Doctorat-Wafa-BERKAT.pdf - univ-bechar.dz

PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

TAHRI MOHAMMED UNIVERSITY (BECHAR)

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Entitled:

Thesis Submitted in Candidacy for the Degree of

‘Doctorat’ in Didactics of Literature

Presented by: Supervised by:

Miss .Wafa BERKAT Prof. Fewzia BEDJAOUI

Members of the Jury:

Surname Name Degree University

President NEBBOU Abdelkader MCA Bechar

Supervisor BEDJAOUI Fewzia Professor Sidi Bel Abbes

Examiners

AZZOUG

BENKETTAF

BOUHASSOUN

MEHDANI

Omar

Abdelhafid

Azzeddine

Miloud

MCA

MCA

MCA

MCA

Tlemcen

Bechar

Ain Temouchent

Bechar

Academic Year: 2019/2020

Challenging Cultural Feminism/s in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s

Americanah (2013) and Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011)

PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

TAHRI MOHAMMED UNIVERSITY (BECHAR)

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Entitled:

Thesis Submitted in Candidacy for the Degree of

‘Doctorat’ in Didactics of Literature

Presented by: Supervised by:

Miss .Wafa BERKAT Prof. Fewzia BEDJAOUI

Members of the Jury:

Surname Name Degree University

President NEBBOU Abdelkader MCA Bechar

Supervisor BEDJAOUI Fewzia Professor Sidi Bel Abbes

Examiners

AZZOUG

BENKETTAF

BOUHASSOUN

MEHDANI

Omar

Abdelhafid

Azzeddine

Miloud

MCA

MCA

MCA

MCA

Tlemcen

Bechar

Ain Temouchent

Bechar

Academic Year: 2019/2020

Challenging Cultural Feminism/s in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s

Americanah (2013) and Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011)

“It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them.”

― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949

I

Dedications With great honor, I would like to dedicate this thesis:

To the light of my life, my beloved parents; Salah and Louisa

“Thank you dear father and mother for your endless love, support and encouragement”

To my dear brothers; Farouk, Mohamed El-Amine and the ambitious Sid Ahmed.

To my beloved and wonderful sisters; Faiza and Houda

“Thank you for always being there for me !”.

T o my lovely nephew and Nieces:

Haitham, Alaa Errahamene and Maissem .

II

Acknowledgements

I could never have completed this thesis without great support and assistance of a number of

people.

First, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor Prof.

Fewzia BEDJAOUI. The writing of this thesis could have never been accomplished without

her support, help, guidance, and recommendations. Her total support has made this experience

more enjoyable and unforgettable. I would like to thank her so much for her constructive

suggestions and willingness to share with me part of her knowledge during this long process

of preparation and development. I must thank her for her patience and confidence in my

abilities. She is a true inspiration, a great teacher, and a fascinating and very talented woman

supervisor.

I wish to thank also the board of examiners who devoted their precious time in reading and

examining this thesis for the sake of improving it:

Dr. Abdelkader NEBBOU from the University of Tahri Mohammed, Béchar

Dr. Omar AZZOUG from the University of Abou Bekr Belkaid, Tlemcen

Dr. Abdelhafid BENKETTAF from the University of Tahri Mohammed ,Béchar

Dr. Azzeddine BOUHASSOUN from the University of Belhadj Bouchaib, Ain Timouchent

Dr. Miloud MEHDANI from the University of Tahri Mohammed , Béchar

My warmest gratitude are addressed to Dr. Abdelkader NEBBOU for his commitment to

Doctoral studies in Bechar University, as these are the first ones organised by a local

university teacher. Nothing could be done without the help of other teachers from Bechar

University and other colleagues from different Algerian Universities. Therefore, I am deeply

indebted to all those people who made these Doctoral studies possible at Bechar University,

specially university teachers and competent university authorities, and gave us the golden

opportunity to undertake research and promote our knowledge.

Extended thanks go to the teaching staff of the Department of Foreign Languages of Bechar

University who also contributed to the development of their educational institution.

III

Abstract The present study looks at Literature as a means to represent and give voice to women

mainly in a post-colonial era. Writing about women in general and in the under developed

settings in particular gives a significant insight to their struggle and experiences in their

specific origins and backgrounds. Nigerian as well as Indian women writing is no exclusion.

Nigerian and Indian women writers use literature to echo their voices, concerns, rights and

most importantly their dignity. The women writer’s intellectual work is a form that raises

awareness, identifies problems and suggests forms of resistance and discussion either at home

or abroad. Among the outstanding pieces of women literature that did so: Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Bharati Mukherjee ’s Miss New India (2011). The

relationship of women, race, culture and community is particularly straining in the case of

Nigeria and India .Race, culture and gender were well issued in the novel Americanah of the

female Nigerian writer: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Americanah explores the different

nightmarish experiences the female Nigerian immigrants face in the USA because they are

only black and women in the meantime. Culture has been often an obstacle to women’ rights,

women have been denied much of their rights because of culture. Cultural constraints and

threats were well explored within the last novel Miss New India of the female Indian Writer:

Bharati Mukherjee. Miss New India depicts the backward and unfair conventional cultural

rules set against women in the backward patriarchal Indian society. Breaking silence,

transgression and education were the remedy against women oppression and deprivation form

their minimum rights. The hardships made the protagonists in Americanah and Miss New

India survivors by the end, regaining back their dignity, their cultural and national identity

and mainly their self-satisfaction.

Key Words: Americanah , culture , cultural identity ,education , gender, national identity,

Nigerian, race, transgression, Miss New India , patriarchal society , Indian .

IV

List of Acronyms

AD: anno Domini

ADE: anno Domini Era.

ATR : African Traditional Religion

BC: Before Christ

BCE: Before the Common or Current Era

CMS : Church Missionary Society

FNWS: Federation of Nigeria Women’s Societies

IEL: Indian English Literature

JSS : Junior Secondary School

NCNC : National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons

NCWS: The National Council for Women Society

NLE: Nigerian Literature in English

NWU : National Women’s Union

SSS : Senior Secondary School

USA: the United Stated of America

WIN : Women in Nigeria

V

Table of Contents

Dedications………………………….…………………………………………………I

Acknowledgments…………………..……………………………………………..…II

Abstract. ……………………………………………..………………….………… III

List of Acronyms.....………….......................................................………....…....... IV

Table of Contents…………………..…………………….....……………….….…...V

General Introduction……….………………………………....……………..……....1

Chapter One : Cultural Backgrounds : Nigerian and Indian Contexts

Part One: Nigerian Cultural Context

1.1.1.Introduction…………………………..…………………………….….…………6

1.1.2.Religions…………………………………..………………………………....…...6

1.1.3. Political Issues ……………………………………………..………………..…..8

1.1.4. Social Problems…………………………………….……………………..…....11

1.1.5. Social Distribution ……………………………………………………....……..13

1.1.6. Education……………………………………………………………………....14

1.1.7. Distinctive Cultural Features…………………………...……………..….…….15

1.1.8. Nigerian Women Beauty ………………………………………..……….……16

1.1.9.Wo/men Issues ………………………….……………………...........................16

1.1.9.1. Women Participation……………………..…………………………..…....18

1.1.9.2. Women Commitment …………………..…………………………..…..…20

1.1.10. Literature……………………………….………………………………….....20

VI

1.1.12. Conclusion………………………….…………………………………….......21

Notes to Part One………………………….………………………………………....22

Part Two: Indian Cultural Context

1.2.1. Introduction ……………………………………………….…………………24

1.2.2. Religious Belonging …………………………………………….…………....24

1.2.3. Educational Issues….……………………………….………………..……….25

1.2.4. Society…………………………………………….………….……………….26

1.2.4.1. Caste System………………………………………..………………….…27

1.2.4.2. Do’s and Don'ts ………………………….………...………………….…28

1.2.4.3. Domestic Violence ……………………………….………………………29

1.2.5. Cultural Components ….……………………………..………………………30

1.2.7. Women Rising Position ……………………………………………………..35

1.2.8. Literary Expression ……………………………………..……………………39

1.2.9. Conclusion…………………………………………...…..……………………39

Notes to Part Two………………………………………………..………………….40

Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework

Part One: Nigerian and Indian Post-Colonial Literatures

2.1.1. Introduction ………………………………………………….………………..42

2.1.2. Post Colonialism ………………………………………………………………42

2.1.3.Post Colonial Literature………………………………………………………...43

2.1.4. Nigerian literature……………………………………….…………………….46

2.1.5. Authentic Nigerian Literature………………………….….…………………..49

2.1.6. Nigerian English Literature………………………………………….……......50

VII

2.1.7. Nigerian Literature Impact ………………………………………………….....52

2.1.8. Indian Literature…………………………………………………………….…53

2.1.9.Indian English Literature…………………………………………………….…55

2.1.10. Recognition of English Indian Literature…………………..……………..….59

2.1.11.Post Colonial Feminism ………………..……………………………….…….60

2.1.12. Race and Gender In Post Colonial Feminism …………………………...…...62

2.1.13. Nigerian Postcolonial Literature……………………………………………...64

2.1.14. Indian Postcolonial Literature ………………………..………………………65

2.1.15. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………67

Notes to Part One …………………………………………………………………….68

Part Two: Nigerian and Indian Feminism/s

2.2.1.Introduction……………………………………………………………….…….74

2.2. 2.Feminism………………………………………………………………….……75

2.2.3. Types of Feminism…………………………………………..…..………..........78

2.2.3.1. Liberal Feminism…………………….………………….……….…...…..78

2.2.3.2. Cultural Feminism……………………………………………… ….........78

2.2.4. Black Feminism…………………………………......…….…..……...………84

2.2.5. African Feminism……………………………………………….…..……......85

2.2.6. Nigerian Feminism…………………………………………….…….…….87

2.2.7. Feminism in Nigerian literature………………………………..…..……...93

2.2.8. Indian Feminism…………………………….…………………..………...98

2.2.9. Feminism in Indian literature ……………………………..…..……….…100

2.2.10. Conclusion …………………………………….…………..…………….…104

Notes to Part Two………………………………………………..……..……….…105

VIII

Part Three: Key Concepts

2.3.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………….…….…..106

2.3.2. Culture ……………………………………………………………….…...106

2.3.3. Racism………………………………………………………………….....108

2.3.3.1. Cultural Racism…………………………………………………………………111

2.3.3.2. Racism in the United States of America ……………………….………….111

2.3.4. Patriarchy………………………………………………………..……….…111

2.3.5. Education……………………………………………………………………..112

2.3.6. Identity ………………………………………………………………………113

2.3.6.1.Gender Identity…………………………………………………………...114

2.3.6.2. Ethnic Identity……………………………………………………………114

2.3.7. Hybridity……………………………………………………………...……...115

2.3.8. Modernity………………………………………………………………….....116

2.3.9. Tradition ………………………………………………………………….….118

2.3.10. Religion …………………………………………………...…………….….120

2.3.11.Immigration …………………………………………………………………121

2.3.12.Conclusion …………………………………………………………………..122

Notes to Part Three………………………………………………………………….123

Chapter Three : Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Bharati

Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011): Analogies and Contrasts

Part One : Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Americanah (2013): Racial , Cultural

and Gender Issues

3.1.1. Introduction…………………………………………………….……………..124

3.1.2. African American Literature.............................................................................124

IX

3.1.3. Critics about Americanah…………………………………………………… 126

3.1.4. Title Interpretation……………………………………………………………129

3.1.5. Language Component………………………………..……………………….130

3.1.6. Immigration Issues………….……………………….……..…….…...............131

3.1.7. Idealization of America……………….……………………………..….…….135

3.1.8. Privileged Whiteness ...................................................................................…137

3.1.9. Discrimination Awareness………………………………….…..……….…... 143

3.1.10. Gender Issues …………………….……………………………...……….....145

3.1.11. Oppression and Misogyny against African Women .….................................146

3.1.12. Gender Expectations……………………………………………...………....149

3.1.13. Beauty Cultural Representation………………………………………….…151

3.1.14.Sexuality Norms……………………………………………...……..…..…..154

3.1.15. Love Quest ……………………………………………………...................158

3.1.16.Cultural Clashes ……………………………………………………..…….160

3.1.17. Identity and Hybridity................................................................................ 161

3.1.18. Blogging as a Non-American Black............................................................163

3.1.19. Maturity and Pan Africanism through Education……………..…….....…165

3.1.20. Black Women Self Empowerment ……………………………………….167

3.1.21. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….…..171

Notes to Part One…………………………………………………………………172

X

Part Two : Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011): Cultural and Gender

Issues

3.2.1 .Introduction………………………………………………………….………..173

3.2.2. Mukherjee’s Fiction………………………………………………....………..173

3.2.3. Miss New India Title Understanding………………………………..….....….176

3.2.4. Novel Criticism..………………………………………….………...…………177

3.2.5. Beauty Perception………………………………………………………….…179

3.2.6. Educational Perspectives………………………………………………..…….179

3.2.7. Patriarchal Indian Society……………………………………...……….…….181

3.2.8. Representation of America……………………………………………...…….188

3.2.9. Love Idealization……………………………………………………….……..192

3.2.10. Plight of Women Rape ……………………………………………...….…194

3.2.11. Transgession and Self-Saving………………………………………….....…195

3.2.12. Cultural Clashes………………………………………………………….….197

3.2.13. Reinventing the Self………………………………………………..…….…200

3.2.14.Conclusion……………………………………………………………….…..204

Notes to Part Two………………………………………………………..….….…...205

Part Three : Synthesis

3.3.1.Introduction……………………………………………………………….…...206

3.3.2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Bharati Mukherjee’s

Miss New India (2011) :Analogies and Contrasts………………………..…….……206

3.3.2.1. Similarities …………………………………………………………..……..206

XI

3.3.2.2.Differences ………………………………………………………………… 218

3.3.4.Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….….. 221

Notes to Part Three…………………………………………………………..….…..222

General conclusion …………………………………………………………….……223

Bibliography …………………………..…………………………………...…...…...230

Appendices

Glossaries

General

Introduction

1

Geographically, men and women share the same space, yet they are not treated

equally in the world. Some women are accorded a lower status than men in traditional

spaces. Women’s conditions have been marked by harsh and hard manageable

constraints. They have been mostly deprived of most of their minimum rights and

liberties. Oppression, misogyny patriarchy are the concepts that come to mind: the

dominance of men over women in a given society has been justified and reinforced

unfortunately by prejudicial ideas and clichés that women are emotional, subordinate,

intellectually inapt and physically weak and therefore they can be only inferior to men.

Such a reductive position pushes women to appeal to the principles of human rights

to defend themselves either historically or nowadays. Feminism comes to seek and fight

for women’s rights. Feminism is defined as cultural, economic and political movements

that are focused towards establishing legal protection and “complete” equality for

women. It does not only talk of equality and rights of women but it is also about

compassion, respect and understanding from the male counterparts. The main cause for

the dissatisfaction of women in today’s society is the superior attitude of men .Women

have suffered in silence and feminism talks exactly about those marginalized women.

One crucial criticism leveled by non-Western women is that Western feminism does

not see beyond Western borders, and this ignores and does not adequately recognize the

complexities, specificities, experiences and the differences of other women of different

cultures. Moreover, it places all women’s history under white women’s history and

experience. Thus, as a reaction the word “feminism” becomes “feminism/s” .Many

feministic definitions have been coined to best suit the needs of different cultural and

racial groups in general, Nigerian and Indian women in particular.

Within feminism/s and in the process of fighting and highlighting women ‘issues and

rights, literature was seen as a medium and plays a great role in such an enterprise. The

very heart of Literature of the postcolonial theory is the search for and recapturing of

General Introduction

2

identity, notably individual and national, which are fundamental components of post-

colonial literature.

In postcolonial Nigerian and Indian women writings respectively, feminism has been

used as a modest attempt for evaluating the “real” and harsh social scenarios women

face. There are several novels in English literature of Nigeria and India that actually

portray these actual statuses of these women in their societies. Nigerian and Indian

English novelists are writing for the masses using the theme of feminism, which does

not only interest people and readers, but also affects them to some extent.

Gender and its direct link with race, patriarchy and cultural transgression are among

the great themes for feminist novelists. The previous stated notions can be seen in

almost all the societies of the world. Nevertheless, it should be noted that its nature is

different in various societies, and sometimes in different classes within the same society

because of the cultural differences.

Based on the preoccupations of women writers in a postcolonial context, the

research study deals with realistic situations concerned with the constraints women, in

the third world in general, and the Nigerian (inside and outside their homelands), and

Indian ones in particular, face in finding their way to empowerment, self fulfillment ,

new cultural identity ,social equality and freedom from any rituals, prejudices and

oppressions.

Consequently, the research questions are formulated as follows:

1: To what extent can cultural transgression lead to women self-

empowerment?

2: To what extent does education play a great role in women’s lives, mainly

the African and Indian one?

3: How could a Nigerian and Indian post-colonial feminist writer make her

voice heard and thus what are the different issues rising from cultural

beliefs that impact on women ‘status within a given setting and society?

3

Indeed, the consequent related hypotheses can be worded as such:

1: Transgression eliminates to a certain extent social, racial, gender and sexual

boundaries.

2: Education brings a “prise de conscience” to women in knowing their rights.

3: A literary work/text can tell us about both the culture and the various attitudes

towards women in a given context and thus a literary work can be viewed as an

educational as well as entertaining source since reading and analyzing feminist literary

works can offer different significant insights and cultural issues related to women into

the world at large.

Therefore, the general objectives of the study : Challenging Cultural Feminism/s in

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘s Americanah (2013) and Bharati Mukherjee's Miss New India

(2011) can be summarized as follows:

To examine and evaluate,with reference to novels of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s

Americanah and the female Indian feminist writer Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New

India the different experiences and cultural constraints women face either in their

original culture or in the host culture

To comment on the two novels : Americanah and Miss New India from different

angles such as the personal, national, racial, cultural and the artistic perspective.

To examine critically the fiction of Chimamanda and Bharati in the light of

feminism/s, mainly black and Indian feminism as a sub part of the whole mother

movement “Feminism”.

To distinguish both the inner and the outer life of the characters especially the

female protagonists.

To focus on the way women and their relationships are depicted in the society and

settings of Americanah and Miss India.

To highlight the effect of race on women, mainly black females throughout

Americanah.

To identify the role of education as a vehicle for women freedom.

To identify the role of transgression in eliminating social, racial and gender

boundaries.

To explore the emerging trends of feminism such as displacement, hybridity,

cultural identity…

To focus on the self-empowerment of women through education, work, social

equality, sexuality and transgression.

4

To challenge feminism/s in both Nigeria and India through Americanah and Miss

New India via some sort of analogies and contrasts.

No doubt, some research might be necessary in order to tackle the thesis better: For instance,

learning about the cultural background of the source country, about how people live and behave,

about the status of women vis-à-vis men in the source background .The thesis main focus

remains on women and related issues.

The present area of study is a research on woman’s life and thus it was necessary to consult,

books, articles and web references. The study considers a qualitative approach/ technique to

evaluate women’s characterization and experiences as portrayed by Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie in her novel Americanah and in Bharati Mukherjee ‘s best-seller Miss New India

,selected for this thesis. The research goes through literary works that belong to the literary

canon –the original texts in English for the Nigerian Chimamanda and the American born

Indian Bharati Mukherjee.

The study of the research is analytical, socio-cultural, historical and psycho-analytical in

nature to a larger extent. It is descriptive for it looks at the experiences of marginalized,

oppressed, prejudiced women in the two novels. In addition, since the research is mainly

concerned with the textual analysis of the two selected novels, the qualitative research method

and the feminist approach were found to be the most suitable approaches for examining and

conducting the two selected novels.

The present research has inevitably certain limitations. It is a study, which concentrates

mainly on novels of Nigerian and Indian women writings in West Africa moving to the USA

and South Asia. It focuses on the representation of the female gender and race with regard to

Americanah. It stresses particularly the protagonists of the two selected novels where the other

female characters are mentioned when the process of comparison / contradiction is necessary.

But , it remains confined to a few women writers whose experiences may not cover in fact the

whole complete problems of African women in general (as citizens in their homeland or

immigrants) and Indian women at large. Nevertheless, the two novels are representative of

Nigerian and Indian women literature to a greater extent. Time constraints were taken into

account so as to complete the research study in due time and within the schedule of the doctoral

submission requirements of the Department of Foreign Languages.

5

The layout is planned into three major and interrelated chapters divided progressively from

a top down perspective in order to help and follow the sequences of the whole research.

Chapter One describes the background of the settings of the two selected novels. It gives a

“detailed” explanation about the nature of the society, developmental periods, historical facts,

and women status.In other words, it includes an in-depth cultural study of both Nigeria and

India in two different separated parts within the completely first chapter investigation.

Chapter Two situates the work within its suitable framework. It sits the thesis in the context

of literature in general, feminism into literature in specific and feminisms (Nigerian and Indian)

as well. It also further explains the meaning and background of postcolonial women Literature

and Studies. Later it elucidates key notions belonging to post colonial feminist concepts, namely

patriarchy, education, gender, identity and race…

Chapter Three, through an intensive “critical” focus on Americanah and Miss New India in

separate parts, examines the different thematic variations that can be seen throughout the lines

and often in-between lines in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Bharati

Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011). It ends up with a synthesis part that highlights the

di/similarities between Americanah and Miss New India in basically every relevant theme

chosen for this thesis.

Then, the conclusion hopes to provide a wider opportunity and understanding of a study

entitled: Challenging Cultural Feminism/s in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘s Americanah (2013)

and Bharati Mukherjee's Miss New India (2011) and opens the doors for further research related

to the selected one, and also notably to examine the woman’s question in different literary

works belonging to postcolonial feminist contexts, in Nigeria and India or elsewhere.

Chapter One

The Cultural

Backgrounds: Nigerian and Indian Context

Part One

Nigerian Cultural Context

6

1.1.1. Introduction

To understand the cultural context of the woman writer “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie”, it

is notable firstly to deal with the related issues of religion, education societal patterns and

code dressing among others to help understand the themes developed in her Novel

“Americanah”. To begin with, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a country in West Africa.

The capital of Nigeria is Abuja; however, its largest city is Lagos. In 1850, Nigeria came

under British rule, but obtained its independency in 1960.

1.1.2. Religions

To clarify, there are three major religions in Nigeria. These include Christianity, Islam and

African Traditional Religion (ATR). The 2001 report from The World Fact book (2013)

by CIA (1) reported that 50% of Nigeria's population is Muslim, 40% are Christians and 10%

adhere to local religions.

“Americanah” contains thoroughly religion mainly Christianity as a strong component in

the Nigerian society, before moving to the existence of the religion in the Nigerian land , it is

essential refer to some of the religious mythical issues, in Pre Christian and Pre Islamic era.

It is said that “The traditional religion of Nigeria is the richest heritage which the

forebears of Nigeria have handed down to their children” (Nwahaghi ,2013:10). History

has it that in the past, in Nigeria, the dominant religion was the traditional religion

popularly known as African Traditional Religion. According to Ekeopara (1996), the

term African Traditional Religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the Africans.

It is traditional and indigenous to Africa. It could also be called the native religion of Africa

because it originated from Africa and is primarily practiced mostly by Africans. It is a popular

opinion that the indigenous religion of the African is not localized. It is also believed not to

only restrict itself to Africa and Africans alone, but is said to be opened to all races of the

world. The word Africa, it is stressed, merely describes the geographical location where ATR

is dominant. This indigenous religion is what Nigerians have been practicing long before the

advent of Christianity and Islam. It is a religion that has permeated all aspects of their life as

Africans. Speaking about the religiosity of Nigerians especially that of the Igbo, Onwurah

confirms that:

7

“The Igbo person is very religious and does not know how to live without religion - he or she eats religiously, drinks religiously, Sneezes religiously. Religion is part of the whole life” (Onwurah, 1990:287).

This is likely to be what Mbiti (1978 ) meant when he says that “Where the African is,

there is his religion” (3). To Idowu (1966) , Africans including Research on Humanities and

Social Sciences Nigerians are “A people who in all things are religious” (5). As

observed by Nwahagi (2013), it is this traditional religion that has helped to shape probably

the social, political and economic activities of the people of Nigeria. Instances, in the city-

states of Yoruba land and its neighbors, a more reserved way of life remains, one that

expresses a theology that links local beliefs to a central citadel government and its sovereignty

over a hinterland of communities through the monarch. The seat of the king (oba) is

responsible for the welfare of its jurisdiction, in return for confirmation of the legitimacy of

the oba's rule over his subjects. In addition to ensuring access to, and the continual fertility of,

both land and people, seasonal carnivals act as a spectacle for "tourism" contributing to

regional productivity (Cultural Survival, 2012)

The earliest known Christian Mission that first showed up in Nigeria was the

Portuguese Roman Catholic Mission which came to Benin in 1485 at the invitation of Oba

Uzolua (2) and later in 1514 by Oba Esigie (3), Kings of Benin (Agha 1999; Tasie 1978).

History shows that the initial attempt in planting Christianity in Benin failed because “The

Kings of Benin City remained strongly attached to their indigenous religion” (Baur 2009 ,

75). It is said that there were enough evidences for such failures in Benin in the 15th Century

of which the above was but one of them. The second attempt in the 16th Century under Oba

Esigie succeeded to a certain extent as the Oba himself and most of his chiefs did submit

themselves for baptisms and actually professed and practised Christian religion somewhat in

their own terms (Baur 2009:75).

Most of Nigeria's Christians are Protestant (broadly defined) though about a quarter are

Catholic. From the 1990s to the 2000s, there was significant growth in Protestant churches,

including the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Winners' Chapel, The Synagogue Church

Of All Nations, The Common Wealth Of Zion Assembly, the Aladura Church (indigenous

Christian churches being especially strong in the Yoruba and Igbo areas), and

of evangelical churches in general. Other leading Protestant churches in the country are

the Church of Nigeria of the Anglican Communion, the Assemblies of God Church,

the Nigerian Baptist Convention and The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations. The Yoruba

8

area contains a large Anglican population, while Igbo land is predominantly Catholic and

the Edo area is predominantly Assemblies of God, which was introduced into Nigeria by

Augustus Ehurie Wogu (4) and his associates at Old Umuahia (Hackett, Rosalind I. J. ,1988).

Following this description, it must be said that the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie depicts only Chriistian characters throughout Americanah.

As to Islam, this religion would not be developed as in the chosen novel “Americanah”;

the woman writer does not allude to it .Islam penetrated Nigeria through the Northern Part of

her borders. It came to Northern Nigeria about five or six hundred years before Christianity

History has shown that Islam arrive Nigeria sometime between 1000A.D and 1100 A.D .The

first town of contact was Bornu in the North-eastern Nigeria before it overtook the

entire Hausa States between 14th and 15th Centuries. Initially, Islam was propagated only

among City dwellers and was chiefly patronized by the upper class for economic,

social and political reasons . It was not until the time of Uthman Dan Fodio’s (5) Jihad that

Islam spread to every nook and cranny of Northern Nigeria and was forced upon the people.

In his studies, Ekeopara (1996) observes that:

“From 1750 AD, Islam in Northern Nigeria entered into a new phase. It became militant and intolerant of the Traditional religious system. By this time, Muslims were no more satisfied with receiving tributes. They were now bent on wiping out all associations of pagan custom with Islam. The infidels or unbelievers were forcefully converted by the military might of the Jihadists and not through preaching”. (Ekeopara,1996:12).

1.1.3. Political Issues

History has shown that no nation of the world grew and enjoyed steady development

in virtually all spheres of its national life without experiencing good and selfless political

leadership. This is largely because qualitative growth and development has always been an

outcome of good governance. Commenting on the experience of the Nigerian nation, the

renowned novelist, Chinua Achebe, insisted that the root cause of the Nigerian predicament

should be laid squarely at the foot of bad leadership.

“The trouble with Nigeria,” Achebe (1984) argued

9

“is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land, climate, water, air, or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to their responsibility, to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership” (Achebe, 1984: 1).

Historically, the origin of corruption in Nigeria predates the colonial era. According

to a Colonial Government Report of 1947, “The African’s background and outlook on public

morality is very different from that of the present day Briton. The African in the public service

seeks to further his own financial interest.” (Okonkwo, 2007). Before independence, there

have been cases of official misuse of resources for personal enrichment . The First Republic

under the leadership of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister, and Nnamdi

Azikwe, the President, was marked by widespread corruption (Storey, 1953).

The situation described above, led the Nigerian First Republic politicians from power

through a coup d’état on January 15 1966 on the ground of corruption. The editorial of the

Daily Times Newspaper of January 16, 1966 mentioned thus:

“With the transfer of authority of the Federal Government to the Armed Forces, we reached a turning point in our national life. The old order has changed, yielding place to a new one... For a long time, instead of settling down to minister to people’s needs, the politicians were busy performing series of seven day wonders as if the act of government was some circus show... still we groped along as citizens watched politicians scorn the base by which they did ascend...”(Daily Times, 1966).

The coup was a direct response to the corruption of the First Republic; and the popular

support the military received for the coup showed that Nigerians were long expecting such a

wind of change to bail them out from the claws of the politicians of that era. Interestingly,

despite the killings of some major First Republic politicians, there were widespread

jubilations in the country.

General Yakubu Gowon ruled at a time where Nigeria witnessed an unprecedented

wealth from the oil boom of the 1970s. Apart from the mismanagement of the economy, the

Gowon regime was enmeshed in deep-seated corruption. By 1974, reports of unaccountable

wealth of Gowon’s military governors and other public office holders had become the crux of

discussion in the various Nigerian dailies. Thus, in July 1975, the Gowon administration was

10

toppled by General Murtala Mohammed through a coup d’état. The coup of 1975, among

other things, was an attempt to end corruption in the public service. General Murtala

Mohammed began by declaring his assets and asking all government officials to follow suit.

(M. O. Maduagwu quoted in Gboyega, 1996: 3).

The Second Republic, under President Shehu Shagari, witnessed a resurgence of

corruption. The Shagari administration was marked by spectacular government corruption, as

the President did nothing to stop the looting of public funds by elected officials. Corruption

among the political leaders was amplified due to greater availability of funds. It was claimed

that over $16 billion in oil revenues were lost between 1979 and 1983 during the reign of

President Shehu Shagari. True to his nature, President Shehu Shagari was too weak in his

administration of the country. A soft-spoken and mild mannered gentleman Shagari was

pathetic in his inability to call his ministers and political lieutnants to order or stop them from

embezzling state funds. (Dash, 1983).

However, on 31 December 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari led a popular coup that

again rescued the economy from the grip of corrupt politicians of the Second Republic. The

1983 coup was carried out with the aim of halting corruption and restoring discipline,

integrity and dignity to public life. General Buhari’s regime promised to bring corrupt

officials and their agents to book. Consequently, state governors and commissioners were

arrested and brought before tribunals of inquiry. (Maduagwu quoted in Gboyega, 1996: 5).

The new Buhari regime, which scarcely showed respect for human rights in its bid to

entrench discipline and sanity in public life, was toppled by the General Ibrahim Babangida in

a bloodless inhouse coup on 27th August 1985. The next thirteen years saw no serious attempt

to stop corruption. If anything, corruption reached an alarming rate and became

institutionalized during Babangida’s regime. (Maduagwu quoted in Gboyega, 1996: 5).

In the face of intense public opposition to his rule, General Babangida reluctantly handed

the reins of government to a non-elected military-civilian Interim National Government on

26th August 1993 which was later ousted from power by the military under the leadership of

General Sani Abacha on 17th November 1993. Abacha’s regime only furthered the deep-

seated corrupt practices, which already characterised public life since the inception of the

Babangida regime. (Michael M. Ogbeidi,2012 :9)

11

The dictator, General Sani Abacha, died suddenly from a heart attack in June 1998. He

was replaced by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who subsequently handed over the reins of

government to a democratically elected civilian government in May 1999 after having spent

eleven months in power. The Abdulsalami Abubakar government showed dedicated

commitment to returning the country to democracy but did not do much to fight corruption.

(Michael M. Ogbeidi, 2012 :9-10)

The Fourth Republic was ruled by the General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999,hence, the

military era from decline of the Second Republic in 1983 and the restoration of democracy in

1999 represents an era where corruption was largely the essence of governance (Michael

M. Ogbeidi,2012 :10). At this point, it suffices to say that the battle against corruption is still

ongoing and represents the desire of Nigerians to eradicate the scourge of corruption in their

national life. However, it appears the anti-corruption effort is also doomed to fail like other

previous attempts because the political leadership class who should provide the needed

support appears insincere and seemed to be interested in using the anti-corruption institutions

as tools to hunt political adversaries.

The description of the political atmosphere is a background to the main woman

protagonist (Ifemelu) in Americanah who escaped from corruption in the mother land Nigeria

to the United State of America (USA).

1.1.4. Social Problems

The country of Nigeria is faced with social problems involving over population,

poverty and education .Nigeria has the largest population of any African Country. The current

population of Nigeria is 194,893,793 as of Tuesday, April 24, 2018, based on the latest

United Nations estimates. Nigeria population is equivalent to 2.57% of the population.

Nigeria ranks number 7 in the list of world population (See appendix 01) There are about 250

ethnic groups with over 521 languages (Nigeria, Ethnologue. 14th July 2017). (See appendix

02) .

Nigeria is the most densely populated country in Africa. Despite the rampages of AIDS,

Nigeria’s population continues to grow at about 2.6 percent each year. The Nigerian

population is very young. Nearly 45 percent of its people are under fourteen. With regard to

12

ethnic breakdown, the Hausa –Fulani make up 29 percent of the population, followed by the

Yoruba with 21 percent, the Igbo with Nigeria 18 percent, the Ijaw with 10 percent, the

Kanuri with 4 percent, the Ibibio with 3.5 percent and the Tiv with 2.5 percent. The major

urban centers include Lagos, Ibidan , Kaduna , Kano and Port Harcourt (Central Intelligence

Agency.CIA World Fact Book 2000).

Perhaps Nigeria's greatest social problem is the internal violence plaguing the nation.

Interethnic fighting throughout the country, religious rioting between Muslims and non-

Muslims over the creation of Shari'a law (strict Islamic law) in the Northern states, anpolitical

confrontations between ethnic minorities and backers of oil companies often spark bloody

confrontations that can last days or even months. When violence of this type breaks out,

national and state police try to control it. However, the police themselves are often accused of

some of the worst violence. In some instances, curfews and martial law have been imposed in

specific areas to try to stem outbreaks of unrest.

Poverty and lack of opportunity for many young people, especially in urban areas, have led

to major crime. Lagos is considered one of the most dangerous cities in West Africa due to its

incredibly high crime rate. The police are charged with controlling crime, but their lack of

success often leads to vigilante justice. In some rural areas there are some more traditional

ways of addressing social problems. In many ethnic groups, such as the Igbo and the Yoruba,

men are organized into secret societies. Initiated members of these societies often dress in

masks and palm leaves to masquerade as the physical embodiment of traditional spirits to help

maintain social order. Through ritual dance, these men will give warnings about problems

with an individual's or community's morality in a given situation. Because belief in witchcraft

and evil spirits is high throughout Nigeria, this kind of public accusation can instill fear in

people and cause them to mend their ways. Members of secret societies also can act as judges

or intermediaries in disputes.

Severe poverty, human rights violations, and corruption are some of the major social ills

that have plagued Nigeria for decades. Because Nigeria is in the midst of major political

change, however, there is great hope for social reform in the country. According to Amnesty

International's 2000 report, Nigeria's new government continues to make strides in improving

human rights throughout the country, most notably in the release of political prisoners.

However, the detention of journalists critical of the military and reports of police brutality

13

continue to be problems. Foreign governments and watchdog organizations continue to press

the Nigerian government for further human rights reforms. (Babajuma,1975).

1.1.5. Social Distribution

Thus, the majority of Nigerian families are very large by Western standards. Many

Nigerian men take more than one wife. In some ethnic groups, the greater the number of

children, the greater the man is standing in the eyes of his peers. Family units of ten or more

are not uncommon. In a polygamous family, each wife is responsible for feeding and caring

for her own children, though the wives often help each other when needed. The wives also

will take turns feeding their husband so that the cost of his food is spread equally between or

among the wives. Husbands are the authority figures in the household, and many are not used

to their ideas or wishes being challenged ( Falola , 1999)

In most Nigerian cultures, the father has his crops to tend to, while his wives will have

their own jobs, whether they are tending the family garden, processing palm oil, or selling

vegetables in the local market. Children may attend school. When they return home, the older

boys will help their father with his work, while the girls and younger boys will go to their

mothers.

Yet, in some Nigerian ethnic groups too, there is also a form of caste system that treats

certain members of society as pariahs. The criteria for determining who belongs to this lowest

caste vary from area to area but can include being a member of a minority group, an

inhabitant of a specific village, or a member of a specific family or clan. The Igbo call this

lower-caste group Osu (6). Members of the community will often discourage personal,

romantic, and business contact with any member of the Osu group, regardless of an

individual's personal merits or characteristics. Because the Osu are designated as untouchable,

they often lack political representation, access to basic educational or business opportunities,

and general social interaction. This kind of caste system is also found among the Yoruba and

the Ibibios.

1.1.6. Education

14

Chimamanda in her novel , Americanah describes educated characters as Ifemelu , aunt

Uju in both the mother and the host land , since education is a fundamental aspect in Nigeria.

Even though Nigeria got its independence, some influences of the British are still visible,

particularly in the structure of the education system. The Nigerian education system had

steadily switched in 1982 to the American system though British examinations, i.e. General

Certificate of Education –Ordinary Level and Advanced Level, were offered at high schools

until 1989.

Over the past decades, Nigeria has faced frequent political instability. This political unrest

has among others generated negative effects on the education system. It has suffered from a

shortage of material and human resources; e.g., a lack of qualified teachers and brain drain

from the public sector. The government of Nigeria therefore declared education as one of its

priorities and has been working on the education system to provide access to all levels of

education and improve the quality and efficiency of the entire system.

The responsibility for educational institutions is shared between the Federal state, the

local government, communities, and private organizations. The education policy in Nigeria is

based on the National Policy on Education, which was last revised in 2013. Primary education

begins at around age 3 for the majority of Nigerians. Students spend six years in primary

school and graduate with a school-leaving certificate. Subjects taught at the primary level

include mathematics, English language, Christian Religious Knowledge, Islamic knowledge

studies, science, and one of the three main indigenous languages and cultures: Hausa-

Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. Private schools also offer computer science, French, and Fine Arts.

Primary school students are required to take a Common Entrance Examination to qualify for

admission into the Federal and State Government Secondary schools, as well as private ones.

Students spend six years in Secondary School that is 3 years of JSS (Junior Secondary

School), and 3 years of SSS (Senior Secondary School). The Senior Secondary School ends

on the WASSC West African Senior School Certificate. Junior Secondary School is free and

compulsory. University education is provided by universities. Most students typically

enter university from age 17-18 onwards and study for an academic degree. Recently, all

universities are monitored by the (federal) government, and states are no longer permitted to

set up their own universities. The purpose of this measure is to create a uniform level among

all universities. Higher technical and professional education is mainly provided by specialist

schools and institutions such as Polytechnics, Institutions of technology, Colleges of

15

Education and Professional Institutions. Monotechnics provide education in the field of

agriculture and industry.

1.1.7. Distinctive Cultural Features

Culture is the totality of ways and manners people live their lives and make sense of their

existences. Every group and society has cultures that constitute frameworks for their lives and

behavioral patterns. Nigeria has more people than any other African country. Nigeria’s many

ethnic groups make it a country of great diversity or differences. The people of Nigeria have

close ties to their ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own heritage, or history, ideas, and

beliefs. However, all Nigerians share some beliefs. Much of Nigeria’s culture is based on

traditions of the past. Traditional music, dance, and storytelling are also important to Nigerian

life. Some writers use ideas from traditional folktales in new stories that they write as Chiniua

Achebe and Wole Soyinka.

There are over 520 languages spoken in Nigeria. The Official language is English; the

most commonly spoken language of Nigeria is English. Communication in the English

language is much more popular in the country's urban communities than it is in the rural areas

due to colonization. The other major languages

are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Urhobo, Ibibio, Edo, Fulfulde and Kanuri.

With regard to marriage, the Nigerian culture of marriage consists of three types:

religious marriage, civil marriage, and traditional marriage. A Nigerian couple may decide to

take part in one or all of these marriages. Religious marriages, usually Christian or Muslim

are conducted according to the norms of the respective religious teachings and take place in a

church or a mosque. Christian males are allowed only one wife, while Muslim men can take

up to four wives. Civil official weddings take place in a government registry office. Men are

allowed only one wife under a civil wedding, regardless of religion. Traditional marriages

usually are held at the wife's house and are performed according to the customs of the ethnic

group involved.

1.1.8. Nigerian Women Beauty

16

The characters in the novel of Americanah by Chimamanda display some pride in making

themselves feel at home in the USA, and keeping their traditional clothing. As far as clothing

is concerned, centuries ago the only reason the Igbo wore clothing was for modesty, as it was

not used for style or to display status. Today most of the people, especially in urban areas,

wear western styled clothing. However, in rural areas they often still wear traditional clothing.

The traditional clothing for women is wraps, some of which are designed for day-to-day

activities and others for formal occasions. The formal wraps are made of more expensive

cloth which is often imported. Men usually wear cotton wrappers, shirts, and sandals for day-

to-day wear. Formal wear for men consist of wraps made from better material than that used

for day-to-day wear.

Nigeria is the hub of creativity when it comes to hairstyles .Nigerian hairstyles have

some special features, which can make the hair look fantastic. Although there are different

styles, the woman writer chooses to focus on typical hairstyle of Nigerian woman. The next

explanation may include variations of these hairstyles. Natural hair weaving style (See

appendix 03) where every girl loves to experiment with her hair. Kinky African hair ( See

appendix 04) requires delicate and protective hairstyles to flourish. For this reason, most

Africans and African Americans have embraced braided hairstyles. Nigerian braids hair styles

are in season and have evolved over the last couple of years. Accentuate beautiful kinky

braids with silver beads and make it more visible by tying some braids high gives the style of

High Kinky Ponytail ( See appendix 05) . Holding twists to one side then braid it up to one

bunch and wrap it around (left or right side) to create a bun. It is also acceptable as well to use

bobby pins to hold it in place create the style of Side Bun( See appendix 06). Box braid, this

type of Nigerian braids hairstyles is never out of fashion (See appendix 07). Nigerian women

can either use short or long braids to create this look. The hairstyle is easy to maintain, neat

and you can style it multiple ways just like with kinky braids.

1.1.9. Wo/men Issues

Throughout the continent of Africa, gender discrimination continues to be highly

pervasive, manifesting in different regions and in different cultures. In Nigeria, women are

under-represented in almost every sphere of social life including politics, commerce,

agriculture, industry, military and educational institution. There is no single culture in

Nigeria, and the multiple cultures are very dissimilar. However, there is what can be seen as a

17

sort of universal belief and norms which are not exactly unique to Nigerians but in some way

they are magnified in a typical Nigerian especially in what is related to women and the

attitudes towards them. At the beginning of colonialism and Christianity, rigid ideals about

gender perceptions were imposed on the African mind. Thereafter, the woman’s role has

come to be limited to sexual and commercial labor; satisfying the sexual needs of men,

working in the fields, carrying loads, tending babies and preparing food (Department of

Economic and Social Affairs Office for Support and Coordination,2010)

The history of women in Nigeria serves to highlight the ironies and contradictions

in Nigeria. Although women comprise a majority of the population, they nonetheless

are often treated like minority group assigned a definitive place in the social order,

denied access to careers viewed as dependent, weak and submissive by nature (Luther,

258).Nigeria is a highly patriarchal society, where men dominate all spheres of

women’s life. Women are in a subordinate position (particularly at the community and

household levels), and male children are preferred over the female. The influence of

the mother and father is particularly significant in shaping and perpetrating patriarchy.

The mother provides the role model for daughters, while the father demonstrates to

sons what it means to ‘be a man’ (World Bank Report, 2005:6).

Various cultural values have historically contributed to gender disparity in education. One

prominent cultural view is that it is better for the woman to stay home and learn to tend to her

family instead of attending school. Education is seen in some societies as a fear of change and

now with globalization, the fear becomes even greater- fear to lose the cultural identity, fear

of moving towards the unknown or unwanted; adolescent pregnancy, early marriage and girls'

greater burden of household labour are obstacles to their schooling. In Nigeria, more boys

than girls participated in education because the 'Nigerian tradition' was explained as a

tradition that attaches higher value to a man than a woman, whose place is believed to be the

kitchen. In 2002, the combined gross enrollment for primary, secondary and tertiary schools

for female was 57% compared to 71% for males. Evidence further shows that more than two

thirds of 15-19 year old girls in Northern Nigeria are unable to read a sentence.

Women who are involved in the informal economy can often enjoy some degree of

autonomy, but men are often in control of land and credit, from a societal perspective.

Educated women may enjoy a higher social status. Education has provided many women with

access to wage labor, which is usually outside of the direct control of men, but women are

18

often still restrained by social expectations and boundaries. Even when they have employment

opportunities, tradition in Nigerian society dictates that a career be secondary to a woman's

primary role in the family as a mother or housewife.

Women were considered second-class citizens and in some instances, treated with

contempt and derision. Worst yet, in matters that affect them directly and intimately, they

were hardly consulted. Social exclusion of women gravely affected their collective lives

in more ways than one. It caused disharmony in marital life, frustration and desperations.

Women were considered inferior and their participation at all levels of government,

discouraged. In fact, some communities considered it a taboo for women to take active roles

in governance. Many qualified women were forced to play minor roles in the margins

or were frustrated out of governance. This was in spite of several institutional conventions

and treaties that encouraged woman participation in economics, politics and

governance.

Several impediments have consequently identified as limiting the participation of women

on the social, economic and political scenes. These barriers are cultural, economic, and legal

amongst others. To begin with, cultural mores, in this respect: “Men are the decision makers;

women should be cooking in the kitchen while men play politics." - Comments passed to

Dorothy Nyone when she announced her intention to represent the Gokana area in South-

eastern Rivers State for the ruling People’s Democratic Party. Social conventions, values and

mores conspire to deepen the stereotype of women as perpetual habitués of the kitchen who

are only gatecrashers into other spheres outside of their matrimonial homes. In fact, they are

usually socialized from birth to see their place as a second fiddle. The birth of a male child is

warmly received. To show the preference for the male child, women often feel that their place

in their matrimonial homes is not secured until they give birth to male children.

1.1.9.1. Women Participation

Such a financial issue is well depicted in the novel ‘Americanah’ through the

protagonist ‘s behaviour to higher her social status. No human society is complete without

womenfolk. This is equally applicable to the nations of the world. Development of any human

society could hardly be attainable when women’s roles are not factored in, nor acknowledged

and appreciated. Akubue (2001) equally maintained that any society which neglect such a

large number of human resource potential cannot achieve any meaningful development. This

19

reality is also articulated in Amucheazi (1991) when he described African traditional society

women as being hardworking and resourceful in the following words:

“They engage themselves in income generating activities of various types such as, processing of palm-oil and garri, soap making, weaving, sewing and pottery. Generally, African women carry significant proportions of the work –load in food crop production, animal husbandry, food processing and distribution. They combine all these with their traditional role of procreation and home management.” (Amucheazi ,1991)

Implicit on the above statement is the fact that women are important resource for any

development at the educational, cultural, political, economic or social spheres of life all over

the world.

As previously described, women have endeavored to overcome discrimination against

them through education. It is a common feature in Nigeria to see women in very highly placed

positions. Some are medical doctor pharmacists, architects, university dons of all ranks

including professors’ bankers, media women and even business tycoons. Nigerian women

have indeed ventured into male dominated professions, which include aviation armed forces

and so on. In fact in all spheres of life women are there working in Nigeria contributing socio-

economic development.

Access to education has gone a long in making Nigerian women realize their potentials

in the informal sector of the economy; the rural women have made impact in food crop

production, processing and distribution and animal husbandry. Women in the South,

especially among the Yoruba peoples, had received Western-style education since the

nineteenth century, so they occupied positions in the professions and to some extent in

politics.

Women had been noted to have potentials that are necessary for development. However,

they are still denied certain rights due to some psychological, sociological, cultural and

traditional factors. The convention on the elimination of all forms of Discrimination against

Women has not been fully implemented in Nigeria. Though there seemed to be a slight

improvement in women involvement in some sectors but the change is not significant

compared with the number of women population in the country.

20

1.1.9.2. Women Commitment

Women’s struggle in Nigeria is not a new phenomenon, during the pre-colonial and

colonial periods women in most parts of Nigeria have been involved in women’s movements.

For example, the Yan’taru Movement of Nana Asma’u, the daughter of the Sokoto

Caliphate’s founder in Northern Nigeria, and the Aba Women’s Resistant Movement in

Southern Nigeria. Most Nigerian feminist are the highly educated urban elites of the country,

who are small in number but vocal such as Amina Mama, Ayesha Imam and Obioma

Nnaemeka and their organisations such as the BOABA for Women’s Human Rights and the

Women in Nigeria . The backbone of their struggle is survival, survival to make a living out

of poverty and a high level of unemployment and underemployment.

A national feminist movement was inaugurated in 1982, and a national conference held

at Ahmadu Bello University. The papers presented in the conference indicated a growing

awareness by Nigeria's university-educated women that the place of women in society

required a concerted effort and a place on the national agenda; the public perception,

however, remained far behind. For example, a feminist meeting in Ibadan came out against

polygamy and then was soundly criticized by market women, who said they supported the

practice because it allowed them to pursue their trading activities and have the household

looked after at the same time. Research in the North indicated that many women opposed the

practice, and tried to keep bearing children to stave off a second wife's entry into the

household. Although women's status would undoubtedly rise, for the foreseeable future

Nigerian women lacked the opportunities of men. Women in Nigeria face various versions of

human rights violations despite the provisions granted unto them in the 1999 Constitution.

Regardless of the opportunity provided to take up unconstitutionality to higher courts in

Nigeria, women do not often utilize this option and as such, there continues to be many

violations occurring.

1.1.10. Literature

As to literature, with colonization and the introduction of reading, writing, and the

English language, Nigerian storytellers soon began sharing their talents with a worldwide

audience. Perhaps Nigeria's most famous writer is Wole Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel

Prize for literature. Other famous Nigerian authors include Chinua Achebe, whose Things

Fall Apart is a favorite among Western schools as an example of the problems inflicted on

21

African societies during colonization, and Ben Okri, whose novel The Famished Road won

Britain's 1991 Booker Prize. Nigeria has produced a number of female authors who were, and

still are, able to assert themselves as writers, both on a national and international scale.

Among the outstanding female writers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

1.1.11. Conclusion

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with prominent religions as Christianity

and Islam .Following the independence from the British Colonial Masters in1960, the country

was ruled by the military for almost 30 years before the return of democratic rule in 1999. In

Nigeria, women spend their whole lives under male dominance, submitting first to the

authority of their father or their mother's brother according to the prevailing kinship system

and later to that of their husband. Thus, culture is presented here as a strong explanatory

variable in understanding the predominant gender ideology in the Nigerian society. In the

economy, major control, power and key roles rest with men and keep women in subordinate

and subservient positions. Their increased participation in the economic and educational life

of the nation is confined largely to trading not requiring large outlay in capital. Being

influenced by Western feminist movement, Nigerian women aspire for many women right

and status in society. The following considers the main cultural issues in the Indian context, to

which the woman writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is involved in.

Notes to Part One

22

(1) The CIA World Factbook, is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The Factbook is available in the form of a website that is partially updated every week. It provides a two to three page summary of the demographics , geography , communications , government ,economy, and military of each of 267 international entities including U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.

(2) Ozolua, originally called Okpame and later called Ozolua n'Ibaromi (Ozolua the

Conqueror), was an Oba of the Kingdom of Beninfrom 1483 until 1514. He greatly expanded the Kingdom through warfare and increased contact with the Portuguese Empire. He was an important Oba in both history of the Kingdom of Benin and retains importance in the folklore and celebrations of the region.

(3) Oba Esigie was an Oba (king) of Benin who ruled the ancient Benin Kingdom (c.1504–c.1550). His works of art are held in prominent museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.

(4) Augustus Ehurie Wogu, a prominent civil servant with the Nigerian Marine Department, was one of the early converts. Wogu, along with Augustus Asonye, G. M. Alioha and others, helped to lay the foundation for of the Assemblies of God. The Assemblies of God in Nigeria has experienced phenomenal growth. In 1959, the fellowship had 293 churches with 14,794 adherents.

(5) Osu : Traditionally, there are two classes of people in Igboland – the Nwadiala and the Osu.

The Nwadiala literally meaning ‘sons of the soil’ are the freeborn. They are the masters. While the Osu are the slaves, the strangers, the outcasts and the untouchables. The Osu are made to live separately from the freeborn.

(6) Amina of Zaria (1533-1610), commonly known as the warrior queen, expanded the territory of the Hausa people of North Africa to the largest borders in history. More than 400 years later, the legend of her persona became the model for a television series about a fictional warrior princess, called Xena. Amina was the warrior queen of Zazzau (now Zaria).

(7) Moremi Ajasoro, Princess of the Yoruba, was a figure of high significance in the history of the Yoruba peoples of West Africa. She was a member-by-marriage of the royal family of Emperor Oduduwa, the tribe's fabled founding father.

(8) Magajiya is a Hausa term that is also used by Sanghol. Also Magagia, high priestess of Bori and leader of free women (now considered as prostitutes) who run the cult. The Magajia (also inna, iya or magajya , depending on the place) regulates all conflicts that arise between initiates. The Magajia is a very powerful figure chosen for her intelligence ,leadership qualities and strong personality, because of her role in those regions where the ritual is widespread, her potential support is usually greatly sought after.

23

(9) Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900–1978) was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria. She was one of the first women to attend Abeokuta Grammar School in 1914, where she would go on to teach. By the time of her return to Nigeria in 1922, she had dropped her Christian name, Frances Abigail. She soon became associated with some of the most important anti-colonial educational movements in Nigeria and West Africa, and fought tirelessly to further women’s access to education and political representation.

(10) Hajia Gambo Sawaba (15 February 1933 – October 2001) was a Nigerian women's rights activist, politician and philanthropist. She served as the deputy chairman of Great Nigeria People's Party and was elected leader of the national women’s wing of Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU).

