This article is based on my MA Research Paper
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The Shifting Identities of Women in Post- Colonial Africa, with
reference to Ways of Dying and Black Diamond by Zakes Mda
Author : ZNL Khanyile (Ms) 24/11/2015 Pretoria South Africa
Introduction
This research paper is informed by the framework of Womanism introduced by two
intellectual women. One is from Nigeria known as Chikwenye Ogunyemi and the other is
from South Africa, Cheryl De La Rey. The reason behind the chosen theories lies in the
recognition that gender issues affecting women in Africa, especially Black women, are in one
way or the other connected to the cultural setup intertwined in the moral fiber of each
community or society. Culture has been noted to take center stage in how women of Africa
conduct themselves, which in turn reveals the fact that solutions taken to solve women's
problems should take culture into consideration. Without the analysis of culture, all
endeavors to deal with African Black women's issues will be fruitless.
In my research paper for Master of A rts degree (English Studies), I have studied a number of
feminist theories by Western scholars, such as the theory of Existentialism by Simone de
Beauvoir, Marxism, Freudian framework and others . I have also read the womanism theory
by a Black American author Alice Walker, but I speak in agreement with other scholars who
discovered that most of these theories fall short when applied to solve some or the majority of
problems faced by African black women. Walker's theory come a step closer to depicting
most of the issues faced by black women but there are concerns which when analyzed depict
divergent views and areas of dis-ease in the African context. In fact the theory of Africana
Womanism by Hudson-Wheems proves to be the most convincing and preferred in African
context when compared to other theories by Western scholars because it involves a study of
black women in Africa and it foregrounds the issues of ethnicity and culture which is lacking
in post-modern theories.
I have therefore taken a stance in this research article to analyze only theories designed by
African women residing in Africa or in diaspora to be able to dive deeper into the root cause
of African women's behavior and their plight against patriarchy, and all other oppressing
issues.The main focus therefore in this research paper is to unveil women's op pressing issues
which need urgent attention. I also plan to put to the fore the challenges that have become
common knowledge including public opinion, but possibly give us a new perspective in
understanding African women and their circumstances. History can also house some of the
narratives considered crucial in the analysis of women's issues which I may not be able to
explore in this short article.
Gender relations in the 21st century : A shift from the norm
Keywords:
Gender Relations; Shifting Identities; African Black Women; Feminism; Womanism
The state of gender relations evolves with time like any other theory or system that affects
how we live as human beings. Gender relations in the 21st century have changed completely
compared to the 20th century and other centuries preceding it. But the enemy of most women
which is patriarchy is also regenerating itself and emerges with new ways of keeping women
oppressed and dependent on men. If possible we can use technology as an analogy to
symbolize how patriarchy effects its multiple stature. Technology improves and changes all
the time and it is up to us end-users to keep abreast of all the new information provided. That
is how patriarchy competes with any attempts women thrust to curb it, which eliminates the
possibility of its extinction completely . Looking at this assertion, it can be noted that
patriarchy is impossible to eliminate but it has to be subverted like any other system in an
attempt to shed its strength. Women have a challenge to continually build their lives and their
future to deal with any stumbling blocks presented to them through the system of patriarchy.
In an article titled African Gender Trouble and African Womanism: An Interview with
Chikwenye Ogunyemi and Wanjira Muthoni by Susan Arndt published in the year 2000, in
Signs journal, we are given an African perspective on what some of African intellectual
women think of Womanism as a concept applied to understand issues of women in Africa.
Ogunyem i in her paper titled 'Did anybody Disappear? Covering Womanist Sights', explored
the post-colonial reality of African women (and men) and the way African writers perceive it
(Arndt: 2000). And, she discussed her concept of womanism.
Interestingly, in an interview it was discovered that Ogunyemi and her counterpart affirm ed
that they cannot identify with White Western feminism as a system because it concentrates
solely on the question of gender, while they as African women view gender relationships
always in the context of other political, economic, cultural and social forms and mechanics of
oppression such as racism, neo-colonialism, (cultural) imperialism, capitalism, religious
fundamentalism, and dictatorial and corrupt systems(Arndt: 2000).
Cheryl De La Rey, then a lecturer at the University of Cape Town in 1997, Psychology
Department, in her research article South African Feminism, Race and Racism published on
Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, discusses the subject of 'women and
difference' among women when dealing with gender issues. De La Rey proclaims that while
the 'difference debate' has many meanings in international feminist writings and discussions,
in South Africa it has been primarily deployed to refer to race and racism, specifically the
relations between black and white women involved in gender activism. She points out that
the difference debate introduced not only race into feminist theory, but other categories of
social relations as well such as class, sexual orientation, ethnicity among others (De La Rey:
1997). In analysis of the views provided by both Ogunyemi and De La Rey, I notice that their
theories converge on a number of issues. They offer frameworks that seem to cultivate a
meaningful understanding of African women and their circumstances. They are both in
recognition of the fact that in order to analyse problems underlying gender in an African
context, one has to take into consideration aspects such as race, class, culture and ethnicity.
