Perspective Chapter: Exploring the Role of Female Characters to Fights Their Rights against Male Domination in the Selected Literary Works of Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the male domination that affected almost women under the African patriarchal traditional system. This article also examines how female characters challenge the several subordinations and suffering as a result of domestic violence experienced at their matrimonial homes. The theoretical perspective that framed the study was feminism. The data were obtained by selecting some relevant excerpts analysing the two novels (The Bride Price, Purple Hibiscus) using textual analysis. The findings revealed that all the characters individually were able to reveal their responses, and experiences on the value of the humanity with equity and justice, which challenged the primitive culture in African society. The finding yielded four themes including (a) forced/arranged marriage; (b) gender inequality to acquire education; (d) psychological abuse; and (d) physical abuse. Finally, these findings provided an empirical support for the application of the global feminism from two African feminist writers.

1. Introduction

Society is the group of people living together in a more or less ordered community. According to [1, 2], who argues that society is a group of people engaged in a social interaction among themselves sharing the same region, territory and geopolitical zones. Every society were characterised by certain social relationships/interaction between individuals who shares a similar culture and institutions [3, 4]. However, most African societies share the same or similar norms and cultures in which all men were superior taking the roles in all situations such as controlling every activity at home, all family responsibilities including feeding, clothing, market, farmland and all times, which led total control while women were subjugated and underrated. Perhaps, in most cases, women are seen as material things or sex objects that can be used, work with or played with, were suffered, maltreated and also left out when they are no more useful at home or in their communities [5, 6].

Similarly, in African primitive practices under patriarchal, for example, several men regarded women as objects of sexual partner if needs arise rather seen them as human being who has equal rights or privileges compared to their men counterparts Abubakar, [7]; Astrick [8]. Similarly, Azuike [9] argues about how females battle to defeat underestimation and male dominance culture in Purple Hibiscus. The analysis affirms that harmony will keep on evading at the home. The novel depicts how the world does not take measures to handle the subjection and infringement of females’ rights. Azuike [9] further listed major problems faced by African women such as domestic violence, civil war, conflicts, sexual assault, senseless brutality and mental maltreatment of women, which effectually affect their prosperity.

However, based on the general beliefs about women in Africa, this study aims to examine the male domination under the African patriarchal issues which affected women from the feminist perspective approach. Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were chosen as case studies. The two feminist literary texts address primitive cultural issues that focus on the critical and different experiences faced by all women of all cultures in the African continent. Feminist issues are examined in the text and the issues are related to the ideologies about women in the African society [10, 11]. These selections of the two feminist novels explore how female characters struggle to fight for their rights in all forms of male subjugation and set themselves free from all sorts of suffering, subjugation of male domination and independent women.

2. The main objectives of the chapter

The present study utilises two selected literary works for the data analysis, it is different from other fields of research like participant observation whereby the researchers must go to a place or venue where events take place to collect the data. Therefore, the researcher did not go any place or field, his data was sourced from The Bride Price and Purple Hibiscus. These aforementioned novels were read as the main focus of the analysis. The present study made the selection by considering their fiction writing, they share several themes that explored the cultures and languages they belong to. For example, they describe several effects of British colonisation on their people, natives, their lands and their education. Their literary narratives have attracted many feminist thinkers, social critics and cultural scholars as examples of the ways in which the Africans were socially, morally and psychologically maimed by the colonial masters. The two selected novels exemplified such traumatic experiences and offer a useful testing ground for the theme of woman representation, this study examined the patriarchal treatments imposed on them and explored their actions to rescue themselves.

3. Methodology

The purpose of the study was to examine the male domination of women and explore patriarchal treatments received by women characters as depicted in the two selected novels of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Pride Price and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. The choice of selecting two feminists’ writers most of their literary fiction focuses on issues of gender discrimination, subordination, effects of colonialism myth and other primitive cultures affecting challenges for African women. Another reason they belong to commonwealth feminist writers whos fictional works have received recognition from both international and local literary critics, linguist scholars and cultural scholars.

3.1 Research approach

Seitz also defines literary analysis as a form of research approach, whichaimed to understand literature in its relevant context. In addition, Seitz further argues that literary analysis researchers may experience some challenges because of the nature and its subjectivity and the researcher’s reading experience and thorough observation and understanding of selected literary texts.