(11) Margaret Ekpo (July 27, 1914 – September 21, 2006) ,a Nigerian women's rights activist and social mobilizer who was a pioneering female politician in the country's First Republic and a leading member of a class of traditional Nigerian women activists.

(12) Madam Efunroye Tinubu (1810 – 1887), born Efunporoye Osuntinubu, was a politically significant figure in Nigerian history because of her role as a powerful female aristocrat and slave trader in pre-colonial and colonial Nigeria. She was a major figure in Lagos during the reigns of Obas Adele, Oluwole, Akitoye, and Dosunmu.

Part Two

Indian Cultural Context

24

1.2.1. Introduction

India, also known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. Unity is found in

India in all its historical and cultural facets. India is a multicultural state with people living in

different regions, speaking different languages, and believing in different religions and faiths.

Linguistic and religious diversities do not hinder the realization of the common national goals.

The cultural heritage of India has been a living example of the synthesis of different cultures.

Therefore, the following discussion will exhibit India’s multiculturality.

1.2.2. Religions in India

Religions are very important as they define individuals’ behaviours included in a caste

restriction. India is a land of several religious communities. Here are some of the most well

spears religions that make India fertile land for worshipping and spiritual practices.

India’s largest population is Hindu. Its roots can be traced back to the Indus Valley

Civilizations (1), (around 3000 B.C). Hindu thought evolved the idea of a trinity consists of

Brahma , The Creatore, Vishnu ,the preserver and Shiva , the destroyer. Archaeologists point

out that the worship of Shiva (2) and the mother Goddess (shakti) (3) came into existence in

the pre-Aryan period (3000-2000 B.C.) .Having such a long history , it is obvious that

Hinduism has developed over a period of time and is bound to show a far greater diversity in

its thoughts and practices than any other religion .

The doctrines of Hinduism are not contained to any one sacred book. Hinduism does not

have a single historical founder. Hindus worship innumerable Gods and Goddesses. However,

at the same time, they also have the concept of one God .Hinduism comprises a vast body of

sacred literature such as the Vedas(4) ,Upanishads(5), Dharmashastra(6) , Puranas(7),

Darsanas(8) ,Agramas and Tantras(9), etc .These texts deal with the philosophical matters , in

rituals also there is a great deal of variation .

Certain concepts central to Hinduism are dharma, karma and moksa .the word dharma

means duty , and each individual is advised to live according to the duty laid down to one’s

caste ,sex, and age .The net balance of good and bad deeds in previous births is called Karma.

The permanent release from the world is called Moksa (meaning ‘Salvation’),which should be

the aim of every Hindu .As per the 2001 census, Hindu population of the country stood at

827,578,868. In terms of absolute numbers, the Hindus constitute the third largest religious

25

community in the world, after Christians and Muslims in that order. (Source of Data:

Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India 2004)

The diffusion of Islam in India started simultaneous with its emergence in the seventh

century A.D. It occurred in different ways in various parts of the country, i.e. consequent

upon trade-links with the Middle East, invasions from different parts of central Asia,

migrations, emergence of Muslim rule in many parts, and religious conversions. Expectedly,

growth of Muslim population has been considerably more in areas with longer duration of

Muslim rule, and in those having longer trading contacts with Arab countries. Numbering

138,188,240, Muslims constituted 13.43 per cent of the total population of India in 2001.

(Source of Data: Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India ,2004 )

After the death of Christ when one of his twelve disciples, St. Thomas, came to the

country sometime around the middle of first century A.D, Christianity had reached India

shortly. He preached this faith in several parts of the country (Singh, 83). However, the Syrian

Christians who had arrived there around the middle of the fourth century A.D. accomplished

the task of firmly establishing Christianity in the Malabar tract. Though Christianity came to

India about two thousand years ago, its rapid growth mainly took place after the establishment

of colonial rules by the Portuguese, and the British in the country. With a total population of

24,080,016, the Christians constituted 2.34% of the population of the country in 2001. India

(2004): The First Report on Religion Data, Census of India, New Delhi the Religious

Composition of India’s Population).

Other religions as Bhudism (10) , Jainism (11) , Sikhism(12) and Bahai (13) have a fewer

number of number of believers as compared to Christianity and Hinduism.

1.2.3. Educational Issues

It is provided by the public sector as well as the private sector, with control and funding

coming from three levels: central, state and local. Under various articles of the Indian

Constitution, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children

between the ages of 6 and 14.

After passing the Higher Secondary Examination (the Standard 12 examination), students

may enrol in general degree programmes such as bachelor's degree (graduation) in arts,

commerce or science, or professional degree programme such as engineering, law or medicine

26

and become B. Sc., B. Com., and B. A. graduates. India's higher education system is the third

largest in the world, after China and the United States. The main governing body at the

tertiary level is the University Grants Commission (India), which enforces its standards,

advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state up to Post

graduation and Doctorate (Ph.D).Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 12

autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission.

1.2.4. Society

India is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country (with

over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world. ( See appendix 08).

To understand the main themes described by Bharati Mukherjee, it is notable in fact to have

some knowledge about India’s main societal features. Family in India has remained a vital

institution. It is sheet- anchor of the patriarchal authority on the one hand, and a protector and

defender of individual member’s right to property on the other. Despite several wide-ranging

changes in Indian society, because of synthesis between collectivism and individualism, the

Hindu family continues to be joint, partly structurally and mainly functionally. It has not

disintegrated into individual families like the western countries. Several studies on family

have revealed that industrialization, urbanization, education and migration have not

necessarily resulted into nuclearisation of family in India.

The traditional Indian family is a large kinship group commonly described as Joint family.

A joint family is one in which two or more generations’ live under one roof or different roofs

having a common hearth. All the members own the immovable property of the line in

common. This family is generally patriarchal and patrilineal, that is, the father or the oldest

male member is the head of the house and administrator of the property and the headship

descends in the male line. In modern towns a large number of nuclear families exist which

consist of wife, husband and the children. Such families are also partiarchal and patrilineal.

But there are many regions where families are matrilineal in which the headship descends in

the female line such as in Kerala and the Northeastern region of Nagaland and Meghalaya.

Whatever be the nature of the family it is the primary unit of the society. The members of

the family are bound together by ‘shraddha’, the rite of commemorating the ancestors.

‘Shraddha’ defined the family; those who were entitled to participate in the ceremony were

27

‘sapindas’, members of the family group. The bond between the members of the family gave

a sense of social security to its members. In distress, a man could rely on the other members

of the extended family. At the time of festivals and marriages, the responsibilities were shared

reinforcing the family bond.

Traditionally the family in India is governed by two schools of sacred law and

customs.These are based on ‘Mitakshara (14)’ and ‘Dayabhaga (15)’. Most families of

Bengal and Assam follow the rules of ‘Dayabhaga’ while the rest of India generally follows

‘Mitakshara’. The sacred law made provisions for the break-up of the very large and

unmanageable joint families. Such break-ups took place on the death of the patriarch. In the

post-independence period the Constitution provided that each religious community would be

governed by their religious personal laws in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance,

succession adoption, guardianship, custody of children and maintenance.

1.2.4.1. The Caste System

Every society is stratified. It has rightly been said that an unstratified society, with a real

equality of its members is a myth, which has never been realised in the history of humankind.

The form and proportions may vary but its essence is permanent. The Indian social system

rests on three pillars: the caste system, the joint family system, and the village community.

Among these, the caste system appears to be the most significant feature of the Hindu Society

due to its interdependence upon the social, economic and political systems. In fact, the Hindu

Society has been described as the caste society par excellence. In India, a unique system of

social stratification based on birth is found. The caste system is based on occupational and

socially defined hierarchies. - There are four castes categories that are generally understood

throughout India: 1) Priests (Brahmin),2) Warriors (Kshatriya),3) Traders/artisans (Vaishya),

4) Farmers/laborers (Shudra) .

The term ‘Caste’ is derived from a Portuguese word ‘Casta’ meaning breed, race or

group. Caste refers to people belonging to the same breed. An individual is born into a caste,

and this status is usually permanent. The term ‘Caste’ has been defined differently by

different people.

According to G.S.Ghurye 1969

28

“Castes are small and complete social worlds in themselves marked off definitely from one another though subsisting within the larger society.” According to MacIver “When status is wholly predetermined so that men are born to their lot without any hope of change in it, then the class takes the extreme form of caste.” (G.S.Ghurye,1969:14)

According to A.W.Green,

“Caste is a system of stratification in which mobility, movement up and down in the status ladder, at least ideally, may not occur.” (14)(Qtd Isrshad Ahmed Wani 2017:306)

But , it must be said that Dalits men and women suffer open discrimination .Yet, women

particularly are doubly opressed :first being a woman and and second being a Dalit or

Untouchable ( See appendix 09) . Gender and caste features are explained, as they are not

dealt in the novel selected for the thesis Miss New India. Nevertheless, Indian women are

outstanding characters in the novel.

1.2.4.2. The Do’s and Don'ts in India

1) Do drink bottled water only.

2) Don't offer bribes to get any job done. Use consultants or trade and industry associations.

If you expect favors, let them come free or not at all. Warn anyone (even in government) who

asks you for a bribe that you would report him to the Anti-Corruption Bureau or the nearest

police station.

3) Don’t show amusement at Indian English, accents or choice of words. The fact remains

that many Indians speak and write better English than many native English speakers.

4) Do pay attention to the Indian nod. Many Indians are in the habit of shaking their head in

the course of conversation or taking instructions. The nod generally means I hear you.

Namaste. This is a greeting done with joining of your palms as during prayer.

5) Do say namaste, folding your hands together, as if praying. This is a common greeting

well understood across India, in spite of linguistic differences.

6) Don’t shake hands with women if they do not extend their hand out first. Many women

may not wish to shake hands when met, so a namaste greeting is appropriate, followed with a

Kaise hai? (How are you ? in Hindi.) ( Lionel India, By Dr .K. K. Birla ,1974)

29

1.2.4.3. Domestic Violence

Domestic violence, rape and dowry-related violence are sources of gender

violence. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 2013 annual report,

24,923 rape cases were reported across India in 2012. Out of these, relative or neighbor

committed 24,470; in other words, the victim knew the alleged rapist in 98 per cent of the

cases (National Crimes Record Bureau, Crime in India 2012 - Statistics Archived 20 June

2014 at the Wayback Machine. Government of India (May 2013). Other sources of gender

violence include those that are honor killings -related violence where the woman's behavior is

linked to the honour of her whole family; in extreme cases, family member(s) kill her. In most

cases, honor killings are linked to the woman marrying someone that the family strongly

disapproves of. Some honor killings are the result of extrajudicial decisions made by

traditional community elders such as "khap panchayats," unelected village assemblies that

have no legal authority. Estimates place 900 deaths per year (or about one per /million

people). Honor killings are found the Northern states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh

Rape in India has been described by Radha Kumar as one of India's most common

crimes against women and by the United Nations’ human-rights chief as a "national problem

(Rao ,2008) ". Since the 1980s, women's rights groups lobbied for marital rape to be declared

unlawful, but the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 still maintains the marital exemption

by stating in its exception clause under Section 375, that : "Sexual intercourse or sexual acts

by a man with his own wife is not rape / the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not

rape".While per-capita reported incidents New Delhi has one of the highest rate of rape-

reports among Indian cities. Recent data shows that rape cases in India have doubled between

1990 and 2008 (Associated Press (17 December 2012). "Indian student gang-raped, thrown

off bus in New Delhi". Arab News).

Of the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990, half related to molestation

and harassment in the workplace. In 1997, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of

India took a strong stand against sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The Court

also laid down detailed guidelines for prevention and redressal of grievances. The National

Commission for Women subsequently elaborated these guidelines into a Code of Conduct for

employers. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and

Redressal) Act came into force in December 2013; to prevent harassment of women at

workplace. A study by Action Aid UK found that 80% of women in India had experienced

30

sexual harassment ranging from unwanted comments, being groped or assaulted. Many

incidents go unreported as the victims fear being shunned by their families. (Bhalla, 2016).

In India, dowry is the payment in cash or some kind of gifts given to bridegroom's

family along with the bride. The practice is widespread across geographic region, class and

religions. The dowry system in India contributes to gender inequalities by influencing the

perception that girls are a burden on families. Such beliefs limit the resources invested by

parents in their girls and limits her bargaining power within the family.

In 1961, the Government of India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act , making dowry

demands in wedding arrangements illegal. However, many cases of dowry-related domestic

violence, suicides and murders have been reported. In the 1980s, numerous such cases were

reported.( "Women of India: Frequently Asked Questions (blog)". kamat.com. Kamat's

Potpourri. 19 December 2006.The payment of a dowry has been prohibited under The 1961

Dowry Prohibition Act in Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498a of the

Indian Penal Code (IPC). Several studies show that while attitudes of people are changing

about dowry, the institution has changed very little, and even continues to prevail.

(Sekher,2010)

A 1997 report claimed that each year at least 5,000 women in India die dowry-related

deaths, and at least a dozen die each day in 'kitchen fires' thought to be intentional (UPI (23

July 1997). "Kitchen fires kill Indian brides with inadequate dowry". United Press

International. New Delhi).The term for this is "bride burning" and is criticised within India

itself. Amongst the urban educated, such dowry abuse has reduced considerably.In 2011, the

National Crime Records Bureau reported 8,618 dowry deaths. Unofficial estimates claim the

figures are at least three times as high (UN Women (24 December 2012). "Confronting dowry-

related violence in India: women at the center of justice". New York: UN Women).

1.2.5. Cultural Components

India is a plural society. It is rightly characterized by its unity and diversity. There are

two official languages in India, which are as follows : Hindi is the most prominent language

spoken in the country. In the 2001 census, 422 million (422, 048,642) people in India reported

Hindi to be their native language ("Official Languages Act, 1963 (with amendments)" , Indian

31

Railways. 10 May 1963). Hindi (or Hindustani) is the native language of most people living

in Delhi, Utar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgrah, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigar, Bihar,

Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan. "Modern Standard Hindi",

a standardised language is the official language of the Union of India. In addition, it is one of

only two languages used for business in Parliament .Hindustani, evolved from khari boli, a

prominent tongue of Mughal times, which itself evolved from Apabhraśa, an intermediary

transition stage from Prakrit, from which the major North Indian Indo-Aryan languages have

evolved.By virtue of its being a lingua franca, Hindi has developed regional dialects such

as Bambaiya Hindi in Mumbai. In addition, a trade language, Andaman Creole Hindi has also

developed in the Andaman Islands.In addition, by use in popular culture such as songs and

films, Hindi also serves as a lingua franca across both North and Central India.Hindi is

widely taught both as a primary language and language of instruction, and as a second tongue

in most states ( De Shahid Ali ,2019)

British colonial legacy has resulted in English being a language for government, business

and education. English, along with Hindi, is one of the two languages permitted in the

Constitution of India for business in Parliament. Despite the fact that Hindi has official

Government patronage and serves as a lingua franca over large parts of India, there was

considerable opposition to the use of Hindi in the Southern states of India, and English has

emerged as a de facto lingua franca over much of India.

Clothing in India varies depending on the different ethnicity, geography, climate and

cultural traditions of the people of each region of India. Historically, male and female clothing

has evolved from simple kaupinam, langota, dhoti, lungi, saree, gamucha, and loincloths to

cover the body to elaborate costumes not only used in daily wear but also on festive occasions

as well as rituals and dance performances. In urban areas, western clothing is common and

uniformly worn by people of all social levels. India also has a great diversity in terms of

weaves, fibers, colours and material of clothing. Sometimes, color codes are followed in

clothing based on the religion and ritual concerned.

In India, women's clothing varies widely according to the local

culture, religion and climate. A saree or sari is a female garment in the Indian

subcontinent. A sari is a strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from four to nine meters in length

that is draped over the body in various styles. The most common style is for the sari to be

wrapped around the waist, with one end then draped over the shoulder baring the midriff..

32

Teenage girls wear half-sarees, a three piece set consisting of a langa, a choli and

a stole wrapped over it like a saree. Women usually wear full sarees. Indian wedding saris are

typically red or pink, a tradition that goes back to India's pre-modern history. Saris are usually

known with different names in different places. In Kerala, white saris with golden border, are

known as kavanis and are worn on special occasions. A simple white sari, worn as a daily

wear, is called a mundu. Saris are called pudavai in Tamil Nadu. In Karnataka, saris are

called Seere. (See appendix 10).

For men, traditional clothes include: An Achkan (See appendix 11) or a Sherwani is a

long coat / jacket that usually sports exposed buttons through the length of the jacket. The

length is usually just below the knees and the jacket ends just below the knee. The Achkan is

worn with tight fitting pants or trousers called churidars. Achkan is usually worn during the

wedding ceremonies by the groom and is usually cream, light ivory or gold coloured.

A Jodhpuri or a Bandhgala is a formal evening suit from India. It originated in the Jodhpur

State, and was popularized during the British Raj in India. Also known as Jodhpuri Suit, it is a

western style suit product, with a coat and a trouser, at times accompanied by a vest.

Angarkha, the term is derived from the Sanskrit word Aṅgarakṣaka, which means protection

of the body. The angarkha was worn in various parts of the Indian Subcontinent, it is a

traditional upper garment worn in the Indian Subcontinent, which overlap and are tied to the

left or right shoulder.

At the same time as Western fashion was absorbing elements of Indian dress, Indian

fashion also began to actively absorb elements of Western dress. Throughout the 1980s and

1990s, Western designers enthusiastically incorporated traditional Indian crafts, textiles and

techniques in their work at the same time as Indian designers allowed the West to influence

their work. By the turn of the 21st century, both Western and Indian clothing had

intermingled creating a unique style of clothing for the typical urban Indian population.

Women started wearing more comfortable clothing and exposure to international fashion led

to a fusion of western and Indian styles of clothing. Following the economic liberalisation,

more jobs opened up, and created a demand for formal wear. While women have the choice to

wear either Western or traditional dress to work, most Indian multinational companies insist

that male employees wear Western dress.

33

Women's clothing in India nowadays consists of both formal and casual wear such as

gowns, pants, shirts and tops. Traditional Indian clothing such as the kurti has been combined

with jeans to form part of casual attire. Fashion designers in India have blended several

elements of Indian traditional designs into conventional western wear to create a unique style

of contemporary Indian fashion.

With regard to marriage, every society namely the Indian one regulates the sexual

behaviour of its members.Marriage implies much more than a mere regulation of sexual

behaviour of the members of a society. It involves rights and duties of various kinds of the

parties to the union and of the offspring born of it. As such, marriage has a reference to the

structure and function of the family.

Hindu marriage means the ceremony of ‘carrying away’ the bride to the house of the

groom. Hindu marriage is a sacrament because it is said to be complete only on the

performance of the sacred rites and the sacred formulae for example: The bride and the

bridegroom going seven steps together are important rites for completion of a marriage.

Hindu marriage is a sacrament in another sense because marriage is considered essential for

woman and she is required to perform rites with her husband throughout her life. Since

marriage is considered indissoluble, the husband and wife try to adjust their tastes and

temperament, ideals and interests by making sacrifices for each other. Hindu marriage is not

an ordinary event; it is an institution of life-long compromise and adjustment.

Husband-wife are not individual persons, but they are part of extended family and caste

(community). However, the husband and wife have never been equal in regard to their

obligations and privileges. The wife is required to follow the ideal of pativratya, devoted to

her husband alone. The institution of sati (self-immolation after husband’s death) has received

encouragement, and widow remarriage gets discouraged. Today the situation has undergone

sea-change. The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, socio-cultural awakening, education and urban

employment etc. have weakened the sacred ethos of Hindu marriage. Divorce is becoming

quite acceptable. The incidence of widow-remarriage has also increased. Women are claiming

status equal to men. Despite these changes, religiosity remains attached to marriage to a large

extent.

In Hindu society, there are two kinds of rules regulating the selection of mates in

marriage. They are endogamy and exogamy.

34

Firstly, Endogamy: It is the rule that forbids the members of a group to marry from

outside it. The most general forms of endogamy in Hindu society are: (i) Varna endogamy (ii)

Caste endogamy and (ii) sub caste endogamy.

Varna Endogamy: Varna endogamy prescribes marriages between members of the

same varna. Marriages between members of the same varna were regarded as proper

and ideal. Although marriages between varnas in the form of hypergamy and

hypogamy were allowed in the past, they were never considered desirable. Therefore,

as per this rule, a Hindu must select his partner in life from his own varna.

Caste Endogamy: Caste endogamy is the rule that prohibits the members of a caste to

marry outside their own caste. Each of the varnas consists a number of castes or jatis.

Because of this rule, even the members of the same varna are not eligible to marry

one another, if they do not, at the same time, belong to the same caste. Until recently,

violation of this rule was viewed with a grave concern and the usual punishment for it

was not less than ex-communication from the caste. Even now, the rule, though

legally abolished, is effective is Hindu society.

Sub-caste Endogamy: This rule further restricts the individual’s choice of mate

selection to a still smaller group, i.e. his sub-caste, which is but one of the many sub-

castes of a caste. Even sub-castes are divided into sections and sub-sections that are

also endogamous. Thus, the choice of an individual in selecting a partner in life is

confined to a few families ranging from 50 to 300.

Seconly, Exogamy: While the endogamous rules prescribe marriages within the group,

exogamic rules prescribe such marriages. Some of the generally followed exogamic rules in

Hindu society are (1) Gotra Exogamy (2) Pravara Exogamy and (3) Sapinda Exogamy. Gotra

exogamy forbids marriages between members of the same gotra. Gotra which originally

meant an enclose made to protect cows, has later come to mean family or clan. The members

of a gotra believe that they have descended from a common ancestor and are, therefore, have

descended from a common ancestor and are, therefore, related by blood. As such, members of

the same gotra are forbidden to enter into marital relations. However, this rule has been made

ineffective by the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955. Pravara exogamy is the rule that forbids

marriages between members belonging to the same pravara. This rule, therefore, is applicable

only to Brahmins According to this rule ; members having the same ‘rishi’ ancestors are not

35

eligible to marry one another. Pravara exogamy is also abolished by the Hindu Marriage Act

of 1955. Sapinda exogamy prohibits marriages between ‘sapindas’. Sapindas are those who

are related to one another, in ascending or descending order, by four generations through

mother’s side and by six generations through father’s side. The Hindu Marriage Act of 1955

though forbids sapinda marriages in general, allows it in the form of cross-cousin marriages

as a peculiar custom of the South.

In the Muslim social system, marriage is governed basically by ‘Shariat’, the Muslim

personal law. The norms and injections of Shariat are widely followed, despite regional

differences in subsidiary customs in respect of Muslim marriage. The Muslim marriage is

considered as a very happy occasion of pomp and joy. It is performed in accordance with the

socio-economic status of the family.

In Christianity , marriage is considred as a sacred institution. The Christian Churches

have always held that universal institution of marriage has a special place in God’s purpose

for all human life. As regards the aims of Christian marriage, primarily it is desired for

procreation and healthy development of one’s personality and secondarily marriage is meant

for the establishment of family and for enjoying the benefits of mutual cooperation. The

constitution of the united Church of Northern India holds Christian marriage as a sacred

institution which has been blessed by God. It considers marriage a natural thing and a

sacrament wherein a man and a woman are found for ill or well.

1.2.6. Wo/men Rising Position

The history of women in India is the story of progressive decline .Women constituted the

key role in the arch of Indian society. The Indian cultural tradition begins with the Vedas. It is

generally believed that the Vedic period is spread over from 2000 BC to 500 B.C. The Rig

Vedic Women in India enjoyed high status in society and their condition was good. Even the

women were provided opportunity to attain high intellectual and spiritual standard. She was

considered as half of the man, his trust friend, companion in solitude, father in advice and the

rest in passing the wilderness of Life. Vedic women had economic freedom. Some women

were engaged in teaching work. Home was the place of production. Spinning and weaving of

clothes were done at home. Women also helped their husbands in agricultural pursuits.There

were many women Rishis during this period. Though monogamy was mostly common, the

richer section of the society indulged in polygamy. There was no sati system or early

marriage. Nevertheless, from enjoying free and esteemed positions in the Rig-Vedic society,

36

women started being discriminated since the Later-Vedic period in education and other rights

and facilities. Child marriage, widow burning or sati, the purdah and polygamy further

worsened the women’s position (Altekar, 1983).

In the religious field, wife enjoyed full rights and regularly participated in religious

ceremonies with her husband. Religious ceremonies and sacrifices were performed jointly by

the husband and wife. Women even participated actively in religious discourses. The role of

Women in Public Life that could shine as debaters in public assemblies (Krishnaraj,

Maithveyi, 1986). They usually occupied a prominent place in social gatherings but they were

denied entry, into the “Sabhas” because these places besides being used for taking political

decisions were also used for gambling, drinking and such others purposes. Women’s

participation in public meetings and debates, however, became less and less common in later

Vedic period

However, from enjoying free and esteemed positions in the Rig-Vedic society, women

started being discriminated since the Later-Vedic period in education and other rights and

facilities (Saravanakumar, 2016). The Ancient and medieval status of women in modern

Indian society regarding Equality, Education, Marriage and Family life, Race and Gender,

Religion and Culture is maintained or deteriorated. The Medieval period (Period between 500

A.D to 1500 A.D) proved to be highly disappointing for the Indian women.When foreign

conquerors, the Muslims invaded India they brought with them their own culture. For them

women was the sole property of her father, brother or husband and she does not have any will

of her own. This type of thinking also crept into the minds of Indian people and they also

began to treat their own women like this. One more reason for the decline in women's status

and freedom was that original Indians wanted to shield their women folk from the barbarous

Muslim invaders. As polygamy was a norm for these invaders they picked up any women

they wanted and kept her in their “harems". In order to protect those Indian women started

using 'Purdah', (a veil) (Dutt,1937). They were not allowed to move freely and this led to the

further deterioration of their status. These problems related with women, resulted in changed

mindset of people. Now, they began to consider a girl as misery and a burden, which has to be

shielded from the eyes of intruders. Thus a vicious circle started in which women was at the

receiving end. All this gave rise to some new evils such as Child Marriage, Sati, Jauhar and

restriction on girl education.

37

With the decline of the Mughal supremacy and expansion of colonial structure in India, the

influence of modern ideas set in motion a process of change in a different direction. Under the

influence of modern education, a set of social reformers campaigned for legislation which

would uplift the status of women in society. With the efforts of Ram Mohan Roy, Radhakanta

Deb, Bhawani Charan Banerji the practice of ‘sati’ was banned in 1829. In 1895, killing of

female infants was declared a murder. In independent India through the Hindu Marriage Act

of 1955 set, the minimum age limit for the bridegroom was fixed at eighteen years and for the

bride at fifteen. In 1856, through the efforts of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar the first widow

remarriage took place. Pandit Vishnu Shastri founded Widow Marriage Association in 1860.

All their efforts have resulted in a considerable upliftment of women. Recently the Supreme

Court of India has further recognised the daughter’s share in her father’s property. ("The

Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987". wcd.nic.in. Ministry of Women and Child

Development. Archived from the original on 1 September 2015. Retrieved 24

December 2006).

Recent women status is at a disadvantage in several important ways. In India,

discriminatory attitudes towards women exist. Although the Constitution of India grants men

and women equal rights, gender disparities remain.Research shows gender discrimination

mostly in favour of men in many realms including the workplace. Discrimination affects

many aspects in the lives of women from career development and progress to mental health

disorders. While Indian laws on rape, dowry and adultery have women's safety at heart, these

discriminatory practices are still taking place at an alarming rate, affecting the lives of many

today (www.nios.com accessed 05th January 2017)

Accordingly, education is not equally attained by Indian women. Although literacy rates

are increasing, the female literacy rate lags behind the male literacy rate. Literacy for females

stands at 65.46%, compared to 82.14% for males. An underlying factor for such low literacy

rates are parents' perceptions that education for girls are a waste of resources as their

daughters would eventually live with their husbands’ families and they will not benefit

directly from the education investment ("The World Factbook: India". cia.gov. Central

Intelligence Agency). ( See Appendix 12 ).

38

The labour force participation rate of women was 80.7 in 2013. Nancy Lockwood

of Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest human resources association

with members in 140 countries, in a 2009 report wrote that female labour participation is

lower than men are, but has been rapidly increasing since the 1990s. Out of India's 397

million workers in 2001, 124 million were women, states Lockwood. Over 50% of Indian

labour is employed in agriculture. A majority of rural men work as cultivators, while a

majority of women work in livestock maintenance, egg and milk production. Rao states that

about 78 percent of rural women are engaged in agriculture, compared to 63 percent of men.

About 37% of women are cultivators, but they are more active in the irrigation, weeding,

winnowing, transplanting, and harvesting stages of agriculture. ( Rao,2006) .

About 70 percent of farm work was performed by women in India in 2004. Women's

labour participation rate is about 47% in India's tea plantations, 46% in cotton cultivation,

45% growing oil seeds and 39% in horticulture. There is wage inequality between men and

women in India. The largest wage gap was in manual ploughing operations in 2009, where

men were paid 103 per day, while women were paid ₹ 55, a wage gap ratio of 1.87. For

sowing, the wage gap ratio reduced to 1.38 and for weeding 1.18. For other agriculture

operations such as winnowing, threshing and transplanting, the men to female wage ratio

varied from 1.16 to 1.28. For sweeping, the 2009 wages were statistically same for men and

women in all states of India (Source : Wage Rates Rural India (2008-9) Labour Bureau,

Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt of India (2010))

Women rights were very much limited in inheriting property. A married daughter had no

share in her father’s property. As a wife, a woman had no direct share in her husband’s

property. A widow was expected to lead an ascetic life and had no share in her husband’s

property (Sharma Rathakrishna, 1981). Thus, it could be generalized that the social situation

was not in favour of women possessing property and yet protection was given to them as

daughters and wives. But , by fighting ,Women have equal rights under the law to own

property and receive equal inheritance rights such as the Married Women Property Rights Act

of 1974 protect women, but few seek legal redress. Although the Hindu Succession provides

equal inheritance rights to ancestral and jointly owned property .But in practice, women are at

a disadvantage, the Act of 2005 is weakly enforced, especially in Northern India; an evidence

to support the fact that men own 70% of rural land. ("Governance in India: Women's Rights".

Council on Foreign Relations (U.S), 13 April 2014).

39

Yet, following what has been described in the previous sections, the main concern for

what is next is on literarure , the literarure of women writers depict the behaviours of women

in traditional and modern Indian contexts.

1.2.7. Literary Expression

Indian literature consists of various multilingual, multicultural and sociohistorical

mélange procudts .The earliest works of Indian literature belongs to the Sanskrit

literature,Tamil Sangam literature, and the Pāli Canon. Thereafter, during the medieval

period, literature in various dialects appeared, to illustrate Prakrit, Pali, Bengali, Bihari, and

Gujarati. The family is important in Indian literature and drama. English is arguably the most

important issue the British left behind in India (Smt. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Dr.

Kapila Vatsyayan ,1979)

1.2.8. Conclusion

India is a plural society and highly characterized by its unity and diversity including a

synthesis of cultures, religions and languages of the people belonging to different castes and

communities, which has upheld its unity and cohesiveness to some extent. Inspite of several foreign

invasions, namely the British rule, national unity and integrity have been maintained to some

extent. India has a unique mosaic of cultures. Major determinants of social and political

organization in India today are religion, caste, and language. But India particularly in literature ,

women writers try hard to struggle for much rights and freedom to obtain much dignity and respect.

Bharati Mukherjee is one among other writers who dares revealing the do’s and don’ts of the

Indian society. India has begun a quiet better social transformation as Indian women status is

at disadvantage in several spheres. The Indian society is characterized by the discriminatory

attitudes towards women, particularly Dalits. Although the Indian constitution attempt to grant

men and women equal rights, to abolish caste differences and some harsh cultural beliefs, gender

inequality remains.

Notes to Part Two

40

(1) The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), or Harappan Civilisation, was the Vedic civilisation as perceived by traditional Hindu beliefs. It was a Bronze Age civilisation (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) mainly in the Northwestern regions of South Asia.The civilisation was primarily located in modern-day India (Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmirstates) and Pakistan (Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan provinces).

(2) Shiva (Sanskrit: �शव, Śiva, lit. the auspicious one) is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He

is the Supreme Being within Shaivism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Shiva is known as the "destroyer and the transformer" within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu.

(3) Shakti (Devanagari: शि�त, Śakti; lit. "power, ability, strength, might, effort, energy, capability",

is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism and Shaktism. Shakti is the concept or personification of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as "The Great Divine Mother" in Hinduism. As a mother, she is known as "Adi Shakti" or "Adi Parashakti". Hindus believe that Shakti is both responsible for creation and the agent of all change.

(4) The Vedas (Sanskrit: वेद veda, "knowledge") are a large body of knowledge texts originating in

the ancient Indian subcontinent. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless". Vedas are also called śruti ("what is heard") literature, distinguishing them from other religious texts, which are called smṛti ("what is remembered").

(5) The Upanishads (Sanskrit: उप�नष� Upaniṣad ), a part of the Vedas, are ancient Sanskrit texts that

contain some of the central philosophical concepts and ideas of Hinduism, some of which are shared with religious traditions like Buddhism and Jainism. The Upanishads played an important role in the development of spiritual ideas in ancient India, marking a transition from Vedic ritualism to new ideas and institutions.

(6) Dharma-shastra, (Sanskrit: “Righteousness Science”) is a genre of Sanskrit texts, and refers to the treatises (shastras) of Hinduism on dharma. There are many Dharmashastras, variously estimated to be 18 to about 100, with different and conflicting points of view. The textual corpus of Dharmaśāstra were composed in poetic verses. The texts include discussion of ashrama (stages of life), varna (social classes), purushartha (proper goals of life), personal virtues and duties such as ahimsa (non-violence) against all living beings, rules of just war, and other topics.

(7) The word Puranas (Sanskrit: परुाण, purāṇa) literally means "ancient, old", and it is a vast genre

of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly myths, and legends. Composed primarily in Sanskrit, but also in regional languages, several of these texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva and Devi.

(8) Darśana (Sanskrit: दश�न, meaning. view, sight) is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy

person. The term also refers to six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology, which are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta.

41

(9) Tantras ("Looms" or "Weavings") refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The word tantra is made up by the joining (sandhi in Sanskrit) of two Sanskrit words: tanoti (expansion) and rayati (liberation). Tantra means liberation of energy and expansion of consciousness from its gross form.

(10) Gautama Buddha (c. 563/480 – c. 483/400 BCE), he is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the Northeastern part of ancient India sometimes between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism. He is believed by Buddhists to be an enlightened teacher who attained full Buddhahood. Accounts of his life, discourses and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarised after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

(11) Jains: Jainism , traditionally known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion. Followers of Jainism are called "Jains", a word derived from the Sanskrit word jina (victor) and connoting the path of victory in crossing over life's stream of rebirths through an ethical and spiritual . Devout Jains take five main vows: ahiṃsā ("non-violence"), satya ("truth"), asteya ("not stealing ), brahmacharya ("celibacy or chastity") and aparigraha ("non-attachment").

(12) Guru Nanak (Gurū Nānak) (29 November 1469 – 10 October 1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated worldwide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November. Guru Nanak travelled far and wide teaching people the message of one God who dwells in every one of His creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. He set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue. Guru Nanak's words are registered in the form of 974 poetic hymns in the holy text of Sikhism.

(13) OBC: Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes, which are socially and educationally disadvantaged. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs).

(14) The Mitākṣarā is a vivṛti (legal commentary) on the Yajnavalkya Smriti best known for its theory of "inheritance by birth." It was written by Vijñāneśvara, a scholar in the Western Chalukya court in the late eleventh and early twelfth century. Along with the Dāyabhāga, it was considered one of the main authorities on Hindu Law from the time the British began administering laws in India. The entire Mitākṣarā, along with the text of the Yājñavalkya-smṝti, is approximately 492 closely printed pages.

(15) The Dāyabhāga is a Hindu law treatise written by Jīmūtavāhana which primarily focuses on inheritance procedure. The Dāyabhāga was the strongest authority in Modern British Indian courts in the Bengal region of India, although this has changed due to the passage of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 and subsequent revisions to the act. The Dāyabhāga does not give the sons a right to their father's ancestral property until after his death, unlike Mitākṣarā, which gives the sons the right to ancestral property upon their birth.

Chapter Two

The Theoretical Framework

Part One

Nigerian and Indian Post-Colonial Literatures

42

2.1.1. Introduction

Literature is a means, which helps readers particularly, and audience in general to

see the world and know other people, other culture, thoughts and visions. Literature is

about journeys described in pages and imagined by readers. Ultimately, literature has

provided a gateway to teach the reader about life experiences from even the saddest

stories to the most joyful ones that will touch their hearts. Nigerian and Indian

literature is also no exception. The following investigation will give an overview of

both the Nigerian and Indian literary scenes.

2.1.2. Post colonialism

Post colonialism is a key concept to define for a better understanding. It is the

academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the

human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their

lands. The name post colonialism is modeled on postmodernism , with which it shares

certain concepts and methods, and a thought of as a reaction to or departure from

colonialism in the same way postmodernism is a reaction to modernism. The

ambiguous term colonialism may refer either to a system of government or to an

ideology or world view underlying that system—in general postcolonialism represents

an ideological response to colonialist thought, rather than simply describing a system

that comes after colonialism. The term postcolonial studies may be preferred for this

reason.

Post colonialism encompasses a wide variety of approaches, and theoreticians

may not always agree on a common set of definitions. On a simple level, it may seek

through anthropological study to build a better understanding of colonial life from the

point of view of the colonized people, based on the assumption that the colonial rulers

are narrators. On a deeper level, post colonialism examines the social and political

power relationships that sustain colonialism and neocolonialism (1), including the

social, political and cultural narratives surrounding the colonizer and the colonized.

This approach may overlap with contemporary history and critical theory, and may

also draw examples from history, political

science, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and human geography. Sub-disciplines

of postcolonial studies examine the effects of colonial rule on the practice

of feminism, anarchism, literature and Christian thought.

43

Colonialism was presented as "the extension of civilization", which ideologically

justified the self-ascribed racial and cultural superiority of the Western world over the

non-Western world. Joseph-Ernest Renan espoused the concept in La Réforme

intellectuelle et morale (1871), whereby imperial stewardship was thought to affect

the intellectual and moral reformation of the colored peoples of the lesser cultures of

the world. Such a divinely established, natural harmony among the human races of the

world would be possible, because everyone has an assigned cultural identity, a social

place, and an economic role within an imperial colony.

From the middle to the late-nineteenth century, such a racialist group-identity

language was the cultural common-currency justifying geopolitical competition

amongst the European and American empires and meant to protect their over-

extended economies. Especially in the colonization of the Far East and in the late-

nineteenth century Scramble for Africa, the representation of a homogeneous

European identity justified colonization. Hence, Belgium, Britain, France and

Germany proffered theories of national superiority that justified colonialism as

delivering the light of civilization to unenlightened peoples. Notably, la mission

civilisatrice, the self-ascribed 'civilizing mission' of the French Empire, proposed that

some races and cultures have a higher purpose in life, whereby the more powerful,

more developed, and more civilized races have the right to colonize other peoples, in

service to the noble idea of "civilization" and its economic benefits.

2.1.3. Postcolonial Literature

In its broadest sense, literature is any single body of written works. The

concept has changed meaning over time. Therefore, it is so hard to agree and define

what literature really means. Definitions of literature have varied over time: it is a

"culturally relative definition" (Leitch et al., 28) .In Western Europe prior to the 18th

century; literature denoted all books and writing. A more restricted sense of the term

emerged during the Romantic period, in which it began to demarcate "imaginative"

writing (Eagleton 2008: 16). Robert and Jacobs (1993:1) defines literature as

composition that tells stories, dramatize situations, express emotions and analyze and

advocate ideas.

44

Since literature includes all the written materials, very possible to divide this large

mass of material. It is generally divided into three groups respectively: Prose, Drama,

and poetry .Prose uses language not in verse for example : Novels ,short stories , etc

.Drama is play with its acts and its scenes in dialogue, conversations ,comedies

,tragedies ,tragic comedies ,etc. Poetry is the art of poets, poems in verse for example:

ballad, epics, lyrical poetry, etc.

As to world literature refers to the sum of literary works that go beyond their

country of origin. Most of the time it refers to masterpieces of western European

literature where it is seen in the global and international context. Because readers

today have access to an unprecedented range of works from around the world in

excellent translations allows many works of literature to enter the canon (2) of world

literature, and since the mid-1990s, a lively debate has grown up concerning both the

aesthetic and the political values and limitations of an emphasis on global processes

over national traditions.

Early of the 19th century, the concept of world literature is used in many of the

essays of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (3) to explain the circulation and description

of literary works of both the Western and the non-Western origins .The disarmingly

simple title of David Damrosch’s book, What is World Literature?, )2003 ( might lead

the reader to respond that, of course, world literature is simply comprised of writing

from around the world. Yet, Damrosch offers a much more in depth and interesting

view of what he believes this literature to be. He helps the reader understand that a

piece of literature changes when it stops being a national work and becomes an

international work. Literature is transformed, he says, once it crosses the border from

one country into another. (David Damrosch, 2003: 324 ).

Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from

formerly colonized countries. It exists in all continents except

Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of

the decolonization of a country, especially questions relating to the political and

cultural independence of formerly subjugated people, and themes such as

racialism and colonialism. A range of literary theory has evolved around the subject.

45

It addresses the role of literature in perpetuating and challenging what postcolonial

critic Edward Said refers to as cultural imperialism.

Migrant literature and postcolonial literature show some considerable overlap.

However, not all migration takes place in a colonial setting, and not all postcolonial

literature deals with migration. A question of current debate is the extent to which

postcolonial theory also refers to migration literature in non-colonial setting.

The significance of the prefix "post-" in "postcolonial" is a matter of contention. It

is difficult to determine when colonialism begins and ends, and therefore to agree that

"postcolonial" designates an era "after" colonialism has ended. Colonial history

unfolds in overlapping phases: Spanish and Portuguese expansion begins in the 15th

century; British, French, Dutchand German colonization unfold from between the

16th and 18th centuries until the independence movements of Asia, Africa and the

Caribbean in the mid-twentieth century. It is also difficult to determine the

postcolonial status of settler colonies such as Australia and Canada, or that of pre-

colonial-era colonies such as Ireland.

Neocolonialism and the effects of imperialism (i.e. the western attitudes that

justify colonial practices), which, persist even after the end of colonialism (i.e. the

practice of securing colonies for economic gain), make it difficult to determine

whether a colonizer's physical evacuation guarantees post-colonial status.

Before the term "postcolonial literature" gained currency, "commonwealth

literature" was used to refer to writing in English from countries belonging to

the British Commonwealth. Even though the term included British literature, it was

most commonly used for writing in English produced in British colonies. Scholars of

Commonwealth literature used the term to designate writing in English that dealt with

colonialism's legacy. They advocated for its inclusion in literary curricula, hitherto

dominated by the British canon. However, the succeeding generation of postcolonial

critics, many of whom belonged to the post-structuralist philosophical tradition, took

issue with the Commonwealth label for separating non-British writing from "English"

literature produced in England. They also suggested that the texts in this category had

a shortsighted view of imperialism's impact.

46

Other terms used for the writing in English from former British colonies include

terms that designate a national corpus of writing such as Australian or Canadian

Literature; "English Literature Other than British and American," "New Literatures in

English," "International Literature in English;" and "World Literatures." These have,

however, been dismissed either as too vague or too inaccurate to represent the vast

body of dynamic writing emerging from the colonies both during and after colonial

rule. The term "colonial" and "postcolonial" continue to be used for writing emerging

during and after colonial rule respectively.

2.1.4. Nigerian Literature

Nigerian literature is the one written by Nigerians and addresses Nigerian issues.

It varies into different languages including : English, Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, Hausa,

and other languages. Nigerian literature began with the oral tradition, pioneered by

the unsung heroes for instance : royal bards, warriors, storytellers, priests and many

others.

According to Bade Ajuwon (1985) in his article, ‘Oral and Written Literature in

Nigeria’, in Nigerian History and Culture, pre-literate Nigeria once enjoyed a verbal

art civilization which, at its high point, was warmly patronized by traditional rulers

and the general public.

“At a period when writing was unknown, the oral medium served the people as a bank for the preservation of their ancient experiences and beliefs. Much of the evidence that related to the past of Nigeria, therefore, could be found in oral traditions.”( Bade Ajuwon 1985:306)

He cited the instance of Yoruba community where “as a means of relaxation,

farmers gather their children and sit under the moon for tale-telling... that instruct the

young and teach them to respect the dictates of their custom”(318). This was the

practice across the cultural groupings that form Nigeria today. A literary work must

derive, therefore, from these basic traditional elements to be adjudged as African

literature. Nigeria, therefore, owes her present giant strides in the international literary

scene to her rich oral tradition.

47

Arab scholars and traders introduced the written tradition to Northern Nigeria in

the 15th century. The intellectual and religious interaction between them and the

indigenous community led to the adaptation of Hausa into Arabic script; a genre

known as Ajami. The subsequent arrival of missionaries in the 1930s with the Roman

script further enhanced the written tradition and gave rise to the emergence of many

indigenous poets and prose writers. The novels in particular were based on folktales

featuring fantastic characters of humans, animals and fairies.

According to available records, the earliest literature in Hausa written in Arabic

and Ajami, were by Islamic scholars such as Abdullahi Suka (4) who wrote Riwayar

Annabi Musa in Ajami, and Wali Danmasani Abdulajalil who wrote the Hausa poem

Wakir Yakin Badar also in Ajami. The works of these pioneers marked a literary

landmark, which came to its height in the nineteenth century when the Islamic

Jihadist, Shehu Usman Dan Fodio wrote hundreds of poems in Arabic, Fulfulde and

Hausa.

The Hausa novel genres in Roman script were published from the winning entries

of a writing competition in the 1930s. The works, which have become classics,

include Shehu Umar (5) by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (6), Ruwan Bagaja by

Abubakar Imam(7), Gandoki by Bello Kagara (8), Idon Matambayi (The Eye of the

Inquirer) by Mohammadu Gwarzo and Jiki Magayi by M. Tafida and Dr. East (9). In

terms of plays, the Six Hausa Plays edited by Dr. R. M. East and published in 1930

were the first plays in Hausa.

Southern Nigeria owes its literary legacy to missionary activities in the area

around 1840s, which went hand in hand with inculcation of literacy. The need to

translate the Bible for the new converts necessitated a number of publications by the

missionaries. Prominent among such publications were, A Grammar of the Ibo

Language (1840) by the pioneer missionary, Rev. J.F. Schon and A Vocabulary of the

Yoruba Language (1843) by Samuel Ajayi Crowther, an ex-slave and the first African

Bishop of the Niger Diocese of the Church Missionary Society. Such publications

eventually served not only the primary religious purpose but also as a sound

foundation for the written indigenous literature, in which folklores and other genres of

48

oral tradition were recorded and woven into poetry, short stories and novels,

especially in the Igbo and Yoruba languages.

With the growth in literary awareness resulting from Western education, the

literary tradition shifted from folktales to realism. The shift was galvanized by literary

scholars at the University College of Ibadan in 1948. They effected the movement

through calls at conferences, in journals and newspapers. The movement was earlier

propelled when the Ministry of Education sponsored a novel writing competition in

1963. The major criterion was that the entries must centre on the prevailing realities in

Nigeria then.

Yoruba writers, in particular, according to Bade Ajuwon ,reacted appropriately,

eliminating the fairies in favor of human characters and omitting the animal-to-human

conversation found in the non-realistic literature.

“Thus a new literary tradition was being adopted by many Yoruba novelists; they dealt with such universal themes as religion, labor, corruption and justice; they employed human characters and concrete symbols.”(1985)

However, this did not mean that the folklore elements were completely eliminated.

Rather, it was a kind of mixed grill. For instance, Chinua Achebe (10)’s first novel,

Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, has Igbo folklore, thereby preserving the

African elements despite the English prose. Other glaring example is Wole Soyinka

(11)’s poetry in the collection A Shuttle in the Crypt, (1972) , which is loaded with

elements of older Nigerian literature. Both ‘O Roots!’ and ‘When Seasons Change’ in

the collection, dwell upon the images of ancestral generations and the souls of ancient

Nigerians, reflective of the purpose of the oral literature of keeping family and local

histories alive. Therefore, though Soyinka’s poetry in A Shuttle in the Crypt, like the

other works of his contemporaries, encompass many themes and techniques of

modernists, it equally reverberates with the Nigerian oral and written literary

traditions (Bade Ajuwon ,1985).

49

2.1.5. Authentic Nigerian Literature

There is a controversial debate on the authenticity of the Nigerian literature

.According to literary scholars like Emenyonu, authentic Nigerian literature is that

which is written in the indigenous languages. In Emenyonu’s words (1988) ,

“It is important for any reader of fiction in Nigeria to realise that no matter how much the author denies or disguises it, every Nigerian who writes fiction in English today has his foundation in the oral heritage of his ethnic group…. An authentic study of Nigerian literature must, therefore, begin by examining and appreciating the origins and development of literatures in Nigerian indigenous languages.”( Emenyonu,1988: 13)

Another scholar, Obianjulu Wali, even went as far as defining African literature,

in the early 1960s, as the literature written in the indigenous languages of Africa as

opposed to English, French or Portuguese. This is perhaps why writers like Ngugi Wa

Thiong’o (12) attempted abandoning English in favor of their indigenous languages.

But these writers, Wa Thiong’o in particular, has reversed to writing in English due to

the fact that, literature in indigenous language is limited to a handful of the indigenous

languages.

In spite of the limited readership, however, indigenous literature has thrived with

relative success especially in Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo languages until today. After the

earliest literature in Hausa written in Arabic and Ajami by Islamic scholars such as

Abdullahi Suka and Wali Danmasani Abdulajalil, Hausa literature has continued to

flourish. Written Igbo literature, which is equally as illustrious as the Hausa literature,

is of much younger origin than either Hausa or Yoruba literatures. So also is Igbo

indigenous literature.

Pita Nwana published the first novel in Igbo, Omenuko, in 1933 (13). Other

works followed it in 1960s such as Ije Odumodu by Leopold Bell-Gam (14) and Ala

Bingo by D.N. Achara (15). Igbo literature attained her maturity with the works of

Uchenna Tony Ubesie, the leading novelist in Igbo language. The works include

Ukwa Ruo Oge Ya Odaa, Isi Akwu Dara Nala, Ukpana Okpoko Buuru and Juo

Obinna.

50

Novel writing in Yoruba has a pride of place in the Nigerian indigenous

literature. Isaac B. Thomas’Itan Emi Segilola Eleyinjuege, Elegberun oko laiye, the

first novel in Yoruba, was published as far back as 1930. Thomas’s novel was the first

that exhibited features of the modern novel. Thomas’ efforts set the pace for other

literary works especially by Daniel Olurunfemi Fagunwa (16), who is said to be the

best-known Yoruba novelist. His Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale (1938), is arguably

the most popular literary work in Yoruba. Wole Soyinka as The Forest of a Thousand

Daemons (1968) has translated the novel into English. Fagunwa’s novels, centered

mainly around a lone heroic figure, did not only inaugurate the magical-realist

tradition in Yoruba novelistic writing, but ultimately serve as inspiration to a

generation of Yoruba novelists including Ogundele’s Ejigbede Lona Isalu Orun

(1956), Delano’s Aiye D’aiye Oyinbo (1955), Afolabi Olabimtan’s Kekere Ekun and

Adebayo Faleti (17)’s Omo Olokun Esin.

2.1.6. Nigerian English Literature

Beside Nigerian literature written in another tongues, another literary expression is

using English. There is no doubt about the fact that Nigerian literature in English is

the one, which attracts greater attention and has the greater influence nationally and

internationally today. This is because; the new westernized elite who often has greater

literary competence in English than in their indigenous languages has produced the

literature. Although some highly literate Nigerians (for example Professor Akin Isola

(18)) have chosen to write in their indigenous languages rather than English, the

number of writers who have made such a choice is very small indeed. It could

therefore be said that literature in the English language has taken firm root in Nigeria.

However, even before written literature began to take root on the Nigerian soil, a

Nigerian had made a literary breakthrough in far away Europe. The Nigerian, Olaudah

Equiano (19), who was an ex-slave, became one of the first Africans to produce an

English-language literary work. Published in 1789 and titled The Interesting

Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava, the African, it is an

autobiography containing how the author was kidnapped as a boy of 12 from his

village of Essaka near Benin and sold to a white slave trader, and how he eventually

obtained his freedom. The book was the first to give the West the true picture of

51

Africa and the evils of slavery. Equiano travelled throughout England promoting the

book and spent over eight months in Ireland where he made several speeches on the

evils of slave trade. While he was there, he sold over 1,900 copies of the

autobiography. The book became an instant best-seller, running into its ninth edition

by the time of the author’s death in 1797. It was published in Germany (1790),

America (1791) and Holland (1791).

The real indigenous literature in English was pioneered by the legendary Amos

Tutuola (20) in the 1950s. His debut, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, published by Faber in

London (1952). In the story, Tutuola crafted a unique narrative from traditional

elements of Yoruba mythology. Though his dropping out of school in primary five as

a result of the death of his father affected his proficiency in the English language, the

seeming shortcoming became a plus when critics began to see the uniqueness of the

manner in which he captured the way English is spoken by the ordinary people in his

community. His other works include My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1952), Simbi and

the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (1955), The Brave African Huntress (1958), Feather

Woman of the Jungle (1962), Ajaiyi and his Inherited Poverty (1968), and The Witch

Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981).

British imperialists who worked in Nigeria and thought they knew much about the

colony produced literary works based on the local setting. One of such writers was

Arthur Joyce Lunel Carey (1888—1957), who served as an administrator and soldier

in Nigeria from 1910 to 1920. His works, particularly the novel, Mister Johnson

(1939), were about his experiences in the British civil service and his views on the

African culture. The novel, described as comic and tragic, is centered on Johnson, a

young Nigerian who falls foul of the British colonial regime. Johnson is assigned as a

clerk at an English district office in Fada. Because he is from a different district, the

natives of the area regard him as a foreigner. Even though he works his way into the

local society, marrying there, he never really fit in. Besides, he has difficulties in

adjusting to the regulations and mechanism of the district office and his official

duties.

