A Comparative Study of Widows’ Plight in Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope and Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days

Authors

  • SIDI CHABI Moussa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.74.8096

Keywords:

Widows, plight, maltreatment, inhumane, phenomenon.

Abstract

The present article aims at making a comparative study of widows’ plight in Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope and Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days. The plight of African widows is deplorable in African societies where the weight of customs and traditions makes them suffer a lot. In those societies, the maltreatment that men inflict on them is usually inhumane. People even suspect them of being at the origin of their husbands’ death in most cases. Such a situation calls for reflection as it has become a societal problem which deserves a particular attention. Hence the necessity to carry out this research work in order to pinpoint the ins and outs of such a phenomenon through a comparative study of widows’ plight in the selected novels. The methodological approach that I have used in this research work is documentary research. The study has found that the two widows have a similar plight as courageous and resilient women although their situations are not exactly the same in some aspects. The literary theories that I have applied to the study are feminism, a literary theory which aims at revaluing women’s image, and the Marxist critical approach which focusses on class struggle.

References

Adebowale Bayo, 2006, Lonely Days, lbadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 141 p.
Aguessy Yélian Constant, 2014, “A Woman’s Combat for Formal Education in Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope”, in Revue du CAMES: ‘Littérature, Langues et Linguistique’, Numéro 2, pp. 72-83.
Akinbi Joseph Olukayode, 2015, “Widowhood in some Nigerian Societies: A Retrospective Examination”, in International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 67-74.
Cloete Ina & Mlambo Nelson, 2014, “A Literary Exploration of Trauma and Resilience in Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope”, in NAWA: Journal of Language and Communication, 8(2), pp. 92-105.
Macola Giacomo, 2005, “Imagining Village Life in Zambian Fiction”, in Cambridge Anthropology, 25(1), pp. 1-10.
Mlambo Nelson, 2011, “Urban life and the Complexities of Change: Cultural Transformation for the Survival in Contemporary Zimbabwean Fiction”, in NAWA: Journal of Communication, 5(1), pp. 199-210.
Mlambo Nelson, 2014, Trauma, Resilience and Survival Strategies in Crisis Times: An Afrocentric Literary Approach. Berlin, Germany: Scholar’s Press, 276 p.
Mutunda Sylvester, 2017 a, “Anthropomastics in Selected Zambian Novels: A Cultural Appraisal”, in International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 101-113.
Mutunda Sylvester, 2017 b, “Woman of Resilience in Zambian Male Fiction: A Feminist Reading of Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope”, in International Journal of Educational Investigations, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 48-64.
Olugunle Wole, 2018, “Comparative Reading of Domestic Violence Against African Women in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days”, in African Research Review, Vol. 12(4), Serial No 52, pp. 128-139.
Raïmi Fatiou Akambi, 2016, “Typology and Significance of Proverbs and Proverbial Devices in Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days”, in Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), Vol. 4, Issue 3, pp. 715-725.
Sidi Chabi Moussa & Aguessy Yélian Constant, 2018, “The Burden of Motherhood in Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope”, in La Revue Scientifique _ Les Cahiers du CBRST, Lettres, Sciences Humaines et Sociales, N° 13, pp. 90-117.
Sinyangwe Binwell, 2000, A Cowrie of Hope, London: Heinemann, 160 p.
Sossou Marie-Antoinette, 2002, “Widowhood practices in West Africa: The silent victims”, in International Journal of Social Welfare, No. 11, pp. 201-209.

Downloads

Published

2020-04-30

How to Cite

Moussa, S. C. (2020). A Comparative Study of Widows’ Plight in Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope and Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(4), 272–291. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.74.8096