Ebonyi Journal of Language and Literary Studies 1 (2) April 2018

Volume 1 No. 2: 128 -137 (2018) ISSN 9091 4582 7142

THE NARRATIVE VOICE IN FLORA NWAPA’S EFURU

Nureni Oyewole FADARE [email protected] Departrment of English Language and Linguistics Sokoto State University,

Abstract This paper examines the narrative voice in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru. Before the publication of Efuru, writing, especially novel, had been dominated by male writers in Africa until Flora Nwapa broke the jinx with her publication of Efuru in 1966. Efuru had been recognised as the first novel to be published in the United Kingdom by an African female writer. Most of the earlier works on Efuru focused on the representation of women and the theme of childlessness with little attention given to the narrative voice in the text. Therefore, this paper seeks to articulate some of the plights of women earlier cited by previous critics with particular emphasis on the narrative voice in the text. Aspects of Nnaemeka Obioma’s Nego-Feminism will be employed to analyse the text with a view to foregrounding how African women negotiate with and around patriarchy as reflected in the voice of the omniscient narrator. The study concludes that the omniscient narrator in the text advocates the fair treatment of women in African societies. . The novel also sets the pace for other emerging feminist African novel with respect to thematic thrusts and narrative voice. Keywords: Flora Nwapa, African Women, Nego-Feminism, Narrative Voice, patriarchy

Introduction African society is a phallocentric society where men seemingly wield their macho powers unabated and control all the facets of human life including the literary production, especially, at the inception of Literature in European languages in Africa. Most of the earlier works produced by male writers in Africa such as ’s Things Fall Apart assert the supremacy of men over women and extol the stereotypes that are always adduced to women such as seeing a woman as an appendage of men rather than an independent rational being. In a paper titled “Women and Nigerian Literature” written by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, she argues that Nigeria (Africa) is “male” and its Literature is “Phallic”. She goes ahead to indict male writers and critics such as Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, etc as male chauvinists. Ogunyemi frowns at the way women are portrayed in the works of the above male writers. According to her, women are branded in the works of the male writers as: prostitutes, femme fatale, virago, faithless and the like. (60-67) While men try to portray women negatively, they fail in their works to address other pertinent problems confronting women such as: wife battery, incest, rape, bride price, female genital mutilation, child slavery and female molestation. In the same vein, another critic, Monica Bungano is of the opinion that the first generation of African writers has deployed their art to question and attack the neglect of their writings in the ongoing exercise of the act of writing. (92) Therefore, the emergence of women writers on the literary scene helps to correct some of the inadequacies of their representation on the printed pages of male dominated works. Flora Nwapa, who is widely referred as the “Mother of ” is a trail-blazer who paves the way for other women to tell their stories through the publication of her debut Efuru in 1966. Other African writers that follow her foot-steps are: Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Nawal El Saadawi, Zaynab Alkali,

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Micere Mugo, Amma Darko, Efua T. Sutherland, Mariama Ba, Aminata Sow Fall, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Grace Ogot, Rebecca Njau and such others.

Flora Nwapa was born in Oguta, South-Eastern Nigeria. She graduated from University College, Ibadan in 1957 and was credited with works such as: Idu, This is Lagos and other stories , Emeka – Driver’s Guard, Never Again, Mammy Water, The Miracle Kittens , Wives at war and other stories, One is Enough, Cassava Song and Rice Song and Women are Different.

Flora Nwapa is best known for re-creating Igbo (Ibo) life and traditions from a woman’s view-point. She creates formidable women in her story in order to acknowledge the contributions of women to the development of African society. Oguyemi submits that the essence of female involvement in Nigerian (African) Literature is “…an attempt to change the inauthentic image of women and to treat female concerns as also a legitimate aspect of the literature” (61). It is against the above backgrounds that Nwapa creates the image of Efuru as a woman of valour and courage. The women we come across in the works of women writers are realistic characters not idealised figures.

Therefore, this paper seeks to examine the narrative voice in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru with a view to focusing on how the female characters are projected, their success, short-comings and challenges. This paper has provided an alternative picture of the true position of women in African society. African women are not docile; they are actively involved in the development of their society and, if given more space, could contribute meaningfully to the growth of African society.

