Dedication

For my parents both my father and my mothe, who have supported all my
adventures, projects and academic endeavors with constant love and
encouragement and prayers. I will be forever grateful.

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 Acknowledgement

First I thank ALLAH for giving me the strength and ability to complete this
study.
I also would like to extend my heartfelt acknowlegment towards Dr Abdoulaye
Dione, my Supervisor who have helped me in this endeavor. Without his active
guidance, help, cooperation, and encouragment I would not have made in the
project.
I’m extremly thankful and pay my gratitude to my classmates for their valuable
guidance and support on completion of this project.
I also acknowledge with deep sense of reverence, my gratitude towards my
parents and members of the family especially my siblings, who have always
supported me morally as well as financially.
At last but not least my gratitude goes to all my friends who directly or
indirectly helped me to complete this project.

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 contextualization
In precolonial Africa relations between men and women were varried changing
and culturally specific yet there were some common themes. Most of African
socities attempted to attain forms of heterarchy , which meant they often
created several centers of autority and aspired to establish communities where
gender relations between men and women were equitable. Additionnally
throughout history most Africans determined status by the amount of labor a
group or individual could control in a historically underpopulated continent,
this meant that motherhood and giving birth to children was very important.
The result is that women, as both biological and social mother and
grandmother were highly respected throughout the continent. So african men
and women lived in a well organised and stuctured society were men and
women were not considered as inferior to one another.
But later in the 15th century the European settled in Africa. They most
frequently settled in coastal enclave while they pursued trade in goods such as
ivory and gold as well as slaves.
Although some areas came under European sway from those early years it was
not only until the late 19th century tha the European nations of Britain, France
Germany, Belgium and Portugal met in a famous conference in Berlin in 1884-
1885 and divided areas of influence among themselves. The years of most
intense colonialism then followed with increased warfare when the Europeans
attempted and in most areas succeeded in enforcing their own political control
over African communities. African resisted these incursions from the beginning
and the first national movment arose in the 20th century culmunating in
successful transfers to independent status for most African Nations in the
1950s and early 1960s. Women were involved in these activities in a variety of
ways.
Studies of women’s work during the colonial period often show that they lost
power and economic autonomy with the arrival of cash crops and women
exclusion in from global marketplace. In some areas the introduction of cash
crops led to the changes in women’s agriculture work and in men’s and
women’s control over land. In other areas women tipically continued their
work growing food for their family consumption while men earned wages by
working on tea and cotton plantations or in central and southern Africa, by
going to work in gold, diamond, and coper mines. Some women moved to the

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newly developing urban communities in search for new opportunities, though
the majority remained in the rural areas.
Besides through education, the European have brought about many changes in
the way of life as well as the way thinking of Africans. African men were
educated and employed by the colonizers while the woman hardly enrolled
school and get high education.
Effah Attoe in Women in the Development of Nigeria Since Precolonial Times
traces a timeline of Nigerian changing roles from the precolonial period
through British occupation and into the post colonial period. She repports that
the roles of women in precolonial period Nigeria changed signicantly from
those strength independence to marginalization under British control.
Additionnally Oyoronké Oyewumi explains in The Invention of Women making
an African sense of western Gender Discourse that before British colonisation
there were females chiefs and officials all over the Yoruba land whose power
were taken away by British , who placed African men in those unaccustomed
roles. According to Oyewumi the alienation of women from state structures
was particularly devastating because the nature of the state itself was
undergoing transformation into a Western power culture. In changing both
men’s and women’s roles the British placed men in leadership positions they
were not prepared to fullfil and the women found themselves ultimately
colonized by both thus they become confined to marginal domestic roles.
Subsequently this culture entrenches gender discrimination in African society.

