her- behaviour- is consistently static
and pr-edictable.l
Fr-ank's judgement is associated with an almost
sal
in
tr-end -
some sor-t of a colour- blindness, one may say
liter-ar-y
lights
univer--
assessment of fiction that
social
and/or-
char-acter-ization
political
essentially
issues.
The
high-
quality
in such fiction often disappoints a
of
cr-it-
ic's thir-st for- liter-ar-y or-namentation, as agit-pr-op theatr-e
disappointed dr-ama cr-itics who wer-e so used to the
of
pr-oscenium play.
consciousness
she/he
wr-ites,
standar-d
·good'
of
Because in such novels
the
the wr-iter- or-, of the people
takes the centr-e-stage,
luxur-ies
political
about
they often lack
liter-ar-y finesse that is gener-ally expected
fiction.
392
whom
the
in
a
But
through a sociological approach, novels like
cheta's
Destination
significance,
Biafra
especially
in
appear to have
terms
of
a
much
historical events like civil war, famine,
independence,
more
backdrop
struggle
But it is
military coups and so on.
wider
rapidly
recording
changing social and political scenario against the
of
Erne-
perhaps
important to notice why a writer like Emecheta
gifted
in the art of characterization -- creates
character
writing
like
career.
Debbie
in the middle
of
her
for
a
so
'flat'
illustrious
For in this case, apart from the point
of
of having a very obviou~ political consciousness,
the
writer also indulges in the politics oi representation.
In
Emecheta·s
at
view
case, she does it very consciously and, even
the risk of having to bear the burden of a
'flat'
character
however, provides her clarifications
regarding
like Debbie Ogedemgbe.
Frank~
the reasons -- need, perhaps, would be a better word --
for
a writer to create such a character who would appear to
the
reader and critics as 'politically admirable'
call y
'simplistic or boring'.
literature
gles
men
but
aesthetiAfrican
"Because so much of
strug-
is firmly rooted in social and political
and because most African writers -- women as
embrace a moral function for their work,
393
well
it
as
seems
inappropriate,
even pointless, to invoke
aesthetic
pure
standards by which to judge their writing." 2
In
deshi
also
a related instance during the recent past,
writer
invit~d
Taslima Nasreen·s controversial
ists -- a similar assessment from the critics.
. Ms.
community
as
But
Nasreen·s novel, with
its central focus,
is
a
Lajja
novel
fundamental-
-- besides threats to her life by
standards,
Bangla-
By
accepted
hapless
minority
'aesthetically·
politically speaking, the narrative
couldn't
poor.
possibly
have been a better success.
Why is it that a
often 'aesthetically·
·politically' successful character
poor;
or~
does the creation of such
character by any conscious writer involve an
that
makes
Debbie Ogedemgbe,
so
predictable
something between
There
to
the
concerned.
transparent?
Is
an
In other words, is
Destination
heroine,
Biafra
a manifesto and a fiction·? 3
could be more than one approach to find
above
calls
by far £mecheta·s most favourite
and
a
inevitability,
the character suffer from what Frank
obvious transparency and predictability?
is
question
as
far
as
women's
answers
writing
is
The arguments could always involve things like a
394
writer's
her social responsibility as a creative
commitment~
person, her political consciousness, her awareness of
a
woman in a
In
fact
man's
what
being
world -- the list could go on and
Frank observes
about
Debbie
on.
Ogedemgbe
is
nothing but.a reflection of Eurocentric criticism of African
life
and-literature.
It is not a surprise that
often
the
manifestation of an African writer's political consciousness
in
his/her
writing has invited bitter reviews
from the west.
So~
by
critics
for a long time characters in the novels
of celebrated writers like Achebe, Amadi, Ngugi, Tutuola and
many
others
were said to be lacking in "deep
sight", or suffering from a high degree of
as
moderr)
arena
African fiction came to draw
of world literature.
long-tradition
of
psychic
"predictability"
attention
This was so because
literary colonialism,
in-
any
in
the
under
the
Third
World
writer would be considered as worthwhile depending on whether he/sb_e__;_was known in the west.
So the art of
characteri-
zation must conform to the western paradigms, failing
which
the products were bound to lack in literary attributes.
Writing by Black women - especially from Africa
added
as
to the dilemma of western literary critics.
women writers, African female novelists and
tried
to stand apart even from the feminist
395
only
Because
playwrights
traditions
in
the
west. by making new approaches to African woman's
pre-
Therefore, the socio-political trends that
they
dicaments.
in
highlighted
assessment
its
their writing make African
a complex process.
basics,
what
writers'
women
To bring down the
should be looked into first
issue
to
all
is
of
Accord-
whether the sex of the writer is important at all.
ing to Rosalind Miles:
The sex of a novelist is always in question somewhere,
sometimes, in the course of
the critical
response - the sex of a woman novelist, that
is.
(
... )
For the last hundred years or so the awareness of
a
woman writer's sex has been so important as
to
form
the
basis of any
committed
critical
observation.
This tension originated with
the
origins of the novel in the eighteenth century,
and was an entrenched practice by the nineteeMth,
when many women had to deny or disguise
their
female identity in the struggle to secure a
fair
hearing for their writings. 4
There is no gainsaying that, for a woman to acquire the
label of being creative under dominant patriarchy is
a
difficult
job.
The acclaim comes through
always
patriarchy
a
controlled standard that has its overwhelming grip over
process
of
·~fining
literary sensibility.