Theoretical Framework This paper relies on Obioma Nnaemeka’s Nego-feminism. Obioma formulated the theory on the premises that Nego-feminism “… is the feminism of negotiation; second, Nego-feminism stands for ‘no ego’ ‘feminism’ (Obioma: 377). Nego-feminism encourages a harmonious relationship between men and women in building a peaceful society. It is a cautious approach for women to live among men in peace and achieve their desires without being confrontational. She also affirms that, Nego- feminism allows women to know:

…When, where, and how to detonate patriarchal land mines. It also knows when, where, and how to go about patriarchal land mines. In other words, it knows when, where and how to negotiate with or negotiate around patriarchy in different contexts. (378)

Therefore, this paper will focus more on how Efuru adopts the give and take method as a means of negotiation and become an enviable and exemplary woman in Oguta, a patriarchal African society.

The Portrait of Women in African Feminist Texts The roles of men and women in the pre-colonial era were complimentary. Charles Fonchingong argues that the prestigious and the complimentary roles of women in African society are forsaken by the effects of colonialism. He accuses the male writers like Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart and Elechi Amadi in The Concubine of projecting male supremacy and downplays the complimentary roles of women in their works. (135). African women have not been silent about the plights of African women even when their voices are ignored. Sarah Namulondo, submits that although women voices are always ignored, “…they are positioned as mystery or other by (neo)colonialism and patriarchy, black African women’s writing resists the compartmentalization of feminine identity in a predetermined semantic space.” (19) The emergence of the African female writers on the literary scene has given voice to women. The central thematic thrust of the first and second generations of African female writers is the recreation of a new African woman that is not docile as a result of her physical, psychological and economic 129

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independence. Women that are beautiful and hardworking are chosen by the writers as either the narrators or protagonists of their creative works. The new literary production by female writers is an attempt to create independent and self-reliant women whose personalities dwarf and shadow that of their husbands or men generally. The writers also correct the misconception and damage done against women by previous male writers. The study shall proceed to discuss some of the female writers and their works in order to depict how women have contributed to the development of African Literature through their literary works.

Efuru and Idu, another eponymous character in a separate Nwapa’s work, are beautiful and hardworking women. They are exceptional and quintessential women in Igbo society. Other female characters in Nwapa’s imaginative works that are independent-minded are: Kate in Never Again and Agnes, Dora and Rose in Women are Different. Yemi Mojola in her essay titled “Flora Nwapa” sums up the characteristics of female characters in Nwapa’s novels thus:

In general, the female creations of Nwapa – primary and secondary ones alike, are business-like, industrious and economically independent, abhorring and condemning laziness of any shade or colour (123).

Buchi Emecheta is another female writer whose subject of writing and styles are similar to the works of Flora Nwapa. Most of Buchi Emecheta’s works are fictional autobiographies where the writer narrates her own life-experience in the texts. Her works include: In the Ditch, Second Class Citizen, The Bride Price, The Slave Girl, The Joys of Motherhood, Destination Biafra, Naira Power, The Rape of Shavi and Kehinde.

In the novels of Nwapa and Emecheta, the presence of the supernatural is always acknowledged. The belief in the supernatural attached to Chi (believed to be one’s personal god among the ) plays a major role in the life of the major characters in Efuru, Idu and One is Enough. In Buchi Emecheta’s The Joy of Motherhood, the misfortunes of Nnu Ego are attached to the slain slave girl that is killed to accompany Agunwa, the most senior wife of Nwokocha Agbadi, to heaven after her death. Again, their stories parade female god, Uhamiri, as evident in Efuru.

Ama Ata Aidoo and her works are central to the development of literature in Africa in general and issues concerning women in particular. Her writings cut across the three genres of literature. Some of her works are: The Dilemma of a Ghost, Anowa, No Sweetness Here and Other Stories, Our Sister Killjoy, Someone Talking to Sometime, and Changes – A Love Story. Aidoo makes use of folklore and oral tradition to narrate her story which prioritizes the central roles of women in African society; women occupy sensitive position and play significant roles in Aidoo’s texts.

Nawal El Saadawi is a radical feminist writer from Egypt, North Africa. Her thematic concerns revolve around the issues of sex and sexuality to more serious issues such as the idea of using religion constructed by men as a weapon to subjugate women. In her works, she always condemns women’s subjugation and agitates for their freedom. Some of her publications are: Women and sex, Woman at point Zero, The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab world and She Has no Place in Paradise and Other Stories. In Woman at point Zero, she weaves her story around a female character called Firdaus who is forced to marry an old man known as Mahmoud, a man she does not love. She later frees herself and becomes a prostitute sleeping with all kinds of men in return for money.

