A liberal womanist or radical feminist? by Ugwu Lawrence Enenche

Feminism is an individualist ideology in contrast to the communal nature of African society. This expresses the dilemma of the African woman writer as she wavers helplessly between her allegiance to her culture, her African identity and her aspiration for freedom and self-fulfillment.

Let us now examine Alkali's position on the questions of whether she is a liberal womanist or radical feminist and her posture on the interdependence of sexes. It's apparent that Alkali gives the woman a voice to make demands for her right and freedom in her novels.

Therefore, as she dances to the tune of all feminist novelists in Africa, the characters are expected to be radical, even militant. This is perhaps the platform on which Mama in The Cobwebs and Other Stories and Seytu in The Descendants emerged.

Seytu becomes the new voice for a redefinition in Alkali's version of feminism and what critics call a radical shift in her feminism or womanism in the development of her characters.

The Stillborn offers Li enough conviction to put up with the marriage institution in the face of all its shortcomings whereas The Descendants does not afford such Simplistic conclusions. The women here are rather too militant and deeply engrossed in their career pursuits without any mind for the sacredness of neither marriage nor paying a hoot to the ethics of culture.

In The Descendants, the gospel is against early marriages and other ills that have been perpetrated against women. Alkali does not actually have the amount of bitterness and open hatred of the men folk in her narration as does other feminists like Buchi Emecheta, whose female characters are non conformists and deviants to all women -bending dogmas.

Mama in The Cobwebs is described as destabilized, hardly known by her children, while Hauwa, Seytu's daughter in The Descendant is quite removed from the mother. The point one could make of such is that marriage, children and self-development are not "mutually exclusive".

Feminist criticism focuses on the African woman; her plight on economic dependence, marriage and motherhood which writers think is “the test of feminism" and (or) what others call "reactive radicalism". Seytu shows reactive radicality by her decision to walk out of her marriage just because her husband decided to add another wife which is neither against her culture nor her faith.

A clear indication that the new woman in Alkali's fiction is prepared, if need be, to discountenance both marriage and any traditional institution that is inhibitive to her self-realization. Seytu particularly abnegated male protection and determined to be resourceful and self-reliant.

Alkali's role as a crusader and emancipator certainly appears radical in the clear sense of its total rejection of the female dependence on man. In effect, she attempts the "reversal of all inherited attributes that have become ingrained as a male preserve". This is typified by Seytu's decision to walk out of a shifting marriage without a glance.

Ugwu Lawrence Enencheis a prolific writer and reputable researcher on African literature and folklore. He has a bachelor degree on English literature from Ahmadu Bello university and master's degree on English literature from Bayero university, Kano. He is the author of Gone With Love, Just After Dawn, and A Talking Dream. You can shoot him an email ugwulawlaw@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter: Lawrence Enenche/Instagram: Ugwu1.

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