52

Critics have questioned the views expressed in the book. Chinua Achebe was in

the forefront. He pointed out that the depiction of Johnson as representative of

Africans is flawed from the very outset, in the sense that such a character, a figure

without a family to support him, is very difficult to imagine in the context of the

Nigerian society. Therefore, as Achebe himself admitted, the novel was the

motivating factor for his novel, Things Fall Apart, as he sought to correct the wrong

impression portrayed in Mister Johnson. He said in a collection of radio interviews

published by Heinamann in 1972:

“I know around 1951, 1952, I was quite certain that I was going to try my hand at writing, and one of the things that set me thinking was Joyce Cary’s novel, set in Nigeria, Mister Johnson, which was praised so much, and it was clear to me that it was a most superficial picture of - not only of the country - but even of the Nigerian character, and so I thought if this was famous, then perhaps someone ought to look at this from the inside”. (Achebe, 77)

Therefore, he set out to challenge the colonialist’s depiction of the African society in

Things Fall Apart and his other novels.

2.1.7. Nigerian Literature Impact

In spite of all the numerous problems bedeviling the Nigerian literary scene,

Nigerian literature has come a long way, considering the teeming number of writers

that have emerged and the giant achievements of writers like Chinua Achebe and

Wole Soyinka. Achebe’s legendary Things Fall Apart has been translated into about

50 languages globally. Soyinka, on the other hand, has done Africa proud by winning

the Nobel Prize in 1986.

Nigerian writers of the new generation have equally pushed Nigerian literature to the

pinnacle by winning some of the most prestigious literary prizes. Ben Okri won the

Booker Prize for his The Famished Road in 1991, Helon Habila (21), Segun Afolabi

and E. C Osondu, won the Caine Prize for their Prison Story, Monday Morning and

Waiting, respectively. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won, like Habila, the

Commonwealth Prize for Literature. She has as well won the Orange Prize with her

novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006).

Beyond setting international literary standards, Nigerian writers have also

succeeded more than any group in the country in exporting their culture and tradition

53

to other parts of the world. The renowned literary critic eloquently stressed this fact;

Professor Charles E. Nnolim (22) claims that Nigeria today stands tall before the

international community because of the collective endeavors of her writers as its

literature is taught and read in the world (Sumaila Isah Umaisha ,2010) .

2.1.8. Indian Literature

As to Indian literature, it refers to the literature produced on the Indian

subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. Indian literature is a

variety because the Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages. As it is

shown in the following, Indian literature has a rich ancient tradition.

The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Sanskrit literature

begins with the oral literature of the Rig Veda a collection of sacred hymns dating to

the period 1500–1200 BCE. The Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata (23)

appeared towards the end of the first millennium BCE. Examples of early works

written in Vedic Sanskrit include the holy Hindu texts, such as the core Vedas. Ved

Vyasa's Mahabharata and Valmiki's Ramayana, written in Epic Sanskrit, are regarded

as the greatest Sanskrit epics. The famous poet and playwright Kālidāsa wrote one

epic: Raghuvamsha (Dynasty of Raghu) (24); it was written in Classical Sanskrit

rather than Epic Sanskrit. Other examples of works written in Classical Sanskrit

include the Pāṇini's Ashtadhyayi (25), which standardized the grammar and phonetics

of Classical Sanskrit. The Laws of Manu is a controversial text in Hinduism. Kālidāsa

(26) is often considered the greatest playwright in Sanskrit literature and one of the

greatest poets in Sanskrit literature, whose Recognition of Shakuntala

and Meghaduuta are the most famous Sanskrit plays. Some other famous plays

were Mricchakatika (27) by Shudraka, Svapna Vasavadattam by Bhasa (28),

and Ratnavali by Sri Harsha (29) Later poetic works include Geeta

Govinda by Jayadeva.

Bengali is the second most commonly spoken language in India (after Hindi).

Because of the Bengal Renaissance in the 19th and 20th centuries, many of India's

54

most famous, and relatively recent, literature, poetry, and songs are in Bengali. In the

history of Bengali literature, there has been only one path breaking literary movement

by a group of poets and artists who called themselves Hungryalists. Literature in

Chhattisgarh reflects the regional consciousness and the evolution of an identity

distinct from others in Central India. The social problems of the lower

castes/untouchables were highlighted in the writings of Khub Chand Baghel (30)

through his plays ‘'Jarnail Singh’' and '‘Unch Neech’'.

Hindi literature started as religious and philosophical poetry in medieval periods

in dialects like Avadhi and Brij. The most famous figures from this period

are Kabir and Tulsidas. In modern times, the Khariboli dialect (31) became more

prominent than Sanskrit.Chandrakanta, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri is

considered the first work of prose in Hindi. Munshi Premchand (32) was the most

famous Hindi novelist. The early poets include Prem Bajpai, Jaishankar

Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, and Mahadevi Varma. Other renowned poets

include Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar', Maithili Sharan Gupt, Agyeya, Harivansh Rai

Bachchan, and Dharmveer Bharti.

Punjabi literature starts with advent of Aryan in Punjab. Punjab provided them the

perfect environment in which to compose the ancient texts. The Rig-Veda (33) is first

example in which references are made to the rivers, flora and fauna of Punjab. The

Punjabi literary tradition is generally conceived to commence with Fariduddin

Ganjshakar (1173–1266). Farid's mostly spiritual and devotional verses were

compiled after his death in the Adi Granth. The Janamsakhis, stories on the life and

legend of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), are early examples of Punjabi prose literature.

Nanak himself composed Punjabi verse incorporating vocabulary from Sanskrit,

Arabic, Persian, and other Indic languages. Sufi poetry developed under Shah Hussain

(1538–1599), Sultan Bahu (1628–1691), Shah Sharaf (1640–1724), Ali Haider (1690–

1785), and Bulleh Shah (1680–1757). The Victorian novel, Elizabethan drama, free

verse and Modernism entered Punjabi literature through the introduction of British

education during colonial rule.

In Urdu, literature fiction has also flourished well. Umrao Jaan Ada of Mirza

Hadi Ruswa (34) is first significant Urdu novel. Urdu novel reached further heights in

55

the 1960s with novels of Qurratulain Haider and Abdullah Hussain. Towards the end

of the 20th century, Urdu novel entered into a new phase with trendsetter novel

Makaan of Paigham Afaqui.

During the early Muslim period, Persian became the official language of the

Northern part of Indian subcontinent, used by most of the educated and the

government. The language had been, from its earliest days in the 11th century AD,

imported to the subcontinent by various culturally Persianised Central

Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. Several Indians became major Persian poets later

on, the most notable being Amir Khusro and, in more modern times, Muhammad

Iqbal..

In contemporary Indian literature, there are two major literary awards; these are

the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award. Eight Jnanpith Awards each

have been awarded in Hindi and Kannada, followed by five

in Bengali and Malayalam, four in Odia, three

in Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu, two each in Assamese and Tamil, and one

in Sanskrit literature.

2.1.9. Indian English Literature

The different invasions to India affected the literary means of expression and

especially because of the British colonization, which pushed men and women writers

to use English. Indian English Literature refers to the body of works by writers

in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language

could be one of the numerous languages of India. Its early history began with the

works of Michael Madhusudan Dutt followed by R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj

Anand and Raja Rao who contributed to Indian fiction in the 1930s. It is also

associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V. S.

Naipaul, Kiran Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kovid Gupta, Agha Shahid Ali, Rohinton

Mistry and Salman Rushdie, who are of Indian descent.It is frequently referred to

as Indo-Anglian literature. (Indo-Anglian is a specific term in the sole context of

56

writing which is unlike Anglo-Indian). As a category, this production comes in the

broader realm of postcolonial literature—the production from

previously colonized countries such as India.

Indian English Literature has a relatively recent history, the first book written by

an Indian in English was Travels of Dean Mahomet, a travel narrative by Sake Dean

Mahomet(35) ,published in England in 1793. In its early stages, Western novel

influenced Indian English Literature. Early Indian writers used English unadulterated

by Indian words to convey an experience that was essentially Indian. Bankim Chandra

Chattopadhyay (1838–1894) wrote Rajmohan's Wife and published it in 1864; it is the

first Indian novel written in English. Raja Rao (1908–2006), Indian philosopher and

writer, authored Kanthapura and The Serpent and the Rope, which are Indian in terms

of their storytelling qualities. Kisari Mohan Ganguli translated the Mahabharata into

English, Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890–1936) was the first Indian author to win a

literary award in the United States. Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897–1999), a writer of non-

fiction, is best known for his The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951), in

which he relates his life experiences and influences. P. Lal (1929–2010), a poet,

translator, publisher and essayist, found a press in the 1950s for Indian

Englishwriting, Writers Workshop. Ram Nath Kak (1917–1993), a

Kashmiri veterinarian, wrote his autobiography Autumn Leaves, which is one of the

most vivid portraits of life in 20th century Kashmir.

R. K. Narayan (1906–2001) contributed over many decades and continued to

write until his death. He was discovered by Graham Greene (36) in the sense that the

latter helped him find a publisher in England. Greene and Narayan remained close

friends. Similar to the way Thomas Hardy used Wessex, Narayan created the fictitious

town of Malgudi where he set his novels.

Mulk Raj Anand (1905–2004), was similarly gaining recognition for his writing set

in rural India, but his stories were harsher, and engaged, sometimes brutally, with

divisions of caste, class and religion. According to writer Lakshmi Holmström,

"The writers of the 1930s were fortunate because after many years of use, English had become an Indian language used widely and at different

57

levels of society, and therefore they could experiment more boldly and from a more secure position." (Lakshmi Holmström,2017:12)

Among the later writers, the most notable is Salman Rushdie (37), born in India,

now living in the USA. Rushdie with his famous work Midnight's Children (Booker

Prize 1981, Booker of Bookers 1992, and Best of the Bookers 2008) ushered in a new

trend of writing. He used a hybrid language – English generously peppered with

Indian terms – to convey a theme that could be seen as representing the vast canvas of

India. He is usually categorized under the magic realism mode of writing most

famously associated with Gabriel García Márquez.

Nayantara Sehgal (38) was one of the first female Indian writers in English to

receive wide recognition. Her fiction deals with India's elite responding to the crises

engendered by political change. She was awarded the 1986 Sahitya Akademi

Award for English, for her novel, Rich Like Us (1985).Anita Desai, who was

shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, received a Sahitya Akademi Award in

1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain and a British Guardian Prize for The Village

by the Sea.

Ruskin Bond received Sahitya Akademy Award for his collection of short

stories Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra in 1992. He is also the author of a historical

novel A Flight of Pigeons, which is based on an episode during the Indian Rebellion

of 1857.Vikram Seth, author of The Golden Gate (1986) and A Suitable Boy (1994) is

a writer who uses a purer English and more realistic themes. Being a self-confessed

fan of Jane Austen, his attention is on the story, its details and its twists and turns.

Another writer who has contributed immensely to the Indian English Literature

is Amitav Ghosh who is the author of The Circle of Reason (his 1986 debut

novel), The Shadow Lines (1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995), The Glass

Palace (2000), The Hungry Tide (2004) . Ghosh's latest work of fiction is River of

Smoke (2011), the second volume of The Ibis trilogy.

58

Rohinton Mistry is an India born Canadian author who is a Neustadt International

Prize for Literature laureate (2012). His first book Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987)

published by Penguin Books Canada is a collection of 11 short stories. His

novels Such a Long Journey (1991) and A Fine Balance (1995) earned him great

acclaim.

Shashi Tharoor, in his The Great Indian Novel (1989), follows a story telling

(though in a satirical) mode as in the Mahabharata drawing his ideas by going back

and forth in time. His work as UN official living outside India has given him a

vantage point that helps construct an objective Indianness. Vikram Chandra is another

author who shuffles between India and the United States and has received critical

acclaim for his first novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain (1995) and collection of short

stories Love and Longing in Bombay (1997). Suketu Mehta is another writer currently

based in the United States who authored Maximum City (2004), an autobiographical

account of his experiences in the city of Mumbai. In 2008, Arvind Adiga received the

Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The White Tiger.

Recent writers in India such as Arundhati Roy and David Davidar show a

direction towards contextuality and rootedness in their works. Arundhati Roy, the

1997 Booker prizewinner for her The God of Small Things, calls herself a "home

grown" writer. Her award-winning book is set in the immensely physical landscape

of Kerala. Davidar sets his The House of Blue Mangoes in Southern Tamil Nadu. In

both the books, geography and politics are integral to the narrative.

In his novel Lament of Mohini (2000), Shreekumar Varma touches upon the unique

matriarchal system and the sammandham system of marriage as he writes about the

Namboodiris and the aristocrats of Kerala. The stories and novels of Ratan Lal

Basu reflect the conditions of tribal people and hill people of West Bengal and the

adjacent states of Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal. Many of his short stories reflect the

political turmoil of West Bengal since the Naxalite movement of the 1970s. Many of

his stories like ‘Blue Are the Far Off Mountains’, ‘The First Rain’ and ‘the Magic

Marble’ glorify purity of love. His novel ‘Oraon and the Divine Tree’ is the story of a

tribal and his love for an age-old tree. Just like in Hemingway, the language style of

59

the author takes the reader into the dreamland of nature and people who are

inexorably associated with nature.

2.1.10. Recognition of English Indian Literature

On the one hand, India considers the use of English as an insult to Indian culture.

On the other hand, writers expressing themselves in English could heard and read at

an International level. One of the key issues raised in this context is the

superiority/inferiority of Indian Writing in English as opposed to the literary

production in the various languages of India. Key polar concepts bandied in this

context are superficial/authentic, imitative/creative, shallow/deep, critical/uncritical,

elitist/parochial and so on.The views of Salman Rushdie and Amit

Chaudhuri expressed through their books The Vintage Book of Indian Writing and The

Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature respectively essentialise this battle.

Rushdie's statement in his book – "the ironic proposition that India's best writing

since independence may have been done in the language of the departed imperialists

is simply too much for some folks to bear"(251) – created a lot of resentment among

many writers, including writers in English. In his book, Amit Chaudhuri questions –

"Can it be true that Indian writing, that endlessly rich, complex and problematic

entity, is to be represented by a handful of writers who write in English, who live in

England or America and whom one might have met at a party?" (2001:206)

Chaudhuri feels that after Rushdie, Indian Writing English started employing

magical realism, bagginess, non-linear narrative and hybrid language to sustain

themes seen as microcosms of India and supposedly reflecting Indian conditions. He

contrasts this with the works of earlier writers such as Narayan where the use of

English is pure, but the deciphering of meaning needs cultural familiarity. He also

feels that Indianness is a theme constructed only in Indian Writing English and does

not articulate itself in the vernacular literatures. He further adds, "The post-colonial

novel becomes a trope for an ideal hybridity by which the West celebrates not so

much Indianness, whatever that infinitely complex thing is, but its own historical

quest, its reinterpretation of itself". (2001: 102)

Some of these arguments form an integral part of what is called postcolonial

theory. The very categorization of Indian Writing English – as Indian Writing English

60

or under post-colonial literature – is seen by some as limiting. Amitav Ghosh made

his views on this very clear by refusing to accept the Eurasian Commonwealth

Writers Prize for his book The Glass Palace in 2001 and withdrawing it from the

subsequent stage.

The renowned writer V. S. Naipaul, a third generation Indian from Trinidad and

Tobago and a Nobel Prize laureate, is a person who belongs to the world and usually

not classified under Indian Writing English. Naipaul evokes ideas of homeland,

rootlessness and his own personal feelings towards India in many of his books.

Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize winner from the U.S., is a writer uncomfortable under

the label of Indian Writing English.

2.1.11. Postcolonial Feminism

Postcolonial feminism emerged as a response to the Eurocentric focus

of feminism. It accounts for the way that racism and the long-lasting political,

economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women

in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that focuses

solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures. Postcolonial feminism seeks

to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and

cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in

the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism originated in the 1980s as a critique of

feminist theorists in developed countries pointing out the universalizing tendencies of

mainstream feminist ideas and argues that women living in non-Western countries are

misrepresented.

Postcolonial feminism argues that by using the term "woman" as a universal

group, women are then only defined by their gender and not by social class, race,

ethnicity, or sexual preference. Postcolonial feminists also work to incorporate the

ideas of indigenous and other Third World feminist movements into mainstream

Western feminism. Third World feminism stems from the idea that feminism in Third

World countries is not imported from the First World, but originates from internal

ideologies and socio-cultural factors.

61

Postcolonial feminism began simply as a critique of both Western feminism and

postcolonial theory, but later became a burgeoning method of analysis to address key

issues within both fields. Unlike mainstream postcolonial theory, which focuses on

the lingering impacts that colonialism has had on the current economic and political

institutions of countries, postcolonial feminist theorists are interested in analyzing

why postcolonial theory fails to address issues of gender. Postcolonial feminism also

seeks to illuminate the tendency of Western feminist thought to apply its claims to

women around the world because the scope of feminist theory is limited. In this way,

postcolonial feminism attempts to account for perceived weaknesses within both

postcolonial theory and within Western feminism. The concept of colonization

occupies many different spaces within postcolonial feminist theory; it can refer to the

literal act of acquiring lands or to forms of social, discursive, political, and economic

enslavement in a society.

In Audre Lorde's foundational essay (1979) , "The Master's Tools Will Never

Dismantle the Master's House", Lorde uses the metaphor of "the master's tools" and

"the master's house" to explain that western feminism is failing to make positive

change for third world women by using the same tools used by patriarchy to oppress

women. Lorde found that western feminist literature denied differences between

women and discouraged embracing them. The differences between women, Lorde

asserts, should be used as strengths to create a community in which women use their

different strengths to support each other. (94-101)

Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1984) , a principal theorist within the movement,

addresses this issue in her seminal essay "Under Western Eyes". She asserts that

Western feminists write about Third World women as a composite, singular

construction that is arbitrary and limiting. She states that these women are depicted in

writings as victims of masculine control and of traditional culture without

incorporating information about historical context and cultural differences with the

Third World. This creates a dynamic where Western feminism functions as the norm

against which the situation in the developing world is evaluated. Mohanty's primary

62

initiative is to allow Third World women to have agency and voice within the feminist

realm.

In the article "Third World Women and the Inadequacies of Western Feminism"

2014, Ethel Crowley, sociology professor at Trinity College of Dublin, writes about

how Western feminism is lacking when applied to non-Western societies. She accuses

Western feminists of theoretical reductionism when it comes to Third World women.

Her major problem with western feminism is that it spends too much time in

ideological "nit-picking" instead of formulating strategies to redress the highlighted

problems. The most prominent point that Crowley makes in her article is that

ethnography can be essential to problem solving, and that freedom does not mean the

same thing to all the women of the world.

Postcolonial feminism is a relatively new stream of thought, developing primarily

out of the work of the postcolonial theorists who concern themselves with evaluating

how different colonial and imperial relations throughout the nineteenth century have

impacted the way particular cultures view themselves. This particular strain of

feminism promotes a wider viewpoint of the complex layers of oppression that exist

within any given society.

2.1.12. Race and Gender in Post Colonial Feminism

Postcolonial feminism has strong ties with indigenous movements and wider

postcolonial theory. It is also closely affiliated with black feminism because both

black feminists and postcolonial feminists argue that mainstream Western feminism

fails to adequately account for racial differences. Racism has a major role to play in

the discussion of postcolonial feminism. Postcolonial feminists seek to tackle the

ethnic conflict and racism that still exist and aims to bring these issues into feminist

discourse. In the past, mainstream Western feminism has largely avoided the issue of

race, relegating it to a secondary issue behind patriarchy and somewhat separate from

feminism. Until more recent discourse, race was not seen as an issue that white

women needed to address.

In her article "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference", Lorde succinctly explained that,

63

"as white women ignore their built-in privilege and define woman in terms of their own experiences alone, then women of Color become 'other'..." which prevents the literary work produced by women of color from being represented in mainstream feminism.( Lorde ,1984:114)

Postcolonial feminism attempts to avoid speaking as if women were a

homogeneous population with no differences in race, sexual preference, class, or even

age. The notion of whiteness or lack thereof, is a key issue within the postcolonial

feminist movement. This is primarily due to the perceived relationship between

postcolonial feminism and other racially based feminist movements, especially black

feminism and indigenous feminisms. In Western culture, racism is sometimes viewed

as an institutionalized, ingrained facet of society. Postcolonial feminists want to force

feminist theory to address how individual people can acknowledge racist

presumptions, practices, and prejudices within their own lives attempting to halt its

perpetuation through awareness.

"False consciousness" is perpetuated throughout mainstream feminism assuming

that people in the global South do not know what is best for them. Postcolonial

framework attempts to shed light on these women as "full moral agents" who

willingly uphold their cultural practices as a resistance to Western imperialism. For

example, representation of the Middle East and Islam focuses on the traditional

practice of veiling as a way of oppressing women. While Westerners may view the

practice in this way, many women of the Middle East disagree and cannot understand

how Western standards of oversexualized dress offer women liberation. Cawley

Stephanie. "Veils and postcolonial feminism" , 2015.

Decolonized people develop a postcolonial identity that is based on cultural

interactions between different identities (cultural, national, and ethnic as well as

gender and class based) which are assigned varying degrees of social power by the

colonial society. In postcolonial literature, the anti-conquest narrative analyzes

the identity, politics that are the social and cultural perspectives of

the subaltern colonial subjects—their creative resistance to the culture of the colonizer

. How such cultural resistance complicated the establishment of a colonial society?

64

How the colonizers developed their postcolonial identity? Moreover,

how neocolonialism actively employs the ‘Us-and-Them’ binary social relation to

view the non-Western world as inhabited by the Other?

The neocolonial discourse of geopolitical homogeneity relegates the

decolonized peoples, their cultures, and their countries, to an imaginary place, such as

"the Third World", an over-inclusive term that usually comprises continents and seas,

i.e. Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. The postcolonial critique analyzes the

self-justifying discourse of neocolonialism and the functions (philosophic and

political) of its over-inclusive terms in order to establish the factual and cultural

inaccuracy of homogeneous concepts, such as "the Arabs" , "the First World",

"Christendom" and "the Ummah".

2.1.13. Nigerian Postcolonial Literature

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe gained worldwide attention for Things Fall

Apart in the late 1950s. Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of

English, a "language of colonizers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An

Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism

of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist". (Nnamdi Ken Amobi, 2013).

Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian

influences, and the clash of Western and traditional African values during and after

the colonial era. His style relies heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines

straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory.

He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections.

Wole Soyinka is a playwright and poet, who was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize

in Literature, the first African to be honored in that category. Soyinka was born into

a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. After study in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with

the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in

both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political

history and its struggle for independence from Great Britain. In 1965, he seized the

Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the

cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian

Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and

65

put in solitary confinement for two years. Soyinka has been a strong critic of

successive Nigerian governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as

well as other political tyrannies. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the

oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". (Maya

Jaggi, 2002).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) is a novelist, nonfiction writer and short story

writer. AMacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Adichie has been called "the most

prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [that]

is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature". (James

Copnall, 20).Buchi Emecheta OBE (1944 -2017) is a Nigerian novelist based in

Britain who has published more than 20 books, including Second-Class

Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of

Motherhood (1979). Her themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence

and freedom through education have won her considerable critical acclaim and

honors, including an Order of the British Empire.

2.1.14. Indian Postcolonial Literature

One of the key issues is the superiority/inferiority of Indian Writing in English as

opposed to the literary production in the various languages of India. Key polar

concepts bandied in this context are superficial/authentic, imitative/creative,

shallow/deep, critical/uncritical, elitist/parochial and so on. Indian authors

like Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, Hanif Kureishi, Rohinton Mistry, Meena

Alexander, Arundhati Roy ,Kiran Desai and Bharati Mukherjee have written about

their postcolonial experiences. The most significant novels of the current generation

of Indian novelists in Urdu are Makaan by Paigham Afaqui ,Do Gaz Zameen by

Abdus Samad, and Pani by Ghazanfer. These works, especially Makaan (39) , has

moved the Urdu novel beyond the prevalent themes relating to Pakistan's gaining of

independence in 1947, and identity issues, and take it into modern-day realities and

issues of life in India. Makaan influenced many English writers including Vikram

Seth. Paigham Afaqui's second major novel, Paleeta, published in 2011 and depicted

66

the political cynicism of a common Indian citizen in the six decades after India's

independence.

The Hungry Generation was a literary movement in the Bengali

language launched by what is known today as the "Hungryalist quartet", i.e. Shakti

Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi

Roy (alias Haradhon Dhara), during the 1960s in Kolkata, India. Due to their

involvement in this avant-garde cultural movement, the leaders lost their jobs and

were jailed by the incumbent government. They challenged contemporary ideas about

literature and contributed significantly to the evolution of the language and idiom

used by contemporaneous artists to express their feelings in literature and painting.

Nissim Ezekiel (1924 – 2004) was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's

literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English. Mahashweta Devi (1926 –

2016) is an Indian social activist and writer meanwhile.

2.1.15. Conclusion

Literature can mean anything written in verse or prose but without exclusion of

non-verbal literature because it may include the oral traditions in general. In its

broadest sense, it merely means a verbal art. In other words, it belongs to art and not

science; it refers primarily to the printed work. Nigerian literature is the one which is

written in the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, and the other languages of the country. The

languages used rely primarily on their part of geography. Nigerian literature, in

particular, began with the oral tradition, pioneered by the unsung heroes of her literary

past, like royal bards, warriors, storytellers, priests and many others. Indian literature

varies according to the languages in India since it is a multi-linguistic country

including Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu literature. What is common in their literature is

that both Nigerian and Indian authors tend to write in English due to colonization and

formal education ,hence, reaching up the literary global scene among them those who

are related to feministic matters. Throughout literature, feminism took the lion’s

share. No matter the time or the place, feminism has always been a popular literary

topic that has made different literary works quite notorious, including the ones who

have a Nigerian and an Indian literary background and belonging to an era called post

colonialism.

67

The impact of traditional literary features and of British colonization provoked

the creation of the literary writings whose languages was English. But , While some

Nigerian and Indian writers still sticked to their mother tongues , others cherished the

English language to be identified at local and global levels. Probaly using English is

to counteract different restructure cultural norms for women particularly , as the

foreign previous colonizer ‘s language is the lanaguge of freedom and westernization

at the expense of the traditional home culture . To conclude with, the theoretical

background helps the researcher to have the tools to Understand and analyze to some

extent the selected writers novels Americanah and Miss New India.

Notes to Part One

68

(1) Neocolonialism, neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization and cultural imperialism to influence a developing country in lieu of direct military control (imperialism) or indirect political control (hegemony). It was coined by Kwame Nkrumah in the context of African countries undergoing decolonization in the 1960s. Neo-colonialism is also discussed in the works of Western thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre (Colonialism and Neo-colonialism, 1964) and Noam Chomsky (The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, 1979).

(2) The Western canon is the body of Western literature, European classical music, philosophy, and works of art that represents the high culture of Europe and North America: "a certain Western intellectual tradition that goes from, say, Socrates to Wittgenstein in philosophy, and from Homer to James Joyce in literature".

(3) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and political leader. His works include four novels; epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. In addition, there are numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him extant.

(4) Abdullahi Suka was a 17th-century Kano scholar of Fulbe ancestry who is said to have written the oldest extant literature in Hausa with his work Riwayar Annabi Musa. He also authored Al-Atiya li'l muti(The gift of the donor) and many others.

(5) “Shehu Umaru” is a story of African slavery written in 1966, but was published in 1971, and thereafter adapted for a film in 1976 by Adamu Halilu, the pioneer Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation.

(6) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a present prime minister of the Federation of Nigeria, he is set in a Hausa village.

(7) Ruwan Bagaja (1957; The Water of Cure) by Abubakar Imam (1911-1981) was a Nigerian writer, journalist and politician from Kagara, Nigerin Nigeria. He was the first Hausa editor of Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, the pioneer Newspaper in Northern Nigeria.He first came to repute when he submitted a play Ruwan Bagaja for a literary competition in 1933. Abubakar Imam was also the author of Magana jari ce with the help of some collections provided by East, and Tafiya mabudin ilmi a book he wrote on his experiences after a visit to London.

(8) Gandoki by Bello Kagara, its hero, Gandoki, struggles against the British colonial regime. He does in Gandoki what many writers were doing in other parts of Africa during this period: he experiments with form and content. His novel blends the Hausa oral tradition and the novel, resulting in a story patterned on the heroic cycle; it also introduces a strong thread of Islamic history

69

(9) Jiki magayi (1955; “You Will Pay for the Injustice You Caused”), was written by Rupert East and J.Tafida Wusasa. It is a novel of love, and it moves from realism to fantasy.

(10) Chinua Achebe (born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe, 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), often considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007. Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" featured a famous criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a thoroughgoing racist"; it was later published in The Massachusetts Review

(11) Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka ,is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honoured in that category.

(12) Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (born 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan writer, His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. In 1977, Ngũgĩ has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His work may include, novels : Weep Not, Child, (1964) , The River Between, (1965) , A Grain of Wheat, (1967, 1992), Petals of Blood (1977).

(13) Omenuko by Pita Nwana is the first novel to be written in the Igbo language, and the book was very successful among the Igbo people. The book tells the life story of the politician Igwegbe Odum, an Aro Igbo who migrated to Arondizuogu. Omenukoa won a prize in a competition run by the International African Institute and is the biography of the eponymous slave-dealer, originally being publisher in 1935.

(14) Bell-Gam, Henry Leopold was born on September 8, 1950 in Opobo, Nigeria. He is , a theater director, educator, playwright.

(15) Ala Bingo by D.N. Achara, the novel is about King Eze Ogara Olu n’ afo lota n’ afo (The King Who Went to Work in a Year and Returned in a Year) was powerful and could do everything, including determining the seasons. He had two houses, one in the heavens and the other in the land of Bingo, Bingo is a fertile land where crops thrive. It teaches that human wants or desires are insatiable. In spite of the fact that the king has free access to the heavens and the earth, he is dissatisfied. It also teaches that nobody is an island, and that we all need the cooperation of others. It contains an Igbo-English glossary at the end of the book .

(16) Daniel Olorunfẹmi Fagunwa (1903- 9 December 1963), popularly known as D. O. Fagunwa, was a Nigerian author who pioneered the Yoruba-language novel. Fagunwa wrote his Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀, widely considered the first novel written in the Yoruba language and one of the first to be written in any African language. Wole Soyinka translated the book into English in 1968 as The Forest of A Thousand Daemons. His novels draw heavily on folktale traditions and idioms, including many supernatural elements. His heroes are usually Yoruba hunters, who interact with kings, sages, and even Gods in their quests. Thematically, his novels also explore the divide between the Christian beliefs of Africa's colonizers and the continent's traditional

70

religions. He was awarded the Margaret Wrong Prize in 1955 and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1959. He died in a river in 1963.

(17) Adebayo Faleti (26 December 1921 – 23 July 2017) was Africa's first newscaster, Africa's first stage play Director, Africa's first film editor and librarian with the first television station in Africa (WNTV/WNBS), Nigeria's first Yoruba presenter on Television and radio alike, a Nigerian poet, journalist, writer, Nollywood films Director and actor. He was responsible for translating Nigeria's National Anthem from English to Yoruba, His native language. Faleti has published a dictionary containing the formal or official use of Yoruba names.

(18) Professor Akinwunmi Isola (24 December 1939-17 February 2018) was a Nigerian playwright, novelist, actor, dramatist, culture activist and scholar. He was known for his writing in, and promoting, the Yoruba language

(19) Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known in his lifetime as Gustavus Vassa , was a writer and abolitionist from the Igbo region , according to his memoir. Enslaved as a child, he was taken to the Caribbean and sold as a slave to a captain in the Royal Navy, and later to a Quaker trader. Eventually, he earned his own freedom in 1766 by intelligent trading and careful savings. He was a prominent abolitionist in the British movement to end the Atlantic slave trade. . He published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery.

(20) Tutuola was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1920, Despite his short formal education, Tutuola wrote his novels in English. In 1956, after he had written his first three books and become internationally famous. Tutuola's most famous novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town, was written in 1946, first published in 1952 in London by Faber and Faber, then translated and published in Paris as L'Ivrogne dans la brousse by Raymond Queneau in 1953.

(21) Helon Habila Ngalabak (born November 1967) is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001 for “Love Poems”.. In 2005, he was invited by Chinua Achebe to become the first Chinua Achebe Fellow at Bard College, NY, where he spent a year writing and teaching, remaining in the US as a professor of Creative Writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. His works may include : book of Prison Stories (2000), and novels such as :Waiting for an Angel: (2004), Measuring Time (2007).

(22) Charles Nnolim is Professor of English, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His works consists of Issues in African Literature, Literature, Literary, Literary Criticism and National Development, Remembering a Legend.

(23) the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Ramayana translates as the Story of Rama. It is believed to have been written by a Brahmin named Valmiki, between 400 and 200 BCE. Rama and his brothers are depicted as embodying the ideals of Aryan culture: men of loyalty and honor, faithful and dutiful sons, affectionate brothers and loving husbands,

71

men who speak the truth, who are stern, who persevere but are ready and willing to make sacrifices for the sake of virtue against the evils of greed, lust and deceit. The Mahabharata, meaning Great India, is said to have been written by a Brahmin named Vyasa, between 400 and 100 BCE, The Mahabharata was divided into eighteen books of verses interspersed with passages of prose. It attempted to describe the period in which Aryan tribes in Northern India were uniting into kingdoms .One of its heroes is Krishna, described as a royal personage descended from the Gods – an eighth incarnation of the God Vishnu. The Mahabharata's heroes are described as yearning for power but, like the heroes of the Ramayana, devoted to truth and having a strong sense of duty and affection for their parents. New contributions to the Mahabharata gave greater focus to the Gods Vishnu and Shiva.

(24) Raghuvaṃśa is an epic poem about the kings of the Raghu dynasty.

(25) Pāṇini (4th century BCE or "6th to 5th century BCE ) was an ancient Sanskrit philologist, grammarian, and a revered scholar in ancient India. The name Pāṇini is a patronymic meaning descendant of Paṇina. Pāṇini is known for his text Ashtadhyayi, a sutra-style treatise on Sanskrit grammar, 3,959 "verses" or rules on linguistics, syntax and semantics in "eight chapters" .

(26) Kālidāsa was a Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language of India. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. His works were most likely authored within the 4th-5th century CE. Kālidāsa wrote three plays. Among them, Abhijñānaśākuntalam ("Of Shakuntala recognised by a token") is generally regarded as a masterpiece. It was among the first Sanskrit works to be translated into English, Kālidāsa is the author of two epic poems, Raghuvaṃśa ("Dynasty of Raghu") and Kumārasambhava (Birth of 'Kumara' or Subrahmanya).

(27) Sanskrit: mr̥cchakaṭikā (म�ृछक�टका),(The Little Clay Cart) is a ten-act Sanskrit

drama attributed to Śūdraka, an ancient playwright who thought to have lived sometime between the 3rd century BC and the 5th century AD. The central story is that of noble but impoverished young Brahmin, Sanskrit: Cārudatta, who falls in love with a wealthy courtesan or nagarvadhu, Sanskrit: Vasantasenā. Despite their mutual affection, however, the couple's lives and love are threatened when a vulgar courtier, Samsthānaka, also known as Shakara, begins to aggressively pursue Vasantasenā. Rife with romance, comedy, intrigue and a political subplot detailing the overthrow of the city's despotic ruler by a shepherd, the play is notable among extant Sanskrit drama for its focus on a fictional scenario rather than on a classical tale or legend.

(28) Bhāsa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit.The plays of Bhāsa had been lost for centuries, until the manuscripts were rediscovered in the early 20th century. Kālidāsa wrote in the introduction to his first play Malavikagnimitram: "Shall we neglect the works of such illustrious authors as Bhāsa, Saumilla, and Kaviputra? Can the audience feel any respect for the work of a modern poet, a Kālidāsa?" Devadhar (1966) "Malavikagnimitram of Kalidasa" 3

(29) Shri-harsha (Śrīharṣa) was a 12th century Sanskrit poet from India. Śrīharṣa composed the poem (kāvya) Naishadha Charita in 1174, it contains erotic themes.

72

(30) Khub Chand Baghel ,was a member of the Indian National Congress along with Pandit Sunderlal Sharma, Thakur Pyarelal Singh .He was among some of the prominent leaders of the national movement in Chhattisgarh. He did not confine himself to political activity; he was involved in intiating as well as actively participating in socio-cultural reform movments. He reiterated the fact that Chhattisgarh has a distinct socio-cultural identity. the literature also seeks to defend the distinct identity; Plays like Jamail Singh and Unch Neech by Khub Chand Baghel focused on social issues of in the context of Chhattisgarhi identity.

(31) Khariboli dialect Khariboli, also known as Kauravi or Delhavi, is the prestige dialect of Hindustani, of which Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu are standard registers and literary styles, which are the principal official languages of India and Pakistan respectively. As a base for the medieval Hindustani language, Khariboli is a part of the Western group of the Central Zone (Hindi Zone) of Indo-Aryan languages. It is spoken mainly in India in the rural area surrounding Delhi, Western Uttar Pradesh, and southern Uttarakhand.

(32) Munshi Premchand Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava (31 July 1880 – 8 October 1936), better known by his pen name Munshi Premchand , was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi writers of the early twentieth century. He began writing under the pen name "Nawab Rai", but subsequently switched to "Premchand". A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the "Upanyas Samrat" ("Emperor among Novelists") by writers. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 250 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi.

(33) The Rig-Veda, (Rig "praise"and veda "knowledge"), is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is one of the four sacred canonical texts (śruti) of Hinduism known as the Vedas. The core text, known as the Rigveda Samhita, is a collection of 1,028 hymns (sūktas) in about 10,600 verses. organized into ten books (maṇḍalas).

(34) Mirza Hadi Ruswa, (1857–1931), the writer of ,Umrao Jaan Ada which is an Urdu novel ,first published in 1899.It is considered the first Urdu novel by many .According to the novel, the story of Umrao Jaan was recounted by her to the author, when he happened to meet her during a mushaira (poetry gathering) in Lucknow. On listening to her couplets, the author along with Munshi Ahmad, a novel and poetry enthusiast present at the gathering, convinces Umrao Jaan to share her life story with them. The novel is written in first person as a memoir.

(35) Sake Dean Mahome , was a Anglo-Indian traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who was one of the most notable early non-European immigrants to the Western World. He introduced Indian cuisine and shampoo baths to Europe, where he offered therapeutic massage. He was also the first Indian to publish a book in English : In 1794, Mahomed published his travel book, The Travels of Dean Mahomet. The book begins with the

73

praise of Genghis Khan, Timur and particularly the first Mughal Emperor Babur. It describes several important cities in India and a series of military conflicts with local Indian principalities.

(36) Graham Greene , Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991), better known by his pen name Graham Greene, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted, in 1966 and 1967, for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Through 67 years of writings, which included over 25 novels, he explored the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world, often through a Catholic perspective especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair; which have been named "the gold standard" of the Catholic novel.

(37) Salman Rushdie, (born 19 June 1947) is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two separate occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent. He combines magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations.

(38) Nayantara Sehgal, (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in English. She is a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family. She was awarded the 1986 Sahitya Akademi India's National Academy of Letters for her novel, Rich Like Us (1985).

(39) Makaan (meaning house or dwelling ) by Paigham Afaqui , Paigham Afaqui is an Indian novelist, short story writer and poet from Urdu language , born on 1956 in Chanp village of Siwan district in Bihar in a farmer’s family. Afaqui's first novel, Makaan, appeared in 1989 and was widely reviewed in Urdu and English. It is a novel that is based on the challenges faced by a medico girl in the city of Delhi, India. The tenant living in a portion of the house tries to force her out. In the process of resisting the girl Neera undergoes a wonderful mental metamorphosis.The 400 page novel is all about the changes taking place in her through various phases of this struggle. It is considered to be first Urdu novel depicting the female character as a complete and independent human being.

Part Two

Nigerian and Indian Feminism/s

74

2.2.1. Introduction

Feminism is a socio-cultural movement that aims to achieve equality of

enjoyment of all rights - moral, religious, social, political, education, legal,

economic and so on of women with men . Focus from 1980 up to now has

changed, the single term ‘feminism’ changed into ‘feminisms’. Feminism has an

European origin and gradually emerged to become a worldwide movement taking the

case of Nigeria and India. In this part, a thorough explanation of the movement

‘Feminism’ and its existence in both the Nigerian and Indian contexts.

2.2.2. Feminism

It is difficult to define feminism. The historical origins and development of the

term Feminism is a modern one. It has been used firstly in 1871 in a French medical

analysis to describe the sexual organs and characteristics in male patients, who suffer

from ‘feminization’ of their bodies (Fraisse, 1995). It is interesting to note, though,

that feminist was not at first an adjective used by women to describe themselves or

their actions, and one can certainly say that there was what we today would call

‘feminist’ thought and activity long before the term itself was adopted. Therefore,

although the development of women’s rights movements can be traced from the mid-

nineteenth century, this was not the starting point for women’s concern about their

social and political condition. In the 1840s, the women’s rights movement had started

to emerge in the United States with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 and the

resulting Declaration of Sentiments, which claimed for women the principles of

liberty and equality expounded in the American Declaration of Independence. In

Britain, too, the 1840s onwards saw the emergence of women’s suffrage movements.

In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft had published A Vindication of the Rights of Women

and at the same time in France women such as Olympe de, Gouges and Théroigne de

Méricourt were fighting for the extension of the rights promised by the French

Revolution to women.

75

Feminism is a term that emerged long after women started questioning their

inferior status and demanding an amelioration in their social position. Even after the

word feminism was coined, many of those who campaigned for women’s rights did

still not adopt it as a term of identification. Even many of the women’s rights

organizations in the late 1960s and early 1970s did not call themselves feminist: the

term feminism had a restricted use in relation to specific concerns and specific groups.

Feminism is a political movement that includes the acting, speaking, writing and

advocating on behalf of women’s issues. Everywhere and anywhere in the world,

women have been considered second-class to man. In most cultures, men take

pleasure in most or all positions of power that is why those cultures are called

patriarchies. These initiate women to fight for their rights under the shade of feminism

that is against the domination. The word patriarchy can be broadly defined as the

superiority of men over women in a certain society. In this male oriented rule, women

face diverse degrees of oppression depending on their race, customs, socio-economic

class, religion and the country or region in which they live. Feminism, therefore,

focuses on spotting prejudices against females and to at least lessening their problems

with regard to repression. In the same vein, Shukla (2006) puts that:

“Feminism is a concept emerging as a complaint in opposition to male control and marginalization of women (1).

Bell hooks (2000) Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center defines the term as

follows:

“Feminism is the struggle to end sexist oppression. Its aim is not to benefit solely any specific group of women, any particular race or class of women. It does not privilege women over men. It has the power to transform in a meaningful way all our lives”. (24-25)

All in all, Feminism addresses issues concerned with mainly that men and

women should be equal politically, economically and socially. Feminism does not

subscribe to differences between men and women or similarities between men and

women, nor does it refer to excluding men or only furthering women's causes but it

seeks to defend only women’ rights .In this respect, the black feminist, theorist and

activist defines feminism as ,

76

“the belief that women are full human beings capable of participation and leadership in the full range of human activities and intellectual, political ,social, sexual, spiritual and economic” (Cleage,1993: 28)

Okin (1999) identifies feminism as

"The belief that women should not be disadvantaged by their sex, that they should be recognized as having human dignity equal to that of men, and that they should have the opportunity to live as fulfilling and as freely chosen lives as men can." (10).

What feminism is NOT: Feminism is not the belief that women are superior. /

Feminism is not hating men (misandry). Feminism is not male oppression.

The theory has been developed and passed through waves to reach up that much

of study and interest. In fact, Feminism lived up three waves, which are as follows:

Wave Period

First wave 1850 - 1920

Second Wave 1920- 1980

Third Wave 1980 to the present

Waves of Feminism

Source :( Bedjaoui Fewzia , Towards an Understanding of Post -Colonialism

and Feminism, published article in Literary Oracle of Orissa, Vol.1, Issue 1,

India, 2014)

First-wave feminism involved a period of feminist activity during the 19th and

early 20th centuries, especially in Europe and in the Anglo-sphere; it focused primarily

on gaining the right of women's suffrage, the right to be educated, better working

conditions and double sexual standards. The term, "first-wave", was coined

retrospectively after the term second wave feminism began to be used to describe a

newer feminist movement that focused as much on fighting social and cultural

inequalities as further political inequalities. Writers like Mary Wollstonecraft (A

Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792) highlight the inequalities between the

sexes. Activists like Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull contribute to the

women's suffrage movement, which leads to National Universal Suffrage in 1920

with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment (Jane F. Gerhard , 2001).

77

The first feminist tried to include women’s voices in ethnography and provide a

female perspective to events. One of the women who were fundamental to this

movement was Elsie Clews Parsons. She started her career with a PhD in Sociology

from Columbia University in 1899 and several years later, met Pliny, Goldenweiser,

Lowie, Kroeber, Sapir and Boas and was converted to anthropology. She was very

much the social activist, using her ethnographic skills to encourage people to think in

new ways about their own experience and lives, and sought to break the restrictions

placed on men and women working together. She established the Southwest Society,

using her wealth and influence.

It begins in the early 1920s up to the late 1980s. Second wave feminism witnessed

cultural and political inequalities. Second-wavers indeed were concerned with issues

of equality including more equal working conditions, and an attempt to the end

discriminations. The second wave feminism witnessed was largely led by educated

among them : Writers like Simone de Beauvoir (Le deuxième sexe, 1972) and Elaine

Showalter A Literature of their Own in 1977 , Betty Friedan and her book “The

Feminine Mystique” 1963 . In this wave, an issue was raised concerned a typical type

of women, black women. If White feminists defined gender as the principal source of

their exclusion from full participation in American life, black women were forced to

confront the interplay between racism and sexism . They stared to act to change their

bad destiny by forming organizations like: the National Black Feminist Organization

(NBFO) in 1973. (Obaidur Ovi , 2016).

The Third-wave of feminism began in the early 1980s. The movement arose as

responses to what young women thought of as perceived failures of the second-wave.

It was also a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by

the second-wave. Third-wave feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the

second wave's "essentialist" definitions of femininity, which (according to them)

over-emphasized the experiences of upper middle class white women. Third wave

feminism borrows from post-structural and contemporary gender and race theories to

expand on marginalized populations' experiences. Writers like Alice Walker work to:

"...reconcile it [feminism] with the concerns of the black community...[and] the survival and wholeness of her people, men and

78

women both, and for the promotion of dialog and community as well as for the valorization of women and of all the varieties of work women perform" (Tyson,2011: 97).

2.2.3. Types of Feminism

Feminist ideas of the past decade have changed as the limitations of one set of

ideas were critiqued and addressed by what was felt to be a better set of ideas about

why women and men were so unequal. Each perspective has made important

contributions to improving women's status, but each also has limitations. Here are

some of the varieties in Feminism

2.2.3.1. Liberal Feminism

Theoretically, liberal feminism claims that gender differences are not based in

biology, and therefore that woman and men are not very different -their common

humanity supersedes their procreative differentiation. If women and men are not

different, then they should not be treated differently under the law. Women should

have the same rights as men and the same educational and work opportunities.

Nevertheless, liberal feminism could not overcome the prevailing belief that women

and men are intrinsically different. It was somewhat more successful in proving that

even if women are different from men, they are not inferior.

2.2.2.3.2. Cultural Feminism

Cultural feminism has to be developed, as culture is a key issue. The theory that

there are fundamental personality differences between men and women, and that

women's differences are special and should be celebrated. This theory of feminism

supports the notion that there are biological differences between men and women. An

example "women are kinder and gentler than men" , leading to the mentality that if

women ruled the world, there would be no wars. Cultural feminism is the theory that

wants to overcome sexism by celebrating women's special qualities, women's ways,

and women's experiences, often believing that the "woman's way" is the better way.

79

Briefly put, then, the cultural feminist response to Simone de Beauvoir's question,

"Are there women?" is to answer yes and to define women by their activities and

attributes in the present culture. The post-structuralist response is to answer no and

attack the category and the concept of woman through problematizing subjectivity.

Each response has serious limitations, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that

transcending these limitations while retaining the theoretical framework from which

they emerge is impossible. As a result, a few brave souls are now rejecting these

choices and attempting to map out a new course, a course that will avoid the major

problems of the earlier responses.

Cultural feminism is the ideology of a female nature or female essence

reappropriated by feminists themselves in an effort to revalidate undervalued female

attributes. For cultural feminists, the enemy of women is not merely a social system or

economic institution or set of backward beliefs but masculinity itself and in some

cases male biology. Cultural feminist politics revolve around creating and maintaining

a healthy environment-free of masculinist values and all their offshoots such as

pornography-for the female principle. Feminist theory, the explanation of sexism, and

the justification of feminist demands can all be grounded securely and unambiguously

on the concept of the essential female.

Cultural feminists believe that the cause of women's oppression is biological.

Their body is the material base of reproduction of human beings. It is natural

procreative mechanism; its sexuality is controlled by men through the institutions of

marriage and family. The maleculture dominates and oppresses women in socio-

economic field. These feminists are committed to change the patriarchal system which

is the root cause of many social problems. According to cultural feminists, sexual

freedom must be equally gained by men and women. In the sexual revolution of

1960s the assumption of heterosexuality was challenged by the rise of political

lesbianism.

Cultural feminists view men's oppression of women as ongoing and deliberate,

holding individual men responsible for this oppression. According to them institutions

and systems (including the family) are mere vehicles of male intent and reject

psychologist explanations of female submissiveness as blaming women for

collaboration in their own oppression. The cultural feminists hold a more idealistic,

80

psychologistic view, with a greater emphasis on "Sex roles", seeing 'sexism' as rooted

in contemporary patterns of male and female behaviour. They emphasize on

institutions like marriage, family, prostitution and heterosexuality as existing to

perpetuate the "Sex-role system". In the late 1970s and early 1980s, cultural

feminism, as an extension of radical feminism demanded basic human rights for

women such as reproduction freedom, childbirth, abortion, sterilization or birth

control, in short make their choices freely without pressure from individual men,

doctors, governmental or religious authorities. They also demanded change in the

organisational sexual culture e.g. breaking down traditional gender roles and re-

evaluating societal concepts of femininity and masculinity.

They reveal that the oppression of women is sexual. Male culture has changed

women's bodies into objects of male desire and they are treated as a thing of beauty

and sexuality. The cultural feminists consider women as individuals not a class or

race. They study their experiences as the experiences of individuals. Women have

their own rights and free will. Thus, the primary aim of cultural feminism is to destroy

this sex class system. Linda Alcoff (1988) argues that women are over determined by

what she sees as patriarchal systems. She contends that,

"Man has said that woman can be defined, delineated, captured, understood, explained and diagnosed to a level of determination never accorded to man himself, who is conceived as a rational animal with free will." (406).

While cultural feminists argue that the traditional role of women provides a basis

for the articulation of a more humane world view, other contemporary feminisms do

not believe that this transformation will happen automatically. They do not believe

that the differences between women and men are principally biological. Alcoff makes

the point that,

"the cultural feminist reappraisal construes women's passivity as her peacefulness, her sentimentality as her proclivity to nurture, her subjectiveness as her advanced self awareness." (1988:406).

81

Mary Daly and Adrienne Rich have been influential proponents of cultural

feminism. Breaking from the trend toward androgyny and the minimizing of gender

differences that was popular among feminists in the early seventies, both Daly and

Rich argue for a returned focus on femaleness. For Daly, male barrenness leads to

parasitism on female energy, which flows from our life-affirming, life-creating

biological condition: "Since female energy is essentially biophilic, the female spirit/

body is the primary target in this perpetual war of aggression against life.

Gyn/Ecology is the re-claiming of life-loving female energy” (1979: 7)

Despite Daly's warnings against biological reductionism, her own analysis of

sexism uses gender-specific biological traits to explain male hatred for women. The

childless state of "all males" leads to a dependency on women, which in turn leads

men to "deeply identify with 'unwanted fetal tissue". Given their state of fear and

insecurity, it becomes almost understandable, then, that men would desire to dominate

and control that which is so vitally necessary to them: the life-energy of women.

Female energy, conceived by Daly as a natural essence, needs to be free from its male

parasites, released for creative expression and recharged through bond with other

women. In this free space woman’s "natural" attributes of love, creativity, and the

ability to nurture can thrive.

Women's identification as female is their defining essence for Daly, their

haecceity, overriding any other way in which they may be defined or may define

themselves. Thus Daly states: "Women who accept false inclusion among the fathers

and sons are easily polarized against other women on the basis of ethnic, national,

class, religious and other male-defined differences, applauding the defeat of 'enemy'

women." (1979:365) .These differences are apparent rather than real, inessential rather

than essential. The only real difference, that can change a person's ontological

placement on Daly's dichotomous map, is sex difference. Thus, Daly defines women

again and her definition is strongly linked to female biology. Many of Rich's writings

have exhibited surprising similarities to Daly's position described above, surprising

given their difference in style and temperament. Rich defines a "female

consciousness"that has a great deal to do with the female body.

“I have come to believe… that female biology-the diffuse, intense sensuality radiating out from clitoris, breasts, uterus, vagina; the lunar cycles of menstruation; the gestation and fruition of life which can take

82

place in the female body-has far more radical implications than we have yet come to appreciate.” (1997:21).

Patriarchal thought has limited female biology to its own narrow specifications.

The feminist vision has recoiled from female biology for these reasons. Thus, Rich

argues that we should not reject the importance of female biology simply because

patriarchy has used it to subjugate us. Rich believes that

"our biological grounding, the miracle and paradox of the female body and its spiritual and political meanings" holds the key to our rejuvenation and our reconnection with our specific female attributes, which she lists as "our great mental capacities...; our highly developed tactile sense; our genius for close observation; our complicated, pain-enduring, multi-pleasured physicality." (1997:21)

Rich further echoes Daly in her explanation of misogyny:

"The ancient, continuing envy, awe and dread of the male for the female capacity to create life has repeatedly taken the form of hatred for every other female aspect of creativity." (1997:290)

Thus Rich, like Daly, identifies a female essence, defines patriarchy as the

subjugation and colonization of this essence out of male envy and need, and then

promotes a solution that revolves around rediscovering our essence and bonding with

other women. Neither Rich nor Daly espouses biological reductionism, but this is

because they reject the oppositional dichotomy of mind and body that such a

reductionism presupposes. The female essence for Daly and Rich is not simply

spiritual or simply biological-it is both. Yet the key point remains that it is our

specifically female anatomy that is the primary constituent of our identity and the

source of our female essence. Rich prophesies,

"the repossession by women of our bodies will bring far more essential change to human society than the seizing of the means of production by workers.... In such a world women will truly create new life, bringing forth not only children (if and as we choose) but the visions, and the thinking, necessary to sustain, console and alter human existence-a new relationship to the universe. Sexuality, politics, intelligence, power, motherhood, work, community, intimacy will develop new meanings; thinking itself will be transformed." (1997: 292)

83

The characterization of Rich's and Daly's views as part of a growing trend within

feminism toward essentialism has been developed most extensively by Alice Echols.