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a female novelist from Zimbabwe (South-Africa). Her story Nervous Condition centres on a female protagonist called Tambu. Nervous Condition condemns the patriarchal dominance of Babamukuru and other male characters in the novel. The novel portrays women’s

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resistance to male domination. Dangarembga argues that women need to challenge patriarchal dominance in order to enjoy freedom from sexist practices.

Zaynab Alkali and Ifeoma Okoye belong to the second-generation African writers. Alkali has written a number of prose texts which include: The Stillborn, The Virtuous woman, and The Descendants. The Stillborn centres around a woman called Li who improves herself through education to become the “man of the house in her father’s compound”( 85). The thematic thrust of Zaynab Alkali in her works is to advocate the rights to education for both male and female. Ifeoma Okoye is the author of Behind the Clouds. Her concern in Behind the Clouds is that infertility is not a problem peculiar to women alone, men too can be infertile.

Aminata Sow Fall’s The Beggars’ Strike is set in Dakar, Senegal. The Beggars’ Strike examines the contributions of women to the course of the oppressed people in African society and perceives men as weaklings. Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter is an epistolary novel which condemns some of the atrocities that men commit against women especially the agony of married women who suffer under the yolk of male oppression represented by the characters of: Aissatou, Ramatoulaye and Jacqueline. The writer’s position is that women suffer total disrespect from their husbands and their dreadful mothers-in-law who contribute to the collapse of the marriage of their children for selfish reasons.

However, having examined the pros and cons of the argument on the oppression and victimization of women by men, Ba concludes that: “I remained persuaded of the inevitable and necessary complementary of man and woman” (88). The final submission suggests a union of understanding between man and woman as a panacea to the problem confronting wo/man in African society, hence, the need for negotiation between men and women.

The Narrative Voice in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru The storyline of this novel is narrated through the voice of its eponymous character, Efuru, who is described as “…a remarkable woman…a distinguished woman….” (7) Efuru is an independent minded woman who asserts herself in her male dominated society through negotiation. The narrator compares Efuru and Adizua, her first husband, so as to project her as an enviable character. It is discovered that while Efuru is from a notable family, Adizua is not. Efuru’s father, Nwashike Ogene, is presented as: “…the mighty man of valour. Ogene who single handed, fought against the Aros when they came to molest us….His yams were the fattest in the whole town…no man has ever seen his back on the ground.”(11) The description of Efuru’s father above further attests to her nobility. However, little is known about the family background of Adizua.

In Efuru, Flora Nwapa adopts a subtle approach to against some of the societal traditions that against the interest of womanhood such as the issue of bride-price. The issue of bride-price or dowry is an essential aspect of marriage in traditional African societies. No marriage is consummated unless the families of the bride-groom pay the required price. Among the Igbo people, the payment of the dowry is done, both in cash and in kind but Efuru has chosen her husband without observing this age-long tradition. Adizua, Efuru’s lover comes from an unknown family, meaning that they are poor and not prominent. He cannot afford the bride-price. He even has the temerity to brag around that he has no money to pay the pride-price. According to him: “I have no money for the dowry…we agreed to be husband and wife and that is all that matters.” (8). While the non-payment of the bride-price could be taken as a credit for Efuru for going against the tradition of treating a woman as a commodity to be sold in the market, it is a different ball game for Adizua as it portrays him as an ineffectual man. Efuru and Adizua trade together though “Adizua was not good at trading. It was Efuru who was the brain behind the business.” (6) The profit that comes out of the trade is used to pay Efuru’s bride- price. This is against the usual tradition whereby the husband’s families are fully responsible for the

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payment of the dowry. The narrator condemns the culture of bride price. John, Gilbert’s friend, has not got married because he has not garnered enough money to pay pride-price. According to him he is going to marry: “As soon as I can pay the dowry… Now a man who has four grown up daughters counts himself a very wealthy man. Each daughter will bring to the father at least a hundred pound in cash, in raw cash” (191). Bride price is one of the outlandish traditions that need to be done with because women are not commodities to be transacted in the market.