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 Problem statement

Women are the driving force bihind small changes of critical importance to
their societies and comunities, they are advancing the quality of education and
acess to health care, they are fighting for their rights and active participation in
political life and they are prompting peace reconciliation and development.
Women are essential to a country’s development and functioning. Yet they still
face a great deal of discrimination and violence because of their gender.
Generally roles are assigned in most African socities according to gender. In
assigning these roles, women are usually given demeaning roles as cooks,
prostitution, nannies, petty traders, housewives, farm mates among other. She
becomes slave of some sort as she combines all these demeaning roles.
African women are described as little more than a slave who goes about her
task with silence acceptence. She has no past or no future given in inherent
backwardness of her society, she never speaks for herself but is always spoken
about. This degrading valuation is refflected in works of male writers as Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Appart, Antill of The Savannah and in Wole Soyenka’s Lion
and Jewel. In these works women are portrayed as ¨weak,¨ insignificant beings,
not capable of playing significant roles in the society. This becomes a challenge
for the African women, especially the females writers who are confronted the
need to negociate her identity through literature. Therefor African female
writers adopt feminism theory as theoretical framework in their novels to
depict the true features of African women.
Flora Nwapa, mother of modern African literature through her books, she
sought to change the narrative of male African authors whose works were full
of sterotypes about African women. Nwapa’s books did the opposite by telling
succes stories of African women. Her novels like Efuru and Idu challenged the
traditional portrayal of the African woman as one who must always live in
shadows of men because she is perceived t o be docile, submissive, and
unprodutive.
Flora Nwapa, in her most notable novel Efuru, she uses the third person
omnicient narrative technique to portray a woman who empowers herself
enough to financially support her husband and her father. Efuru the
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protagonist breaks antifeminist stereotyp of traditional African socity by
showing she has a mind of her own. She makes crucial decisions in her life
based on what she feel is right for her, rather than bow to the demands of of
others. Other novels include : Idu, Never Again, One is Enough and Women are
Different.
Since our subject attempts an interrogation about the legacy of western
hegemony in both Nigeria and Zimbabwe and also it examines the Nigerian and
Zimbabwean socio-cultural environment and gender issues, we better deal with
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s
Nervous Conditions.
Chimamanda’s Half of a Yellow Sun centers on themes related to politics and
how the conflicts in African countries affected their overall development. The
novel also describes the role of the western world in shaping the outcome of
the biafran war. Besides Achechie through the novel depicts determined
women to fight against all obstacles that came their way.
And Dangarmbga’s Nervous conditions deals with the challenges faced by
women trying to achieve their aims in life and the struggle they have to
undertake to be able to succeed.
In this topic we explore the issue of gender violence in Half Of A Yellow Sun by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Nervour Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. we
also shed light on violence and opression directed at both male and female as a
result of colonialism.

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 Theoretical Framework

To better undestand our topic, we are going to difine the key words such as
hegemony gender and gender discrimination
Hegemony is the dominance of one group over another, often supported by
legitimating norms and ideas. Hegemony derives from Greek term hégemonia (
¨dominance over¨) which was used to describe relations between City-State.
This expresion can be more intelligible by emphasising Antonio Gramsci’s
concept of hegemony by which he describes the socio political relation of
people. Thus hegemony defines the capacity of a dominant culture to examine
its socio-political power over the other and validate such power through
inspiring the consciousness of the later to accept the former’s viewpoint ( Clare
and Hamilton 2004 ). According to Gramsci hegemony is practised by the
domineering culture through ¨consensus¨in spite of ¨coercion¨ Clare and
Hamilton (2004 ; p 134) clarify the concept in the following lines :
¨Hegemonhy is … a form of social control where an ideology of consent secures
the participation of people in their subjection to the existing power relations.
Thus there is no need for coercion or over mechanism of control because the
individuals everntually do not question the legitimation of that control as it has
become part of their common sense view their social world it is simply the
system¨
Accordingly, hegemony is undoubtedly linked to the concept of power , culture,
and ideology. While ideology as a system of beliefs and ideas attempts to
legitimate social actions, hegemony as a system of values, perceptions and
meanings seeks to interpret the reality of life in every culture. Such a system
will seriously create a profound impact on the psychological perspective of the
colonised and force them to experience contradictory feelings resulted in
mixture of two cultures.

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Gender : according to Taiwo Ajala ( 2016 ) gender is a socially constructed
component that reflects a society’s view regarding appropriate roles for men
and women, and is only instigated by traditional beliefs, cultural norms and
custumary practices which construct societal right and entitlement in the form
that denies women acces to economic and political environment.
Gender discrimination is a social phenomenon preventing women from the
participation of the economic, social and political life of the society. Women
have certainlly increased their presence and status in the workforce with
treaties signed by the countries. Despite these impressive strides toward
gender equality there remain disparities in the experiences of women and men
in both workplace and home. Women hae still lower wages and greater
household duties than men.

