FEMINIST AESTHETIC IN ZAYNAB ALKALI’S

THE STILLBORN AND THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN

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ABSTRACT

The study has examined the extent of the marginalization of the African woman in a
sexist society which relegates womanhood to gender roles. It has discovered, for instance
that the persistent inequality between men and women in the Nigeria society which Alkali
works portray, has contributed to the general disempowerment of women. Alkali however,
projects womanhood in a positive light she upholds female potentialities which the
patriarchal structure has represent. As a feminist, she aims her female character with an
intensity of vision and makes role models out of them. This study has further discovered
that illiteracy among women is on a slow decline compared to that of men. The education
of the female child is a rarity in Northern Nigeria. This has affected noticeably the quality
of life that the female child experiences. Zaynab Alkali has therefore, presents education as
the most essential weapon for challenging one aspect of gender inequality which is the
educational disempowerment of the woman. Feminist Aesthetic in Zaynab Alkali’s in The
Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman has been discussed and our findings reveal that
education plays major role in women emancipation and liberation in a patriarchal society.
The study has concluded that there is a need to re-evaluate and re-define gender roles in
African society in order to establish mutual complementary between men and women and
it recommended that both sexes should be equally trained for the joy of motherhood to be
full realized and that education underscores a fundamental necessity for the mental and
material liberation of women from male domination.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of Contents vi-vii

CHAPTER ONE v

1.0 Introduction to the Study

1.1 Purpose/Significance
1.2 Scope and Limitation
1.3 Justification of the study
v
1.4 Methodology
1.5 The Research Questions
1.6 Authorial Background

CHAPTER TWO: THE LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction
2.1 Feminist Theory
2.2 Types of Feminism
2.2.1 Liberal Feminism
2.2.2 Radical Feminism
2.2.3 Marxist Feminism
2.2.4 Socialist Feminism
2.2.5 Cultural Feminism
2.2.6 Black/African Feminism
2.3 A Review of Feminist Aesthetics

vi3
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Plot Construction
3.2 Image of Womanhood
3.3 Feminist Tendencies
3.4 Gender Equity
3.5 Female Modern Characterization
3.6 Language and Style
3.7 The Function of Feminist Aesthetics in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn

CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Plot Construction
4.2 Image of Womanhood
4.3 Gender Equity
4.4 Motherhood
4.5 Female Modern Characterization
4.6 Language and Style
4.7 The Feminist Aesthetics in Zaynab Alkali’s The Virtuous Woman

CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Summary
5.2 Findings
5.3 Conclusion
Bibliography

vii
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 CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex, but a

woman has to define herself as a woman from start. The masculine is regarded as the very

type of humanity and woman is seen as relative to man. This act is what gives birth to a

term “Feminism”.

Feminism according to the Oxford Advanced Dictionary is “the movement for

recognition of women’s rights (legal, political, social etc.) equal to possess by men”.

Although, the term ‘Feminism’ has a history in English linked with womens activism form

the late 19th century to the present, it is useful of distinguish feminist ideas or beliefs from

feminist political movements for even in periods when they have been no significant in

political activism around women’s subordination, individual has been concerned with and

the theorized about justice for women.

Feminism is an ideology which is a direct reation to the social and psychological

restraints place upon women. Femilism come as a result of an attempt by the women to

liberate their feet from traditional claws in African patriarchal society that allow the male

see to exercise authority and emphasis male supremacy over the female. This is basically to

bring impediments on the path of the women in realization of their potentials.

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 Joseph (2001:163) also aserts that “in order to be almost inextricaly successful in

that chauvinist patriarchal society and authoritarian set-up the society conditions and

manipulates the economic and psychological being of a woman”. Through history, women

has always struggled against male domination and suppression, be it political, religious,

economical or social.

The major reason for the women’s strive and thirst for quality with men can be

traced to the changing role for women in contemporary West Africa is not to say that the

traditional role of women as keeper of home, mother obedient, mate participation in

actions, economics are being eliminated rather, it is to state a fairly obvious sociological

fact. Society is not stagnant technologies and science just as the general societal changes

have occurred in different part of the countries, so also is the changes in the role of women.

The changes in the educational set up include changes in the educational set up include

changes attitudes economics, political and society environmental of women which

necessarily alter their roles.

Most African female writers seek to address the plight of women in most of their

works. The advent of women into an exclusively male world was possible with an

increasing sensitivity to inequalities of sexism. This issue forms the base of the African

women writers. The women came to awareness that there is the heed to change the image

of women from the oppressed and the underdog.

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 As a result of this fact, gender scholars and feminist writers have continuously

lamented the sad plight of women, especially women who are not adequately empowered,

in their works. Feminist writers in Europe and America like Virginia Woolf and Elaine

Showalter have dwelt almost on the same concerns that dominated the thematic pre-

occupation of African Feminist writers like Buchi Emecheta , Flora Nwapa, Ifeoma Okoye,

Mariam Ba, Zulu Sofola, Zaynab Alkali and others. The main concern of most of these

female is the problem confronting women. The female writer gives manly qualities to their

female characters and makes the men to play a secondary role. This trend in female writers

makes them feminist.

It is important to say that female writers also gained approval in the society through

the assistance of some male writers whose techniques of writing are different from the

female form. Showalter (1988:209) posits that “there is any specifically male and female

way of writing or approaching test because human imagination is essentially genderless”

for examples is critical reading in Sembene Ousmane God’s Bits of Wood (1962) which

portray female characters as revolutionary activists. They take up the leadership roles to

fight oppression in the society. The women march from Thies to Dakar with no food and

water, though many lose their lives in the struggle, those who are left to achieve success at

the end of the railway strike. Ngugi Wa also shows the sterling quality of women in the

African society. In a Grain of Wheat, women did not only stand by their men, they also

participate in various active parts in the struggle for freedom and Wole Soyinka’s The Lion

and the Jewel (1964) would be shallow without paying attention to the influence of the

women folk in the strike action in the novel and the roles play by Sadiku and Sidi in the

play respectively.

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 Education therefore is believed by many writers to be the major agent of women’s

liberation and emancipation with Western form of education, more women are now

empowered to express themselves and assert their right to be heard. Women thereby write

to create awareness in the societies. The awareness will lead women to speak out their

minds in matters concerning them.

Aesthetics on the other hand means the study of beauty of art. From the

consideration of this project topic Feminist Aesthetic in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and

The Virtuous Woman implies those elements and facts the novelist write to glorify

womanhood in struggle for the attainment of self liberation and transformation for the

beauty and betterment of the societal growth. Through feminism, she identifies the social

qualities imposed on feminine roles which place excessive restraints upon women and

conclude that neither a woman nor a man can be free unless each rejects fixed roles in all

their forms. Her belief is that it is essential that women throughout Africa be allowed and

encouraged to fulfil their potential for them to make an effective contribution to nation

building.