Miles
creativity and, to
be
more
precise,
The psychological act of creation, as
explains, becomes the central metaphor in any of
existing
art
forms.
the
Ironically,
396
then,
is
the
reproduction
accepted as a kind of
To be a mother is more of a
nature?
enhance
mother
df
·creative'
So
social status and recognition
her
~
stricte~
himself as a creative
l y,
considered
individual~
to
establish
the woman would go nowhere
the
voice
both
the universal.
own
She must find her
specific
her own paradigm of relating to the woman
phenomena as well as,
a
sense of the term?
only being 'naturally' creative.
voice
becoming
be
a man can write plays or poems
when
may
A woman
by
many children, but will she ever
in the
acceptance
social
under the patriarchy than being anything else.
by
force
a biological one) that comes to women by sheer
being
of
·psychological' creativity (apart from
But more
significant-
would not only be· a record of her creativity
physical
(read natural) and psychological
but
a
reminder of her very existence under patriarchy.
In
the first two chapters of this thesis,
demonstrated that there does exist a 'sex
realm
the
of, creative writing.
works
indentifiable
of
female
in the
dif~erence·
The representation of women
authors
has
been
The difference between
Jaqua Nana and Emecheta's Nnu Ego in respect of
397
in
distinctly
as being different when compared to the
in male authored narratives.
si"s
been
it has
same
Ekwentheir
lies as much in the charcters·
motherhood
ap-
attitudinal
preach to the phenomenon as a social concept, as it does
their
varying
Ekwensian
creators.
become
p~ns
by
their
women do not lack in
respective
their
urge
comdoes
seem to be any more interested in describing what
hap-
to
But the
to
author
aesthetic attainment as women.
mothers.
the
as mothers
mothers because there lies the source of their
plete
not
portrayal
in
his women after they become (or
fail
to
become)
Motherhood must be achieved, but what happens
mothers
afterwards is seemingly less
important.
to
For
Emecheta, however, Nnu Ego's true stpry starts where Jagua·s
or Gladys Nuibe's -- story ends.
This
~s
just to
exem-
plify the politics of representation.
It
has
long been a business of feminist
find out why does a woman write what she does.
whole
this
domain
question.
African
of
'the politics of
politics
Because, the
represe~tation·
Trying to find out what it means to
woman writer, Ama Ata Aidoo observes that,
women
suffered from a sort of 'invisibility' at the
level
as well as at home.
them
including
struggle
~~
~
lies
in
be
an
African
global
This, despite a great number
being involved in all the spheres of
independence
398
and
to
of
nation-building,
other
cultural
fronts.
This, of course, comes as a sharp contrast to
'visibility'
However,
the
they enjoyed during their pre-colonial history.
recently the situation was like
till
what
Aidoo
describes as:
It is definite that 'anything that had to do with
African women was, of all vital pieces of information,
the most unknown (or rather unsought),
the
most
ignored of all concerns, the most unseen of
all the visib1es, and we might as well face it, of
everything
to
do with humanity,
the
most
despised. 5
From such a state of affairs African women writers have
come a long way to
internationally
thei~
present status, as many of them are
recognised
attains universal significance.
new
fervour
world literature that - while maintaining its local
They have been successful
predicament
in relating in their artistic production to the
as
a
to ,be among pioneers of
well as achievements of modern African woman
who
still
has to oscillate between her traditional cultural roots
a
civilization defined by the jugglery of modern
and
cybernet-
ics.
So there are as many answers to the question of why
African woman writes, as the number of women writers
has produced.
er
(and
why)
an
Africa
This concluding chapter would focus on wheththere exists -
in the African
399
context
a
differ-ence between the points of view of a woman w-r-iter
that
of her male colleague -
womanhood
between Emecheta's
and
vision
and Ekwensi's per-ception of Afr-ican women,
to
of
be
pr-ecise.
It is not an easy task to identify any such difference,
because
both
political,
exper-ience.
the writers have drawn fr-om the
economic
and
histor-ical as
well
same
socio-
cultur-al
as
Aidoo elaborates on this by saying that:
Ther-e could not be any ear-th-shaking differences.
Indeed, if we thought that anyone was providing us
with a platform fr-om which to pr-ove that African
women writer-s wer-e differ-ent in any way fr-om their
male counter-par-ts, or- that they faced some fundamental pr-oblems which male African wr-iter-s did not
face, some of us would not r-eally want to use such
a
platfor-m.
How could ther-e be? Did we not all
sufferthe var-ied wickedness of
colonialism,
apar-theid,
neo-colonialism, and global
imperialists and fascism together-~
The
fir-st
point
of depar-tur-e,
reality
that surr-ounds a woman
wr-iter-s
in
any
primar-ily descr-ibe
other-
par-t of
however-,
wr-i~er-
the
comes
fr-om
women
in Afr-ica, and
wor-ld
a
the
r-eality
by their- non-acceptance in the domain of
ser-ious cr-itical perspectives.
In Aido6's wor-ds:
( ••• ) it is specially pathetic to keep on
writing
without having any consistent,
active,
cr-itical
as an
intelligence that
is
interested in
you
4121121
artist
(or creator).
Therefore, it is precisely
from this point that the African writing women's
reality begins to differ somewhat from that of the
male African writer.
Once we have faced the basic
fact
of
the oppression and marginality that is
almost endemic in the lives of the peoples of
the
so-called Third World, and especially those of
Africans,
we also begin to admit that at
least,
some people are interested in male African writer.
These
include Africans,
non-African,
male and
female
literary critics, different categories of
publishers,
editors,
anthologists,
translators,
librarians, sundry academic analysts ( ..• ) 7
also
Reflections of this indifference to women writers
became
evident in Nigeria, among other
countries,
African
where as recent as a-decade-and-a-half ago, creative literature
was "phallic dominated with male writers
critics
and
dealing almost exclusively with male characters and concerns
aimed at a predominantly male audience." 8
naturally
various
the
if one is allowed to
levels of manufacturing
term
-
I!
was,
at
use
had
to
therefore, not the dirth
of
the literary talent in Nigerian
encounter a male bias.