Literature review

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Western hegemony has long been a major theme in African literature .It has
served and continues to serve as a prolific ground for African scholars and
writers. But since fiction does not grow in a voccum, depending on the
appraoch and epoch , the analysis of the theme has known some ramification
with issues that are in direct link with it. Among these corollary themes ,
gender discrimination is a key new theme of concern for these writers.
Nowadays African contemporary writers focuses on themes like colonilism and
gender discrimination but their sensitivity and their perception about the issue
are often divergent.
It would be interesting ton start analysing other works which might be seen as
homonymous to the foreground of the two books under study Half of a Yellow
Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi
Dangarembga.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a young Nigerian author of post colonial Nigeria.
Her novels The things Around Your Neck ( 2009 ) represents several strata of
live of the Nigerian people. Nigeria an underdeveloped country where there
was extrem colonization of the western countries faces many problems .
patriarchal exploitation in other words male domination was the serious
problem over Nigerian women. Adichie’s fiction are mainly based on the
female experience of postcolonial Nigeria. During and aftermath the colonial
period , Nigerian people were dominated by western ideology and imposed
authority. Nigerian women conditions were far worse than Nigerian male
because they were doubly marginalized and exploited. Adichie through The
Things Around Your Neck presents several exemple of the females resisting
against patriarchal and colonial ideology. Resistance or rebellion are the new
ways to overcome against patriarchy and colonial dominatin for the third world
female. In the novel the woman characters like Akuna, Nkehm, Tobechi, Chika
and others have shown characters of the postcolonial females and are resisting
against patriarchal cum, colonial legacy. Using specific exemples from Nigerian
land. This novel also shows how women stuggle to overcome the
marginalization in a sexist and patriarchal society. Love, war conflicts and the
persistent inequality men and women are among the dominant themes in the
potencialities which the patiarchal stucture has repressed. Women’s
impassioned struggle to free themselve from the shakles of male brutality and
dominance are clearly seen in the novel. Adichie remarkably dramatizes
women ‘s determination to survive in the face of violence, sexuality assult,