Referring to Ways of Dying (1995) by Zakes Mda after reading the two theories of womanism
mentioned above, I acquired a new perspective on the subject of characterisation. To fully
understand women characters in the novels of Mda, I had to contextualise their being bearing
in mind the issues of race, class and gender as well as the cultural aspect. In my reflection I
had to understand that looking at solely race, class and gender aspects is not enough since
women in Africa operate within culturally demanding settings. Therefore culture cannot be
ignored since it serves as a base for their upbringing. In fact I equally agree with Nah Dove
(1998) in her statement when she asserted that the concept of culture as a tool of analysis for
understanding the nature of African women's experiences should be implemented. This gave
me a holistic understanding to African women as human beings, and as women and their
circumstances, and certainly a new perception on myself as an African woman.
Mary Kolawole in her chapter, Re-conceptualising African Gender Theory: Feminism,
Womanism and the Arere Metaphor, which forms part of the text Re-thinking Sexualities in
Africa (2004) points out that the South African writer Miriam Tlali in her works published in
1989, prefers to be recognized simply as the voice of African women speaking on their behalf
and striving to make their voice audible,
In South Africa we live under a pyramid of power, so I regard
myself as the voice of the African woman who is oppressed politically,
socially and culturally. There is not enough emphasis given to the
plight of the South African woman. I insist on this in my collection
of short stories Soweto Stories…African women have no voice, no platform
and nobody cares… Therefore I feel that I must address them in my writing. (Tlali 1989:69)
Tlali's statement signifies that, like all gender activists she prefers to perceive her activism as
inclusive because cul ture in the African context cannot be ignored. Community remains at the
centre of her activism. It should be noted that Tlali sees the plight of women in the same way
as other gender activists in Africa such as Chikwenye Ogunyemi. It is in this light that I tried
to understand the character of Noria in Ways of Dying.
Noria is one of the main characters in the novel. During the process of analysis of her
character, I discovered the shift in her identity as a character. At the beginning of the novel
Noria entertained men through prostitution and failed to complete her secondary education.
But her character grows. As the plot develops we find out that she discards prostitution when
her first born son dies and she joins the political liberation movement. She works with other
women in her community fighting for freedom, looking after the children and the homeless.
Noria takes a decision about her relationships with men including her sexual preferences. She
turns down Bhut'Shaddy's proposal to have a love relationship with him. Shaddy is the only
person in the informal settlement who has better means of earning a living. He has a taxi, a
spaza shop and a van. All these three ventures bring him money. Noria understands that
Bhut'Shaddy proposed to her because he thinks he can provide for her, and strangely
Bhut'Shaddy begins to show interest in Noria after seeing her with Toloki. Apparently Noria
has decided that Bhut'Shaddy does not love her for who she is. He simply wants to spend his
money on her and in return she would be his woman. In that regard his ego and manhood will
be elevated. But, the shift in Noria's identity prevents all the possibilities of the relationship
being formed and Noria is protected in the process.
Toloki does not understand why Noria prefers to turn down this man who for sure would
provide for Noria. When he asks her why, Noria tells him, "I have been chewed, Toloki.
Chewed, and then spewed." (Mda: 144). Toloki does not understand, but as readers we do.
Noria means that she has done everything to have good time and at the end she has nothing
she can be proud of. Of course as readers we know the difficulties she went through. As a
result she has vouched never to take anything from men. She pays Bhut'Shaddy for
delivering the material for building her shack after it was burnt down on the night of her
son's murder.
Noria talks about her sexual preferences with Toloki who has moved in with her. She breaks
the silence where women for centuries have been ashamed or scared to talk about their
feelings and desires with their male partners. This is what women in the 21 st century should
strive for. They need to take charge of their bodies, feelings and their lives in general.
In Ways of Dying , Noria creates a new identity for herself that ensures that she becomes a
respected person in the community. She prefers to 'die' as a prostitute and is 'born' as a
respectable independent woman. This is the kind of death that is not physical but spiritual.
She dies from her old ways and emerges as a new woman, who creates and arranges her
social space the manner in which she needs to be understood. The identity shift is noticed in
her behaviour the minute she takes a decision to engender her life meaningfully. In turning
around her life she simultaneously turns around the lives of others in her community.
In Black Diamond (2009), Tumi was born and brought up in Soweto, a township. She is
portrayed as a very strong character regardless of her upbringing in an environment which is
plagued by poverty, poor education system, uprisings, crime and other problems faced by all
people in the townships. In the democracy she quickly learns how to operate in order to
accumulate wealth to be financially independent. She does not expect her boyfriend to
provide for her. In fact she is the one assisting her boyfriend to get a good job or start his own
business.