So
women
creative prowess but a lack of opportunity to express it and
to
be provided with a readership which held
women
writers
back.
Coming
imagination
powerfully
back
of
to Emecheta and Ekwensi,
women
of
contemporary
their
society
captured in their most talked about
401
creative
is
very
characters,
in Emeche-
like Jagua Nan a in Ekwensi · s Jagua Nana, Nnu Ego,
\'~
ta s LJoys
African
been
of Motherhood.
life
able
Their portrayal
of
traditional
living
as well as complexities of urban
to signify the intricacies and nuances
has
both
of
thrpugh the sufferings and adventures of their major
female
characters.
values
The clash of traditional and the modern
also finds poignant expression in the stories of women
the
novelists so brilliantly narrate.
both
these
And, finally,
women -- with all their idjasyncrasies and myriad
emotional
orientation expressed in every single action they perform -represent
the
status
of women in modern
Africa,
in
the
totality of their socio-economic and political surrounding.
But certain obvious differences in the outlook of
both
the authors become evident in the preceding textual analyses
of some of their novels.
that
while
Emecheta's women protagonists
strong convictions it
protagonist
Even
of
appear
ideological or otherwise -
in their scheme of
thetically.
The mast conspicuous among them is
action~
Jagua
Ekwensi,
and
Ekwensian women lack
Nana,
probably
does not show
reflect
it
the. only
any.
have
to
pa-
female
Though
she
hobnobs with powerful city politicians and warms the beds of
rural
any
chiefs, she does not have any political ambition
ideological
inclination behind
402
her
involvement
nor
with
them.
She casts her overwhelming spell of erotic charm
achieve
almost nothing.
to
Ekwensian women like Jagua do
not
go beyond- according to what the novelist tells or
implies
in
comfort
the novel - making efforts to secure a life
that
of
food,
and
temporary pleasure-seekers who
bodies for a hefty price.
another
example.
life in Tropicana,
freely
and
kind of
'drug'
could
by
their
Beatrice in People of the City is
the
As Ekwensi tells his readers,
night
the night club in Lagos where drinks flow
is
bargains are struck over women s bodies,
However,
and
drinks
is defined only by designer dresses, good
for Jagua Nana.
male
protagonists in Ekwensi"s
novels
have
some meaningful objectives before them and they are seen
be
working towards the fulfilment of their goal.
often
highly ambitious,
participation
about
politically inclined,
They
make
to
are
active
bring
political process with a
view
to
change in their surrounding reality.
They
are,
or,
individuals,
who
evolve
exercise
want.
a
in
in the novels to become, complete
their
And
choices and options to
more importantly,
these male
achieve
what
protagonists
tht,
are
often the agents of change, as by causing human intervention
in
the ongoing course of events they turn tide
41213
over
their
own
difficulties.
puppets of
So
'fate' or any situation.
journalist
in
Survive
through the civil war.
Biafran
they are never
projected
as
mere
radio
James Odugo, the
the Peace is on
the
Biafran
side
the
But when things turn worse with
dream coming to its unsavoury end, the
protagoni·st
exercises-his choice to join the fleeing army deserters
and
the
en-
refugees. For he knows that his survival could
sured
if
however,
he did so.
His death at the end
of
be
the
novel,
cannot be interpreted in fatalistic terms,
it
as
was nothing but a misadventure on his part to have undertaken such a dangerous journey.
Because he was fully aware and
cautioned about the lurking dangers on the road to Obodonta.
Amusa
is
girl
and
Sango, the newspaper reporter in People of the
also the master of his world.
He pursues or
rejects
at his own sweet will, according to his own
desire.
City,
advantage
And the girls on the other hand, appear to
suffocating sans his company.
He loses his job not
any
stroke of bad luck but because he turns a deaf
the
in-house policy of the newspaper, which
him
his bread.
was
deserved some sympathy.
His endeavours to write
for the union leader and, against the Lebanese
404
be
because
ear
to
providing
If it was Amusa's forte to w ite about
truth, and only the truth, Ekwensi's protagonist
a
co~ld
the
have
favourably
businessman,
could be taken as his principled stand on important
cal,
or socially relevant local issues.
fails
But
he
to show any such virtue in his personal
often controls his professional self.
politimiserably
which
life,
In the Burning Grass,
Mai Sunsaye's adventurous wandering in the northern Nigerian
veld
is a result of the combined influence of human
·fate· .
and
Ekwensi appears to be confusing
deliberately
over
wandering disease.
be
the issue of Sunsaye's
ironical,
Fulani
his
readers
'sokugo'
the
At times even Sunsaye himself is seen to
aware of his meaningless wandering.
blacksmith
desire
He even
tells
host that he has the wandering disease.
however,
to
learn that
Sunsaye,
It
the
chief of Dokan Taro who is well known far
is
powerful
and
for his medicines and powerful charms, does not do
to come out of the evil spell of sokugo.
his
wide
anything
On the other hand,
his every movement in the novel acquires meaning as he keeps
meeting
change
of
victory
son,
one
seems
every
some member of his family or the other after
course
in his journey.
He
even
achieves
over Shehu, his arch rival, and liberates his
Rikku, during his wanderings.
Nigerian
41Zl5
from
grassland
as much planned and deliberate as it is meant
involuntary.
lost
Thus his movement
place to the other in the northern
his
to
be
But Ekwensi dees net 13ive se
in
his
case
novels.
of
m~:.~ch
fr-eedom to the
First of all, with a little
Jagua Nana, all his women
Peace,
Vic
Agenta,
Benne, Juliette, and
around the novel's central character,
him
from
the scene could render much
meaningless.
