Female Assertiveness in Ifeoma Okoye’s The Fourth World

Abstract

Most literary works by emerging African female writers react against the stereotypical portrayal of the female and womanhood in male-authored novels. In the previous works by male writers, women are perceived to be inferior or projected as sex objects for the pleasure of the men, or even mere objects for the production of children. Such male writers have succeeded in constructing the image of the woman whose destiny is linked to that of a man. However, with the influx of western- oriented ideologies such as feminism and its African variants such as womanism, most female writers reject this stereotype and construct an alternative image of womanhood in which women are in charge of their own affairs. In the last decade, African female writers have attempted to restructure the style and issues of their works. These writers present new perspectives to the diverse issues of womanhood and the female identity in a changing social setting with the intention of giving the African woman the zeal, determination and courage to stand up against all societal challenges. Using Ifeoma Okoye's The Fourth World, this paper seeks to examine society's perception of women as regard their socio-culturally destined roles, their struggles, decisions in life and aspirations. The paper adopts the Womanist literary approach to analyse the text and it is discovered that the 21st Century African women, represented by the leading female character in the text, are more determined and assertive compared with the portrait of women projected in the works of previous male African authors.