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Abiodun Adeniji Department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria Visiting Scholar, Department of English, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, 2014

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Abiodun Adeniji Department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria Visiting Scholar, Department of English, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, 2014 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Lagos Journals GENDER SECURITY AND THE CRISIS OF BEING: THE FICTIVE REPRESENTATION OF FEMALE HELPLESSNESS AND EMPOWERMENT IN NIGERIAN AND TAIWANESE PROSE FICTIONS Abiodun Adeniji Department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria Visiting Scholar, Department of English, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, 2014 University of Lagos Faculty of Arts Monograph Series FACULTY OF ARTS MONOGRAPH SERIES Editor-in-Chief: Muyiwa Falaiye, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy and Dean, Faculty of Arts Series Editor: Tunde Opeibi, Ph.D Editorial Advisory Board Prof. Lawrence Owusu-Ansah Prof. M.B. Ramose Department of English, Department of Philosophy University of Cope Coast University of South Africa Cape Coast, Ghana Johannesburg, South Africa Prof. Remi Anifowose Prof. Sandra M. Grayson Department of Political Science Department of English University of Lagos, Nigeria University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee USA Prof. Francis Egbokhare Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages University of Ibadan, Nigeria. 2. ii EDITORIAL POLICY The Faculty of Arts Monograph is a serial published under the aegis of the Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Its aim is to promote research and scholarship in the humanities worldwide. Each serial is focused on issues and problems confronting mankind from the perspective of the humanities. Papers are expected to focus on issues in Philosophy, Literary Studies, Politics, Arts, Culture, Language, Environment, History, Law, International Relations, Crisis Management and Development. Authors are fully responsible for the positions and views they express. CONTRIBUTIONS Papers intended for publication should be sent to: The Editor, Faculty of Arts Monograph series c/o The Editor (Tunde Opeibi), Department of English, University of Lagos, Nigeria (Email: [email protected]) Manuscripts should be printed on stout bond A4 size paper, with wide margin on all four sides. All text, including footnotes, should be double-spaced accompanied with compact Discs (CDs). Papers may also be sent online. Notes and references should be assembled at the end of the paper. Authors are responsible for checking all quotations and supplying complete references. iii © Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of copyright owners. Published by The Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, Nigeria ISBN: 978-075-056-8 ISSN: 0795-2015 Monograph Series No. 21, December 2015 Designed, printed and bound by First Academic Publishers P.O. Box 1878, Ikeja Lagos State, Nigeria Phone: +2348058335913 iv FOREWORD This study interrogates the complication of women’s self-apprehension by their cognition of the (in)adequate societal provisions for female security, whether these provisions are actual or merely perceptual. Essentially, the study seeks to answer the following questions: (1) How does society ensure the security of its female citizens? (2) What deleterious or salubrious effects has gender security (or insecurity, as the case may be) on female helplessness or empowerment in the age of globalisation and concomitant reductionism of the individual?; and (3) What is the role of feminism and gender activities in the fictional and actual emancipation and empowerment of Nigerian and Taiwanese girls and women in the twenty-first century? The study argues that society’s security measures which, ideally, should go beyond the establishment of a police force and allied agencies, proportionately implicate women’s empowerment and their invaluable contribution to society’s advancement and well-being. Using a broad- spectrum feminist approach, the study compares data from governmental and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria and Taiwan with the fictive representations of such gender issues as education, politics, marriage, and inheritance to underscore the impact of gender security on women in the Nigerian and Taiwanese societies. The novels chosen for this study are: Li Ang’s The Butcher’s Wife; Hsiao Li-Hung’s A Thousand Moons on a Thousand Rivers; Li Qiao’s Wintry Night; Zhuoliu Wu’s Orphan of Asia; Flora Nwapa’s Efuru; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus; Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters; and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. References will also be made to other literary works from both countries where necessary with the ultimate aim of demonstrating how (in)security impacts the lives of girls and women in Nigeria and Taiwan at the fictive level and in reality. Professor Muyiwa Falaiye, Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was made possible by the grant awarded to me by the Taiwan Fellowship Programme 2014 under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and managed by the National Central Library, Taiwan. University of Lagos, Nigeria is hereby acknowledged for releasing me for the whole year while conducting research on this work in Taiwan. vi DEDICATION To the unfortunate school girls that were abducted by the terrorist organisation, Boko Haram (Western Education is Evil), on 14 April 2014 in Chibok, Nigeria. vii viii Gender Security and the Crisis of Being: The Fictive Representation of Female Helplessness and Empowerment in Nigerian and Taiwanese Prose Fictions Introduction This study explores the impact of security on the productivity of women in society, most especially the attendant crisis that (in)security brews in their sense of worth and selfhood in general. “Gender security” in this study specifically refers to female security as the focus of the study is on women. Nevertheless, female security also problematizes male security given its affective capacity: men are usually emotionally charged anytime the security of their wives, mothers, daughters and sisters is breached or threatened. However, our specific aim in this study is to examine how security implicates the perceptivity and productivity of women in Nigeria and Taiwan, and the way the prose fictions of the two countries reflect or refract this concept. The “crisis of being” in the title refers to the assaultive impact of gender (in) security on women’s selfhood, perception of self-worth and identity. The phrase also foregrounds how adequate security measures, especially their pursuit and active implementation, serve to buoy female confidence and engender unhindered creativity and full actualisation of women’s potential in all sectors of society. In other words, a woman’s sense of security directly affects her valuation of her identity and self-worth which in turn has implications on her productivity to the society. Thus, a woman without any crisis of identity, self-worth or being is likely to be more productive than her counterpart with a crisis of identity, uncertain of her self-worth in her society. This postulation will be given greater clarification in the ensuing analysis. The common notion of security is encapsulated in the word “protection” provided by the police and other “security” agencies of government. This common notion is adequately captured in the definition of “security” as: “the state of being free from danger or threat...the safety of a state or organisation against criminal activities such as terrorism, theft or espionage....” However, the notion of “security” in this study is not restricted to the narrow parallax lines of “security agencies” with their paraphernalia of uniforms, guns and bombs. Instead, the operative standpoint to security in this study is best couched in the averment that anything that “arms” the female against real and potential attacks in society constitutes a vital part of gender security for girls and women. Consequently, this study argues that aside from the “protection” offered by the conventional law enforcement agencies, the security of the female is further 1 enhanced through education, economic empowerment, freedom of speech and choice, and the active participation of women in politics and policy formulation, all of which crystallise into women empowerment. This holistic perception of women security is in consonance with the position of the United Nations Commissions on Human Security which defines security as protecting the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfilment.’ This means protecting vital freedoms – fundamental to human existence and development. Human security means protecting people from severe and pervasive threats, both natural and societal, and empowering individuals and communities to develop the capabilities for making informed choices and acting on their own behalf (Ogata & Cels quoted in Hoogensen and Rottem 157) The 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report clarifies the concept when it describes human security as “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want”, indicating the seven primary domains where human (in)security manifests: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political security (Axworthy 24–5). This study contends that empowering women to “develop the capabilities for making informed choices and acting on their own behalf” indirectly enhances women security. In short, women empowerment is women security just as women security is also women empowerment. By matching the cerebral creations in selected Nigerian and Taiwanese novels with accessible data from governmental and non- governmental organisations in both countries, this study interrogates the contentious
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