Aliénation de la femme dans l’écriture bugulienne le cas de riwan ou le chemin de sable et de l’autre Cȏté du regard.

Abstract

This work is an attempt to interpret the theme of alienation of women as a sociological and epistemological phenomenon, and its subsequent implications in the post-colonial African societies through Riwan ou le chemin de sable (1999) and De l’autre côté du regard (2008) of Ken Bugul. The novels belong to the post-colonial era when everywhere in the sub-region of Africa, and elsewhere in the world, there was a scramble for power to dominate and class formation. The issue of class formation is the result of the capitalistic system introduced into the African continent by the various colonial masters that happened to have ruled the various parts of the sub-region. Inevitably, the most powerful weapon these oppressors used to legalize their dominion in the African sub-region and to perpetuate exploitation of the colonies was class formation and alienation. Unfortunately, during the neo colonial era, Africans use the same weapon and the same ideology to oppress and dominate their fellow natives. The writer Ken Bugul therefore, in these novels, puts before the public, the theme of alienation as a capital weapon that facilitates exploitation and delay human emancipation. She apprehends religion for its awkward role in the process of alienation of women. The work reveals that in most traditional African societies, women are marginalized and oppressed, with their rights more often than not, stamped and trampled upon by the male dominated society under the auspice of religion. As posed by the Marxist theory, Ken Bugul emerged from the oppressed society, and shared the fate and the ideology of this class. Her father Abdou Laye was an Imam, and she also got married to a man of religious reference; nevertheless, her condition of the second sex automatically placed her in the class of the oppressed society. As a result, she effectively and vividly mirrored in these novels, the discomfort of the lower class and the irregularities that social classes are capable of viii creating in societies. She consequently offered herself as the mouthpiece of the oppressed society by exposing the various ways in which women are oppressed and exploited, and by bringing to bare the hidden role of religion in the process of the alienation of women. In her works, Ken Bugul preached a class-free society. The study concluded that for a complete, lasting and durable growth, communities ought to merge the apparent dichotomy between men and women into a single pool. Men and women naturally belong to the same class of humans, but with different and diversified nature, duties and responsibilities. We believe that if societies are able to bring these disparities together, we can attain an enviable status of personal and social development.