Gender, Identity and the Manifestos of Liberation in Chimamanda Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele

Abstract

This paper examines the veracity of some African feminist manifestos in empowering African women negotiate around patriarchy in Chimamanda Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele. The paper adopts some aspects of Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity as theoretical position and relies on close reading of the text for analysis of some extrapolations. The paper reveals that the society’s biased and lopsided prescription of gender-typed roles and behaviours has not only perpetuated inequality, but has provided a premise that has historically oppressed and made some African women totter on the verge of complete self-realisation. This accounts for the upsurge of feminist fireworks, by some African female writers, aimed at helping the women renegotiate gender expectations in order to restore confidence in their abilities to assert their potentials. The paper concludes that the sundry feminist manifestos may not provide solution to female oppression and subjugation, but could help in revolutionising the consciousness of women concerning how they conform to the inimical and denigrated societal roles that perpetually push them to the fringes of the society’s schema.