Of Patriarchy, Gender, Paradox and Inference: A Feminist Import in Amma Darko’s Faceless

Abstract

Ever since the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s A Vindication of the Rights ofWomen in 1792 and John Staurt Mill’s The Subjection of Women in 1869, about seven decadeslater on the English landscape, and Margaret Fuller’s Women in the Nineteenth Century in 1845in America, feminism, in its variegated shapes, has gradually overtaken the literary landscape.From the first generation of African women writers till the present time, women have beenagitating against the social and political structure that oppresses them. Recently, male writershave joined hands with their female counterparts in the campaign to advance the issue ofwomen’s demand for equality of both male and female gender. In Faceless, Amma Darko givesmakes some inferential statement about the plight of African women. She is most concerned withthe challenges of the girl-child who eventually becomes a mother. Through the image of Fofoand Maa Tsuru, we see the female endangered specie. The novelist, as an African womanist,emphasises that various woes suffered by African women have their origin in the patriarchaltradition. She deploys her stylistic elements of gender identity, paradox, and symbol to makeinferential statement about the future of African society. The novelist, through the use ofcharacterisation and other literary devices, asserts that in spite of dehumanisation women andgirls have continued to receive from the male gender, the future of Africa lies in harmonious andcollaborative relationship of both sexes, both in domestic affair and in official engagements. Theresolution of the novel suggests that the two genders complementarity is essential for maximumproductivity and health of the family and the larger society.