Gender Inequality and Domestic Conflict: A Critical Reflection on Clark’s “The Wives Revolt” and Ubesie’s “Uwa Ntughari”

Abstract

Gender inequality as a reflection of patriarchy is a common phenomenon in Africa. This study examines gender disparity in African literature written by men with a view to delineating the bases of gender inequality, the effects and the reaction by the victimized women. The study is guided by Galtung’s (1969) theory of Structural Violence. Out of a number of literary works on gender, J.P Clarke’s The wives revolt (drama in English) and T. Ubesie’s ?wa Nt?ghar? (poem in Igbo) were purposively selected, based on their thematic concern on gender inequality in the family. The result shows that, in both texts, the basis of gender inequality and all the attendant issues of marginalization and oppression are age-old traditional beliefs and axioms held as given and ordained. The effects of gender inequality were seen in both texts as injustice and poor perception of women by men. In The Wives Revolt, the women reacted to their financial deprivation, and social exclusion by physically staging a protest in the town, whereas in ?wa Nt?ghar?, the poet highlights the women’s resistance of a system that traumatizes and downgrades them. In both texts, it is subtly underlined that the women have finally found their voices of dissent and are verbally combating their captors, after years of silence and repression. A point of departure in the two texts is that, in The Wives Revolt, the men finally realize their error and willy-nilly resolve the differences with women, but in ?wa Nt?ghar?, the poet would cede power to women after fulfilling certain conditions based on a reversal of gender roles that is not culturally practicable and realistic. Notably, the two texts downplayed the domestic roles played by women in society, which impels this study to advocate for a gender relationship based on complementarity and mutual deference and homage. This position is anchored on the understanding that, in the absence of a balanced and symmetrical power structure in the family and society, conflict will continue to dominate domestic discourse.