African Gender Issues in Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Nawal El Sadawi’s Woman At Point Zero

Abstract

This research examined African gender issues in Buchi Emecheta’s 
Second Class Citizen and Nawal El Sadawi’s Woman at Point Zero 
which are texts based on the African context. It investigated the issues 
that negatively affected the major female characters in the texts that 
were caused as a result of patriarchy which resulted in psychological 
and emotional trauma that inhibited the emancipation and liberation 
of women. Apart from investigating and analysing the gender issues in 
the selected texts, this study also investigated the linguistic and cultural 
implications that contributed to the oppression of women by analysing some specific aspects of styles explored by the authors to project these 
gender issues. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method in 
carrying out a thematic analysis through the lens of the feminist
theoretical framework and examining some stylistic features to explore 
the language used by the authors. It was discovered that religious 
hypocrisy, inequality in female education, patriarchal entrapments, 
female-to-female subjugation, female genital mutilations, marriage, 
and political limitations are some of the pertinent issues that 
marginalised and oppressed the women in the selected texts. It was also 
discovered that the authors revealed that violations of the rights of 
women were propelled through the use of violence to silence the women 
and their use of language revealed the feminist ideology of the texts as 
a revolutionary force that resist and bring awareness to the patriarchal 
structure that debase the female gender. The findings of this study 
revealed the gender issues as contemporary and recommended that all 
the major actors in the oppression of women in Africa; the woman 
herself, the men, the government and international advocacy groups 
should identify their roles and work assiduously to end gender 
inequality if not reduced to the barest minimum.