Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

Yazarlar: Alpaslan TOKER, Aisha Bashir IFO

Konular:

Anahtar Kelimeler:Women,Feminism,Gender issues,Discrimination,Oppression

Özet: Women in Africa have been exploited by the oppression of race, gender, and class. The depiction of the Black women solely as ill-fated and submissive receivers of sexual and racial abuse subdues the assumptions that Black women can actively participate in changing their fate and bringing about some changes in their lives. This article attempts to identify and analyze gender issues, and discrimination women encountered in Nigerian society, as reflected in the works of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price and Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. In The Bride Price, Emecheta clearly shows how traditional Igbo society was harmful and unfair to women. Aku-nna bravely tries to stand up for herself by refusing to marry contrary to what her community expected of her. In the same vein, Adichie’s novel is a feminist work that challenges the dehumanizing tendencies of the menfolk as evident in the character of Mama (Beatrice Achike) who eventually exposed the African conception of an ideal woman who keeps dumb even in the face of humiliation, victimization, and brutality to be perceived as a good woman. However, Adichie applauds female characters like Kambili and Aunty Ifeoma, who do not need men for their sustenance or keep themselves attached to men to assert their identity.

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