THE EFFICACY OF WOMEN ACTIVISM IN SEMBENE OUSMANE'S GOD'S BITS OF WOOD AND TANURE OJAIDE'S THE ACTIVIST

Abstract

Workers have always resisted exploitation and oppression foisted on them by economic systems such as capitalism. This study evaluates the effort of women at liberating themselves from such exploitation. Women as workers and the feminine gender engage in some forms of activism with the primary aim of freeing themselves from capitalism repression of the bourgeois class and the clutches of the patriarchal and societal inhibition, subjugation, oppression and dominance. In pursuance of feminist ethos, some novelists have presented the resistance of the working class against the superstructure of economic dominance and subjugation showcasing women in the lead. This paper looks at how women bond together in collectivism to drive activism with resounding success. Using Marxist literary theory, it interrogates women collective activism in Sembene Ousmane's God's Bits of Wood and Tanure Ojaide's The Activist. It relies on the interpretive method to evaluate the effectiveness of women activism. The work is significant because of the erroneous belief that only the men can drive a change. The outcome is that now women are united in activism, they record a measure of success that affects the society more than the men.