1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This project work is to examine and emphasized the ideological production of

‘Femininity’ as ‘other’ of patriarchy and the need therefore for women to become ‘real’

subjects and to discover their ‘true’ selves. It also examine the theme of female oppression

by men as well as the struggle by women for emancipation in Zaynab Alkali’s The

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Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman where you will see how African women in projected.

All her works hoped to promote an awareness of female educational development which

would lead to the socio-economic and political empowerment of more African women.

This project work centred on how improvement can be brought women condition in

Africa. Zaynab Alkali writes to asses as one of the African writer on feminists and recipes

for improving the women condition in Africa.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this project work is focused on Feminist Aesthetic in African

Literature with a close study of two novels written by one of the Nigerian leading female

writer, Zaynab Alkali. The novels to be studied are The Stillborn and The Virtuous

Woman. Reference shall however be made to other relevant works which centre on

feminism in the African sense of the word.

1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

In Africa culture, women have been subjected to oppression, depression,

suppression, rejection, and segregation and unfair and undue victimizations. This is duely

because of the insignificant view that the analysis of Zaynab Alkali’s novels The Stillborn

and The Virtuous Woman will be carried out to identify how she function in instructing the

society thereby helping it to develop and also bring out the beauty of woman significance

for the betterment of the society. In the process of data collected, the library would be

9
consulted before embarking on this project. There is need to find out what has been written

on the subject so as to guide the researcher on the general nature of the work and to add

more view to improve or better the on-going project.

However, this study will attempt to pay a critical attention to the awareness created

in the above books of Zaynab Alkali so as to bring out the aesthetics of feminism and their

contributions to societal growth.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

There will be a general study of various texts with aim of finding two that relate to

feminism. Having done this, a research will be carried out to pursue works connecting to

the element and concept under study of feminism including works previously written on

the concept. This will give root of background to the study. Any information gathered will

be used to carry out proper work.

The analysis of Zaynab Alkali’s novels The Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman

will be carried out to identify how they function in instructing the society thereby helping it

to develop and also bring out the beauty of woman significant and betterment of the

society. In the process of data collection, the library would be consulted before embarking

on this project, there is need to find out what has been written on the subject so as to guide

the researcher on the general nature of the work and to add more view to improve or better

the on-going project.

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1.6 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What are the tenets of gender aesthetics?

What are the primary concerns of these two novels of Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and

The Virtuous Woman to feminism issue?

What is the significance of women in the society?

1.7 AUTHORIAL BACKGROUND OF ZAYNAB ALKALI

Zaynab’s father is said to have come from Dam, a village in Borno State in the Northern

part of Nigeria, but he moved to Gongola also in the northern region where Zaynab herself

was born and brought up in the early 1960s. She attended Queen’s College and later went

for further Degree in English before taking up the post of Principal of Shekaka Girl’s

College, Kano in 1976, she was appointed as lecturer at Bayero University, Kano.

Zaynab Alkali’s belongs to the group of African Feminist writer that fervently

decry the condition of women. Her published books are The Stillborn (1984), The Virtuous

Woman (1986), The Descendent (2003) and other short stories collection Cowbells and

other Stories (1997). Her pre-occupation is the plight of women in a society where the only

means of survival, physical and emotional is to attain considerable level of education and

economic independence.

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 As a feminist writer, Zaynab writes to deconstruct and at the same time to correct

the evils of patriarchy in her society. In this society, women are regarded as mere

subordinate to their men counterpart. They are subjugated and oppressed under the guise of

male supremacy over female. The way out is what Zaynab Alkali’s trying to depict in her

works.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter reviews existing literature on feminism, feminist aesthetics and

feminist theories. A brief origin of feminism as well as definitions given by scholars, on

feminist aesthetic and theorise will be examined.

2.1 FEMINIST THEORY

Feminism started way back in the West. The Western way of feminism is different

from the African way of feminism because Africa only picked some aspect of it that is

related to their concept. Western form of feminism negates man while the Africa form of

feminism accommodates them. It has different concept or trend which it is prefer to word

“Feminism” itself and the concept is “Womanise” which was introduced by Alice Walter,

“Motherism” is also introduced by Catherine Acholonu. These are just terms which serve

as alternative for the word “Feminism”.

However, these concept mentioned above are the branches of the same tree because

their main goal are aimed at eliminating discrimination against woman.

Feminism is a serious, coherent, and universal philosophy that offers an alternative

to patriarchal thinking and structures. Feminists believe that woman should be viewed as

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equal partners in social and economic terms. They believe that “qualities traditionally

associated with women- the feminine principle and at least equal in value to these

traditionally associated with men the masculine principle – and that this equality must be

publicly recognized” (cited in Erwierhoma 2002). The definition above gives the detail of

the word “’Feminism” that is, the only way through which women try to go against the

ruling of men over them and the reasoning of women about their own good qualities and

how they too can help in the development of the society.

Feminism, from the definition, is seen as the belief that women too are human

beings and should treated the same way men are treated. Women should not only be

restricted to traditional roles such as caring for home, bearing and rearing children.

Feminism advocates female inclusion in all fields of knowledge focused less on

deconstructing the discursive formation which position the subjects than an analyzing the

socially deconstructed difference between the sexes as the chief source of women

oppression and on examining sex role as a mad of social control.

In the words of Frank, feminism by definition is a philosophy that value personal

growth and individual fulfilment over any larger communal needs of good (cited in

Andrade: 1999) from the definition, women move from and individual experience to fight a

system whereby she suffers intimidation neglect, brutality, disgrace etc. which a lot of

people sympathies with her and none is willing to fight her cause by challenging the system

that is why feminism is seen to be an individual philosophy.

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 Bardwik (1980:5) reports that feminism is “an explicit rejection of life style created

by strongly coercive norms that defines and restrict what women are and can do” (cited in

Evwierhoma 2002). Feminism from the definition is a total rejection for former lifestyle of

women of which they regarded as helpmeet and as slave to me. This concept of rejection is

made by force to explain to the society, what women are meant for, and what they can do,

regardless of the traditional role allocated to them at the beginning of life.

Keohane (2003:102) posits that feminism “…attempt to win for women full right

and power in the contemporary society and in the dominant political system” (cited in

Evwierhoma 2002). The above definition, gives us information about feminism which

strive to win for women the full right and power in the contemporary society and in the

dominate political system whereby they too can have a say, could rise up to some instances

where men think that they are the only one who has the final say.

According to the Oxford Dictionary (1933:63) “Feminism is the opinions and

principle of the advocates of the extended recognition of the achievements which were not

accepted in the community due to the gender differences and this actually call for the

agreement for women in the area of fighting for their own recognition in the society,

coupled with equal right achievement”.