Another tradition condemned by the narrator is circumcision or what is otherwise known as Female Genital Mutilation which is a prevalent practice in many traditional African societies. Medically, the tradition is injurious to the health of women. The process is painful and Efuru is made to pass through feasting or fattening after circumcision. Traditions such as the payment of the bride-price and Female Genital Mutilation are condemned by the narrator and should be discouraged among African people.

The narrator also beams her search-light on the issue of infertility or the inability to procreate. In Africa, a marriage that fails to produce a child is termed failed and when a couple gets married without an issue, the woman bears the brunt. A year after her marriage, Efuru fails to have a child and her father consults Adobi, a renowned Dibia (native doctor) who makes his declaration known after his divination that Efuru is not blessed with many children in her womb but she will bear a child. Efuru is a woman with a strong heart who fervently believes that God cannot deny her “the joy of motherhood.” (24) In Africa, child bearing is considered the ultimate joy of motherhood and every case of infertility is always adduced to a woman while the men are always exonerated. This injustice has further heightened the patriarchal dominance and oppression of women by men in African societies.

One of the cardinal arguments of the feminist writers is that women should be allowed to speak out instead of being silenced or relegated to the background. Ajanupu, the elder sister of Ossai, Efuru mother-in-law is created as a new voice of African women. She is vocal and courageous. She visits Efuru on the fifth day of the naming of Ogonim, Efuru’s daughter. Ajanupu chews alligator pepper and puts it in the mouth of the child. It is believed that the child will grow up as brazen as Ajanupu. As a result of this belief, the narrator, through authorial intrusion, submits that: “Who wants to be quiet these days. Don’t you know that if you don’t lick your mouth the harmattan will lick it for you.” (33) Nwapa, through her narration, has demonstrated the need to give voice to women to narrate their own stories themselves, rather than, someone else’s narrating it for them. Ajanupu is the second most important character in the novel. She represents the positive traits that are lacking in other characters. She is a highly successful woman and she acts as the mid-wife who delivers Efuru during the birth of Ogonim. Ajanupu is very active, domineering, thoughtful and a worthy mentor of Efuru

The narration also focuses on the issue of housemaids. Housemaid is a remnant of the patriarchy and a tradition that needs to be done with. The subject of housemaid occupies a central position in African women literary scholarship. For instance, Amma Darko in Faceless and The Housemaid focuses her attention on how young women are used as housemaids by the members of the elitist class. Unfortunately, most of the female writers, Flora Nwapa inclusive, have not come out, in a clear term, to condemn this act as an injustice against fellow women.

Efuru believes in negotiating her rights through pacification rather than the use of violence to achieve her goal this explains why she succumbs to extra marital affairs of her husband who elopes with another woman. According to Efuru, after all, “…He is the lord and master, if he wants to marry her, I cannot stop him” (55) The voice above tacitly supports marriage, including polygamy, but within this space, Efuru wants her dignity to be preserved and not just abandoned. Unfortunately, Adizua’s

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elopement with the anonymous woman to Ndoni is the last we hear of him. This is an act of irresponsible fatherhood which African female writers try to condemn.

It is also unfortunate that Ossai, Efuru’s mother-in-law, has earlier suffered the same fate in the hands of Adizua’s father which adds credence to the fact that Adizua comes from an irresponsible lineage. Adizua’s father abandons her mother for six years while he gallivants around lavishing the fortunes he and his wife had worked for on women. Efuru examines her life as the wife of Adizua and voices out saying: “I know I am capable of suffering for greater things. But to suffer for a truant husband, an irresponsible husband like Adizua is to debase suffering.” (61-62) It is the untold sufferings of Efuru in the hands of Adizua that makes Ajanupu concludes that: “Some men are not fit to be called men. They have no sense. They are like dogs that do not know who feeds them” (58). Adizua, therefore, represents an irresponsible and absentee father who earns his living through the earnings of his wife.

The death of Ogonim, Efuru’s daughter, is another manifestation of the agony women endure in African society. While it is widely believed that child bearing is the ultimate ‘joy of motherhood,’ all the circumstances surrounding child bearing and child upbringing create additional burden on women. The writer presents the circumstance leading to Ogonim’s death to highlight the challenges of motherhood. Other African female writers such as Buchi Emecheta are forced to re-examine the issues of motherhood and its gains and pains. The position of many of them is that there is no joy in motherhood; motherhood is all about pain and suffering. In Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, Nnu Ego suffers a similar fate. She gives births many times but eventually dies on the road while his first male child, Oshiaju, ironically returns home and gives her a befitting burial.

