International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol -3, Issue-6, Nov - Dec, 2018

https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.6.52 ISSN: 2456-7620

Enemies of their Own: Rethinking Feminism in

Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods
Ezenwamadu Nkechi Judith (Ph.D.)
Department of English, Madonna University Okija, Nigeria
([email protected] m)

Abstract— The belief that women secretly hate other to give the woman a sense of self as a worthy, effectual and
women is one with a long history in humanity especially in contributing human being (ix). This conforms to the
the African context. Avarice suspicion and competition lamentations of Ama Ata Aidoo when she bemoans the
abound in the relationship among the female race. The neglect of the females and their write-ups, thus, a denial of
vibrancy which accosted African gender studies stimulates self-assertion as she states:
a closer appraisal of the varying opinions of the females as We were not asking to be hailed as geniuses, it was
they inclined to the popular concept of feminism. This paper simply that some African women have written
therefore seeks to interrogate the diversified opinions of the books that have been as good as some of the books
supposed unity in understanding the concept of feminism as written by some of the African male writers, and
it echoes from several female critics cum writers. Zulu sometimes better. We wanted to be noticed (516).
Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods is used to explore this What the female writers who are otherwise called feminists
assertion. Such are clear evidences of divergences in the tend to portray is self-assertiveness and re-creation of
physical, spiritual, social and intellectual dispositions of women from the docile subjugated beings to decisive
women which call for reflections. individuals in opposition to their portrayals in male
Keywords— Zulu Sofola, Wedlock of the Gods. authored literature. This is what Elizabeth Uko examines
using feminist critique which exposes patriarchal ideology
I. INTRODUCTION evident in literature written by men. She suggests that
The emergence of feminism came as a result of the waves women themselves should be investigated to observe how
which triggered off with Mary Wellstonecraft Godwin’s they perceive themselves and their existence (147).
publication of her work. Vindication of the Rights of Women Flora Nwapa in “Women and Creative Writing in Africa”
in 1792 in England where she explores the intimidations emphasizes the great need for women identification since
and subjugations meted by men on women. Thenceforth, it men, especially, the authors, fail to recognize them as they
underwent a lot of transformations with such women like played down the powerful role of women in their earlier
Lucretia Mott and Eizabeth C. Stanton’s fight for women works which prompted her (Nwapa) to action in her debut
suffrage until women won the right to vote in 1928. The novels Efuru and Idu as she affirms:
spark of feminism continued unabatedly following different In these two, therefore, I tried to debunk the
dimensions through various continents. erroneous concept that the husband is the Lord
Feminism, therefore, is a diverse collection of social and master and the woman is nothing but his
theories, political movements and moral philosophies, property. I tried to debunk the notion that woman
largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of is dependent of her husband. The woman not only
women, especially in terms of their social, political and holds her own, she is astonishingly independent of
economic situation. As a social movement, feminism her husband. So while some Nigerian male writers
largely focuses on limiting or eradicating gender inequality failed to see the power base, this strength of
and promoting womens ’ rights, interests, and issues in character, this independence, I tried in Efuru and
society. Idu to elevate the woman to her rightful place
In the African context in general and Nigeria in particular, (528).
feminism as Helen Chukwuma deems it necessary to She finally advocates for interdependency when she states
redefine as a context in modern African literature, is a that “the lives of a man and a woman are interdependent,
rejection inferiority and a striving for recognition. It seeks there must be mutual understanding and respect” (532).

