Article 1: Indigenous Women’s Literature as Voice for Feminism: Nectar in a Sieve, Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World, and The Bride Price
Tenness Graham
When women’s liberation movements began in the 1960s thus begun the fight for women’s rights all over the world. This movement’s purpose was to seek equal rights and opportunities for women, giving them a voice in dominant male societies. The development and broadening of different feminist values created theoretical frameworks to help better understand the gender equality feminism represents. Socialist feminism is a development from radical feminism, that focuses on gender roles and criticizes patriarchy as the most fundamental source of oppression, and Marxist feminism, that incorporates the Marxist theory and explores how women are oppressed through capitalism and private ownership. Socialist feminism links both together by practicing the belief that women are oppressed by more than just their gender, but by other factors, such as capitalism, as well. In Nectar in a Sieve the author, Kamala Markandaya, represents the patriarchal belief that women do not need education, while also advocating the importance of education for women through her character Rukmani. Yang Erche Namu and Christine Mathieu, in their memoir, Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World, narrate the challenges of being a woman in a women’s society and encourage women to become gender conscious. Buchi Emecheta, author of The Bride Price, uses her character Aku-nna to provide insight to how women are valued in a dominantly male, cultural society while inspiring women to stand up for their own personal beliefs. By using the socialist feminism approach, I examine how Markandaya, Emecheta, Namu and Mathieu use their platform as female authors to give women from around the world a voice to fight against oppressive situations by recognizing oppression in literature.
Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve follows the story of Rukmani, the daughter of a village headman, and her family through their life of struggles. Rukmani, who had grown up with the impression she would have a grand wedding and large dowry because of her father’s position in their community, at the age of twelve, is married to Nathan, a poor, tenant farmer. At first she feels uncomfortable with her husband, but Rukmani grows to love and appreciate Nathan. During her pregnancy with their first child, Rukmani recounts the importance of education that her father taught her,
People said he did it because he wanted his children to be one cut above the rest; perhaps so, but I am certain that he also knew it would be a solace to me in affliction, a joy and tranquility… ‘Practise hard’ he would say, watching me busy with slate and pencil. ‘For who knows what dowry there will be for you when you are ready!’ (Markandaya 12)
While Rukmani’s father supports the education he is giving his children, Rukmani’s mother doesn’t believe it is necessary as it won’t matter when Rukmani “has lusty sons and a husband to look after” (Markandaya 12). Rukmani’s mother debates that she cannot even write her name, yet her house and family are well taken care of. Godiya Allanana Makama, author of “Patriarchy and Gender Inequality in Nigeria: The Way Forward,” argues that women and girl’s ability to empower themselves economically and socially is constrained by their everyday tasks in a household (Makama 120). While it is Rukmani’s father who advocates for the importance of her education as opposed to her mother, who is uneducated herself, he still acts on the patriarchal moral that Rukmani will need to be educated for her future husband, not for herself.
A radical feminist would look at this as being oppressed because she is a woman and a common belief among radical feminists is “women are subordinated mainly because of their role of giving birth to children” (Makama 119). Makama argues the socialist feminist belief that “we do know that the subordination of women goes beyond reproduction,” which in this case is represented by Rukmani and her educational standpoint (Makama 119). As discussed by Makama, girls’ educational opportunities tend to be circumscribed by patriarchal attitudes which result in some parents attaching more importance to a boy’s education over girls (Makama 121). Markandaya portrays the importance of women’s education through Rukmani’s advocation for reading and writing, “[A]s for my children, it is for them that I practise writing and reading, so that I can teach them when the time is ripe” (Markandaya 13). As stated by Makama, “Education is said to be a vehicle that break the shackles of poverty thereby leading to transformation, development and progress” (Makama 120). Although Rukmani’s mother and fellow village women may believe her knowledge of reading and writing is useless, Rukmani recognizes how important an education will be for her children.
Unlike Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, Yang Erche Namu and Christine Mathieu’s memoir, Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World, takes place in a society where women are more dominant than men. “[W]e Moso tend to favour daughters over sons – which is why the Chinese call our country the Country of Daughters. Among us it is women, not men, who inherit the family house and rule the household” (Namu & Mathieu 6). Her matriarchal society’s belief is that women are of higher power than men, which means more is culturally expected of her to carry on traditions. “Daughters and sons should remain with their mother and other maternal relatives for their entire life. Ideally, all family members should die in the house where they were born, the house of their mother and grandmother” (Namu & Mathieu 7). Further into the memoir, Namu begins to grow away from her traditional culture and exhibits feelings of oppression, “Village life, in general, was uneventful. Tradition spins the eternal return of the seasons according to well-known expectations and well-worn habits” (Namu & Mathieu 68). Makama’s research indicates that women’s self-advancement has been burdened by cultural roles associated with women’s hierarchy, she states “roles ascribed to [women] by culture [will] affect them later in life, thereby making them to lose self-confident/worth and have low self- esteem” (122). Namu soon comes to experience what Laura L. Bierema, author of “The Role of Gender Consciousness in Challenging Patriarchy,” defines as becoming gender conscious, which challenges the status quo of gender roles (Bierema 2).
