AFRICAN WOMANISM AND THE HOME: THE THREE PERSPESCTIVES OF WOMANHOOD IN MARIAMA BA’S SO LONG A LETTER
Authors:
ADAM Ezinwanyi
Publication Type: Journal article
Journal:
ISSN Number:
0
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Abstract
Home is the centre of the African woman’s experience. A typical African woman desires to be loved by a man, be married and to have children for the man whom she married. Perhaps, this is why when a woman is getting matured, she feels she has to settle down and build a home. When suitors are not coming, she becomes apprehensive and sometimes feels desperate and depressed. However, the African woman, no matter how desperate, desires not just any home but a home that is built on love and trust, much more on God. This paper therefore examines African womanhood from three perspectives as presented in Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter: First, it considers what African culture and traditions expect of a woman as seen in the text; secondly, what the women are concerning their position in the home, what they turned themselves into; and lastly, what the role and position of women should be in the homes and society without affecting the home structure. The study discusses womanism as practiced by the originators (Black-Americans) and as practiced by the indigenous African women. It highlights the themes of unity, strength, courage, love and humility as tools for self-assertion, fulfillment, identification and goal-realisation by African women in their societies. It also highlights the new hopes, ideas and opinions about the status of women in African homes and societies.