None
exception
characters
develop in relaton to his male protagonists.
Jame~
of
In Survive the
Gladys
grow
Odugo.
Removing
their
They are dependent,
who
situation
Odugo
has
powerless,
change
Vic never enjoys the
number of dead federal soldiers
upon
the damage inflicted on the federal
news
report
Odugo
to be broadcast which Odugo
Odugo
reality
she
or
into
cannot
exaggerate
the
territory, in
easily
does.
does this as a politically thinking person who
in
his support of the Biafran cause of his fellow Biafrans.
political
room,
power
Though she works at the same place,
the
insethe
inside the newsroom of Biafra, to change
illusion.
has
often just surrender to the
around them.
up
existence
and compromising individuals with an obvious sense of
curity,
in
and
appear
of them enjoy the privilege
been accorded in the novel.
women
she
so
tries' to boost the morale
Vic is never into any such show
will or conviction, and inside the Biafran
is just another extension
machine.
41Zlf>
of
the
of
radio
broadcasting
But more interestingly, Vic owes her very existence
in
the radio station to Odugo, for it was he who saved her life
during the war by getting her a job and protected her from a
federal
air
raid.
Her joining the duties in
the
Biafran
radio is not a resultant action of her political choice,
part
a
saves· .
of
her total surrender to her
her, he · finds'
male
saviour.
her a job, and again whi 1 e
Umunevo for the security and safety at Obodonta,
He
fleeing
it is Odugo
who takes the decision to undertake the risky journey.
decided
along
not
over
take
Vic
with him, and hardly gives her any time to
pack
up,
speak anything of a chance for her to
whether
she
possible
the
should
follow him.
For, Vic
ponder
well
over
knew
the
existence of Odugo's legally married wife, and
journalist
was unmistakeably
Knowing
short-lived.
this well, Vic would naturally think over Odugo's
proposa 1 ,
even when it involved a possible question of life and
have
emained in Umunevo.
if
the
latter had survived the war, Vic's good times with
radio
to
Once
to
to
the trip to Obodonta, he plans
but
death
But Ekwensi does not give
so
much space to her under the situation, making her a complete
slave to James Odugo's will.
Even
her
appearance
in the novel is
41217
caused
by
the
chivalry and magnanimity of the radio journalist, who
planes.
So Odugo
Vic. and is kind enough to provide her
shelter,
her life during an air raid by the federal
'discovers·
besides the promise of a job Nigeria.
But
a rare commodity in
How can Vic help feeling grateful for
war-torn
all
at the same time, Ekwensi·s readers are told
protagonist
first
is
immediately attracted towards
while
federal
Umunevo market square).
Odugo
to
shells are pounding
the
on
the
legs
and
inch
every
It is his infatuation that
be so benevolent towards the beautiful
little later· the novelist further reveals the
this?
that
her
sight (God! He has time to think about her
bos1om
saves
of
compels
dame.
A
protagonist's
plans to enter into a passionate physical relationship
with
the hapless girl who has been estranged from her parents.
So
finds
time
it is the prospect of having some good
in
Vic that he asks her to stay back with
Odugo
him
even
after his initial efforts at getting her a job does not meet
with
success.
Soon both join in the game
of
bed-warming.
So, Odugo assL es the role of Vic's protector and
The
inevitable
Ekwensi
to
split comes the moment Vic
is
exploit her possibilities with men
James Odugo during their stay at Obodonta.
412l8
provider.
allowed
other
by
than
Benne.
the
immoral wife of the
can
captain~
best
be
described with the choicest vocabulary Ekwensi reserves
for
her
the
in
the nove 1.
She is just like ·a hot
bitch
in
rut·, always running for every man who could perform sexually
to satisfy her insatiable lust.
The captain is
brought
to make possible a short stay with her in Obodonta after the
war,
only
Benne
to prove her infidelity.
remains
What else
of
soldiers
is her sexual encounters with Odugo and the
camping at Obodonta.
Juliette, the socialite wife of Odugo,also
influential
she
But the war separates the couple, and during
the
crisis,
supervising
tion
and
on
life
men ·of Lagos city to live a kind of
desires.
national
depends
she is shown to be on the
relief operations.
federal
side,
satisfac-
But her sense of
privilege comes through male agents
army
the
officers lusting for her company.
Gladys,
is 'created'
In
the fourth of the women in Survive the
through Odugo's habitual one-night love affair.
one such encounter she appears with the
Umunevo.
And immediately afterwards,
protagonist
as if Ekwensi
i t would be difficult for his hero to handle two
lovers
at
Peace,
the same time, she vanishes into
a
in
thought
passionate
strife-torn
backdrop.
at his wit's end about his possible break up with
It
is
provides the primary
People
characterizing
male
of
b~se
repeats
himself
in
to
the
Aina, the petty trader
and
who grow up only in relation
protagonist, Amusa Sango.
streetwalker,
that
for their reunion.
the City, Ekwensi
women
Juliette.
infatuation
the lasting influence of a strong
In
driven
Her reappearance comes only when Odugo is
save
to
is doomed once Sango is not ready
oJ:;
her
from her
humiliation~
Molomo Street.
Therefore
she
-·-
--- and
seems to only understand her materialial comforts and
pros-
lands up in jail.
pect of a
Beatirce is a replica of Jagua
luxurious lifestyle.