Echols prefers the name "cultural feminism" for this trend because it equates

"women's liberation with the development and preservation of a female counter

culture." Echols identifies cultural feminist writings by their denigration of

masculinity rather than male roles or practices, by their valorization of female traits,

and by their commitment to preserve rather than diminish gender differences. Besides

Daly and Rich, Echols names Susan Griffin, Kathleen Barry, Janice Raymond,

Florence Rush, Susan Brownmiller, and Robin Morgan as important cultural feminist

writers, and she documents her claim persuasively by highlighting key passages of

their work.

Thus cultural feminist believe that women are not essentially different, but in

certain ways more evolved than men. For example cultural feminism tends to

celebrate women's love, nurturing abilities, non-violence and emotional intelligence

and view- these traits as female qualities. This ideology of 'female essence' or 'female

nature' reappropriated by the cultural feminists, is an effort to revalidate under valued

female attributes. They assert that women's differences are not only unique but

superior to men. This theory of feminism takes note of the biological difference

between men and women such as menstruation and child birth and extrapolation from

this the idea of an inherent 'women's culture'.

2.2.4. Black Feminism

Black Feminism is to be dealt with as the Nigerian woman writer Chimamanda

Ngozi Adichie belongs to cultural black feminist trends .The failure of white

feminism to incorporate the voices of Black women writers, Black feminists showed

the varied position of their case as it is associated with oppression of women based on

their color and sex. Hence, Black feminism becomes appropriate brand of feminism to

deal with Black women’s experiences. In brief, it is foolishness to try to analyze

works of Black women based on western feminism instead of Black feminist

84

theoretical framework that enables to address special aspects of Black women such as

racism, sexism and classism.

Black feminism is a school of thought that argues that sexism, class oppression,

gender identity and racism are inextricably bound together. The way these concepts

relate to each other is called intersectionality. The term intersectionality theory was

first coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. In her work, Crenshaw

discussed black feminism , which argues that the experience of being a black woman

cannot be understood in terms of being black or of being a woman. Each concept is

considered independently, but must include the interactions, which frequently

reinforce each other and motherhood is very important. Feminism at its core is a

movement to abolish the inequalities women face. The Combahee River

Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all

people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression. Patricia

Hill Collins sums it up by saying that Black feminism is a process of self-conscious

struggle that empowers women and men to actualize a humanist vision of community.

Black Feminsim became popular in the 1960s, in response to the sexism of the Civil

Rights Movement and racism of the feminist movement. From the 1970s to 1980s,

black feminists formed various groups that addressed the role of black women

in Black Nationalism, gay liberation, and second-wave feminism. In the 1990s,

the Anita Hill controversy placed black feminism in a mainstream light. Black

feminist theories reached a wider audience in the 2010s, because of social media

advocacy. Proponents of black feminism argue that black women are positioned

within structures of power in fundamentally different ways from white women. The

distinction of black feminism has birthed the derisive tag "white feminist", used to

criticize feminists who do not acknowledge issues of intersectionality. Critics of black

feminism argue that racial divisions weaken the strength of the overall feminist

movement.

Among the theories that evolved out of the black feminist movement are Alice

Walker's Womanism (1979), and historical revisionism with an increased focus on

black women. One of the theories that evolved out of the Black feminist movement

85

was womanism, a term coined by Alice Walker in In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens

(1984) to stabilize the equality between all races and sexes and to show that

masculinity is also related to women.. The central concerns of diverse Black feminists

and womanists include the “intersectionality” of race, gender, sexuality, class, and

national or transnational identity; reproductive health; sexual violence; homophobia

and heteronormativity; the historicity and cultural specificity of the subordination

Black women face; and the effects of racism, colonialism, unequal forms of economic

development, and globalization on Black communities.

2.2.5. African Feminism

As to African feminism, it is a type of feminism innovated by African women

that specifically addresses the conditions and needs of continental African women

(African women who reside on the African continent). Because Africa is not a

monolith, these feminisms are not all reflective of the experiences African women

have. Some of them are more specific to certain groups of African women. African

feminism is sometimes aligned with- in dialogue, or in conflict with Black

Feminism and African womanism . The latter is perceived as by and for African

women in the diaspora, rather than African women on or recently from the continent)

as well as other feminisms and feminist movements, including nationally based ones,

such as feminism in Sweden, feminism in India, feminism in Mexico, feminism in

Japan, feminism in Germany, feminism in South Africa, and so on. Notable African

Feminist Criticsmay include : Molara Ogundipe ,Naomi Nkealah ,Akachi Ezeigbo

,Catherine Acholonu ,Mary Modupe Kolawole ,Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi,

Obioma Nnaemeka ,Amede Obiora and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Some people feel African feminism became necessary in part due to white

Western feminism's exclusion of the experiences of the black woman and the

continental African woman. White Western feminisms do not take into account the

particular issues black women face at the intersection of both their blackness and their

womanhood. Currently, white feminism often classifies African women as "women of

color," which groups and thereby represses the African woman's historical trajectory

and specific experience. In Hazel Carby 's White Women Listen ! Black Feminism and

the Boundaries of Sisterhood (1996), she notes why white feminism is considered the

86

normative experience of all women. She writes, "History has constructed our

sexuality and our femininity as deviating from those qualities with which white

women, as the prize of the Western world, have been endowed”Google scholar

. However, white feminism cannot continue to erase Africa or African women from

feminist theory or feminist advocacy, because the narratives and experiences of

Africa's women will always be relevant.

African feminism was not wholly a reaction to being excluded from white

feminist's vision of feminism, but also from their own ingenuity and desire to create a

feminism that embraced their backgrounds and experiences. African feminism voices

the realities of women in varying African countries. Women's needs, reality,

oppression and empowerment are best addressed by having an inclusive and

accommodating understanding of the generic and more general issues as well as the

peculiarities and group attitude to self-definition as women. Naomi Nkealah writes

that, African feminisms :

"strives to create a new, liberal, productive and self-reliant African woman within the heterogeneous cultures of Africa. Feminisms in Africa, ultimately, aim at modifying culture as it affects women in different societies."( 2006:135).

At the same time, Africa is not a monolith and so some have commented on any

idea of "African feminism." There exist differences regionally, ethnically, politically,

and in religion, which all work to affect how women conceptualize what feminism

and freedom looks like for them. While African women from, for example, Egypt,

Kenya, South Africa and Senegal will have some commonalities, there will be

variations in the way they understand gender and gender struggles. Therefore, these

varying cultures alter the way these African women experience the world. Thus, one

cannot simply merge all women under an unrealistic expectation of sisterhood, but

instead to recognize and respect the differences that exist because of these diversities.

There is a commonality to the struggles women face across the world since the

common factor is male privilege. The modern African woman is strong, smart, and

resilient and has woken up to the options she has. She is no longer satisfied with the

options created for her, but seeks to create new options and choices for the generation

of other African women that will come after her.

87

2.2.6. Nigerian Feminism

Especially Nigerian feminists have a tendency of dissociating themselves from

the broad term “feminism”, even though the idea has found a warm reception in the

Nigerian soil. These women view Western feminism as a continuation or another

form of imperialism. This is because, to them, the idea is western oriented and cannot

adequately address and express the experiences of women outside Europe. These are

glaring differences in the perceptions, worldviews and experiences of Nigerian

women from European women, regardless of the tribe, culture or religion. This

awareness that the West cannot speak authoritatively for other women outside Europe

forms the basis of the search for an alternative terminology in Nigeria/Africa which

adequately addresses Nigerian/African women’s experiences, thus, feminism will

have to undergo a process of cultural “nativization” or “indigenization” in order to fit

into Nigerian/African worldview, mannerism and ideals.

Feminism has been a distant tool of intellectual discourse and political action to

the majority of women scholars and activists in Sub‐Saharan Africa . In Nigeria,

records of women’s struggles to correct acts of discrimination and violence have been

in existence since the 19th century. Nigerian women have been recognised to play

significant roles in anti‐colonial struggles. The struggles during the National

Independence and social modernisation also resulted in the formation of women’s

movements. The pre‐colonial and colonial eras revealed active participation of women

in activities aimed to better their lot. The intervention of women in social and political

landscape helped to improve their status at the grassroot, national and regional levels.

In Nigeria, women have been involved in various movements and activities in their

own ways even though such movements were not identified or labeled with any

specific name.

At the early stages, feminism as a concept attracted negative connotations, usually

feminist women were usually associated and/or stigmatized as being, ‘men haters’,

frustrated or divorced women with nothing better to do but ‘cause trouble’.Feminism

gained attention in Nigeria as a result of different attempts made by women to secure

and sustain equal rights and opportunities for women. The prevalence of unequal

power relation resulting in disproportionate distribution of rights and privileges to

88

women has been a great issue of concern leading to different interventions by

individuals and women’s groups to eradicate such concepts. Feminism in Nigeria

emerged out of the demands of women to improve women’s status and eliminate

debilitating factors that deprive women of enjoying their full human rights.

Historically, women in Nigeria have faced a wide spectrum of experiences in

navigating through several hindrances that have confronted them. The culture of

patriarchy, male chauvinism and anarchy has undermined the rights of women and the

outcome of this is the exploitation and marginalization of women in the affairs of

development both at the private and public spheres. Nigerian women have

participated actively in all stages of the country’s development from the Pre‐Colonia

Period through the Post‐Colonial Period. In discussing feminist history in Nigeria, it is

highly essential to discuss the struggles and interventions attempts by women at all

stages of the country’s development.

The analysis of women’s roles in Nigeria’s liberation struggle in the pre colonial

period can be understood from the nature of the economic, social and political actions

they were engaged in that period. During the pre‐colonial period, Nigerian women

participated actively in the private and public spheres and usually have independent

access to resources. The exception to this were the women in the Northern part of the

country comprising mainly of the Hausa‐Fulani whose commercial activities were

restricted as a result of the use of the Islamic purdah. Even at this, they still made a

strong impression on the socio‐political landscape of the region.

Notable women asserted their rights and started their own feminist movements. A

prominent example was Queen Amina of Zazzau. In 1576, she became the undisputed

ruler of Zazzau, a Hausa city, Northern Nigeria. Distinguished as a soldier and an

empire builder, she led campaigns within months of becoming ruler. Amina subdued

the whole area between Zazzau and the Niger and Benue rivers absorbing the Nupe

and Kwararafa states. The Igala kingdom, also in Northern Nigeria, was reputed to

have been founded by a woman, Ebele Ejaunu.

89

In Southern Nigeria, in both the Old and New Oyo, the Oba, known as the Alafin,

developed a highly centralized and complex palace administration. Historically,

women played various important roles in the palace administration. The Kings wives

were called in general ayaba, but they were of various ranks and grades. Greater sex

differentiation was more pronounced in other societies in the South. This resulted in

women forming strong organizations. Among the Igbo and Ibibio, women controlled

their own affairs and possessed political influence on the basis of their collective

strength. Where such female organization was lacking, as among the Ijaw, Kalabari,

Efik, Edo, and Itsekiri, individual women of high status exercised political power as a

collectivity. This they did either through the office of the queen mother (Benin) or

through their personal relationships with the male rulers. In socially stratified

societies, women of high status always occupied a higher social status position than

the ‘’commoner’’ men as well as women.

However, in Yoruba and Riverine Igbo societies, not only the individual high

status women but also women as a collective possessed political power through their

organizations and through their representatives, such as the Yoruba ‘Iyalode’. The

Yoruba wars, such as the popular Kiriji war, demanded extraordinary services from

both men and women; where women were able to rise to the occasion, they were

rewarded with greater political responsibility as in case of the Egba and Ibadan

iyalodes. The end of the century initiated another sequence of historical events which

was to affect women’s political roles adversely. Pre‐colonial African women occupied

a position complementary, rather than subordinate, to the men. As has been shown,

the sex segregation that existed in many spheres of society often enabled women to

control their own affairs.

The Yoruba and Igbo women in southern Nigeria played powerful political roles

within dual‐sex systems of female and male authority. Women were part of

associations that were based on trade, age, and kinship. The women were able to

organize themselves through associations like the Market women to fight a collective

cause. The colonialists had introduced certain rules and regulations that weakened the

enjoyment of social, economic and political rights of women. Women’s representation

in the public sphere was very low even though women were granted the right to vote

in the 1950s in the South and in the North in the 1980s. The Women's War of 1929

90

(also known as the Aba Women’s Riots), in which Igbo market women protested

British taxation, was a notable example of women using their traditional power

against colonial rulers. Grounded in their roles as mothers and providers of the family,

women collectively defended their complementary sphere of authority within the

extended family and wider community.

Women's movements/organizations in Nigeria continued to value the

complementary of women's and men's interests, an idea reflected in the strategy of

Nigerian women's groups to demand reserved places for women in political offices.

The Abeokuta market women protests in 1948 came almost two decades after the Aba

riots. Women again revolted against colonial taxes and the failure of the traditional

rulers to defend their interests by challenging the colonial masters. Instead, under

indirect rule, the Alake of Abeokuta was the person ultimately responsible for tax

collection. Funmilayo Ransome‐Kuti, who, at the time was head teacher at the

Abeokuta Grammar School learned about this women’s struggle, and formed the

Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU) where the ‘elite’ Abeokuta women joined in

solidarity with the market women of Egba land to work together to find a way to stop

this practice of excess and unnecessary tax collection.

This women’s group coordinated by Mrs Funmilayo Ransome‐Kuti was able to

question the character of governance with regard to the authoritarian, arbitrary nature

of decision‐making by the Sole Native Authority and the colonial government. This

later grew to a movement that became a string component of the independence

movement. In addition, through this development, women were able to develop a

clear voice in questioning the repercussion of existing policies on the quality of life

and status of women. These women used different cultural traditions to threaten the

authority in order to bring the change they so much desired in the status of women. In

the case of the Abeokuta protest, women bared their bodies naked at the Oba’s palace,

an action that was a taboo in Yoruba tradition.

This eventually led to the vacation of the throne by the Alake, though, for a

period. It was through this anti‐colonial resistance struggles that the different

foundations for women’s emancipation, equality and empowerment were initially laid

91

such as the formation of the National Women’s Union (NWU), the first national

women’s organization founded in 1947. It was also the first women’s organization in

Nigeria with nationwide representation covering all ethnic, religious and class lines.

The Union had prominent female leaders such as Margaret Ekpo and Funmilayo

Ransome Kuti who created a political niche for Nigeria women through their active

roles in mainstream political movements and individual female organizations (Okeke

and Franschet, 2002).

In the 1950’s, before Nigeria gained her independence. Funmilayo Ransome‐Kuti

and some other women activists fought for women’s rights and the country’s

independence alongside Nigerian founding fathers. She became the leader of the

Women’s wing of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) party

in the Western region. Margaret Ekpo, also a fierce defender of women’s rights, stood

her ground in issues of equality with men, representing women resolutely with great

dignity in multiple capacities. In the Northern part of the country, strong figures like

Gambo Sawaba played prominent roles in the struggle for women rights and became a

leading light for women in that part of the country. They routinely toured the country,

mobilizing women to be politically conscious and to participate in the emerging

political affiliations in order to protect and ensure the advancement of the nation. She,

alongside Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and other leading political

leaders such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Malam Aminu Kano and many

others were at the forefront of relentless agitation for Nigeria’s independence from

Great Britain.

The active roles played by women in the nationalist system led to the formation

of elitist women’s organizations, which focused on charitable causes but failed to

confront male dominance and anarchy in the society. In 1959, the National Council of

Women’s Societies (NCWS) was organized to be an umbrella for women’s

organizations across Nigeria (Okeke and Franceshet, 2002).

The movements under the leadership of Mrs Funmilayo Ransome‐Kuti quickly

extended beyond the South West to other regions in Nigeria. The National Women’s

Union (NWU) metamorphosed into the Federation of Nigeria Women’s Societies

92

(FNWS) in 1953. The FNWS was political in character and content. Through the

FNWS, women were able to call for political participation and full representation in

all legislative houses. At the same period, there arose a conflict of interest as women

organizations faced the strategic question of whether to affiliate with government and

political parties or to organize autonomously.

The emergence of social women’s organizations with particular focus on

consciousness, hearing and placing women’s issues on the public agenda tend to be

prominent especially in the urban areas. However, it is important to note that many of

these organizations only acted within traditional boundaries and maintained neutral

course in relation to the issue of women’s marginalization and male dominance.

Different activities by feminist movements have assisted in inspiring women to

improve their self‐confidence and also help them to strive hard for the total liberation

and socio‐political and economic empowerment of women (Azuike, 2003). Many

women in Nigeria desist from carrying the label of ‘feminists’. This majorly could be

due to the fear of societal exclusion of anyone who declares herself/himself publicly

as a feminist. Another reason is the notion exhibited by certain arms of the press to

label feminism as a man‐hating group of unattractive, unlovable and frustrated women

(Azuike, 2003).

Since the beginning of the post‐colonial era, women’s movements in Nigeria have

organized many protests although restricted to major cities like Lagos. This period has

also witnessed the multiplicity and specialization of women organizations.

Organisations have developed their activities around focal areas germane to women

interest. These include sexual and reproductive rights, rape, environment, domestic

abuse, political marginalization, early child marriages, misapplication of the Shariah

Law in some part of the North against women’s interests etc. They have successfully

brought to national and international glare abuses against women. In the Niger‐Delta

area, for example, women have been very audible and resourceful in the creation of

awareness of the discrimination, dehumanization and injustice faced in that region.

They have been visible in the struggle against Multinational Oil Companies and the

Nigerian Military occupation of their lands through organizations like the Federation

of Ogoni Women Association established in the early 90’s. Women suffered amongst

93

other things, rape, violence, burning, beatings and torture during a three‐year

campaign by the then Nigerian military government in 1993. The Ogoni women

spearheaded (under their association) a resistance against the government for all these

injustices.

Politically, the participation of Nigerian women in the Beijing Conference of

1995 has led to a stronger voice for women in the political landscape. Issues of

representation of women in top political offices now feature prominently in

campaigns of political parties. Another important step politically is the waiver of

expression of interest fees by major political parties for women seeking election into

political offices in the country. Women at one time or the other has now occupied

almost all sensitive political offices that were earlier thought to be reserved for men.

Much more importantly, Nigeria now has a full‐fledged Federal Ministry devoted to

of Women affairs responsible for formulation and coordination of policies and actions

that will improve the rating of women in the society.

Since Nigeria became a democratic nation, the promise of equal participation in

politics for women by way of percentage has not been realized. International

instruments that Nigeria is signatory to have not been domesticated, the laws that are

made to protect and promote the rights of women are not adhered to and injustices

against women, whether cultural or religious, are still the order of the day. There has

not been the need for riots and protests as such in the past few years, so women’s

movements have been more of documentation, lobbying, advocacy and media

relations etc.

2.2.7. Feminism in Nigerian literature

In Nigeria, the mere mention of feminism brings to mind terms such as “man-

haters”, “cultural non-conformists”, “angry women”, “lesbians”, and the likes.

Feminism has been faulted to be the reason for divorce, teenage pregnancy, abortion,

domestic violence, sexual abuse, etc in the Nigerian society. Thus, the Western idea is

hardly accepted by famous Nigerian women writers like Buchi Emecheta, Akachi

Adimora-Ezeigbo, Flora Nwapa, Zaynab Alkali, among others, hence the need for a

94

Nigerian variant of feminism which will call for complementarity between the

Nigerian woman and the Nigerian man.

Flora Nwapa (1931-1993), the famous Nigerian woman writer is a leading light

when it comes to writing the Nigerian woman into literature and bringing the Igbo

culture into light, like Chinua Achebe. She believes that the woman’s role in any

society is crucial for the survival of the race, and this is why in her works such as

Efuru (1966), Idu (1970) and One is Enough (1981), she tries to project a more robust

and balanced image of womanhood.

In a critical work title, “Women and Creative Writing in Africa” (1998), Nwapa

examined literature in Nigeria and indeed Africa, and how woman have been

portrayed in the works of male writers, both African and Europeans alike. She

acknowledges some male African writers who still try to project an objective image of

women, an image that actually reflects the reality of women’s role in the society.

Among these male African writers is Peter Abraham whose, A Wreath for Udomo

(1956) presents three prominent female characters, Lois, Selina and Maria, who aid

the struggle for independence. They were the real power behind the struggle;

Ousmane Sembene, whose God’s Bits of Wood (1960) is about strong women who

champion the railway workers strike and confront the colonialists during Senegalese

struggle for independence.

However, Nwapa ( 1998) decries the efforts of Nigerian male writers such as

Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Cyprian Ekwensi, J.P. Clark and others, who portray

the Nigerian woman in a subordinating light. According to her, they have “in their

earlier works played down the powerful role of women” (529). Thus, in Flora

Nwapa’s works she undertakes the difficult tasks of reversing these subordinating

roles of women by creating strong women who regardless of cultural disadvantages

like childlessness, widowhood, divorce, still struggle to make meaning out of their

lives.

On her own part, Buchi Emecheta (1988), one of Nigeria’s famous novelists,

addresses some of the issues that affect Nigerian women and the feminist question. In

her phenomenal essay, “feminism with a small f”, Emecheta narrates her experiences ;

95

how she started writing from an early age ; her failed marriage, and how at twenty

two she was left to suffer and struggle to cater for five young children.

According to Emecheta , she writes from everyday happenings, especially from

a woman’s point of view, and this has earned her the label “feminist”. However, she

declares,

“being a woman and African born, I see things through an African woman’s eyes. I chronicle the little happenings in the lives of the African women I know. I did not know that by doing so I was going to be called a feminist. However, if I am now a feminist, then I am an African [Nigerian] feminist with a small ‘f’. In my works, I write about families because I still believe in families. I write about women who try very hard to hold their family together until it becomes absolutely impossible. I have no sympathy for a woman who deserts her children, neither do I have sympathy for a woman who insists on staying in a marriage which a brute of a man, simply to be respectable” (1988:553).

To many readers and scholars, this is what Nigerian feminism should look like!

One that pays premium to family, independence and the ability to leave when one’s

life is under threat in a marriage.

Women writing in Nigeria, which saw the light of the day only in recent times,

assign to itself the function of bringing out their experiences through the centuries.

The image of the African woman as depicted in Nigerian literature is a changing one.

Precolonial literature reveals the traditional African woman; a transitional image

during the colonial period and postcolonial literature reveals her transformation.

Feminism in Nigeria raised the consciousness of women to an awareness of their

human rights and particularly those in relation to man. Above all, the inherent

strength of the African woman prevailed throughout as was projected in her

resourcefulness and great capacity for emotional survival. Such a streak of moral

stamina or womanism is an underlying quality that separates the African woman from

the rest of her sex.

Emecheta points out that sex is important to the Nigerian woman, but it is not the

centre of her being. She says “most of the Nigerian women who are promiscuous are

so for economic reason…sex is part of life. It is not THE life”. .

96

She clearly adds that the feminism she subscribes to “is free of the shackles of Western romantic illusions and tends to be much more pragmatic. We believe that we [Nigerian women] are here for many, many things, not just to cultivate ourselves, and make ourselves pretty for men”. (1988:554)

The fighting spirit of the Nigerian Ibo Women is well revealed in the works of

Emecheta. The rising consciousness of the Nigerian woman of her rights, particularly

in relation to men, can be traced through her works Bride Price (1976), Joys of

Motherhood (1979), Destination Biafra (1982), Double Yoke (1983),

Gwendolen(1989) and Kehinde (1994). If the colonialist‘s image of the African

woman as the dark and passive form was prominent in many male-authored texts, the

works of the women writers bring out the self-assertive women in Africa:

[W]omen‘s authorship is central to the subversion of the structures; ideologies and institutions that have facilitated gender discrimination…. [They] offer self-images, patterns of analysis and general insights into women‘s situation which are ignored by or are inaccessible to the male writers…. The female writer should be committed in three ways: as a writer, as a woman, as a Third World person. (Qtd. in Kumah ,8:2006 )

Historically, Nigerian women have faced many problems in relation to gender.

Patriarchy and its attendant male chauvinism has been a force impeding the rights of

women, thus, women in Nigeria have been marginalized and exploited in both private

and public spheres. The Nigerian society continuously fails to protect and support

women against domestic and social violence. Our culture has celebrated ideologies

that have exposed women to discrimination and gender bias, and deprived them of

many choices and entitlement. In some Nigerian culture, for instance, a woman is not

entitled to inherit her father’s property; or a woman is not complete until she has at

least a male child. These are obnoxious practices, and what the aforementioned

Nigerian female writers and critics seek to achieve with their works, is to advocate for

the Nigerian woman’s cultural, societal, political, religious and ideological audibility,

challenging and questioning the aged-long notion that Nigerian women are

“voiceless” (BO Eniola - 2018).

97

A Nigerian feminism will also be about the unique and positive experience of

Nigerian women as empowered individuals, for to be a Nigerian woman can be a

beautiful experience at home, at work, and the wider society. These Nigerian writers

are creating a ‘new’ vision and telling the world that Nigerian women are seeking

‘self-identity’ by defining themselves in their own terms; by trying to escape the

customary roles designed for them as slaves, witches, mothers, wives, prostitutes and

mistresses, and above all, they desire love, understanding and equal opportunity as

their male counterparts. In all, Nigerian female writers and ‘Nigerian feminists’ are

succeeding in reversing the ‘status quo’, that is, the patriarchal image of women as

docile, helpless beings with no control over their own fate.

All along, Nigerian women were present actively in the literary scenes

defending their rights and dignity. They made as well tremendous contributions to the

country’s literary development in all the literary genres. It all began with Flora

Nwapa, the first published Nigerian female novelist and the first woman in Africa to

have her work published in London. Her first novel, Efuru (1966), redefines the place

of the woman in the scheme of things. Moreover, that set the tone not only for her

subsequent works but also for those of other female writers like Mabel Segun, Flora

Nwapa and Phebean Ogundipe. (Mary Modupe Kolawole,1997)

In the 1970s, other female writers came up to define and defend African

particulary Nigerian women rights. They include Zulu Sofola, Catherine Acholonu,

Adaora Lily Ulasi, Buchi Emecheta and Zaynab Alkali. Zaynab is the first female

writer in English to emerge from the North. She made her debut in 1984 with her

novel, The Stillborn. The Virtuous Woman (novel, 1985) and Cobwebs (short stories,

1977) followed this. Her two novels produced in the 2000s are The Descendants and

The Initiates. The new generation female writers have arguably gained more visibility

than the old generation, especially writers like Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie who won

the Orange Prize for her Half of a Yellow Sun in 2007. Both the old and the new

generation female writers are so dynamic that they explore not just the feminist

aspects, they also engage in issues of general concern, such as politics, war and

economy.

98

2.2.8. Indian Feminism

Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and

defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for

Indian women. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like

their feminist counterparts all over the world, feminists in India seek gender equality:

the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education,

and equal political rights. Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific

issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws and the practice of

widow immolation known as “Sati ” The history of feminism in India can be divided

into three phases:

The First Phase (1850–1915) It was lead by male European colonists. They

brought into existence concepts such as democracy, equality and individual rights.

They reformed social issues related to caste and gender relations. This first phase of

feminism in India was initiated by men to uproot the social evils of sati (widow

immolation), to allow widow remarriage, to forbid child marriage, and to reduce

illiteracy, as well as to regulate the age of consent and to ensure property rights

through legal intervention. In addition to this, some upper caste Hindu women

rejected constraints they faced under Brahminical traditions. However, efforts for

improving the status of women in Indian society were somewhat thwarted by the late

nineteenth century, as nationalist movements emerged in India. These movements

resisted 'colonial interventions in gender relations' particularly in the areas of family

relations. In the mid to late nineteenth century, there was a national form of resistance

to any colonial efforts made to 'modernize' the Hindu family. This included the Age of

Consent controversy that erupted after the government tried to raise the age of

marriage for women. Several Indian states were ruled by women during British

colonial advance including Jhansi (Rani Laxmibai), Kittur (Rani

Chennama), Bhopal(Quidisa Begum) and Punjab (Jind Kaur).

The Second Phase (1915–1947) During this period, the struggle against

colonial rule intensified. Nationalism became the pre-eminent cause. The 1920s was a

new era for Indian women and is defined as 'feminism' that was responsible for the

99

creation of localised women's associations. These associations emphasised women's

education issues, developed livelihood strategies for working-class women, and

organised national level women's associations such as National Federation of Indian

Women (NFIW), the All India Women's Conference. AIWC was closely affiliated

with the Indian National Congress. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, it

worked within the nationalist and anti-colonialist freedom movements. This made the

mass mobilisation of women an integral part of Indian nationalism. Women therefore

were a very important part of various nationalist and anti-colonial efforts, including

the civil disobedience movements in the 1930s.

Women's participation in the struggle for freedom developed their critical

consciousness about their role and rights in independent India. This resulted in the

introduction of the franchise and civic rights of women in the Indian constitution.

There was provision for women's upliftment through affirmative action, maternal

health and childcare provision (crèches), equal pay for equal work etc. The state

adopted a patronising role towards women. For example, India's constitution states

that women are a "weaker section" of the population, and therefore need assistance to

function as equals. Thus, women in India did not have to struggle for basic rights, as

did women in the West. The utopia ended soon when the social and cultural

ideologies and structures failed to honour the newly acquired concepts of fundamental

rights and democracy.

The Third Phase (Post-Independence 1947) Post independence feminists

began to redefine the extent to which women were allowed to engage in the

workforce. Prior to independence, most feminists accepted the sexual divide within

the labour force. Yet; feminists in the 1970s challenged the inequalities that had been

established and fought to reverse them. These inequalities included unequal wages for

women, relegation of women to 'unskilled' spheres of work, and restricting women as

a reserve army for labour. In other words, the feminists' aim was to abolish the free

service of women who were essentially being used as cheap capital. Feminist class-

consciousness came into focus during the 1970s with feminists recognising the

inequalities not just between men and women but within power structures such as

caste, tribe, language, religion, region, class etc. In the early twenty-first century, the

focus of the Indian feminist movement has gone beyond treating women as useful

100

members of society and a right to parity, but also having the power to decide the

course of their personal lives and the right of self-determination. In 1966, Indira

Gandhi (1) became the first female Prime Minister of India. She served as prime

minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980

until she was assassinated in 1984.

2.2.9. Feminism in Indian literature

The different phases of feminism in Indian literature has impacted on its themes

.Due to historical and cultural specifications of the region, the feminist movement in

India had to think in terms of its Agenda and strategies. In the Indian context, several

feminists have realized that the subject of women's invasion in India should not be

reduced to the contradictions between men and women. The woman in order to

literate herself and advance needs to empower herself to confess different institutional

structures and cultural practices that subject herself to patriarchal domination and

comfort.

Indian writing in English is now gaining ground rapidly. In the realm of fiction, it

has heralded a new era has earned many laurels both at home and abroad. Indian

woman writers have started questioning the prominent old patriarchal domination.

Today, the works of Kamla Markandaya, Nayan Tara Sahgal, Anita Desai, Geetha

Hariharan, Shashi Deshpande, Kiran Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Manju Kapur and

many more have left an indelible imprint on the readers of Indian fiction in English. A

major development in modern Indian fiction is the growth of a feminist or women

centered approach, that seeks to project and interpret experience, from the point of a

feminine consciousness and sensibility.

Many Indian women novelists have explored female subjectivity in order to

establish an identity, which is imposed as a patriarchal society. Santha Rama Rau’s

Remember for the House 1956, Ruth Prawar Jhabvala’s first novel To Whom She Will

1955 and her later novel Heart and Dust 1975, Kamla Markandya’s Two Virgins

1994, Rama Mehta’s Inside the Haveli 1977, and Geetha Hariharan The Thousand

Faces of Night 1992. In all these, the theme is from childhood to woman-hood-

developed society respecting women in general.

101

Feminism in its literary sense is the physical and psychic emancipation of women

from the cruel traditional clutches of man. Since time immemorial in the world,

particularly in Asian countries and in India the social custom and creeds have overall

control of man. Shashi Deshpande (2009) has earnestly been accepted as a significant

literary figure on the contemporary literary scene. Shashi Deshpande’s novels

represent the contemporary modern women’s struggle to define and attain an

autonomous selfhood. Her female protagonists are at great pains to free themselves

from stultifying, traditional constraints.

The social and cultural change in the post- Independence India has made women

conscious of the need to define themselves, their place in society and their

surroundings. Female quest for identity has been at pet theme for many a woman’s

novelist. Shashi Deshpande has also been one of such writers and she makes an

earnest effort to understand the inner dimension of the female characters. For the

portrayal of the predicament of middleclass educated Indian women, their inner

conflict and quest for identity, issues pertaining to parent-child relationship, marriage

and sex and their exploitation were taken into account.

Shobha De (1998) , a supermodel, celebrity journalist and the well-known author

stands as a pioneer in the field of popular fiction and ranks among the first to explore

the world of the urban woman in India. With her extraordinary ability, she presents

very sensitive aspect of human life. Her way of narrating every aspect of human

relationships is wonderful. She is frank in narrating the incidents and situations with a

touch of open heartedness. The most famous Indian woman novelists along with De

are Kamala Markandaya (2), Anita Desai (3), Bharti Mukherjee, and Shashi

Deshpande (4). Their novels indicate the arrival of a new Indian woman, eager to defy

rebelliously against the well-entrenched moral orthodoxy of the patriarchal social

system.Eager to find their identity in their own way, their female characters break all

shackles of customs and traditions that tie them in the predicaments and rein in their

freedoms and rights. They are not against the entire social system and values but are

not ready to accept them as they are. Manju Kapur describes through her protagonist

(Astha): “A woman should be aware, self-control, strong will, self-reliant and

rational, having faith in the inner strength of womanhood. A meaningful change can

be brought only from within by being free in the deeper psychic sense.”

102

In her writings, Manju Kapur (2002) has emphasized on the issues of patriarchy,

inter-religious marriage, and family bond, and male-female bond, co-existence of past

and present. She has narrated her women protagonist as a victim of biology, gender,

domestic violence, and circumstances. Kapur says, “There is a man within every

woman and a woman in every man, when manhood is Questioned and womanhood is

fragile.” (2002:23) A major pre-occupation in recent Indian women’s writings has

been a delineation of inner life and subtle relationships. In a culture where,

individualism and protest have often remained alien ideas and marital bliss and the

women’s role at home is a central focus. It is interesting to see the emergence of not

just an essential Indian sensibility but an expression of cultural diversion.

Feminism in Indian fiction has not developed suddenly but it has developed

slowly and steadily. Some of the features towards by Bankimchandra Chatterji and

Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, Jitendra kumar in Hindi, Saratchandra Chatterji who

created perhaps the remarkable portraits of women in Indian literature was something

of a feminist by centurion. In Urdu language, Ismat Chustai had scandalized many by

her outspoken themes. Rashid Iqlam, 1930's written stories of “Angare” and “Aurat”

(The Woman) had dealt with the problem of woman.

In Marathi, Vasumati Dharkar published a number of stories from the 1930's to

1950's in which she has depicted the strong woman's characters of their time. The

major themes of these women writers were oppression and exploitation of woman in

what is often called a patriarchal society has been a present theme in Indian fiction.

The problem of violence against women was the initial focus of feminist

campaigns in India during the 1970s. Campaigns against rape, domestic violence and

dowry deaths escalated during the 1980s, attracting considerable support from men as

well as women. Among the incidents that played catalytic roles were the Mathura rape

case of 1978 and the Maya Tyagi rape case of 1980. Both were cases of custodial rape

by the police which led to nationwide protests and the formation of the Forum Against

Rape, which eventually grew into the Forum Against Oppression of Women. Rape, a

103

major theme in Deshpande‟s novels, is also featured in Desai’s Fire on the Mountain

(1977).

Markandaya’s Two Virgins (1973) draws attention to the sense of sexual threat

that pervades the lives of young girls in India, and this widespread problem of sexual

harassment (or eve-teasing, as it is called in India) . A number of academics (Chacko

2001, Nabar 1995 and Puri 1999) who argue that it impedes women’s freedom,

mobility and sense of security identify it. All four novelists fictionalise domestic

violence: Markandaya in A Handful of Rice (1966), Sahgal in Storm in Chandigarh

(1969), Deshpande in That Long Silence (1988) and Desai in Fasting, Feasting

(1999).

A major preoccupation in recent Indian Woman's writing has been a delineation

of inner life and subtle interpersonal relationships. In a culture where individualism

and protest have often remained alien ideas and marital bliss and the woman's role at

home is a central focus. It is interesting to see the emergence of not just an essential

Indian sensibility but an expression of cultural displacement. Women of the present

are more assertive, more liberated in their view and more articulate in their expression

than the women of the past. Some Indian Women Novelists like Geetha Hariharan,

Arundhati Roy, Manju Kapur and Shashi Deshpande tried with sincerity and honesty

to deal with the physical, psychological and emotional stress syndrome of women.

Recent studies have shown that works that often appear to conform to the

established assumptions contain under the surface contrary current suggesting

simmering notes of discontent expressed obliquely. This has been demonstrated to be

the case with Jane Austen and Bronte sisters whose female characters are portrayed as

more self-possessed and capable than most of the man-dominating scene. The subtle

have now started speaking and the margin has occupied the center. Their writing have

to some extent changed the mentality of males; the result is that many seminars and

symposia are being organized on woman literature. Feminism is a political perception

based on the fundamental previews (1) that gender difference is the foundation of a

structural inequality between woman and men, injustice and (2) that the inequality

between the sexes is not the result of the biological necessity but is produced by the

cultural contradiction of gender differences.

104

Towards the end of the century, nineteenth-century women writers expanded their

subject matter, moving beyond highlighting the lives and hardships suffered by

women locked in domestic prisons. Instead, they increasingly expressed their

individualism and demanded equal partner-ships- in marriage, public life, law, and

politics-with men. The challenges that the feminist movement now faces stem from

the vast diversities within India. Feminism within India is divided along class, caste,

sexuality and disability, and as parts of India develop at a faster rate, increased social

and economic inequality is giving rise to new problems like sexual harassment at the

workplace and in public transport. “While changes are taking place in economic

parameters, social parameters are not keeping pace with these transformations,”

(Qtd, Dr. P. D. Nilmsarkar ,329:2015) said Indu Agnihotri, director for the Center for

Women‟s Development Studies. “Feminists in India are fighting for issues of

immediate critical urgency – violence, equal wages, life with dignity,” said Annie

Zaidi the co-author of “The Bad Boy’s Guide to the Good Indian Girl” (2011) and the

author of “Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and other True Tales.” (2010) .

2.2.10. Conclusion

Overall, Feminism is misinterpreted by the description as a movement to make

women equal or superior to men. It is said that those who claim to be feminist are

ones who hate men and strive to assert themselves above them. However, feminism is

the search for identity and dignity of the most marginalized humans on earth. Nigeria

and India are no exception. Feminism sets its core to fight for women’ rights.

Nigerian and Indian activists, feminists as well as female writers fought fearlessly and

stood sharply against traditional cultures that have made the process of gaining equal

rights, dignified life and access to all spheres of life challenging.

Notes to Part Two

105

(1) Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi born Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984), was an Indian politician, stateswoman and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. She served from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian Prime Minister.

(2) De are Kamala Markandaya , (01 January 1924 – 16 May 2004) was a pseudonym used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor, an Indian novelist and journalist. A native of Mysore, India. She published several short stories in Indian newspapers.She is well known for her writing about culture clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve, was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Bookin 1955. Other novels include Some Inner Fury (1955), A Silence of Desire (1960), Possession (1963), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Nowhere Man (1972), Two Virgins (1973), The Golden Honeycomb(1977), and Pleasure City (1982/1983).Markandaya died 16 May 2004.

(3) Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar (born 24 June 1937) is an Indian novelist and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. She received a Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain, from the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters. She won the British Guardian Prize for The Village by the Sea.

(4) Shashi Deshpande (born 1938 in Dharwad, Karnataka, India) is an award-winning Indian novelist. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award. She published her first collection of short stories in 1978, and her first novel, 'The Dark Holds No Terror', in 1980. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel That Long Silence in 1990 and the Padma Shri award in 2009. Her novel Shadow Play was shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2014. Shashi Deshpande has written four children’s books, a number of short stories, and nine novels, besides several perceptive essays, now available in a volume entitled Writing from the Margin and Other Essays. On 9 October 2015, she resigned from her position on the Sahitya Akademi's general council and returned her Sahitya Akademi award.

Part Three

Key Notions and Concepts

106

2.3.1. Introduction

In this part, important key concepts are defined for the present study. As described in the

introduction section, the study has a focus on feminist postcolonial literature .Thus, at the

beginning, key concept related to the study will be introduced and key terms are defined.

Postcolonial studies highlighted notions and concepts which were if not found, neglected

before in research areas such as culture and its great importance, hybridty, identity, race and

how society and religion can shape lives. Hence, the following discussion will define these

concepts and themes.

2.3.2. Culture

Talking about “culture” generally means intellectual and creative products, including

literature, music, drama, and painting. Another use of “culture” is to describe the beliefs and

practices of another society, particularly where these are seen as closely linked with tradition

or religion. However, culture is more than that. Culture is part of the fabric of every society,

including our own. It shapes “the way things are done” and our understanding of why this

should be so. This more comprehensive approach is proposed in the definition of culture

adopted at the World Conference on Cultural Policies (Mexico, 1982) and used in ongoing

discussions on culture and development:

“Culture… is… the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterize a society or a social group. It includes not only arts and letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of the human being, value systems, traditions and beliefs”. (World Conference on Cultural Policies ,Mexico, 1982)

One of the best, and most acceptable, early definitions of culture was given by E.B. Tylor

(1871) in his book “Primitive culture”, wherein he described culture as

“that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”.

The definition indicates that culture is not simple and it is not constituted by one or two

elements. Rather it is a complex one and is constituted by a large number of aspects of life

that range, as shown in the definition, from knowledge to law to customs. This also includes

habits acquired by man while living and interacting in society with other members. Though

constituted by a large number of units, called traits, culture has to be understood in totality.

107

All the traits are so well integrated that each one is almost assimilated into the other. Culture,

when seen holistically, is unqerstood as a complex whole.

Out of a huge number of definitions, some which clearly and closely express human

behavior and environment, are given below:

“Culture is the man made part of the environment” (Herskovits, MJ. 1955). “The sum total of the knowledge, attitudes and habitual behaviour patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society” (Linton, 1940). “(All the) historically created designs for living, explicit and implicit, rational, irrational, and non-rational, which exist at any given time as potential guides for the behaviour of man” (Kluckhohn and Kelly, 1945). The concept of culture also includes tools, techniques, ideas, values and all life (Kroeber, 1948). « All such aspects, arts and artifacts and the patterns of human behaivor acquired an transmitted, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, includingtheir embodiments in artifacts » (Kroeber and Kluckhohn, 1952). “Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other, as conditional elements of future action” (Kroeber & Kluckhohn , 181; cited by Adler , 14) ‘Culture consists of the derivatives of experience, more or less organized, learned or created by the individuals of a population, including those images or encodements and their interpretations (meanings) transmitted from past generations, from contemporaries, or formed by individuals themselves.’ (T.Schwartz cited by Avruch, 17) ‘[Culture] is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another.’ (Hofstede, 5) ‘... the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next.’ (Matsumoto, 16) ‘Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavioural conventions that are shared by a group of people, and that influence (but do not determine) each member’s behaviour and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behaviour.’ (Spencer-Oatey, 3)

108

Other definitions were proposed and they largely vary. However, they seem to converge

to the notion that culture is learned, it is associated with groups of people and its content

includes a wide range of phenomena including norms, values, shared meanings, and patterned

ways of behaving.

“A culture is the total socially acquired life-way or life-style of a group of people. It consists of the patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are characteristic of the members of a particular society or segment of a society” (Harris [25]).

It is obvious that the definitions agree on the fact that culture consists of something that is

shared and/or learned by a group of people, but the content of the culture varies in different

definitions.

2.3.3. Racism

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not

be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

(Martin Luther King , 28th August 1963)

Racism is one of the world’s major issues. It is never easy to talk about racism. It is a

complex reality that is present in our everyday experience .Racism is indeed an international

obsession and threat. In the process of defining Racism centuries ago, some scientists believed

in the fact that the human population is divided into races, i.e. some races were inferior to

others. From this perspective, one can conclude up by the perception that Race is the main

raison behind Racism.

At root, racism is “an ideology of racial domination” (Wilson, 1999:14) in which

the presumed biological or cultural superiority of one or more racial groups is used to justify

or prescribe the inferior treatment or social position(s) of other racial groups. Through the

process of racialization, perceived patterns of physical difference – such as skin color or eye

shape – are used to differentiate groups of people, thereby constituting them as ‘races’;

racialization becomes racism when it involves the hierarchical and socially consequential

109

valuation of racial groups. Racism is analytically distinct from racial discrimination and racial

inequality. Racial discrimination concerns the unequal treatment of races, whereas racial

inequality concerns unequal outcomes (in income, education, health, etc.). While racism is

often implicated in both processes, contemporary racial inequalities and forms of

discrimination are not always the immediate result of contemporary racism (Pager and

Shepherd, 2008). The sociology of racism investigates the relationships between these three

phenomena, asking when, how, why, and to what extent they reproduce one another. In the

post-Civil Rights era, with (overt) racism now widely condemned, one challenge for social

scientists is to conceptualize and measure its more subtle and diffuse manifestations and

lasting effects.

The word “Racism” appeared in the Larousse dictionary for the first time in 1932. A careful

examination of dictionaries since then reveals that the definitions of the term overlap “A

system which affirms the superiority of one racial group over the others” (Larousse,1932).

The revised Oxford English Dictionary cites the shortened term "racism" in a quote in 1903. It was first defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 1989) as "[t]he theory that distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race" UNESCO’s 1978 “Declaration on Race defines racism as “any theory claiming the intrinsic superiority or inferiority of racial or ethnic groups which would give to some the right to dominate or even eliminate others, presumed inferior, or basing value judgments on racial differences.”

More recently,

“Racism is an ideological-scientific system which divides the contemporary human species into sub-species, resulting from separate development and endowed with unequal average aptitudes. Miscegenation with these inferior sub-species could only result in half-breeds inferior to the favored race.”

(Kreiger ,143)

None of these definitions deals with behavior. Rather, they all focus on theory — a

“system,” .These definitions share two major characteristics: belief in the inequality of

110

various races, and that this inequality legitimates domination of so-called “inferior” races by

those deemed “superior.”

Definitions that are more sophisticated have been suggested, and the literature on this

subject is considerable. For the most part, these definitions echo the five main components as

constituent elements of racist ideology: 1) A belief in the superiority of one race, and more

rarely of several races, over others. This belief is usually accompanied by a hierarchical

classification of racial groups; 2) the idea that this superiority and inferiority are of a

biological or bio-anthropological nature. The conclusion drawn from this belief is that

superiority and inferiority are ineradicable and could not, for example, be modified by social

milieu or education; 3) the idea that collective biological inequalities are reflected in social

and cultural orders, and that biological superiority translates into a “superior civilization,”

which itself indicates biological superiority. This implies a continuity between biology and

social conditions; 4) A belief in the legitimacy of the domination of “inferior” races by

“superior” ones ; 5) A belief that there are “pure” races and that miscegenation has an

inevitably negative effect on them (“decline,” “degeneration,” etc.). (De-Boinst , 2013)

Racism can be defined simply as any policy, belief, attitude, action or inaction, which

subordinates individuals or groups based on their race. Paula Rothenberg offers this more

pointed—and useful--definition of racism:

"Racism involves the subordination of people of color by white people. While individual persons of color may well discriminate against a white person or another person of color because of their race, this does not qualify as racism according to our definition because that person of color cannot depend upon all the institutions of society to enforce or extend his or her personal dislike. Nor can he or she call upon the force of history to reflect and enforce that prejudice. . . . History provides us with a long record of white people holding and using power and privilege over people of color to subordinate them, not the reverse." (Paula qtd. Rowan, 2)

111

2.3.3.1.Cultural Racism

Cultural racism is perceived (Wren, 2001) as the superiority of a societal beliefs and

customs of a given culture, including the language and traditions of that culture to those of

other cultures. Cultural racism occurs when there is a widespread acceptance of stereotypes

concerning different ethnic or population groups. Racism indeed then can be characterised by

the belief that one race is inherently superior to another, cultural racism can be characterised

by the belief that one culture is inherently superior to another (Blaut, 1992).

2.3.3.2. Racism in the United States of America

Racism and ethnic discrimination in USA has been a major issue. Legally or socially

sanctioned privileges and rights were given to White Americans that were not granted

to Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans. European

Americans (particularly Anglo Americans) were granted exclusive privileges in matters of

education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure

over periods of time extending from the 17th century to the 1960s.What’s even more, in the

USA prejudices (1) may be found against Hispanic-Americans and Arab-Americans.

2.3.4. Patriarchy

The concept of patriarchy is defined by differently by different researchers. Mitchell, a

feminist psychologist, uses the word patriarchy “to refer to kinship systems in which men

exchange women” (Mitchell 1971:24). Walby defines “patriarchy as a system of social

structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (Walby

1990:20). She explains patriarchy as a system because this helps women to reject the notion

of biological determinism (which says that men and women are naturally different because of

their biology or bodies and, are, therefore assigned to different roles) or “the notion that

every individual man is always in a dominant position and every woman in a subordinate

one” (Walby 1990 :20).

The broadest definition, patriarchy, means male dominance over women in society in

general. However, it does not imply that “women are either totally powerless or totally

112

deprived of rights, influence, and resources” (Lerner 1989:239). Patriarchay exaggerates

biological differences between men and women, making certain that men always have the

dominant, or masculine, roles and women always have the subordinate or feminine ones.

2.3.5. Education

The world education comes from the Latin word ‘educare’ meaning ‘to raise’ and ‘to

bring up’. These meanings indicate that education seeks to nourish the good qualities and

draw out the best in every individual. Education seeks to develop the innate or the inner

potentialities of humans. It is indeed, difficult to define education. Education is a relentless

process of becoming. Education in the broadest sense is any act or experience that has a

formative effect on mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense

education is a process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge,

skills and values from one generation to another.

“Literacy is a bride from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.” - Kofi Annan (1997:89-91, 99-110).

There is no broad consensus as to what education's chief aims are or should be. Some

authors stress its value to the individual, emphasizing its potential for positively influencing

students' personal development, promoting autonomy, forming a cultural identity or

establishing a career or occupation. Other authors emphasize education's contributions to

societal purposes, including good citizenship, shaping students into productive members of

society, thereby promoting society's general economic development, and preserving cultural

values.

113

The Dictionary of Education (edited by C.V.Good, 1973), education is defined as:

“the aggregate of all the processes by which a person develops abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour of practical values in the society in which s/he lives; the social processby which people are subjected to the influence of selected andcontrolled environment (especially that of the school), so that they may obtain social competence and optimum individual development” (4).

2.3.6. Identity

The concept of identity is very difficult to explain because of the complexity of its

meaning. That is why there is often one-dimensional (incomplete) interpretation of this

concept, or a confusion of different terms used to explain the meaning of identity. E. Erikson

in his book Identity: Youth and Crisis, 1968 has written about the development of identity in

the course of time, because children do not possess identities, and adolescents strive to attain

it. Fearon (1999) mentions, there is no unified definition of identities in spite of the

increasing interest in identities in the fields of social science and humanities. He summarizes

“brief definitions and clarifications” from various articles (p. 4):

1. Identity is “people’s concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are,

and how they relate to others” (Hogg and Abrams 1988, p. 2)

2. Identity “refers to the ways in which individuals and collectivities are

distinguished in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities”

(Jenkins 1996, p. 4)

3. Identities are “relatively stable, role-specific understandings and expectations

about self” (Wendt 1992, p. 397)

4. “[I]dentity is never a priori, nor a finished product; it is only ever the

problematic process of access to an image of totality.” (Bhabha 1994:51)

5. “The term [identity] (by convention) references mutually constructed and

evolving images of self and other” (Katzenstein 1996, 59).

6. “Identity is people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are,

and how they relate to others” (Hogg and Abrams 1988, 2).

These defenitions and attitudes always focus outward from the self because they are all

about positioning the self in relation to others. Although it is difficult to define what identities

114

are in general, the definition becomes clearer in the case of a specific identity. In other words,

we can get a better idea of identities by studying different types of identities (or different

kinds of categorizations).

Many forms of social identity exist, reflecting the many ways in which people connect to

other groups and social categories. To understand more about the nature of social identity, we

consider three identities in more detail: gender, ethnicity and nationality, and sexual

orientation.

2.3.6.1. Gender Identity

One’s gender—most typically as a man or woman— is one of the most frequently

mentioned identities when people are asked to describe themselves, and it is also one of the

categories most often used by others to describe us. Similarly, the development of gender

identity has been a central topic for developmental psychologists. Because gender is such a

fundamental category, it is perhaps not surprising that a great many meanings and

implications are associated with gender. Personality traits (e.g. being competitive or being

aware of the feelings of others), role behaviors (e.g., taking care of children or assuming

leadership roles), physical characteristics (e.g., having broad shoulders or a soft voice), and a

host of other associations can be linked to gender categories.

2.3.6.2. Ethnic Identity

For many people, ethnicity is a central element of self-definition and becomes an

important social identity.In the past, social scientists categorized human beings in terms of

basic racial categories, such as Asian, Caucasian, and Negroid. With increasing awareness of

the arbitrary nature of the social construction of race, these categories are less frequently used.

More common today is categorization on the basis of ethnicity, defined in terms of culture,

language, and country of origin. Nationality can be closely linked to ethnic identity, but it

often represents a distinct way of identifying oneself. In the United States one can have an

identity as an American and at the same time hold an identity (often hyphenated) as an

African American, an Asian American, a Latino, or a West Indian.