Namu begins to experience life in big cities and realizes that there can be more for her than succumbing to the socially and culturally constructed gender roles placed on her. After returning home from a trip to Beijing where she sang and competed, Namu realizes that she wants more than what her culture and traditions can offer her,
I didn’t want ten children hanging on to my skirts. I didn’t want to get pregnant and stay in my mother’s house, growing my mother’s family. I wanted my own dream… I had almost lost myself forever. But I did not want to be in love. I wanted to belong to myself. I only wanted my dream. (Namu & Mathieu, 198-199)
Comparing gender consciousness to gender unconsciousness, which Bierema describes as a state of not questioning the status quo or working to challenge and change it, through the narration of her journey, Namu becomes gender consciousness (Bierema 4). Namu challenges the ‘status quo’ of her matriarchal traditions by facing her mother and expressing her true feelings, “I want to go to Beijing… I want to leave Zuosuo. I can’t stand this place anymore. It’s too quiet for me here. The village has become so boring to me. Everything bores me now” (Namu & Mathieu 203-204). As Namu shares her story with other girls and women through her narrated memoir, she advocates and encourages being gender conscious and challenging the patriarchal status quo, and the cultural belief, that women are only good for bearing and nurturing children.
Much like Namu, Aku-nna, from Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price, represents women standing up to tradition in a patriarchal society. When discussing the patriarchal society in Nigeria, Makama explains that “this culture of patriarchy is a very strong determinant of male dominance over female and as a result men will sit back in the family to keep the family name and lineage growing while women will be married out” (116). Aku-nna becomes victim to her patriarchal society’s cultural tradition of the bride price, which places a value on women for their family’s benefit,
Aku-nna on her part was determined not to let her father down. She was going to marry well, a rich man of whom her father would approve and who would be able to afford an expensive bride price. (Emecheta 10)
Aku-nna grew up an unhealthy child who was always too thin and always sick or hurt, because of that, Aku-nna “knew that she was too insignificant to be regarded as a blessing” to her parent’s marriage (Emecheta 9). Named Aku-nna, meaning “father’s wealth,” she is only seen as a consolation for her father for nothing but her bride price (Emecheta 10). Makama, whose research focuses on oppressed women in Nigeria, states that “the average Nigerian woman is seen as an available object for prostitution, forced marriage, street hawking, instrument of wide-range trafficking and a misfit in the society” (115). Although Aku-nna is her own person, her rights are not fully hers, they are her father’s and her future husband’s.
As Aku-nna goes against her family’s traditions to marry for love instead of prioritising the bride price, Emecheta is giving a voice to women for them to make their own decisions. As she has biologically become a woman, Aku-nna’s stepfather begins to plan for suitors, focusing on which would pay the most for her bride price. It is then that he tells her that the man she loves can never be anything more than a friend, and that their friendship must “gradually die. But die it must” (Emecheta 114). Makama’s work argues that no matter what the view of different feminism theorists have, they can all categorize patriarchy as “an unjust social system that is oppressive to women” and that “the tradition or culture and religious beliefs in Nigeria as a typical patriarchal society see the wife as a property of her husband” (125). Aku-nna recognizes this in chapter eight, “A Kind of Marriage”, after her stepfather forbids her from being with Chike, her lover,
He was telling her, not in so many words, that she could never escape. She was trapped in the intricate web of Ibuza tradition. She must either obey or bring shame and destruction on her people… She was beginning to feel that it was unjust that she was not allowed a say in her life. (Emecheta 116)
In the end, Aku-nna abandons and lies to the man who pays her bride price and marries Chike out of bride price tradition. Emecheta’s expression of Aku-nna recognizing the patriarchal oppression in her life allows for more women in traditional, patriarchal societies to recognize their own oppression. Makama mentions in her work that “tradition or culture and religion have dictated men and women relationship for centuries,” but Emecheta’s character proves that culture doesn’t always have to be oppressive for women (116).
