Boydell & Brewer

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Chapter Title: Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels:

Initiating a Talk on Black Masculinity Studies
Chapter Author(s): PARAMITA ROUTH ROY

Book Title: ALT 40

Book Subtitle: African Literature Comes of Age
Book Editor(s): Ernest N. Emenyonu
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Manifestations of Masculinities in
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels
Initiating a Talk on Black Masculinity Studies
PARAMITA ROUTH ROY

African literature’s indulgence of modern conceptions has been

instrumental in breaking single stories about Africa and African
writers who are highlighted by the canon of contemporary literary
criticism. With the advent of new writers, the field of African literature
has become enriched with more thoughts, perspectives, opinions,
criticisms, and representations. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, one
of the most popular Nigerian writers of recent times, has paved the
way for up-and-coming writers to reconsider matters and write about
subjects that had previously always been appropriated by white
writers to prove their intellectual superiority to the ‘othered’ writers.
It is believed by the renowned critic and scholar Ernest N. Emenyonu
that, as the ‘most engaging voice of her era’, Adichie has ‘bridged gaps
and introduced new motifs and narrative varieties that have energized
contemporary African fiction’ (Emenyonu 1). By bringing forward
new literary narratives, Adichie challenges the single lens or singular
perception often utilized by contemporary researchers and critics in the
process of analysing African literature. Although the names of Chinua
Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o have
found their places in the academic curriculum, people are still not
sufficiently aware of contemporary African writers who are serious in
experimenting with genres and subjects.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one such writer who has broken the
stereotypical representations of the African identity by publishing stories
of gender dynamics, power, and culture with which many readers may
have been unfamiliar. While her speech ‘We Should All Be Feminists’
made headlines, not much attention has been given to the fact that
her novels also portray manifestations of masculinities. In most of the
prominent works of African literature, the portrayals of the dominant
masculine figures have been one-dimensional, but Adichie attempts to
increase the depth of masculine representations by including figures

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 Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels 41

of complicit and subordinate masculinities within her literary oeuvre.

While analysis of ‘Black Feminism’ has become a popular topic in
contemporary research works, the ideas and representations of ‘Black
Masculinity’ are yet to gain such prominence. The whole notion of
blackness has been constructed by white people in their own interests.
It is by creating the idea of the ‘other’ that white colonizers tried to
legitimize their superiority and their hegemony over the colonized.
In this connection, ‘black male gender identities have been culturally
constructed through complex dialectics of power’ and thus unveiling
this complex system can expose the hypocrisy of the white hegemonic
structure (Pochmara 12). Adichie initiates a conversation on ‘Black
Masculinity’ by investing her fictional narratives with characters that
represent different shades of masculinity. Reflecting upon the depictions
of masculinities in her novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun,
it is clear that through her novels she emphasizes the transforming
definitions of black masculinity. The trajectory of the notion of black
masculinity finds expression through Adichie’s literary endeavours as
these novels are representative of the stages of its evolution.
Being a social construct, the notion of ‘masculinity’ changes over
time according to the evolution of the culture, the experiences of
individuals, and their reactions to situations. By emphasizing the
socio-political and socio-cultural contexts, it is possible to trace the
story of the transition of the notion of masculinity. Adichie creates that
graph, and by analysing which readers were able to decipher what,
we can see what led to the changes in the notion of black masculinity
and how this change has been instrumental in bringing forth a
transformation in black identity. To break free from the single story of
black masculinity that focuses either on hyper-masculine traits or on
the passive silence of the subjugated, Adichie engages in a dynamic
study of masculinity through her characters, who represent several
traits, types, and meanings of masculinity. She intends to reveal how
the history and politics of the country have shaped Nigerian identities
over time, and paved the way for the establishment of several shades of
masculinity that were unknown in pre-colonial Nigeria. As ‘manhood
means different things at different times’, it is essential to acknowledge
that the dynamics of black masculinity is also a product of colonial
history (Lemelle 11). A postcolonial reading of Adichie’s works remains
incomplete if the notion of masculinity is not taken into consideration.
Adichie’s engagement with the questions of black masculinity and
its manifestations enhances the argument that African literature is
definitely coming of age as it she conveys ideas that are often depicted

