The portrayal of the male gender by African female novelists A study of Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Darko’s beyond the horizon

Abstract

This thesis examined the image of male gender in Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen and Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon. The purpose of this research work was to explore how these two renowned female African writers present male gender in their novels. In order to achieve this, the researcher focused on whether these two novelists present men differently or similarly. Also, the study pays attention to how cultural assumptions influenced the presentation of male gender in the two novels. The theoretical framework that guided the direction of this thesis was structural functional theory. The researcher carefully selected the two novels because they both have African and European settings, therefore good for comparison. The research design used for the thesis was qualitative approach. This study reveals that Emecheta presents African men in a number of ways, notable among them are; they are seen as decision makers who are expected to be celebrated and served by women, as people who abuse the rights of women and value sons more than daughters. Amma Darko, in contrast, presents African men as liars, exploiters, oppressors and enemies of women. Similarly, it is revealed that both Emecheta and Darko presented African men as people who see women as their own property and always want to control and dominate them. Finally, it is revealed how cultures and traditions of African society influence the roles of men and women. Some of the affected areas are education, marriage, training of children, job opportunities, rights and responsibilities of husbands and wives. The researcher got these findings through content analysis where he examined all the major male and female characters. He also examined the themes, settings and the language of two primary texts. In the light of the presentation of African men in Second Class Citizen and Beyond the Horizon, the researcher recommended that texts written by female writers should be used as literature texts in our schools. Also, male writers should also recreate a new image for African men in literary works in order to portray a positive image for men.