Theorizing an Africana Womanist’s Resistance to Patriarchy in Monyaise’s Bogosi Kupe

Abstract

This article examines the resistance of an African woman to patriarchy in the Setswana novel, Bogosi Kupe. To illustrate this resistance, it analyzes a woman protagonist, Matlhodi, in this Setswana novel. The article contends that Matlhodi employs self-defining and authentic stratagems to counteract both patriarchal hegemony, and familial, cultural, and ideological hegemony. Employing Africana womanism and Africana critical theory, it argues that Matlhodi deploys her body, her clandestine love affair, her pregnancy, and her husband's death as weapons to resist the patriarchal ethos foisted on her by her family.

A Modified Version of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical Language Awareness: Evaluating EAL Textbooks for Junior High Schools in Ghana Through a Critical Literacy Approach

“…Critical theories derive from and are based on the German Frankfurt School. Even though they may have different permutations, but their rallying point is their critique of various forms of hegemony characterizing different spheres of society, of which dominant ideologies are but one example (Cherryholmes, 1988;Habermas, 1984;Hoy & McCarthy, 1994;Makgato et al, 2015;McCarthy, 1978;Poster, 1989;Thompson, 1984). Such theories include those that critique critical theory itself (see for example, Bassey, 2007;Makgato et al, 2015;Rabaka, 2009).…”

“…Even though they may have different permutations, but their rallying point is their critique of various forms of hegemony characterizing different spheres of society, of which dominant ideologies are but one example (Cherryholmes, 1988;Habermas, 1984;Hoy & McCarthy, 1994;Makgato et al, 2015;McCarthy, 1978;Poster, 1989;Thompson, 1984). Such theories include those that critique critical theory itself (see for example, Bassey, 2007;Makgato et al, 2015;Rabaka, 2009). Similarly, critical pedagogies draw on critical theory even though they have a specific orientation to critical education (Giroux, 1983(Giroux, , 1992Mayo, 1995;Shor, 1999) or a specific orientation to critical literacy (Freire, 1970;Gee, 1996;Janks, 2014;Ko, 2013;Lankshear & Knobel, 2007;Lankshear & McLaren, 1993;Mayo, 1995;Pahl & Rowsell, 2011;Wood & Jocius, 2013).…”

Patriarchy in Buchi Emecheta’s The Slave Girl and Bessie Head’s A Question of Power: A Gynocentric Approach

“…Plamer (1968) recognizes the literary representation of African women as silencing these women, and solely left for the male writers of the continent until female pioneer literary figures came into picture (as cited in Salami-Boukari, 2012, p. 141). In a recent work, Makgato, Chaka, and Mandende (2018) investigated the life of Matlhodi, a woman protagonist, and her resistance to patriarchy in the novel, Bogosi Kupe. By making use of Africana womanism as their theoretical framework, Makgato, Chaka, and Mandende (2018) depict the patriarchal domination of women and how cultural and familial influences subject African females to patriarchal domination, eventually normalizing the culture of male dominance.…”

“…In general, there is thematic convergence in the studies reviewed above affirming the view that African literary landscape comprises of patriarchy as a significant theme (Bazin, 1989;Fisseha, 2009;Fonchingong, 2006;Ifechelobi, 2014;Jegede, 2014;Melakneh, 2008;Omonzejie, 2015;Salami-Boukari, 2012;Stratton, 1994). Female-authored Anglophone African literary works are primarily preoccupied with the issue of patriarchy and/or subverting the patriarchally dominated condition of women in the continent which is portrayed in the internalization of patriarchy, voicelessness of the feminine figure, and the dominance and oppressive traits of the male characters as depicted in the works by the female writers of the continent (Bazin, 1989;Ifechelobi, 2014;Jegede, 2014;Makgato, Chaka, & Mandende, 2018;Stratton, 1994). Moreover, literary works by male writers of the continent also appear in the same line of thought where patriarchy is an established system that favors male"s dominance over female agency and their body (Fisseha, 2009;Melakneh, 2008;Salami-Boukari, 2012).…”