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42 Paramita Routh Roy

only one-dimensionally in earlier writings. Masculinity studies made

their way into the field of gender studies in the 1960s, and just like
feminism, they were misunderstood as a counter-reading rather than
an extension of the arguments of feminism. The theoretical frames
of masculinity studies reveal the dynamics of a hegemonic social
structure that subjugates both male and female in order to retain its
position. The application of this theoretical structure reveals how
the literary canon of Adichie is reinforced with characters that show
different types of masculinities: literary representations of hegemonic,
complicit, and subordinate masculine figures who maintain gender-
power dynamics. An in-depth analysis of her strategies for the
implementation of complexity in her male characters, and the
designing of a complementary structure to contain these, reveal
that her narratives show a continuous trend of degeneration in the
hegemonic masculine figures. The turmoil of postcolonial Nigerian
society is represented with all its complexities and intricacies by
Adichie, as she engages in conversations about history, politics, wars,
genders, and emotions in her novels.
Nigeria’s exposure to colonialism led to the development of
new social hegemonies which gave way to the establishment of
new power-structures in the society. Precolonial social hegemonies
were challenged by the advent of the colonizers who took over the
power structures and redefined the dynamics. Within the context
of this socio-political aspect of Nigeria, it is possible to understand
the dynamic manifestations of black masculinities and Adichie’s
justifications for the subversion of the existing hegemonic structures.
Adichie has challenged the fixity of the hegemonic masculine
structures that manifested patterns of white dominance; her counter-
structure has the capacity to destabilize the existing structure and
drive its gradual degeneration. That is the reason a constant pattern
of the rise of subordinate masculinities (which includes both
masculine females and feminine males) at the cost of the hegemonic
and complicit masculine portraits, can be seen in her novels. Since
‘both masculinity and femininity are continuously subject to a
process of reinterpretation’ for being a part of ‘history and culture’,
Adichie exposes her characters to situations in which they must
justify the development of their gendered selves (Brittan 1). She
has not limited her literary designs to the depiction of the nature
of masculine structure that is at play, rather she has highlighted the
intricate complexities of the structure so as to answer how and why
this structure functions in the way it does.

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 Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels 43

Nigerians have come across different interpretations of masculinity,

as they went through varied socio-political experiences. Prior to their
exposure to colonialism, Nigerians had a traditional gender-power
structure with men at the apex of the hierarchy, followed by women,
children, and subordinate males (males who do not conform to
conventional masculine characteristics and role playing). But with the
advent of colonialism, the hierarchical positioning changed so that the
colonizer’s masculinity rose to the peak of the hegemonic structure,
followed by black masculinity, other subordinate masculinities and
femininity. So, females remained at the bottom of the gender-power
structure. They were the ones who were doubly colonized because of
being both black and women.
In the traditional gender-power structure females faced subjugation
because of their gender identities and the stereotypes attached to it.
But with the advent of colonizers and the implementation of their
values within the social structures, women suffered most in terms of
gender politics. The emasculation of black males was necessary for
the colonizers to ‘assert their own masculine agency’ and thus they
reconstructed the gender-power structures and established their
hierarchy through the appropriation of black males (Pochmara 11).
This complicated the sustenance of the idea of black hegemonic
masculinity in Nigeria, with black males left with the options either
to negotiate or challenge. This created figures of complicit masculinity
who did not ‘openly challenge the white man’s status’, but aspired
to gain that position only to be able to assert their powers over their
personal relations (Pochmara 31).
Regarding the exposure of Nigerians to these changing notions of
masculinity and the gradual transformations of their identities, Adichie
highlights the creation of new masculinities as a product of this process.
The placement of subordinate masculinities (which constitutes both
feminine males and masculine females, those who do not conform to
traditional gender roles) in her stories who experience subjugation
initially, only to rise up and subvert the hegemonic structure, reflects
her desire to reinterpret power. It is because people ‘have been so
conditioned to think of power as male, and that a powerful woman is an
aberration,’ that Adichie finds it reasonable to break that convention and
reinterpret power (Adichie 2018, 24). It is through this reinterpretation
of the manifestations of power that Adichie provides a subverted view of
the history of Nigeria and its transforming gender politics.
In Adichie’s literary narratives, the notion of black masculinity is
effectively depicted. It finds an elaborate representation of its evolution

