Feminism Ideology and Institution of Patriarchy in African Novel
Analysis of Selected Works of Women Writers and Gynandrists
Keywords:
Feminism, Women, Patriarchy, Women Writers, Gynandrists, African NovelAbstract
This paper uses feminism ideology in reading and understanding the effects of patriarchy in the African Novel, a generic reference to novels articulating African experience. The paper analyses selected works of African women writers and gynandrists from Anglophone and Francophone Africa. Gynandrists are men writers sympathetic to women cause. Specifically, the paper examines feminism and patriarchy in Postcolonial novel, where several gender issues are identified and explored. Even further, the paper discusses the ideology of feminism and its multiple strands is used as an ideological praxis to underline women struggles in taming the institution of patriarchy. The selected novels are Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Devil on the Cross, Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood, Mongo Beti’s Perpetua and Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter. Instances of the strategies that women are employing in the aforementioned literary works are analysed and elevated to exemplify the use of feminist ideology in taming patriarchy. The paper also appreciates the bold attempts women have made to reverse men’s dominance in social, political, and economic domains in order to establish gender respect, equality, and partnership for the survival of the society.