115

A critical aspect of the gay and lesbian identity is that it is, in some segments of society, a

highly stigmatized identity, a characteristic that is shared with some ethnic and religious

identities. The experience of prejudice and discrimination that gays and lesbians face make

the process of social identification a particularly difficult one at times, as the positive values

that one typically associates with one’s own group are not shared by the society at large.

Identification in terms of sexual orientation also illustrates well the overlapping nature of

identity categories, particularly with gender.

3.3.7. Hybridity

Hybridity, in its most basic sense, refers to mixture. The term originates from biology and

was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century.

Cultural hybridity has become widely employed and disputed in contemporary critical-

academic discourse, especially in the fields of post-colonialism and feminism, but also in the

scientific, philosophical and sociological disciplines. The post-colonial critic Homi K. Bhabha

(2) , in his analysis of the interrelations between coloniser and colonised, Homi K. Bhabha

begins his influential book, The Location of Culture (1994), by introducing the concept of

"Third Space of enunciation". According to him "all cultural statements and systems are

constructed in this contradictory and ambivalent space of enunciation" (55). He also adds

"[i]t is that Third Space, though unrepresentable in itself, which constitutes the discursive conditions of enunciation that ensure the meaning and the symbols of culture have no primordial unity or fixity; that even the same signs can be appropriated, translated, rehistoricized and read anew" (55).

In other words, as Ilan Kapoor argues, the third space is a "non-dialectical space standing

in between the binary structures of orientalist representations and imperial power" (2003:

566). Ikas and Wagner in the introduction to their book Communicating in the Third Space

note that

"the encounter of two social groups with different cultural traditions and potentials of power as a special kind of negotiation or translation . . . takes place in a Third Space of enunciation" (2009: 2).

Accordingly a new identity will appear. Bill Ashcroft in his article "Caliban’s Voice: Writing

in the Third Space" mentions that "this space is also a transcultural space, a 'contact zone,' . .

. that space in which cultural identity develops. . . . the space of postcolonial transformation"

116

(2009: 108). In fact, the third space is the appropriate space for the interaction of the main

characters, who are in need of a mutual colonial relationship to get along. The colonizer and

the colonized in the Third Space try to interact.

Bhabha also uses Said's theories as one of the influential precedents. He refers to his

book Orientalism 1979 in order to challenge the fixed assumption of the stability of the

stereotypes. Bhabha's emphasis is also on the "process of ambivalence" which is thought to be

"central to stereotypes . . . as it constructs a theory of colonial discourse" (95). To give a brief

definition of colonial discourse, he notes:

"It is an apparatus that turns on the recognition and disavowal of racial/cultural/historical differences. . . . The objective of colonial discourse is to construe the colonized as a population of degenerate types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction". (Bhabha, 1994: 100-101)

3.3.8. Modernity

The early meaning of modern word meant "now existing", or "pertaining to the present

times". Anthony Giddens describes modernity as

...a shorthand term for modern society, or industrial civilization. Portrayed in more detail, it is associated with (1) a certain set of attitudes towards the world, the idea of the world as open to transformation, by human intervention; (2) a complex of economic institutions, especially industrial production and a market economy; (3) a certain range of political institutions, including the nation-state and mass democracy. Largely as a result of these characteristics, modernity is vastly more dynamic than any previous type of social order. It is a society—more technically, a complex of institutions—which, unlike any preceding culture, lives in the future, rather than the past (Giddens 1998, 94).

To be modern, it is not necessary that a man should be relevant to present circumstances.

Modernity cannot be understood by fooding, clothing or any limitation of time. Modernity is a

value which a man can adopt in any age. If a man of today clings to old traditional beliefs, he

cannot be called modern. When values will be formed on the basis of reason and conscience,

modernity will come into existence. Many factors are responsible to bring modernity. We can

count scientific progress as the main factor responsible for the advent of modernity. Beside it

political, social, religious, economic and literary circumstances are also responsible to bring

117

modernity. As the result of new inventions and discoveries, many miracles came into

existence. Consequently, people began to accept every thing based on reason.

(i) Scientific and Technological Growth: - Scientific and technological growth has created a

tremendous change in the attitude of man. Man rejected the pre-established order and gave

significance to reason and conscience. Consequently, intellectual revolution came into

existence. Man began to neglect the traditional order and system. He accepted the only facts

and values which were true and relevant. Religion began to lose its charm and reason and

conscience became more important throughout human life. The intellectual growth and wide

change of outlook made man cautious. Society began to acquire revolutionary change.

Modernity is an immortal attitude which remains in every age more or less. It was believed

that the creation of the world is the result of the law of nature. It is not created by divine self.

Science proved that creation is driven by its own rules. The development of creatures depends

upon its own rules. Moral values do not have any spiritual source. Man has invented these

values in the process of development. Science insists on analysis rather than faith.

(ii) Inventions: - In this way, with the help of its inventions and discoveries, science has

proved that the development of the creation is related to physical world. Science has

explained the rules of the universe and provided us new view, new spirit and capacity to

observe everything. Science has checked the compulsory interference of religion in every

walk of life. New inventions came into existence and truth began to be revealed in an

authentic way. The world began to be modern in the true sense. Scientific development

removed the influence of religious orthodoxy and gave birth to modern view, which

connected human beings to modern thinking.

(iv)The discovery of Geographical Places: - The discovery of geographical places is

another factor responsible for the modernity. Discovery of geographical places increased the

limit of knowledge. The discovery of new places changed human attitude widely. This

background proved to be helpful to bring modernity. Because of the discovery of

geographical places, bilateral relations began to establish and people of different countries

began to be acquainted with different methods of fooding, clothing, culture and manner.

Civilization began to be interchanged and knowledge and conscience promoted profoundly.

People began to neglect religious beliefs, which were without reason and proof. The

118

possibilities of commerce and business began to increase and the process of development

began from all the sides.

v) Modernism: - To understand the real spirit of modernity, it is necessary to understand the

trends of modern attitude found in the modernism (3). Undoubtedly literature is a historical

concept that it is nurtured by history. “The choice of English language for writing, particularly

fiction, underlines the changed cultural and political situation.” In an essay entitled ‘Image of

Spiritual Power in the Women’s Fiction’ (2003) Carol P. Christ suggests:

“new literature created by women has both a spiritual and a social dimension. It reflects both women’s struggle to create new ways of living in the world and a new naming of the great powers that provide orientation in the world.” (202).

In ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’ (1993) T.S. Eliot presents the trend of modernity.

“The existing order is complete before the new work arrives, for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered.”(72)

T.S. Eliot insists on having human quality within human being. “The only wisdom we can

hope to acquire/Is wisdom of humanity: Humanity is endless.(1993:27)

Modernity cannot be connected to any special period of time. By being so, it will be limited

to that particular period of time. In the same way, it cannot be regarded as a tendency. If it is

so, there will be problems of its recognition. It should be considered as an immortal value.

Any man living in any age may be called modern if he adopts this value. Modernity at first

establishes itself and secondly it brings tradition in the process of modernity. It is a definite

fact that what was historical fact yesterday, that is modernity today. Modernity is a mental

state which is created from the depth of critical problems of society. In our society, we find so

many problems pertaining to women, marriage, caste, education, poverty, population

explosion, unemployment etc.

3.3.9. Tradition

The English word tradition comes from the Latin traditio, the noun from the

verb tradere (to transmit, to hand over, and to give for safekeeping); it was originally used

in Roman law to refer to the concept of legal transfers and inheritance. According to Anthony

Giddens and others, the modern meaning of tradition evolved during

the Enlightenment period (2003) , in opposition to modernity and progress. As with many

119

other generic terms, there are many definitions of tradition. The concept includes a number of

interrelated ideas; the unifying one is that tradition refers to beliefs, objects or customs

performed or believed in the past, originating in it, transmitted through time by being taught

by one generation to the next, and are performed or believed in the present.

The concept of tradition, in early sociological research (around the turn of the 19th and

20th century), referred to that of the traditional society, as contrasted by the more

modern industrial society. This approach was most notably portrayed in Max Weber's (2001)

concepts of traditional authority and modern rational-legal authority. In more modern works,

one hundred years later, sociology sees tradition as a social construct used to contrast past

with the present and as a form of rationality used to justify certain course of action.

Traditional society is characterized by lack of distinction between family and

business, division of labor influenced primarily by age, gender, and status, high position of

custom in the system of values, self-sufficiency, preference to saving and accumulation of

capital instead of productive investment, relative autarky. In 1981 Edward Shils in his

book Tradition put forward a definition of tradition that became universally

accepted. According to Shils, tradition is anything which is transmitted or handed down from

the past to the present. Raymond Boudon (1992) in his book Action , claims that tradition

refers to the mode of thinking and action justified as "it has always been that way".This line

of reasoning forms the basis of the logical flaw of the appeal to tradition which takes the

form "this is right because we've always done it this way."

Tradition is often contrasted with modernity, particularly in terms of whole societies.

This dichotomy is generally associated with a linear model of social change, in which

societies progress from being traditional to being modern. Tradition-oriented societies have

been characterized as valuing filial piety, harmony and group welfare, stability,

and interdependence, while a society exhibiting modernity would value "individualism (with

free will and choice), mobility, and progress." Another author discussing tradition in

relationship to modernity, Anthony Giddens,(2003) sees tradition as something bound to

ritual, where ritual guarantees the continuation of tradition. Gusfield ,(1997) and others

criticize this dichotomy as oversimplified, arguing that tradition is dynamic, heterogeneous,

and coexists successfully with modernity even within individuals.

120

By itself, tradition suggests a weight, a burden, oppression almost. It is dead weight, a

stone that crushes individuals into the dust. It can be cruel, ruthless, and omnipotent.

Tradition disallows freedom. It is reluctant to change, resistant to the new. It is blind,

unthinking and unreflective. It is surrender to the past, a betrayal of the present. Tradition

remains synonymous with backwardness and resistance to change.

3.3.10. Religion

The definition of religion is a controversial subject in religious studies with scholars failing to

agree on any one definition. Oxford Dictionary defines religion as the belief in and worship of

a superhuman controlling power. Scholars have failed to agree on a definition of

religion.Emile Durkheim defined religion as

"a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them." (Qtd Taves, 2009,176)

Max Lynn Stackhouse 2010, sees religion as

"a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted". (xi).

The anthropologist Clifford Geertz 1993 perceives religion as a

[…] system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic." (87–125.)

The theologian Antoine Vergote 1996 took the term supernatural simply to mean whatever

transcends the powers of nature or human agency. He also emphasized the cultural reality of

religion, which he defined as

“[…] the entirety of the linguistic expressions, emotions and, actions and signs that refer to a supernatural being or supernatural beings”. (16)

According to the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religions 2004 , there is an experiential aspect

to religion which can be found in almost every culture:

121

[…] almost every known culture [has] a depth dimension in cultural experiences […] toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behavior are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience—varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture. (7695)

Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as das schlechthinnige

Abhängigkeitsgefühl, commonly translated as "the feeling of absolute dependence".Edward

Burnett Tylor defined religion in 1871 as "the belief in spiritual beings" (424).He argued that

narrowing the definition to mean the belief in a supreme deity or judgment after death

or idolatry and so on, would exclude many peoples from the category of religious, and thus

"has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments than with the deeper

motive which underlies them". He also claims that the belief in spiritual beings exists in all

known societies.

In his book The Varieties of Religious Experience 1902, the psychologist William James defined religion as

"the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine" (31).

The sociologist Émile Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the

Religious Life, 1915 defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to

sacred things"(38) . By sacred things he meant things "set apart and forbidden—beliefs and

practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere

to them"(38). Sacred things are not, however, limited to gods or spirits. On the contrary, a

sacred thing can be a rock, a tree, a spring, a pebble, a piece of wood, a house, in a word,

anything can be sacred.

3.3.11. Immigration

Another concept which has been dealt with in the two novels respectively Americanah and

Miss New India, is Immigration, where the operation of displacement took place . The overall

meaning of the concept may include the process by which people come in to a foreign country

to live there and hence immigrants are the number of people coming in any given country.

122

Recently, the meaning of migration has gained a publicly engaging topic of study; it becomes

deeply embedded in rational and ethnical policy calculations and it was heavily the main

subject of emotive narratives and personal stories.

“It is the object of entrenched political positions, and impassioned public debate and yet it remains shifting and open as a concept” Kerry Moore, 2015.

What is considered, as the most important criteria with regard to immigration are both

nationality and place of birth .The “immigrant” population i.e. The foreign-born population

covers all persons who have ever migrated from their country of birth to their current country

of residence. It may consist also of persons who still have the nationality of their home

country.

3.3.12. Conclusion

Multiple terms and definitions exist to describe specific aspects of a postcolonial area of

study. Most importantly, talking about “culture” generally means the beliefs and practices of

another society, particularly where these are seen as closely linked with tradition or religion.

However, culture is more than that. Culture is part of the fabric of every society. The basic

meaning of identity refers to where one (a person or a group) belongs, and what is expressed

as “self-image” or/and “common-image”, what integrate them inside self or a group existence,

and what differentiate them vis-à-vis “others”. Women status most of the time depends of the

type of the society be it a traditional or modern one.These notions and the already defined

ones will be applied and hilighilithed in the work of the female Nigerian writer chimamanda

Ngozie Adichie and the Indian Bharati Mukherjee work through their literary works,

respectively Americanah (2013) and Miss New India (2011).

Notes to Part Three

123

(1) Prejudices, is an unreasonable dislike of a particular group of people or things, or a preference for one group of people or things over another. A judgment or opinion formed before the facts are known; preconceived idea, favorable or, more usually, unfavorable.

(2) Homi K. Bhabha (born 1 November 1949) is an Indian English scholar and critical theorist. He is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, and the Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University. He is one of the most important figures in contemporary post-colonial studies, and has developed a number of the field's neologisms and key concepts, such as hybridity, mimicry, difference, and ambivalence. Such terms describe ways in which colonised people have resisted the power of the coloniser, according to Bhabha's theory. In 2012, he received the Padma Bhushan award in the field of literature and education from the Indian government. He is married to attorney and Harvard lecturer Jacqueline Bhabha, and they have three children

(3) Modernism, Literary modernism, or modernist literature, has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America, and is characterized by a very self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction. Modernists experimented with literary form and expression, as exemplified by Ezra Pound's maxim to "Make it new." This literary movement was driven by a conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and express the new sensibilities of their time.

Chapter Three

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s

Americanah (2013) and Bharati

Mukherjee’s Miss New India

(2011): Analogies and Contrast

Part One

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s Americanah (2013): Racial , Cultural and Gender Issues

124

3.1.1. Introduction

This part attempts to investigate the challenges and hardships faced by a Nigerian female

as an immigrant or a young girl in her homeland as mentioned in Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie’s Americanah (2013). In her third novel Americanah , Adichie explores themes

like racism, cultural issues, identity crisis, and inequality. She fearlessly tackles weighty

themes of race and identity and ably challenging the West’s wrong perceptions of African life

and culture. In Americanah, the protagonist is a young Nigerian girl ‘Ifemelu’, who shifts to

America for pursuing her higher studies. Throughout the story, Ifemelu shows a journey to

self-empowerment by rejecting the cultural biases both the Nigerian and American society has

tried to place upon her.

3.1.2. African American Literature

African American literature has been defined in various ways. One way literature is

considered to be African American is “whenever [it] feature[s] African American characters

alongside certain historical themes, cultural geographies, political discourses, or

perspectives defined by race” (Jarret 1). Erika Swarts Gray gives another definition to African

American literature: “literature that is written by African American writers or includes

African American characters that are culturally specific” (472). She further argues in her

article that one of the most important characteristics of African American literature is that it

makes black characters visible and allows black readers to connect to the main characters. She

writes that students feel that literature that is read in the classroom features too few African

American characters, or that it presents the history of slavery “without including any

‘nonslavery’ or modern representations” (476).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1) also noticed the lack of black characters in modern

literature when she was little. She wrote stories based on the novels that she was reading, and

she says: “All my characters were white and had blue eyes and played in the snow and ate

apples and had dogs called Socks” (“African ‘Authenticity’ and the Biafran Experience”

125

(42). When she read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, she first encountered black

characters, characters with whom she could identify:

“Here were characters who had Igbo names and ate yams and inhabited a world similar to mine. Okonkwo and Ezinma and Ikemefuna taught me that my world was worthy of literature, that books could also have people like me in them” (42).

However, she noticed that once she moved to America, people expected her to be like the

characters in Things Fall Apart, poor and exotic. They also imagined Africa as a place

without electricity, modern music and modern clothes. The African or African American

characters in the stories she read were in fact without modern representations:

“Some of the books I read as a child such as those by Rider Haggard dehumanized Africans. All the Africans in those books were spectacularly simple, if not stupid. The adults were like children who needed a Westerner to teach them everything; they were uncivilized; or they were dark and inscrutable and dangerous in the way that wild animals are. I loved many of those books. I simply didn't get that they were supposed to be about me. I did not, of course, identify with any of these African characters.”(Adichie,44)

It is important, then, to portray black characters in a realistic way in order to be able to

identify with them. Adichie also adds:

“There are many other examples. Africans become dispensable; Africans don't matter, not even in narratives ostensibly about Africa. The old stereotypes are repeated, feeding on one another and self-perpetuating in the many other books that have been written about Africa since” (44).

These stereotypes are often racist and sexist in nature. Black men are portrayed as dumb,

lazy and violent, while black women are portrayed as exotic and sexual. It can therefore be

said that African American literature is literature, written by or featuring African Americans

that tries to battle these stereotypes and show the experiences of black people in the

American society. As Aimable Twagilimana argues, black women writers battle two types of

discrimination:

“Black women writers, who have to deal with the affliction of both racism and sexism, use traditional strategies to undo this double reduction. They strive to invent a new language to talk about their experience and their lives as black and women” (Twagilimana, 4).

126

Adichie, therefore, aims to battle stereotypes about black female immigrants to show the

realistic experience of these women. Americanah, however, is a novel written by a Nigerian

woman about the experience of a fictional Nigerian woman. It cannot be called African

American literature, but by writing about race and gender in America, it offers an outside

perspective on these matters. This outside perspective will be shown when analysing the

novel with the help of postcolonial and gender theory.

3.1.3. Critics about Americanah

The beginning of the twenty-first century marked the advent of the so-called ‘third

generation’ of Nigerian writers, most of whom live in Europe or the United States. These

younger authors are at once heirs to the Nigerian literary tradition and symbols of a new

creative movement. Indeed, like Achebe and Soyinka, novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie, explore the cultural and social complexities of their country of origin, but they

examine other themes as well, among which immigration to America. Beyond thematic

innovation, the younger writers’ work also conveys a new type of sensitivity: for example,

their narratives show a particular interest in the exploration of characters’ emotional

development.

Americanah was published in 2013 written by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie . Critics praised the novel, especially noting its range across different societies and

reflection of global tensions. In the Chicago Tribune, Laura Pearson 2013 said,

“Sprawling, ambitious and gorgeously written, 'Americanah' covers race, identity, relationships, community, politics, privilege, language, hair, ethnocentrism, migration, intimacy, estrangement, blogging, books and Barack Obama. It covers three continents, spans decades, leaps gracefully, from chapter to chapter, to different cities and other lives...[Adichie] weaves them assuredly into a thoughtfully structured epic. The result is a timeless love story steeped in our times”

In his review of Americanah S. Sabo (2013) provides an in-depth analysis of Americanah

by giving a synopsis of the novel. His point of view is that Chimamanda’s manner of

127

discussing race issues through the blog features is brilliant. However, he critiques her

description of London as being sketchy concluding that it indicates that she is not familiar

with the city. In regard to plot, he states:

“Adichie’s brimming narrative gifts are sometimes let down by her propensity for overemphasis so that deftly handled scenes and characterizations are then summed up sometimes with a whole paragraph” (2013:1) .

Sabo acknowledges that Adichie displays expertise when dealing with the narrative form

though his opinion is that there is an artistic shortcoming in regard to plot and

characterization. Sabo has highlighted important aspects of the study like the use of the

embedded narrative as a technique to tackle race issues, the use of multiple narratives as an

effective technique although he dismisses the abrupt lumping of the plots and characters as a

weakness. What he calls summing up of characterizations and regards as a weakness in the

novel is an area this study will touch on. I believe that Adichie lumps together characters so as

to reflect the complex nature of the issue of immigrants. This study intends to analyse

characters from the point of view of their diverse immigrant experience.

In a review of Americanah, Emily Rabateou (2013) mentions that the main challenge is

that of going home. She further stresses that “Beyond race, the book is about the immigrants’

quest: self-intervention, which is the American subject. Americanah is unique among the

booming canon of immigrant literature of the last generation…” (1).This review is of utmost

importance to this study for it helps build on the theme of racism as one of the challenges

faced by African immigrants and how it impacts on the male and female characters in various

ways.

Americanah pulls a surprise; despite the challenges undergone by the protagonist she

emerges triumphant. Successful as she is in America she decides to return to Nigeria. This in

itself is the gist of the narrative for it subverts the old order. Americanah deals with the

concept of hybridity. Chimamanda presents male and female characters that as a result of the

challenges faced in the West are forced into a state of hybridity. Spring’s study is insightful

for it will add value in analyzing the effects of hybridity on men and women.

128

Linda Yohannes (2013) in “A Postcolonial Look at African Literature: A Case Study of

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Works” focuses on Adichie’s works from a postcolonial

perspective. Linda’s study will feed into mine when analyzing how women in Americanah

resist the racist nature of the West.

In the article “Race-in-America Is a Central Character in ‘Americanah” Subashini

Navaratnam (2013) concentrates on the protagonist and her development in the novel.

Navaratnam analyses the main characters noting that at the end “they’ve been so shaken and

turned inside out by the forces outside of themselves that they’ve shed and accrued different

layers” (2).This in itself brings out how immigrants are transformed by their experiences in

alien lands. Navaratnam then goes further to state:

“Weaved into the dominant love story are the narratives of race, displacement, migration, border-crossing and borderlessness, liberalism, Nigerian middle class apathy, Nigerian middle class exploitation, colourism and its cousin, hairism and White-do-gooders”.(2013:2)

Despite identifying notable aspects of the novel like race, migration and displacement

Navaratnam does not pursue this argument further. An important element in Adichie’s work

that Navaratnam notes is race .Tyrone Beason (2013) in “Americanah: Africans struggle to

become American” observes that Americanah is enriching when it comes to immigrant

experience in foreign lands. Beason claims that the narrative goes to great lengths in making

immigrants come to terms with the challenging social, economic and political situations in

alien lands. Beason says:

“Americanah” is both intellectually expansive and urgently intimate, a story about the crushing experience of finding your way in a new landand the physical and emotional lengths one goes to feel whole again” (2013:2).

Jennifer Muchiri (2013) in “The Elusive Search for the American Dream” on Americanah

explores how America is glorified by both young people and their parents by describing the

extremes the parents go to in raising funds to send their children to the West. She goes further

to mention that despite all the trouble taken there is a high sense of disillusionment witnessed

afterwards. She identifies the challenges witnessed by immigrants in America and highlights

the enduring love of Ifemelu and Obinze. The great love had been separated with the two

lovers headed for different countries. She says:

129

“But Americanah is also a love story that transcends three continents- Africa, Europe and America-and the final reunion between Ifemelu and Obinze, after years of separation perhaps symbolically, points to the writer’s contention that while the West may offer better opportunities, one’s home country is ultimately better than foreign lands.”(2013:3)

Rowena argues that one of the best books she had read in 2013, Americanah is a book

of great impact and importance on her. The book examines the intricacies of race, especially

in the USA, as well as the issues of Immigration between being black in Africa and being

black in the states. Adichie is gifted as she goes from country to country, from American to

Nigerian, to Francophone African and English. She is a brilliant writer who gifts us with an

entertaining story and introduces us to very real characters.

3.1.4. Title Interpretation

A Book, A Week (January 2, 2015) states that an Americanah is a Nigerian person who

has lived abroad and has adopted American habits. When young Igbo are directed towards a

more cosmopolitan lifestyle and move away from their ancestors’ villages, they lose contact

with their oral tradition (Ifejika). During Ifemelu’s adolescence, the influence of Western

countries in the lives of young Nigerians is clear. The ones who travel frequently to Europe

and the United States are objects of interest and admiration of their friends:

“[Ginika]’ll come back and be a serious Americanah like Bisi,” Ranyinudo said. They roared with laughter, at that word “Americanah,” wreathed in glee, the fourth syllable extended, and at the thought of Bisi a girl in the form below them, who had come back from a short trip to America with odd affectations, pretending she no longer understood Yoruba, adding a slurred r to every English word she spoke. “But, Ginika, seriously, I would give anything to be you right now,” Priye said. (Adichie, 51).

Americanah is defined in the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary as

“materials concerning or characteristic of America, its civilization, or its culture.” Yet, the

title of the novel, Americanah is a Nigerian word; with the addition of just two letters,

American becomes a playful word used to describe those who return to Nigeria with an

130

American pretentiousness. The researcher has noticed that Adichie so much prioritizes her

African origin and the name “Americanah” as the title of the novel is just a lampoon on

Americana identity that, they are not as important as the Africans are. No matter how poor or

bad African may be, her identity remains superior to her citizens.

3.1.5. Language Component

Adichie has demonstrated a high level of love for her African race. Her choice of

language identifies her as though living in the States but she is not of the States by all

standards. She values African culture and tradition more than anything does. Adichie’s

language is well articulated to suit the subject of discussion which is race and identity. There

is no doubt that, Adichie is seen as a masquerade that flogs the Americans with a strong whip

of discrimination.

Hybridity, integration and mingling of cultural signs and practices from different

cultures lead to the assimilation and adaptation of cultural practices, which is positive as well

as oppressive. In Americanah, Adichie uses Igbo names. There are no Western versions of

their names, as Adichie suggests:

“I’ve always had Igbo [in my writing]. And I’ve always had well-meaning advice, often about how American readers will be confused, or they won’t get something. I don’t set out to confuse, but I also think about myself as a reader. I grew up reading books from everywhere and I didn't necessarily understand every single thing — and I didn’t need to. So, I think for me, what was more important, for the integrity of the novel, was that I capture the world I wanted to capture, rather than to try to mold that world into the idea of what the imagined reader would think”. (Adichie “NBCC Fiction Award”)

The author has been advised to change the setting of her novels and create narratives more

agreeable to Western readers. As a response, Adichie advises that:

“Google is fantastic. If people are interested, they can look something up. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t care if I’m published by a very tiny press and only ten people read it, but it will be the book I want to write.’ And that’s been my attitude from the beginning” (Adichie “NBCC Fiction Award”).

In this way, Adichie takes a stand by including in her novel how she experiences Nigeria as

an Igbo, creating a fuller representation of aspects of Nigerian culture.

131

Adichie’s choice of language is feminine in nature and much more concerned about the

ill-treatment given to Ifemelu in the White man’s land. The major places Igbo language was

found are in the area of names of the characters like Ifemelu, Obinze, etc. . in her novel

Americanah , the writer depicts her generation as a modern one.

Throughout Americanah, one finds oneself re-reading sentences, amazed at how vivid and

thoughtful some of the details were. Ifemelu’s experience returning to Lagos, exemplifies

Adichie’s style:

“At first, Lagos assaulted her; the sun-dazed haste, the yellow buses full of squashed limbs…and the heaps of rubbish that rose on the roadsides like a taunt…Here, she felt, anything could happen, a ripe tomato could burst out of solid stone.” (Adichie, 277).

Perhaps the most critical issue gained here is a deeper understanding of Nigeria. Like

most Americans, history of classes has tended to be more Eurocentric, glossing over entire

countries such as Nigeria. Many people who tend to think of Africa as a giant country, rather

than a continent with several different countries and cultures. Americanah offers a solid look

at life from the perspective of a Nigerian immigrant. This point of view, whether Ifemelu’s or

Obinze’s or Adichie’s, makes the novel feel fresh and original. Adichie uses these images to

portray the backwardness of Nigeria in terms of development but despite these ugly scenarios,

she loves her country Nigeria and that could be seen in her ability not to change her name to

Delia or Celia but still, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. As a result of American’s attitude

towards her (Ifemelu) black colour and kinky (2) hair, out of desperation she budges to

pressure and straightens her kinky hair.

3.1.6. Immigration Issues

The immigrant narrative too seems to preoccupy the writings of contemporary writers.

The question of African immigrants has been a subject of great debate both on a local level

and global level. This is witnessed by several discussions in newspapers, journals and

WebPages ranging from immigrant exit from Africa to foreign lands to their contribution to

Africa from their new frontiers. Mukoma Wa Ngugi, a scholar, who teaches at Cornwell

University in the article: “Don’t tell African Authors what they can and cannot write about”

(2012 )argues for the expansion of the African literary canon by incorporating a new canon of

132

literature written by African immigrants. According to him the African canon is rigid for it

accommodates early writers like his father Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe while

ignoring new themes like race, identity and tensions between Africans and African-Americans

currently affecting first and second generation African immigrants. He continues to say,

“These are real and urgent issues being reflected in literature coming from the Diaspora”

(2012 :1).

In her novel Americanah, Adichie presents African immigrants in America .Ifemelu’s

story is told from America . In Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie presents us with

African male and female immigrant characters. It also shows the shady deals illegal

immigrants employ in order to become part of their host nation and in this case they fear

disclosing any information. This view is strengthened by John Arthur’s statement in the

chapter entitled ‘Searching for Promised Lands: Conceptualization of African Diaspora in

Migration’ which he says:

“undocumented status are cognizant of the risks of working and living in the United States or Canada without legal work authorization. For such immigrants, social circles and networks are limited to fellow immigrants or trusted friends and family members…There is little or no trust for outsiders”. (2012:6)

The female characters Ifemelu sets up a blog which eventually ends up extremely

successful. She makes good money and ends up buying a condo making her a home owner

which signifies ultimate success for an immigrant. After this, she gets a job with a good pay

as a research fellow at Princeton University earning her a secure and stable position as a

female African immigrant. This equally reflects in Aunty Uju who practices as a doctor and

ends up buying a home, once again a form of economic and social stability.

After establishing her life in the United States, Ifemelu reaches economic stability by

writing a blog. Her new work leads her to speak in social events and begin a fellowship at

Princeton. However, Ifemelu decides not to continue her promising career. The main question

posed at the opening of the novel is why Ifemelu wants to move back from USA to Nigeria

133

after 13 years without any apparent reason? Although what causes the character to move away

from Nigeria is a view of the United States as a land of opportunities, her reason for returning

is rather particular:

“...there was cement in her soul. It had been there for a while, an early morning disease of fatigue, shapeless desires, brief imaginary glints of other lives she could be living, that over the months melded into a piercing homesickness” (Adichie,10).

As a result, after thirteen years living in the United States, Ifemelu longs for a Nigeria

that has changed - as she did - and for the love of a man whom she has not spoken with for

over a decade.

“Nigeria became where she 8 was supposed to be, the only place she could sink her roots in without the constant urge to tug them out and shake off the soil. And, of course, there was also Obinze” (Adichie, 10).

Obinze is a middle class and well-educated boy who plans to move to the United States

and meet Ifemelu, but his visa is denied after 9/11. Later, he travels to London with his

mother, to a University conference, and does not come back to Nigeria. At this point,

Obinze’s story is used in the novel to expose the vulnerable situation faced by illegal

immigrants. Obinze is undocumented, has to live with somebody else’s identity, and often has

to remind himself of his new name. He tries to make his situation legal through an arranged

marriage, but the fraud is discovered and he is deported immediately. Obinze states that in

England things happen as if people lived in a world where the present has no connection with

the past (Adichie ,190), referring to the African diaspora. Moreover, English citizens do not

seem to understand any reality outside the African stereotype, as it is observed in a party,

where Obinze meets old friends and other English guests:

“Alexa and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness. They would not understand why people like him who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that

134

somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for choice and certainty. (Adichie ,202)

The prevailing notion of African immigration the West has, is that of refugees of wars,

fleeing terrible poverty. Immigrants are often expected to be deeply grateful for being allowed

in a Western, so-called developed country. However, the reality in which Adichie places her

characters is very different. They represent members of an educated Nigerian middle class

who wish to leave their homelands because they have dreams and want more opportunities.

They may or may not succeed, but mainly they have difficulty adjusting to a new culture. This

is the case of Ifemelu’s aunt Uju. A former lover of a General of the Nigerian military regime,

Uju moves to the United States to give birth to their child, as well as with the intention of

applying to medical school and continuing the education she started back in Nigeria.

“Nigeria will not be like this forever, I’m sure I will find part-time work and it will be

tough, yes, but one day I will start my clinic, and on The Island!” (Adichie, 38) she says to

Ifemelu before leaving her country. Uju is one of the most important secondary characters in

the narrative and a clear example of the prejudice faced by immigrants: she spends years

working up to three jobs simultaneously, until she validates her Nigerian diploma and is hired

by a private practice. There, Uju begins to notice the strange looks directed at her, while white

patients refuse her medical care as they do not believe she is a capable professional.

In Ifemelu’s case, it is the political situation in Nigeria that causes students like her to

seek opportunities abroad:

‘In the newspapers, university lecturers listed their complaints, the agreements that were trampled in the dust by government men whose own children were schooling abroad. Campuses were emptied, classrooms drained of life. Students hoped for short strikes, because they could not hope to have no strike at all. Everyone was talking about leaving’ . (Adichie, 75).

As immigrants, her situation and Obinze’s in London are contrasted significantly. Ifemelu

does not live in shadow, and she bears her name. In the United States, Ifemelu faces different

struggles, such as racism and the pressure of cultural adaptation, while trying to keep true to

her identity. Ifemelu, as an immigrant, student and blog writer, exposes American

135

contemporary issues such as racism, immigration, as well as Western views on postcolonial

countries.

3.1.7. Idealization of America Ifemelu’s move to the United States represents a life changing experience. Therefore,

she faced issues which lead to the alienation, displacement and the depression she lives. Here

the main reasons include her ignorant idealization of America and inability to get a job. After

repeated strikes at the University, Ifemelu, who never had the ambition to live in America and

build up her future there, is persuaded by Obinze and Aunty Uju to apply for a scholarship as

an International student (Adichie, 68-76). Prior to her emigration “America was America” in

Ifemelu’s eyes (Adichie ,76) and geared by American movies and sitcoms such as The Cosby

Show, Angel Heart and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air she imagined her new beginning “in a

house from The Cosby Show, in a school with students holding notebooks miraculously free

of wear and crease” (Adichie, 76).

Yet, once she arrives at the airport in America, she notices her oblivion and that her

preceding imagination of America has been skewed and distorted by the media coverage in

Nigeria. As Alli Ibbi (2013) argues “Hollywood has succeeded in selling America to the world

[and therefore it] […] is seen as an utopian society that is devoid of errors” (94). Her

programmed ignorance towards this “glorious America” becomes evident when she realizes

that in her “illusions” she had pictured “overseas” and everything associated with the West as

a cold place which ultimately made her to buy a winter proof sweater. Yet, not only the

“sweltering heat” or the “matte” of the buildings but also the old Toyota hatchback, the

urinating man on the sidewalk, the cockroach in the kitchen of her aunt’s scarcely furnished

apartment in Brooklyn and that she has to sleep on the floor in “glorious America”, breaches

with her idealized prejudice and confronts her with the fact that her preconceived idea of

America was biased and incomplete (Adichie, 79).

Ifemelu’s introduction into the “real America” takes place carefully and episodically

(Adichie, 84). Ifemelu recognizes panoply of changes which render her alienated and

136

displaced. Initially, her aunt’s “self-abasing” demeanor in the presence of white people or that

“behaving like these black Americans” is condemned, startle Ifemelu (Adichie ,84).Yet, since

she stayed in Aunty Uju’s apartment, which defined the “margins” of her life (Adichie, 90),

her imaginations were still shaped by American movies and sitcoms which made her ache for

the lives they showed, lives full of bliss, where all problems had sparkling solutions in

shampoos and cars and packaged foods, and in her mind they became the real America, the

America she would only see when she moved to school in the autumn” (Adichie ,99).

The incident, which exemplifies that Ifemelu finds a part of “real America,” occurs

when she moves to Philadelphia for her studies. Here she is confronted with poverty and

negligence, points she had not expected possible in the United States since she awaited a

“pretty street on The Cosby Show” (Adichie, 80). Adichie’s criticism becomes apparent here.

Ifemelu’s oblivion and holistic view towards America illustrates that she has been conditioned

by a single sided story of America. However, whereas media usually taints the image of

Africa with vice, America’s power and subsequent agency spread a positive and seamless

image in which issues such as racism, poverty, and class difference do not seem possible for

the outside world (Adichie “Single story” 2009 ).

In addition, Ifemelu discovers that achieving the American dream is not as easy as she

expected it. Repeated rejections after numerous job applications leave her “waking up every

day worrying about money” and with a “tight, suffocating pressure […] inside her

chest“(Adichie ,102 ). The fear of failure urges her to invent qualifications on her CV, yet

with no avail (Americanah, 107). At her lowest point, Ifemelu feels like is “at war with the

world” and at a loss of perspectives (Americanah ,115). Since her overworked aunt cannot

cover her overdue rent payment and her roommates lament “ [w]hat are we supposed to do?

We’re not her fucking parents”, Ifemelu resorts to the only job confirmation in which she is

expected to assist a tennis coach to “relax” (Adichie,115). Understanding the implied sexual

innuendo, she approves of this man taking advantage of her body” (Adichie,115).

One can deduce that Adichie intends to show the struggles some immigrants face in their

host society and how easily hopelessness urges, especially women, to pursue a path in which

they subjugate themselves to oppression and indignity. This experience marks the incident in

137

which Ifemelu’s naivety and endurance converts to self-loathing and renders her in a “vicious

haze, shrouded in a soup of nothingness” (Adichie,118).

Ifemelu’s efforts to acculturate resulted in unemployment and prostitution. Shamed by

her actions, Ifemelu falls into a deep depression. She shelters herself from her family and also

breaches contact with Obinze, contact which she will rekindle only more than a decade later.

Absorbed in her self-loathing, Ifemelu rejects Ginika’s observation, claiming she has a

depression. Annoyed, she utters that depression “happened to Americans, with their self

absolving need to turn everything into an illness” (Adichie,119). Here, one can assume that

Adichie foregrounds that the attitude towards mental illnesses, such as depression, needs to be

reconsidered in the mentality of Nigerian people. In an interview, Adichie argues that

depression is hardly discussed among Nigerians since it is viewed as a

Western construct and especially fortunate people are not entitled to feeling unhappy or sad.

Moreover, she explains that people propose prayer instead of providing aid to this, at times,

lifelong mental illness. She criticizes that this mindset has a detrimental effect on those

suffering from this mental illness (Arlington Reads 2015).

3.1.8. Privileged Whiteness

Ifemelu’s first job in America is babysitting the two children of Kimberley, a rich

white woman. When she first meets her, Kimberley says:

“What a beautiful name [. . .] Does it mean anything? I love multicultural names because they have such wonderful meanings, from wonderful rich cultures” (Adichie, 111).

She is implying here that she associates culture with foreignness, and she does not

consider white culture to be a culture. Culture, then, is always associated with race. As

Richard Dyer argues: “At the level of racial presentation, in other words, whites are not of a

certain race, they’re just the human race” (3). However, he also says that race can be applied

to white people as well, and that white people will always function as a human norm if they

138

are not racially recognised (1). Kimberley, then, is well-meaning, but she treats black people

differently than white people, thereby still, although unintentionally, establishing white people

as the norm. She calls every black woman beautiful, until Ifemelu points out: “No, she isn’t [.

. .] You know, you can just say ‘black’. Not every black person is beautiful” (Adichie, 111).

Kimberley feels the need to constantly assure black people that they matter or to

apologise for the thoughtless comments about race from her sister Laura, because she believes

“that she could, with apologies, smooth all the scalloped surfaces of the world”

(Adichie,122). Kimberley’s friends think about African women in the same manner as

Kimberley. At a party in Kimberley’s home, a man tells Ifemelu that she is beautiful, that all

African women are beautiful, “especially Ethiopians” (Adichie,127). All the people at the

party are involved in charities in African countries and want to include African staff because

they do not want to be “the NGO that won’t use local labour” (Adichie,127). Ifemelu is

invited to come and work for them when she is back in Africa, even though the NGO is

located in Ghana and Ifemelu could not be considered a local woman.

The problem is that they think Africa is in need of saving by the West, an “Oriental” and

imperial assumption; Kimberley’s friends do not see that they are part of the problem as well.

Robert Jensen attributes this blindness to white privilege in his book The Heart of Whiteness:

“That’s part of white privilege – the privilege to ignore the reality of a white-supremacist society [. . .], to deny one’s own role in it. It is the privilege of remaining ignorant because that ignorance is protected” (10).

He also argues that, because of this ignorance, white people may become upset or angry

when they are called out at racist remarks, something of which they are unaware. This is

shown when Ifemelu calls out Laura, who says that the African doctor that she knows is more

professional than the African American doctors. Ifemelu replies: “I just think it’s a simplistic

comparison to make. You need to understand a bit more history” (Adichie,126). Laura storms

139

off and ignores Ifemelu at the party the next day, not wanting to face the fact that perhaps race

is a more complicated issue than she thinks.

Dating an American non-Black, Ifemelu starts dating Curt, the uncle of the children that

she babysits. He is a white man, who is seen by his mother as “her adventurer who would

bring back exotic species – he had dated a Japanese girl, a Venezuelan girl [. . .]”

(Adichie,147), but Ifemelu is the first black girl that he has dated. Curt appears to be, for a

part at least, only interested in Ifemelu because she is African. He likes her supposed

exoticness, which shows that he also thinks in some of the Orientalist stereotypes. He

disapproves of Ifemelu straightening her hair because she thinks it will improve her chances

of getting a job. He says:

“Why do you have to do this? Your hair was gorgeous braided. And when you took out the braids the last time and just kind of let it be? It was even more gorgeous, so full and cool” (Adichie,151).

herself says:

“Africa has for the past two years or so been very fashionable in the United States and Europe, and this new ‘afro fashion’ is based in part on the stereotype of the poor starving African in need of salvation by the West” (“African ‘Authenticity’ and the Biafran Experience” 44).

Curt also wants to save Ifemelu in some way. Ifemelu has been looking for a job but is

unable to find one, until Curt surprises her with the news that he has arranged an interview at

an office in Baltimore for her. She is glad, but feels “in the midst of her gratitude, a small

resentment: that Curt could, with a few calls, rearrange the world, have things slide into the

spaces that he wanted them to” (Adichie ,150). Curt is able to arrange and achieve things that

would have taken Ifemelu more time and effort, because he is white privileged.

When they tell the children whom Ifemelu babysits about their relationship, the oldest

child, Morgan, says that it disgusts her. Morgan is not the only one who finds it hard to

140

understand why a white man would date a black woman. It reminds Ifemelu of a guy in her

ethnic class and of Kimberley’s husband:

“Don thought she was attractive and interesting, and thought Curt was attractive and interesting, but it did not occur to him to think of both of them, together, entangled in the delicate threads of romance” (Adichie,145).

Tensions formed in their relationship because of race. People stare when they are walking

across the street, holding hands. When they arrive at a restaurant, a waiter asks Curt if he

wants a table for one, as if Ifemelu is not there. Sometimes Curt stands up for Ifemelu, but

other times he fails to see that race is an issue. He is ignorant about some race matters because

he is white. As Ifemelu later writes in a blog post titled:

“What Academics Mean By White Privilege, or Yes It Sucks to be Poor and White but Try Being Poor and Non-White”: “That is exactly what white privilege is. [. . .] Race doesn’t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier” (Adichie, 252).

Race comes to stand between Curt and Ifemelu and is the primary reason they break up.

However, Ifemelu also cheats on Curt for no apparent reason. Ifemelu’s character received

critique from readers because she was supposedly not grateful to have a good man. Adichie

argues that Ifemelu does not have to be grateful:

“Do we have the same standards for men? We don't. So she cheats on a good man for no reason. And she's crucified for it, but if we turned it around and she were male …” (Brockes; original ellipses).

Ifemelu defies gender stereotypes in more than one way in Americanah: by voicing her

strong opinion and not considering having a boyfriend as something to be grateful about.“She

was lighter and leaner; she was Curt’s Girlfriend, a role she slipped into as into a favourite,

flattering dress.” (Adichie, 146) Even though Ifemelu feels ‘a woman free of knots and

cares’, when her boyfriend Curt introduces her to his family and friends, she finds herself in a

141

situation of discriminatory attitudes which suggest feelings of superiority on the part of white

women. This idea of being a black woman and not deserving a white man is illustrated by

Bell Hooks when she refers to white women as the ones who have made it unattainable to

share common interests and objectives as a whole group.

“Historically, many black women experienced white women as the white supremacist group who mostly exercised power over them, often in a manner more brutal than that of racist white men” (hooks, 1982: 48).

After her breakup with Curt, Ifemelu asks herself whether ‘race’ must have been one of

the reasons behind her continual confusion and hidden discomfort in their relationship. Their

relationship is perfect; there is nothing wrong with them as a couple. Nonetheless, his white

privilege would always cause a discomfort that would remind her of the differences between

them.

“It was not that they avoided race, she and Curt. They talked about it in the slippery way that admitted nothing and engaged nothing and ended with the word “crazy”, like a curious nugget to be examined and then put aside.” (Adichie, 213)

Their relationship - that of a black woman and a white man - reflects the real world of

white privilege and racism in America. There are countless instances of covert racism in the

novel, when different characters manifest attitudes of superiority and dominance.

Furthermore, the lack of knowledge about African countries is another point that should be

taken into consideration as, indirectly; many people create and believe in stereotypes that are

totally wrong and unjust. This could be directly related to Edward Said’s Orientalism as he

refers to Europe and America as the inventors of the ‘Orient’. In this case, Said admits that the

idea that Europeans and Americans have about the Orient – we shall include Africa – is an

idea that can be explored through a ‘distorted lens’, that is to say, the idea we have about

these countries is absolutely inaccurate and contaminated:

“One ought never to assume that the structure of Orientalism is nothing more than a structure of lies or of myths which, were the truth about them to be told, would simply blow away” (Said, 1978,p. 6)

Then, the African culture is definitely stereotyped and subjugated to the white man.

142

In relation to Ifemelu and Curt, there exists a racist overview on their relationship: black

women are only with white men because of their white privilege. On the other hand, white

men are with black women because they have this kind of attraction towards exotic cultures.

They are, in consequence, exposed to the many stereotypes and biased ideas about interracial

relationships:

“When you are black in America and you fall in love with a white person, race doesn’t matter when you’re alone together because it’s just you and your love. But the minute you step outside, race matters” (Adichie, 212).

And later: “The simplest solution to the problem of race in America? Romantic love. Not friendship. Not the kind of safe, shallow love where the objective is that both people remain comfortable. But real deep romantic love, the kind that twists you and wrings you out and makes you breathe through the nostrils of your beloved. And because that real deep romantic love is so rare, and because American society is set up to make it even rarer between American Black and American White, the problem of race in America will never be solved.” ( Adichie ,216).

Moreover, at another point in the story, when Ifemelu requires the help of a carpet cleaner,

the man feels somewhat surprised to see a black woman owning a ‘grand stone house with

white pillars’: She would never forget him, bits of dried skin stuck to his chapped, peeling

lips, and she would begin the post “Sometimes in America, Race Is Class” with the story of

his dramatic change, and end with:

“It didn’t matter to him how much money I had. As far as he was concerned I did not fit as the owner of that stately house because of the way I looked. In America’s public discourse, “Blacks” as a whole are often lumped with “Poor Whites”. Not Poor Blacks and Poor Whites. But Blacks and Poor Whites. A curious thing indeed” (Adichie,125)

Here, Ifemelu is not at home, in her modest apartment; she is at Kimberly and Don’s

house, a rich family who has hired Ifemelu to look after Taylor, their son. Consequently, the

carpet cleaner believes she is the owner and feels startled with the idea of a ‘black woman’

owning such a big house. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie herself, talks about this stereotyping

and the unawareness of history and context by the dominant culture – white Americans -

about African people in one of her TED Talks called The Danger of a Single Story:

143

My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listen to what she called my "tribal music," and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey. She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove. (Adichie, 2009)

Incidentally, with the use of her blog entries, Ifemelu has the freedom to criticise and

attack the various ways by which she feels oppressed. The blog is a central presence in the

novel and in Ifemelu’s life since it portrays her experience as an immigrant in the United

States. It is crucial to take into account that for our protagonist, it becomes real hard to be able

to discuss racial issues with friends or University colleagues without sounding too radical or

even racist. In America, language addresses “race” in a very slippery way and it is not

common to hear black people talk about it in such an honest way as she herself does. It is for

this reason that her ideas can be misunderstood and assumed to be racist. In consequence,

these blog entries serve her to express her true feelings towards a society where ‘racism exists

but racists are all gone.’ (Adichie, 229).

3.1.9. Discrimination Awareness

Racism, which is not experienced among Africans in Africa, is encountered in America

from the onset of Ifemelu’s migration for a student visa. Ifemelu only upon arrival in

America that she becomes aware of her blackness. She says:

“I came from a country where race was not an issue. I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.” (Adichie, 212).

“To My Fellow Non-American Blacks: In America You Are Black, Baby.” (Americanah, 162)

Ifemelu shows that race is a significant factor in America. Reilly et al in their book

Racism (2003) say that ‘race is intended as a category to be used in distinguishing different

human groups on the basis of physical appearance.’ (Adichie ,15) .They add that skin color

as well as other facial features like hair, eyes and nose determine race. For Ifemelu

colour in this case indicates a state of inclusion or exclusion. The idea of being seen as

144

white is normal while black in most cases is shunned and likely to result in exclusion. This

reflects in simple acts such as having one’s eyebrows waxed. When Ifemelu visits a beauty

spa to have her eyebrows shaped the female attendant declines to serve her with the

excuse that “We don’t do curly” (Adichie ,213) and only when her white boyfriend arrives to

intervene does the attendant “transform into a soliticious coquette” apologizing that “it was

a misunderstanding” (Adichie ,213). Here “curly” is used to mean black or African.

Hair too in Americanah is used as a form of discrimination. The racist nature of the

statement is portrayed when Ifemelu says it is only the white kind of curly, loose curls or

spiral curls that are accepted. Here white stands for inclusion while if one has kinky hair it

means exclusion. Kinky hair is representative of African hair which is considered

coarse and difficult to manage.

Ifemelu encounters racism from white American women in regard to her relationship

with her white boyfriend Curt. These white women get surprised when Curt introduces her to

them as his girlfriend. Ifemelu says they looked at her in surprise, “a surprise that some of

them shielded and some of them did not and in their expression was the question “why her?”

(Adichie ,214) .These white female characters display a discriminatory attitude towards

Ifemelu implying that they are superior to black women. The idea is found on a

baseless notion that being a black woman she is undeserving of a white man and that is why

Ifemelu says “their faces clouded with the look of people confronting a great tribal loss”

(Adichie ,214).

Institutionalized racism is experienced by Ifemelu during the school career fair where

she hopes to be recruited for a job. The contrary happens and her explanation for this is that

the recruiters upon realization that she is non-American but African. This is a clear indication

that the female African immigrant is placed in a precarious situation. Ifemulu points out :

“…but racism is about power of a group and in America it’s the white folks who have the power. How? Well, white folks don’t get treated like shit in upper-class

145

African-American communities and white folks don’t get denied bank loans and mortgages precisely because they are white and black juries don’t give white criminals worse sentences than black criminals for the same crime and black police officers don’t stop white folk for driving while white and black companies don’t choose not to hire somebody because their name sounds white and black teachers don’t tell white kids that they are not smart enough to be doctors…( Adichie ,238)”.

3.1.10. Gender Issues

Americanah is a feminist novel, that is why it is important to analyse it with the use of

gender theory. Adichie says in an interview with the Los Angeles Times:

“I wanted Ifemelu to be a character who wasn't easy to like [. . .] I think it's a very feminist book — I think all of my work is very feminist. She just refuses to keep quiet. In a way that in my life I think I refuse to as well” (Kellogg). Feminism is a broad concept, which makes it difficult to give it a specific definition. However, the following definition tries to encapsulate the general thought, which is that feminism is “a set of ideas that recognize in an explicit way that women are subordinate to men and seek to address imbalances of power between the sexes. At its heart is the view that women’s condition is socially constructed, and therefore open to change” (McLeod 198).

Feminists try to tackle the assumption that certain stereotypical gender roles are true or

biologically determined. It is important to define gender here. Gender is often divided from

sex in the sense that sex is a biological category, but gender is socially constructed, just like

race. Feminists have argued that one is not born a woman, but made a woman( De Beauvoir

1966) because from birth, it is already decided what kind of clothes they should wear and how

they should behave (Buikema 35). As Adichie states in her TED talk: “The problem with

gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are” (We

Should All Be Feminists). This is also visible in Americanah, because Ifemelu is a woman

who voices her strong opinions, something that is not always appreciated in Western society.

Feminists also argue that this social construction is due to the fact that we live in a

patriarchal society. Patriarchy refers to “those systems – political, material and imaginative –

which invest power in men and marginalise women” (McLeod 199). Patriarchy “asserts

certain representational systems which create an order of the world presented to individuals

as ‘normal’ or ‘true’” (McLeod 199). Not unlike colonialism, patriarchy and resistance to it

146

is a question of power and the way those not in power are represented. Women suffered from

a double colonisation, a phrase used by Kirsten Holst Petersen and Anna Rutherford, which

means that women experienced the effects of colonialism and patriarchy simultaneously

(201). It is argued that colonialism celebrates male victory, “while women are subject to

representation in colonial discourses in ways which collude with patriarchal values” (201).

For women in the Third World, the colonised countries, Western patriarchy had a huge effect

on gender roles. Colonialism “interrupted indigenous familial and community structures and

imposed its own models instead” (203), which means that female organisation based upon

kinship structures that gave power to women were disrupted, because they were not modelled

on family structures. The indigenous gender roles may have been more egalitarian than the

gender roles and stereotypes imported by the colonising nation, but their “established

traditions, customs and social systems were irreparably broken, sometimes to the detriment of

women” (203).