Nnaemeka (2002:84) cites “it may be that these writers are writing back not

tradition itself but to a masculinity reinvention of it in which women own tradition spheres

of action and authority are excluded”. Really, many female writers are not writing back to

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tradition per say, they are writing for equal rights, liberation and changing of men’s view

about them. This is why their own aesthetics reveals more of feminism in their writings

than that of men aesthetics of feminism.

Appiah (1992:47) evaluates that feminism as “on the one hand, a simple claim to

equality, a denial of substantial difference, on the other hand is a claim to a special

message, revealing the feminine ‘other’ not as her ‘helpmate’ of sexism, but as the new

women”, Equality has been the major song or cry of feminist in their writings. Men have

classified themselves as the mighty being and lord over all. This makes them feel superior

over women. They don’t regard the status and contribution of women to the societal

growth.

Frank (1990:80) asserts that feminism “is a philosophy where values, personal

growth and individual fulfilment incomplete over any large communal needs or good”.

From this view, women move from and individual experience to fight a system whereby

she suffers intimidation, neglect, brutality, disgrace and so on.

Joseph (2002:99) views feminism as “an ideology of social commitments to the

struggle for female liberation in the society through conscious and collective efforts”. The

two main important words in all their definitions are equality and liberation among the

sexes which may be enchained by the struggle women themselves.

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 It is vividly known that lack of regards to women actually made them to go a head
with the concept of feminism and through their writings they think they can bring about the
reality of the desired. Examples of women writers that helped in educating the people about
the concept of right and liberation for women are, Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa, Stella
Oyedepo, Julie Okoh, Ama Ata Aidoo, Zaynab Alkali and many others. In the next chapter,
emphasis shall be laid on Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman.

Feminism, which is seen as the theory of women was encouraged by some male
writers who think that equality among sexes cannot help in the development of the entire
society and these motivate the male writers in joining hands with the female writers to see
to the eradications of inequality through their writings. Examples of some of them that
support the eradication of inequality that exist are; Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of
Wood (1962), Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat and Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
(1964) and many others.

Feminism in relation to this study can be defined as a concept in which women tend
to rise and fight the traditional knowledge of men about women so as to bring about equal
rights and explain to the society through their form of writings, their own positive qualities
that will be needed in developing the entire society.

Feminism on the other hand can be seen as those writings either male or female that
use a form of writing in bringing about actualization of the dream of women about equality
and liberation. Feminism, however, differs in their analysis of the causes of gender
inequalities and therefore provides different recommendations for change. Some of the
feminists theories will be examine to determine the impact if had on sexes and entire
society.

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2.2 TYPES OF FEMINIISM

2.2.1 LIBERAL FEMINISM

This perspective is largely derived from the works of early functionalists and is based on

two types of justification, biology and religion. The Liberal/conservative feminism view

women as naturally or biologically inferior to men and that the essential differences

between women and men are ordained by God and so they should be contented with their

stereotypical roles of labouring at home or near the home, bearing and rearing children.

The implication of this perspective is that women are derived of public life or

banned fro, political spheres that are exclusively reserved for the weaknesses that have

been observed in this approach. Any discrimination placed on woman individually or as a

group is unjust because it deprives women of equal opportunities for pursuing their own

self interest.

When liberal feminism became wide spread, it was hoped that women would be

accorded equal (natural) rights for the same opportunities, freedoms and responsibilities as

the men while campaigns were mounted to eliminate laws that discriminated against them.

Liberal feminist appear to favour gender equality (i.e. preferring complementary between

men and women or total in action rather than aggression on the part of women in

demanding equal rights and opportunities for men and women) but lack the power to

challenge the gender in equalities that persist.

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 However, liberal feminists have played a major role in bringing about significant

reforms like advocating for justice in work places; this means equal pay for work of equal

value between men and women granting women maternity leave, pressing for more

services for abused women among others.

2.2.2 RADICAL FEMINISM

Radical Feminism is similar to socialist feminism in that it emphasizes the need for

dramatic social change in order to achieve genuine equality for women (and sometimes

these two philosophers are grouped together). Radical feminism believes that society is

extremely patriarchal and until patriarchy is transformed on all levels, the system will

remain unjust. A minority of Radical feminism are “separatist feminists”, who belief that

men and women need to maintain separate institution and relationships.

Radical feminism rejects a world where men control women’s bodies and force

women into motherhood or sexual slavery. They therefore, out- rightly blame men as the

oppressors of women and hold that all violence against women rape, sexual harassment –

indeed all exploitation of women in any way must stop. Radical feminism in Africa have

their perception of women liberation similar to that of Western Feminism as suggested by

Zulu Sofola and belief that love, marriage, courtship, sex roles or sexuality among others

are political issues which suggest patriarchal domination. Radical Feminism in Africa also

define woman as “the politically oppressed class” and encourage them to fight for their

liberation. One of its contributions has been its insistence on opening up the personal

domain – through the slogan “the personal is political” as a legitimate domain for the

analysis of gender relation.

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2.2.3 MARXIST FEMINISM

The Marxist perspective is traced to the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

and later to Lenin. The aforementioned Marxists argued fervently in their works, that the

monogamous relationship that most women where compelled to have the causes of the

subjugation of their sex by the male sex. The biological and capitalistic explanations of

women question are the main focus of Marxist feminism Marxism analyses the history of

the material and economic oppression of women, particularly how the family and women’s

domestic labour reproduce the sexual division of labour. According to Engels, the

overthrow of women’s rights was tantamount to the universal defeat of the female sex.

Marxist feminism may not be adopted as a meaningful liberation theory in Nigeria

because it is believed that capitalism which plays a major role in the oppression of the

weak and the disadvantaged (i.e. women, the unemployed, the peasants, labourers and

workers) must be radicated if women are to gain equally. Its contribution, however,

includes providing the basic for another conceptual frame work, that of socialist feminism.

2.2.4 SOCIALIST FEMINISM

Political, philosophy and the historical materialist method of Marx and Engels with

the radical feminist insight that; “the personal is political”. Socialist feminism seeks the

underlying reasons for women’s subordination. It sees the issues of gender, race and class

as integrated issues that “reinforce and feed on each other” and must not be treated

separately for the adequate understanding of women’s subordination and oppression.

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 Unlike Marxist feminism, socialist feminism does not give priority to economic

oppression, it rather rewards working class mates and give them control over women. This

is because women’s work is less valued as it is seen not to produce exchangeable goods.

2.2.5 CULTURAL FEMINISM

This brand of feminism emphasizes the different between the male and female

gender. It further stresses the point that the qualities that are characteristic of women have

been devalued in the society. It also demands an end to the devaluation of women and they

work towards a transformation of society that will accord honour and respect to women.

Cultural feminism, like Radical feminism celebrates what can be called “women’s

values” and “women’s cultures” which are known to include gentleness, meekness, peace,

emotionality, a nurturing spirit and caring for others. This is in contrast to masculine values

that include arrogance, force and emotional in expressiveness among others.

