The Price of a Woman (Novel) and Bride Price and Literary Activism in Uganda (Critical Commentary) Felicity Atuki Turner, Phd Ca
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The Price of a Woman (novel) and Bride Price and Literary Activism in Uganda (critical commentary) Felicity Atuki Turner, PhD candidate Goldsmiths University, London, April 2019 DECLARATION I Felicity Atuki Turner hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed Date: 22nd April 2019 2 Acknowledgements Heartfelt thanks go to my supervisors: Professor Blake Morrison for his guidance and support and for teaching me the art of writing; and Dr Kai Easton for helping me find the common thread through which my story could be told. Working with them was profoundly instructive and most inspiring. Warm thanks to my friends and colleagues for their encouragement and for the many discussions we’ve had on the phone, via email and over coffees - Dr Ravi Thiara, Professor Pippa Dell and Dr Maureen Owor. Thanks to Jackie Wacha, Evelyn Schiller and Patrick Ndira for their invaluable help in the early stages of the novel; To Dr Simon Ndira for encouraging me to think of a creative writing PhD as a route towards writing a novel; To Gromyko, fellow PhD candidate, to Donna, Beatrice and Patricia for their support. Special thanks go to my family: to my dear partner Glyn for his support throughout the years when I never stopped talking about doing a PhD and to my daughter June for putting up with my absences when she would rather I had been there to play with her; to the Okoth Ndira family: Dr Catherine Keko, Dr Jane Okoth (RIP), Dr Anthony Okoth, Fr. Paul Okoth, Gonza and all the Mosinghis and Schillers for their hospitality and encouragement. I am most indebted to Meg Wyld, first Chair of the MIFUMI Board, for encouraging me to write my mother’s story and to Professor Jane Rogers for introducing me to creative writing. Thank you Hilda Twongyeirwe for information on FEMRITE. Many thanks go to the library and IT staff - Mark Preston, Kevin, Gloria Ojosipe, Sheila, Dyan Evans, Dawn Wright of SOAS and Mark Jadek of MIFUMI. I was inspired and spiritually motivated by African women writers including Nawal el Saadawi, Yvonne Vera and Tsitsi Dangarembga. Thank you Jane, for sharing your last days with me, and directing me to the desk, to ensure I met the upgrade deadline. Finally thanks to Lawrence and Evelyn Okoth - my Dad and Mum, for teaching us to value education, and to Mum especially for introducing me to the story of bride price. 3 Abstract The Price of a Woman tells the story of a young girl’s fight to break free from the bondage of bride price – the payment made to secure marriage. The opening chapters are set in Achieng’s home and show the importance of her relationship with her childhood friend Obel. We learn of her determination to study, which is brought to an end when her father sells her into marriage. As the wife of the polygamous Raja she suffers numerous beatings, and her close friendship with her co-wife Min Kilo is brought to a brutal end. Unable to conceive, she puts this down to having been cursed by a resentful uncle. She eventually has a baby, but after another beating by her husband she runs away from home to live with her Aunty Nyarua, who opens her eyes to the injustice of bride price culture. She later settles in the border town of Malaba, where her business flourishes, but then her baby falls ill and dies. Meanwhile, Raja’s demand for the refund of bride price results in a court hearing, which occurs just as Idi Amin is being ousted from power. After many twists and turns, Obel and Achieng are reunited. In terms of the readership, my novel is targeted at young adults, especially girls living in parts of the world where the tradition of bride price is still practised. The critical commentary re-conceptualises bride price – which is the payment of cash or cows to secure marriage – as a human rights issue. It demonstrates how storytelling is linked to social and political action, through the case of the landmark ruling achieved by MIFUMI (the NGO which I co-founded) in its appeal to the Ugandan Supreme Court. Two Ugandan publishing initiatives, FEMRITE and WRITIVISM, are also analysed in order to investigate literary activism. I have also discussed key texts drawn from the wider feminist movement in the African corpus. In the final chapter, the author reflects on the potential of fiction to achieve results that other forms of intervention cannot. 