That Beatrice is
~-
Nana~
noticeable
and enjoys the elite amotsphere in the All Language Club
due
engineer,
to the wealth lavished on her by the English
whose mistress she is.
the
novel.
the
door
Elina almost has no visible life
For the most part,
is
this woman is hiding
of the convent in the Eastern Greens.
in
behind
When
she
comes face to face with the protagonist, he takes no time to
send
her
betrotha 1.
only
back
to oblivion through his
rejection
Beatrice the second survives in
the
to embody the qualities of an 'ideal girl'
of
her
narrative
that
San go
(or perhaps, Ekwensi himself) would look forward to granting
41fll
the status of a
'respectable wife'
charac-
In Burning Grass, Ekwensi's treatment of women
-:.
The 'legendary'
highlights his strong male bias.
ter~
tlewoman,
courage
before
the
Ligu, in this novel shows potential to match
and
conviction of
Emecheta's
novelist
attract more attention compared to the
why Ligu is a
given
'legendary·
But
novel,
lest
swiftly removes her from the scene
protagonist,
she
is
courage
in
cattlewoman, though
a small chance to exhibit her remarkable
the rescue operation of her apprentice, and Sunsaye's
est son Rikku.
also
and
reappearance
supposed
life
Her
sudden
wild
disappearance
at the end of the novel is linked
she leads in the forst during
which
an
she
is
ap-
She
has
her
all
probably a gift of her mysterious power.
But
disease~
tiger at her command which guards her and
white cattle -
by
She
to have acquired some mysterious power.
plies i t in curing Sunsaye of his dreaded
a
dear-
The other major woman in the novel, Fatimeh,
suffers from invisibility.
unknown
though she is mistaken as a spirit, Sunsaye finds her to
the
same compassionate and kind soul who has not
the
old
man's
she
The reader never comes to
the old Fulani cattleman Sunsaye.
know
the
protagonists.
she assumes any significant dimension in the
should
cat-
kind gesture of once saving
41 1
her
be
forgotten
from
the
clutches
of Shehu.
However, Ekwensi shows extreme
miserly
attitude in describing such an interesting character in
repertory.
his
scene
She appears to have been brought into the
to give some meaningful precedence to Sunsaye's catching the
disease.
'calf
And when he has been cured of it, and
love'
son's
his
for the girl gone, Ekwensi has no more use
for
her.
None
meaningful
political
of these above women,
existence.
thus, show
apparently
any
They don't have any social
opinion,
project
outlook, and conviction to undertake any
that would bear significant results either for themselves or
for the larger community.
ta's
novels,
don't have a
They, unlike the women in Emechevoice
of their
and
own,
are
always heard only through some male-related actions.
A look
at
Biafra
Debbie Ogedemgbe in Buchi Emecheta's Destination
would
reveal
the world of difference she shares
with
her
Ekwensian sisters.
By
consciously choosing the hardship of
armed
from various other possibilities that would have
her a
forces
guaranteed
life of comfort and plentitude, Debbie exemplifies her
strong
political
ethos.
Her opinion that it was only the army -
conviction and, understanding
412
of
social
a force made
of disciplined individuals - which could bring some order in
the nation may appear a little too romantic.
But she prgv,es
through her actions that she is not romanticising only.
She
joins the uniformed profession and then suffers through
her
sacrifices
takeover
that come one after another.
by
the
Her opinion for
armed forces to make
possible
a
a
smooth
running of Nigerian administration by no means signifies any
fascist
driven
tendency in her.
by
It is a political
her urge to bring some peace
to
understanding,
the
suffering
masses in a feuding nation torn by political corruption
and
ethnic strife.
out
Towards the end of the novel, she comes
a more matured person politically as she realises that armed
action
can
never bring about the fruits
atmosphere
and
sabotaging
of
Cross plane is
freedom of expression
of
and
a
democratic
Abosi's planned smuggling of arms in
d
Her
equality.
a
Red
proof of this understanding.
As a sharp contrast to the Oxford educated daughter
of
'jk.
Sam~e.l
th~
Ogedemgbe, Nnu Ego in lJoys of Motherhood
story
·f
di:fficLdties
Aku-~nna
~
represents
rural woman who has to cope with a series
after
she migrates to the
city.
Similarly~
of The Bride Price is an ordinary I bo gi r 1 who
suffers a
lot of humiliation after she starts living in
413
of
also
her
father's
ancestral village.
protago-
Both of these female
nists of Emecheta do not have any obvious political inclinations
like
through
their counterpart in Destination
But
tide
over
their sufferings they gather strenth to
difficulties
vidual
Biafra.
in their personal
experiences
lives.
indi-
Through their
they
of predicaments as women,
fulfil
fail-
their personal goals and while keeping track of their
But most signifi-
ures, they look forward to their success.
cantly,
odds,
for
it is in their individual
strug~le
that they symbolise the universal struggle
equality
and
against
Their
oppression.
of
consistent efforts to resist their
women
individual
experience attains universal meaning only through, the
acters'
of
out
to come
char-
subjugation
by
protagonists
in
ster-eotypes
of
patriarchy.
Emecheta's
her
novels
Ekwensi.
that
pos~s
wo~en
a challenge to the female
obvious
The Ekwensian stereotypes are at times so
the
predictable
characters
.and
sightedness.
~<Jriting
characterization of
embodying
them
become
very
represent the novelist's bias
One of the recurring
stereotyp~
and
in
J~liette,
pleasure-seekers,
who
among others.
They are
would ignore all
414
social
short-
Ekwensi's
is the bad, selfish and sensuous city woman
trice, Jagua,
much
Be a-
essentially
and
moral
res~onsibilities
to fulfil
and, to satisfy their boundless lust.
in
material
their want of
comfort
Survive the Peace who becomes 'hot like a bitch
rut'
Benne
It is not only
in
the
at the sight of ever·y passing male, all city women
are
seductresses scheming to exploit men with the he'lp of
sexual power.
wharfs
of
their
They hunt their male victims either along the
Lagos lagoon,
like Aina does in
People
of
the
~
l~re
or
them to submission
elite night time pleasure spots.
because
tion.
with~ voluptuousness
city
They all come to the
they are bored with the rural
life and its
at
stagna-
Their love for fast life makes them cling on to
who
can
Thev
provide them with physical and
material
enslave such patrons in a sexual bond,
temporary alliance.
comfort.
though often
But in the process they indulge in
forms of perversion and get entangled with the urban
often
becoming partly responsible for gruesome
destruction
of
life and property.