2.2.6. BLACK/AFRICAN FEMINISM

This emerged as a response to while feminism. Womanism is for instance, a

feminist term coined by a black American scholar; Alice explains that a black feminist

enjoys a close relationship with man on equal partnership and not one between the master

and minion.

African feminism is similar to womanism in some ways one major similarity

between the two is the recognition by both of a common struggle with men for the removal

of all forms of oppression that are meted out to both sexes. The two also rely on androgyny

21
(shared roles) and on complementarily between the sexes. Another noticeable weakness in

her definition of womanism is that she argues that womanists fight for the survival of both

sexes; she rejects the inclusion of black men as womanists. The aforementioned weakness

have made walker’s concept of womanism and in adequate tool for the improvement of the

lives of all people – be they African, whites or Asians.

2.3 A REVIEW OF FEMINIST AESTHETICS

Feminist aesthetics helps to appreciate the critical writing already done on the plays

of Nigerians female dramatists. In full recognition of the marked difference in the art of

women and that of men and the natural tendency of women’s right arts, in relation to that

of men, which usually results in labelling women’s arts as inferior, Feminist thinkers have

evolved a different theory for the appreciation of women in creativity based on its

ointments. If this is adopted, the male critical criteria will stifle women’s literary growth.

Feminist Aesthetics therefore functions as an alternative critical standard for

judging women’s creativity. It is based on the notion that women have a discernibly

distinct culture from men. This feminist culture influences and affects their writing and

should of necessity be taken into consideration while interpreting and appreciation

women’s writing. Feminist Aesthetics is based on the ideals and divisions of feminism. It is

hinged precisely on feminist beliefs and ideas. This theory of feminist aesthetics takes into

account why, what and how women write.

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 Aido (1986:16) report that feminist writing must be “to exposing the sexist tragedy

of women history, protesting the on-going degradation of women, celebrating their

physical and intellectual capabilities, and above all, unfolding a revolutionary vision of the

role”.

From the above view about the feminist way of writing, it can be vividly seen that

gender of writer shows in the images, symbols, languages, characterization and themes that

are used in the texts of Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman.

Women have a distinct creative principle which is often responsible for their

derivation from popular conventions – the different roles that women play in the society

invariably from the source of their creative principle which though different from that of

men and it is not necessarily inferior. Feminist aesthetics can therefore be seen as a

relationship to the society condition under which women produce their works.

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 CHAPTER THREE

3.0 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the textual analysis of the novel The Stillborn with the feminist

aesthetics will be the major focus. The achievements of women with the help of education

will be specifically focused to further emphasis on how feminist aesthetics helps to

appreciate the critical writing already done on that particular novel. Zaynab Alkali’s The

Stillborn hereby leads us to the actualization of the dream of women on equality and

liberation.

3.1 PLOT CONSTRUCTION

The novel, The Stillborn by Zaynab Alkali is a story of one village in the North

Eastern part of Nigeria. Libira (Li), the main character of Alkali’s The Stillborn is a strong

woman who feels that she has the same might as men and also capable of taking the mantle

of household leadership. Li is struck by the negative memory of her home which she refers

it as “worse than a prison”. p 3 and the city she refers it as a paradise, she starts with an

ambitious dreams, hoping to succeed through her fiancé, Habu Adams who lives in the city

wher3e she dream of “being a different woman with painted nails and silky shinning hair”.

p 55.

The complicated issue now is that her husband Habu abandoned her in the village

for four years where by married to another wife in the city. She suffers the stress and stain

24
of life and unfavourable treatment in the hand of her husband after she eventually reached

the city.

On hearing the sickness of her father Baba, she decided to go back home but Baba

died before her arrival. On her way travelling back home, she brief stop over at Kano to see

Faku her childhood friend who reveals her own pathetic condition. Even though Li had

“felt cold and lonely in her own ways, Faku felt much colder and lonelier”. p 78.

At the ending part, the sight of Faku coupled with the negative experience she had

in Habu Adam’s house, brought Li to full consciousness. Li therefore resolves to seek for

her freedom, on dependence that will bring lasting happiness in her life. Li successfully

completed her studies which enable her to assume a position of leadership in her family by

becoming “the man of the house”. p 85 with the bond that had tied her and her husband,

Shuwa her daughter now ten years old, made her to return to her husband who was

involves in an accident. Her intention is to help him regain his lives again.

3.2 IMAGE OF WOMANHOOD

The main theme on this novel is centred on women and their plight in marriage. The

novel comes up with the ideals of determination and virtue, roles and identity allotted a

woman by a male dominated society. The woman’s virtue is her being able to forgive and

redeem the man or men in her life who cannot desist from inflating on her the most vicious

forms of oppression and brutalization. The above theme subsumes shattered illusions, the

25
three young women (girls) in The Stillborn have. They are all traumatised by their

marriages as each husband turns out to be not quite the right choice for them.

Education plays an important role; it serves as the basis for woman liberation and

exposure. Education liberates the woman’s mind and also plays a positive part in helping

women in establishing and realizing feminism goals. Li’s dissatisfaction of life at home at

the beginning of the novel which she compared to the suffocating in prison like situation in

her father’s compound where the children cannot participate in things other children in the

village enjoys like story telling, going to dancing area etc.

Later in life, she has been humiliated by her husband, “a man who cares nothing

about her and the child”, and having been disgraced in the village:

She had then vowed to go back into the world and make an
independent life for herself. Dusting her class seven
certificate, she had fled from the village, leaving her
daughter behind. p 85.

After five years she achieved her aim through education which helped her to

assume, the role of the man of the house in her father’s compound.

Li independence gives her the courage to speak out and express her feelings when

Habu comes to plead for forgiveness and that she should come back. Li initially refuses by

telling him that: “There is more to being a father than lying between a woman’s things” p 91.

The same way she feels about men while she was still waiting for her husband to
come and pick her from the village and experience gives her this impression about men:

26
 Who says a husband makes for a guardian or a father?
Certainly, not the Hausa who would say; a woman who
takes a husband for a father will die an orphan, p 85.

One of the greatest benefits Li has from going to school is her understanding and

tolerating nature, coupled with the fact that she is matured, considerably during this period

and becomes a person with a finer soul.

In the life of Awa and her husband Fiama, the importance of education is made

clear. When the government takes over the hospitals and schools, Fiama is not made the

principal which he expects and his wife Awa is not made the head of the adult education

school. This is because their level of Education is low than what is required for the

positions respectively. Awa makes this clear to Li saying:

They said he wasn’t educated enough to head such a

big school, so a stranger was brought to take his
place. This time, a brown man p 87.

