SNAIL-SENSE STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN EMANCIPATION IN PROMISE OKEKWE’S TRILOGY

Akanmode, Olushola Ayodeji (2015) SNAIL-SENSE STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN EMANCIPATION IN PROMISE OKEKWE’S TRILOGY. African Journal of Gender and Development, Ile-Ife: Journal of the Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, 2 (2). pp. 17-28. ISSN 2006-2192

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Abstract

The emphases on theory in literary studies led to the promulgation of different theories to project and tackle various problems encountered by women as far back as the 18th century when feminism began in the Western world. Over the years, African women scholars and theorists have come up with different variants such as “womanism”, “femalism”, “motherism”, “stiwanism” and recently, “snail-sense feminism”. Snail-sense feminism strategies include but not limited to effective dialogue and negotiation and the acquisition of good education. According to Ezeigbo, the promulgator of the theory, Snail-Sense Feminism adopts the habit of the snail to ‘negotiate’ or ‘dialogue’ with its environment to be able to get round obstacles on its way with a ‘well-lubricated tongue’, whether the obstacles be rocks, thorns or boulders. Nigeria as a country with multiple cultural traditions that are unfavourable to women makes it imperative for the Nigerian woman to learn and apply strategies that would be useful to confront the hindrances to their attainment of self-actualization and self-development brought about by patriarchy. The objective of this paper is to project these snail-sense strategies that can aid women emancipation by applying them to the trilogy written by Promise Okekwe, a contemporary Nigerian female writer who advocates the emancipation of women through her literary works. The paper adopts a sociological approach in analysing the texts: Hall of Memories (2001), Zita-Zita (2002) and Fumes and Cymbals (2002). This is hinged on the premise that sociology deals with the problems of the society and gender issues are usually socio-political and economically inclined and they bother more on women’s experience in the society.

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