Gender In Selected African Novels

In its oral and written forms, literature has constantly served as one of the
major instruments in mirroring reality and society. Literature remains a
consistent tool in the representation, comprehension and interpretation of
fields of human endeavour such as religion, class struggle, politics, human
situations, social conflicts and Gender relations. No wonder then, gender
relations, especially feminism has laid hold on literature as a veritable
machinery for gender activism Men discovered the gold mine in literature
quite early and for ages tapped its resources to carve a niche for the male
gender in politics, culture and religion. At the same time the male gender
used the resources of literature and criticism to invent prejudices,
stereotypes and superstitious beliefs and heaped them on the female gender.
While women laboured under this burden for ages, men were busy
upstaging them in every field of life. Few instances have however existed
where certain female figures due to their exalted royal, military, economics
and cultic backgrounds have through individual efforts raised their heads
above water in their respective societies and eras. Literature has equally
recorded cases where powerful women in various races have astutely and
subtly cornered for themselves rights and priviledges which ordinary women
and even ordinary men could never dream of. Such positions were like
personal identity cards which neither outlived them nor were enjoyed by
other women during and after their lifetime. These examples are today
literature, in history and literary achieves. [...]