The present study used novels and applied literary analysis and examined traditional patriarchal treatments of women through selection of dialogues and conversation depicted in selected two novels of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price and Purple Hibiscus of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Seitz opines that literary analysis aims at understanding literature in its relevant context and it involves a researcher selecting a text for thorough reading and detailed analysis of literature under study at a particular time. The analysis was based on the following steps: (1) The researcher involved in managing and reducing the data, which he selected and then underlined specific passages or excerpts from the texts, did note taking of specific places, events and episodes that helped in the discussion of the objectives; (2) The researcher selected prominent characters whose actions helped in the development of the themes and examined the episodes, events and actions of characters from the texts; (3). The researcher validated the analysis using quoted messages from the two selected novels.

The researcher read the two novels intensively several times to familiarise themself with the events and episodes, which Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s highlighted on gender issues in the novels. During the second reading, the researcher began to take notes of the relevant data for the study. In the third reading, the researcher began marking and underlining specific passages, events, episodes and characters from where the data were obtained. In the final reading, relevant characters, events, scenes, passages and episodes that were to be used as the data for the study were identified and marked accordingly.

In addition, relevant excerpts and, at times, whole passages quoted from the novels are in line with feminism to support the claims and objectives of the chapter. Characterisation, dialogues, actions and views of the characters, episodes and events were highlighted and explained.

However, objective was to explore how Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Adichie portrayed treatments of women traditional patriarchal women depicted in their four novels. For objective two. To show the women’s reactions towards the patriarchal power imposed on them as depicted by Buchi Emecheta in The Bride Price and in Purple Hibiscus of Chimamanda Adichie through the narration of their stories.

The present study applied feminism. The study justifies the selection of postcolonial feminist two prominent female writers. Both two are influential writers, Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have a lot of similarities despite the differences in their writing period backgrounds. They grew up in Nigeria and were able to travel out to the UK and the United States of America which means that all of them are Diaspora’s female writers.

Considering their fictional writing they share several themes that explored the gender, cultures and language they belong to. For example, two feminist writers described several effects of British colonisation on their people, natives, their lands and their education. Their literary narratives have attracted many critics, cultural scholars and feminist thinkers as examples of the ways in which the Africans were socially, morally and psychologically maimed by the colonial masters. Feminism was applied to explain how Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie portrayed characters’ actions and roles to subtly the patriarchal treatment they received.

The researcher selected the novels based on the impact of their literary works on postcolonial literature as justified by previous literary critics such as [12, 13]. The present examined and explored the persistent treatment imposed on them and explored characters’ actions to rescue themselves, which are in line with feminism as one of the two theoretical perspectives that guided the study. According to Amouzou [14] who claims that ‘a central task of feminism is to examine women’s oppression and the possibilities for resistance and positive change’. (p. 13). He further stated that feminism is a movement to liberate every woman from the bondage of suffering and subjugation and were regarded as subjects in the society. Creswell argues that qualitative research data analysis begins ‘hand-in hand’ with another section of developing the qualitative research approach, including data collection, thorough reading of the rough data and writing up the findings. As discussed earlier, the data for the current study were collected from two selected novels of Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as follows:

1. The Bride Price (1976)

2. Purple Hibiscus (2003).

The researcher made the decision of selecting these novels, which addressed the subject matter and all are representing postcolonial periods. Four steps were used step 1, familiarise the events, step 2, began taking notes, step 3, the researcher marked and underlined the specific passages and step 4 focuses on the major characters’ actions and events. These novels are written documents that served as main sources of data in form of related episodes, excerpts and quotations and sometimes citing all passages were selected from the novels and were analysed. The analysis of the data was guided by the chapter objectives, as well as the research’s theoretical perspectives. The researcher divided the data into segments to make desired meaning accordingly.

The present study applied feminism. This perspective was used to explain the relationship between the two selected novels. In doing this, the patterns and trends in the way of themes emerged. The themes show the strength of patriarchal oppression of women, the quotations and excerpts portrayed both male and female characters’ actions that contributed to exposing their subjugations, while other episodes narrated by the two feminist writers explored the awareness to express their rights of women characters in the selected four novels.