Efuru’s life is characterised by pain as depicted in her two failed marriages. Ajanupu tries to pacify her to weep in order to remove her grieve but Efuru responds to her thus: “I cannot weep any more…my grief is the kind of grief that allows no tears. It is a dry grief. Wet grief is better but I cannot weep.” (73). Another sympathiser informs Efuru that she has conceived eight times and all her children die except the last child who is a girl and after six months and she remains alive she names her “Ibiakwal” Have you come again?” After a year, she names her “Nkem” “my own.” Nkem is “...a beautiful girl, she shone like the sun and twinkled like the stars in the sky.” (74) The sympathiser so much adores Nkem, her daughter, unfortunately for her, Nkem suffers convulsion and dies. This plunges the narrator into the Existentialist realm and submits that: “we cannot explain the mysteries of life because we are mere human beings. God knows.”(75)

Adizua, Efuru’s husband refuses to return home to mourn the death of his daughter. When it becomes obvious that Adizua may not return home anytime soon, Ossai, Adizua’s mother is depressed because her son has chosen the shameful path of his father. Ajanupu, however, thinks differently, she holds the belief that Ossai is the architect of her own misfortunes. In the opinion of Ajanupu, Ossai has been fooling herself by staying in Adizua father’s house when it becomes clearer that he has abandoned her and flirted around. The narrator’s view here is that it is foolhardy for a woman to remain in a matrimonial home that is no longer working. Women should know when to quit a marriage for good. Ajanupu loves Efuru and she always let her know that she is proud of her. However, she does not want her life to end up like that of Ossai, her sister, she, therefore, advises Efuru that if her husband refuses to return in a year time, she should quit the marriage.

One of the stories used in developing the plot of this novel is the issue of confiscation of the locally brewed gin by the colonial authority. The white men allow the sales of schnapps and other foreign gins but outlaw the sales and consumption of the local gins. This is condemned because it tampers with the economic life of the African women whose major business is the “cooking” of the local gin (86). Here,

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Efuru assumes a revolutionary voice speaking for the oppressed women whose means of livelihood is tampered with by the colonial administration.

Efuru later returns to her father’s house after years of fruitless waiting for Adizua. A new suitor, Eneberi who is also known as Gilbert begins to court her and he eventually wins her heart. Despite the display of love for each other, the village tale bearers like Omirima sees nothing spectacular in their relationship since the union has not produced a child. According to Omirima: “We are not going to eat happy marriage. Marriage must be fruitful. Of what use is it if it is not fruitful…?” (137) Omirima also condemns the kind of companionship between Eneberi and Efuru. In the traditional Igbo society, a man and a woman are not expected to be seen together. This is the submission of Omirima when she speaks to Amede, Eneberi’s mother: “Why must they go to those places together...Are they companions? Don’t they know that a man and a woman should not be seen together often whether they are married or not.” (139) What Omirima tells Gilbert’s mother reminds her of her youthful age with her husband when she has to walk behind him when the situation warrants that they go out together.

Efuru later discovers, through Enesha Agorua, a dibia, that she has been chosen by Uhamiri, the river goddess as one of her devotees. This goddess is rich and beautiful but she has no child of her own. Therefore, whomsoever she chooses as her devotee will be so rich without having a child. This is the fate of Efuru in this novel. In Efuru, the major god that the people worship is Uhamiri. Unlike the male gods we come across in the works of male writers such as Amadioha, the god of thunder in Achebe’s novels, Ogun, the god of iron in Soyinka’s works and the like, Uhamiri, the goddess of the river is worshipped in this novel by men and women. A good example is Nwosu and his friend who pay homage to the river goddess on their way back to the village after the death of Nwashike Ogene. They make supplications to the goddess of the river thus: “We have returned the great woman of the lake, the most beautiful woman; your children have returned safely.” (103) Therefore, Efuru deconstructs the earlier held opinion that god is a male. God is a woman of virtue and she is beautiful and stupendously rich. In the last paragraph of the novel, Nwapa creates the image of Uhamiri, the great goddess of the lake as a paragon of beauty and wealth.

The narrator, through the character portrayal of Uhamiri, has constructed the new image of a successful woman and that child bearing is not the ultimate success of a woman in life. A woman can live a successful life with or without a child. Again, God is not a man but a woman and her attributes should be used as the yardsticks for determining a successful woman. She also deconstructs some of the negative stereotypes slammed against the woman. Such unfair perception of women as evil in the narration is deconstructed.