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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol -3, Issue-6, Nov - Dec, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.6.52 ISSN: 2456-7620
Molara Ogundipe-Leslie in stiwanism” battles with the He goes further to analyze different categories of feminists
word “feminism” as she tries to expose, with dismay, what and their belief as regards their commitment to the concept.
some African women are saying about feminism in Africa. They truly vary, which ordinarily should not be so.
According to her:
Majority of the female writers usually show concern for
Some quite outstanding women like Buchi their heroines and other female characters in their works
Emecheta, say they are not feminists without who struggle to exist within the confines of their patriarchal
saying why, others like the Nigerian writer, Flora society, but Wedlock of the Gods by Zulu Sofola is a
Nwapa, say they are not feminist, but they are scathing attack on the feminist ideas that men in the
womanists. Bessie Head, says in her post-humous traditional African society integrate suffering on women
essay collected under the title ‘A Woman Alone’ rather, she tries to state that the so called women suffering,
that in the world of the intellect where she especially by widows, are meted out not be men but
functions as a writer and an intellectual, feminism women.
is not necessary because the world of the intellect An exaltation of the female traits, especially the heroines is
is neither male nor female (548). no doubt expected in the characters of ‘Ogwoma’ and
Leslie frowns at Head’s declaration and she calls it a false Odibei, but the reverse is the case in the work of Sofola, a
consciousness expression. female writer. No wonder she is grouped by Nnolim under
In Buchi Emecheta’s article “Feminism with a small “f”, “sheer reactionaries and fence sitters” under whom the
Emecheta pretends about her being acknowledged as a cause of feminists suffer. The character of Odibei in the
feminist, when she states: play fully conforms to Elizabeth Ako’s proclamation that
some women are portrayed not only as victims of
I chronicle the little happenings in the lives of the patriarchal dominance but equally as participants in the
African women I know process of relegation and segregation in male dominated
I did not know that by doing so I was going to be societies.
called a feminist. But if I She emphasizes that such position, rather than simply
am now a feminist, then I am an African feminist justify patriarchal attitudes points out as well to the careless
with a small ‘f’ (553). and unserious attitude of women in matters concerning their
individual identity and their place and role in their
Could it be that feminists are really ignorant of the concept communities.
or just trying to deny the ideology they have been
clamouring to be identified with? For Leslie, she advocates Wedlock of the Gods
not for feminism but stiwanism, emphasizing the word as a
negative one. She states: Wedlock of the Gods is a tragic drama that its roots in the
ritual of death and mourning and the entanglement of a
The word “feminism” itself seems to be a kind of woman in the traditional set-up that destroys her.
red rag to the bull of African men....Be a stiwanist. A young girl, Ogwoma, deeply in love with her young
I am a Stiwanist. (549) lover, Uloko, is given away in marriage to a man who she
neither knows nor loves, because her parents are in
The question remains, are these female writers confused desperate need of the dowry to cure her sick brother. When
about what they try to portray? No wonder Charles Nnolim the new husband dies unexpectedly, the events take on a
in “A House Divided” observes and prophesies that: new twist. The young girl Ogwoma is expected to mourn
her husband for three months, and then marry her dead
The contours of the feminist literary landscape in husband’s brother according to traditional stipulations, but
Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, present she defies the customs, gives in to the yearnings of her heart
a panorama of undulating topography. It is a house desire and gets pregnant for Uloko, her beloved, even
divided against itself and at present looks before the mourning period is over and all hell is let loose,
discomforting like the leaning tower of Pisa (250). as her mother- in-law Odibei, with her diabolic and magical
powers swears to avenge her son’s death, as she believes
that he died out of Ogwoma’s unfaithfulness. This is

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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol -3, Issue-6, Nov - Dec, 2018
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.3.6.52 ISSN: 2456-7620
according to her discussion with Otubo, her neighbour when Ogwoma, your soul is
Odibei searches Ogwoma’s house in her absence. summoned!
(Ogwoma appears in a trance
OTUBO: (digusted) what are you looking for? and walks towards Odibei)
ODIBEI: I am looking for the medicine she Your soul is wanted;
used Come, come and not look back!
OTUBO: What if there is no medicine Come and answer your call!
ODIBEI: Then it is her harlotry that killed Come and not look back.
my son (P.6). (Ogwoma reaches her and stops)
OGWOMA: (Still in a trance; speaking
It therefore highlights the degree of suspicion the mother in- slowly) I am here!
law has on her daughter in-law, which is eventually proved ODIBEI: That is good. Go to your house,
with Ogwoma’s pregnancy for her beloved, and his over open the door and enter. Behind
boldness to claim what he believes rightfully belongs to your water pot is another small
him, which was rudely snatched from him due to his pot. Open it and say into it once
wretchedness. “I have done what the land
forbids”, cup your hand and
The play takes a tragic turn at Odibei’s determination to drink from the pot with your
take Ogwoma’s life which she actually does with her hand thrice saying before each,
magical powers as she hypnotizes Ogwoma to do her drink, “I have done what the land
biddings. She conjures and compels her to plead guilty to forbids”. Let me perish, “let my
the offence she committed and subsequently dies after blood appease the disgraced
drinking the poisoned liquid prepared and kept for her by spirit of my husband. Close the
Odibei herself. Even the magical summoning incantations pot and wait for whatever comes.
she uses emphasizes that she has been in deep membership Is that clear?
of the diabolic group. It goes thus: OGWOMA: It is clear
ODIBEI: My God, the worse is done! ODIBEI: Good. Go now and do everything
Ogwoma walks on the path that OGWOMA: I will do everything (P.52-
reeks with blood. (she picks up 53)
the snail shell and blows the
powder). Let me feel your The above is more or less no conversation because one is
power! (she puts it down, looks spiritually manipulating the other.
directly into the pot filled with Sheer wicked practice by a woman to a fellow woman.
smoke and speaks directly into it. Although Uloko avenges her death by killing Odibei, but he
She shakes the gourd at commits suicide thereafter; blood for blood.
appropriate intervals). The
vulture does not see the corpse It is said that most female writers in the bid to emphasize
and resist it, the dog does not see the relevance of women fail to observe the inherent negative
human dung and resist it; the traits of women that they usually show concern for their
antelope does not hear its death heroines, but Sofola is no such writer. Her portrayal of the
music and refuse to dance; female characters of Ogwoma and Odibei show no
Ogwoma cannot hear your call attachment to female gender. One is expected to show
and refuse to answer; bring her here! mercy for Ogwoma at the traditional subjugation she
Lead her to me; undergoes in the play, and so averts the cruel fate that
Bring her here not knowing what awaits her. Her ordeal is mentioned by Ogwoma herself
she is doing! when she asks Anwasia her friend:
Lead her and make her do
whatever I bid! OGWOMA: What have I done to them? I have fought
for the past four years to marry the man I