3.2 Text selection

The present study utilises two selected literary works for the data analysis, it is different from other fields of research like participant observation whereby the researchers must go to a place or venue where events take place to collect the data. Therefore, the researcher did not go to any place or field, his data was sourced from The Bride Priceand Purple Hibiscus. These aforementioned novels were read as the main focus of the analysis. The present study made the selection by considering their fiction writing and they share several themes that explored the cultures and languages they belong to. For example, they describe several effects of British colonisation on their people, natives, their lands and their education. Their literary narratives have attracted many critics, cultural scholars and feminist thinkers as examples of the ways in which the Africans were socially, morally and psychologically maimed by the colonial masters. The selected two novels exemplified such traumatic experiences and offer a useful testing ground for the theme of woman’s representation, which this study examined the patriarchal treatments imposed on them and explored their actions to rescue themselves.

However, the researcher focused on the main female characters. For example, in. In The Bride Price characters such as Ma Blackie, as mother, Akunna is also regarded as the main character. In the second novel Purple Hibiscus characters like Beatrice Mama, her daughter Kambili and aunty Ifeoma sister-in-law to Mama.

4. Findings/discussion

African society is a group of people living together in one compound, which comprises a man and a woman and their children. Society describes by social orders and connected with social relations between people who share a particular culture and same institutions (Table 1) [15].

N/O	Themes in Emecheta’s Novels	Themes in Adichie’s Novels
	gender abuse	gender abuse
	(i) Forced/ Arranged Marriages	(ii)Psychological Abuse
	(ii)-Gender inequality to acquire Education	(ii) Physical Abuse

Table 1.

Four themes emerged on the types of treatment women characters received in African patriarchal society as explored from the novels of Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Therefore, the issue of domestic violence among the family members is the one of the major challenges affecting African women. Robert and Richardson [16] notes societies construct certain norms of behaviour by deeming given actions or speech either acceptable or not acceptable. These social norms and behaviours within a given society are known as social norms.

Similarly, Azuike also noted that ‘cultural patriarchy has historically been a complex problem for African women. The traditional African customs, for instance, tend to encourage polygyny, child marriage, male-child preference and the poverty or powerlessness of women. It is not news that African narratives have numerously portrayed men who have treated their wives as common slaves or as their inferior and insignificant ‘other’ because cultural norms permit it’ (p.3). Azuike further claims that culture and religion are major challenges and are not the only drawbacks behold in African narratives, which obstructed women from subtle persistent male oppression. In fact, patriarchal structures, however, are intentionally created against women’s progress. Finally, it was suggested that African men and women joint hands end these issues of patriarchal through feminism to set women free and have equal opportunity in social-cultural and economic participation for a better life.

For the second feminist writer, Buchi Emecheta’s novel The Bride Price two themes were emerged and discussed.

4.1 Forced marriages/arranged marriages

African women especially young girls face a lot of problems in a marital institution, for example, forced marriage is one of the major challenges under patriarchal treatments wheremen have total control over their daughters to marry them off to an old man or without the consent of approval or choice of their daughters. However, Emecheta uses the title The Bride Price to symbolise the traditional practice in African culture to demand a good bride price for marriage, which also represents women’s submission to men in the patriarchal society. It is common in African culture to practice forced marriage. Forced marriage is a branch of patriarchal treatment of young girls whereby the parents of the girls arranged a local marriage on behalf of their daughter without their consent or agreement and collect a huge amount of money from a wealthy man. Daughters who got married without their parent’s consent would be regarded as having very low status as the same level of as prostitutes, evil co-wives, barren women, stepmothers and old women who are witches. Emecheta in her narration described that:

In the Bride Price, when Akunna rejected to marry Okoboshi, her mother was very angry and threatened her by saying:

I will kill you if you bring shame and dishonour on us (The Bride Price, p.121).

This an evident of how African women experience several forms of patriarchal treatment in being forced to marry or arranged marriage in their system. Furthermore, Bedana and Laishram explain that marriage is a social institution and the recognition of bride price as a social practice is a significant part of the lives of most African men and women. In the traditional setting, bride price is strictly bound to the father and his family members to decide how much the suitor is supposed to pay. They believe the social practices and taboos that continue in most African societies would affect the lives of women.