Alkali uses character Li to examine the image of woman in the society. She

portrays the life of Li, a young ambitious and courageous girl, who is made to wait for an

irresponsible man. Four years and a baby later, she is back in her father’s house. Zaynab is

ambivalent in the way she handles males and female characters and issues in the pre-

literate setting. Being originally of a culture where the role of women is traditionally

subordinate, she make some of her female character’s conform to defined roles. There is

consistence exploitation of African customs and traditions. There are traditional beliefs,

may be unacceptable to the modern mind.

27
 Dreams are an important element which Zaynab Alkali uses to portray the image of

women. This dream was shown through Li and the reader pictures of the future, and the

occurrences of these dreams always mark a turning point in the plot of the story. Li has

dreams that foretell her father’s death in the dream:

She found her ancestral home deserted and all the huts in a
state of ruin… she moved to the spot where her father’s hut
had once been and saw a heap of red soil. p 74.

Most significant, is Li’s dream about her own future that occurs right at the end of

the novel. She has a dream of her own great grand-daughter’s wedding, fifty years into the

future. Close to death herself, (in the dream), Li advices the girl to make the most of her

opportunities and not to waste all her life on empty dreams:

It is well to dream, child, she went on as if she hadn’t heard

the girl. ‘Everybody does, and as long as we live, we shall
continue to dream. But it is also important to remember that
like babies dreams are conceived but not all dreams are born
alive. Some are aborted while others are stillborn. p 104.

When Li makes up, she recalls the dream and knows “that the bonds that tied her to

the father of her child, was not ruptured”. It is that certainty that makes her to go and search

for Habu in the city. She would not let her childhood dream of both of them together, to be

aborted by the prevailing circumstances of the intervening years. Most of her life is a head

of her, and she is determined to make it work as best.

28
3.3 FEMINIST TENDENCIES

Zaynab Alkali portrays the plight of woman in Northern part of Nigeria and she

uses her female characters to criticize male dominated society. In this novel, it concerned

most issues concerning women, she writes to correct patriarchal hegemony in her society.

Li and Faku are two examples of the modern educated women. Li pursues her

teacher training, acquires good education and a new sense of independence, which give her

psychological strength and magnanimity. She finally returns to not only her shattered

community but also to rescuer and rehabilitate what Osifisan describes as “her prodigal and

defeated husband” with her education, Li builds a very large fabulous building enough to

accommodate all her family.

Faku on the other hand, after separated from her husband Garba, she lives on her

own and acquires further education which enables her to get a good job as a social worker.

Education thus, leads to security and better social status. Li and Faku examples affirm that

women can overcome limitations imposed on them socially by acquiring Western

education.

To Alkali, the dream of personal freedom detached from matrimonial life is not

accepted to African. The consequence of such detachment is disillusionment for “every

woman needs a man to mend the fence”. p 99. Li becomes incredibly changed through the

29
process of social transformation. She becomes mature and in the process of her maturity

“had become a better person with a finer soul”. p 94. As she becomes the ‘man of the

house’ she even looks more beautiful and younger than her age. The tireless struggle by Li

through the years of her life could have made her socially, economically, psychologically

etc. satisfied and accomplished. But the certainty of her acclaimed freedom or liberation is

questioned. It is vividly shown that:

Li ought to have felt fulfilled, but instead she left empty. It

wasn’t just the emptiness of bereavement, but an emptiness
that went beyond that. For ten years she had struggled
towards certain goals. Now, having accomplished these
goals, she wished there was something else to struggle for.
For that was the only way life could be meaningful. p 102.

Li’s psychological state reveals to us that no woman wants to die a spinster, every

woman (educated, influential or not) would want to marry. The issue of self-fulfilment,

material possession, education etcetera cannot provide the required happiness to a woman.

So, she decided to go back to Adams, the father of her daughter Shuwa.

3.4 GENDER EQUITY

In Alkali’s The Stillborn, Awa and Li taught:

Awa shook her head thoughtfully; you are going back to

him? ‘Yes’ ‘why, Li? The man is Lame’, said the sister.
‘We are all lame, daughter-of-my-mother. But this is no
time to crawl. It is time to learn to walk again’. ‘So you
want to hold the crutches and lead the way?’ Awa asked.
‘No,’ answered Li. What then, you want to walk behind
and arrest his fall?’ ‘No, I will just hand him the crutches
and side by side we will learn to walk’. p 105.

30
 These emphasized lines in the excerpt above are suggestive or symbolic of gender

equality which neither subordinates women nor subdues men. When interpreted deeply,

suggest that it is only when the two genders come together and work out their lives in

harmony would there being a more peaceful co-existence between them. It would certainly

make female empowerment more meaningful and a lot more possible. Without doubt,

changing deep-seated culturally and religiously entrenched attitudes is extremely difficult.

However, a change towards a more equal and equitable relationship between men and

women would be greatly beneficial to both sexes and to the nation at large. Alkali’s best

captured in her presentation of ‘men’ and ‘women’ as she would like them to be-

complementary to one another and to achieve the aim. There must be equal partnership and

mutual support between the sexes.

3.5 FEMALE MODERN CHARACTERIZATION

The female characters in this novel are placed higher than the male characters.

Therefore, the playwright tries to pass message of equality in the society that is, giving

women upper hand in the society. Women should not be neglected, they too possess those

skills men have and with the help and support of the able men, their skills will be achieved

to a brighter future.

As we can see Li as one of female character in the novel (i.e. the protagonist), she is

a young determined, ambitious fearless girl who is always conscious of her surrounding

and society. As a young girl, she seeks to escape from her father’s compound which she

31
feels suffocating, trapped and unhappy. She waited for her husband, Habu for four years in

the village, later, she joined him in the city, and she was humiliated and treated badly by

Habu, her husband in the city, she decided to go back home to her father’s house. After her

education that brings her independence and maturity, she even decided to go back to her

husband, who was involved in an accident. Awa her sister wants her to forget about her

useless husband but Li still feels for him saying; “Now I fell sorry for him because I have

at least my child to remind me of those moments we had together”. p 94.

Awa, Li’s senior sister is another prominently female character in the novel, she has

the traditional qualities of an African woman, and she is submissive, hardworking and very

respectful. She has a mortal fear for their father Baba who made her submissive beyond

reason. Having completed her class seven at the primary school, she remained at home as a

class teacher in the village primary school. Awa needs a resilient attitude and strong desire

to go back to school. She fails woefully, however to redeem herself and is thus left with a

broken heart husband Dan-Fiama, a headmaster in the village primary school. Her caring

and loving husband later, turn to a drunkard because the government took over the schools

and hospital without making him the principal. Awa has a horde of children to cater for.

Alkali does not feel that a woman is useless even when such a woman is handicapped;

there is still the need for her to get some education to a better change.

