The Feminine Voice of Africa - Essay Example

The Feminine Voice of Africa— Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane fictionalizes the real-life story of a railroad strike on the Dakar-Niger line that lasted from 1947 to 1948. The novel, set in Senegal, recounts the vivid and timeless tale of the strife for human rights and the battle against colonialism, evincing all the color, passion, and tragedy of those formative years in the history of West Africa. Through his works, Ousmane highlighted and addressed the themes of the history of colonialism, the failings of religion, the critique of the new African bourgeoisie, and the strength of African women. Written in a social realist mode, so characteristic of Ousmane, God’s Bits of Wood addresses the concerns of waged-labourers at the hands of the imperialist forces. Though the charismatic and exemplary union spokesman, Ibrahima Bakayoko, is the protagonist in the story, the novel has no true hero except the community itself. Men and women both get caught up by the forces of history and circumstances of their physical and social environment, getting transformed in the process. As a result, they are bound together by a common fate in the face of hardship and oppression to assert their rights. Ousmane portrays the strike from all possible angles and in that respect the novel is often compared to Émile Zolas masterpiece, Germinal. Strike as a Catalyst for Human Change In God’s Bits of Wood, the strike causes an evolution in the self-perceptions of the Africans themselves, both men and women. This is most evident in the women characters—Bamako, Thies, and Dakar. These women go from mutely standing behind the men in their lives, to walking alongside them and eventually marching ahead of them. In the course of the novel, they undergo a metamorphosis in terms of initiative and expression. Ousmane establishes the central issue in the opening pages of the novel through the musings of Niakoro, an aged woman of the community. When the men are able to work the jobs that the train factory provides them, the women are responsible for running the markets, preparing the food, and rearing the children. However with the onset of the strike, the role of bread-winner or perhaps more precisely bread scavenger, shifts to the women. Women go from supporting the strike to actively participating in the strike. Eventually, it is the women that march on foot, over four days from Thies to Dakar. Many of the men originally oppose this womens march, but it is precisely this show of determination from the women whom the French had dismissed as merely ‘concubines’ that makes clear the strikers relentlessness. The womens march causes the French to understand the nature of the willpower faced by them, and shortly after the French agree to the demands of the strikers. So in effect, the revolt of the meekest and the weakest section of the colonised open the eyes of the colonizers. The book also highlights the oppression faced by women in the pre-colonial era. They were deprived of expressing themselves and speaking about their lives in particular and the society in general. Ousmane, however, tries to raise women to a higher spectrum by considering them as equally important in any social movement. Women in Other Contemporary Novels by African Writers Here I would like to bring into our discussion, Chinua Achebe’s seminal African novel in English Things Fall Apart, published in 1958 and examine and compare the portrayal of women in the novel. Things Fall Apart portrays Africa, particularly the Ibo society, right before the arrival of the white man, analyzing the destruction of African culture by the appearance of the white man in terms of the destruction of the bonds between individuals and their society. Achebe, who teaches us a great deal about Ibo society and translates Ibo myth and proverbs, also explains the role of women in pre-colonial Africa. ‘…his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness (16)’ describe in a nutshell the worldview of Okonkwo, a tragic hero. Okonkwo hated anything weak or frail, and his descriptions of his tribe and the members of his family show that in Ibo society anything strong was likened to man and anything weak to woman. Because Nwoye, his son by his first wife, reminds Okonkwo of his father Unoka he describes him as woman-like. After hearing of Nwoyes conversion to the Christianity, Okonkwo ponders how he, ‘a flaming fire could have begotten a son like Nwoye, degenerate and effeminate’ (143). On the other hand, his daughter Ezinma whom he believes to be strong and individualistic ‘should have been a boy.’ (61) Although he favored her the most out of all of his children, yet ‘if Ezinma had been a boy [he] would have been happier.’ (63) After killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo, who cannot understand why he is so distraught, asks himself, ‘When did you become a shivering old woman?’ (62) When his tribesmen look as if they are not going to fight against the intruding missionaries, Okonkwo remembers the ‘days when men were men.’ (184) Achebe shows that the Ibo nonetheless assign important roles to women. For instance, women painted the houses of the egwugwu. Furthermore, the first wife of a man in the Ibo society is paid some respect illustrated by the palm wine ceremony. ‘A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland.’ These words spoken by Okonkwo’s uncle Uchendu in the novel further highlight the importance of women. So while in God’s Bits of Wood the importance of women is depicted more in terms of action, as displayed in their transformation, Things Fall Apart, displays the significance of women in society more in symbolic terms. So Long a Letter by Senegalese author Mariama Ba gives another perspective of African society and its women. It traces the story of Ramatoulaye Fall, a recent widow as she recounts her trials and tribulations when her husband, Moudou, betrayed their marriage by taking a young second wife. . ‘You cant resist the imperious laws that demand food and clothing for man. The same laws compel the male in other respects. I say “male” to emphasize the bestiality of instincts...,’ says Ramatoulaey to her daughter in the novel. In letting one woman eloquently relate the pain of her heartbreak, Ba suggests that all women have important stories to tell and that their plight should be given a voice. To conclude, I would like to quote a popular passage from Ngugi Wa ThiongO Devil on the Cross which mirrors the feminity as well as courage of a woman: ‘her dark eyes radiating the light of an inner courage, the courage and light of someone with firm aims in life - yes, the firmness and the courage and the faith of someone who has achieved something through self-reliance. Whats the use of shuffling along timidly in ones own country?’ Sources: 1. Ousmane, Sembene. God’s Bits of Woods. Published 1995 Heinemann. 2. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 1994 edition Anchor Books. 3. Ba, Mariama. So Long a Letter. Translated by Modupe Bode-Thomas. Published 1989 Heinemann. 4. Thiongo, Ngugi wa. Devil on the Cross. Published 1987 Heinemann. Read More