So they
a
all
mafia,
murders
are
men
or
primarily
characterized as women who exert corrupting influence on the
surrounding.
Through
didactic
point
tone
this portrayal of city women,
becomes comprehensible, where
out that the result of going against the
415
novelist's
the
he
tries
to
established
social norms of the traditional culture is always
The
damaging.
city women in Ekwensi·s novels suffer because of
their
disregard of traditional social laws and customs.
The
that
other
of
should
dominant stereotype in Ekwensi's
motherhood which every woman in her
tr-y to attain.
right
And to be an ideal mother-
r-emain loyal to her- husband and to people in herThis
novel
senses
she
must
community.
is tantamount to r-especting the tr-aditional ethics
obser-ving them in her own life.
pr-omiscuous
city
Ther-efore, Jagua Nana,
socialite, tries to find
is
solace
motherhood at the end of Ekwensi's famous novel.
by
the
her-
in
The
slave
~
girl Fatimth in Bur-ning Gr-ass is redeemed from her status of
slavery
mind
only when she
even
if
~ears
Shehu is her
Shehu a set of
abductor
whom
twins.
she
(Never
naturally
hates.)
Juliette in People of the City becomes more
ceptable
to Odugo because she is carr-ying
chi 1 d.
himself
in many a shor-t term alliance
during
Odugo·s wife thus falls from grace for not
ideal mother-.
In
else's
Odugo cannot forgive her for this even though he has
engaged
war.
somebody
unac-
being
the
an
if not an ideal wife.
her essay on the commitment of African women
er-s, Molar-a Ogundipe-Leslie opines that one of the
II 1
L
wr-it-
for-emost
tasks
before the women writers in Africa is to break
these
stereotypes which are created and then deeply entrenched
the psyche of male African writers.
in
She observes:
( ... ) we already have the stereotyping of women in
African
literature.
There is the figure
of
the
'sweet mother',
the all-accepting creature of
fecundity and self-sacrifice.
( ... ) The 'mother· stereotype leads to the
limiting of a woman's potential in the society.
·houri·
( ... )
In addition to the
'mother'
and
stereotype of the African woman, we may consider
the stereotypes of the 'sophisticated' city girl
and the rural woman.
The two are often contrasted
in order to dramatize the conflict of
modernity
and traditionalism. 9
Ekwensi's
be
nothing
their
women like Jagua Nana or Beatrice appear
better than
'phallic
receptacles' ,llll
whole existence seem to depend on their
to
because
capacity
to
sleep with men.
The
other recurring aspect in Ekwensi's novel
author's
is
the
description - at times utterly disguising for
its
pointlessness
woman's
arms,
of female anatomy.
The
kinks
her breats, her buttocks, thighs,
under
the
legs
and
other areas related to sensual provocation are described
all
than
vividness.
the
'oomph'
There could be no other reason behind
novelist's efforts to give that
to his male readers.
417
extra
ounce
in
this
of
for Ekwensi, any woman
So
tional
tryin~
the
to break
tradiindi-
code of conduct, making efforts to assert her
viduality and not remaining attached to any particular
for
her ·survival'
is something pernicious for
community
as well as the individual herself.
mount
sin which always is followed by
to
fects.
the
male
larger
tant-
is
It
destructive
ef-
As Helen Chukwuma points out:
characterIn the city novels of Cyprian Ekwensi,
istically a woman's individuality is asserted only·
through prostitution.11
Emecheta's women protagonists, however, come as welcome
change from these stereotypes.
observes
about
What Lloyd Brown
critically
Adah and other women in Emecheta's
Ditch holds good for all her other major female characters:
In the final analysis, their ability to survive in
spite of
society de~2nds on the willingness of
each woman to recover the initiative in
her
own
life and to recapture the personal strength which
society and
its systems had undermined
in
the
first place. 12
Debbie's
ly
determi~~tion
makes it possible for her to do so in the face of
parental opposition.
of
to join the Nigerian army finalstiff
Her self-imposed task as an ambassador
peace to convince the Biafran leader to
418
stop
fighting,
herof
leading a band of fleeing refugees thr-ough the
death and
gling
destruction~
dangers
attempted
her- foiling the
smugre-
her
of arms in the Red Cr-oss plane and finally,
solve to work for the nation instead of securing a
life~~
comfort and luxuries in England, all ar-e obvious examples of
her
indomitable strength of character- and individual
She
asserts
does
her individuality all thr-ough the
Aku-nna in The Bride Price.
will.
novel.
So
With her father dead
and
her- mother paying mor-e attention to the family politics, she
keeps
her spirits up and continues with her
She
studies.
has the courage to ignore the Ibuza tr-adition in order to be
able to become what she wants to be in her life and, also to
mar-r-y the man she wants.
mental
She has the tenacity to r-etain her-
per-sonal
resolve.
even
of her- str-ong will power and pr-esence of
under a crisis situation.
mar-ital
from
Her- effor-ts to discour-age Okoboshi
his intention of finding out her- virginity is anotherple
her
strength and patience to give concrete shape to
mind
She happily enter-s
relationship knowing the danger of the
examworking
into
a
non-payment
~~
of her bride price.
exemplary
will
Nnu Ego in[Joys of Motherhood
power and cour-age to fulfil her
exhibits
desire
of
becoming a mother, giving education to her children, providing
decent
clothing
and food for
419
them
and
finally,
to
·survive
a
situations
In
failed mar-r-iage, killing pover-ty
like housing problem,
adverse
etc.
healthcare,
lack of
order to be able to achieve all this,
and
often
these women
resist the dictum of custom and traditional culture that are
potential
hindrances
goals.
to
in the path of
fulfilment
of
In this context, men are always shown to be
enforce
the designs of old -
their
acting
tradi-
and often bogus
tions.