Faku is another female character; Zaynab Alkali uses to pass information in this

novel. Faku was Li’s bosom friend who had suffered since she was born, at six, her father

32
died, three years later, her two brothers drowned in the flood and she was left alone with

her mother. Due to this incident, the villagers called her “mother a witch”. Since people

believes that her family’s background will never allow her to get married. She decided to

have a responsible and educated man as a husband, a man who stays in the city. She end up

marrying a worthless womanizer called Garba, who already had a woman in the city with

six children. At this point, Zaynab introduces the practice of polygamy in the novel.

The traditional African society, custom demands that a woman is acquiescent

despite the fact that some of the “man made laws” are derogatory and down-right. The

traditional Africa customs and laws encourage the institution of polygamy child marriage,

male child preference, poverty and powerlessness of women. This is why (as Alkali has

revealed) a man feels free to treat his wife like a common slave or like an inferior custom

permits the man to marry as many wives as “he can afford” whereas the woman cannot

practice polyandry under any circumstance.

On the other hand, Alkali’s male characters are presented as abusive husbands and

hopeless womanizers; they are also victims of one circumstance or the other. Garba for

instance, is made an unscrupulous city man, polygamous, yet heavily dependent on his

wives. Habu Adams represents the victim of a coincidental love that claps down and ruins

his life. In another way, Danfiama (H.M) becomes a social out cast when the wind of social

change sweeps him away. Sule is however pushed into the world to become a prodigal son,

passing through humorous experiences from one place to another.

33
 The denigrated image of these male characters validates the view that some men

have often been accused of not performing their roles adequately. The women complain

that men are drunkard, adulterous and brutal. Male characters in The Stillborn adequately

demonstrate all the male misbehaviour and the constrained social conventions necessitate

the need for a change in the social image of the African woman.

3.6 LANGUAGE AND STYLE

Alkali’s style of writing reflects “ideas and attitudes” which can be defined as

feministic on the one hand and naturalistic on the other hand. Her use of language is clearly

seen as the infiltration of the English language on her mother tongue.

This is the following examples of linguistic experimentation in The Stillborn. The

local expression cited is explained immediately and their Standard English equivalents are

given where necessary.

“May we live to see tomorrow”. p 33. This denotes hope of something expected or

hopes of a new day. “son-of-my-mother”. p 21, my brother “Assha!”. p. 29. This is a local

expression used to denote surprise or shock. “Children-of-of-mother”. p 33. This is used to

denote excitement or surprise at seeing someone after a while.`

“Daughter-of-my-mother”. p 56. My sister, she has got the stomach (i.e.

pregnancy) it can also mean “fecundity” (i.e. the woman in question is very fertile and

easily conceives).

34
 “May they live to carry their children and their children to bury them”. p 66. These

are prayers or wishes for longer life. “Mother-of-the-house”. p 78, the above is used as a

mark of respect and refers to an elderly woman or mother of wife.

3.7 THE FUNCTION OF FEMINIST AESTHETICS IN ZAYNAB ALKALI’S

THE STILLBORN

The main identified in the writer’s novel shows that men are lacking in many

ethical attributes while at same time boast that women have no right to map out strategies

for self-survival in a system that seeks to deny their humanity and identity. She strongly

suggested that successful women must embark in the fields of education as we have seen in

the life of Li, the protagonist and her friend Faku.

Through her works, she further reveals that; she treats her female heroines,

especially the one who have been maltreated by their spouses or by their social milieu, with

sympathy and with great sensitivity. She uses female characters more dynamic than their

male counterparts and certainly occupies more prominent positions in her works than the

men.

Alkali portrays that female characters are hardworking, independence, assertiveness

and finally, they are serious intellectual commitment. All her works emphasized as earlier

mentioned that women are as food as their male counterparts (if not better) in facing life’s

rigours and challenges.

35
 From the analysis explain above, we can see the feminist aesthetics which function

as an alternative critical standard for judging woman’s creativity and the theory of feminist

aesthetics takes into account why, what and how Zaynab Alkali write to portray the

significance of a woman initiative joined together with men to form a better decision for

the betterment of our society. She therefore, affirms that national strength lies in

reconciliation and cooperation of both sexes. So by their togetherness, they will set out on

the journey to build a better nation. This will also be discussed as we approach to chapter

four.

36
 CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter will lead us to textual analysis of Zaynab Alkali’s The Virtuous

Woman. We will also emphasis and focus on how feminist Aesthetics contributed in

appreciating the critical work done by the play Wright of this particular novel, mentioned

above.

4.1 PLOT CONSTRUCTION

The novel has a geographical setting located at South and North. The novel is an

adventure novel that carries with it the journey from Northern to Southern part of Nigeria.

Zaynab wrote this novel to portray the role of women patriarchal society where she belongs

and the way to explicate their rate from the class of patriarchal. She target her literary

works at reforming the disparage image of women in African society. She therefore,

artistically depicts the plight of women from childhood in the Islamic dominated area in the

Northern Nigeria.

Nana Ai is the protagonist and as a metaphor to project the virtues that surround

women and how such can be used to upgrade the states of women in the developing

society. The novel is introduced to us with the preparation of three young girls Nana Ai,

Lalia and Hajjo getting ready to enter the post primary school in the southern part of the

country (Nigeria).

37
 Every aspect of oppression that women pass through in the hands of men is also

reflected in the novel. In order to check such oppressive balances, Alkali has to create male

characters as weaklings and irresponsible individuals.

Both boys and girls undertake a kind of adventure from their different village to a

city in search of knowledge. The different experience they encountered on the way result in

a theme of grow-up such lesson for Hajjo and Lalia that; they should learn to be virtuous

careful to stranger, they should focus on whatever they are willing to desire (education) and

always take whatever lesson they are given at home, they should build virtuous that would

project and glorify the womanhood.

4.2 IMAGE OF WOMANHOOD

In The Virtuous Woman, the dream of the protagonist of text “Nana Ai” is one of

theme who secretly nurtures the dream of becoming a medical doctor like her father. But

she unable to share her dream with anyone because of the fear of societal ostracism which

is imposed on women in the professional field. Let us consider her views:

Perhaps she said to herself, “if I were a male, I would be a

doctor also”. She liked and nursed the idea. It never
occurred to her that it was in her to be whatever she wanted
to be. The only female doctors she had known were Asians
and White people; and for some strange reason she never
regarded them as women. p 10.

Medicine was a profession that was reserved only for me because it was considered

“too masculine” for women. In Nana Ai’s days, a woman was not supposed to dream of

38
taking a professional curse. Nana Ai breaks the mores and social conventions, however “by

aspiring to be very well educated and by travelling far to attend a school in Yoruba land”. p

5. Her courage is to be admired greatly, especially when she travels as a paralytic in search

of knowledge at a time when:

The daring sons and daughters of the soil, who went out in
search of knowledge or trade, would come home with
daunting stories of the dangers of the outside world. p 2.

