WOMEN AS MEN: IMAGING AND GENDER DYNAMICS IN VINCENT EGBUSON’S WOMANDELA

Abstract

This paper examines the imaging of women as “men” and men as
women in Vincent Egbuson’s Womandela. Against the backdrop of
patriarchy, the representations in this narrative project woman in
rather dynamic ways. This emerging woman does not strive to out-do
the man but takes on social and political postures that attests to her
indispensability to the male folk and society. As lofty as these may
seem within Nigeria’s patriarchal context, investigating and
articulating gender dynamics, the boundaries of male allies, African
feminism and what it is not in focus while analysing this image of the
African woman in Egbuson’s novel. The study finds that Egbuson’s
naming of the woman and re-identification is progressive in its
commitment to accepting and articulating the woman’s intellectual
and political ability vis a viz sociocultural conventions, without
necessarily making her unresponsive, anti-man, but accentuating her
positive identity and a sense of worth.