4.2 Gender inequality to acquire education

Emecheta in The Bride Price portrays the issue of denial for girls or women to acquire education. In African societies, children will suffer after the death of their father because no one will continue to take care of both the widow and her children. A conversation between Aku-nna and her brother, Nna-nndo transpired about their father who has passed away is described as such: Father is dead, she thought. But at the same time, the whole idea seemed unreal. This is not happening to me, thought Aku-nna. ‘It’s just a dream. Soon I shall wake up and father will be here.’ Then her brother’s high, childish voice broke the silence. ‘We have no father,’ he said. ‘But Nna-nndo, you are wrong,’ thought Aku-nna. ‘It’s worse than that. We have nothing. Our father named you Nna-nndo, father is the shelter. We have not only lost our father. We have lost our shelter too.’ It has always been like that in Nigeria. When you have lost your father, you have lost everything. Your mother is only a woman; she cannot do anything for you. A fatherless family is a family without a head and a family without a home (The Bride Price, p. 11).

At first, Aku-nna could not accept the fact that her father had just passed away. When she came to her senses, she realised that they had lost everything such as the house and money. In Nigeria, it is evident that once a father passed away the family will suffer, especially the widow and her children. In Igbo communities the wealth and other assets left by the deceased will be given to his younger brother and the widow will be left with no money and will be married to her brother-in-law.

In Igbo culture after the announcement of the deceased, all relatives, friends and neighbours were expected to mourn by crying loudly and desperately. Aku-nna experienced the crying of her mother during deaths of her relations, thus she understands what to do.

‘My father was a good provider. My father went to church every Sunday. He was a good husband to my mother, Ma Blackie. He bought me many dresses. He was kind to me. He sent me to school.’ This was followed by a long, wordless cry of sadness. Then she sang, ‘Who will be kind to me now? Who will send me to school? Who will feed me? Who will be a good husband to my mother? … mother, come back from Ibuza! You have lost your husband. He married you according to local custom, and then again in the Christian church. And now he has gone. Come back, mother! You have lost the father of your children …’ Aku-nna did not stop, even when the other mourners became tired. This was expected of a daughter. ‘She is doing very well’, the neighbours said to each other (The Bride Price. p. 22).

Uzo made Aku-nna realise that she had lost everything except getting married so that her husband can take care of her. However, this passage affirms with findings of Alkali [17], Eswaran and Santhi [18] studied syndrome of women subordination in the selected novel The Bride Price as a feminist novel writer. They argued that oppositional feminist perspectives depicted in such novels on Nigerian women’s inequality and injustice under African patriarchal traditional system.

Aku-nna, oooo!’ She set out in the direction of the voice. She could not answer; her throat was still too sore. Her chest felt heavy. She pulled at her thin shirt. ‘Aku-nna!’ said Uzo crossly. ‘You’ll tear your shirt! You have no father now, to buy you new clothes. Nobody will buy you any until you marry. Then your husband will take care of you (The Bride Price, p. 16).

Similarly, there is another scenario describing how young girls like Aku-nna are not allowed to go to school. When Aku-nna or other girls reached puberty, their parents will quickly marry them off in order to get a good price for the boys in the family to be educated. For example,

Auntie Metilda said about Aku-nna: They will marry her off very quickly in order to get enough money to pay Nna-nndo’s school fees (The Bride Price, p. 38).

The Bride Price depicts that acquiring education is not a good choice. ‘School, they said is no uses to free man. School is a place to send your slaves’ (The Bride Price, p. 28).

The narration explains a clear rejection of acquiring education in the traditional society because it was meant for the children of slave people. These people are not respected in the society. Due to colonialism, the people did not encourage schooling. The issue of caste system is highlighted in (The Bride Price).

Literary critics such as Begum [19], Izzu [20] and Mtenje [21, 22] argue that education needs to be offered to every woman so that they can discover themselves as human beings and suggest that men should give more priority to empowering women through education, economic and other social responsibilities. Such an idea goes in line with the fact that women subordination exists in many African communities although the situation varies in time and space. These scholars argue that all gender oppression should be eliminated to allow women to use various strategies to free themselves from male domination such as having their voices heard and acquiring education to empower themselves to make decisions on matters surrounding family and society at large.