Feminism comes in waves. The third wave is important for the reading of Americanah,

because Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie can be called a third-wave feminist. In her TED Talk

We Should All Be Feminists, she embraces her femininity, saying that she loves make-up and

dresses. She states to be in favour of the equality of the sexes, just as:

“third‐wavers feel entitled to interact with men as equals, claim sexual pleasure as they desire it (heterosexual or otherwise), and actively play with femininity” (Snyder 179).

She also discards the notion of one category of ‘women’, but instead acknowledges

differences between women. This is something that third-wave feminists aim to do:

“[they] rightly reject the universalist claim that all women share a set of common experiences, but they do not discard the concept of experience altogether. Women still look to personal experiences to provide knowledge about how the world operates and to trouble dominant narratives about how things should be” (184).

3.1.11. Oppression and Misogyny against African Women

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americnah offers a fertile study with regard to feminist

perceptions, mainly the ones related to the African women experiences and oppressions. A

notable aspect based on the experience of the three African braiders Halima, Aisha and

147

Mariama is that gender and class are intertwined. Much as they work effortlessly on their feet

all day long they are unable to advance economically or financially, i.e. their jobs pay lowly.

Just like the African braiders, Ifemelu as a female African immigrant is exposed

to economic pressures, Initially as a new arrival in America she is unable to get

employment and with payment of rent overdue, she resorts to a sexual encounter with

a white man. The end result of this encounter is that she ends up in a state of

depression because she feels she has not fulfilled her self-expectation due to the fact that

she decides to work for a white man who requires specific actions from Ifemelu:

She took off her shoes and climbed into his bed. She did not want to be there, did not want his active finger between her legs, did not want his sigh-moans in her ear, and yet she felt her body rousing to a sickening wetness. [...] He had not forced her. She had come here on her own. (Adichie, 116)

This is one of the incidents that will affect her identity as a woman as it is the breaking

point of her relationship with Obinze as she does not really know how to face reality and tell

him what she has done. This is a turning in Ifemelu’s life considering that Obinze becomes

her confident and the person she trusts most in an environment where she feels totally an

outsider. During her first months in the U.S. his phone calls become a soothing power over

her; thanks to him she feels positive about her future. Nonetheless, from this moment on,

Ifemelu rejects Obinze’s calls and refuses to write back; she is profoundly hurt by her own

actions and she does not want Obinze to suffer the consequences of her wrongs. It is

surprising then, after many years in the U.S., struggling in order to become someone who she

is not.

One main form of women’s oppression in Americanah is male dominance. Women

oppression’s presentation of a male-dominated society in Americanah is Aunty Uju. She

undergoes through oppression right from Nigeria to America. It begins when Aunty Uju

engages in a relationship with The General, a married man and father of four children since he

wields a lot of power and wealth which she enjoys. His tendency to exploit women sexually

by treating them as sex objects and possessions is displayed in The General’s comments. He

shamelessly tells Aunty Uju that she is brought up well since she is not like all the Lagos girls

who sleep with him on the first night and Uju seems to subscribe to the picture of the

stereotyped African woman who is portrayed as docile and submissive for she takes in this

information unquestioningly. This shows how women are stripped of their self-worth when

the General compares Aunty Uju with other women he has had sexual escapades with.

148

Aunty Uju’s woes do not end in Africa ,in America, she ends up meeting

Bartholomew, a Nigerian man based in America. Bartholomew is egocentric and

controlling in nature in that he tries to confine Aunty Uju’s space by dictating that she should

not send home any money. He exploits her financially, is fully dependent on her, shows no

interest in her son Dike and does not share any chores with her despite the daily pressures of

immigrant life .Bartholomew exerts his authority by displaying traditional patriarchal

domination which is common in Africa . Aunty Uju presents a clear picture of this when

she tells Ifemelu:

“Both of us come home at the same time and do you know what Bartholomew does? He just sits in the sitting room and turns on the TV and asks me what we are eating for dinner…He wants me to give him my salary. Imagine! He says that is how marriages are since he is the head of the family, that I should not send money home to Brother without his permission, that we should make his car payments from my salary”. (Adichie ,160)

In Britain, Chimamanda introduces us to Ojiugo a female character who is highly

educated but gives this up to spend her time as a housewife. Ojiugo forgoes this opportunity

so as to provide a chance for her unqualified spouse Nicholas to preserve his dignity as head

of the family. This is therefore patriarchy where man takes the position of head of the

household and woman takes up her role as a wife and mother. Ojiugo’s security is

vested in giving a positive picture of a housewife and mother at the expense of her career.

This leads Obinze a cousin to her husband and a former schoolmate to reflect internally

as stated:

“It puzzled him that she did not mourn all the things she could have been. Was it a quality inherent in women, or did they just learn to shield their personal regrets, to suspend their lives, subsume themselves in childcare?”( Adichie ,178).

Additionally, one of the major concerns for Ifemelu when she first arrived in the US is

getting a job. It is extremely difficult for her to find a proper job in order to survive. As a

consequence, and after many failed interviews, Ifemelu decides to take a position that will

decidedly alter her condition as a woman and as a black person.

149

3.1.12. Gender Expectations

Obedience, submission and homemaker qualities are some of the common values that

many women in Nigeria are expected to possess. Patriarchy and the supremacy of men over

women are dominant and internalized in Nigeria’s society (Asiyanbola 2). From an early age,

girls are educated to be “likeable” or to acquire culinary skills in order to prepare for life in

matrimony (Adichie “Feminist” 2013). The issue of gender and gender expectation in the

Nigerian context are prevalent and dominant themes in this novel.

Adichie’s representation of her protagonist Ifemelu offers insight into a girl, eventually

young woman, spilt between a conservative Christian and modern take on femaleness, beauty

and sexuality. Ifemelu’s socialization occurs in a Christian household of a peculiar kind. After

her mother undergoes an extreme religious quest, - a journey from ascetism, to eventually a

stage of being “absorbed […] but […] not destroyed by her new church (Adichie, 36),

Ifemelu learns to be more critical towards her mother’s gullibility and the, at times, corrupt

and prosper-driven workings of her mother’s church. Due to her observant and critical

worldview, both her family members and also schoolmates deem her a “troublemaker”

(Adichie, 42). In her society, girls and women are expected to be obedient and credulous. The

exemplary scenario takes place in a church gathering. For years, Ifemelu observes that many

church members base their prosperity on God and overlook that “the money from the three

collections at each service” is the actual reason for their affluence (Adichie, 36). Whereas

both her mother and her Aunty Uju are oblivious to such undertakings, Ifemelu develops the

courage to express her opinion towards dishonest actions. When asked to build garlands for

Chief Omenka, a man responsible for the donation of vans at the church, she counters:

“Why should I make decorations for a thief […] Chief Omenka is a 419 and everybody knows it” […] This church is full of 419 men, why should we pretend that this hall was not built with dirty money?” (Adichie ,41) .

Ifemelu’s blatant and bold utterance, which accuses said man of being part of the 419

scammers, notorious for worldwide money theft, does not make the adults attentive, and

instead brands her as a pariah in the church’s community. Her mother’s reaction adds an

interesting and crucial aspect to gender expectations in Ifemelu’s society. When her mother

hears that her daughter made such a comment she feels embarrassment and concludes,

150

“[w]hy must this girl be a troublemaker? I have been saying it since, that it would be better if she was a boy, behaving like this” (Adichie, 42).

This utterance firstly illustrates what exactly is demanded from girls and secondly, it

highlights the difference between boys and girls and how they are socialized. If Ifemelu were

a boy, the behavior and comment at church would have been expected and accepted. Her

mother is not capable of approving of the fact that her daughter is strong-minded and only a

change of sex would make her open to such a behavior. Ifemelu is encouraged to feel shame

for her personality and her environment teaches her to be apologetic and thus conform to a

pre-set and limiting understanding of femaleness.

Since Ifemelu does not believe in “subordination”, she is scolded and receives the

moniker “troublemaker” and is not considered ‘girlfriend material” (Adichie,42). The societal

pressures to conform to limiting norms, “other” those who are different and lead to their

discrimination. Albeit, Ifemelu, herself has learnt to appreciate and accept her personality

traits and not to shrink herself since “she had always liked this image of herself as too much

trouble, as different, and she sometimes thought of it as a carapace that kept her safe”

(Adichie,48). Considering difference as a “carapace” underlines positivity towards otherness.

Even if her environment reproaches her for her “troublesome” attitude, she paves the way to

acceptance of women’s individuality and diversity.

A final scenario, which accentuates that Ifemelu does not fit into the limiting corset of her

society’s gender expectations, refers to cooking. According to Adichie’s Ted talk “We should

all be feminists” (2013), it is still common that girls are responsible for culinary deeds and

also Asiyanbola (8) explains that domestic work is mostly managed in traditional sex roles. In

many Nigerian societies, cooking represents a woman’s daily chore and thus the kitchen and

household mark her domain. Therefore from an early age on, girls are trained to be

‘housewife material’, since their mothers and grandmothers instill within them that women

must learn to cook, prepare the traditional dishes and hence pave an opportune path into

marriage. ( Carolina , 2016)

151

For many women, being a homemaker defines their womanhood and wifehood. Men, on

the other hand, tend to be ridiculed when they attempt the work with pots or express their

culinary creativity. It is not uncommon that men do not help in the household and often wait

for their mothers, sisters or wives to prepare the meals and finally cater to them. Ifemelu, on

the other hand, characterizes the opposite of what is socially and culturally expected of

women in many Nigerian and African households. Upon meeting Obinze’s mother, his

mother asks whether Ifemelu can cook. Ifemelu contemplates disowning her lack of interest

but then counters “I don’t like cooking. I can eat Indomie noodles day and night”

(Adichie,55). Ifemelu’s hesitation to tell the truth shows that she is aware of the gender

expectations and that these have been indoctrinated into her. However, she decides to be

authentic and unapologetic for her being and with this scene Adichie introduces a mentality

shift in respect to gender roles. Ifemelu has outgrown the fitted and restrictive societal view

towards femaleness and actively chooses to rise above them and tailor femaleness to her

individual understanding and liking.

3.1.13. Beauty Cultural Representation

Beauty and its perception in Nigeria is a further aspect, which is discussed in

Americanah. As mentioned in the theoretical part, beauty is a highly controversial and

versatile concept, which is culture-dependent but more importantly reliant on the person’s

interpretation of one’s own beauty. Nevertheless, it would be misleading to neglect the fact

that beauty takes place in a realm of interaction and recognition. Since people are viewed by

others and mostly attain some form of feedback on their beauty, especially women are always

subject to the gaze of their environment. Beauty ideals and beauty standards in many African

countries such as Nigeria are very often tailored according to a Western ideal. Due to

globalization, the dissemination of a homogenous representation of white beauty, mostly

portraying fair skin color and lush hair texture, instigate many women to mimic and

appropriate such beauty ideals and transform them to a beauty standard (Tate Beauty 57).

By means of Ifemelu, Adichie gives the reader an insight into beauty and its

interpretation in the Nigerian context. Ifemulu’s first recollection of her childhood reverts her

back to her mother and that she:

152

“had grown up in the shadow of her mother’s hair”. It was black-black, so thick it drank two containers of relaxer at the salon, so full it took hours under the hooded dryer, and, when finally released from pink plastic rollers, sprang free and full, flowing down her back like a celebration” (Adichie ,34).

Ifemelu grows up with the understanding that when her mother’s hair is coiffed she

receives positive attention from her environment. After the visit to the hairdresser, Ifemelu’s

father praises his wife’s hairdo with “the crown of glory” and others wonder whether she has

“foreign blood” (Adichie, 34). The immediate reaction by the environment shows that her hair

in her unnatural form prompts people to compare it with divinity or exoticism, which are

usually positive and inspirational. From a young age, this triggers Ifemelu to think that

processed and unnatural hair represents a beauty ideal and a beauty standard. In hopes to

attain the same appraisal and attention like her mother, she would try to get her hair to act as

her mother’s. However, Ifemelu understands with resentment that her hair, which in its

natural form grows, “reluctantly, which braiders said it cut them like a knife” placed her in the

“shadow of her mother’s hair”.

Yet, shortly after, Ifemelu’s adoration comes to an abrupt end since her mother embarks

on a stringent and at times fanatical religious path. She cuts her “bounteous” hair and refutes

everything involving femininity (Adichie,34). Finally, her mother joins a church where she

“worship[s] with the prosperous” and here Ifemelu notices a further change. Her mother puts

make-up on which was “one shade too light” (Adichie,40). It is suggestive that the fair skin

color becomes her mother’s interpretation of prosperity and wealth. The need to prove that

she is part of the wealthy via a fair skin tone, reveals the entrenched mentality, which suggests

that whiteness entails supremacy and success. These drastic changes, however, offer Ifemelu

the opportunity to rethink her once internalized take on beauty. It is in this time that Ifemelu

looks for a role model to substitute her own mother. The Nigerian singer Onyeka Onwenu “a

full-nosed, full-lipped beauty, her round face framed by a low Afro, her faultless complexion

the deep brown of cocoa” ( Adichie,54) represents the beauty ideal in Ifemelu’s mind. With

the focus on this woman, Ifemelu aims to find a role model who remained loyal to her

naturalness, someone who embraced bestowed facial features, hair texture and skin color. Her

anti-racist mentality illustrates that she innately strives for the authentic, unmodified, and

rejects the adaption of a Western ideal.

153

Another scenario, which spotlights the instilled notion that fair skin and lush hair texture

are, beautiful and also powerful, can be observed when it comes to Ifemelu’s close friend

Ginika. Ginika is a mixed race girl who:

“had caramel skin and wavy hair that, when unbraided, fell down to her neck instead of standing Afro-like. Each year, she was voted Prettiest Girl in their form, and she would wryly say, “It’s just because I ‘m a half-caste. How can I be finer than Zainab?” (Adichie, 44).

Ginika’s answer to the fact that her class continuously votes her as the prettiest girl

demonstrates a skewed power dynamics. She understands that Zainab is more beautiful than

she is, however since she is bi-racial (half-caste) and mixed with the ‘white race’ she accepts

to be the most beautiful. Whereas in the United States, for instance, the “one drop policy”

automatically renders a mixed race person black and thus marked with the ‘baggage’ and

negative connotation towards the ‘black race’, in Nigeria one drop of the ‘white race’ enables

that person to have a better status in society (Tate Beauty 112). This mentality has its roots in

the times of colonialism, where the “‘mulatto’ […] was desired for her mimetic quality”

(Tate Beauty 118). The entrenched mentality that lightness or whiteness results in power is

demonstrated and criticized with the example of Ginika.

Ultimately, it crystallizes that beauty standards and beauty ideals are highly subjective

and also transformable. The fact that Obinze does not choose the “Prettiest Girl” Ginika,

instead Ifemelu, illustrates this argument. When Ifemelu asks why he chose her, he utters:

“I thought you were so fine, but not just that. You looked like the kind of person who will do something because she wants to and not because everyone else is doing it” (Adichie, 48).

He does not only appreciate her for her beauty, instead for her strong personality. To him

her independence and honesty resulted more attractive than beauty, which is only “skin

deep”.In an interview, Adichie once mentioned that “beauty does not solve any problem”

(Louisiana Channel 2014) and when considering the fact that Obinze does not select the most

beautiful girl in school, but instead Ifemelu, there seems to be an underlying message that

beauty does not necessarily promise success.

154

Via Ifemelu, Adichie discusses that the prevalence of straight hair and a fair skin color

play a dominant and valuable role in the lives of many Nigerian women. The appropriation of

whiteness and the beauty ideals and standards dictated by the West seem to be entrenched in

the mentality of these women. However, Ifemelu learns to negotiate her way through the

fangs of the homogenous expression of white beauty because she discovers a beauty ideal,

which lends itself to naturalness and thus refutes modification. The depiction of beauty

through the eyes of Ifemelu illustrates Adichie’s criticism towards the mentality of many

women living in Nigeria and centers that there is a need for change.

3.1.14. Sexuality Norms

This first brief description stresses and anticipates Ifemelu’s attitude towards sex. “They

kissed, pressed their foreheads together, held hands. His kiss was enjoyable, almost heady”

(Adichie ,49). In Americanah, Adichie gives an insight about sexuality in a Christian and

patriarchal society. She introduces that change is conceivable in terms of how Ifemelu

manages and lives her sexuality. Ifemelu, riven between Christian doctrine and modernity

attains a new understanding of her own sexuality. Female sexuality is a highly controversial

topic in many parts of Africa. Although sexuality is an individual’s private and personal

domain, in Christianity, for instance, a woman’s sexuality has been dictated and prescribed

since the story of Eve. Christianity, which is mostly based on a patriarchal power structure,

often educates girls and women that their body is a temptation to men and that it is their

responsibility to minimize a man’s path to ruin (Adichie “Feminist 2013). Since virginity

mostly defines a woman’s virtue, girls are expected to cherish their virginity as the main

currency into a ‘man’s heart’ and thus a successful marriage. In case sexual intercourse occurs

before marriage, women are usually responsible for contraception and must live with the

consequences of pregnancy, which mostly ostracizes them and curtails their opportunity of

marriage.

Christianity plays a paramount role in Ifemelu’s socialization. Her mother changes from

one church to the next, yet each change instills within Ifemelu one underlying message,

namely that a woman must present her body appropriately. Here, male pastors tell her mother

how to wear her hair and that “jewellery, […] was ungodly, unbefitting a woman of virtue”

(Adichie,36). The fact that pastors control how women should present their bodies, suggests

155

how patriarchal some of the Christian teachings are. Nevertheless, not only men dictate how

women are supposed to behave but also women control each other and thus perpetuate the

workings of patriarchal power structures. Ifemelu’s encounter with the highly powerful Sister

Ibinabo, a woman seen as “the savior of young females” since she trained girls to be less

“troubled and troublesome” implies that judgment and contempt are existent among female

church members (Adichie, 40). Notorious for detecting when a girl was behaving “ungodly”,

Sister Ibinabo explicitly humiliates a young girl called Christie arguing

“I saw you wearing tight trousers last Saturday […]. Everything is permissible but not beneficial. Any girl that wears tight trousers wants to commit the sin of temptation. It is best to avoid it” (Adichie, 40).

This scene displays how women keep each other ‘in their place’. The fact that Sister

Ibinabo mentions that she saw this girl wearing tight fitted clothing on a non-church related

day, discloses how girls and women are under constant observation. Sister Ibinabo’s comment

“[e]verything is permissible but not beneficial” entails that a ‘good Christian girl’ is

supposed to know the rules and how to avoid male attention (Adichie, 40). Thus, her clothing

choice automatically concludes that she “want[ed] to commit the sin of temptation”, and

mislead men. Girls and women are not only subjected to the gaze of their religious

community but also that their body is highly objectified and sexualized. Consequently, if they

behave inappropriately, some form of public humiliation awaits them.

Thus, the scolded girl Christie is “humble, gracious [and] carri [es] her shame”

(Adichie, 40). It points out that girls are taught to feel shame of their body and sexuality,

which ultimately inhibits them to express their sexual desires and moreover robs them of

agency in their future sexual relationships. This scene shows how not only men but also

women in church sustain the perpetuation of patriarchal and misogynous power structures.

Sexuality represents a taboo subject in Ifemelu’s reality and is covered with the “cloak

of religion” (Adichie, 40). Her mother connects this natural introduction into womanhood

with the need of “virtue”. Hence, instead of offering her useful and detailed information about

the menstrual cycle, premenstrual syndrome and most importantly contraception, she hinders

communication and lectures Ifemelu about virginity and how to avoid offence towards God.

The fact that Ifemelu’s mother burns her sanitary pads connotes her subliminal aversion

towards womanhood and sexuality and suggests that menstruation is seen as tainting and the

156

destruction of its evidence (pads) offers her temporal purity (Adichie ,43). Her mother’s

“religious guidance” does not facilitate Ifemelu’s understanding of her changing body, instead

expects her daughter’s abstinence until marriage. This attitude creates a cleft between them,

which instigates Ifemelu to practice secrecy. Not only that her aunt secretly supplies her

with“James Hadley Chase novels wrapped in newspaper to hide the near-naked women on the

cover” (Adichie ,43) but also that her mother is unaware of her boyfriend, indicates that she

has mastered the art of pretense in order to avoid confrontation with her mother .

Since her mother condemns the talk of sexuality, Aunty Uju becomes the person Ifemelu

confesses her feelings for Obinze too. She plays a great role in Ifemelu’s education about her

sexuality and thus advises her “let him kiss and touch but not […] put it inside” (Adichie

,43).Even if this counsel illustrates Aunty Uju’s liberal point of view towards sex, Ifemelu

still has an unclear idea about intercourse. It is Obinze’s mother who fully educates her about

her responsibilities and also her rights. While in high school, Obinze and Ifemelu have been

dating for a while and, to Ifemelu’s surprise, his mother wants to meet her. Ifemelu finds it

“odd” that his mother is open towards their relationship (Adichie, 48). This lets Ifemelu

perceive that sexuality can be viewed as normal and not shameful and forbidden. The

scenario, which emphasizes this, takes place at another visit, where the mother leaves the

house for a shopping trip. Here both begin to get intimate yet the mother’s unexpected return

startles both. Immediately she suspects their deed and calls “Ifemelunamma, please come”

(Adichie ,56). Ifemelu, who expects to get the blame for their action, is surprised by the

mother’s words,

“If anything happens between you and Obinze, you are both responsible. But Nature is unfair to women. An act is done by two people, but if there are any consequences, one person carries it alone. Do you understand me?” (Adichie, 56).

Ifemelu is confronted with a reaction she does not anticipate from mothers. To her

surprise, she is not considered a pariah who misleads Obinze into temptation. Instead, this

conversation teaches her that both she and Obinze are equally accountable for their deed.

Even though, Obinze’s mother confronts Ifemelu with the reality of pregnancy and her

consequential responsibility, she does not reproach her with the “religious guidance” she is

used from her mother. Ifemelu, who initially feels shame for being caught in flagranti, finds

consolation, “absence of shame and “normalness” in Obinze’s mother’s words (Adichie ,57)

157

because she clarifies that virginity is not seen as a sign of virtue, a quality to please God and a

future husband. Instead, virginity is seen as the time space in which a woman learns to

appreciate and accept her own body so that she cannot be taken advantage of by the opposite

sex. Obinze’s mother encounters her with a relatable story which illustrates that her behavior

is human, normal and thus free from culpability.

Nevertheless, there is one point worthy of scrutiny. Obinze’s mother gives Ifemelu an

education on her rights and responsibilities and yet expects her to come to her before she

intends to get sexually active with Obinze. Meaning, her conversation with Ifemelu does not

give her practical information about contraception and more importantly sexually transmitted

diseases. Her tactic not only intends to establish a trust base with Ifemelu and Obinze but also

plans to wield power over both and hence can inhibit their sexual interaction. However,

during her University years Ifemelu and Obinze have intercourse without letting the mother

know. Ifemelu perceived her first time negatively since :

“she had imagined his mother watching them; the image forced itself onto her mind […]. She knew she could not possibly tell Obinze’s mother what had happened, even though she promised to, and had believed then that she would” (Adichie, 72).

The post- intercourse sex education Obinze’s mother gives, illustrates the criticism on sex

education in many Nigerian and African societies. Ifemelu notices that the mother’s “tone had

hardened, become censorious” (Adichie , 74).Her repeated use of “should” implies that

Ifemelu’s and Obinze’s actions are denounced because they should have been aware of safe

sex. They both are judged and condemned for their actions and the mother does not question

her own irresponsibility. If she had offered the information mentioned above the first time

Ifemelu and Obinze became intimate, both would have been more prepared. This scenario

lends itself to an African anecdote in which a daughter sits on the ground, with her legs

stretched out and crossed. The mother decides to leave her daughter for a longer period of

time and asks the daughter to promise her that no man should step over her crossed legs. A

few months later the mother returns to her pregnant daughter and when she asks what had

happened, the daughter tells her that no one has touched her .This anecdote highlights the lack

of detailed and explicit sex education in many African families since intercourse is often seen

as shameful and more often expected to be practiced after marriage. Critical points such as

sexually transmitted diseases are not thoroughly discussed, which leads to uninformed women

158

and men, a disconnection from one’s sexuality, unwanted pregnancy and in its unfortunate

cases life threatening diseases such as AIDS (3).

Even though Ifemelu is divided between the sexually oppressive teachings of her Church,

a more liberal take on sexuality and yet the lack of detailed and practical information, she still

becomes sexually empowered and takes her sexuality into her own hands. This becomes clear

when she privately meets up with Obinze for the first time. Usually men are expected to

‘chase’ a woman and thus initiate sexual contact. Nevertheless, to Obinze’s surprise, Ifemelu

asks him “Aren’t we going to kiss?” (Adichie, 49). When Obinze counters that he wants her

to think that he is only interested into her physical attributes, she pursues, “[w]hat about what

I want?” (Adichie,49). Ifemelu takes her sexuality into her own hands and must not pretend

coyness and passively await a man’s actions. Here again, Ifemelu does not abide by

prescribed gender expectations, instead she openly expresses her desires and embraces her

sexuality. Also her boyfriend Obinze admires her for this when he remembers:

“[o]ther girls would have pretended that they had never let another boy touch them, but not her, never her. There was a vivid honesty about her” (Adichie, 20).

Ifemelu is not apologetic for her being and does not compromise her femaleness and

sexuality. Ifemelu’s dual position between Christian doctrine and a more modern yet lacking

approach towards sexuality, underlines Adichie’s criticism on both the teachings of the church

but also society. Ifemelu manages to embrace and live her sexuality by working against what

is accepted and expected and here Adichie highlights that change is possible and that women

should take ownership of their sexuality. Also the need for sexuality to be targeted openly and

that women must not hide in the limited closet constructed by a patriarchal society and the

church .then, the first kiss between Ifemelu and Obinze is described in detail.

3.1.15. Love Quest

Ifemelu and Obinze’s relationship is based on love, respect and passion. Ifemelu’s

decision to move to the United States in order to go to university for further studies is the

most important decision in their life as it means a separation. As a strong character, Adichie

presents this young man with affection and tenderness; he is likeable from the very beginning.

Their relationship works perfectly until Ifemelu’s life takes a dramatic turn and she is

159

incapable of keeping up with any kind of romantic relation. In a way, Obinze offers her

maturity through life experience; he is the one who understands her better since he has gone

through a similar situation and acculturation process. Moreover, Obinze has also endured a

number of difficulties built up against him because of his condition as black. In the above

passage, even though Obinze is still in Nigeria, Ifemelu feels supported and understood by

him; he is the only one who can really perceive how she feels.

“He calmed her. With him, she could feel whatever she felt, and she did not have to force

some cheer into her voice, as she did with her parents [...]. She missed him.” (Adichie, 99)

This relationship is a clear reflection of the complicity and mutual understanding existing

within the African community. As Frantz Fanon admittedly indicates in Black Skin, White

Masks,

“the black man possesses two dimensions: one with his fellow Blacks, the other with the Whites. A black man behaves differently with a white man than he does with another black man.” (Fanon, 1).

This is due to the direct consequences of colonialism and white superiority imposed over

the black community. In Ifemelu’s case, her complicity with Obinze is made evident through

the whole novel: He is the one that can sympathise with her and acknowledge her struggles.

Thus, Ifemelu’s relationship with Obinze depicts the opportunity to explore in depth the

rapport within the African culture while at the same time it exposes the attitudes different

groups have towards ‘race’ with a mixture of ignorance, self-consciousness and fear.

Ifemelu finally goes back to Nigeria and recovers her relationship with Obinze. It is then

when we can finally see a ‘whole’ woman, ready to take up any challenge because she has

finally been reunited with the love of her life. This point, the end of the novel, becomes then

the closure of her search for an identity. After years of exploration, experiences and suffering,

she eventually realizes that there is nowhere like home; and that is what Obinze means to her:

home.

160

3.1.16. Cultural Clashes

Ifemulu encounters an alien culture once she arrives to America. The only way for her to

fit in is by adopting the foreign culture. Ifemelu is perplexed by the observations she makes

which are indicators of individuals straddling between two cultures. This is seen in language,

names and lifestyle. Her aunty Uju while in Africa was a true image of an African woman but

upon meeting her, Ifemelu is shocked to discover the American experience has

completely transformed her. She is shocked to hear her aunt identify herself over the

phone by pronouncing her name as you-joo instead of oo-joo (9).

Further, Aunty Uju switches from her accent to a new one to impress the white .

Ifemelu describes the newly acquired accent as “…nasal, sliding accent she put on when

she spoke to white Americans, in the presence of white Americans, in the hearing of

white Americans. Pooh-reet-back” (108). Here Ifemelu notes “And with the accent emerged

a new persona…” (108).The same reflects in a Guinean braider who tells Ifemelu “Ama

like, Oh Gad, Az someh” (9).Translated to mean “Oh God, I was so mad.” This portrays

America as a place that puts a lot of pressure on immigrants to adopt an American

identity.

Cristina Tomas is a receptionist at the International Students Office who serves foreign

students in Ifemelu’s university. When giving them directions she pauses after every word.

Tomas is conformed to the wrong image that foreign students do not understand

English because she has heard them speak with a foreign accent. This is illustrated

when she tells Ifemelu:

I.Need.You.To.Fill.Out.A.Couple.Of.Forms.Do.You.Understand.How.To.Fill.These.Out.

(133).

Cristina’s mode of communication projects the notion that the white man’s language is of

high status and the Africans cannot speak English and Africa is ravaged by disease and

poverty. Examples of these statements made by whites are “You speak such good English.

How bad is AIDS in your country? It’s so sad that people live on less than a dollar a day in

Africa” (133). The comments made by Americans reflect the experience Chimamanda Ngozi

underwent the first time she attended university in America.

161

3.1.17.Identity and Hybridity

Ifemelu uses her blog to adjust to American society, and to make a career for herself. She

also maintains her original cultural identity through the blog, posting about the hair products

she uses and the way she dries her hair to celebrate its natural kinkiness. She comes to

celebrate her cultural heritage and her femininity. She uses her blog to interact with her

readers, frequently asking for their experiences or opinions and receiving feedback from

them. Elias and Lemish argue that this interaction contributes to the immigrant’s social

empowerment:

“The [I]nternet [serves] as a forum for public discourse on issues related to immigrants’ painful experiences, usually excluded from the mainstream [. . .] media, thus contributing to the immigrants’ empowerment” (535).

“Americanah!” Ranyinudo teased her often. “You are looking at things with American eyes. But the problem is that you are not even a real Americanah. At least if you had an American

accent we would tolerate your complaining!”(Adichie,277)

They argue that immigrants often feel inferior to local residents, who appear to them as

self-confident and successful, and that the Internet helps them shape their identities, hence

becoming more self-confident themselves (540). This is noticeable in Ifemelu’s experience,

who feels insecure when she first arrives in America; unable to obtain a job, she accepts the

offer of a businessman who needs help relaxing. The work border on prostitution is something

Ifemelu normally would never have accepted, but in America, she has debts to pay, she has no

money and she is desperate. When she finally gets a decent job and starts her blog, Ifemelu

grows to be more secure. Her experience, however, is presumably not representative for all

black immigrant women. Ifemelu is both young, able to adapt, and educated. She is

furthermore a beautiful and charming woman, as is repeated several times throughout the

novel. She may not be as privileged as people like Kimberley and Curt, but she has a certain

162

class privilege. The experiences of immigrant women who cannot afford education or who are

not as beautiful and likeable may be very different.

After a decade Ifemelu decides to return to Nigeria. She feels a discontent in America,

which she describes as “cement in her soul. It had been there for a while, an early morning

disease of fatigue, a bleakness and borderlessness” (Adichie,10). This borderlessness is a

feature of hybridity. Ifemelu has become displaced; she no longer belongs to Nigeria or

America. Hybrid people become:

“border subjectivities, no longer reliant on fixed notions of home and identity to anchor them to a singular sense of self” (McLeod 254).

Throughout Ifemelu’s stay in America, she always feels as if something is missing. She

describes it as:

“[a] hunger, a restlessness. An incomplete knowledge of herself. The sense of something farther away, beyond her reach” (Adichie, 212).

Her memories of Nigeria become distorted: she can no longer remember the kiosk near

her old house and she thinks her old neighbourhood has become unsafe after there had been

an armed robbery, which could have happened everywhere. Ifemelu still feels a connection to

Nigeria, but it is no longer her home:

“On the one hand, Nigeria lacks jobs, university opportunities and equality between sexes; on the other hand, it is the familiar territory in which they know how to face adversities. In a state of permanent hesitation, they wish to stay in the United States and return to Africa at the same time” (Braga and Gonçalves, 2).

Braga and Gonçalves argue that it is difficult for the characters in Adichie’s stories to feel

fully at home in their new countries:

163

“For these protagonists, undoubtedly, the transnational identification is made harder by the invisibility that arises from gender and race affiliations” (Braga and Gonçalves, 6).

Ifemelu will never feel at home in America, not only because she is not born there, but

also because people will always treat her differently because of the colour of her skin. It takes

Ifemelu a while to realise that she actually longs to return to Nigeria. She is starting to

imagine Nigeria as the place where she should be. However, when she finally returns to her

home country, Nigeria is not how she remembers it. She has been living in the Nigerian

diaspora, which has turned her notion of home into an unstable mental product. Ifemelu’s

home town must have changed in the years that she has been abroad, but she herself has also

changed, which makes her look at Nigeria in a different way: “She was no longer sure what

was new in Lagos and what was new in herself” (Adichie, 278). Carine Mardorossian argues

that diaspora identities are no longer fixed on binary notions, but instead have become

perpetually mobile, as is the definition of a hybrid identity:

“Her identity is no longer to do with being but with becoming” (16).

3.1.18. Blogging as a Non-American Black

An important part of the novel is Ifemelu’s blog, “Raceteenth or Various Observations

About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known As Negroes(4)) by a Non-American Black”,

of which various posts follow chapters throughout the novel. The posts range from subject as

Michelle Obama and WASPS (5), to American tribalism and hair products. The blog quickly

becomes successful, receiving comments and even donations. Ifemelu is invited to speak at

various events and being paid for it. The blog helps her to make a living, to become

successful. Ifemelu’s racial awareness is the main subject of the blog:

“Without creating any hierarchies, blog writing is enfolded in the novel, hosting most – if not all – social commentary” (Guarracino ,14).

164

The blog functions as a way of giving direct critique to matters of race, without being

disguised as fiction. Ifemelu is able to write her blog because she is an outsider. She is

African, not African American, which gives her a certain privilege. Shan, an African

American girl in the novel, says about Ifemelu:

“‘She’s writing from the outside. She doesn’t really feel all the stuff she’s writing about. It’s all quaint and curious to her. So she can write it and get all these accolades and get invited to give talks. If she were African American, she’d just be labelled angry and shunned’” (Adichie,245).

The novel also depicts a certain tension between Africans and African Americans. Before

Ifemelu came to America, race never existed for her. It had never been a barrier in Nigeria,

and only when it became a barrier, she noticed its existence. She grows to be very conscious

of race and makes a living writing about it, but she is not burdened by America’s racial

history in the same manner as African Americans. Ifemelu is seen by her African American

friends as “not sufficiently furious because she [is] African, not African American” (Adichie

,251).

Much like Ifemelu is able to write about race because of her origin, Adichie is able to

write Americanah. She is able to observe and write about race because she knows what it is

like to be treated differently because of her skin colour without it being complicated by her

being African American. Adichie herself says:

“[T]here is a certain privilege in my position as somebody who is not an American, who is looking in from the outside. When I came to the U.S., I became fascinated by the many permutations of race, especially of blackness, the identity I was assigned in America. I still am fascinated” (Williams).

Her outside perspective unravels race as a social construct, not a universal truth. The blog

posts not only invite the reader to join the conversation about race, but they also open that

same conversation. The novel sheds a new light on the way race is treated in America,

because it often remains ignored in the American society.

165

3.1.19.Maturity and Pan Africanism through Education

Blaine appears in Ifemelu’s life as a saviour, the Yale professor who knows everything

about fighting for black people’s rights and who tries to change her from a passive observer

into an activist. Nonetheless, the fact that he is African American puts him in a distanced

position in relation to Ifemelu; due to his education and his high intellectual faculties he is

responsible for presuming that he knows everything about the Third World. This behaviour,

therefore, becomes an indirect way of racism – Blaine criticises her for writing a Blog on race

but not actively fighting against racial injustice. Ifemelu finally accepts that his anger is

originated from the fact that he is not a true African and he cannot relate to her as a Nigerian

immigrant born outside the U.S. As with her other relationships with men, this one also

reflects the African American view of African immigrants and their subtle racism covered by

hypocrisy.

“He knew about everything: she was intimidated by this and proud by this and slightly repelled by this. [...] He would be a perfect father, this man of careful

disciplines”. (Adichie, 384)

At University, for example, Africans and African Americans very often fail to forge strong

relationships – a fact that they blame on ancestry, ethnicity and culture:

“Try and make friends with our African-American brothers and sisters in a spirit of true pan-Africanism. But make sure you remain friends with fellow Africans, as this will help you keep your perspective. [...] The African Americans who come to our meetings are the ones who write poems about Mother Africa and think every African is a Nubian queen. If an African American calls you a Mandingo or a booty scratcher, he is insulting you for being African. Some will ask you annoying questions about Africa, but others will connect with you”. (Adichie, 106).

This intricate relationship between African Americans and Africans is a major issue dealt

with in the novel that must be regarded from a historical point of view. To start with, it is

crucial to consider the Middle Passage as one of the most direct influences on this ‘modern’

relationship established between these two different groups – it is a tragic part of history that

inevitably modified Africans’ identities to the point that many of them did not find their place

in the world. As Anyidoho points out ;

166

“The total number of Africans lost to the slave trade will never be accurately determined, but even the most modest estimates are staggering” (Anyidoho, 6).

The victims of this phenomenon include those who died, those forced out of their homes

and also those who were left behind. As Anyidoho clearly states in The Pan African Ideal in

Literatures of the Black World, in order to protect themselves,

“it is perhaps understandable that the vast majority of Africans at home and abroad have blocked out of their consciousness the slave trade and its disastrous consequences” (Anyidoho, 9).

The Pan-African ideal, on the other hand, is proved unattainable since it is almost

impossible for all blacks to come together and leave their differences behind: Pan Africanism

(6) has frequently taken the form of specific local struggles against racial discrimination,

oppression and material deprivation. However, participants in these local struggles need to

have an awareness of being part of a larger worldwide activity involving black people

everywhere, with the various segments having obligations and responsibilities to each other.

The relationship established between Ifemelu and Blaine is an example of the different

points of views that both cultures have regarding blackness and ‘race’. African Americans

have always been viewed as second-class American citizens, a fact that deeply affects their

identities. Their ‘homelessness’ – the lack of roots, home, family - is a result of the great

repercussion. Why is the relationship between Africans and African Americans so complex?

Are they not supposed to share a common past which involves a common source of suffering

and a shared sense of struggle? The people from Africa tend to view America as the promised

land, a place for new opportunities which will bring them success and money. However, black

Americans do not welcome Africans as their own people. Afro-Americans focus their

attention on Africa as their place of heritage, their stolen home, and the idyllic homeland from

where they should have never been taken away. This is why, in a moment of lost identity,

many African Americans make the decision to go back to their roots in order to explore what

was left behind.

Many others, though, wonder whether this journey back has produced even more

confusion than revelation and discoveries for:

167

“there is a sense in which it is probably safer to remain a lost child among the alien crowd of the diaspora than to recross the Middle Passage back to ancestral time and place only to discover that you cannot recognize yourself among the ancestral faces” (Anyidoho, 35).

Instead of remaining a lost –but safe- child among the alien crowd of the diaspora,

Ifemelu opts for returning home. She has become a true American while at the same time she

is still an expert on Nigeria; therefore, she is a ‘hybrid’ torn between two different cultures

that have shaped her identity in different moments of her life. Thus, Ifemelu is an

Americanah who perfectly depicts the blending of the African and American cultures and the

intricacies, ambivalences and ambiguities of this combination. On many occasions,

immigrants go back to their countries because they do not find the sense of wholeness they

were looking for. Moreover, they might also feel they have not succeeded and, therefore, feel

the need to return to their roots in order to feel complete. Nevertheless, this is not the case of

Ifemelu. The protagonist has definitely succeeded in the United States – she is a famous

blogger, with a good salary and a good lifestyle. Ifemelu’s return is due to the fact that she

fails to accomplish a sense of wholeness and hence, her “quest for wholeness and coherence

through a knowledge of the true self” (Anyidoho,32) remains and yet unfulfilled.

Consequently, Ifemelu’s relationship with Blaine demonstrates that the stories and

experiences of African Americans do not parallel Ifemelu’s reality. As Adichie clearly

exposes in the novel, the transformation and the incorporation of this ‘Americanness’

presented previously, are indispensable factors in the quest for survival in the U.S. Thus, we

can affirm that Adichie intends to prove that identity is both self-selected and also attributed

to oneself by others, by the community that surrounds us.

3.1.20. Black Women Self Empowerment

For the African woman in America, the environment dictates the need to strike a balance

between a foreign identity and one’s personality. Ifemelu struggles to fit in, yet in the long run

she is integrated into American culture by adopting certain aspects she deems necessary while

at the same time retaining strong aspects of the African culture. On the other hand although

Aunty Uju leans heavily towards American culture, Ifemelu remains focused by

retaining a strong sense of Africanness. A good example is seen when she drops her fake

American accent and decides to speak in Nigerian West African English.

168

In order to break silences on racial discrimination faced by black people Ifemelu

sets up a blog. This becomes the most powerful tool in confronting racism since it acts as a

form of resistance that rejects stereotyping of Africans. The blog is used as a mode of

communicating among black people urging them to resist racism. . The blog plays a

therapeutic role in that the posts dissect and analyze experiences ranging from racism

to hair issues. Ifemelu ends up gaining voice and speaks for people of African descent

especially women. She lets the African woman speak for herself and not be spoken for by the

white female.

In addition to this Chimamada Adichie deconstructs the myth of African kinky hair and

reconstructs new ideas. Adichie does by using the character Wambui a fellow African student

and classmate to Ifemelu to educate Ifemelu on taking pride in cropping natural hair. Wambui

advizes Ifemelu to cut her hair and go natural and tells her:

“Relaxing hair is like being in a prison. You are caged in. Your hair rules you…You are always battling your hair to do what it wasn’t meant to do. If you go natural and take good care of your hair, it won’t fall like it’s doing now. I can help you cut it right now. No need to think about it too much.” (Adichie ,154)

Ifemelu responds to work-related racial discrimination as one way of protesting for not

being registered for a job at the school fair due to her immigrant status. By excelling in her

studies, she ends up getting a fellowship at Princeton and emerges successful both in

her profession and blog.

In response to stereotyping by female White Americans like Cristina Thomas,

Ifemelu collapses the stereotype that speaking with a foreign accent means one cannot

speak English. Ifemelu describes her initial encounter with Cristina Thomas as one that made

her shrink.

“She says: … when her eyes met Cristina Thomas’s before she took the forms, she shrank. She shrank like a dried leaf… she should not have cowered and shrunk, but she did. And in the following weeks, as autumn’s coolness descended, she began to practice an American accent. (Adichie,101)

169

After practicing an American accent and perfecting it, she started speaking with this

fake American accent which resulted in her getting comments like ‘You sound totally

American.’(175) Ifemelu is filled with glee as she ponders that:

“she had won; Cristina Tomas, pallid-faced Cristina Tomas under whose gaze she had shrunk like a small, defeated animal, would speak to her normally” (Adichie,131).

For Ifemelu, she felt a sense of triumph for proving Cristina wrong. However,

her sense of victory is taken a notch higher when she decides to drop the fake

American accent and speaks in her natural Nigerian English. This denotes the need to

retain her identity. Therefore, by reverting to her natural Nigerian accent Ifemelu responds to

the challenges of being stereotyped.

Aunty Uju who is confronted by racism in her residence at Warrington and in

her profession as a doctor also tackles it in two ways. First, she relocates with her son Dike to

a town named Willow. This move signifies an environment which is conducive in that it is

described as a friendly neighborhood. This is suggestive of residents who are not racists.

Secondly, in regard to her profession she joins Africa Doctors for Africa as a

volunteer and would take two week medical missions to places like Sudan. This is an

indicator of a tie to Africa where her services are needed and appreciated.

Male superiority is shaken off as a mountain on Aunty Uju’s back when she comes to a

point in her life where she chooses to end her relationship with Bartholomew. Aunty Uju

transforms from being an African woman who is docile and submissive. She realizes her full

potential and resists further exploitation by Bartholomew. She finds her voice and is able

to tell Bartholomew off and ends the relationship. This bears fruit when she gets into

a new relationship with Kweku, a Ghanaian doctor, who Ifemelu describes as “a

gentleman and a gentle man” (Adichie ,219).

In this case, there is a comfortable environment even though both women come from the

same continent, and, therefore, share a past. Ifemelu is a very independent woman with a very

strong character; she does not follow any conventions as many other women might do: she

believes in herself and does not pay much attention to other people’s opinions about her

choices. Moreover, Ifemelu’s interaction with Aisha – the girl who is braiding her hair –

demonstrates the controversy and intricacy within transnational relationships and between

170

“Nigerians in America, among Africans in America and, indeed among immigrants in

America” (Adichie, 17). This need to feel superior and adapted to the American culture is

clearly manifested in the urgency for Ifemelu to lie about her experience in America and the

amount of years she has been living there when asked by Aisha:

“Ifemelu took her time putting her phone back into her bag. Years ago, she had been asked a similar question, at a wedding of one of Aunt Uju’s friends, and she had said two years, which was the truth, but the jeer on the Nigerian’s face had taught her that, to earn the prize of being taken seriously [...] she needed more years. Six years, she began to say when it was just three and a half. Eight years, she said when it was five. Now that it was thirteen years, lying seemed unnecessary but she lied anyway. “Fifteen years,” she said. (Adichie, 17).

On the other hand, going back to the moment when the protagonist begins to settle down

in the United States, she meets a group of people at university who are part of the African

Students Association. The following passage manifests Ifemelu’s feelings towards the other

African people living in an American community: They mimicked what Americans told them:

“You speak such good English. How bad is AIDS in your country? It’s so sad that people live on less than a dollar a day in Africa.”(Adichie,105)

Indeed, they themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they

felt safe to mock, “Ifemelu felt a gentle, swaying sense of renewal. Here she did not have to

explain herself”. (Adichie, 105).

It is made evident that, there exists a strong relationship within the African community in

the U.S. Nonetheless, this relationship is directly affected by factors of social class and gender

as well - it is not the same for Ifemelu to relate to African people who go to university with

her than to feel somewhat connected to the women who work at the braiding salon and are

evidently less educated than her. Soon after moving to the United States, Ifemelu starts a blog:

Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known As

Negroes) by a Non-American Black. This blog, which acquires a large number of followers,

features various posts that depict the experiences of African immigrants in the U.S. Through

her writing, Ifemelu is able to express her opinions on ‘race’ in a very straightforward

manner. In a way, it allows her to express her feelings freely, without having to think about

171

what other people would say about her; it is also a way of helping others in her position by

telling her experiences in a bitter-sweet way.

Moreover, this blog is the perfect opportunity for Adichie to make some of the most

relevant remarks in the novel; by combining Ifemelu’s commentaries on hypocrisy and

intolerance with her experiences as an immigrant, she manages to throw a sharp critique on

our modern society:

“Before she finally fired her, my aunt said, :“Stupid woman, she thinks she’s white.” So, whiteness is the thing to aspire to. Not everyone does, of course (please, commenters, don’t state the obvious) but many minorities have a conflicted longing for WASP whiteness or, more accurately, for the privileges of WASP whiteness. They probably do not really like pale skin but they certainly like walking into a store without some security dude following them”. (Adichie, 152).

3.1.21. Conclusion

By interpreting Americanah , one can notice the different hard and harsh experiences

against African women .Through carrying out a close reading of the novel using up the

feminist theoretical framework with a focus on African feminism which was relevant in

analyzing oppression of African women .Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie depicts the struggles

of diverse African women in Nigeria and America. All these women irrespective of their

class have to face the oppressive nature. However through the protagonist who is

transformed from one who experiences marginalization into one who overcomes it, it

signals hope for the African woman in general. She creates awareness on experiences of

Nigerian women at home or abroad in a global context. The fact that her female

characters end up not as victims but victors when faced by these challenges; she

provides solutions on how to get out of these situations. Therefore, we conclude that

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a truly committed female African writer.

Notes to Part One

172

(1) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie : was born on 15 September 1977. She is a Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction. Adichie published a collection of poems in 1997 (Decisions) and a play (For Love of Biafra) in 1998.Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), received wide critical acclaim; it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (2004) and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (2005). Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), it received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Her third novel, Americanah (2013), was selected by The New York Times as one of "The 10 Best Books of 2013".

(2) Kinky hair is the natural hair texture of certain populations in Africa, the African diaspora, Oceania and in some parts of South and Southeast Asia. Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny, angle-like helix shape. The overall effect is such that, compared to straight, wavy or curly hair, kinky hair appears denser. In many post-Columbian, Western societies, adjectives such as "wooly", "kinky", "nappy", or "spiralled" have frequently been used to describe natural afro-textured hair

(3) AIDS: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) .A disease of the immune system due

to infection with HIV. HIV destroys the CD4 T lymphocytes (CD4 cells) of the immune system, leaving the body vulnerable to life-threatening infections and cancers. A person with HIV must have an AIDS-defining condition .

(4) Negroes: Negro (plural Negroes) is a dated term historically used to denote persons

considered to be of Negroid heritage. The term can be construed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region where it is used. Negro superseded colored as the most polite word for African Americans at a time when black was considered more offensive.

(5) WASPS : White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) are a social group of wealthy and well-connected white Americans, of Protestant and predominantly British ancestry, who trace their ancestry to the American colonial period. Until at least the 1960s, this group has dominated American society and culture and dominated in the leadership of the Whig and Republican parties. They usually are very well placed in major financial, business, legal and academic institutions and had close to a monopoly of elite society due to intermarriage and nepotism. During the latter half of the twentieth century, outsider ethnic and racial groups grew in influence and WASP dominance weakened. Americans are increasingly criticizing the WASP hegemony and disparaging WASPs as the epitome of "the Establishment". The Random House Unabridged Dictionary (1998) says the term is "Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive".The term WASP is often used as a pejorative to classify their historical dominance over the financial, cultural, academic, and legal institutions of the United States. Sociologists sometimes use the term very broadly to include all Protestant Americans of Northern European or Northwestern European ancestry regardless of their class or power.

(6) Panafricanism : It is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based on a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States. It is based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress and aims to "unify and uplift" people of African descent. The ideology asserts that the fate of all African peoples and countries are intertwined. At its core Pan-Africanism is a belief that African peoples, both on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny.

Part Two

Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New

India (2011): Cultural and Gender

Issues

173

3.2.1 .Introduction

Bharati Mukherjee is an Indian diasporic writer who succeeded to include her name

among the main stream American writers. She is a writer of Indian origin who presents

women Indians as protagonists in her fiction. Her novels generally narrate about female

Indians who struggle and transgress to construct their self-identity. Most of her novels are

written in the American backdrop. Mukherjee’s recent novel, Miss New India, the last of the

trilogy consisting of others two, Desirable Daughters (2002) and Tree Bride (2004) broke up

her usual background of writing, since it is written in the Indian one. Miss New India offers a

full range of experience of the Indian woman who though rooted in customs mainly

patriarchy , is strongly dedicated to re-defining her role and her connection to various

associations of the society in the light of modern thought and consciousness. Identification

and admiration of the prospective of ‘self-contained individuality of woman’ with all its

anguish, conflicts and challenges ,are in the core of her last novel. Mukherjee, through Miss

New India, defends a dignified life for women and rejects the conservative dominance of any

conventional society via her young female protagonist.

3.2.2. Mukherjee’s Fiction

Bharati Mukherjee (1) is one of the earliest and most successful women writers of the

Indian diaspora. She is widely known as immigrant writers of America, settled in Canada and

then in the United States of America. Her works deal with Indians coming to terms with

America and its melting – pot culture, including her Canadian experience with an ongoing

quest from expatriation to immigration. In her works, she is concerned with the life of South-

Asian immigrants / expatriates in the United States of America. She is also concerned with the

problems of multiculturalism and foreignness of self. Mukherjee, in her writings, paid

importance to the condition of the Indian women immigrants in America. Her stories are

about psychological transformation, especially among women immigrants from Asia. Her

attitude to immigration, multiculturalism and the foreignness of self has changed over years.

She had felt herself an exile or an expatriate and then she felt that America’s melting-pot

approach to imagination was better than Canada’s stance on multi-culturalism. She is

obsessed by the experience of immigration, multiculturalism and the feeling of foreignness of

self in her works. Bharati Mukherjee's literary career can be conveniently divided into three

174

stages as the phase of Expatriation (from 1972 to 1979), the phase of Transition (from 1980 to

1988) and finally the phase of Immigration (from 1989 onwards).

“I am an American writer of Indian origin, not because I‟m ashamed of my past, not because I'm betraying or distorting my past, but because my whole adult life has been lived here, [...] That is very important. I am saying that the luxury of being a U.S. citizen for me is that can define myself in terms of things like my politics, my sexual orientation or my education. My affiliation with readers should be on the basis of what they want to read, not in terms of my ethnicity or my race.” (Mukherjee qtd. in Basbanes 11th June, 2014)

Bharati Mukherjee has vividly portrayed female psyche in her novels. Each female

character represents different characteristic of feminism. The female protagonists of her

novels are caught between two different cultures and ideologies. In her novels the woman

character takes different path to search her identity and independence. The women characters

of her novels are brought up in traditional culture and then with their migration they suddenly

confront the new modern culture of the host land which creates conflict in their life. On the

host land they cannot completely detach themselves from their original identity and culture

and even they do not find their place and self identity on the host land. Bharati Mukherjee

artistically portrays difficulties and struggles which are faced by third world countries women

in the new land.

Bharati Mukherjee in almost all her novels reveals female experience of women who are

self actualizing. They all experience cultural shock, constant pressure leading to emotional

stress. Quest for the definition of self and search for identity are the main features of her

female characters who are seen caught in the flux of tradition and modernity. Neither can they

completely detach themselves from their past and nor do they have any certitude in the future.