Kamala Markandaya uses her character Rukmani as a symbol for women’s education as she goes against the traditional patriarchal belief that women’s education is useless, representing the value an education can have for women in The Bride Price. Namu and Mathieu, in their memoir about Namu’s life, Leaving Mother Lake: Girlhood at the Edge of the World, give women a voice to stand up for their dreams and aspirations by becoming gender conscious instead if succumbing to patriarchal, and in Namu’s case matriarchal, beliefs that a woman’s only purpose is to be a maternal figure. As Buchi Emecheta’s Aku-nna, from The Bride Price, disobeys her familial traditions of the bride price and stands for the belief that women are not just property, she is representing women who have value other than being a wife for men. As these authors recognize and confront the patriarchal, oppressive situations through their characters and feminist views, they are bringing recognition of those oppressive issues from around the world to light. By applying a socialist feminist theory while analyzing their literary work, it is clear that by giving recognition to women becoming their own person Markandaya, Emecheta, Namu and Mathieu empower women to make their own decisions and fight against the patriarchal values and beliefs placed on women over decades.
Annotated Bibliography
Bierema, Laura. “The Role of Gender Consciousness in Challenging Patriarchy.” International Journal of Lifelong Education, vol. 22, no. 1, 2003, pp. 3–12., doi:10.1080/02601370304825.
In this article by Laura L. Bierema, she conducts a research project that works to understand the development of women’s gender consciousness. The study consisted of eight women, a mix between African American and Caucasian, and Bierema herself. The study posed the question of how can raising the gender conscious of women affect their lives, primarily in work forces. “Five work in state agencies concerned with preventing family violence, one is an environmental activist, another a doctoral student, and I am a faculty member. Each woman was invited based on her demonstration of a high level of gender awareness” (Bierema 3). I intended to use this article to highlight challenging the status quo of gender roles, which the primary definition of being gender conscious.
Makama, Godiya Allanana. “Patriarchy and Gender Inequality in Nigeria: The Way Forward.” European Scientific Journal, vol. 9, no.17, June 2013, pp. 115–144.
Godiya Makama’s research was primarily focused on Nigerian women’s oppression and inequality, but lots of her work applies socialist feminist values, “the Nigerian society is patriarchal in nature which is a major feature of a traditional society” (Makama 115). She explores themes such as women in education, women in politics, socio-economic factors of patriarchal oppression, and women in culture, all of which are male dominant. Her article was the main research for my own research paper as plenty of her themes can be applied to the primary sources.
Works Cited
Bierema, Laura. “The Role of Gender Consciousness in Challenging Patriarchy.” International Journal of Lifelong Education, vol. 22, no. 1, 2003, pp. 3–12., doi:10.1080/02601370304825.
Emecheta, Buchi. The Bride Price. George Braziller, 2013
Makama, Godiya Allanana. “Patriarchy and Gender Inequality in Nigeria: The Way Forward.” European Scientific Journal, vol. 9, no.17, June 2013, pp. 115–144.
Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. Signet Classic, 2002.
Namu, Yang Erche, and Christine Mathieu. Leaving Mother Lake: A Childhood at the Edge of the World. Abacus, 2007.
Authors’ Bio: Tenness Graham is a 22-year-old women of both European and Indigenous descent and is a member of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation. Tenness was born and raised in Thompson, MB and graduated from R.D. Parker Collegiate in 2017. When her university career began, Tenness had dreams of being a teacher, but a recent career change has set her on the path to becoming a Medical Radiological Technician. She is currently finishing up her Bachelor of Arts Degree as a full-time student, while working a full-time job that she loves at the hospital, and is planning to attend Red River College in the coming years.
Tenness was mostly raised by her grandparents and was extremely close to her grandmother. Sadly, she lost both of her grandparents, her grandmother in 2018 and her grandfather in late 2020, but her undying appreciation for all the opportunities they had given her and the strength they taught her continue to push her. Tenness’ grandmother showed her how strong women are and that they should never be doubted. Her grandmother was someone a lot of other people looked up to and she was always willing to help others no matter the circumstance. Tenness lives by words her grandmother always said on her darkest days, “It could always be worse,” because of her grandmother Tenness always keeps an open-mind and an open-heart. Tenness dedicates her paper to her grandmother, who battled an aggressive form of cancer for years and lost her fight but never once showed any weakness or fear.
Instructor remarks: Tenness Graham took the online course, Indigenous Women and Literature I, which is a third-year literature course. Her research essay, “Indigenous Women’s Literature as Voice for Feminism; Nectar in a Sieve, Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World, and The Bride Price” applies socialist feminist approach to analyze women’s oppressive situation in three literary texts and demonstrates how education empowers women so that they can fight with the patriarchal value in their own culture. She even demonstrates how patriarchal systems works in a matrilineal society. Her argument is strong and supported by both the related theories and evidence from three texts by authors from different ethnic backgrounds. It is a well research paper and I would recommend this paper as a student sample for research essays especially for literature courses—Dr. Ying Kong.