Similarly, Simon argues on women being treated as sex objects and slaves, forced into marriage, child-birth and house-keeping chores under African patriarchal traditional system. He further explains that women particularly in rural areas were denied to acquire higher education after finishing senior secondary leaving certificates because some African men have the ideology that women’s place is at home with domestic responsibilities while public or private sectors remain for men’s place.

Bedana and Laishram acknowledge the effort of Buchi Emecheta’s creative writing through educated female characters by calling for a social change and all women must acquire education to liberate themselves from the current situation. This finding shares the same idea with Daimari [23] who argues that the only way of subverting all forms of women subordination, domestic violence in their matrimonial home and gender injustice under male domination is to educate women so that they know their rights, brave to raise their voice, partaking decision making, which could help to empower themselves socially, politically and economically.

Becker [6] suggests that for women who suffer under the traditional patriarchal society such discrimination, degradation and social inequality can affect their well-being. In addition, African feminist writers such as Chimamanda Adichie and Buchi Emecheta focus their literary fiction on the fight against patriarchy system in order to create new spaces of educated female characters who are independent and vocal at large.

Emecheta notes that education helps towards the development of any society and she always encourages younger generation, particularly girls, and she believes that ‘If ones educates a woman, one educates a community, but if one educates a man, educates a man’ (The Joys of the Motherhood, p. 555).

Similarly, Emecheta believes that women’s education assists towards self and family and it helps in women’s liberation, promoting awareness to know self and other relations. From the narration of the story in The Bride Price, Akunna the main character, after the death of her father, attempted to learn and be educated but faced an objection from her uncle’s eldest son Iloba because she is a girl, this is clear of gender inequality, the narrator describes gender discrimination in her novel, which is a serious problem in the Nigerian society.

African literature gives us a clear picture of African women we come across with various types of projection of women characters. Most of the past studies describe women as housewives, mothers and daughters who are highly engaged in their domestic work serving their husbands and child upbringing and assisting the family by providing happiness and affection. However, the narration of the two novels of Bride Price and Purple Hibiscus shares the same themes in terms of women suffering from primitive cultures and traditions. For example, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s writing is another effort to voice out internal feelings, which encourages all women to wake up in any way that challenges the status quo. Her fictional works reawaken images of African women dominated by patriarchal structures.

Buchi Emecheta as an African female writer challenged the status quo in the social, and cultural of their societies by using her fictional writing to present characters who resist all sorts of patriarchal treatments and oppression. One of Nno Ego twins’ daughter, Kehinde fell in love with a Yoruba man, Aremu and wanted to marry him. However, Nnaife, Nno Ego’s husband did not approve of the choice. He wanted Kehinde to marry an Ibo man. On first night, after arguing with her father about the issue, Kehinde slept at Aremu’s house rather than coming home. When it was quite late, her family members began looking for her. Nnaife went straight into the house of Aremu carrying a machete, shouting at him.

Consequently, in African society, men are using social norms by taking all roles at all times, while women are regarded as material things or objects that can be used and, sometimes, they can also be discarded. The first major theme found under cultural invisibility is family abuse in the Purple Hibiscus novel. The novel centres on a family of Papa Eugene as the head of the family and Mama Beatrice as his wife with the children Kambili (sister) and Jaja (brother). The wife and children are portrayed to be experiencing abuse by Eugene. In traditional African patriarchal society, the head of the family or husband is considered to have full power over the family. For example,

‘Let me stay in the car and wait, biko,’ Mama said, leaning against the Mercedes. I feel vomit in my throat. Papa turned to stare at her. I held my breath. It seemed a long moment, but it might have been only seconds. ‘Are you sure you want to stay in the car? Papa asked. Mama was looking down; her hands were placed on her belly, to hold the wrapper from untying itself or to keep her bread and tea breakfast down. ‘My body does not feel right,’ she mumbled. ‘I asked if you were sure you wanted to stay in the car.’ Mama looked up. ‘I’ll come with you. It’s really not that bad’. (Purple Hibiscus, p. 29).