9
extrem starvation, senseless brutality and careless threats to their lives in
property.
Tsitsi Dangarembga is renowned for her staunch advocacy for women’s right, a
position that she has conspicuously portrayed in her creative productions. In
This mournable Body ( 2018) Tsitsi continues the story of her protagonist
Tambudzai which began with Nervous Conditions (1988) and The Book of Not
(2006) which explore gender issues. In these novels, Tsitsi depicts a society
where men and women have place in society and it is very difficult to crooss
those gender boundaries women are expected to live according to certains
rules. In Tis Mournable body Tsitsi relates the pyisical and emotional pain
inflicted on the female. Tambu, the female protagonist is depicted as educated
, intelligent and knows her capabilities but she is beaten by a system of
patriarchy and poverty. Tambu is represented as a middle aged woman single
and unemployed. She is confronted by the scare opportunities to succeed in an
increasingly adverse labour market. This means to suevive and sustain her life
with a certain degree of dignity are not enough and so Tambu is forced to
navigate this precarity using different strategies that are nevertheless
disempowering.
Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017) is one among the African women writers who talk
about the conditions of women living both in their country and abroad. All her
novels are an exploration of what it means to be a women and a mother in the
rapidly evolving societies ; some of her novels mirrors her own experience.
Perference or prejudice towards one gender over the other may be manifested
in many ways. Her novels compose the most exhaustive and moving portrayal
extand in African women. The entire realm of African female experience can be
found in her novels from birth to death, with all intermediate steps of
childhood, adolecence, marriage and motherhood. Her novel Second Class
Citizen (1974) is about the struggle of Addah ( the main protagonist) and her
survival not only of herself but also her dreams, while growing into a woman,
moving from a high class position in her native Nigeria to a very poor class in a
predominantly white European society. She struggle with motherhood and with
being a wife and supporting her entire family along with being her own
indepedant person. Part of her stuggle also deals with the issues race and being
black in the face of English racism ; the novel focuses on determination of
women, identity crisis, and struggle for self respect. The novel also deals mainly
with her hatred at gender discrimination that often found in the culture of of
her poeple. Addah is also encumbered because the gender discrimination that
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is the foundation of her mariage. Her husband Francis treats her as property.
Addah is forced to support the family and responsible for the children. In the
meanwhile Francis goes to school studied and continuously fails exams. Addah
is in constant battle to try to preserve her womanhood and when she finally
leaves Francis she experiences a strong sense of relief. After leaving Francis,
Addah has moments of lonliness and despairs but in the end she comes out
triumphant because of her willpower. The novel highlights the stuggle for
women in receiving their education and surviving in a European white society
bwhile adopting two religious beliefs,and stiil following the beliefs of her own
people.
Also in Joys of Motherhood (1979) Emecheta examines the traditional and
colonial roots of gender inequality in the african society. The novel tells about
the suffering of Nnu Ego, the female protagonist and other women in the Ibo
community. In this novel motherhood creates a form of enslavement through
responsibilities as a mother. Emecheta in most of her novels talks about cultur
called for strict regulation of women’s roles and a proscribed subservience to
men,. In her novels emecheta often critices the authoritarian Ibos who take
advantage of male priviledge citing it as justification for the oppression of their
wives and daughters. In the Ibo community , women can persue only one life
path tha they should produce children preferably boys. Socity views the girls as
having little worth valuable only for their bride price and they haveno other
worth beyond the production of the next generation . women are looked as a
machine for producing and rearing male heirs.
So Long a Letter (1979) Mariama Ba deals with the African women opposing
gender discrimination. In the novel Mariama Ba talks about a women that
experiences gender inequality because of her culture and how she struggle to
escape the bonds that are tying her to victim of this. The novel begin with
Ramatoulaye a Senegalese woman who shares her trouble with her childhood
best friend Aissatou through letters. First she remainds her friend Aissatou of
how long they have met. Then she recounts whats has happened and tells the
tragic news that her husband Modou died and how she has to manage
everything. Shortly after her husband died she faces Tamsir (Modou’s brother)
who proposes that she be his fourth wife. She also has to deal with the co-wife
who was formerly her daughters friend. She has been forced to deal with
Binetou (co-wife) for the last and later on in the novel she has to confront
Aissatou her daughter namesake of her best friend as she find out that her
daughter is pregnant.
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Ngugi Wa Thiong’O view that colonialism obviously and post colonialism are
responsible for oppressing African women he clearly shows the problem of
patriarchy and its impacts on African in pre-colonialism, colonilism, and post-
colonialism Kenyan society through his novels. Ngugi believes that the british
colonial administration was responsible for destroying the socio-political and
economic structure of the African society. The Kikuya life style was
deteriorated by the emergence of colonialism.
Ngougui perceives women from feminis perspective. Most of his novel focuses
on women issues and Kikuya culture to reveal women’s major contribution in
liberating the society from male domination in pre-colonial colonial and post-
colonial areas. He also attempts to sho women characters and their significant
roles in the patriarchal system as well as the impact of colonialism on the roles
of female characters. In Petals of Blood (1977) Ngugi emphasises on the
exploitation of the African women on the basis of race, class, and gender.
Ngugui strongly desired to enable women to see themselves as human being
first then change their lives to become equal to men. Ngugi portrays Mariam a
squatter of Munira’s ( the cental character and a school-teacher) father’s farm.
She is assertive and does not want to be submissive to her husband anymore.
Ngugi also describes Nyukinuya as the essential female character having a great
deal of respect in Ilmory is an illustrationof his strong believes in momen’s
potentiality. He make her narrate the history of Ilmory that the villagers
strongly believe in hardworking and and goals. Nyakinyua succesfully brings the
villagers together and guide them efficiently. She describes Ilmory as the
thriving community to inspire poeple to prepare themselves to a bright future.
Nawal El Sadawi (1931) is an Egyptian writer and physiciant. As a revolutionary
feminist writer , Sadawi is endowed with an indefatigable of power and arare
capacity to transmit and propagate her message by means of varied literary
pipelines novels, short story plays, travel books…She presents a new
phenomenon in Arabe women’s literature a highly educated professional
women who is also brilliant writer bringing the voice of the women’s struggle
for liberation tov the Egyptian poeple. Sadawi fights against women’s
exploitation and gender discrimination everywhere .
In Women at Point Zero (1983)she creates fictional character Firdausi in an
attempt to hit back at a society tha torments women. She therefore, write from
her own experiences, blending it with the fictional character Firdausi in the
novel. She depicts the wholesome experience about women experience and

12
her society. El Sadawi has witten significantly to advance feminism and women
liberation from patriarchal forces of oppression.
Yvonne vera (1964-2005) was an author from Zimbabwe. Her literary writing
are significant as they chronicle the lives of influential Zimbabwean women
who strive to transform their lives despite the predicament they encounter. In
the literaryu texts she wrote, Vera always sought to to realise the potential of a
literary work to open spaces for the articulation of formerly suppressed stories.
Vera persistently aspired to expose the histories of exploration and cruelty
responsible for the silencing of women. She speaks for women and calls for
gender balanced social atmosphere in her works. In the text Under the Tongue
(1996) Vera subvert the stereotype of women being silent after their
victimasation. All the women Under the Tongue portray resilience and resist
male imposed oppression. The novel also presents the stuggle of women in
breaking down the silence imposed to on them by pitiable living conditions. In
dismantling the opressive structures of the society, they give voice to their
silence trauma of living in hotile environment. They try to resist the pressures
in their own way and try to struggle to survive, thus balancing the sense of pain
with the sensation of relief on overcoming their problems. The novel provides a
dicursive space for the enunciation of subultrn histories, which have been
silenced in male dominant socio-political discourse. In the novel Vera tries to
elevate women,s status by exploring areas that challenged the patriachal social
order.
Besides Vera’s most famous novel Butterfly Burning (1998) centers around the
life of lovely young and ambitious woman called Phelphelaphi, who falls
passionately in love with much older man Fumbatha . the two lovers move in
together in hopes of happiness. But phelphelaphi whishes to educate herself
and becomes nurse while Fumbatha pushes Phelphelaphi for her life to find
only dedication to him alone ( as the roles of men and women should play out
in this culture). This causes a major conflict in the relationship and Pelphelaphi
is forced to reconsider her love.Butterfly Burning is Vera’s manifesto to
independence and female liberation. Phelphelaphi fight the patriarchal society
to get the freedom she earns for. Through the character of phelphelaphi Vera
portrays the dificulties women face when their strength and and liberty is made
clear. Phelphelaphi’s only weapon is determination.
Sefi Attah one of the most renowned Nigerian born women writers of the
recent times, is an award winnig novelist short stories and dramatis. Her novels

