Male Chauvinism, Females are Dependent in Africa – An Extract From Buchi Emecheta -By Ridwan Daud

Buchi Emecheta is by far a prolific and achieved writer, having gone through her novel Joys of Motherhood explains the plight of African women and their demands after long days of suffering. Nnu Ego the protagonist of the novel is afflicted with many indescribable suffering. She is indifferent to these life-pressuring challenges which she accepts from her husbands and subsequently her children. Despite her effort to enjoy the joys of motherhood that’s having success and achieved offspring who’ll take care of you at old age. But the reverse is the case as she battled with life even after her children become successful, even though her husband was irresponsible and ill witty. This his ill-wittiness bagged his years of serving in prison for assault of his purported in-law meanwhile by the virtue of parenthood he pays little or no role to bring up these children.

Emecheta like any other African feminist writer, Doreen Baigana, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ifeoma Chiwumba, Zainab Alkali, Asare Konadu and a host of others portrays African men to be authoritarian, chauvinistic, domineering, and irresponsible. These traits are innate to the Africaness of these men who believe that their right to domination is divine while they pay little to the finance of the family which is primary to them. Thus, the woman is less superior, inferior, and below the standard of talking to them to their faces.

To project this, the feminist contends by teleporting, lamenting, and protesting through their literary works like Purple Hibiscus by Adichie, A Woman in Her Prime by Konadu, Kemi’s Journal by Sanusi, Tropical Fish by Baigana, and Joys of Motherhood by Emecheta. The melting pot of these literary works is that the thematic preoccupation is based on females at different stages of life that are girl child, a woman in prime, and motherhood and their struggle to make the image of their own in a male-dominated society. Unlike the European feminist who demands equality with their opposite sex, African feminist is still wallowing in demand for the self-image because African society is basking in masturbating ego of the males and this is ancestral or customary inclined, these psychological effects of these ideology has retired many women who have rescinded to fate and end up their education in the kitchen of their chosen husband.
As a result of this, the African feminist is questing for her voice to be heard in the sphere of African society. The point of focus here is based on African and European Feminism, this will be portrayed by analyzing the Second Class Citizen by Emecheta.

The novel published in 1974 projects the post-colonial period of Africa and the family setting in Africa coupled with the embryonic fetus of Nigeria politics. The writer does not spare the social-political purview of Nigeria after independence and how the Europeans mostly British are trooping in numbers to occupy the educated jobs of embryonic Nigeria likewise the foreign culture of marriage and how the woman enjoys almost equal rights as the woman in a European country that’s the reason the setting is both Nigeria and England. Unconsciously, Emecheta makes references to polygamist Nigerians who slacks at their duty but demand to lead Nigeria, they flock to England to get various degrees most especially in Law in other to become the leader of an emerging country like Nigeria, the novel which goes to and fro like nomadic horse-whip cut across the colonial and post-colonial era. The setting is both Lagos Nigeria and Liverpool in England. This revelation helps in bridging the gap in the critical study of feminism in both parts of the world.

The novel shows light on a young girl of eight years of age in the street of Lagos who is keen on going to school even upon the tribal belief that sending the female children to school is a waste of time, her younger brother recognized has Boy is registered at Ladi-Lak Institute, a private school with the then sophisticated equipment with United Kingdom-trained proprietress. “Nne nna” as the protagonist is being called by her father although her real name is Adah she is called that as a means of kindness and love. She made a plan to study come what may, she decided to escape and goes to school on her own where Mr. Cole the Sierra Lonian neighbor is working as a teacher. This act caused hullabaloo in her home as she has been reported missing at home to the police station. This act of child negligence merits her mother the punishment of eating soak Garri that was then unbearable till the stomach bulged and cause discomfort. This unorthodox incident is the little push that Adah needs to orchestrate her dream as her father gets her registered to the same school as her brother. This is the Genesis of her story.

Her joy of beginning to actualize her dream of schooling which is a step for her to go to her dream of going to England is cut short by the death of her father in her few years in school. She is withdrawn from private school alongside her brother to lesser schools while her mother is inherited by her husband’s younger brother. Adah is unperturbed by the idea of her being withdrawn in a much there is schooling and education. Not only withdrew from school but relocated to stay with her unclean already overcrowded family of four elder males and a father and mother living in a single room. Adah’s life changes drastically as she adjusts to the unending demands of life, she is an unconventional housemaid to her new family, she is expected to do the chores which she finds convenient to give as it doesn’t get in way of her study.  Adah’s education is mixed with suffering and self mentorship, she got herself registered for the entrance exam both in pain and sweat after stealing money meant to buy meat for her family.  Initially, her mother Ma has demanded that she should be handover in marriage with her bride price exorbitant that only old men could afford it, at this time she is just eleven years of age when she graduated from elementary school but her mischievous actions sent away the suitors as she made it a habit to burst their Raleigh Bicycle tyre win other to scare them; not only that, she makes many gloomy faces and distorting action which eventually turned them around her, her punishment is that nobody is ready to sponsor her education anymore. Her sojourn takes another dimension as she studied very well and got admitted fully funded scholarship in Methodist Girls’ School. Her life in boarding school is of little attention to the writer but her post-Methodist life is focused on.

Upon her graduation, there is a saying that a hunchback cow is a joyous gift to the butcher that’s exactly what Adah seems to be to her family.  They demand a high bride price which by this time his suitors couldn’t afford but she married herself off to a young schoolboy named Francis even when the boy can’t afford the bride price she is on free transfer or loan.  Their wedding is the most hilarious scene ever as their marriage was postponed on the day of the wedding due to their shallow thinking of forgetting the ring. However they got married as Adah deem fit, her marriage is necessitated by the fact that nobody is ready to give her accommodation and she needs one for her plan to materialize.  It is on this plan that she gives birth to her first and second children thankfully enough after her first child, she is employed at America Consulate as Librarian and her pay packet is huge this determines her existence as her in-law deploy way of exploiting her in educating their son Francis in pursuance of his Accountancy dream.  Adah isn’t budged by this revelation, she continued feeding the whole family; Father and Mother-in-Law, her husband’s female siblings on both education and feeding, household need, education of her husband, and care of her daughter.