Efuru is described as an exemplary and extra-ordinary woman. She is an exceptional, kind-hearted and generous woman. She is beautiful, elegant, hardworking and compassionate. Efuru lends ten pounds to Nwosu and Nwabata to carry out farming during the planting season and without paying back their debt, Nwosu goes ahead to take a title so that he will not be derided by his age grade and to prevent the entire community from seeing him as a poor man. He spends the rest of the money on drinking. He doles out two shillings to children engaging in the “Igbemgbele” festival. (103) His wife, Nwabata could not caution him because she is afraid of being called a “male woman.” (104) Efuru, out of her magnanimity, takes Nwosu to a Medical Doctor called Dr.Uzaru who helps him treat his prostate. She also donates a life fowl to their little child called Idika for being the first person to see his milk teeth. She has to lend them another sum of ten pounds for a new planting season. Nnona, the old woman she had earlier taken to the same doctor for the treatment of her knee problem meets Efuru and complains to her that her money, to the tune of fifteen shillings, six pence and half penny, had been stolen. Efuru gives her a sum of sixteen shillings in replacement of her stolen money.

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The novelist deconstructs the belief that women are weaklings. She compares the female characters in the novel with their male counterparts, it is discovered that most of the female characters in the novel are more outstanding and chivalric than their male counterparts. When the home of Nwabata and Nwosu is robbed, Nwabata is aware of the presence of the thieves but she does not raise alarm because of the fear of being killed. Meanwhile, her husband Nwosu has been fast asleep and is not aware of the robbery incident. Therefore, the image of Nwosu created in this novel is that of a weakling and pusillanimous character. In contrast to the effeminate Nwosu, Ajanupu is described as an enigma. The day some thieves attacked her house, she challenged them to break in and meet their death. Ajanupu is a courageous woman. In demonstration of her bravery, she challenges the thieves to come and attack her so that they can lick their “blood.” (178)

During the visit of Gilbert to his old friend John, the narrator identifies some of the challenges confronting the African society generally. For instance, John lets Gilbert know that Clara, Gilbert’s former girlfriend, has got married to a wealthy man who “… sent her overseas to learn dress making.” (198) The opinion of the narrator is that it is unnecessary and waste of resources to send a woman abroad to learn dress making when such skills could be learnt at home. This theme has been earlier raised in Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease. The act of sending Africans abroad to learn foreign fashion designing is an act of cultural imperialism.

To further condemn male hegemony, the narrator frowns at how John and Gilbert come to the term that preference should be given to the education of a male child at the expense of a female child. (191) The narrator believes that when a girl child acquires functional education and men allow her to complete her education before marrying her, “… she can teach and thus bring money in that way….” (192) This theme also resonates strongly in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn and The Descendants.

This novel is embellished with rich African proverbs. In the works of most male writers, the use of proverbs is seen as the exclusive rights of men. Men are seen as the repository of tradition and culture but this belief is deconstructed in Efuru as most of the proverbs we come across in the novel are rendered by the female characters that also double as the narrators of the story. A woman selling goods in the market has this to say: “If an old woman falls twice, we count all she has in her basket” (17) This proverb is gender biased. Rather than say an old man, here it is an old woman. Such examples are common in the novel. This novel is, therefore, a blend between the narrative voices of women rendered with appropriate narrative style.

Conclusion This paper examines the narrative voice in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and much attention has been paid to the character of Efuru, the protagonist and the narrative voice of the novel. The novelist is unapologetic in making her audience realise that her major pre-occupation is to create the image of women positively and she has achieved this feat through the character development of: Efuru, Ajanupu, Ogea and others. The novel avails women the opportunity to narrate different challenges they confront in the traditional African society while trying to assert and negotiate their identity in a male dominated society. Though Efuru’s life is characterised by sorrow due to her barrenness and failed marriages; she remains an enigma, young, beautiful and wealthy. The fact that she is barren, notwithstanding, has little or no effect on her enviable personality.

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About the Contributor

Nureni Oyewole Fadare teaches aspects of African Literature in the Department of English Language and Linguistics, Sokoto State University, Sokoto, Nigeria. His areas of interest include Diasporic Literature, Gender Discourse and Postcolonial Literature.

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