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44 Paramita Routh Roy

from the early days of postcolonial Nigeria to its war-torn history and
ultimately political stability. In Purple Hibiscus (originally published in
2003) Adichie reveals the politics behind the decline of the hegemonic
and complicit masculine figures in the face of subordinate masculinities.
It is in the character of Father Benedict that one may find the patterns
of the dominant-white masculinity, while Eugene Achike’s role can be
perceived as an example of complicit masculinity. The advent of whites
in Nigeria altered gender power structures owing to the usurpation of
the social hegemonic structures and the subsequent process of redefining
the boundaries of the structures. In this newly established structure,
therefore, the earlier hegemonic black masculine figures either took
the subordinate roles or negotiated with power to hold the complicit
masculine roles. The persistence of the white masculine ideals led to the
creation of black masculinity as the ‘other’. Observing Father Benedict’s
role, it is possible to predict the strategies a hegemonic masculine figure
might use to sustain his power. The insistence that the Credo and
Kyrie be recited only in Latin, indicated that Igbo was not acceptable
(Adichie 2013, 4). Father Benedict embodies the typical tendencies of
a white hegemonic figure that imposes language and culture as tools to
ensure the sustenance of power. The hegemonic figures feel the need ‘to
maintain, reproduce, and salvage [their] power relations’ only because
they are aware of the existence of counter structures that can dismantle
their authority (Lemelle 17).
Eugene is yet another figure that seems to echo the Western values
that are promoted by Father Benedict, and thus he becomes a bearer
of complicit masculine traits. His tendency to negate anything that
is pagan and native definitely identify him as ‘too much of a colonial
product’ who cannot abandon the habit of idolizing Western culture
and tradition (Adichie 2013, 13). Furthermore, as he ‘changed his
accent when he spoke sounding British’, it can be understood how
Adichie forms each layer of this masculine power structure only to
show how these structures function through the maintenance of
dynamic relationships. In the socio-political context, Eugene was the
subordinate male who either had to exist silently at the periphery or
negotiate with the hegemonic figure and maintain a comparatively
better position in the structure. Eugene chose to stay in an advantageous
position by assimilating himself with the dominant culture group
and becoming their advocate Thus his encouraging village people to
speak English and his family to abide by the Christian norms at the
cost of their native language and culture can be categorized under
the behaviour of complicit masculinity. Eugene was aware that ‘to be

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 Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels 45

