Comparative Analysis Of Emecheta’s Secondclass Citizen And Nwapa’s Efuru

 This study undertakes a comparative analysis of the works of two Nigerian female novelists: Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa, it looks at the contemporary African society which is dominated by men. Little or no recognition is given to women thus they have been oppressed, depressed, subjected and neglected. In this regards African female writers like Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa, Ama Ata Aidoo, Mariama Ba, Zaynab Alkali among others fought on behalf of African women through their works by giving them significant roles which portray women as a virtue and instrument of honour in the Africa society.

TABLE OF CONTENT                                                                                                                                                                                                                         PAGE

Title page                                                                                     i     

Certification                                                                                ii                            

Dedication                                                                                  iii              

Acknowledgments                                                                       iv         

Abstract                                                                                      vi               

Table of content                                                                           vii                                                                                                                    

CHAPTER ONE:

1.0 Introduction                                                                         1

1.1 Comparative analysis and intertextuality                              2                             

1.2 Aims and Objectives                                                             5

1.3 Scope and limitation of the study                                         5

1.4 Justification of the study                                                      5

1.5 Methodology                                                                         6

1.6 Biography of Buchi Emecheta                                               7

1.7 Biography of Flora Nwapa                                                     9                                                                                  

CHAPTER TWO:

2.0 Introduction                                                                          11

2.1 Literature Review                                                                   11

2.1.1 A critique of Buchi Emecheta                                                20                                  

2.1.2 A critique of Flora Nwapa                                                       24

2.2 Buchi Emecheta and Flora Nwapa as a liberal feminist          29

CHAPTER THREE:

3.0 Introduction                                                                           33

3.1 Comparative analysis of Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Nwapa’s Efuru                                                                        33                                                                  

CHAPTER FOUR:

4.0 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation                          48

4.1 Summary                                                                                48 

4.2 Conclusion                                                                              50

4.3 Recommendation                                                                     50

 Bibliography                                                                            52 

Emecheta and Nwapa are earliest feminist writers, whose works serve as the starting point for the independence and freedom of African women in general. They wrote novels about the struggles of African women in a contemporary African society and portray the condition of women in the traditional African setting. Their works promote equality for men and women in political, economic, educational, traditional and social spheres. They believe that women are oppressed due to their sex based on the dominant ideology of patriarchy.

Patriarchy literally means rule by men or by paternal right. It is a situation whereby women are ruled or controlled by men, giving power and importance to men.

Were Nigeria and Africa oppressively masculinity? The answer is “yes” Ghana was known to have some matrilineal society such as Akans; but Nigeria’s traditional culture, Muslim as well as non-Muslim had been masculine – based even before the advent of the white man. The source, nature and extent of female subordination and oppression have constituted a vexed problem in African literary debates. Writers such as Ama Ata Aidoo of Ghana and late Flora Nwapa of Nigeria insisted that the image of the helpless, dependent, unproductive African women was once ushered in by European imperialists whose women lived that way. On the other hand, the Nigeria-born, expatriate writer Buchi Emecheta, along with other critics, maintain that African women were traditionally subordinated to sexist cultural mores.

Colonial rule aggravated the situation by introducing a lopsided system in which African men received a well rounded education like their European counterparts before the mid-nineteenth century, African women received only utilitarian, cosmetic skills in domestic science centers the kind of skills that could only prepare them to be useful helpmates of educated, premier nationalists and professionals such as Nnamdi Azikwe Nigeria’s first president, and the late Obafemi Awolowo of the Yoruba tribalist leader.