Mukherjee‘s characters with different socio-cultural experiences relate to a process involving

complex negotiation and exchange. Mukherjee always has a concern that the new identity

should not suffer from marginalization and suppression from any society. To avoid such

circumstances she portrays her characters with qualities like individualism, independence,

courage and decisiveness. Her fiction draws an outline to make people understand the trauma

and agony which the women are subjected to in a male-centric set up. Her protagonists are not

presented as sufferers. Her women characters in fact forge new tactics to overcome the misery

and oppression along with their devastating and shattering after-effects.

175

Dissimilar to the images of Indian woman as silent victims dominated by patriarchal and

global norms of subjugation and repression, images of women in Bharati Mukherjee’s

writings have undergone a categorical makeover from interpretations of self-sacrificing

women towards self asserting and self-defining women within the broader structure of social

sphere and various identities. It is refreshing to see in her novels a realistic portrayal of issues

central to woman’s status and identity as well as a continuous yearning on the part of women

protagonists for widening the horizons of their existence and action from domestic to public

environment. Be it the journey for self-discovery or challenging the traditional and

stereotypical characters and disparities or the urge to go above domestic limits, the women

presented in the recent female writings seem to enquire all that limits or restricts their dreams,

desires and aspirations, though their attempts do not always meet with success and sometimes

even land them up in utter chaos and anarchy.

“Many Indian women novelists have explored female subjectivity in order to establish an identity of their own as well as to raise the voice of women in Indian traditional society” (Bijalwan Richa ,2013 :151).

It is the image of an emerging and struggling woman with no clearly defined path or

destiny and hence the usual share of pain, anguish, sorrow, conflicts and the humility to

accept failures. But over and above everything, the most significant aspect in these

contemporary novels is that rather than depicting any homogenous, confining or essential

image of a new woman, they try to project her numerous roles, aspirations and images,

conscious of her rights and responsibilities, sometimes falling victim to the gleam of modern

life , at other times effectively breaking through the traditional barriers and yet other times

marching ahead with all her limitations to an unknown path of realizing her full potential as

an independent human being.

Mukherjee’s novels exhibit her characters’ feeling of nostalgia - longing to belong to the

lost home/world. They unravel the disillusionment of immigrants and expatriates. They show

the female psyche as a fragmented one. In fact, women’s psyche is caught between

assimilation and negation. In the same manner, belonging to one’s own native culture, while

living in an alien land, is presented as something to be totally shunned. Mukherjee’s novels

176

also include cultural hybridity, and the third space of enunciation, which are really the hall-

marks of the post-colonial condition of existence and human perception. Mukherjee has

authored works such as The Tiger’s Daughter (1971), Wife (1975), Days and Nights in

Calcutta (1977), Darkness (1985), The Middleman and Other Stories (1988), Jasmine (1989),

The Holder of the World (1993), Leave it To Me (1997), Desirable Daughters (2002), The

Tree Bride (2004), and Miss New India (2011). Miss New India is a novel full of contrasts as

India itself; the contrast between the old and the new, between dedication to the family and

dedication to the self, between the comfort of what is familiar and the pull of modernization.

All her novels like Jasmine, Wife, Tiger’s Daughter, Tree Bride, Desirable Daughters;

and Miss New India are centered on a female protagonist who is none but her

autobiographical projections of herself. Born in Indian society she has been a direct witness to

the restrictions and atrocities inflicted upon women in Indian patriarchal society. She was well

aware of limited future prospects for Indian women as they are governed by Indian

mythological values. In such a background, she could realize the problems and dilemma of

the emerging class of a young girl who is decked with western education and whose

conscience is simultaneously formed and nourished by the conservative norms and values. Dr

DNR Chandra writes: Like Anita Desai, Kamala Markandey, Shashi Despande , Nayantara

Sehgal,

RP Jabwala and Geeta Hariharan, Mukherjee exposes many facets of feminism encompassing

agitation for equal opportunity, sexual autonomy and right to self determination. Miss New

India gives us a picture of India as we have never truly seen it before, as country up-to-date--

and as traditional---as many places in the world (2013:2)

3.2.3. Miss New India Title Understanding

Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011), the third novel in the trilogy, was entitled initially

Bangalore by the Bay (Edwards 176). It is a tale of Anjali Bose, who set off to Bangalore

from a backwater town, Gauripur, to complete her dream. It is like a move to a new country.

She reinvents herself as an American Angie by imitating American sound. Mukherjee is

intrigued by the phenomenal changes in India.

The title Miss New India is very significant. Mukherjee tries to expose the concept of too

different Indias---first one which she has realized in her early childhood life full of social

177

bondage and restrictions and second one which is at present including a lot of global

opportunities which are available for a woman to grow and make some space/identity for

herself in all walks of life. In ‘old India’ women/girls are restricted to the four walls of

houses. Their behaviors are in a desired manner which is encircled by the social/mythological

norms of the society. In ‘old India’ women do not cross the border lines or ‘laxman rekha’ (2)

of etiquettes and morality linked with the patriarchal society but in the novel Miss New India

these two facets of old India and new India have been discussed explicitly.

Sonali Das, Anjali’s elder sister may be considered as the representative of traditional

woman in traditional India who has been married with a man chosen by her father. On the

other hand, Anjali Bose, the protagonist is representative of new India who not only throws

off the traditional barriers but also crosses the boundaries of her house to the exceptional

limits of the society to make her future bright and vibrant.

The novel Miss New India draws a picture of India, which has never been seen earlier, as

a country up-to-date, and as traditional as many other places in the world. Mukherjee engages

the readers in a vintage plot: A small town girl reaches a big city getting rid of the old

conventional ways and discovers her space, her new identity, the identity of being an

unrestricted, smart and charming modern girl with an American accent. This transplant is also

represented via the change in her name which becomes Angie from Anjali. This makes her

feel that she is part of the bold and a new India because in ‘old India’ women’s behaviors are

coded by the family and are encircled by the social, religious, historical and mythological

rules of the society they are living in.

3.2.4. Novel Criticism

Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee is an attention-grabbing and engrossing work as

far as engagement with diverse images of women is concerned. Her protagonist offers a full

range of experience of the emerging Indian woman who though rooted in customs, is strongly

dedicated to re-defining her role and her connection to various associations of the society in

the light of modern thought and consciousness. One can find in her works identification and

admiration of the prospective of ‘self-contained individuality of woman’ with all its anguish,

conflicts and challenges. Bharati Mukherjee’s writings re-define feminism and reject the

conservative dominance of conventional society and suppression.

178

The pioneering methods, in which the fiction by Bharati Mukherjee seizes one’s

attention towards the effects of the exploited women, are reflective of the peculiar challenges

that the women who have been subjected to brutality and biasness, face in sharing their

experiences. She potently records the gendered troubles of women who bear violence and

mal-treatment. Rita Fleski 1989, in her book Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature

and Social Change, says,

“The problems which women share as women can serve an important critical function in making women more aware of and less amenable to their own exploitation.” (169)

Miss New India has said to be a reflection of Bharati Mukherjee’s true own experience

and life, she had no brothers and her father has only two girls. Fleski’s standpoint of

Mukherjee seems true as Mukherjee documents her individual experience in all her novels

with authorial neutrality. The novel develops as Mukherjee transfers her consideration from

social interpretation to the details of Anjali understandings in Bangalore. She exhibits a

different feminist approach through her character; Devi points out:

“Mukherjee’s novels express the impulses of Indians, who, in their search for a better life, face the problems of adaptation and survival” (Radha Devi Sharma ,2016 : 244-245).

The critic ,J. Daniel White , professor of South Asian studies at the University of North

Carolina , goes on to say about Miss New India:

“Miss New India is like Bollywood in print. No dancing, no singing, but replete with themes

that animate the highly popular Indian films cranked out by the hundreds each year

throughout the Desi belt. The novel features dysfunctional families, failed arranged

marriages, sexual, psychological and social violence, and attempts to preserve some modicum

of what is commonly perceived as “traditional Indian values” in the midst of the

encroachment of imitations of Western — particularly American — social and cultural fads,

both among the young and the old in India’s middle class. Unlike Amulya Malladi’s The

Mango Season, a more sedate yet equally contemporary look at a modern Indian woman’s

rejection of parental decisions on the “suitable boy” (and its often more believable story

line), Mukherjee’s novel, while interesting, is encumbered by too many issues only

179

superficially explored. She flits from one problem to another without any depth or

believability, like the escapist scripts of Indian cinema” (14th June, 2011: 328)

3.2.5. Beauty Perception Beauty is subjective. The way different cultures define beauty across the globe could

not be any more different. Natural looking brows that are a bit on the thinner side, dramatic

eyes and almond-shaped eyes are loved in India. Indians love soft, round and feminine

features. English people often call Indians “Exotic”. Mukherjee presents her protagonist

Anjali with the conventional Indian beauty.

“At nineteen, Anjali Bose was a tall girl, one hundred and seventy- three centimetres – five foot eight- taller than most boys in her college. She was on the girl’s field hockey team. She smiled readily and when she did, she could light up a room like a halogen lamp. The conventional form of Indian feminist projects itself through long-lashed kohl- rimmed, startled black eyes. Modest women know to glance upward from a slightly bowed head. Anjali did not take the world with saucer eyed passivity”. (Mukherjee ,07)

“Unlike sonali , she was tall and slim, and under favorable light and clothing , pleasanr looking--- no ,make that passably good looking” (Mukherjee,20)

Through this narration Mukherjee has explicitly depicted what are the features of being an

Indian girl.

3.2.6. Education Perspectives No doubt, the female protagonist of Miss New India has to face many vicissitudes of

family life but she keeps abreast of all hurdles that come in her way in her marathon struggle

from seeking her identity in the Indian patriarchal society. She fights for their emancipation

and empowerment. Education that has been her revelation, has made these oppressed and

suppressed women aware not only of their duties but also of their rights. Mukherjee has been

dealing meticulously with this emancipated ‘new woman’ and her efforts to face challenges

and also how she, while living within the bonds of marriage, frees herself from the inhibitions

of society, culture, and her own conflicting emotions.

180

The novel opens with meeting of Anjali with her teacher Mr. Peter:

(dressed in T-shirt and jeans) with her teacher- cum-friend Mr. Peter Champion, at the outside of the Gauripur market near Pinky Mahal 'the town’s three storey monument to urban progress’. (Mukherjee 8)

All women of Gauripur are not educated or self employed, some of them work as

laborers during construction of Pinky Mahal ,

‘rows of women workers had threaded their way along single plank, balancing bowls of cement on their heads and then dumping the content in to plastic buckets’. (Mukherjee ,8).

Mr. Peter Champion asks her about her plan to go away from Gauripur to make her

future bright as Peter says: “the money isn’t my investment in you. My investment is you,

Anjali Bose.” (Mukherjee ,50) .But Anjali puts her foot back saying that her parents are

planning about her marriage as in Indian patriarchal society ‘family wedding and funerals are

incontestable duties and rituals of Indian life’. Mukherjee ridicules the traditional thinking

about education of women in which job or personal growth is not much important but to

increase marriage market value as ‘that B.Comm degree would increase her stock in the

marriage market .

The young, gifted and competent Anjali notices that her ambitions seem outsized and

gigantic because of her small town Gauripur, where she is born and brought up. She feels that,

“A job is the key to happiness, she calculated. A job brings respect and power. Money brings transformation. Stagnation creates doubt and tyranny” (Mukherjee ,110).

Anjali’s vigour and enthusiasm are given wings by Peter Champion, her American

expatriate teacher who tells her, “Bombay is yesterday. It’s a hustler’s city. Bangalore’s the

place for a young woman like you” (Mukherjee ,16). Anjali, being a girl with immense

potential, is his favourite student, and Peter requests her not to fall for a settled married life on

parents’ will, but to give wings to her dreams and move to Bangalore where she can put her

flair and aptitude to in the new economy. Peter emphasizes Anjali to move away from

Gauripur to emerge as a modern working girl in metropolis like Bangalore:

181

“He[Peter Champion] seemed about to put his hand on her arm and she felt excited: “I have dreams for you.You grt married to some boy from here, and the dream dies. You’ll never see the world”. He studied her T-shirt . “No…Dortmund, no Bratislava. You’ll have kids and a husband who’s jealous of your intelligence and your English and Won’t let you out of the house,and that would break my heart.” This time, he put his hand on her arm—“You understand?” (Mukherjee ,18)

“I told you at graduation you had to leave this place before you got trapped in the rotten marriage. I am telling you again, let that happen and you are as good as dead.” (Mukherjee,17)

Here, Mukherjee tries to condemn the early marriage system in Indian rural society, which

spoils career of their daughters.

3.2.7. Patriarchal Indian Society

Patriarchy as an ideology is deeply embedded in several societies, cultures, and

institutions as well as in the minds of men and women. Prejudices colored by patriarchy are

inherent in many traditions. Where tradition rules, institutions, cultures, social mechanisms,

norms, and practices tend to become resistant to change and hinder women's development.

Despite being ruled by such traditions, Indian history offers innumerable examples of protests

against such submission and domination. 'Patriarchy' is pervasive in India but varies in degree

depending on region, community, class, caste, and religious or social group. Therefore, in this

regard it would not be possible to generalize. Nevertheless, women face oppression in their

day-to-day life in all areas of living, mainly by men, whether they are leaders, members of

families, or others, or in agencies of the state. In sum, Indian women live within patriarchal

frameworks. Mukherjee in Miss New India has tackled patriarchal issues and how her

protagonist protests against that social hinder.

“Family Weddings and funerals are the incontestable duties and rituals of Indian life”

(Mukherjee, 11)

182

The novelist exposes her disapproval for early marriage through the story of Sonali and

Anjali. Basically, Mukherjee tries to condemn the patriarchal system which deprives women

to lead an independent life of their own. Anjali’s father Mr. Prafulla Bose, a railway clerk

plans for her marriage as she had completed her B. Comm. and attained marriageable age. He

calls various relatives and friends for a suitable match:

“To marry her off her father’s Hindu duty: Anjali accepted that.Given her willful personality, he was eager to marry her off before she sullied her reputation and and disgraced the whole family: she understood that too.She couldn’t talk about her wants and fear with her parents, but she knew when to humor and when to defy them” (Mukherjee,20)

In fact, in Indian patriarchal society daughter and her life are directly linked with the

honor of the family. In Indian society, girls are allowed to leave their home only as a bride

with a man selected by parents “A sudden marriage, outside of her control, could certainly

occur” (Mukherjee, 22) But Anjali does not want to marry as she realizes problems faced by

her own sister. When Anjali refuses for her marriage, her father gets angry and says:

“It is not a question of happiness, yours or ours. It’s about our name, our family reputation.”

(Mukherjee, 28)

Anjali has no right to decide about her won happiness, what is even worse, Anjali has no right

over herself ‘even, at nineteen:

“Her parents mandated that jeans and T-shirts could be worn only inside the house, early in the morning” (Mukherjee, 24)

Mukherjee, experiencing the truths of the Indian society, tries to explore the inner

conscience of aspiring girls who become the victims of early marriages and finish their

potential within four walls of the houses. Anjali is not allowed to think even about the

profession of her husband as Mr. Bose warns her:

“You think you can give ultimatum to your elders? May be I should marry you off to a village school teacher--- would you approve of that? Iron a dhoti under a banyan tree every morning … you think my family and my salary are not good enough for an actuary or a tooth puller (dentist)? ” (Mukherjee, 26).

183

In fact, Mukherjee herself admits in her interview:

“Her characters are a breed of pioneers who have the guts to forsake a predictable life in order to throw themselves in to a new one.” (Interview in The Indian Express Sunday magazine 2014 ).

The Bose family belongs to a remnant Bengali community and where there is a sea of

Hindi- speaking Biharis. This family has yet not recovered from the failed marriage of

Anjali’s elder sister. She is still smarting with the pain of the divorce and is somehow making

her ends and meets with a low-wage job. Mukherjee portrays this real situation of a girl

(through the character of Sonali) to explore the other facets of society where females after

giving approval for the man of their father’s choice got suffered and ruined their future for the

sake of so-called family reputation.

“It’s your fault”. Mrs.Bose charged her husband with this failure , reminding him of all the trouble with “ your other daughter” , reminding him of all Sonali’s prideful rejections of acceptable boys from reasonably good families” (Mukherjee,31)

It happens in all the societies where women are treated as inferior to men; humans are

comprehended as separate from and generally superior to the natural surroundings. Judith

Plant in the essay “Women and Nature” makes clear her point of view regarding the situation

of women in the society:

“Women have had no real power in the outside world, no place in decision-making. Intellectual life, the work of the mind, has traditionally not been accessible to women – due in part to society’s either/or mentality, coupled with a valuing of the spiritual over the natural. Women have been generally passive, as has been nature. (De Sunita Sinha ,11:2008)

Even after experiencing the trauma of loneliness that has dawned upon the elder sister

Sonali, the family does not fall back in pouring relentless pressure on the younger daughter of

the family to tie the knot and settle down with an earning, literate beast. Anjali, all the time,

has to face these opposing forces with a patriarchal fear in mind. On the one side, there is a

thought of getting a good match via the arranged marriage system and after that being settled

is not an unpleasant situation.

184

Sonali warns Anjali:

“Match making might start as a small cloud to the distant horizon, before it was over, the marital monsoon would break, and no one in the world could hold the flood waters back.” (18) Seeing the present life of Sonali ‘A divorced single mother supporting herself and her four years old daughter by working long days as an office typist’ (Mukherjee ,21)

Anjali ‘secretly looked forward to its destructive fury’ (Mukherjee, 21) Her father ‘admitting

the horrible mistake he made in hand picking Sonali’s husband’ (Mukherjee, 20). Yes,

Anjali’s father forces Anjali for her marriage.

“In the Bose family, a married woman forced by circumstances to hold a job to make both

ends meet was a tragedy’ (Mukherjee ,20) .It indicates that Bose family does not like to have

a lady of the family working. Literally, it means not allowing Anjali to go for a job in other

town or so. Daughters’ marriages become inevitable issues of Bose’s life ‘father’s Hindu

duty’. Girls are presented in such a manner like the selling of an object:

“Anjali’s chapatti would be smeared with extra ghee (fat) to enhance her radiance, and sweetmeats (such as raabri, rasmalai, rajbhog, expensive treats the Boses would but only when they had guest) heaped on her plate in the hope that she would add a little more weight in all her right places”. (Mukherjee, 25)

Finding a suitable Bengali Brahmin match is always a great problem and every parent is

ready to face this challenge. Mr. Bose says to his wife,

“I shall find a good boy this time. Your father wore out soles of his sandals looking and looking before he found me. I am prepared to do the same.” (Mukherjee ,25).

Mr. Bose continues the search and says his wife taking the sips of his whisky, “I am not

despairing yet of finding a suitable jamai. If your father could find someone like me, I can find

someone equally good.” (Mukherjee, 26). In the patriarchal traditional Hindu family, the

voices or wishes of daughters’ in selecting a boy for her lifetime are silenced. Anjali is not

even allowed to think of the profession of her becoming husband as Mr. Bose warns her:

“You think you can give ultimatum to your elders? May be I should marry you off to a village school teacher--- would you approve of that? Iron a dhoti under a

185

banyan tree every morning … you think my family and my salary are not good enough for an actuary or a tooth puller (dentist)? ” (Mukherjee, 26)

On the other hand, Anjali being graduate in commerce form Vasco de Gamma, a

reputed college of the town, has various other thoughts apart from restricting to only Bangla

advertisements as Mr. Bose searches always Bangla Brahmins only. Sometimes Mr. Bose

fires on her wife for producing only daughters:

“You see what state you have reduced to me, woman, by not bearing sons? All my brothers are fathers of son. But me? Two donkeys for daughters…Donkey for wife, donkeys for daughters… Ill luck is ill Luck.” (Mukherjee, 26-27).

Anjali finds no way to escape from the game of match making. She recollects the days when

her father shouted at Sonali while fixing her marriage:

“I have told his father you will marry this boy. Astrologer has spoken, horoscopes are compatible. I am printing the invitations. There is no more to be said. (Mukherjee, 27)

Even Sonali is not informed about his job or his nature which proves to be the main cause for

the destruction of Sonali’s life. All these make Anjali to think a thousand times for marriage.

Mrs. Bose is also worried and appeals to please Anjali,

“You will have a new house in a new city with a new family of brothers and sisters and parents. You will become whole different person.” (Mukherjee ,28)

But Mrs. Bose never explains about the ‘animal nature’ (Mukherjee, 29) of men in the

marriage-bed drama described by Sonali.

“For her father,marriage was a sacred duty;for her mother it was an accumulation of insults and an avenging of hurts”( Mukherjee ,29)

Through the voice of Bose family Mukherjee ridicules the patriarchal system of match

making which is much based on astrology/horoscope rather than personal understandings.

Mukherjee ridiculously argues:

186

“Horoscope might correctly calculate astral compatibility. But marital happiness? That was in the hands of fate … For Sonali, secret sexual union is neither an art nor a science. It’s just a duty to perform”. (Muherjee ,29)

Anjali is not prepared for marriage except the decision forced by her parents. To her:

“ The idea of sleeping in their beds, bearing their children, cooking for them, sitting across from them and watching them eat and burp, and listening to their voices and opinions for a life time put the idea of marriage into a category with a life sentence on Andaman Island. (Mukherjee ,30-31)

Thereby, Anjali rejects over thirty boys and none could qualify for her interview. Seeing these

much rejection, Mr. Bose shouts on her:

“I will decide who is good. I have left you too much in charge. You are abusing a privilege that was never yours to begin with.” (Mukherjee ,31) .

Mr. Bose wails on his fate ‘two daughters! No jamais!’ (Mukherjee ,31) Mukherjee tries to

show the helpless condition of a father having only daughters.

In the market of Gauripur Anjali spots Peter and:

‘she was about to lift her arm and signal, but no, she couldn’t, not in a sari, with jangling bracelets. Angie-in-sari is Anjali, a stranger to her student self’. (Mukherjee ,32-33)

Mukherjee portrays the duel identity of modern growing girls in the form of Angie with hyper

thinking and Anjali in sari with no high hope, simply performing the duties of traditional

wife---just producing children and caring family members on the cost of personal sacrifices.

Her mother tells the conservative attitude of her mother-in-law (Anjali’s grandmother):

“The senior Mrs. Bose did not want a vain, ambitious, educated woman in the family, so she had demanded that the girl drop out of school just a month before graduation.” (Mukherjee, 29)

It shows that girls are educated in Bose family for the sake of marriage only not for any job or

personal success.

At Sengupta’s Marriage Portrait Studio, Anjali meets Rabi Chatterjee, 18 years old

photographer (son of Tara Chatterjee of Desirable Daughters and Tree Bride) who reveals the

187

truth from the portrait of Anjali. When Anjali asks him about the suitability of the photo as

bridal candidate, Rabi replies:

“No, your heart isn’t in it.” (Mukherjee 36)

[…] “It’s for my parents,” She said

He stopped, turned, and started: “You’re getting married for your parents ? That’s crazy” (Mukherjee; 37)

Rabi also warns her:

“… India’s on fire. If you got married now, you will miss what’s happening and you will be sorry.” ( Mukherjee ,37) .

Anjali again comes in dilemma as Peter has already put her in the state. Mukherjee also talks

about hyper reality (simulacra) through the voice of Rabi, the photographer as he says:

“Bihar is beautiful. Nothing in the world is as it seems---it’s all matter of light and angles. Anyway, if it is a prison, there are lots of good pictures you can take from inside.” (Mukherjee ,39)

It gives some hope to Anjali to do something in life but under parental pressure she is just like

a ‘kathputali’ whose strings are controlled by patriarchal norms. Anjali has splintered self as :

‘if she married, she would be lost to Peter. If she didn’t marry, she would be dead to her father’. (Mukherjee,51)

With the help of Mr. Nirmal Gupta, the computer genius, finally, she posts her marriage

ads on Bengaliwedding.com to find a suitable match. After a long wait the day comes when

Mitra family agrees to visit Bose family to see the bride (Anjali) along with their highly

educated son Subodh Mitra who has already worked in Bangalore in call centers. In fact ‘the

boy (Subodh) did engineering to please his father, but his heart was not in it. When he got a

chance to study business, he shone like the sun’. (Mukherjee, 55) .Mr. Mitra visits Bose

family to negotiate the marriage and it results in a disaster to which none has ever imagined.

188

3.2.8. Representation of America

Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India is different in its backdrops. In this novel Mukherjee

presents India as a nation that is progressing on the path of modernization in every possible

way, technologically or economically. In the prologue of the novel, Miss New India,

Mukherjee has intimated the readers with the immigrant concept in reverse direction: “The

rich westerners - the Aussies, the Canadians, the Germans, the Finns but specially the

Americans - the ones who stayed for months, then years - lived like poor villagers; these rich

western kids sometimes resorted to begging and got sick and others died from beggars’

diseases. Among them one in hundred or thousand became reborn, with no interest in

returning home. They settled down in towns and villages, learned languages, and lived Indian

lives. They took modest job with foundation and charities… they professed no interest in

American wars, but when India stumbled they mourned”. (Mukherjee,07)

“Well, the base -- that’s India today -- is changing and the old ways are dead ways”

(Mukherjee 50).

Mukherjee here comes up with the portrait of a distinguished teacher, the expat, Peter

Champion who is definitely not the same in trend with the teachers who,

“boasted of medals they’d won in college and alluded to grants that had taken them on epic mental journeys”. He was a simple man with great grades when he, “… double majored in political economy and folklore at a satellite campus of a Midwestern university” (Mukherjee ,08).

Such a man can only bring the change in the minds of people against the immigrant

notion with his sharp frame of mind and positive efforts to improve the quality of education

and brushing up the talents.

Rajini Srikanth, a critic, stresses on the word ‘bold’ to excess while discussing

Mukherjee as she “boldly inserts herself into the American literary canon to both positive and

negative effect” (Srikanth2004 ,187). Mukherjee’s boldness, according to Cynthia Sauling

Wong, exhibits innovation and a new perspective:

“Mukherjee is perhaps the first Asian American writer to exhibit a full awareness of the global context of contemporary Asian immigration: she deconstructs cultural clichés, looks beyond the push-pull between two nations to acknowledge the reality of the world economic system, and sets her tales against a background

189

of intertwined transnational economic activities and mass uprooting”. (Wong ,1993:54)

The town has become a developing International Technology centre and it is

progressive on the road to modernization. The economic boom in India is rich material, which

is just waiting to be mined, and Mukherjee was quite intrigued by the phenomenal alterations

occurring in the country. For writing the novel Miss New India, Mukherjee visited Bangalore

thrice for different occasions and went to call centres, read their manuals, along with getting

involved in conversation with young women who were working.

Mukherjee in an interview gives an overview of the ideas that led to the writing of Miss

New India. The discussion focuses on the transnational worldview transmitted by the novel

and the influence of Western ideals on the young Indian generation. The clash between

tradition and modernity is the central concern that arises in Mukherjee’s responses. She

explains how the transformation of social and cultural structures initiated by the process of

globalization in India caught her attention. The notion of change is key to understanding

both Miss New India and contemporary India. She also expands some of the themes found in

her earlier works, such as the process of “unhousement” and “rehousement,” the reinvention

of identities, and the awakening of female migrant characters to self-empowerment. The

interview also touches on the changes occurring in the American literary canon due to the

mass migration of writers in a globalized and transnational era. Ultimately, Mukherjee

introduces a new literary category, “The Literature of New Arrival,” which adds a multi-

ethnic aesthetic to contemporary and transnational American literature. Here are some

interesting points collected from: “Globalization and Change in India: The Rise of an

“Indian Dream” in Miss New India: An Interview with Bharati Mukherjee”.

NATASHA LAVIGILANTE:

India is always present in your novels. To what extent does your birth country inspire your

American novels?

BHARATI MUKHERJEE:

Well, I think the most important compelling force in my fiction has been being transnational:

the experience of having started out incredibly solidly rooted in a traditional culture, then

having found myself deracinated from that culture, and gradually becoming re-rooted in an

alien culture, the secret codes of which culture I knew little about until I landed in it. That

process of “unhousement” and “rehousement”—to use the words of my author-husband,

190

Clark Blaise, who writes eloquently about border crossings—is behind all my American

novels.

My novels seem to grow out of a personal energy, an energy unleashed by a combination of

traumatizing and inspiring experiences and histories I have lived through. The most recent

novels—Desirable Daughters, The Tree Bride, and Miss New India—talk about immigration,

internal migration, and globalization. They are about leaving a town or city that you know

very well and landing in a city, town, culture, and ethics that you don’t know. When I landed

as a student at the [Iowa] Writers’ Workshop, I had expected to write my MFA thesis as a

collection of stories about Calcuttans, inspired by [James] Joyce’s Dubliners [1914]. I had

no idea that emotional undercurrents entailed in unhousement and rehousement would creep

into my thesis story collection.

(Natasha Lavigilante, May 29th ,2014)

Miss New India, on the one hand, skims through the post-liberalization generation of

India, fascinated by the foreign brands, staggering in the direction of the Holy Grail of

enormous money and swift success, abandoning the remains of morals, values and ethics. As

contemporary fiction, it captures the “ zeitgeist “of India and authentically voices the tale of

this small-town girl, Anjali. She, a Bihar-bred girl, is nearly ruined by the Bangalore bonanza

of the call-centres. Her ultimate despicable culmination, which includes her short stint in the

prison, eventually compels her to integrate her confused notions and scattered nobility, and

prepares her to conquer the world and her fears again.

The novel may be considered as a modern unscrupulous fairy fable, portraying the

flamboyance of liberty, which the world does not wish to have in women. It is well-written

and is engrossing due to some exciting, fictional, facets of the narrative. When the call-centres

first appeared on the horizon, these became a reason of debate with generous salaries,

language, and the modification of the Indian names into that of more American-sounding

ones, the breaking of taboos. All this later is very properly construed and well-documented in

the form of books, movies and even articles.

Miss New India churns out a captivating account of the young generation swarming in

the call centres, coffee shops and bars of the present- day Bangalore. The scenes are set inside

191

India, but the American culture and values have played a great role in this work of Mukherjee.

She herself has never seemed to be so flamboyant and young than she does through her

writing in Miss New India.

“Bangalore worked off the American clock.Every thing about Bangalore – even its time –was virtual. Call centers ran 24/7; shifts were constantly starting or ending nine to twelve hours ahead of American time” .( Mukherjee ,114)

Miss New India is not a cautionary tale of the dingy side of a dream. Mukherjee, in fact,

is narrating a tale about the best and worst times of life. Mukherjee’s scope is broad but

distinct because of her concern with the country in the changing global context; she says in

the novel,

“These were luckiest time to be young and adventurous, and Indian. And saddest for those like her, who knew she could be anything she wanted to be yet hadn’t the foggiest idea what she wanted” (Mukherjee 24)

Through Miss New India, Mukherjee seems to uncover a parallel truth about India to all

American readers supposedly, with the indistinguishable effect she herself experienced in her

youth in that foreign land. Undoubtedly, the alluring pull of life in the New India has a dark

side. It aims at liberty of the confines of gender, class and cast. It is not merely about the

scuffle to become free, but also about re-creation of the self. The portrait of social alterations

in India, which Mukherjee has given shape to, provides food for thought for every reader.

There are incidents in the novel which exhibit such facts: such as the one where the news of a

terrorist attack involving a girl from Bagehot house hits Bangalore and the enraged localities

squall the mansion, and Anjali finds it arduous to give her a clear identity to the police and is

unable to convince them. Her insolent awakening to the uncertainty and insecurity of life in

this new India leads to her breakdown but she ultimately emerges as a winner in overcoming

from this breakdown.

Among the people, whom Anjali has to thank for subduing her emotional turbulence are

Tara Lata’s descendents, Chatterjee’s son Rabi and her sister Parvati. Though the type of

India shown through Anjali is new, it is incontestably India, the future India. It is this new

India which Mukherjee has explored in her latest novel where Anjali Bose, who finds that

192

being Angie is rather reputed and sophisticated, is the Miss New India and is at ease with the

tag. Mukherjee says,

“From the backwater of Gauripur, she’d somehow caught the fever; she was part of the bold new India, and equal to anywhere, a land poised for takeoff” (Mukherjee , 23).

The novel Miss New India varies from Mukherjee’s earlier works in the way that the

Diasporic relations stay within the metropolitan cities of India rather than wandering in North

America. She has magnificently captured the malaise of a rising Bangalore, along with

balancing this zeal with intelligence. Anjali utters:

“Bangalore wasn’t about global economics. It was an emotional and moral tsunami; it washed away old beliefs and traditions, the comforting ones together with the crippling, and if you survived, you knew you had the spunk and the grit to rebuild”. (Mukherjee, 165)

3.2.9. Love Idealization

Anjali, the very aspiring girl, wants to do something exiting rather than to pass her life

like Indian traditional women ‘she didn’t want marriage. Her classes were dull. She wanted

something exciting, life changing, to save her from the tedium of Gauripur’.Also, Anjali

exposes her dream in her interview with Mrs. Usha Desai, as she says, “My ambition is to

become call centre agent. It is my vocation.” (Mukherjee ,185)

Anjali has a crush for three years with Mr. Peter, but Peter being a gay (3) loves a man,

his friend, Ali living with him in his room who dresses himself in ladies clothes .Mukherjee

exposes the gay prospects in the Indian society and condemns through the eyes of Anjali

“…the two men shared closet space, which to her was unthinkable.” (Mukherjee

,15).

“She had a secret crush on her teacher last three years at Vasco de Gamma High

school”. (Mukherje, 10)

Anjali thinks she would be happier to listen from Peter

‘I love you, Angie; I always have, and won’t let you leave until you agreed to go to America as my bride…’ (Mukherjee ,15)

193

Peter confesses Anjali:

“It’s too late for me to leave; but for you I want you the best. I’ll do it! I’ll make you happy! You must try larger city.” (Mukherjee,15)

Peter advises Anjali:

“Mumbai? You’ve been seen too many bad movies, Mumbai is yesterday. It’s a hustler’s city. Bangalore is the place for a young woman like…In Bangalore, if you’ve got the talent, there is a market. (Mukherjee ,12).

Mr. Peter Champion introduced the successful call centre trainers Miss. Usha Desai and Mrs.

Parvati Banerji to Anjali in order to refurbish her interpersonal skills. They supported Anjali

in all her efforts and gave her training to become an efficient Customer Support Specialist.

Anjali got acquainted with Bangalore’s trends and was ready to face the sporadic changes and

tried to adapt and assimilate it. Being an unquestionable woman, she was ready to enjoy the

life by going out and having a party even though she was brought up in an aristocratic family

at Gouripur.

In her dreamland Bangalore, she happened to meet Mr. Girish Gujral, who nurtured her in all

her steps towards learning the new life. He was the man of gentle behavior and was kind

hearted with Anjali Bose “She was grateful for Mr. GG’s attention” (Mukherjee, 227). She

freely approached him for her needs. She felt that half of her dreams had been accomplished

after the unexpected introduction of Mr. G.G. Anjali could realize the fatherly affection and

attention in Mr. G.G’s caretaking. He showered her with the love and support needed to

achieve in the unknown land. She never felt that she was an alien.

“He [Gujral Girish] was the first real man, the first settled, unattached professional man she’d ever met…and he’d taken an interest in her” (Mukherjee ,108)

3.2.10. Plight of Women Rape

In spite of being well educated, Anjali does not understand the conspiracy constituted by

her fiancé Subodh Mitra, a suitor who rapes her before marriage alleging her relation with her

American expat, friend cum teacher---Mr. Peter Champion. Her fiancé Subodh takes her far

away at lonely place and rapes her stating that she is going to become his wife.

194

Subodh takes Anjali inside his car and drives away to a very desolate place. Subodh rapes

Anjali saying:

“I am within my rights to see what I am getting.” (Mukherjee, 58)

‘He puts his hands over her breasts on the bright green-choli under the dhani-kali sari’. (Mukherjee, 58)

When Anjali resists he says, “Everyone knows the kind of girl you are! … Look at me when I am talking. I asked around. I know about you and your so-called professor.” (Muherjee, 58-59)

Further:

“He slapped her. Not hard, not an idle tap, either. He unhooked the bra and assessed her breasts… his hands were on her breasts, pulling hard, then weighing them, like small guavas... Subodh shouts on her, “Do me!” (Mukherjee, 59)

When Anjali comes to her senses, there:

Was Mr. Mitra with his trousers unzipped, and a pale, tapered thing standing up like a candle in his hand, a thing she knew of but had never seen, a long, tan, vaguely reptilian creature with a tiny mouth where its head should be … Mr. Mitra’s spare hand brought her head crashing down upon it. (Mukherjee ,60)

Subodh shouts at Anjali, “Open that big mouth of yours…” (Mukherjee ,60)

He ‘pulled her head up when she gagged, and then down by the hair, pumping her head until she was able to do it herself’. (60)

This results in spewing over his paints and her sari. For Subodh, it is not a stupidity as he has

been educated and worked in America and has the influence of western corrupt mentality in

which sex is free and has no relation with morality, self-respect and ethics. Subodh says to

Anjali:

“Don’t be stupid. I am going to marry you, your father almost begged me… Now, you know what you have to do… He pulled her panties down.” (Mukherjee, 60-61)

Thus, the virginity of Anjali is destroyed before marriage by the suitor Subodh. This is very

shocking in the Indian culture but for Subodh it is nothing essential as he is well educated

from America and has influence of western corrupt culture, but Anjali was deeply shocked.

195

3.2.11. Transgression and Self-Saving Being ruined before marriage, Anjali does not commit suicide or something like that. She

decides to leave her home and to do something vibrant in her career. In the night, Anjali slips

off the bed and walks through the house, staring down at her parents in their oblivious

helplessness. She wanders like a ghost and

‘dropped her stained sari in a corner of the bath room. Let her mother discover the traces of her glorious jamai’. (Mukherjee ,64).

“But a girl could dream , couldn’t she ? She could believe that she was still in control and that the orchestrated tsunami of marriage preparation could be reversed , that she had the

power to all it off” (Mukherjee, 24)

Anjali decides to run away from home to Bangalore to fulfill her dreams and leaves her home

in the night leaving Ma and Baba alone with a piece of written paper.

Dearest Ma and Baba:

I will not marry any boy selected by anyone but myself, especially not this one .If this leads to a barren life, so be it. As you should plainly see, the boy you selected has dishonored me. He should be sent straightaway to jail.

I am leaving this morning for Patna to see my sister, whose name you are reluctant to utter.

When I am settled again, I will write .The process my take many months. I am ready to take my place in the world .I beg you not to try to find me.

Your loving daughter, A. (Mukherjee, 66)

Her teacher cum friend Mr. Peter Champion suggests her that Bangalore is the best place for a

girl like her. She learnt good American accent from Peter. According to feminist Mukherjee,

it is unjustified to

“Surrender to whims of fate and manipulation of martial market place…what do they know need of modern women? ‘’ (D. Dughlass,2013: 27)

Anjali, in spite of surrendering herself to the imposed marriage system dares to face the

coming fate and makes her path to Bangalore as suggested by her teacher. Mr. Peter helps her

financially and gives two addresses---of Mrs. Max and Mrs. Usha Desai for Bangalore,

196

India’s fastest growing metropolis; as Bangalore is just like an alien place for a girl like

Anjali, a small town girl. Peter assures her for her temporary shelter at Bagehot House, a

British colonial residency owned by Mrs. Max at Kew Garden in Bangalore. Mrs. Desai runs

a training institute for aspirants willing to work in a center.

She moves to Patna to see Sonali and tells about the incident. Anjali tells Sonali,

“It would be just like your marriage, except that he showed his true nature even before the ceremony.” (Mukherjee, 70)

Sonali is also not living safely as she replies to Anjali:

“You think a secretary is just a secretary? You are such a child still… Men are men, they’re all the same. You don’t have to lead them on, it’s in their nature. Do you have any idea the word ‘divorced’ means to any man? It means ‘take it, it’s free’. (Mukherjee ,71)

Sonali tries to show the picture of a failed marriage. Also Sonali tells her:

“What he does to you before the wedding or after, does it matter that much? Does it matter to ruin other people’s lives? Four lives in my case. Baba’s and Ma’s, Piyali’s and mine? (Mukherjee, 72)

Now both the sisters are cutoff from their parents and the devil of marriage has ruined both.

On seeing her letter her mother fires on Anjali’s father:

“you see what you have done? No jamai and now no daughters!” (Mukherjee, 65).

After reaching Bangalore, Anjali takes shelter at Bagehot House, owned by Minni Bagehot at

Kew Garden , Anjali takes training of call centre job and settles in Bangalore. Later on, Peter

sends a letter which reveals that Anjali’s father is no more in the world and her mother is

staying in Patna with Sonali. In fact, the devil ‘marriage, the so called “holy Hindu ritual” has

destroyed the Bose family. Thus the novel explores the implications, the outcry and the

outcome of marriage which is not much favorable in these illustrations.

.

197

3.2.12. Cultural Clashes

Anjali in Banglore experienced for the first time the western culture. After her arrival in

Bangalore she feels completely alienated,

"She had nothing to lose, no good name to tarnish. No one knew her parents, and her parents had no idea where she was" (Mukherjee, 83).

She is like an immigrant who not only feels alienated in the host country but also feels not

belonging to her home country. Anjali is a woman who does not seem to have any past and

the future is equally uncertain. She also faces the language barrier in Bangalore. She is unable

to understand the local language, "The language sounded so alien" (Mukherjee, 84).

“She wondered whether she should lower the expectations concerning her English proficiency or to add this praise of Peter Champion. Mrs.Bagehot arched an eyebrow: “ My English was judged very good in my school , madam.But …that was in Bihar”.Anjali said it as though she’d uttered a confession.” I’ve been in Bangalore a few hours and I’ve already heard much better English than I’m capable of.” Of which I’m capable? Minnie frowned, and Angie scrambled for a save. “Better American English, at least” (Mukherjee, 117)

The city of Bangalore has the American imprint on almost everything like seeing women

smoking. She is baffled as if she has arrived on a different planet:

“Huge American cars, many with women drivers, snaked around her auto-rickshaw. To avoid panicking, she concentrated her gaze in the direction of the footpath that had to run alongside the road, but the footpaths-Sidewalk, she told herself, think American- had been torn up to make way for new servers”(Mukherjee ,85).

“Ten seconds into Anjali’s new life at Baget House and –from fear or fatigue –she had

committed some fatal mistake in etiquette”

(Mukherjee, 115)

Anjali finds a different culture and language like—fuck, shit, piss, asshole, phone-sex, cool

etc. used by youngsters at the restaurant Barista. Though, Anjali knows the meaning of all

these words but never seen anyone using such words in her town Gauripur. It was a different

India which Anjali had never imagined in Gauripur. Western cultural effects are seen at

everywhere: The woman did not seem jealous or possessive. Most of them were plump and

the men already getting stout like her father. Their friendship did not seem like lead-ins to

marriage. The young people in Bangalore had no parents, no nearby families to appease. No

198

gossip or scandal could promise them. They had come from all over India to get away from

gossips.

Anjali is surprised to observe the cultural shock. She experiences the drastic differences

between the life style of Gauripur and the life in Bangalore. Her encounter with some young

working boys and girls in Bangalore makes her doubt her potential. She fails to cope with the

American accent, "She had no idea. Strange monsters dwelt in the linguistic interstices of the

English language" (Mukherjee, 105). She gets glimpse of the call center culture of Bangalore.

She comes to know that how the Indian people working at call centers have fake identities and

names. They acquire a perfect American accent which is not their own accent. Anjali meets

with Mrs. Desai at her institute and refines her American accents to find a job in a call centre

and finally she gets it.

Mukherjee sometimes falters in striking the exact balance between small town Anjali who has

never seen women smoking, and westernized world she lands in. She struggles to say ‘fine’

on p’hine. It is not easy to inhibit the mind of a small town woman in her 20s confronted to a

new world . This is still India, just one where young people in coffee shop say things like:

“HP’s is little loosy-goosy; Motorola’s little uptight; they got ‘tudes.” When Anjali reaches

Bagehot House she finds two opposite worlds---one decaying name and fame of Bagehot

House which have been a relics of British historicity and the other the city Bangalore

emerging as high-tech city following unrealistically the western cultures allowing women to

have equal opportunities in various jobs like call centre etc. Anjali finds three other girls in

Bagehot House residing as paying guests.

Mukherjee, is concerned about the stability of this newfound economics. Peter

Champion gives voice to Mukherjee’s views, “The newfound prosperity in this city is

breathtaking, and I don’t mean to disparage it. Prosperity is a good thing” (Mukherjee, 162).

Champion further says,

“But I’m not so sure of the wealth that comes from outsourcing. I wish prosperity was rooted to something. It seems as flimsy as a kite or a balloon. What comes drifting in with the winds might just as easily drift away” (Mukherjee, 162).

199

Anjali calculates that the city Bangalore was not merely about the global economics,

but constituted of a sentimental and moral hurricane, capable of washing away old customs

and conventions, and if anyone survived this hurricane, it has a tendency and is capable of

increasing one’s confidence.

Mukherjee states that in the entire process of estrangement and cultural dislocation, an

individual feels like losing the meaning and purpose of life. In the agonizing process of

migration, the immigrants have to flourish desolately a new hybrid culture as these dislocated

people are unable to adopt alien culture totally and cannot either stick to their own home

culture as well. Reflecting on this hybrid culture Bill Ashcroft’s opines:

“Post-colonial culture is inevitably a hybrid phenomenon involving a dialectical relationship between the grafted European culture systems and an indigenous ontology with its impulse to create or recreate an independent local identity. Such construction or reconstruction occurs as a dynamic interaction between European hegemonic and ‘peripheral’ subversion of them”. (Ashcroft, 195)

Mukherjee emphatically portrays the India of the twenty-first-century in a digital age (4)

where a young Indian girl introduces and modifies the American traditions and ethics and

eventually decides to stay in the country. With this new gained maturity, she has understood

that there is no need to renounce the past while moving on towards the optimism of a

redemptive prospect, “Angie the bold one, the initiator, was beyond blame, or shame. Anjali

just watched and let things happen” (Mukherjee, 224). Therefore through the protagonist

Anjali, Mukherjee shows that she is full of dynamism and vigor and is in frequent quest for

new prospects in modern 21st century India. Anjali defies her home town like the new

generation of India continuously does and thus comprehends her potential. Her story, thus, is

an optimistic tale of a young girl’s self-empowerment and her chase for emancipation. She

follows , to some extent, magnificence and receives victory along with individual bliss.

Bangalore is an example for bridge culture. In Bangalore, something new is always on

the horizon and all experience counts for something -success and failure, the swirling

underworld, the throb of night clubs and the lure of everything. Sex, drugs, liquor and may be

even love, a mate chosen not by parents are possible in Bangalore. It makes a new kind of

“maturity” and friends from every community and region of India-casual affairs, a hasty

marriage, divorce, job loss, and a habit of saying “yes” to anything new. This is Bangalore.

200

Such a city has been chosen by Anjali. Anjali, who prepared to call herself by the more

modern Angie, was torn between a life described by traditional rituals and a life of

independence in the gleaming metropolis of Bangalore.

3.2.13. Reinventing the Self

Mukherjee registers Angie’s naïve and ingenuous discovery of the fascinating new

India; Anjali’s migration from Gauripur to Bangalore is as if she has reached to a new nation.

All the accents and every attitude posit a feeling of being extremely alien to this girl from her

small- town. Yet she gradually paves her way and eventually sets her mark in the world with

the help of some very munificent friends. This novel narrates the savage yet emancipating

transformation that results from immigration; the only change is that it is not from one

country to the other but only from Gauripur to Bangalore. Anjali is a loyal and conscientious

daughter of a railway employee where as Angie, the modern rebel, is her mutinous,

magnificent individual, expecting a lot from the world than just an arranged marriage.

“I am a woman now, she said to herself. I’m quite a woman. I’m hot, according to Tookie.

Secretive and oh no so mysterious , according to Husseina. Sherbet-cool , sherbet refreshing,

according to Moni. And funny and fascinating, if I’m reading Mr.GG correctly”. (Mukherjee,

229)

Mukherjee views Anjali as a symbol of resistance against complacence. She initially

fancies personal merriment and not that of class or racial or tribal privilege. The extremely

fortunate Anjali is able to fetch that personal contentment she searches. That night while her

parents were sleeping she left for Bangalore wearing Jeans and T-shirt. She feared while

travelling alone. She left her parents a note saying that she left them to take her place in the

world. Then her teacher helped her to settle in a boarding house where she could do service

calls for American learning about T. V shows, and sport items.

Bangalore is her new home, where she found her new life as Angie not Anjali, more and

more enlightening and attractive. All of her call centre friends worked hard to sound

American. She was made thoroughly American .In this novel, Mukherjee seems to support

conventional wisdom which is evident in her descriptions of Bangalore, a city, and in the

201

popular imagination of domestic and foreign. Mukherje’s Bangalore is an all-too-familiar

agriculture. It is “roaring capitalistic” , “new centre of the universe”, “a go-for-brake”, “ rule

bending”, “forget- about- yesterday”, and lets “blow-it -all” place populated by tech-savvy,

“hyper confident”, young Indians who have replaced the abstemiousness of an earlier

generation with the titillations of casual sex, alcohol and night clubs.

Bangalore is a bustling, Paris -sized city in Southern India, but “Bangalore” is a concept

for Indians, especially young Indian women from lesser cities, with middling education and

few prospects. Bangalore and other out sourcing centres, like Gurgagaon outside of New

Delhi, are magnet promises of a new life. Bangalore is “the dust west” for a vast Indian

middle class that will never see the “real” thing. It means money, self- expression,

experimentation and freedom. Bangalore exerts its own fascination for American and

European multinational corporations and for out sourced phone centres and bank office

operations. From those modest platforms, Bangalore, with its exploitation of Indian higher

education and entire skill, is moving into the truly profitable realm of front office medical,

architectural and legal relationships.

In fact, Mukherjee portrays a country where old customs co-exist and often clash with

new social mores in a country where Anjali fumbles more from the limitations of caste and

class even as her father remains trapped by old structures and superstitions. Angie begins to

realize that to survive; she has to forget ideals that she once held dear. In order to, “make it”,

Angie will need to re-invent herself in ways she never dreamed of. This theme of re-inventing

oneself is a main theme in Miss New India. Call-centre workers are expected to completely

forget who they are and where they come from in order to please clients and reassure

customers. They learn about pop-culture, and all the while, they are slowly losing themselves

and assuming a totally foreign self. Angie accepts this reality and realizes that it is the key to

her survival. Anjali later feels that she had seen more and learned more in Bangalore than

twenty years of her life at Gauripur.

In Bangalore, she feels that she can do anything. She felt she was able to change her life

and it was all that she wanted. She also declares herself as a newly emboldened Anjali. But

her experience at Bangalore totally turns her to be a huge roller coaster ride where she is

202

seduced into the freedom and modernity of the city. The trickery of co-residents pushes her

into troubled waters and the gloomy side of independent life does not remain alien to her.

Even though Anjali is often described as a magnetic girl with smile and a seductive quality

that draws strangers to her rescue, she is strangely a passive character who stumbles onto

society, along with the changing events and influential people. She does not change her life by

her own attempts whereas she felt that living with her parents will make her married

according to their wishes and she would lose the goal and could not get a good future. But in

the modern life, Anjali lost her own family and she was also away from the traditional

principles. She ran away from Gauripur due to the misbehavior of the bridegroom. But in the

modern life, she accepted sex to be casual. Later, when she turns a new life, emerging to be a

modern girl, she accepts GG to have intercourse with her. Tradition here gets into combat

with modernity. The rules and beliefs regarded with tradition have been overtaken by

modernity. Anjali being traditional has undergone physical abuse and later when she accepts

modernity she develops the mental maturity of handling the problems in a better way. She has

left the traditional ways of life and finally it is not she who adopted modernity but it is

modernity, which adapted Anjali to lead a life of her own with a kind of satisfaction. “She

had no memories. Her memories were only starting now. Her life was starting now.”

(Mukherjee, 324)

In the novel, Mukherjee, who interviewed numerous call centre workers, elegantly

entwines the notions of modern India with all its technological promises and possibilities and

with the traditional embedded cultural customs surrounding women in India. Loss of home,

the immigrant experience, and the hardships of women are constant themes that run through

this novel. Usually, in her novels, all her characters leave India to live in other countries and

suffer from the separation from their homeland, from what is familiar, but in Miss New India,

Mukherjee explores these themes, but with a twist; the protagonist, Anjali Bose, leaves her

life in a small, rural village for the opportunities and freedoms of Bangalore, India’s call-

center capital. Anjali never leaves India, but the hardships she faces, the grim realities of

leaving “home”, and the difficulties of trying to orient oneself in a sometimes hostile, foreign

environment, are all experiences that mirror those of immigrants around the world in her

earlier novels. The themes of reinventing / rediscovering oneself without losing oneself, how

to grasp the future without losing the past, can be taken as metaphors for the issues facing

modern-day India.

203

The novel Miss New India ends on a buoyant note. Mukherjee depicts Anjali as a symbol

of “light and angles” (Mukherjee, 109). When Anjali sets out to fetch her dreams through

hard work, she is full of unbounded longings and is fearless for the unforeseen. A lot of new

friends and patrons promote her, which included the proprietor of the call centre training

institute. After a lot of strife against the adjustment in metropolitan way of living and

brawling with shame which she has supposedly brought upon her family by not fulfilling her

duty to get married, she comes back to her home town. Her life journey takes a round as she

grabs the honor of being invited as a guest speaker at her old high school in her town. Peter

has already told his students about Anjali’s story saying she had “the spark”. (Mukherjee,

324) He declares:

“Thanks to her and millions like her, India was on fire.... She didn’t bring the fire all by herself, but she was a collateral beneficiary. He said she was just one in a billion but each of us had it in us to be another one in a billion.... If we were ready to listen and to act, she had lessons to teach us (Mukherjee,324).

The novel shows that Anjali has been gifted with plenty of luck who is able to meet all

odds. She gets to meet the right people and that too at the right time with ecstasy at her hand.

Anjali has a psyche of tenacity and persistence and there are times when she seems trivial and

calculative. By the end of the novel Parvati becomes family for Anjali,

“Anjali had in effect, been adopted, and Parvati wanted to see it all- the school, the old neighbourhood, the studio where Rabi had photographed her- and to meet Peter Champion on his turf, not hers” (Mukherjee, 328).