masculine requires not only self reliance and self control, but control
over other people’, and he manifested his masculinity over his family
and his native community (Brittain 5). In order to reinforce his power
in his house, Eugene resorts to violence as that is the only emotional
outburst that male hegemony expects of him. Believing in the idea
that ‘Real men get mad’ and ‘their madness no matter how violent or
violating, is deemed natural’ is what leads the dominant males like
Eugene to adapt to this ‘masculine pretense’ (Hooks 7; 6). To guard
his vulnerability, Eugene stops showing his softer emotions in front of
his family. He is constantly torn between the roles of a caring father
and husband and that of the emotionless dominant male of the family.
In his constant struggle to live up to the expectations of the role of a
hegemonic male figure, one may find the seeds of his downfall. Since
the value of men in a patriarchal structure is ‘determined by what they
do’, men like Eugene feel the constant pressure of being productive
and not surrendering to passivity (Hooks 11).
On the one hand, the ‘black males were expected to perform the
hyper masculine role; on the other hand, they were expected to be
feminized vis-à-vis white males’ and that shows exactly the dynamic
position of Eugene in the entire structure (Lemelle 15). Within the
family structure, he was the dominant figure but his authority was
challenged from time to time by his children, father, sister, and even
his wife Beatrice. In these sections of the novel, Adichie’s brilliance as
a writer is established as she moves beyond the tendency to project a
one-dimensional aspect of masculinity. Eugene is shown as the abusive
husband and father, on the one hand, and a caring person on the
other, who provides for the community.
The degeneration of these hegemonic figures is noticed as the
subordinate figures come to the forefront. As Beatrice subverts the
structure of oppression that prevailed at home, her masculine traits
shine prominently. Beatrice along with Jaja, Kambili, and Ifeoma act
as a unit to drive the degeneration of the hegemony of Eugene. ‘Being
a defiant can be a good thing sometimes’ because that allows the
margins to claim the central position, and thus catalyse the fall of the
hegemonic figure (Adichie 2013, 144). Beatrice’s slow poisoning of
Eugene, and Kambili and Jaja’s continuous acts of defying the norms
set by their father, embody the empowerment of the subordinate
masculine. Beatrice takes the role of masculine female who takes charge
to fight against the structure that subjugates her, and she also ensures
the safety of children in the process. So, the primary male duties of
being a protector and provider are taken up by Beatrice, Kambili,

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 46 Paramita Routh Roy

and Ifeoma in several instances, while Jaja being the subordinate

male figure is shown to gain prominence through his repeated acts
of defiance. As ‘marginalization is always relative to the authorization
of the hegemonic masculinity of the dominant group’, Adichie equips
her characters with enough power to deny the authority (Connell 80).
As a social construct, the notion of masculinity has several overlapping
ideas intertwined with it, and Adichie attempts to unveil each of these
ideas to show how the changing notions of black masculinity have
manifested a dynamic identity for Nigerians. She reveals that ‘there
are good masculine performances and bad masculine performances’
and it depends on time, place, and social situations to decide which
traits are to be grouped in which category (Lemelle 15). The history
of the establishment of white masculine hegemony, the complicit
masculine entities, and the subjection and later empowerment of the
subordinate masculinities informed the new black identity. None of
these histories can be overlooked if one tries to understand the real
creation of
black dynamics behind the formation of the idea of black masculinity. Until
masculinity the advent of colonizers, Nigerians were accustomed to a certain type
of dominant masculinity which was characterized by the authority of
males over females. But with the history of colonization, that earlier
notion of masculinity was redefined as black masculinity so as to give
authority to the hegemonic position of the white males. This reflects
on the idea that ‘to understand masculinity, then, is to understand it
in social relations of various stakeholder classes’ because by analysing
the position of these stakeholders the strategies of the structure can be
unravelled (Lemelle 16).
In her Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Adichie shows the elaborate
procedure of destabilizing the hegemonic masculine structure by
exposing her characters to a war that reveals their vulnerabilities. The
‘assertive and virile ideology of masculinity’ comes to a vulnerable point
when they are challenged by the fatal conditions of war (Pochmara
10). Although their hyper masculine expectations might guide them
to manifest their manhood in these situations, and become the ones
who protect and fight, Adichie’s male characters do not show such
tendencies. The representation of ‘militarized masculinity’ in the
popular male-authored Nigerian war narratives was instrumental in
making ‘women invisible at wartime’ and Adichie intends to subvert
those biased narratives (Njoku 154). She gives voice to this silent gender
group by representing ‘women’s significant roles as combatants, leaders,
decision makers and active participants in war’ through the characters
of Kainene and Olanna in her novel Half of a Yellow Sun (Njoku 155).