The above incident reveals how Eugene does not consider the feelings of Mama Beatrice. As African woman, she has to obey her husband and has no other options or choices of her own. Either at home or outside, Mama Beatrice has no right of making her choice.

‘Kevin brought samples for Mama to look at, and she picked some and showed Papa, so he could make the final decision’ (Purple Hibiscus, p.192).

This means that her ambivalence proves a clear male domination in the family affairs. Therefore, most of the previous findings had revealed similar incidences. Akpome [10] examines Purple Hibiscus, Half of A Yellow Sun, the woman characters confront patriarchal power affecting African women. Akpome further acknowledges the effort made by Adichie’s fiction as one of substantial contributions to feminist activism both on a global scale and in postcolonial societies. Azuike [9] and Sam et al., [24] also argues that most African women face a lot of male domination and discrimination due to cultural norms laid by patriarchal societies, which affects the lives of woman. Sam et al., [24] noted that women continue to struggle vehemently to free themselves from all sorts of traditional practices and other socio-political and economic menaces to achieve their desired goals for better life well-being as subjects not only created to serve men at home such as domestic violence and physical abuse.

‘Mama was given about nineteen strokes/lashes which led to loses her pregnancy’ (Purple Hibiscus, p. 40).

This page shows the soft voice of Beatrice when she discusses with her daughter Kambili. However, looking at these challenges and problems affecting African women as depicted by Adichie in her literary work is in line with Feminist critics such as Ann, and Fwangyil [25] view Adichie as a reformist feminist writer who uses educated protagonist characters in her literary fiction like aunty Ifeoma who plays a significant to encourage Mama Beatrice in Purple Hibiscus to challenge male centred oppressive ideology and free themselves towards different forms of suffering, such as Christian fanaticism cultural taboos, which hindered women development.

Feminism according to Ibeku refers to women-oriented and concentrates on issues that concern women. It is literary movement that tends to bring about changes in the society, especially on how women are treated; it tries to discourage discrimination and humiliation of women; it focuses its attention on emancipation of women. A lot of emphases has made on feminism and its stand in the African novel (p. 427). This assertion is in line with present study, which examines treatment of women received in traditional patriarchal society in the seven selected novels of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Buchi Emecheta. The findings explore how women characters excise their actions to rescue themselves to become independent.

4.3 Psychological abuse

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie begins her narration with a sad event, which shows how patriarchal traditional power structure of a typical African man maltreating his wife. Psychological abuse is the first minor theme that emerges under cultural invisibility to a family she uses a literary device, which is symbolism to show how Papa Eugene maltreated his wife, Mama Beatrice. It is important to note that authors like Adichie uses her narration to portray how silence kept most of African women in a psychological condition, which affects their well-being. The novel opens with a reference to the breaking of figurines: Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère (Purple Hibiscus. p. 3). The figurines personify the woman character Mama Beatrice, while the breaking of the figurines symbolises the fragile state of Beatrice.

According to Chadwick [26] symbolism is the art of expressing ideas and emotions not by describing them directly, or defining them through overt comparison with concrete images, but by suggesting what ideas and emotions are by recreating them in the mind of the reader through the use of explained symbols (p. 3). Chadwick [26] further claims that literary writers use symbolism to beautify the language in the narration to attract the attention of readers’ feelings and emotions. In this case, Adichie’s narration uses the figurines to represent Mama as the weaker sex, while Papa Eugene uses the missal to show him to be a strong person in control.

The narrator discusses the heavy missal as a book containing a year’s service of Papa Eugene who is the leader of the family. It is interesting to note that though the missal was intended to hit Jaja, it missed him totally and instead hit the glass étagère, which Mama Beatrice polished often.

Adichie shows the psychological abuse that Mama Beatrice and her children have to endure due to Papa Eugene’s temper. Nobody in the family dares to challenge or speak out to Papa Eugene to explain why Jaja did not attend the Christian gathering. People who experience psychological abuse may go through psychological trauma.

‘Figurines were mentioned in several places which are associated with Mama Beatrice from the narration of story. For example, discussion about what happens in the story, the narrator said that the missal missed Jaja completely, but it hit the glass étagère, which Mama polished often’ (Purple Hibiscus, p. 7).

