Female Characters in the Novels of Kyallo Wadi Wamitila

Abstract

Feminism, namely its post-colonial version, is one of the most used theoretical and ideological platforms in modern African literature. Indian scholar Raj-Kumar Mishra in one of his works gives the post-colonial feminism the following characterization: “The matter of fact is that postcolonial women refuse to remain passive and continue to bear male-oppressive environments. These women seek to emancipate themselves through education, struggle, and hard work. The postcolonial men re-colonized the bodies and minds of their women in the name of preserving their cultural values. Postcolonial feminism is primarily concerned with deplorable plight of women in postcolonial environment […] Postcolonial feminists argue for women emancipation that is subalternized by social, cultural, or economic structures across the world.” (132-3). And thus: “Postcolonial feminism […] comprises non-western feminisms which negotiate the political demands of nationalism, socialist feminism, liberalism, and ecofeminism, alongside the social challenge of everyday patriarchy, typically supported by its institutional and legal discrimination: of domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, honour killings, dowry deaths, female foeticide, child abuse”.