Tumi is one of the characters who prove to be interesting. She represents a group of young
black women in her society who are determined to enjoy the fruits of democracy by
associating themselves with the high officials in government. Tumi is prepared to educate
herself to understand how to become connected with those who control the wealth in South
Africa. She seems to understand the proceedings or logistics of networking in business in a
country where democracy is still new. She is a complete opposite of her boyfriend in the
sense that, Don as an ex-guerrilla fighter, does not believe in being connected in order to
become recognised. He still believes in working hard the same way he did when he was in
exile fighting for freedom. He believes in the sharing of power and resources of the country
to benefit all the citizens of South Africa. We cannot blame him for this because it shows that
he was a true freedom fighter. But the 'game has changed', it is no longer what they were
made to believe when they were still in exile. As a result he feels cheated by the same
comrades he fought with during the post-colonial era. Now that the country has attained
independence, comrades are working for themselves. Seemingly their sole aim is to
accumulate power to enrich themselves through government tenders.
When Don displays an attitude of not being interested, Tumi points out that if Don does not
want to take up the challenge he will never go far. This is what she says,
With an attitude like that you won't get anywhere, Don.
Positive thinking! That's what you need. I wouldn't be where
I am now if it was not for positive thinking. That's one thing
that people like Molotov Mbungane have th at you lack: positive thinking! (Mda: 16)
Tumi appears to be stronger than Don in the sense that she is determined to survive and not
complain about what the government should do because she realises that the struggle now
requires one to fight for oneself. She understands that if she does not fight, she may, like most
people lead a difficult life. She understands that government tenders are accompanied by a lot
of corruption but she ignores that because if she does not take chances, someone else will.
This is one of the aspects that women seem to be very strong in, 'positive thinking'. In most
cases men are impatient, if the situation does not turn in their favour, and they cannot control
it, they become impatient and complain. But women are strong when it comes to being
patient. May be this can be attributed to the fact that previously they were expected not to
question culture and religion, but were supposed to persevere. And maybe that is how women
learnt the art of patience and positive thinking that one day the situation will be better.
The cultural dimension apparent in understanding African women serves to explain why
Tumi (Black) is different to Kristin (White). Their political spheres, upbringing and
socialization including cultural practices speak volumes of their dissimilar personas. They are
both women born and brought up in South Africa but because of the race element in their
lives they appear to be totally different. This can be attributed to the Apartheid regime which
favoured the one and discriminated the other on the basis of their race. I think this is what De
La Rey (1977) perceived in her discussions with women of different races in South Africa.
The subject of 'women and difference' cannot be ignored in women's issues.
In the 21st century women understand that wealth gives them power to control relationships
which is what men have been doing for centuries. This may sound negative in the sense that it
may depict women as materialistic, but the demands of capitalism and patriarchy require
women to be overly ambitious.
Women are shifting their positions in order to emancipate themselves financially, which in
turn uplifts their status. Gender relations take a new form because dependency on men which
was designed through the systems of colonialism and patriarchy is losing its power. Women
are now providing for themselves. The lesson and the perception in this analysis is that
money gives people power regardless of their gender.
Looking at the analysis of characters from both novels, it is easy to recognize that African
women can only be understood if aspects of race, class, culture and ethnicity are taken into
consideration. To understand the character of Noria, one has to look at where she stays, in a
squatter camp. Again to understand Tumi, we have to look at Soweto, a township. If we do
that our analysis will foreground a true reflection which is what Ogunyem i and De La Rey
affirm, that is, gender relations in Africa requires a holistic approach which accommodates
the above-mentioned aspects because they influence how women experience and lead their
lives.
Ogunyem i gives us an example to illustrate her views in an interview she had with Arndt.
(Arndt: 2000) The interview highlighted the fact that literature can change the way people
think and organise their lives. Ogunyemi related that a Kenyan woman living in Nigeria had
conducted a study on the young women graduates fresh from the university. The researcher
discovered that a number of young women, even though it was a small percentage, preferred
to marry into polygamous households compared to monogamy. This, they argued, was to
ensure that they escape oppression (by men in monogamous marriages) experienced by
women in Ogunyem i's generation or even in previous generations. They want children but
they also want to be free in marriage. In Ogunyemi's sense, the young women are re-
arranging the marriage institution, and manipulating the system so that children have access
to their father, and the women like men, are free to come and go.
Ogunyem i thinks that this shift in thinking may be as a result of reading the works of writers
such as Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata Aidoo and their contemporaries. I, as a researcher can
think of other examples in our country, South Africa to support the views presented by
Ogunyem i. A number of political leaders in government are in polygamous marriages with
women who are beautiful and educated and who are eligible to find single men as their
preferred partners. If we analyse this trend it is easier to see that women still want to get
married but they want their freedom too. On the other hand men think they are in control
whereas women have manipulated the system of patriarchy so that men think they are still in
control when in fact they are not.
