Ziglôbitha (Jun 2022)
Widows’ Hardships as a Catharsis for their Self-Assertion: A Marxist Reading of Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to discuss the inhuman treatment of widows in African society and purports to show how these abuses (violence) have in the process enabled them to self-determine. This predicament has not escaped the creative impulse of Bayo Adebowale, who, in his novel Lonely Days, delineates with dexterity, how widows are abused and marginalized in most African societies after the demise of their male partner/counterpart. The analysis is based on the Marxist approach to literature which focuses on social class struggle. The primary material used for arguments in this study is Lonely Days where data were collected. The result of the analysis shows that women’s marginalization is threefold; first by their sex, second by their status of married women and third by their new status as widows. Consequently, they suffer from various hardships in the hands of their greedy in- laws and are even accused of murdering their own husband. The study also shows that this predicament has, nonetheless, served as prime mover to their realization and emancipation. It concludes that awakening, abnegation, determination and work commitment are significant weapons that overcome the difficulties they face in the patriarchal society they are born and raised
