Arts, Media and Popular Culture
Debunking Patriarchal Legacy in African Traditional Setting: A Reading of Efo Kodjo Mawugbe's in the Chest of a Woman
This article investigates the critical views of Efo Kodjo Mawugbe on some
African traditional customs which deny identity and welfare to women and
his literary endeavor to unravel the patriarchal legacy in his In the Chest of
a Woman. It examines the dictates of patriarchy that militate against
females’ emancipation and lay a foundation for their marginalization and
oppression. It attempts to read Mawugbe’s call for gender balance and equal
treatment for men and women in modern society. Two sexist practices are
targeted: the denial of inheritance rights to female children and the capital
punishment of those who go against tradition by becoming pregnant out of
customary wedlock. The study asserts that if modern African society should
experience a participatory socio-economic development it is urgent to end
sexism and gender oppression in families and society, and to give men and
women equal opportunities to emerge as fulfilled free beings.
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