Destiny took another stroke as she maintains being motherhood nature, she keeps her head above water before her scavenging husband family who wants to claw her at any given opportunity but being a pot of soup that serves everyone, she is immunized until she suggested that they should move to exile the peak of her dream. The reverse is the case, her husband cleverly jumped at the idea but in his case, she is to remain in Nigeria with her child while he goes to study abroad before it is her salary package that does the finance but helped budgeted by the nuisance called husband.  Francis a Chichidodo who loves feasting on maggots took this idea to her parent which they greedily welcome but as only him to go.  He left in auspicious time and she continues her daily routine in Nigeria, she had spent most of her salary on his traveling.  Francis who can’t do alone with the loneliness of the exile calls for her and her children to join him in England. An idea her mother-in-law kicked against but she persuades and bribes her with jewelry until she agrees.

Adah’s life in England is far worse than in Nigeria as Francis continues enjoying his responsibility-free marriage as his only duty is to make children which he does in-apprehensively. Adah got a library job and she finances, as usual, her job is a rare one for black in her neighborhood, she is expected to follow suit of doing seamstress or washing clothes and other petty jobs but she won’t settle for less, also she is expected to give up her three children to foster mother but she clings to them like a protective chicken with her little eggs at prying eye of the predators.  However, her trouble in the United Kingdom is double as housing got by her husband is below standard and the landlords acted like a lord to fief in the feudal system.  She was later sent packing by her jealous landlady who accused her of showing off her children meanwhile she is barren, seeing her children acting naively rub salt on her wound, for this reason, they were sent packing. 

Her husband, Francis blamed everything on her even his failure in his study is due to her bothering him with unlimited duties even Adah is so patient that she knows her husband sleeping around with other women yet acted unconcerned as much she has a moment of peace to herself, her new job got terminated after her birth and she began another hunt for a job, this time she tries to take measure to ensure she doesn’t get pregnant again, an attempt that failed her and gets her pregnant again even after she has got another job.

One of her husband’s mistresses doubled as baby minder Trudy who is careless, unfaithful, and cheating made her son get infected with meningitis by allowing them to play outside the refuse to dump.  This occasion orchestrated her demand for the nursery where her children could stay until their parents returned from jobs. Vicky got well after treatment and Adah ensure her children are well cared for.

Adah’s life in Nobles house is welcome, unlike their former house, the landlady Mrs. Noble is an accommodating and hospitable white woman. Mr. Noble, on the other hand, is the same and they have children in their home which makes it very easier to keep their children without prying eyes. The relocation from her former house is the genesis of her new lifestyle as she inculcates a bit of English woman civilization in her life, as it is, she won’t settle for less. Her third pregnancy has opened her eyes that the wife is meant to be cared for by her husband not another way around. Thus she apply this rule during the fourth pregnancy, she insisted that Francis must work even though she is battling with the idea in her mind. Eventually, she delivered and she is not ready to work, Francis works as a clerk in one of the English offices and he only leaves the rent and two pounds that is not enough for his feeding not talking about four children and Adah. She pestered him to increase the money but felt on his dumb ear. On many occasions, he will beat Adah and make life hell for her until she repels it at that the beating becomes immense that her landlord asks them to quit. The reason for beating is simple, Adah got a job as a seamstress again and she is not giving him out of her earned money rather she uses it to take care of her children’s needs. Francis become apprehensive because he quit his clerk job since Mother Christmas has got a new job, he’ll be taken care of him but Adah isn’t bulge, she has stopped being his wife and mother at the same time, he needs to work and take care of his need if he can’t make up for the family. This led to the uproar that police settled the case for them, Francis cursed, divorced, and was denied ownership of the children, she is sent packing.
Luckily enough for her, her income is enough for her to secure new apartment two rooms though not furnished but she likes it. The incident that made her left is that she writes a story titled The Bride Price which is highly praised by her colleagues at work for the intellectual poured into the story. Bill, one of her colleagues finds it so intriguing that he takes it to the publisher and they want it typed before they work on it. As a dutiful wife, he gives them to Francis to read which he unconditionally rejected but he planned mischief after she has left the room for early shopping. Before she returns Francis has burnt the manuscript of her story this incident is a heart sore to her and she repels this act thus she got her epiphany that this man is not ready to let her progress as much he is redundant himself; of course, Francis reason is that his parent will not welcome the idea of her writing such novel and she is a low-life woman in England she is not expected to write rather to slave for the white as a second class citizen and idea Adah will fight with her life.

Adah is enjoying weeks of peace with her children in their new apartment until one morning, Francis like a possessed Sapana worshiper stormed her house and started beating her claiming that once married means forever married that she can’t divorce him, he locks the door behind and started destroying her newly bought room materials. The neighbors were the ones who rescue her from Francis and this incident snowball her into going to court in other to have protection against such future occurrences. Francis has cleverly burnt their marriage certificate and her passport that could’ve served as evidence of their marriage but the court nonetheless ordered him to perform responsibility as a husband by paying her maintenance fee while he is to repair the broken items. Likewise, she is free from Francis and his family hullabaloos and finally set up to become a writer, mother to her children, and seamstress. Perhaps sometimes she might continue her education.

Ridwan Daud is a graduate of English/Political science at Emmanuel Alayande College of Education Oyo. He’s now 200level student of English in Ahmadu Bello University Kaduna.