All
price.
life
these
achievements
come to the
women
for
some
Debbie has fo forgo a bright career prospect and
Worse
full of comfort to succeed in her own designs.
still, she has to suffer the cruellest of personal
tions through her rape by federal soldiers.
a
humilia-
She risks death
and elimination while moVing about in the Biafran
territory
on self-imposed mission to stop the civil war.
Aku-nna
has
to
through
the
suffer
experience
boshi.
the psychological trauma of
going
of her abduction and forced marriage
Finally,
she has to live with the
pain
with
Oko-
of
being
estranged from one's own family and the people of one's
community.
Nnu Ego,
the proud mother of so many
own
children,
dies unsung by the roadside.
But
Emecheta's women never seem to give up.
4212l
Because,
unlike Ekwensi, individuality for Emecheta is not a negative
the
charac-
trait;
rather it is the source of. strength in
ters.
This individuality is symbolised by a positive
look
out-
According
of the situations that the women run into.
to Lloyd Brown:
Emecheta's contention
is that even in
the most
uncompromising circumstances, the individual never
really
loses
the potential
for
choice
and
strength. ( ... ) Thus, it remains the individual's
ultimate responsibility, even in the most unlikely
circumstances,
to develop what is essentially an
indestructible strength of ~ill - ( ... ). 13
The
stereotype
Emecheta's
characters
of motherhood has
been
destroyed
like Nnu Ego.
Emecheta
in
brings
the
':lk
paradox poignantly in the delineation of this woman in LJoys
of
Motherhood.
bear a child.
First, she suffers for not being
able
Her barrenness is removed later in the
when she gives birth to a baby boy in Lagos.
ndvel
But the
child
with
does not surv1ve and her loss makes her so overwhelmed
grief
that
later
she goes on producing one child after
while
not
pregnancies
'ca 11 y
she attempts to take her
really
own
wanting to have so many
However,
life.
another,
even
them.
Her
of
create obstacles in her efforts to be
independent and provide for her sons
other domestic expenditure.
economi-
education
She even sends her sons
421
to
and
abroad
for
She
higher education, sacrificing her own comfort.
is
finally able to become- by African traditional standards
a
proud mother of nine children.
none
.of
them come to offer her a single word
Only Taiwo, one of the twin daughters,
solace.
comfort.
of
provides her a
was~.
Nnu-Ego' s
little
ceremony
On her death, they arrange a big funeral
to show how great their mother
days
But during her last
"joy" from her
motherhood becomes a visible reality only after her death.
moth-
Another significant pointer towards the issue of
erhood
is
pl~ying
mother to baby Biafra.
care
and
found in Debbie Ogedemgbe's
role
temporary
of
It could be said that in her
love for the child and her efforts
save
to
its
life.
Debbie symbolises the creative aspects of
motherhood
that
is never realised/recognised in the act of
biological
$L-
mothering.
Adaku inWoys of Motherhood again, comes
anti thes. s
to the romanticised image of African
stereotype.
later
male
Despite being the mother of two
as
an
motherhood
children
she
opts for prostitution, as she cannot give birth to
child.
The realisation dawns on her
that
a
a
woman
cannot attain completeness as a mother until she gives birth
to male children.
by
-
Ma Blackie in The Bride Price is
accused
her husband of being incapable of bearing him more
one son.
422
than
Through
her characterization of women in
her
novels,
Emecheta
relates
to larger socio-political issues
society.
Education of Nigeian women is one such jssue
the novelist highlights in almost all her novels.
steadfastness
about continuing her education in
Price is one example.
the
that
Aku-nna's
The
Bride
In Nnu Ego's urge to educate her sons
at the cost of her daughters·
of
in
schooling is another
how women ·have been neglected in the field of
under patriarchal values.
reminder
education
In the novelist's own words:
I want very much to further the education of women
rea 11 y
in Africa, because I know that education
it
helps the women.
It helps them to read and
helps them to rear a generation·.
It is true that
if one educates a woman, one educates a community,
whereas
if
one educates a man,
one educates a
man. 14
Another significant social issue that is highlighted in
Emecheta·s
modern
novelist
novels is the negative impact of old customs
Nigerian
women.
In one
of
her
interviews,
refers to this aspect by saying that her
ins:
I cannot afford to pretend.
In Nigeria women
are
riddled with hypocrisy, you learn to say what you
don't
feel.
You learn not to laugh or not
to
423
the
stay
England h0s made her more forthright than her country
on
in
cous-
I find I don't fit in ther-e any
laugh too loudly.
mor-e. 15
Nnu Ego, Aku-nna and Debbie Ogedemgbe ar-e all r-ebels as
they
pr-otest
cultur-e
that
against those elements in
their-
seek to suppr-ess women by
contr-olling
tr-aditional
their-
tjW.,
ur-ge
. to
asser-t
Mother-hood,
Niger-ia
their-
Emecheta
individual
hints at the
self.
In
population
thr-ough Nnu Ego's pr-egnancies.