Since the broken figurines have changed the relationship completely which affects both Mama and her children. Therefore, Mama as a mother is ready to receive vengeance from her husband because he may retaliate with negative consequences for both of them. Kambili has realised that, on her mother’s face, she was even worried about what will happen to her mother. Kambili the protagonist draws the attention of the reader’s attention to the appearance of trees, cashew trees, pines trees, gmelina trees, coconut trees and mango trees are surrounded the environment where people live. Kambili describes her room and all their environment as covered with flowers and trees which shows people interacting with one another.

‘I sat at room and window changed, the cashew uses palm hibiscus, figurine as ambivalent symbols whose meanings can give insights into understanding hidden aspects of the novel’ (Purple Hibiscus, 119).

The story describes the nature of Kambili’s room where she saw all these trees such as cashew palm hibiscus. Kaboré [27] explains that Adichie used palm, figurines, coconut trees, cashews trees and hibiscus to symbolise nature, which leads readers to understand the message and meaning of a clear picture. In line with this, Chadwick [26] describes how fictional writers utilises different symbols in their narration to convey meaning and picture of surrounding or setting of the story in the heart of the reader. Therefore, during the reading process a reader can make his/her to feel as he/she is the character/protagonist performing the actions. In addition, there are other places that depicted symbolism in the narration of the story.

‘Closer to the house, vibrant bushes of hibiscus reached out and touched one another as if they were exchanging their petals. The purple plants had started to push out sleepy buds but most of the flowers were still on the red ones. They seem to bloom so fast, those red hibiscuses, considering how often Mama cut them to decorate the church altar and how often visitors plucked them as they walked past to their parked cars’ (Purple Hibiscus, pp. 8–9).

The narrator tries to portray the nature of the flowers decorating and beautifying a house. This means that house of Kambili’s father was surrounded by flowers, trees and other plantations that covered their compound. Adichie uses symbolism to convey meaning to the readers. In addition, narrator symbolises a victory in the narration of story. For example,

‘Palms symbolise victory or triumph. It is in this sense that in ancient Roman culture, a lawyer who wins his case in the forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves’ (Purple Hibiscus, pp. 205–206).

The narrator tells us that as a symbol of victory in Purple Hibiscus, the palm refers to the victory of Beatrice and her children, Jaja and Kambili, over Eugene, her husband and her children’s father. Adichie describes the behaviour of Papa Eugene as a typical African oppressor. Mama Beatrice was always portrayed by the narrator as having received several forms of assault from her husband. Even the family members knew about it and they were silent or talked about it with vanquish voices. In addition, Mtenje [21, 22] argued that patriarchal culture is the main challenge affecting African women. The two authors further portrayed this type of socialisation as not only disempowering to the women as mothers but also encouraging their daughters to challenge the negative cultural constraints and how to empower themselves through social development.

4.4 Physical abuse

Physical abuse is one of the themes that emerged under the patriarchal treatments imposed on woman characters as depicted In Purple Hibiscus, Mama Beatrice has to go through several physical cases of abuse by her husband, Eugene. When Beatrice denied Eugene’s request to visit father Benedict, she was thrown behind the closed doors of their bedroom until she became like a bleeding gunny bag. Kambili as the narrator described clearly an episode of how her mother Beatrice suffered from her father’s cold-blooded violence.

‘I stepped out of my room just as Jaja came out of his. We stood at the landing and watched Papa descend. Mama was slung over his shoulder like the jute sacks of rice his factory workers bought in buck at the Seme Border. He opened the dining room. Then we heard the front door open, heard him say something to the gate man, Amadu. There’s blood on the floor Jaja said. I’ll get the brush from the bathroom. We cleaned up the trickle of blood, which trailed away as if someone had carried a leaking jar of red water colour all the way downstairs. Jaja scrubbed while I wipe’. (Purple Hibiscus. 32-33).