The protagonist Anjali Bose proves that she is the envoy of a developing, flourishing and

maturing new India as she traverses all the conventional hurdles and dauntlessly exits from

the wedlock. She does this for a world of enticing avenues and new trajectory which is no

doubt dazzling, splendid, tempting and providing a sense of pride to her and others like her.

She, basically, generates the myth of a dream of a simple girl turning into reality. This novel,

in its thorough course, sheds light on the various alterations and modifications which have

been actuated in India, due to globalization and elucidates the massive transformation of a

firm and bright girl of a small town into a brash and insolent young Indian woman of

Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley.

204

3.2.14. Conclusion

Miss New India constitutes a major segment of contemporary feminist writings. It

provides insights about women struggling in culturally cruel contexts. It creates a new

orientation of woman identity dealing with the conservative thoughts of the patriarchal system

and modern western cultural effects in growing India. Anjali in Miss New India broke up the

old traditions of miss old India and became bravely and fearlessly Miss New India. Therefore,

Miss New India, is remarkable. Mukherjee has attempted to reveal the concept of two

dissimilar types of India and their varied cultures : one of which she has been a part of in her

early childhood life, full of social constraints and limitations and the other which is currently,

a world of global opportunities, mainly for women. This presents a very progressive culture,

which is full of life experiences, a culture that lets a woman grow and create a space and

identity of her own and what is even better helps to establish herself on a new path of progress

as a digital-age woman of the new era: new India.

Notes to Part Two

205

(1) Bharati Mukherjee was born on July 27, 1940 in Calcutta, India. In 1947, she moved to Britain with her family at the age of eight and lived in Europe for about three and a half years before returning to India. After getting her B.A from the University of Calcutta in 1959 and her M.A. in English and Ancient Indian Culture from the University of Baroda in 1961, she came to the United States. Having been awarded a scholarship from the University of Iowa, she earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 1963 and her Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature in 1969. While studying at the University of Iowa, she met and married a Canadian student from Harvard, Clark Blaise, on September 19, 1963. She has produced two books with her husband, as well as numerous books, essays and short stories of her own. In 1988 she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Middleman and Other Stories. Mukherjee's career as a professor and her marriage to Blaise Clark has given her opportunities to teach all over the United States and Canada. She passed away in January 28th 2017.

(2) Lakshmana Rekha (Sanskrit: ल�मण रेखा), is a line drawn by Lakshmana around the

dwelling he shares with his brother Rama and Rama's wife Sita at Panchavati in the forest of Dandakaranya which now part of the city of Nashik in Maharashtra. The line is meant to protect Sita, Anybody other than Rama, Sita and himself attempting to cross the line would be singed by flames erupting from the line.

(3) Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term was originally used to mean "carefree", "cheerful", or "bright and showy".The term's use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19th century, but its use gradually increased in the 20th century. In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective, and as a noun, referring to the people and the practices and cultures associated with homosexuality. In the 1960s, gay became the word favored by homosexual men to describe their sexual orientation. By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major LGBT groups and style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex.

(4) Digital age: also called the information age, is defined as the time period starting in the 1970s with the introduction of the personal computer with subsequent technology introduced providing the ability to transfer information freely and quickly.

Part Three

Synthesis

206

3.3.1. Introduction

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author who is well known for being the

voice of the African women in general and the Nigerian one in specific. On the same path, the

American born Indian Bharati Mukherjee is an outstanding writer who occupies a prestigious

position in American / English Literature. She wrote about the feelings of women and women

themselves .The novels of Chimamanda ‘s Americanah (2013) and Mukherjee’s Miss New

India (2011) are based respectively in different cultural contexts but they both skillfully

wrote about the feelings, struggles, failures, achievements, self pity and confidence of

their women protagonists in their journey to create their own way and destiny. The present

discussion aims to find out both the dis/similarities in the process of struggling to create

women’ self-identity via mainly transgression, breaking ties with traditional society as well as

facing difficulties and harsh situations. Chimamanda and Mukherjee via their novels share

some common points and others which are uncommon. Analogies and contrasts between

Americanah and Miss New India go as follows.

3.3.2. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013) and Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss

New India (2011): Analogies and Contrasts

Americanah and Miss New India share themes and investigations in common and differ in

others, Here are some details:

3.2.2.1. Similarities

To start up the discussion, in both Chimamanda‘s Americanah and Mukherjee third

trilogy’s (1) Miss New India, the protagonists depicted the hard living life condition for

Nigerian immigrant young woman and an Indian young woman, and therefore, rethinking

and reconstructing their identity. Each woman protagonist feels marginalized in her own

socio-cultural location and ultimately tries to locate herself in the central position , raising

specific voices, which are powerfully articulated in their own defence. Re-inventing the self is

an important theme in both novels, as the story follows Ifemelu and Anjali and are growing

up and finding their place in the world.

207

To clarify more what is meant by a self identity, Identities as formulated by Oyserman

(1995). are the traits and characteristics, social relations, roles, and social group memberships

that define who one is. Identities can be focused on the past-what used to be true of one, the

present-what is true of one now, or the future-the person one expects or wishes to become, the

person one feels obligated to try to become, or the person one fears one may become.

Identities are orienting, they provide a meaning-making lens and focus one's attention on

some but not other features of the immediate context.

The clash between individual self-identification and inherited collective identification

appears, in particular, when cultural patterns change and produce conflicting norms and

values, thus making confusion in individuals’ thinking on which pattern to accept in attempt

to define their personal identity. This is more acute when universal values and moral

principles become relativised, giving rise to manipulations from different external factors

(political, ideological, or the influence of authoritarian mechanisms).

According to Hall (1996, 19), identity entered into "the modern mind" as a means for the

individual to find escape from uncertainty. Some theorists, such as Hall and Chris Weedon,

question Althusser's notions of identity as determined by social and cultural rules, despite

believing it to be a socially and culturally constructed entity. They believe that identity is not

a fixed entity, but is in fact ever-changing, and "will change according to the context in which

it is used" (Weedon 2004, 6). This is in accordance with Bhabha's belief, that people cannot

"be addressed as colossal, undifferentiated collectives of class, race, gender or nation", for

people "always exist as a multiple form of identification, waiting to be created and

constructed" (Rutherford 1990, 220). Theorists such as Judith Butler also believe, that

"identity is a 'series of repetitive acts' and socially mandated behaviors that an individual is

forced to perform continually in order to take on and maintain a particular identity" (Smith

2011, 8).

Nowadays, patriarchy is a well-known term everywhere, namely in India and Nigeria. It

possesses everyday resonance, when used in casual conversation or a descriptive sense,

whether, in English or any of the several languages spoken in the Indian sub-continent or

Nigerian dialects. At its simplest, the term means ‘the absolute rule of the father or the eldest

male member over his family’. Indian and Nigerian feminist analysis and arguments linked

208

the family and the economy to demonstrate, how the power of men and their domination were

crucially linked to, and determined by, the organization of the family and the household.

Most sociologists reject predominantly biological explanations of patriarchy and contend

that social and cultural conditioning is primarily responsible for establishing male and female

gender roles (Sandersom ,1998). According to standard sociological theory, patriarchy is the

result of sociological constructions that are passed down from generation to generation. These

constructions are most pronounced in societies with traditional cultures and less economic

development.

A woman in the Indian society has been a victim of humiliation, torture and

exploitation. There are many episodes of rape, murder, dowry, burning, wife beating and

discrimination in society. Men predominate the Indian society, hence a woman is a victim of

male domination in the respective sphere of life; especially in economic life, over decision

making on resources, on the utilization of her earnings and her body. Hence, a woman’s life

lies between pleasures on the one hand and danger on the other hand. However, slowly but

surely, patriarchy is losing the battle of surviving in modern India. Change is happening,

whether it is upholding the death penalty of rapists, or women stepping out to earn for their

families, or a stay-at-home dad taking care of his children or cultural transgression – “blind”

patriarchy is slowly going away. All of this is because change is unstoppable, and it is starting

to show in the little changes.

Mukherjee’s protagonist Anjali -daughter of Mr. Bose who cries on her mother for

having only daughters as if they are burden, she lives in an Indian patriarchal society where

girls are bound to the conventional rules of the ideal Indian women; too, she lives in a

community where women are permitted to quit their homes only as a bride with a man

selected by parents. What is even worse, Anjali faced one of the nightmarish experience a

woman can live; rape. Subodh Mitra the selected man for Anjali in a first meet, rapes her in a

very desolate place where he destroys Anjali’s virginity and thus she was psychologically

deeply shocked.

With regard to Americanah , Chimamanda‘s protagonist is a young Nigerian woman,

Ifemelu, who migrated to the United States of America to attend university since Nigeria at

the time was under military dictatorship .In the United states of America, Ifemelu thought of

209

{good education as well as a good way of life},yet things were not as it has been expected.

From the onset in America, Ifemelu encounters racism. It is only upon arrival in America

that she becomes aware of her blackness. Ifemulu was unable to get employment too ,

this fact pushes her to resort into a sexual encounter with a white man. As a result , she

ends up in a state of depression because of her lack of self fulfillment .

In a very patriarchal society, both Chimamanda and Mukherjee tackle daring topics,

themes and taboos throughout the lines of their novels [Americanah and Misss New India]

precisely speaking: Sexuality. Chimamanda and Mukherjee criticize the Nigerian and Indian

society respectively for the taboo perception about sexual education. Both Anjali and Ifemelu

receive little education and enlightenments about the topic since it is highly controversial to

speak about mainly female sexuality. Ifemelu’s mother offers her only lectures about virtue

and virginity neglecting detailed information about the most importantly change of her body

as a female adolescent. The lack of useful sexual education results the division of Ifemelu’s

perception of sexuality which was divided between the sexually oppressive teachings of the

Church given by her mother, advice given by her aunt Juju and the liberal ideas given by

Obinze’s mother.

Similarly, within Miss New India, Anjali has never received details about the animal

nature of men as depicted by her divorced sister Sonali. Mrs. Bose never tackles such a topic

with her daughter-Angie even if she is about to get married. The matter delivers nothing but

how shameful and unacceptable to tackle sexual matters. Anjali has been raped despite her

quite good level of education and twenties of her age but the lack of formal sexual education

hinders her consciousness about her body and sexuality in general.

In fact, preparing young people for the transition to adulthood has always been one of

humanity’s great challenges, i.e. sexual education. Sexuality education aims to develop and

strengthen the ability of children and young people to make conscious, satisfying, healthy and

respectful choices regarding relationships, sexuality and emotional and physical health.

Sexuality education does not encourage children and young people to have sex rather than to

enlighten their understanding about the matter. Parents and families play a vital role in

shaping the way young people can understand their sexual and social identities. Parents need

210

to be able to address the physical and behavioral aspects of human sexuality with their

adolescents, and adolescents need to be informed and equipped with the knowledge and skills

to make responsible decisions about sexuality and relationships. Learning about the cognitive,

emotional, social, interactive and physical aspects of sexuality does not lead to young people

having sex earlier than is expected based on the national average in western/modern countries.

Good quality sexuality education can, however, lead to more responsible sexual behavior

.Sexuality education and an open attitude towards sexuality do not make it easier for

pedophiles to abuse children. The opposite is the case: when children learn about equality and

respect in relationships, they are in a better position to recognize abusive people and

situations.

Both novels, i.e. Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011) and Chimamanda ‘s Americnah

(2013) are about women. Beauty hence is presented via the femininity of two different young

women belonging to two different types of beauty. Indian beauty is well illustrated through

Anjali in Miss New India; Anjali presents the conventional form of Indian femininity, which

projects itself through her long lashed and kohl-rimmed startled black eyes. Nigerian mainly

African beauty is extensively presented in Americanah through kinky hair, color of the skin

and braids. The beauty standards that Ifemelu assumes during her adolescence in Nigeria are

immediately challenged as soon as she arrives in America; however, even the American

beauty standards that she has learned and unconsciously adopted are subverted when she

comes back in Nigeria. Americanah thus suggests how standards of beauty are particularly

embedded in the different social and cultural frames that the protagonist faces. The relevance

of standards of beauty must not be disregarded, since they play a crucial role both in the

physical and psychological development. As Andrea Dworkin states it:

“Standards of beauty describe in precise terms the relationship that an individual will have to her own body. They prescribe her motility, spontaneity, posture, gait, the uses to which she can put her body. They define precisely the dimension of her physical (Dworkin, 1974: 21)

The politics of African hair in the US have been thoroughly debated by several

intellectuals such as Wendy Cooper who stressed how hair in the American environment is an

“easily controlled variable that can denote status, set fashion, or serve as a badge” (Wendy

Cooper,1971: 7) as the author remarks, hair is additionally one of the most important physical

211

feature in racial classification, further proving its political (and often racist) implications. This

socio-political emphasis on hair thus comes to Ifemelu as a surprise and a first cultural shock.

When chosen for a job interview, Aunty Uju’s first concern is with her hair, which cannot be

braided if she wants to get the job .Ifemelu is significantly surprised by her remark and

criticizes her aunt for her decision. Yet she follows the same ‘relaxer-ritual’ before getting

interviewed, understanding thus the social mechanism at the basis of American beauty

standards. Additionally, this episode sums the powerful significance that hair bears for the

black community and its history.

Despite the difficult situations, either Anjali in Miss New India or Ifemelu in

Americanah, they succeeded in drawing out their own destiny, in others words, transgression

was the remedy. Being raped did not destroy the real strong Anjali; with the help of her

teacher cum friend Mr. Peter Champion who suggests her that Bangalore is the best place

suitable for her: “Bangalore’s the place for a young woman like you” (16), Anjali flees from

her home and wrote a letter to her family informing them that she took her own path and

disobeyed the old traditions related to the arranged marriages in opposition to her sister Sonali

who accepted her fate without rebelling. Mr. Peter Champion helps her also in terms of

money and a temporary shelter at Bagehot house.

Mukherjee portrays Anjali’s transformation from an untrained girl to a matured and

aware person as she struggles between her past and her new changed identity as “Angie.” Her

escaping from her home town is a rebellious act where finally she gets her place which she

deserves. The curse of age old tradition ends and she explores herself in a way she can.

Anjali is now a high-tech city girl and has complete freedom. She overcomes her own past

and recreates her present as she wishes. She sheds the timidity of Gauripur's Anjali and

becomes a new Anjali who is daring to experiment new things. She is confident and chooses

to live life of her own. She manages to become a debt recovery agent and survives in

Bangalore with complete assimilation to the city but without losing her identity saying where

she admits about her transformation: “I'm a woman now, she said to herself. I'm quite a

woman.” (229).

212

Subsequently in Bangalore, Anjali became a daring and ambitious young woman, who

has become skilled at how to sound American so as to get employment in call centers, where

they rapidly earn money. Anjali's experience of working as a call center agent gives her a

chance to observe the American society and culture very carefully. She realizes that the youth

of India in Bangalore live in India physically only, their language, their thought process, their

clock time, everything is tailored to fit in the American society.

Ifemelu meanwhile in Americanah, to break silences on racial discrimination faced

by black people , sets up a blog. The blog is used as a mode of communication among them

to resist racism. It also allows blacks to share their experience, which provides them with a

sense of belonging and solidarity. Ifemelu ends up gaining voice and speaks for people

of African descent, especially women. She lets the African woman speak for herself and

not be spoken for by the white female. Adichie scatters blog posts throughout the novel:

“Race is not biology; race is sociology. Race is not genotype; it is phenotype. Race matters because of racism. And racism is absurd because it is about how you look. Not about the blood you have. It’s about the shade of your skin and the shape of your nose and the kink of your hair. […] You don’t get to decide what race you are. It is decided for you.” (Adichie, 245)

Through these posts Adichie is able to be most outwardly critical of racism in America:

Ifemelu describes many micro aggressions, incidents, and assumptions she has experienced

that many whites would not always notice or understand, and she is able to do so bluntly and

humorously. Many of these posts (as well as Ifemelu’s relationship with Blaine) involve

navigating the differing experiences of African-Americans and “American-Africans,” or

Africans who come to live in America and experience racial prejudice for the first time.

Ifemelu gains confidence in her new look of hair and later she sets up a blog which she

uses to discuss natural hair as a way of making scathing attacks at the white world. Through

the blog she questions the American notion of beauty and the way it affects black

people’s self-worth. Here too, she frowns at straightening of hair and advocates for the need

to wear Afros, braids and dreads. The fact that at the end she resorts to keeping natural

hair acts as a marker of an African identity. Ifemelu, by excelling in her studies, ends up

213

getting a fellowship at Princeton and emerges successful both in her profession and blog.

Ifemelu collapses the idea that Africans cannot speak English. After practicing an American

accent and perfecting it in front of Cristina Thomas, a receptionist at the International

Students Office.

In each novel, the notion of hybridity (2) was well explored. In Miss New India, Anjali is

surprised to observe the cultural shock between the life style of Gauripur and the life in

Bangalore. Anjali in Banglore experienced for the first time the western culture; she feels a

sense of alienation. She feels also not belonging to his home country. She faces the language

barrier in Bangalore. She is unable to understand the local language; the city of Bangalore has

the American imprint on almost everything like seeing women smoking, huge American cars,

many with women drivers. She is baffled as if she has arrived on a different planet.

A person's identity can also be bicultural, which means that one's identity is "based on a

balancing or blending of the two cultures" (Berry et. al 2006: 5). According to Berry et. al.

(2006, 5), "young people who come to a new country as children, or who are born to

immigrants, face the challenge of developing a cultural identity based on both their family's

culture of origin and the culture of the society in which they reside". How they develop their

identity, depends on their acculturation attitudes (Ibid), which refers to "the changes that take

place following intercultural contact" (Ibid: 71). According to Berry et. al. (2006 :71),

"cultural identity can be thought of as an aspect of acculturation that focuses on immigrants'

sense of self rather than their behaviors and attitudes following immigration. Conceptually, it

includes both ethnic identity, and national identity". If, then, an immigrant is "unable to

resolve the cultural identity issues that they face, they may exhibit identity

diffusion" (Ibid: 5), which results in immigrants feeling "uncertain about their place in

society, perhaps wanting to be part of the larger society but lacking the skills and ability to

make contacts". Identity diffusion is "characterized by a lack of commitment to a direction or

purpose in their lives", as well as social isolation (Ibid:104).

Migrants and citizens of postcolonial countries have unavoidably hybrid identities.

Referring to postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha's term, they are somewhere 'in-between' their

homeland and new land; original culture and colonial culture , Bhabha claims:

Hybrid hyphenations emphasize the incommensurable elements – the stubborn chunks, as the basis of cultural identifications. What is at issue is the performative

214

nature of those differential identities: the regulation and negotiation of those spaces that are continually -- remaking the boundaries, exposing the limits of any claim to a singular or autonomous sign of difference - be it class, gender or race (199: 313).

In Americanah, for the African woman in America, the environment dictates the need to

strike a balance between a foreign identity and one’s personality. Ifemulu, the protagonist

encounters an alien culture once she arrives to America. America as a country presents

challenges in terms of female African immigrants retaining their African culture and

embracing the American culture. The only way for immigrants to fit in is by adopting

foreign ways (their way) resulting in the erosion of the African culture. Ifemelu on

arrival in America is perplexed by the observations she makes which are indicators of

individuals straddling between two cultures. This is seen in language, names and lifestyle. She

is shocked to hear her aunt Uju identify herself over the phone by pronouncing her

name as you-joo instead of oo-joo (Adichie ,9).

Ifemelu struggles to fit in America, yet in the long run she is integrated into the

American culture by adopting certain aspects she deems necessary while at the same time

retaining strong aspects of African culture. Ifemelu remains focused by retaining a strong

sense of Africanness. A good example is seen when she drops her fake American accent and

decides to speak in Nigerian West African English. All in all Ifemelu does not condemn the

American culture wholesomely; she is able to embrace the good found in the

American culture, retaining what is African.

Americanization is one of the greatest thematic issues in Americanah. In the context of

the novel, America itself is a symbol of hope, wealth, social and economic mobility, and,

ultimately, disappointment, as Ifemelu learns that the American Dream is a lie and that the

advantages she enjoys there often come at a great price. Her Americanization is slow but

distinct, and she gradually picks up the slang, adapts to her surroundings (for better or worse),

and adopts American politics. Her views on gender and race change because of this, and her

blog is devoted to exploring the issue of race as a non-American black in America.

After a decade Ifemelu decides to return to Nigeria. She feels a discontent in America;

this borderlessness is a feature of hybridity. Ifemelu has become displaced; she no longer

belongs to Nigeria or America. Hybrid people become “border subjectivities, no longer

reliant on fixed notions of home and identity to anchor them to a singular sense of self”

215

(McLeod ,2000: 254). Ifemelu still feels a connection to Nigeria, but it is no longer her home:

On the one hand, Nigeria lacks jobs, university opportunities and equality between sexes; on

the other hand, it is the familiar territory in which they know how to face adversities. Braga

and Gonçalves argue that: “For these protagonists, undoubtedly, the transnational

identification is made harder by the invisibility that arises from gender and race affiliations”

(2017:6). When she finally returns to her home country, Nigeria is not how she remembers it.

She has been living in the Nigerian diaspora, which has turned her notion of home into an

unstable mental product. Ifemelu’s home town must have changed in the years that she has

been abroad, but she herself has also changed, which makes her look at Nigeria in a different

way: “She was no longer sure what was new in Lagos and what was new in herself” (387).

Carine Mardorossian argues that diaspora identities are no longer fixed on binary notions, but

instead have become perpetually mobile, as is the definition of a hybrid identity: “Her identity

is no longer to do with being but with becoming” (20015:16) She is called Americanah when

she returns to Nigeria, having picked up a blunt, American way of speaking and of addressing

problems. She resists this label, but it is obvious to the reader that Ifemelu's years in America

have changed her.

The Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book The Race to the Top: The Real

Story of Globalization, says that globalization:

"is the process of the shrinking of the world, the shortening of distances, and the closeness of things. “It allows the increased interaction of any person on one part of the world to someone found on the other side of the world, in order to benefit". (2001, 9)

As far as globalization (3) is concerned ,Bharati Mukherjee conveys us to the fast

development happening in India as a consequence of the modern outsourcing happening

led by some of the major Western corporations. The title refers to the new female

personification aspired to by the major character Anjali Bose the contemporary woman

functioning as one of India’s growing number of call-centre agents. This modern

woman has deserted the conventional way and chooses the modern life style.

216

At the same time , In Americanah, readers observe the importance of technology in

highlighting and solving problems of people in general and women in specific .Ifemelu‘s blog

also helps to shape her own identity. According to Elias and Lemish, the internet plays:

“a variety of roles in the immigrants’ lives, in keeping with the diversity and dynamics of the ongoing adjustment to a new society and maintenance of their original cultural identity” (Elias and Lemish ,2009:535).

With regard to the concept of love, in Miss New India, Anjali as a young woman falls in

love with her teacher Peter; an American who came to India in the 1960s, Anjali considers

seducing him, only to find that he is gay. In Bangalore, she falls in love with Mr. GG, a

property developer of Swiss-Canadian collaboration. Mr. GG confidently wants to be in

relationship with Angie, the latter accepted to engage in so but at the same she realizes that

she has to preserve her own dignity and pride as a woman.

Love lies too throughout the lines of Americanah, Ifemelu and Obinze’s relationship is

based on love, respect and passion. Ifemelu’s decision to move to the United States in order

to go to university for further studies is the most important decision in their life as it

means a separation. As a strong character, Adichie presents this young man with

affection and tenderness; he is likeable from the very beginning. Their relationship works

perfectly until Ifemelu’s life takes a dramatic turn and she is incapable of keeping up

with any kind of romantic relation. In a way, Obinze offers her maturity through life

experience; he is the one who understands her better since he has gone through a similar

situation and acculturation process. Moreover, Obinze has also endured a number of

difficulties built up against him because of his condition as black. In the above

passage, even though Obinze is still in Nigeria, Ifemelu feels supported and understood

by him; he is the only one who can really perceive how she feels. Her complicity with Obinze

is made evident through the whole novel: he is the one that can sympathise with her and

acknowledge her struggles.

Americanah presents although Ifemelu cuts off contact with Obinze during her period of

depression, and this silence goes on for years. During this time each character has their own

romantic experiences: Ifemelu dates Curt and Blaine, while Obinze marries Kosi. Even while

Obinze and Ifemelu are separated, their romantic lives remain the central plot focus,

particularly as Ifemelu deals with racial and cultural issues in her romantic relationships. With

217

this Adichie not only creates tension and an interesting plot, but also delivers social

commentary through an individual and emotional lens.

Apart from this central relationship, Adichie examines other kinds of romantic

relationships as well, like Kimberly’s idolization of her narcissistic husband Don, Aunty

Uju becoming the devoted mistress of The General, and many of the women of Lagos dating

and marrying for money alone. Most of the novel’s romantic relationships are portrayed as

somehow unhealthy or lacking, and the contrast to this is the kind of pure, romantic love and

connection between Ifemelu and Obinze. The novel ends without them reaching any definite

conclusion, but it does at least end on a hopeful note, implying that Ifemelu and Obinze’s love

might be able to rise above the world of materialistic, one-sided, or unhealthy relationship.

For both Chimamanda and Mukherjee, education is a vital tool in fighting societal

conventions, male dominance and racism. Increased awareness and education have inspired

women to come out of the four walls of the home. The position and status of women have

been drastically changed in Indian society. Today women are educated in society and have

freedom to express their views in society. Kiriku John discusses the role of education in

shaping women’s identity. He states that:

“Education is the key to the freedom of women against perceived male stereotypes that concentrates power to men at the expense of women. Women will need to set themselves free and invest in empowerment that has honour and dignity.” (2010 :122)

Mukherjee’s protagonist: Anjali , thanks to her level of education -B.Comm degree, in

Bangalore which is - is a concept for Indians, especially young Indian women from

lesser cities, with middling education and few prospects, could find a job and settled

down. On the meantime, Chimamanda spreads the message that there is a need for any

woman to set herself free from the shackles of patriarchy and classism by acquiring education.

For her, a lack of education may make some women unable to liberate themselves and which

was the case of the three African women braiders Halima, Aisha and Mariama; for the

African braiders no solutions are provided for their state of oppression. What makes the

situation worse is the nature of their jobs that is based on self-employment. Ifemelu and

218

Aunty Uju manage to negotiate their way out because their high level of education

enables them acquire white collar jobs that pay well. Doing well in studies, Ifemelu

succeeded to get a scholarship fellow to Princeton. Both women protagonists are in search of

their own identity in different cultural backgrounds .

3.3.2.2. Differences

The ideology of subordination, linked to either to Hinduism or Christianity, is pervasive and

has invaded the worldview and ethos of almost the entire Nigerian and Indian society. There

are certain areas in which control is exercised on women. For instance, sexuality is controlled

much more strictly than men's. Women are expected to be submissive and obedient. Ifemelu

in Americanah, is considered as a trouble maker , she is expected to possess a sense of

submission according to the socialization of her society . However, Ifemelu learns to be more

critical towards corrupt and abnormal aspects of her society. On the other hand, Anjali in

Miss New India is supposed not to protest against her father decision with regard to marriage

nor even to think about his profession , she has no total right with her own happiness, even

her mother participates in the process of giving submissive manners : “Who asked you ?

Mrs.Bose shouted” (Mukherjee ,26) and then she is immediately corrected by Mrs.Bose once

telling to her father Mr. Bose : “ She ‘s an obedient girl. She’ll do what you tell her”

(Mukherjee ,26).This indeed tells us what are norms of socializing females, especially within

patriarchal norms .

While Americanah is a tale of individual characters, it is also a sweeping analysis and

critique of race and racism in America and the novel is peppered with Adichie’s biting

observations on the subject which is not the case in Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India. In

Nigeria, Ifemelu does not really think of herself as black. There is still a racial hierarchy in

Nigerian culture, however, as light-skinned or mixed-race people are considered more

attractive, and people use products to make their skin lighter. But when Ifemelu goes to

America, she finds that racism is a much more pervasive part of life. Ifemelu first truly

discovers race—and starts to consider herself black—only when she is forced to adapt to

America’s complex racial politics. Adichie gives many examples of racist incidents, people

assuming the white Curt could not be dating Ifemelu, or patients refusing to have Aunty

Uju as their doctor.

219

Because Ifemelu is a non-American but African, she ended up noncommittal for the

recruitment of a job. In addition, in America, only the white kind of curly, loose curls or spiral

curls women that are accepted to get a work. African women were prejudiced with the wrong

idea that they do not master the English language. The notion projects that the white man’s

language is of high status. Generally, it is believed Africans cannot speak English and Africa

is ravaged by disease and poverty.

Displacement plays a great role in the process of creating women’ identity. Regarding

displacement as the first and the most important aspect of diaspora, William Safran presented

his definition as:

“Expatriate minority communities that are dispersed from an original center to at least two peripheral places, that maintain a memory, vision or myth about their original homeland; that believe that they are not – and perhaps cannot be – fully accepted by their host country; that see the ancestral land as a place of eventual return, when the time is right” (1991 :83- 84).

Safran (1991) limited the displacement of diaspora people only to the ‘communities’

who move from a specific place toward other lands. He also takes this point for granted that

diaspora people’s displacement is forceful and his definition is limited to involuntary reasons

such as war, exile, or famine. The case fits very well the protagonist Ifemelu . A close reading

of the novel clears that displacement is accomplished by Ifemelu, the main character, who

receives a scholarship and leaves Nigeria toward America in search of higher education and

better social opportunities. Ifemelu’s mother wished her to “prosper in America”. The only

reason behind her movement is a kind of dissatisfaction.

However, Anjali moves from the old traditional town of Gauripur to the modern city of

Bangalore in India, which was like a shift to a new country. In the prologue of the novel,

Mukherjee talks about immigrant concept in reverse direction, i.e. some of rich western like

the Aussies, the Canadians, the Germans, the Finns but specially the Americans come to

India. This study of Miss New India aims to read the story of Anjali as an immigrant in her

own country rather than in a foreign land. She is displaced from one city to another alien city

in her own home country. Anjali's displacement from Gauripur to Bangalore results in many

experiences as are faced by diasporic immigrants. Though Anjali remains in her home country

but her dislocation poses the same problems of cultural shock, alienation, nostalgia and quest

for identity as for an immigrant in a foreign land. For Anjali, Bangalore is just like America.

220

The following table will practically sum up the main analogies and contrasts between

Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India and Cimamanda Ngozi Adichie’ Americanah.

Themes

Americanah

Miss New India

Identity × ×

Displacement × ×

Transgression × ×

Beauty/Femininity × ×

Globalization × ×

Rape / ×

Hybridity × ×

Education × ×

Love × ×

Patriarchy × ×

Sexuality × ×

Racism × /

A comparative summary of Americanah and Miss New India

Indeed, in Americanah , Ifemelu despite all the constraints succeeded to attain her own

existence as a woman and as a black woman . She was obliged to face difficulties because she

was black in the host country of the United State of America. Mukherjee in Miss New India

seems to be the voice of a specific section of the Indian society, notably educated women

residing in India. In this regard , they do not represent the typical Indian woman culture and

society . Hybridity which is the cross exchange was a must for self-fulfillment in the two

novels respectively: Americanah and Miss New India . Hybridity was the main result of

displacement, in each case , displacement frees the heroine from boundaries and laws.

Elements of a modern and globalized world were present throughout americanh and miss new

india . technology and modernity plays an important role in helping shaping identities free

from any cultural regulations. Both Writers describe women protagonists with different ways

of struggling in a patriarchal society .

221

3.3.4. Conclusion

Chimamanda and Mukherjee presented their protagonists dissimilar to the images of

silent victims dominated by the different cultural ideologies as patriarchy, global norms of

subjugation and repression, marginalization and discrimination. Ifemelu and Anjali are

rebellious , warriors who have undergone a categorical makeover from interpretations of

less self-worth young women towards self asserting and self-defining women with a strong

self identity. In Miss New India and Americanah ;the female characters end up not as

victims but victors when faced by hard challenges.

For both of the protagonists and along the two novels, “Education” plays a vital role in

enlightening both of them. Education offers a wide range of consciousness , fundamentally a

prise de Conscience’ towards self authentic fulfillment. Education was the weapon to build up

their ways and own spaces of identity and dignity by adopting the new culture .To put it

clear; Chimamanda and Mukherjee presented both respective protagonists [Ifemelu and

Anjali ] ending up with the acquisition of a new cultural identity and a new sense of self

worth which reveal their inner self. Belonging to two different cultural backgrounds does not

mean that the protagonists have faced different issues : Each woman looks for a better life ,

full of dignity and their identity quest is simply the reflection of any human being wishing to

live a decent life .

Notes to Part Three

222

(1) Mukherjee’s Trilogy : Bharati Mukherjee ‘s trilogy consists of Desirable Daughters (2002), The Tree Bride (2004) and Miss New India (2011). Desirable Daughters is a tale of three beautiful sisters – Padma, Parvati and Tara, who reside presently in USA except Parvati. She lives in Bombay, India. Tara, the protagonist-narrator-writer and her sisters “have proved that a daughter is as good as a son’ (Mukherjee, Desirable Daughters, 292). Tara, a Hindu wife, divorces her Indian husband for freedom and loves Andy, a Hungarian. She lives with her live-in partner and her gay son, Rabi. She faces the violence of a terrorist. Finally she joins her crippled husband and serves him. She becomes a mother of his daughter. Indian Tara returns to India to visit the land of her origin. In The Tree Bride (2004) Tara delivers a daughter and lives with Bish, her husband in America. She discovers her namesake her great great aunt Tara Lata, a tree bride, who turns into a freedom fighter and a martyr, whose soul must rest in peace. Tara returns to India for her cremation. Like her, Tara remakes herself as a new American, the blending of the Indianness and Americanness. Mukherjee’s Miss New India (2011), the third novel in trilogy, It is a tale of Anjali Bose, who set off to Bangalore from a backwater town, Gauripur, to complete her dream. It is like a move to new country. She reinvents herself as an American Angie by imitating American sound. Mukherjee is intrigued by the phenomenal changes in India.

(2) Hybridity: though the term hybridity relies on a metaphor from biology, is commonly used

in much broader ways, to refer to any kind of cultural mixing or mingling between East and

West. Yet, it seems important to note that there can be very different registers of hybridity,

from slight mixing to very aggressive instances of culture-clash. Hybridity at the level of

narrative form is fundamental to what is known as postcolonial literature. In part, basic

modern literary forms such as the novel and the short story are modes of writing invented in

the West, though they were readily adopted by colonial authors in Africa and Asia (the first

Indian novels were being published in the 1860s). But almost immediately after it emerged,

the “foreign” genre of the Western novel became one of the primary ways by which Africans

and Asians began to collectively imagine a sense of national, cultural identity. The fact that

the novel may have been a borrowed form did not seem to be a limitation for the first

generations of Asian and Africans who used it; in fact, the novel has proven to be an

incredibly flexible and open format. Literary hybridity is often invoked with contemporary

postcolonial literature that uses experimental modes of narration, such as “magic realism.”

The Indian writer Salman Rushdie and African writers like Ben Okri have experimented with

modes of storytelling that blend local traditions and folk culture with experimental

(postmodernist) ideas. A novel like Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children is an instance of literary

hybridity in that mingles traditional Indian texts like The Ramayana with a self-reflexive

narrative frame that is usually associated with European postmodernist writers like Italo

Calvino. Another way of thinking about literary hybridity relates to postcolonial literature’s

response to the Western Tradition (the Canon). While postcolonial writers have freely adapted

Western literary forms for their own purposes, as with the question of language there remains

some anxiety with regard to how Canonical authors have represented (or misrepresented)

Africa and Asia in their works.

(3) Globalization is the process of interaction and integration between people, companies, and governments worldwide. Globalization has grown due to advances in transportation and communication technology. With increased global interactions comes the growth of international trade, ideas, and culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration that is associated with social and cultural aspects. However, conflicts and diplomacy are also large parts of the history of globalization, and modern globalization.

General Conclusion

223

Researching on woman literature leads inevitably to undertake research on Feminism

which is basically a political movement that includes acting, speaking, writing and advocating

on behalf of women’s issues. Everywhere and anywhere in the world, women have been

considered second-class to man. This leads women to fight for their rights under the shade of

feminism that is against male domination. In this male oriented rule, women face diverse

degrees of oppression depending on their race, customs, socio-economic class, religion and

the country or region in which they live. Feminism, therefore, focuses on spotting prejudices

against females and to at least lessening their problems with regard to repression and

exploitation of rejection.

White feminism does not cover to larger extent rights of different women from different

cultures. Hence, the emergence of different feminisms was the remedy to speak about the

minorities and sub-minorities of women in their specific cultural contexts; for instance the

ones in Nigeria and India. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with about 196

million populations; it is diverse religiously, ethnically and culturally speaking in general.

Nigerian women live under male dominance. Culture placed them in a second class and

sometimes , often to a lower position. India on the other hand is a pluralistic society, a society

characterized by both diversity and unity in the meantime. Gender equality is the main quest

of the Indian society; but gender discrimination remains mostly in favor of men in many

realms. Despite the fact that Indian laws against rape, dowry and adultery..., these

discriminatory practices are still taking place.

Feminism in India aims at defending equal political, economic independence, social

rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. It seeks gender equality: equal wages,

equal access to health, education and equal political rights. Women also have fought against

heavily India's patriarchal society such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow

immolation known as “Sati”. It passes through three progressive phases ; starting by the

male European colonists attitudes against the social evils of Sati; the second phase,

from 1915 to Indian independence, pioneered by Gandhi incorporation of women's

movements into the Quit India movement and Independent Women's Organizations

began to emerge such as Women’s Indian Association in 1917 by Annie Besant. Finally,

General Conclusion

224

the third phase, named post-independence, has concentrated on the position of women

in basically al spheres of life , religiously , culturally , socially , politically .

In India, several myths and traditional attitudes form the country’s culture and the latter

affects women ‘lives and values. Marriage at an early age has been traditionally prevalent in

India and continues to this day in spite of constitutional legislation. Domestic violence

toward Indian women is regarded as any type of abuse that can be considered a threat. It can

also be physical, psychological, or sexual .Yet, domestic violence is seen more as a private or

family matter. Caste, class, religious bias and race determine whether any action is to be taken

or not based on the complaint. Though women are guaranteed constitutional justice, dignity

and equality , they sometimes refuse to report acts of violence or rape as they are condemned

by their own community , caste or family .

Many cultural issues as caste and religion have caused the degradation of women in India

to the point where women have little value in society. This is demonstrated not only by the

violence committed against them, but also by the discrimination they face at every stage in

their lives. They are considered a burden from the moment they are born. Female infanticide

(killing of girl infants) is still prevalent in some rural areas. Sometimes this is infanticide by

neglect: for example, families may not spend money on critical medicines or withhold care

from a sick girl as a daughter brings extra cost.

Indian women are bound by dowry payments and socioeconomic factors favoring men.

Women face endless discrimination from their families as well as from society. When a

woman gets married, her family has to pay a dowry or a price to the groom and his family.

Depending on the family’s social class, dowry payments can strain families financially. Most

poor parents put all their earnings and savings into their daughter’s dowry. Others borrow

money to meet all the expenses, which may push many families into the trap of indebtedness.

Due to the distress inflicted by dowry payments, most families have feelings of resentments

toward their daughters and girls are unwelcomed in most families. Widows are considered as

worthless in the Indian society and treated poorly and forced to wear white clothes.

As to African feminism, it is a type of feminism innovated by African women that

specifically addresses the conditions and needs of continental African women (African

women who reside on the African continent).It emerged in the 1990s in response to its

exclusion from second wave feminism. Throughout the continent of Africa, gender

225

discrimination continues to be highly pervasive, prevailing in different regions and cultures.

In Nigeria, women are under-represented in almost every walk of life , including politics,

commerce, agriculture, industry, military and educational institution.

The Nigerian society (both historical and contemporary) has been dotted with peculiar

cultural practices that are potently hurtful to women’s emancipation, such as early/forced

marriage, wife-inheritance and widowhood practices. As daughters, they identify themselves

as females with their mother and sisters, and sons as males with their father and brothers:

gender stereotyping becomes institutionalized within the family unit. The dominant cultural

narratives in both colonial and post-colonial Nigerian society privilege men at the detriment

of women, even in educational accessibility.

As to postcolonial feminist English literature, it consists of female writers from different

origins, to build for themselves a space within the realm of broadness and literary canon.

Contemporary female writers use writing to fight for and seek their own rights and dignities,

or most importantly make their voices heard. The Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie and the Indian novelist Bharati Mukherjee used their pen to speak up for women in

their specific spaces respectively.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the most representative contemporary Nigerian author

belonging to the third generation women writers of Africa. Gender, globalization, cultural

consciousness and diaspora are some of the recurring issues in her writing. In her third novel

Americanah (2013), Adichie explores various themes like racism, diasporic issues, identity

crisis, and structural inequality, as well as different kinds of oppression, gender roles and

feminism. There is a misguided idea that feminism is entirely about women’s rights, which is

true, but the key goal of feminism is gender somehow equality. Goals of justice and respect

where both women and men are freed from the restrictive patriarchal roles society are

cherished.

Americanah, seems to be a perfect example of such beliefs and undertaking. The

central character is a young Nigerian girl named Ifemelu, who shifts to America for pursuing

her higher studies. Further in the story it shows Ifemelu’s journey to self-empowerment by

rejecting the patriarchal roles society has tried to place upon her. Generally, the society

believes that the feminist theory is one that focuses principally on women. Over saturation of

226

content from the news articles, online sources and other magazines led to the misinformed

idea that those feminists are exceedingly aggressive man-haters. But the proper goal of

feminism is gender equality and a “true feminist” is someone who recognizes that men, just

like women, are spellbound within the patriarchal roles that society has placed on them.

Patriarchal societies such as those in India and Nigeria hold men up the ideal of the home-

owner, the bread winner, and the shield of the family.

Historically, gender and race have been wholly interrelated. Bell Hook’s work offers an

outstanding example of the indivisibility of racial and gender relations. Through the

exploration of Americanah these categories beside culture are necessary ingredients that

inevitably contribute to the shaping of black women’s identity. From the very beginning of

the novel, the protagonist was exposed to a number of various types of discriminative

situations, including factors such as cultural background, gender, ethnicity or racial group and

economic position. The significance of these diverse discriminatory layers is, profoundly

harming and unjust to black women as they are dragged to the bottom of the social ladder.

Through Adichie’s Americanah ,a great challenge, that the female characters in the novel

have to endure, can be perceived . These numerable threats are a direct result of the

indissolubility of race and gender issues. The use of protagonist’s blog, consequently, is in an

escape route from a world that, on her stance as an African woman, makes no sense.

Many African immigrants,portrayed in Ifemelu’s character, feel and suffer the pressure of

a society that hinders their individual goals in life and the development of their own identities.

Gender and race are decidedly interconnected and, therefore, black women undoubtedly

experience the consequences of this inseparable relationship. Ifemelu is then a “clear”

example of African immigrants who have to put up with different situations in which, as a

result of their race, are discriminated against. Thus, Americanah convincingly illustrates the

struggle that many African women have to endure in order to adapt to a new culture in order

to succeed. Such a ‘pressure’, felt by the protagonist inside her chest, is the perfect

description of the battles black women have to fight in an environment where they are never

fully accepted and, therefore, discriminated against.

Bharathi Mukherjee is a diasporic / American feminist writer whose preoccupation is to

deal with the problems and issues related with South Asian women and particularly Indian.

Like her contemporary feminist writers, she upholds the cause of women, but she differs from

227

them because her basic concern is to delineate the problems of cross cultural conflicts faced

by Indian women in their geographical and cultural displacement. Mukherjee is a strong voice

of Indian women. She celebrates different cultural identities in her writings and tends to focus

on cross cultural issues where displacement means ‘gain’ and no ‘loss’. She illustrates the

fluidity of cultural boundaries, putting hybridization, migration, ethnicity and globalization at

the top of her literary agenda. Her nativity provides colorful material for her texts in an ethnic

high fashion . She achieved a fine balance between nativity and globalization. The specificity

of experiences, in particular cultural locations have been abolished and at the same time

maintained in her writings. It was not only displacement and dislocation but her sensitive

handling of other postcolonial complexities made her a global writer.

Bharati Mukherjee in her last novel Miss New India (2011) , the final volume of a

magisterial trilogy, tells the coming-of-age story of Anjali (or Angie) Bose, a young woman

of Bangalore. Like most teenagers who are eager to break out on their own and experience

some adventure, Anjali Bose wants nothing more than to leave her quiet home town of

Gauripur, India. She has the skills and connections to do so: she was one of the smartest girls

in her class and has been taking private lessons with her American expat teacher, Peter, to

refine her English. Peter has been urging her to make the move to Bangalore, which is at the

forefront of the global economy. The main issue holding Anjali back is her traditional family.

After her older sister’s divorce, it is up to Anjali to fill the role of the good daughter. Her

parents are pressuring her to enter an arranged marriage and have a family. Anjali secretly

leaves for Bangalore when she is pushed into being raped and realizing that she has no real

future in Gauripur, being humiliated by her would be fiancé.

Mukherjee portrays Anjali’s personal evolution. In Bangalore, she becomes more aware

of all the questions she does not know, be it English slang or literary references. She

encounters for the first time the eclectic amalgamation of different cultures and languages in

the great cities of Bangalore. Anjali learns about corporate culture and the effects of

globalization. Nevertheless, no matter how lost she is or how ignorant she feels, she always

strives to be better, as it means for her to escape from rigid cultural boundaries.

By analyzing both Americanah and Miss New India , the various hard and harsh

experiences against African and Indian women seem “clearer”. Chimamanda Ngozi

228

Adichie in Americanah depicts the struggles of diverse African women in America. All

these women face the oppressive nature. However through the protagonist who is

transformed from one who experiences marginalization into one who overcomes it, it

signals hope for the African woman in general wherever she is . Bharati Mukherjee in

Miss New India gives significant insights about women struggling in culturally cruel

contexts. It attacks the conservative nature of the patriarchal system and society in India

.Ending up with the modern western life style and its cultural effects in growing India, it

nurtures new hopes of attaining freedom and resqpect.

Indeed, Americanah and Miss New India present, in different cultural contexts, real

women lives. Feminism was the core concept in both of them. They picture their female

protagonists as vivid and audacious. They do not depict them as fragile and submissive, but

rather as vibrant and daring individuals. Be it Ifemelu or Anjali, no one has ever given up on

any circumstances, instead they brought out their best to resolve the matter. No matter

whether they were passive in the initial, they transgress; they evolved through different

situations and brought an upheaval in themselves. They, thus become a feminist manifesto of

awkward protagonists who blossom into assured and self-confident young women.

Certainly, education plays an outstanding role in achieving sustainable gender equality. It

makes women aware of their own rights and duties. Educated women are more informed of

their rights for justice. It would then eventually lead to decline in instances of violence and

injustice against women. It ensures them access to justice, eliminating discriminatory social

norms and attitudes (including patriarchy, forced and arranged marriages; dowry, forced-

prostitution). So long as women remain backward and economically dependent on men, the

helpless condition of them cannot be changed. Economic empowerment and independence

will only come through proper education and employment of women and that was the case in

Americanah, since Ifemelu succeeded to help and save herself financially without depending

on the male-side. Educated women are now looked upon with much dignity and honor. They

become a source of inspiration for millions of young girls who make them their role-models

and which was in fact the end of Miss New India , when Angie was invited to give a talk to

her school as a model of transgression thanks to education.i.e. aware of the infinite

possibilities education can give.

229

Thus , the hypotheses of the doctoral thesis are confirmed .Besides, Chimamanda Ngozi

Adichie’s Americanah and Bharati Mukherjee’s Miss New India provide plenty of instances

of both oppression and patriarchy towards women and how transgression and a “prise de

conscience” brought up by education and displacement can transform completely women

protagonists’ previous passive situations. Yet, further studies related to the research:

[Challenging Cultural Feminism/s in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘s Americanah (2013) and

Bharati Mukherjee's Miss New India (2011)] need to be undertaken as questions remain and

solutions not yet reached. Particularly, in Gender Studies, matters connected to identities and

sexualities in public and private spaces constitute topical issues, namely homosexuality or

transgender that were thoroughly present in Americanah and Miss New India. It would be also

interesting to examine the key notions of identity, belonging, hybridity and transgression in

postcolonial novels of different cultural backgrounds.

Bibliography

230

Bibliography

I. Chimamanda Ngozi, Adichie, (2013). Americanah. Fourth Estate: London.

II. Chimamanda Ngozi, Adichie,(2014) . We Should All Be Feminists. Fourth

Estate: London

III. Bharati ,Mukherjee , (2011). Desirable Daughters. New Delhi: Rupa

Publication India Pvt Ltd

IV. Bharati, Mukherjee , (2011) Miss New India .New York Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt USA.

V. Bharati ,Mukherjee ,(2011) .Tree Bride. New Delhi: Rupa Publication India

Pvt Ltd.

VI. Bharati,Mukherjee,(1991) .Political Culture and Leadership in India. New

Delhi: Mittal Publications.

Acholonu ,Catherine, (1996) . Motherism (The Afrocentric Alternative to Feminism) ,

CARC.

Achunike, H.C, (2004) . The Influence of Pentecostalism on catholic Priests and

Seminarians in Nigeria.Onitsha: Africana First Publishers Limited .

Adler, N, (1997) .International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. 3rd ed. Ohio:

South-Western College Publishing.

Adrienne, Rich,(1977).Of Woman Born .New York: Bantam.

Agarwal, Malti, (2009).ed., English Literature: Voices of Indian Diaspora. New

Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors.

Agarwal, S. (1999). Genocide of women in Hinduism. Sudrastan Books. Jabalpur.

India.

Ajah,P.O ,(1994). Christianity in West Africa, Uburu: Truth and Life Publications Ltd

Ajayi, J.F.A., (1965). Christian Missions in Nigeria.London: Longmans.

Books

Women’ Writers Works

231

Alcoff ,Linda, (1988). Cultural Feminism versus Post Structuralism the identity crisis

in Feminist Theory .The University of Chicago Istor Press.

Altekar, A. S. (1983). Position of women in Hindu Civilization. Banaras: The Culture

publication House. Banaras Hindu University.

Amit Chaudhuri, (2001).The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature .Macmillan

Pub Ltd

Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich. (1996). A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in

Historical Treatment. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Anyidoho, Kofi,(1989). The Pan African Ideal in Literatures of the Black World.

Ghana: Ghana Universities Press.

Arundhati, Roy ,(2005) . An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Europe. Penguin, New Delhi.

Arya Madhavan Kudiyattam, (2010).Theatre and the Actor's Consciousness. Rodopi.

Ashcroft, B. (2009). "Caliban’s Voice Writing in the Third Space". In K. Ikas, G.

Wagner (eds.), Communicating in the Third Space. New York: Routledge. 107-22.

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffith, and Helen Tiffin, (1989).The Empire Writes Back.

London: Routledge.

Babajuma, Malomo (1975). Nigeria, My Beloved Country. Macmillan Reference USA.

Barry, P ,(2009). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory,

Third Edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Basu, Amrita, (1995). The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in

Global Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,

Baur, J ,(2009). 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa. 2nd Edition Nairobi: Paulines

Publications Africa.

Bhabha, Homi K ,(2004). The Location of Culture. London, Routledge.

Bell, hooks, (1981). Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Femenism. London: Pluto

Press.

Bell ,hooks ,(2000) .Feminist theory from margin to center. New York:South End

Press.

232

Bell, hooks ,(1999). Happy to Be Nappy. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. New York:

Jump at the Sun.

Bell Hooks, (2004). "Understanding patriarchy". The will to change: men,

masculinity, and love. Washington Square Press.

Bell Hooks, (2013). Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice. New York:

Routledge.

Bell Scot, Patricia, Smith, Barbara and T. Hull, Gloria (Eds.) ,(1982). All the Women

Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave. New York: The

Feminist Press .

Bem, Sandra Lipsitz, (1993). The Lenses of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University

Press.

Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann ,(1966). The Social Construction of Reality.

New York: Doubleday.

Berry, John, et. al.,(2006). Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition: Acculturation,

Identity, and Adaptation across National Contexts. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Beyer, E,(1997).New Christian Movements in West Africa: A Course in Church

History. Ibadan: Sefer.

Blackwell, Fritz (2004), India: A Global Studies Handbook, United States of America:

ABC-CLIO, Inc

Bradley, Edwards, (2009). Conversations with Bharati Mukherjee. Jackson: UP of

Mississippi.

Breakwell, G ,(2013). Coping With Threatened Identities. London: Methuen & Co.

Bordo, Susan ,(2003). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

Chaturvedi, Geeta (1985). Women administration in India. Jaipur: RBSA Publication.

Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene (2015). "Repositioning culture for development: women and

development in a Nigerian rural community". Community, Work & Family.

Chinua, Achebe, (1975). Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. Garden City, N.Y.:

Anchor Press.

Chinua, Achebe ,( 1958) .Things Fall Apart. Essex: Heinemann.

233

Chinua, Achebe(1984).The Trouble with Nigeria. Oxford: Heinemann Educational

Publishers.

Chitins, Suma, (1993). Feminism: Indian Ethos and Indian Convictions.New

York:Zed Books.

Collins, Patricia Hill ,(2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness,

and the Politics of Empowerment. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

Crozier, David & Blench, Roger (1992). An Index of Nigerian Languages (2nd

edition). Dallas: SIL.

Daly, Mary, (1978).Gyn/Ecology .Boston: Beacon.

Davies, Carole Boyce,(1994). Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the

Subject. New York: Routledge.

David Damrosch,(2003). What Is World Literature? .Princeton University Press.

De Beauvoir Simone, (1966).The Second Sex, The New English Library, London.

Deng, Francis M. (1995). War of Visions: Conict of Identities in the Sudan.

Washington,DC: Brookings.

Deshpande Shashi, (2009). Roots and Shadows- A Feminist Study. Ed. Amaranth

Prasad, Swroop book, New Delhi.

Dhawan, R.K. Ed.,(1996). The Fiction of Bharati Mukherjee: A Critical Symposium.

New Delhi: Prestige Books.

Durkheim, Emile (1915). The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London:

George Allen & Unwin.

Dutt, M. N. (1937). Status of women. Calcutta: Mohendra Publishing Committee.

Eagleton, M.(2002). Literary theory: an introduction. Longman Publication .

Edward, Said ,(2012) .Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf Doubleday

Publishing Group.

Edward,Said ,(1979) .Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.