An educated woman is a great investment to her husband and her parents, but most

of all to her country. Illiteracy has been identified as a great problem facing women in their

untiring efforts and relentless struggles against inequality. The significance of education

not only to the womenfolk depict in the novel; The Virtuous Woman. Both formal and

informal educations are so important to extend that people, young and old travel far away

searching for knowledge. This was portrayed in the novel:

The most existing thing, however, was that two girls were
offered places in Her Majesty’s College in Kudu a distance
of about 1,000 kilometres. Zuma was proud. It wasn’t easy
getting a place in Her Majesty’s College, famous Girls’
Boarding School one of the best in Federation. p 2

In this book, depicts the importance of education to both sexes, young and old.

They embark on a long journey searching for knowledge. So the view that says; “Education

is light” is right as these people are searching for light since any being without education or

knowledge is in darkness and such people need light to bring an end to their state of

ignorance.

39
 We have the theme of love, indeed Nana Ai, a young disable village girl is full of

dream of the future life in the home of a man who will be truly in love with her. She figures

him to be:

A handsome man, tall, with broad shoulders, walks into a

room and finds her seated. He speaks to her in a deep, soft
but firm voice and she raises her eye slowly, meeting his
steady gaze. He is gently but masculine. He smiles, but Nana
lowers her eye shyly. He put out his hand and uncovers her
head. He is spell-bound by her beauty. He drops on his knees
and says huskily ‘Nana, I love you ”. p 35.

Here, Nana’s education, beauty and decency, fetch her, man of her dream called

Bello. Bello is created in the novel as a decent, loving and caring Youngman who

appreciate Nana despite her deformity. Not all Alkali’s male characters are created as

weakling in her novels.

4.3 GENDER EQUITY

Zaynab Alkali’s stories respectively, are the similar to the message that Zulu Sofola

relays in her essay on “feminism and African womanhood in current perspective”. And this

message is that; ignorance has mystified African man. African womanhood needs to be put

in its proper perspective if the resurgence of African woman on national and international

scene will make sense and achieve a meaningful purpose. In order to achieve a meaningful

purpose in life, every man and indeed every woman in the world must be educated.

40
 Equal treatment of persons in equal situations will contribute greatly to the

eradication of injustice. An educated woman according to Zaynab Alkali is “great

investment to her children, husband, and parent, most especially to her nation”.

This message is very loud and clear in Alkali’s texts. The Nigerian society believes

primarily in the role model of women as perfect house wives. Only sound education of the

mind can cure this unsound judgement. As a result of this negative conception, the girl

child spends more time at home doing house chores whereas the boy child is so free of the

time. – consuming task and thus has more time to put in his academic work. The author

portray the mutual inter-dependence that can exist between men and women in a union of

or an association of equality, she creates female characters in such away that they later find

their bearing in the life after much endurance. Equality is the cornerstone of every

democratic society which aspires to have social justice and human rights.

4.4 MOTHERHOOD

Subsequently, Hajjo’s mother possessed a character that would be likened to Jesse

Bernard’s sociological definition of motherhood. Bernard (1986:21) in her approach

resolves “to fight those aspects of our society that make child-bearing and child rearing a

stress rather than fulfilling experience”. Zaynab portrays Hajjo’s mother as an emblem that

implores the agony, pain and stress. Hajjo’s mother could not fulfil her ambition to be

educated. Thus, she strives on as a staff nurse in Birnin Dala just to survive and meet the

demand of her only child and daughter:

41
 Her mother, who was a college student at the time of her
birth, had been expelled from school, but now she was
thriving as a staff nurse in Birnin Dala. Once every few
years she visited, bringing plenty of gifts for Hajjo and the
rest of the family, but she always left after a week. p 7.

Here, Alkali portrays what it takes to be a single parent to a child.

Nana Ai is another character that has the quality of motherhood as Hajjo comments:

Nana was embodiment of her aspirations; beautiful,

intelligent and very kind. In fact, when Nana came back to
the village for her holidays, Hajjo had run to her house with
the happy news. Nana had embraced her warmly and danced
with her for sheer joy. She remembered the incident now
with a smile. No one embraced her at home. No one ever
embraced her for anything, not even when she was younger
and cried a lot in the dark because she was frightened. p 6.7

So, Hajjo relies on Nana all through their journey to the majesty’s college all

because she saw Nana as the matured, full-grown girl in their midst unlike Laila, Hajjo

describes Nana as “always carry people’s burden”.

The author continue driving home her point on women emancipation and question

for fulfilment through a change in the direction of woman, Nana quiet and reserved way of

life put her for away from other people around her. She is being relied from Laila’s people

who confidently hand over their daughters to her to take care of while on their long journey

searching for knowledge. Alkali present a woman who is determined at the beginning of

the novel, she hints that Nana Ai has nurtured the secret thought of coming to this world as

a man. Nana Ai wondered she would have followed her grand father footsteps if she had

been a male.

42
 She felt perhaps, if she had been a man she would become a medical Doctor. Nana

Ai is able to demonstrate this in the novel even in the face of trouble during their journey

and all through the total accident. Her moral evidently in her and absent in most teenage

lives esteems her to a high level of the absolute example of woman.

4.5 FEMALE MODERN CHARACTERIZATION

Nana Ai, the protagonist of the novel and is the young beautiful girl who

determined that; even conscious of her society, she hopes to make impact on her society

where women are not given any chance to show case their potentials in the nation building.

However, Nana Ai stands as a symbol of virtuous woman with strong determination to

transform the disparaging image of the women in the society. She stands to carry other

people’s burden through her caring, loving and her quiet reserved ways of life that put her

far away from other people around her.

On their long journey searching for knowledge, Nana Ai later got Bello as her

husband, the type of man she dreamt of, comes to pass as a reality.

Laila is another female character and also one of the girls that had been chosen and

privileged to school; she barely made it after repeating three times in different classes. She

might be clever in some other aspects but certainly not in the classroom and she hardly

believes her luck. Laila has no pride, she lacks moral, and she is nothing but a free girl and

has no dignity to protect. While the three girls Nana Ai, Laila and Hajjo, are waiting for a

lorry to convey them to their new school, Laila proved her indecency by her action. She

powdered her face and treated her eyes with kohl, apply red lipstick. Nana Ai complains:

43
 ‘You don’t look like a school girl at all,’ Nana commented.
‘How is a school girl supposed to look?’, Laila countered.
‘You look like a street hawker’, Hajjo added, in her parrot–
like voice. ‘You mind your tongue’, Laila said to her niece.
‘You‘ll see,’ she snapped her fingers for emphasis without
going for it. Nana asked. p 23.

Nana compares Laila with Manya, a village mad woman who lives in the market

place. Her idea of beauty is a hardy powdered face, thick read lipstick and tattered clothes.

Laila idea of beauty is physique and not virtue. Due to her questionable character, she later

falls in the hand of soldier who towards the end, send letter to them that he has two

daughters in the same school with them.

