ABSTRACT
This study undertakes a comparative analysis of the works of two Nigerian female novelists: Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa, it looks at the contemporary African society which is dominated by men. Little or no recognition is given to women thus they have been oppressed, depressed, subjected and neglected. In this regards African female writers like Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa, Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Ba, Zaynab Alkali among others fought on behalf of African women through their works by giving them significant roles which portray women as a virtue and instrument of honour in the Africa society.
TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgments iv
Abstract vi
Table of content vii
CHAPTER ONE:
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Comparative analysis and intertextuality 2
1.2 Aims and Objectives 5
1.3 Scope and limitation of the study 5
1.4 Justification of the study 5
1.5 Methodology 6
1.6 Biography of Buchi Emecheta 7
1.7 Biography of Flora Nwapa 9
CHAPTER TWO:
2.0 Introduction 11
2.1 Literature Review 11
2.1.1 A critique of Buchi Emecheta 20
2.1.2 A critique of Flora Nwapa 24
2.2 Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa as a liberal feminist 29
CHAPTER THREE:
3.0 Introduction 33
3.1 Comparative analysis of Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Nwapa’s Efuru 33
CHAPTER FOUR:
4.0 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation 48
4.1 Summary 48
4.2 Conclusion 50
4.3 Recommendation 50
Bibliography 52
INTRODUCTION
Emecheta and Nwapa are earliest feminist writers, whose works serve as the starting point for the independence and freedom of African women in general. They wrote novels about the struggles of African women in a contemporary African society and portray the condition of women in the traditional African setting. Their works promote equality for men and women in political, economic, educational, traditional and social spheres. They believe that women are oppressed due to their sex based on the dominant ideology of patriarchy.
Patriarchy literally means rule by men or by paternal right. It is a situation whereby women are ruled or controlled by men, giving power and importance to men.
Were Nigeria and Africa oppressively masculinity? The answer is “yes” Ghana was known to have some matrilineal society such as Akans; but Nigeria’s traditional culture, Muslim as well as non-Muslim had been masculine – based even before the advent of the white man. The source, nature and extent of female subordination and oppression have constituted a vexed problem in African literary debates. Writers such as Ama Ata Aidoo of Ghana and late Flora Nwapa of Nigeria insisted that the image of the helpless, dependent, unproductive African women was once ushered in by European imperialists whose women lived that way. On the other hand, the Nigeria-born, expatriate writer Buchi Emecheta, along with other critics, maintain that African women were traditionally subordinated to sexist cultural mores.
Colonial rule aggravated the situation by introducing a lopsided system in which African men received a well rounded education like their European counterparts before the mid-nineteenth century, African women received only utilitarian, cosmetic skills in domestic science centers the kind of skills that could only prepare them to be useful helpmates of educated, premier nationalists and professionals such as Nnamdi Azikwe Nigeria’s first president, and the late Obafemi Awolowo of the Yoruba tribalist leader.