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 Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels 47

In the face of war and political turmoil, Odenigbo and Richard,

the representatives of black and white masculinities, reveal their
emotional vulnerabilities. This at once points towards their effeminate
tendencies, as in a masculine structure emotional beings are tagged
as effeminates. The actions and intentions of both of the male
figures, from the beginning of the novel, hint that they are not the
typical hegemonic male figures who could subjugate their female
counterparts or be concerned about how to retain their dominant
positions. As Odenigbo tells Ugwu that ‘Sir is arbitrary, you could
be the Sir tomorrow’ (Adichie 2006, 13), the unconventionality of
the character is understood (Adichie 2006, 13). Unlike hegemonic
masculine figures, both Odenigbo and Richard were comfortable in
sharing powers with their partners. By placing the masculine female
characters against these feminine males, Adichie justifies the decline
of the structure of hegemonic masculinity. The leading characters of
this novel are invested with unconventional traits. As Kainene engages
in saving the victims of war and also ensuring the safety of her family,
Adichie’s purpose in representing ‘war narratives (…) through an
undistorted gender lens’ to ‘form a reasonable historical substitute
that can feed future generations with unbiased historical knowledge
of a heroic past’ is clearly revealed (Njoku 158). This obviously
challenges the hyper-masculine narratives of war that only celebrate
the contributions of men and highlight the victimhood of women.
Adichie’s strategy of evolving unconventional female characters
who are filled with masculine traits implies that she wanted to
show the gradual transformation of black identity in postcolonial
Nigeria. These narratives over-write those single perspective tales that
depict African females as subjugated and silent beings who are not
provided with the proper education and tools required to subvert
oppressive gender structures. In the androgynous representation of
the character of Kainene, the matured face of African literature comes
to prominence. By not allowing the ‘sexist male’ figures to shatter
‘alternative masculinities’ in her narratives, Adichie gives space to
Kainene’s ‘androgynous selfhood’ and allows it to flourish (Hooks 40).
Her intimidating presence and destabilizing gaze are enough to prove
her power in the existing gender-power structures. Her ‘brazenly
red lipstick, her tight dress, her smoking’ and her overpowering
personality were enough to make Richard feel ‘adolescent with her
gaze on him’ (Adichie 2006, 57; 59). ‘[T]raditional machismo always
included not only dominance but protection and rescue’ and Kainene
represents that in the story (Lemelle 14). In the face of war, she

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48 Paramita Routh Roy

becomes the one who provides food and shelter to Richard, Olanna,
and Odenigbo. Adichie establishes ‘Feminine hegemony’ to justify
the degeneration of the existing masculine hegemony (Lemelle 14).
Olanna’s role may be regarded as an aspect of Adichie’s strategy as she
represents unconventionality by not staying silent about the events
that has hurt her dignity. She is bold enough to ensure that there is
equality in the relationship that she shares with Odenigbo. Thus, she
equals his act of cheating to make him feel the pain that she went
through. Adichie creates a new structure of feminine hegemony by
giving voice, courage, and power to her female characters.
Masculinity ‘is a power relationship (…) pervasive in human
interaction’ and Adichie invests her stories with these interactions
which create, challenge, and destroy the social hegemonies (Lemelle
15). She does this by subverting the conventional notions and paving
the way for the development of new ideas. On the one hand, she
reinterprets silence and uses it as a tool of power to challenge the
oppressive structures, and on the other hand she shows the advent
of feminine hegemony as a result of such reinterpretation. Reflecting
upon Beatrice (in Purple Hibiscus) and Kainene (in Half of a Yellow
Sun), it is clear how they use silence to destabilize the existing
power structures. Beatrice plans the murder of her abusive husband
silently, and Kainene intimidates people with her silent gaze, so the
application of silence becomes a strategy for Adichie to empower
her subordinate masculine characters. Adichie’s narratives prove the
point that ‘where there is power there is resistance and individuals
have scripts (that is, tactics) available to them at multiple points in the
social fabric “to play the role of adversary, target, support, or handle in
power relations”’ (Lemelle16). Her subordinate masculine characters
constantly destabilize the existing hegemonic structure by claiming
their authority, and that leads to the complete degeneration of the
hegemonic masculine figures.

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 Manifestations of Masculinities in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels 49

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