Hajjo was the smallest girl among the three, on their journey to school, she relies on

Nana all through the Majesty’s College, all because she saw Nana as the mature full grown

girl in their midst unlike Laila that likes following strangers. Hajjo describe Nana as

“always carry people’s burden” p 28. She was staying in her mother’s family at first, she

was not aware that she was being treated differently, but as she grew older; she found out

that she was an outsider. She always be treated well and to wear a nice clothe, any time her

mother is around. She does not know her father and people also call her bastard child.

Every aspect of oppression that women pass through in the hands of men is also

reflected in the novel. In order to check such oppressive balances, Alkali has to create male

characters as weaklings and irresponsible individuals. Hajjo father run away at the sight of

her pregnancy because he does not want to be responsible in any form. Hajjo’s mother

44
therefore built the strength wisdom and knowledge in order to cope to the training of her

daughter. The act of polygamy is also expressed in the novel where women are treated to

give birth to male children, this lead to the case with Dogo, who abandon his first wife

because she had no male children. Unfortunately for him, the set of twin boys that the

second wife had for him died on the naming ceremony day. As a result of that, he had

temporary madness, and he remained useless for himself, family, and society as he can no

longer farm and only becomes a jesters.

This novel also exposes the supernatural power that Africans can get from herbs or

animals for protection or from healing. This is found in Baba Sani, Nana Ai’s grand-father.

He is defined in the community as a kind of spirit that dies in the community both day and

night. He uses herbs to single handedly cure Nana Ai of her polio attack and refuses to take

her to the hospital. He also poses the spirit of animal which made him change to lion at

night and at day he becomes a man who leads his people at a seer.

4.6 LANGUAGE AND STYLE

The style of the novel comprises of the translated of Hausa Language to English.

Alkali also uses Hausa and Yoruba language to portray her background at the setting of the

novel,

45
4.7 THE FEMINIST AESTHETICS IN ZAYNAB ALKALI’S THE VIRTUOUS
WOMAN

In this book, we can be able to achieve or appreciate the work of art in feminism in

which the playwright uses her protagonist “Nana Ai” who attends her Majesty’s College,

located South wards in Yoruba land. The author used herself to show how she struggle

through education. She uses this opportunity to encourage women to fight for their rights

through education. She further encourage women to liberate themselves from any bondage

in order to redeem their God given rights, for God made male and female to complement

and be of mutual benefit to each other. The female sex should not continue to be

“disillusioned and silenced” neither should she be put down or have her progress

obstructed. The educational backwardness of the woman is indeed experiencing some

remarkable and rapid changes. Woman should therefore, play an active parts in many

things, shouldn’t be wallowing in poverty and self-pity which illiteracy brings. With a

sound education, societal attitude and values will change towards women and the quality of

their lives will also be improved.

46
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

5.1 SUMMARY

Critics of feminism, particularly in Africa, have considered feminism as a revolt

against the man folk by women; they have abandoned their feminine attributes in order to

act as men. This categorization is as depressing as it is untrue feminism is to be understand

largely as “an emancipatory movement whose goal is the transformation of gender

relationships” various interpretations have been given to female emancipation in this study

and some of these have included the explicit and downright rejection by women, of the life

created by strong patriarchal norms that define the condition what women are and can do

This latter interpretation of the concept of emancipation is the type which Zaynab

Alkali advocates in her work. It is a form of “a call to women thereby is sensitizing them to

their important role in society” and also encouraging them to present a united front against

all oppression and opposition of their gender.

Zaynab Alkali’s work further reveal that she treats her female heroines, especially

the ones who have been maltreated by their spouses or by their social milieu, with deep

sympathy and with great sensitivity. Alkali’s female characters are more prominent

positions in her works than counterparts.

47
 Alkali in her novel; The Stillborn expressed that Li and Faku move out of their

matrimonial homes, when it become clear to them that polygamy only offers humiliations,

heart break and pain. Alkali’s heroines are professional women, educated and highly

westernized. But being educated, they are not self centred or self-seeking individuals;

rather, they are interested in making positive contribution to the development and growth

of their community as we found in the character of Li and Faku.

Alkali in her novel; The Virtuous Woman depicts the plight of a woman from

childhood to adulthood in the Islamic dominated area of the Northern Nigeria with an

attempt at reforming the social status of woman in the patriarchal society. She presents the

value of virtuous woman who tires to be herself against all odds and happenings around

her. Nana Ai, the main character in the novel stands firmly even before the men. Her fine

sense of morality brings us the real virtuous woman in her.

5.2 FINDINGS

Women at all levels need empowerment. They also need to be psychologically

empowered to build their confidence, to assert themselves at work, if they are to rise to top

levels in organization. Without doubt, an educated woman would need to learn to strike a

balance between her career and her home life. She needs not allow suffering at the expense

of the other. However, to strike a meaningful balance between her career and her home, a

woman will need the support of her man this would help to empower her in many ways.

There is an urgent need to encourage more female (particularly of Northern extraction) to

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write novels that would help to unshackle women literally and metaphorically from the

clutches of cultural inhabitations and religious taboos.

Moreso, Education has been the most important tool in the empowerment of women

in all cultures, especially in Africa and African Diaspora. Alkali recommends education as

the guaranteed panacea for most of the problems of the female in Northern Nigeria. When

men are well educated, their attitudes toward women will change, there would also be a

change in gender-stereotyping which for long has held African women in cultural bondage.

This is therefore, a call to both male and female writers to produce literatures that

would act as a catalyst in the mission to transform society and to encourage the physical

economic and political emancipation and growth of women.

5.3 CONCLUSION

Alkali successfully highlighted without prejudice what feminism is all about, not

only liberation for women but it is also equality of the sexes. In other words, she

emphasises the complementarily of the sexes. She has equally presented the Nigerian

women in the Northern part of the country, in most liberal situation. Zaynab Alkali in The

Stillborn shows that with constructive and functional education, the African woman can

overcome the stronghold of the negative forces of traditional disciple, constraint and

matrimonial limitations.

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 The consequences of women education as analysed in the novel is the forgoing of

favourable atmosphere of understanding love and affection between men and women in the

society. Every aspect of oppression that women pass through in the hands of men is also

reflected in the novel. Alkali creates male characters as weaklings and irresponsible

individuals.

The works of Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and The Virtuous Woman provide the

required dimension to the intellectual understanding of the Feminist Aesthetic in Africa.

This is seen through the novelist resolution of the African Women problems in her novels.

Finally, this research has provided another avenue for the understanding and the re-

definition of gender role to be characterized by fundamental equality of rights and

opportunities between African men and women. The continuous defiance and denigration

of women, in addition to their exclusion from decision making processes, will lead to a

socio-political backwardness and stagnation and equally create a future based on economic

sterility.

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