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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol -3, Issue-6, Nov - Dec, 2018
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love, but these people will not let it be. I Yakubu indicts female writers who have conceptualized
was tied and whipped along the road to freedom for Nigerian women through
Adigwu. Now that God has freed me, they various approaches that are literarily and socially realistic,
still say I am his brother’s wife. yet when it concerns women’s
(P.21) sexuality issue; they operate within the exclusive ambience
Her friend’s response is an emphatical statement of the Igbo of patriarchal heterosexual
woman in the face of tradition as perscriptions, whether conservative or liberal. She boldly
it relays women as pieces of objects for sale. She responds: emphasizes;

ANWASIA: Listen Ogwoma, a friend must always be By sexual liberation here is meant the
honest and truthful. It is a common thing, freedom to define the agency by which
that when a man dies his brother takes his woman chooses to accomplish whatever
wife. This is what our people do. sexual pleasures she desires. Such
Everyone knows that (P.21). pleasures could include heterosexual one
so long as her rights and independence
She has no doubt, resigned to fate at the dictates of can be adequately asserted. It is important
patriarchy. This situation is what G.T to observe that within family institutions
Basden in Nigeria, married woman who sleeps
affirms heartily as normal in his assertion that: with any man apart from her husband is
shamed, ridiculed and ostracized. But a
Women have but few rights in any married man is ‘free’ to sleep with as
circumstances and can only hold such many women as possible (in spite of
property as their lords’ permit. There is HIV/AIDS and all the STD’s in town),
no grumbling against their lot; they accept have children outside the home and still
the situation as their grandmother did be hailed as a hero in the community.
before them and, taking affairs This is an illustration of the patriarchal
philosophically, they manage to live fairly foundation of hetero-sexuality in Nigeria.
contentedly (P.88). It is a system which should be questioned
if there is any genuine concern for female
This type of affirmation is what the likes of Uduopegeme J. sexual liberation.
Yakubu vehemently opposes as she frowns that such
important subject like female sexuality is hardily given the The doors to sexual discourse and
attention it desires practice cannot be shut after the
by female writers. This makes her to assertively state that admittance of the patriarchy-approved
various female writers (like Sofola as modes of hetero-sexuality. Female sexual
we have seen) pander to the dictates of patriarchal liberation means that women should be
epistemologies in the sphere of sexuality by able to explore the vistas of sexual desire
their lack of capacity or interests in creating female and intimacy if, when, where, how and as
characters whose sexuality are independent. they wish to choose. It is a smirking
She beckons on the Nigerian female writers to reconstruct expression of double stands to preach
woman’s sexuality in an liberation only to the extent that it suits
overwhelming atmosphere of real freedom and gender the whims and ego of male chauvinists
equality. Invariably, for Yakubu, (159-160).
Ogwoma does what she should not have been crucified for,
after all; she was dragged like a dog, Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie (500-501) confirms that women
whipped along the road to the house of Adizua- What an worth more and are better regarded in
inhuman treatment! their father’s home more than in their husbands, for their
own lineage offers them greater status
than elsewhere. She states:

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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol -3, Issue-6, Nov - Dec, 2018
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The woman as daughter or sister has greater status name of culture, religion or tradition.
and rights in her lineage, Married, she becomes a Catherine Acholonu promptly corrects the impression that
possession, voiceless and often rightless in her husband’s some women writers misunderstood
family, except for what accrues to her through her children. about the concept of feminism which does the harm of
But Helen Chukwuma negates that notion and rather opines diminishing the numbers of readers and
that marriage remains the ultimate audience they attract to their detriment. She explains that
for women who are trained from their infancy to realize feminism is not synonymous with
themselves and their true worth outside violent confrontation or militancy; rather it should calmly
themselves. For her: expose the study of women’s
psyche, behavioral characteristics, mentality and history.
A woman’s greatest aspiration is finding a mate She finally advises that:
and thereafter, bearing children. Every other thing is
secondary: education, a career, material wealth, social Women writers must be able to strike a
acclaim. All these are subsumed to marriage and balance between outright aggressive
motherhood. radicalism and finding a hologrammatic
approach, dynamically organic approach
In discussing Buchi Emecheta who appears to be concerned to writing that will encourage mutual
with criticizing a marriage system understanding co-operation and
which does not protect the interest of woman ( as that of acceptance among sexes, rather than
man) when the bride price connotatively emphasize the area that divide us in a
implies colonization of the woman, Helen Chukuwuma manner that divides us even further to the
emphasizes further that the true test of extent that it compromises our readership
woman remains the marriage institution where every (93).
married woman fights out her survival as an
Individual and attains a status acclaimed by society and All the mentioned above are female writers, in the same
fulfills her biological need of procreation course of feminism but varying
and companionship. degrees of ideologies emphatically stating non-conformity
of ideas.
This belief by Helen Chukwuma is highly opposed by Charles Nnolim (217) identifies the fact that African
Yakubu, who insists that Helen’s as sertion feminism draws an arc that is most
that marriage is the true test of the woman should be disquieting in its implications. He further intimates further
contested, otherwise, “women are that ‘Some African feminists are
perpetually doomed” (163). She emphatically adds that dancing furious step, and the feminists drums have gone
female writers like Zulu Sofola, Tess mad’ (46). As Chibueze Orie rightly
Onwueme, Ifeoma Okoye and several others present the quotes him, “The Concept of Feminism... has a worm that
idea that Nigerian female writers cannot squirms at its core and is maggot-
re-create women outside hetero-sexuality and marriage and ridden by its human condition, because the dilemma of the
so seem to corroborate the feminist is the dilemma of the
patriarchal myth that speaks to men’s sense of bloated proverbial chichidodo (157).
importance. She concludes stating that:
A woman does not have to marry or have children Over the years, most gender studies have been on the
before she becomes happy or lives a fulfilling life. Writers perceived discrimination against women
must explore possibilities. Female writers, especially, must as spearheaded by men. Women have always been seen as
not be afraid of upturning culture or touching what the victim of gender discrimination
patriarchal society and its religious institutions regard as but a critical appraisal of the relationship between women in
taboo (164). the natural context shows that
women are rivals of one another. When feminism emerged
For her therefore, double standard cannot be erected for in Africa, it was received with a
men and supported by women in the

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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol -3, Issue-6, Nov - Dec, 2018
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mixed feeling. Many African women are opposed to its women are perpetually to play the second fiddle and its
radicalism, which runs counter to fight against modern attempts to keep the
African cultural practices. Some of the women see it as a women at the margins of society and rouse her from the
disorder, a deviation, an extremism impotence of accepting patriarchy, it is
associated with misguided frustrated or disgruntled women. also pertinent that women should equally realize that they
Actually this is not what feminism constitute a huge chunk of their
should be all about. In its most objective form, feminism debased-ness by their integral hatred of themselves. A
according to Chukwuma (1994) is, “... glaring example is the age long war
a reaction to such stereotypes of women which deny them a between mothers and their daughters in-law, in the
positive identity” (.ix). For traditional igbo society, as ex-rayed in the
Chukwuma, women conditioning in Africa is the greatest play of study, which has not been resolved up till today and
barrier towards a fulfilment of self. which seems to linger till eternity.
This she says is seen in the religious, socio-cultural and Educated or not, women in the world over have bitterness
economic life of women. The which fans into flames whenever they
assertiveness and various divisions of feminism approaches clash. This is confirmed by Knappert (48) when prophet
are indications of the in depth Musa tells the widower that “women
divisions among the women in the feminists struggle and a create bitterness both when they are alive and when they are
closer study, identification and dead”.
unification of the ideal concept for general integration will Women in general, and female writers in particular should
prevent further disintegration. re-assert what they believe and
re-acclaim uniformity for the realization of their common
goal.
Conclusion
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