4 Contents Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Novel: The Price of a Woman 7 Prologue: I Will Follow You to the End of the Earth: Anoluwin kir p’abone 8 1 Five Cows for Each of the Fingers on This Hand: Chingan me dhoki abich 13 2 The Poor Man’s Grinding Stone Does Not Produce Sand: Kidi pajachandi kiregi lowo 20 3 He Saw Me as a Useless White Coin: Onenan pa pensi matar 34 4 He Who Rules Over You Calls You by a Name You Dislike: Ngata dhumin lwongin ginyingin michero 43 5 The Pot Breaks at the Door: Abala tho gi dhi’ ott 50 6 Day Time Rain Does Not Fall on One Person: Koth machwe odiechieng kigoy ngatachiel 58 7 A Woman Never Wins: Dhako kiloyi banja 67 8 What God Preserves for the Poor Never Spoils: Gima Were kano rijachandi kitopi 72 9 Having Children Gives You Food That You Did Not Expect: Nywol beri, miyin ichamo gimidikinwango 80 10 Persistent Beating Finally Bursts the Drum: Giri amen yecho buli 87 11 The Wild Animal Finds Your Brother by Your Side: Ogwang luli nwangin gi omerin 98 12 She’s Broken the Chains: Ochodo Pingo 105 13 You Can’t Threaten the World: Piny ki pir 114 14 Boundaries are Fought With Hoes: Kewi ilaro gikwer 118 15 The Potter Eats Out of Broken Pots: Jachwech ama chemo i thago 124 16 God Denies You That Which You Most Desire: Gimi ‘mito amibuyin 129 17 The One Who Lives Near Reeds is the One Who Hears its Sound: Ngata chegin gimidole amawinjo paka woy 135 18 The Sword You Sharpen is the One You Will Fall On: Tong ma ipako amanekin 143 19 He Who Asks for the Bull’s Head Must Carry it Himself: Ngata openjo wich jow won tingo 150 Epilogue This World Comes From Afar: Piny me woki bori 160 Notes 163 Critical Commentary: Bride Price and Literary Activism in Uganda 164 Introduction 165 Chapter One: Telling My Mother’s Story: From Auto/Biography to Fiction 179 Chapter Two: The MIFUMI Case 190 5 Chapter Three: Literary Activism 205 Chapter Four: Reflections on My Writing 230 Afterword 247 Bibliography 249 Appendix 1 276 6 Novel: The Price of a Woman 7 Prologue: I Will Follow You to the End of the Earth: Anoluwin kir p’abone Achieng sat on the goatskin mat outside the kitchen. Her long legs stretched out on either side of the adheri only recently freshly smeared with cow dung, now heaped with the groundnuts she was shelling. At midday, the sun would be directly above and her shadow would squat beneath her. Absently, she shooed away the hens trying to steal the nuts; the nasal grunts they made reminded her of the white man’s language. In the kitchen, she could see her mother, Nyamiland, feeling around for the nyangoda knife under the firestone where she kept it at the end of each day. Nyamiland came out of the hut, cradling a big tray of vegetables and sat by the entrance. She started preparing the vegetables using a sickle-shaped knife, cutting the stalks from the greens with fingers that danced over each other, like someone plaiting hair. Nearby, in a shade of the granary hut, sat Proscovia Nyarua, lost in thought. Nyarua was Auntie to Achieng as she was Achieng’s father’s younger sister. Then the drums started beating and Auntie - or “Waya” as everyone called her - looked up as though someone had whispered her name. Achieng glanced at her mother whose hands no longer danced with the knife, but fought with it like someone uprooting stubborn roots from the ground. Waya got up and started walking toward the sound of the drums. They were coming from the village centre. The centre of Mulanda village was where important things happened. Good and bad news was broken there, people were rewarded or punished there, and war was declared or peace was brokered there. Achieng knew without being told that the village drummer, a short bow-legged man, was drumming out bad news. It was there in the way that Waya had suddenly got up and there in the way her mother fought with the nyangoda knife. The people were now coming thick and fast, the way rain suddenly pours forth after a brief warning drizzle, throwing greetings as they passed. Nyamiland did not look up or return their greeting. Achieng gave up shelling the nuts, got up, and followed the crowd. When she got to the village centre, she pushed her way through the crowd and found herself at the front of the circle where she slipped in next to Waya. Standing there were five 8 elders surrounding something, or someone, that lay on a raised platform. When she saw what it was, Achieng felt goose pimples rise all over her body. On the platform lay a girl of about fourteen - naked as the day she was born. She was very thin except for her swollen stomach.