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primarily focus on the dificulties, situation and condition of women in
contemporary Nigerian Society. Patriarchy, gender discrimination, sexual
violence social, economic, political and psychilogical issues are the most
leimotif of Sefi Attah’s novels. Her Novel also portays powerful and and highly
individualistic women characters who give voice for their rights and also have
concern for numerous issues concerning women. Her novel Everything Good
Will Come (2005) and Swallow (2010) deal with the predicament of modern
women and their stuggle in search for their identity and voice in contemporary
Nigerian society. The desire for independence and female empowerment is the
fulcrum around which the two novel revolve.
Everything Good Will Come and Swallow trace emotions and feelings which the
female characters go through. The protagonists try to live and dignified and
meaningful life and retrain their worth as human as well as women in the midst
of conflicting realities . the female characters Such as Enitan in Everything Good
Will Come and tolani in Swallow are projected as bold determined and
assertive women who stuggle for their emancipationand rightful position both
in family and society.

Methodology
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To highlight this topic we have first focused our research on Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie’s literary works and her lectures and those of Tsitsi Dangarembga to
better understand their stance on African literature. We have also read many
critical works linked to the theme Western hegemony and gender
discrimination in Africa. We have visited various libraries such as the english
Department Library, the Faculty Library and the one of Cheikh Anta Diop
University. To deal with our topic we have also asked questions to our
classmates and some elders in Master2.

15
Povisional outline

16
 Bibliobraphy
Books under study
 Adichie Ngozi Chimamanda, Half of a Yellow sun, Knopf Canada, 2010
 Dangarembga Tsitsi, Nervous Conditions, the women’s press london,
1988

Other books by the two authors

 Adichie Ngozi chimamanda, The Things around Your Neck, Fourth estate,
2009
 Dangarembga Tsitsi, This Mournable Body, Graywolf Press,2018
 Dangarembga Tsitsi, The Book of Not, Ayebia Clarke Publishing 2006

Other consulted books and articles

 Attoe Effah, women in the development of Nigeria since pre-colonial
time 2004, Lincoln journal of social and political thoughts 3 ; no1 (april) ;
1-10
 Oyewumi oyorenki, the invantion of women, the university of Minnesota
Press.
 Achebe Chinua, THings Fall Appart,1958,Penguin, Books Limited
 Achebe Chinua, Antill of the Savannah,1987,Penguin Publishing Group.
 Soyinka Wole, Lion and Jewel, 1963, Oxford University Press.
 Nwapa Flora,Efuru, 1966, Heineman Educational Books.
 Nwapa Flora, Idu, 1970, Heineman Educational Books
 Gramsci Antonio, Prison Notebook,2010, Colombia university press
 Ajala Taiwo, social construction of gender roles and women’s poverty in
frican societes, The case of Nigerian women, international journal of
gender and women studies.
 Emechete Buchi, Second Class Citizen, 1974, london Alisson &busby.
 Emecheta Buchi, Joys of motherhood,1979, Alisson &busby,
 Ba mariama, So Long a Letter, 1979, les nouvelles editions Africaines du
Senegal.

17
 Ngugi Wa Tiong’O, Petal of Blood, 1977, heineman African writers
 El Sadawi Nawal, Women at Point Zero, 1977, London Zed Book
 Vera Yvonne, Under the Tongue, 1996, Baobab Books.
 Vera Yvonne, Buterfly Burning, 1998, Baobab Books
 Attah Sefie, Everything Good Will Come, 2005, Iterlink Books.

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