African women, for ages, have been understood to hate polygamy but had to marry into it
since without education it seemed pointless to fight against it. Arranged marriages were
another tool men employed in forcing women to marry in polygamy even if a man was as old
as the woman's father. Women had been seen persevering in harsh circumstances because
they felt they could not leave their children with the other wives of their husbands for fear of
ill-treatment. They preferred to endure it all for the sake of their children. But now the wheel
has turned. A certain percentage of them do not see it as a problem anymore as long as they
are educated, have children, a ring on their finger, money and freedom.
Chikwenye Ogunyemi's and Cheryl De La Rey's theories give us (African women) new fresh
ideas about who we are and how we need to think of ourselves, and how we are required to
read our circumstances. Their theories are like a mirror, giving us our own reflections and
allowing us to see the real image of an African woman and her circumstances. Almost all
African women can identify or see a substantial part of their lives reflected in the frameworks
by the two women. Their ideas seem to illustrate substantively the circumstances surrounding
African women. For most African women, 'listening' to one of their African sisters
dissecting the plight against forms of oppression directed at women of Africa, is something
that cannot be underestimated. It is a rare opportunity. Their theories have given us African
women a voice, a mirror and a world platform in which to present and debate issues affecting
us without confusing our experiences with those of women in other continents of the world.
Conclusion
A number of African women authors have written extensively on issues affecting women in
our continent such as Bessie Head, Mirrian Tlali, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tsitsi Dangarembga and
others even though they did not specifically categorize their works or package their struggles
in any form of theory. But, what is crucial is that they managed to relate and share their
experiences and frustrations, their opinions, findings and recommendations in literary texts
they produced. Reading their works allow us, African women an opportunity to connect and
to see ourselves in them, understanding where we originate and where we are heading. Their
texts serve as a connection that will never be broken by the impact of time or any form of
erasure threatening our memory of them. Now the onus is upon us as the emerging generation
of writers and researchers to carry the torch forward by reflecting on the shifting norms of
gender relations and other aspects directly related to it such as culture, that are crucial to the
understanding and well-being of women and their societies.
References
Mda, Z. 2009. Black Diamond. South Africa. Penguin Books
Mda, Z. 1995. Ways of Dying. South Africa. Oxford University Press
Arndt, S. 2000. African Gender Trouble and African Womanism: An interview with Chikwenye Ogunyeni and
Wanjira Muthoni. Signs Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 709-726
CHERYL DE LA REY (1997) South African feminism, race and racism, Agenda: Empowering women for
gender equity, 13:32, 6- 10
Hudson- Wheems, C. 2000. Chapter 14 Africana Womanism in Out of the Revolution: The Development of
Africana Studies. Edited by Aldridge, P & Young, C. USA. Lexington Books pp. 205- 217.
African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory. Author(s): Nah Dove Source: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 28,
No. 5 (May, 1998), pp. 515- 539
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
- Susan Arndt
Chikwenye Ogunyemi apporte sa conception du feminisme, le womanism, a travers sa conviction que la question de genre ne peut etre traitee que dans le contexte d'autres questions pertinentes pour la femme Africaine, telles que les questions de droit, de langage, de generations, de religion, de culture, ainsi que les contextes economiques et politiques. Wanjira Muthoni, quant a elle, s'appuye sur son experience d'ecriture et de reecriture d'histoires suivant les structures des recits oraux traditionnels, mais debarasses de leurs prejuges misogynes
Black Diamond. South Africa. Penguin Books Mda, Z. 1995. Ways of Dying. South Africa
- Z Mda
Mda, Z. 2009. Black Diamond. South Africa. Penguin Books Mda, Z. 1995. Ways of Dying. South Africa. Oxford University Press
South African feminism, race and racism, Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity
- Cheryl De
- L A Rey
CHERYL DE LA REY (1997) South African feminism, race and racism, Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity, 13:32, 6-10
Chapter 14 Africana Womanism in Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies
- C Hudson-Wheems
Hudson-Wheems, C. 2000. Chapter 14 Africana Womanism in Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies. Edited by Aldridge, P & Young, C. USA. Lexington Books pp. 205-217.
African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory Author(s): Nah Dove Source
African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory. Author(s): Nah Dove Source: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 28, No. 5 (May, 1998), pp. 515-539
Author(s): Nah Dove Source
- African Womanism
African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory. Author(s): Nah Dove Source: Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 28, No. 5 (May, 1998), pp. 515-539
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Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284586094_The_Shifting_Identities_of_Women_in_Post-Colonial_Africa_with_reference_to_Ways_of_Dying_and_Black_Diamond_by_Zakes_Mda
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