Kambili witnessed their father carrying their mother on his shoulder after beating her but they were too scared to say anything. They helped to clean their mother’s blood on the staircase. The way Papa Eugene beat his wife signifies she as the weaker sex, and he did not treat her as a human being. The description of the blood trailing like a ‘leaking jar of red water colour all the way downstairs’ shows the seriousness of her beating. This might reflect the kinds of treatment that African women experience during their womanhood. This is in line with Abubakar [7] who says that blood signifies danger, destruction and a break in a body’s ability to defend itself against diseases. In the African patriarchal society, a man is encouraged to marry another woman to give birth to male children. She said:

‘God is faithfully. You know after you came and I had the miscarriages, the villagers started to whisper. The members of our ummuna even sent people to your father to urge him to have children with someone else. So many people had willing daughters and many of them are university graduates, too. They might have borne many sons and taken over our home and driven us out, like Mr. Ezendu’s second wife did. But your father stayed with me, with us’ (Purple Hibiscus. 31).

The passage shows how Beatrice suffers as a result of violent physical abuse from her husband, Eugene, which caused her to suffer a miscarriage or pregnancy loss. Eugene had taken a small table and broken it on her pregnant belly. This is how Beatrice recounts her experiences to Aunty Ifeoma, her sister-in-law:

‘I got back from the hospital today. The doctor told me to rest but I took Eugene’s money and asked Kevin to take me to the Park. I hired a taxi and came here … You know that small table where we keep the family Bible? [Eugene] broke it on my belly. My blood finished on that floor even before he took me to St. Agnes [Hospital]. My doctor said there was nothing he could do to save the pregnancy’ (Purple Hibiscus, 248).

Most African men preferred male before girl child. However, Adichie stated several times in narration that Mama Beatrice had a series of miscarriages with an aim to have male child with her husband Papa Eugene who is the genesis of her traumatic abuse, which led to her miscarriages. This assertion is in line with study of Kimou [28] who states that African men want kids, usually lots of them especially male children. They want woman who will take pride in bearing multiple children (p. 15). Other scholars describe suffering and maltreatment as a result of traditional patriarchal society in most African countries.

5. Conclusion

This chapter examined different personal experiences of female characters exercising their actions to challenge their suffering and other maltreatment in both the novels under patriarchal male domination. It was observed that this finding highlighted how four themes in relation with (i) forced/arranged marriage, ii-gender inequality psychological abuse and physical abuse suffered by the male family also the torture of different strategies adopted by Papa Eugene to stay in control. Moreover, it was evidently proved that power can be lost if there was too much control and it shows how such actions ultimately lead to rebellion. The female authors tried to reveal the negative side of male domination who was responsible for the cause of what happened such as rebellions and uprisings in their matrimonial homes. Finally, the study also shows how feminist writers applied their fictional female characters under a feminist approach to actualise women’s dreams to achieve gender equality and equal opportunity under patriarchy traditional system with their men counterparts in Nigeria and Africa at large.

The Bride Price was written by Emecheta which described the injustice of male supremacist and caste system restrictions in her native Igbo community in eastern Nigeria. The Bride Price (1976) and women where highlighted by promoting awareness on the significance of acquiring education. The story began with a narration of the life of urban centre and continues narrations with the farewell Ezekiel to his children that placed the rest of the actions and events. Based on the Igbo culture, any woman without a husband could not be able to take care of herself or her children. In the first three chapters of the novel the writer described how Ezekiel’s death and funeral to the continuation of travelling of his beloved widow and her children from the city. The woman writer, Emecheta proposed the concept of bride price and their role in the Nigerian people.

Purple Hibiscus was written and published in (2003), the story focused on family setting. The narration of the story also dealt with women’s oppression by prompting awareness on. The narrative focused only on major characters such as Kambili Achike and her family. In addition, the story focuses Achike family in particular post–war Nigeria also faced difficulties, varying from extreme violence between religious groups to government corruption and an unstable economy. Britain colonised Nigeria because they had an interest on native slaves. But the Slave Trade Act in 1807 prohibited British subjects from participating in the slave trade. Nevertheless, the British continued their slave trading even after the prohibition. The situation was worsening because the Nigerian communities, except the Northern one, joined hands in supplying the slaves. In this way, the British tried to make Nigeria a colony of their own, the colonisers were interested in making Nigeria part of their colony.