Abstract
There are different perspectives to gender issues, but this work has
limited its review to the womanist perspective in Aidoo’s CHANGES and
Okoye’s BEHIND THE CLOUDS. In establishing the perspective, a study of
both writers looking critically into their literary and their ideology
on womanism is carried out. The writers standpoint on the womanist
approach under feminist theory in the analysis of the selected works,
exposes us to the fact that gender issues in relation to feminism is an
attempt to describe and interpret women experiences as portrayed by
their female characters. The writers having used womanist theory seeks
to avert the thrust in which women have the same inalienability rights
to their male counterparts deserve to be treated equally.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter one
Introduction
Objectives of the study
Scope Delimitation of the study
Justification
Research methodology
Origin of feminism
Chapter two
Introduction
Feminism and Womanism
2.1.1 Feminist movement in Africa
2.1.2 Types of feminism
2.1.3 Womanism
Chapter three
Introduction
Changes a survey
Womanist critique in Ama Ata Aidoo’s changes
Chapter four
4.0 Introduction
4.1A womanist reading of ifeoma Okoye’s Behind The Clouds
Chapter five
5.0 Conclusion
Bibliography
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In the 18th Century significant changes happened in the life of
women, these changes brought about the various feminist movement where
small groups of women introduced activities and the awareness of women’s
right. The growth of feminism began in Europe and America when women
became curious of their oppression and marginalization and took steps to
re-dress this oppression by creating feminists movement.
Feminism is an ideology that refers to the social and psychological
restraints placed on women. Feminism is a movement that demand the
removal of all social, political, economic and other discrimination
placed on women. The feminist movement is not concerned with achieving
the differences in the sexes, but it is concerned with achieving
equality for both sexes whereby the woman has the right to find out the
person she is, and essentially strives to become that. Feminism is seen
as a demand for political and social reform which is informed by the
sexual differences created through societal oppression.
Feminists have secured a greater presence in academic business,
politics and mass media. Feminists have succeeded through their literary
work and campaigns or movement in drawing attention to the ways in
which work has significantly affected historical developments. Feminist
scholars have demonstrated the extent to which male bias has determined
the normative assumptions of the social natural and behavioral sciences.
In the arts, literary and artistic canons are no longer restricted to
the works of men. The Feminist writer writes to tell about being a woman
and to describe the reality from a woman’s point of view.
Feminism aims at projecting the place of women in the society by
portraying their values by giving woman a chance in the society. The
predominant concern of African woman writers is a new position of woman
with the help of tradition and modernity to change woman’s consciousness
in contemporary African Society.
Feminism deals more on the western issues about women, since the text
are about African women the discussion will explore the womanism
concept of gender issues. Bell Hooks (1988) accuses feminism of
excluding black from participating in the movement according to her:
Feminism in the united state has never emerged from women who are
most victimized by sexist oppression, women who are daily beaten down,
martially, physically and spiritually. Women who are powerless to change
their own condition of life. They are the silent majority.
Hooks view is that feminism coined by the western states, ignored the
women in the black race due to racial differences, African women then
saw the need to evolve an ideology that caters specifically for the
needs of black women folk. The term womanism is said to have been coined
by Alice Waker in her collection of essays titled In search of our
mother’s gardens: womanist prose (1983). Womanism sums up the aesthetics
of the black female literary experience. Womanism is distinguished by
its focus on the black female experiences. Bernard Bell observes that
the preoccupation of black American female writers is projected in his
quotation
Bell (1987) states:
Motifs of interlocking racist, sexist and classist oppression, black
female protagonists, spiritual journeys from victimization to the
realization of personal autonomy or creativity, a centrality of female
bonding or networking, a sharp focus on personal relationships in the
family and community deeper, more detailed explorations and validation
of their episternological powers of emotions, iconography of women’s
clothing and black female language.
This projects and explores the black women experience and the
struggles of the women in emancipating themselves from the society. Bell
(1987) exposes the closeness in which the African women or Black women
have towards their oppression. The womanist is an accomodationist which
Aidoo and Okoye portrayed through their female characters like
Opokuya,Ije,Ugo Ushie and Esi welcomes the male presence and the
centrality of motherhood.
Through the topicality of their works Aidoo and Okoye introduce the
concept of womanism, their literary text focus on family relationship,
the importance of mother hood etc. African women are presently voicing
their stand point on the various women experiences. Aidoo and Okoye drum
the course of women freedom in the society. The study will therefore
compare the two writers; Aidoo and Okoye on the projection of the
womanist perspectives in the two literature texts.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study intends to examine the feminist perspective in Ama Ata
Aidoo’s changes and Ifeoma Okoye’s Behind the clouds. Using a womanist
approach in the two texts. It also attempts to compare the authors
perception on women issues. This will be done through a critical
analysis of the female characters in the text.
SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study is on feminist perspective, scholars view and
opinions on feminism. The study will cover definition of feminism, the
types and limit the text to the womanist concern of Ama Ata
Aidoo’s Changes and Ifeoma Okoye’s Behind The Clouds. Critics views on
both writers also be discussed according to the availability of
materials.
JUSTIFICATION
Feminists have done various works on feminism and the perspectives of
other literary works. Due to the researcher’s study, the exploration of
Aidoo’s Changes and Okoye’s Behind the clouds have not been compared
in a significant way. This study aims to discuss and compare the two
writers by analyzing their female character in both literary texts.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research work constitutes a general study of Aidoo and Okoye’s
text using the womanist approach on both books. Research on text books,
and scholars stand point on feminism will be conducted for the purpose
of shedding more light on the comparative study.
1.5 ORIGIN OF FEMINISM
Feminism began in Europe in the late eighteenth century. The desire
for equality predates the existence of the term feminism or the movement
it has come to represent. The term feminism comes from the French word
feminisine and was popularized by Hubertine Auclert in 1882 when she
organized the first women suffragist in France. However, prior to the
advert of the word, there were publications that fell within the purview
of feminism. One of the first publication was a French poet Christine
De Pizan, the author of the City Of Ladies (1403), in which Pizan
suggests that women should build their own cities, free of men, so as to
avoid men’s violence and oppression. Also, John Locke’s The Treatise Of
Government (1690), argued that all individuals have undebtable natural
rights to life, liberty and possession which no government can deny.
Locke’s work inspired Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication Of The Right Of
Women 1792,one of the first feminist manifesto. Wollstonecraft (1792)
argued that “ women were human beings who should not be denied the same
individual rights and privilege, including the rights to education,
earnings and property ownership”. The rights of women were further
advocated by John Stuart mill in his treatise, The Subjection Of
Women1869. Mill contends that “ women should be granted the same rights
and privilege as men under the law”.
In the United States, the first women’s right convention was held in
Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and
demanded the right to vote and marital reform. After winning the right
to vote, women turned their attention to education and employment.
END NOTE
Hooks, Bells. Black Feminism: Historical perspective In “Call and response:
the Riverside Anthology of African American Literary Tradition” (eds) Boston: Hougston Miffin company,1988
Walker, Alice. In search of our mothers ganders: womanist prose. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983
Bell, Bernard. The Afro-American Novel and its tradition. Amrehest: The
University of Massachuseth Press, 1989
Aidoo, Ama Ata. Changes: A love story. New York: the Feminist press,1991
Okoye, Ifeoma. Behind The Clouds. United Kingdom: Longman Group
limited, 1982.