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Women Subjugating Women: Re-Reading Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter and Scarlet Song
- Article from:
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Ufahamu : Journal of the African Activist Association
- Article date:
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January 1, 2007
- Author:
- Mutunda, Sylvester
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Copyright informationCopyright The UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center Winter 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Abstract
Mainstream feminist scholarship attributes the dominance of patriarchal ideology in African society to the activities of men, while regarding women as innocent victims of patriarchal authority. However, a close reading of texts by some African women writers like Manama Bâ, provides a critique of this standpoint, and examines the direct and indirect roles played by some women in the sustenance and perpetuation of patriarchal oppression. The focus is on elderly women who, often times, are so ignorant, selfish and manipulative that they make life hard for other women. Thus, this study differs from conventional feminist research, which generally emphasizes 'male-female ' relations of ...