Emecheta
~Joys
of
pr-oblem
in
talks
in
the same inter-view about how all her- major- novels ar-e
on cer-t9in social concepts of
based
impor-tance~
For- example, Second Class Citizent ~s based on the
clash of two cultur-es, Joys of Mo'ther-hood
deals
with
population contr-ol and The Slave Gir-l',
the
tr-adition of slaver-y.16
As
far- as Emecheta as a feminist wr-iter- is
concer-ned,
her- domain has been to identify the female oppr-ession vis-avis
male pr-ivilege in
th~
Niger-ian - or-
Afr-ica~
society.
Her- feminism is not shaped by any fantasy about the concepts
of
women s equality and gender- bias.
nist
wr:iter-,
Chador-ow
Emecheta, as a
is always r-ealistic in her-
appr-oach.
femiNancy
thus obser-ves how too much of r-omanticising
about
feminist ideals goes against the inter-est of feminist
poli-
tics:
424
In
particular,
feminists need to be especially
self-conscious about the way they draw upon fantasy
to inform theory and politics.
Much of
the
feminist writing
( ... ) puts forth fantasy,
or
primary process thinking as the whole of
reality
or
as a
self-evident basis for
theory
and
politics.
Fantasies are obviously fundamental
experiences and we must take them into account in
creating a feminism that speaks to women's
lives,
but they cannot in themselves constitute theory or
justify politics.l7
Emecheta's
views
on feminism have already
tioned in Chapter Two of this thesis.
presentation
inferred
men-
been
her
Relating them to
of women characters in her novels, it
can
be
indi-
that she combines in them a strong sense of
vidual assertion with a genuine respect for the·
~regressive
elements
experiences
in the traditional culture.
Aku-nna
the Ibo community feelings after the death of her father and
wonders
grief.
how the whole community came
to
share
her
In Ibuza she comes closer to the tradition of living
together
Lagos,
tain
about
in
cit,
like
the rural migrants are seen to have maintained
cer-
a community as a whole.
Even in a
basic structures of community life.
business
Nnu Ego owes
and her survival to the solidarity of
Ibo
women
in Lagos city.
women
is a symbol of her adoption of community life
market
Her joining the weekly gatherings
essential feature in African tradition.
Debbie learns
her war experiences about what it means to be a
425
her
of
an
from
traditional
African
for
woman who not only works for her own survival.
the existence of a whole community.
refugees
and
woman.
is
Leading a band
in the swamp, and living on the boundary
death~
of
she marvels at the traditional image of
in the reaction of her protagonists,
of
life
African
But at the same time, Emecheta's feministic
visible
but
sti:ince
as
Helen
Chukwuma observes:
Her characters adopt a
positivistic
view
in
crisis,
and do not just fold their arms in
tears
and self-pity.
Rather, they think, plan,
execute
and
concretize.
Through this maze of
selfassertion, the female individualism and personality shows,
she appears in another
light,
as a
person
capable
of
taking
and
ef~ecting
decisions. 18
Thus,
l ·~....
is
in this remarkable
traditional and the
that
Emecheta's
women
Emecheta
reflect this politics in
and resolve.
wants
to
of
the
the individual and the communal,
feminist politics takes
characters
thought
modern~
combination
shape.
their
And
actions,
And it is through this politics
·represent'
the truth
truth.
426
the
her
that
woman's
Notes and References
1.
Katherine Frank, "Women Without Men: The Feminist Novel
in Africa" in E.D. Jones (ed.), Women in Africa Literature Today
(London:
James Currey and
Trenton~
New
Jersey: Africa World Press, 1987), p.27.
2.
Ibid., p.27.
3.
Ibid.,
p.28.
Frank writes, while acknowledging
the
novel
to be historically important from the
point of
view of African writing by women; And so, to return
to
Destination Biafr-a, we can say that though Emecheta~
heart
is in the right place, the book as a whole
lanbetween
manifesto cind
guishes in
a
shadowy region
fiction.
4.
Rosalind Miles, The Female Form: Women Writers and
the
Conquest of the Novel (London and New York:
Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1987), p.5.
5.
Ata Aidoo. "To be an African Woman Writer - ·Over( ed. ) ,
vie~-J
and
a Detail" in Kirsten Holst Petersen
CRITICISM AND IDEOLOGY: Second African Writers' Conference,
Stockholm, 1986 (Uppsala,
Sweden:
Scandinavian
Institute of African Studies, 1988), pp.156-157.
6.
Ibid .•
7.
Ibid., p.158.
8.
Ama
p.158.
From Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi's write-up in The Guardian
(Lagos)
of May 25, 1985, quoted in Henrietta C.
Otokunefor- and Obiageli C.
Nwodo
(eds.),
Nigerian
Female Writers:
Critical Perspective
(Lagos:
Milthouse Press Ltd., 1989), p.xi.
a
9.
Molar-a Ogundipe-Leslie,
"The Female Writer
and
Commitment" in E.D. Jones (ed. ), op. cit., p.6.
10.
Ibid., p.6.
427
Her
11.
Helen Chukwuma, "Positivism and the Female Crisis:
The
Novels of Buehl Emecheta" in Henr-iella C. 0 Otokunefor
and Obiageti C. Nwodo (eds.), op. cit., p.2.
12.
Lloyd Brown, Women Writers in Black Africa
(Westport,
Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1981), p.42.
13.
Ibid., p.43.
14.
Buchi Emecheta, "Feminism with a small ' f '
sten Holst Petersen (ed.), op. cit., p.177.
15.
Adeola James, lQ their Own Voices: African Women Wr-it(N.H.):
er-s Talk (London: James Curr-ey and Por-termouth
Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 19912)), p.38.
16.
Ibid., p.43.
17.
Nancy J. Chodorow, Feminism and Psychoanalytic
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989), p.93.
18.
Helen Chukwuma, op. cit., p.4.
428
~",
in
Kir-
Theory