Gender Issues in Africca Expressed through Literature Term Paper

Gender Issues in Africca Expressed through Literature - call Paper ExampleThe rest of this essay will highlight, comp be and contrast the gender issues discussed in these fictions. In particular it will argue that the two books in question bring key insight, understanding and a message of hope to womens issues in their respective countries. So Long a Letter (originally promulgated in French as Une si longue lettre), gives voice to women of Senegal in particular and Western Africa in general. It is written by Mariama Ba and is semi-autobiographical in content. Ramatoulaye Fall is the admirer and first-person narrator of this epistolary unexampled. Addressed to her close friend Aissatou Ba, the letter was prompted by the narrators recent and unexpected widowhood. Ramatoulaye recounts to Aissatou the circumstances and the shock accompanying her saves death due to heart-attack. But having adopted the novel form, the letter touches upon topics far and beyond that of her immediate gri ef. And through her forays into all aspects of womens social rules and restrictions the womens rightist voice of the author comes alive. (Ba-Curry et.al, 2008, p.112) Especially astute are Bas grasp of interpersonal equations and balance of power between the two genders A woman is like a ball once a ball is thrown, no one can predict where it will bounce. You have no control everyplace where it rolls, and even less over who gets it. Often it is grabbed by an unexpected hand...Whereas a woman draws from the passing years the force of her devotion, despite the ageing of her companion, a man, on the other hand, restricts his field of tenderness. His egoistic eye looks over his partners shoulder. He compares what he had withwhathe no long has, what he has with what he could have. (Ba, 1980, p.42) The novel Everything Good allow for Come by Sefi Atta has thematic similarities in that its protagonist also is a girl living in postcolonial Nigeria and England. But compared to Miriama Ba s work, Attas novel is created in a much broader canvas, covering political developments, ethnic conflict, crime as well as interpersonal relationships. The chief character in the novel is that of Enitan, who is confronting in her life various issues that have engulfed postcolonial Nigeria. Some of the most realistic and poignant passages in the novel pertain to the ethnic strife between groups much(prenominal) as Youruba, Igbo (Biafrans) and Housas, which has stifled progress and development in sovereign Nigeria. (Olowonmi, 2008, p.55) Sefi Atta emphasizes bonding as a mechanism for achieving communal bliss. Via bonding, key characters in the story are able to share their burden and fight bravely to resist their oppressors and seek freedom for their loved ones. Dismantling this cloak of disillusionment then becomes a text-type for the extract of democratic governance in her country. According to the United Nations Global Human Development Report (2002) governance in action includ es institutions, rules and political processes. And these factors determine if economies grow, children go to school, and whether human development moves forward or backward. Thus, this perspective is in consonance with the writers vision when he/she moves through enormous materials to organize and orchestrate in purchase order to open a window to prospective horizons as his/her art reflects reality. And conclusively, the writer caves for the deepening of democratic governance in Nigeria to ensure that the use of power in public affairs gives premium to human