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The Making and Remaking of Gender Relations in Tanzanian Fiction

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The Making and Remaking of Gender Relations in Tanzanian Fiction View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Stellenbosch University SUNScholar Repository The Making and Remaking of Gender Relations in Tanzanian Fiction by John Wakota Dissertation presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. Grace A. Musila Co-supervisor: Prof. Shaun Viljoen April, 2014 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. April 2014 Copyright © 2014 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved i Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Dedication To the memory of my late parents: Xavery and Akoba. ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract This study examines the fictional representation of gender relations in novels set during five historical periods in Tanzania – the pre-colonial, colonial, nationalism, Ujamaa1, and the current neoliberalism period – each of which is marked by important shifts in the nation’s economic contours. Analysing novels written in both Swahili and English, it tracks the shifts in fictionalized household and extra-household gender relations; analyses how the community and the state (colonial and post-colonial) variously map and remap the way male and female characters relate; and interrogates how male and female characters variously accommodate, appropriate, bargain with and/or resist the shifts. The study employs the concepts of power and intersectionality to analyse how selected authors depict gender relations as a product of intersecting identity categories, complex socio-economic shifts and historical processes. Defining labour as productive work done for wage and fulfilment of gender roles, the study argues that labour is one of the major aspects shaping power relations between men and women. It reveals that labour is the major aspect in which the economic shifts have had great impact on gender relations as represented in Tanzanian fiction. As an aspect of power, labour is also the area within which gender relations have continuously been negotiated and contested throughout the fictionalized history. In negotiating or resisting given economic shifts, both male and female characters variously deconstruct and or endorse existing notions of power, labour, and gender relations. The study shows that the cross-fertilization among the periods, the interaction between gender and other identity categories (such as race, religion, class, and age), the synergy between indigenous patriarchy and other patriarchies (such as colonial and capitalist), and, the interactions between global and local dynamics account for the complex and contradictory nature of the shifts in gender relations throughout the nation’s history. Consequently, the study’s major observation is that across the fictionalized history, characters variously seek to maintain and or transform existing gender relations and or discard or restore past gender relations. 1 Swahili for ‘familyhood’ and Tanzania’s version of socialism. iii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Opsomming Dié studie ondersoek die fiksionele verteenwoordiging van geslagsverhoudings in romans wat gestel word gedurende vyf historiese periodes in Tanzanië – pre-koloniale, koloniale, nasionalisties, Ujamaa2 en die huidige neoliberalisme – elkeen waarvan gekenmerk is deur belangrike verskuiwings in die nasie se ekonomiese kontoere. Deur die analisering van romans wat in Engels en Swahili geskryf is volg dit die verskuiwings in fiktiewe huishouding- en ekstrahuishoudelike geslagsverhoudings; dit analiseer hoe die gemeenskap en die staat (koloniale en post-koloniale) die manier van hoe manlike en vroulike karakters verband hou verskillend en afwisselend kaart en herkaart; dit interrogeer hoe manlike en vroulike karakters verskillend die verskuiwings akkommodeer, bewillig en weerstaan. Die studie maak gebruik van die konsepte van krag en intersektionaliteit om te analiseer hoe die geselekteerde skrywers geslagsverhoudings verteenwoordig as ʼn produk van kruisende identiteitskategorieë, komplekse sosio-ekonomiese verskuiwings en historiese prosesse. Arbeid word as produktiewe werk wat gedoen word vir loon en geslagsrolle definieer, en die studie argumenteer dat arbeid een van die hoof aspekte is wat magsverhoudings bepaal tussen mans en vrouens. Dit onthul dat arbeid die hoof aspek is in die ekonomiese verskuiwings wat ʼn groot impak gehad het in geslagsverhoudings in Tanzaniese fiksie. As ʼn aspek van mag is dit ook die area waarin geslagsverhouding aanmekaar onderhandel en betwis word dwarsdeur die fiktiewe geskiedenis. Wanneer dit kom by die onderhandel en twis van ekonomiese verskuiwings is dit beide manlike en vroulike karakters wat afwisselend bestaande idees van mag, arbeid en geslagsverhoudings dekonstrueer en endosseer. Die studie bewys dat kruisbestuiwing tussen die periodes, die interaksies tussen geslag en ander identiteitskategorieë (soos ras, geloof, klas en ouderdom), die sinergie tussen patriargie en ander patriargies (soos koloniale en kapitalistiese) en die interaksies tussen globale en plaaslike dinamika verantwoordelik is vir die komplekse en teenstrydige natuur van die wisselinge in geslagsverhoudings regdeur die nasie se geskiedenis. Gevolglik is die studie se hoofobservasie dat die karakters regdeur die geskiedenis op verskeie maniere poog om bestaande geslagsverhoudings te behou of te transformeer of om vorige geslagsverhoudings te herstel of verwyder. 2 Swahili vir ‘familieskap’ en Tanzanië se weergawe van sosialisme. iv Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Acknowledgements The writing of this dissertation is the most significant academic challenges I have faced in my life. It is through the unrelenting effort, support and guidance of different people and institutions that this thesis has been completed. I register my greatest gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Grace Musila and Professor Shaun Viljoen. Without them, this dissertation would have simply been impossible. I hereby acknowledge the funding that was awarded to me by the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences to pursue my doctoral studies full-time at Stellenbosch University. I am grateful to my employer, the University of Dar es Salaam, for granting me a study leave and shouldering the costs for my travels. I am thankful to my colleagues in the department for keeping the department running while I was away. I deeply appreciate the Postgraduate and International Office of Stellenbosch University and the Humboldt Institute of African Studies, Berlin for jointly funding a one-month research stay at the Humboldt Institute of African Studies, Germany in 2011. I am thankful to the North-South-South Higher Education Institution Network Programme for funding and facilitating my participation in a two-week training on ‘Gender, Nationalism and Situated Knowledge’ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2012. I am indebted to the staff members of the Department of English at Stellenbosch University for organising different seminars, workshops and reading groups. I learnt a lot from them. I am thankful to fellow doctoral students in the Department of English. Many thanks go in particular to Danson Kahyana, Lynda Spencer, Ken Lipenga, Oliver Nyambi, Kaigai Kimani, Philip Aghoghovwia and Yunusy Ng’umbi for their encouragement. Special gratitude is due to the Wakotas: Grace, my wife; son Eliah; daughter Mwati; and Aunt Anna. I am indebted to you more than you know. v Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Table of Contents Declaration................................................................................................................................. i Dedication ................................................................................................................................. ii Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iii Opsomming .............................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... vi Chapter One: Tanzania: Socio-economic Shifts, Fiction, and Gender Relations .............. 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Historical Approach to Analysing the Representation of Gender Relations ............................... 5 Gender Relations in Tanzanian Fiction: A Review ........................................................................ 7 Language Policy, Literature and Literary Studies ...................................................................... 10 Defining Tanzanian Fiction ............................................................................................................ 13
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