ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s

Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of

Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

6
The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto

Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

Edwin Clark University, Kiagbodo
ORCID ID.: 0000-0002-4590-6776

Abstract
The realities that stare at the female gender have propelled many critical writings that still cannot
equate the severity of these realities. Though feminism in Africa has come a long way, but
patriarchy still persists as most cultural practices are founded on imperious structures that
subjugate the female gender. Feminism has evolved from raising awareness of the sufferings of
the female gender to promoting reconstructive systems that accommodate people of all genders.
This essay examines the representation of women in the works of two renowned women writers,
Julie Okoh and Chimamanda Adichie. These women’s voices unite to combat gender inequality
ravaging their societies. Adichie’sA Feminist Manifesto which proffers a pathway for female
independence stands as a lens through which issues raised in Okoh’sIn our own Voices and
Itohan are interpreted. In conclusion, the paper foregrounds culture as a web through which the
female gender is trapped and preyed on by the custodians of patriarchy.
Keywords: Feminism, manifesto, Adichie, Okoh, culture, spotlight.

Introduction

For centuries, issues on feminism have remained burning topics that have generated
different responses and waves. Feminism sprang up from the realities of the female gender where
the females are confronted with unequal treatments that deplete their individualism and place
them beneath their male counterparts. It is “a conflict perspective that presents the needs, values,
beliefs, goals and interests of females which go contrary to the functional practices existing in
that society” (Onyemachi, 2016,p. 348). The term “feminism” has been erroneously defined by
some people as the act of dominating or spreading hostility toward the male gender. However,

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

feminism places less emphasis on an individual and more emphasis on behaviors that tend to
oppress women; the fight is against inequality rather than a certain gender. Feminist critics have
focused on different perspectives founded on gender inequality and female rootedness which
include gender violence and stigmatization, radical feminism, liberal feminism, cultural
feminism, eco-feminism, feminine psychology, Marxist feminism, postmodern/poststructuralist
feminism, among others. These perspectives reaffirm patriarchy as a dominant means of
subjugating the freedom and right of the female gender. Rosalind Delmar sums it up that
“Feminists play and have played with a range of choices in the process of self-presentation,
registering a relation both to the body and to the social meaning of womanhood. Various,
sometimes competing, images of the feminist are thus produced, and these acquire their own
social meaning” (8). The various viewpoints of feminism are mostly developed from the social,
economic, political, or religious interactions these feminists engage themselves. Maxine
Molyneux, Adrija Dey, Malu A.C. Gatto and Holly Rowden point out that:

Feminists today – wherever they happen to be – live in societies that have

undergone rapid social change in their own lifetimes. This has typically included
a marked shift towards more liberal attitudes on sexuality and family forms and
more inclusive attitudes and ways of working with respect to race and ethnicity.
(13)
Societal changes are reflected in the different dispositions of feminists’ concerns. Feminist
movement has encountered different changes as it goes beyond female negotiation to affirmation.

In Africa, “feminism has come to stay and will keep broadening its horizon as long as the
African society and other societies at large fail to desist from being a patriarchal one”
(Onyemachi 2016, 348). Onyemaechi Udumukwu affirms that it is against the backdrop to rise
above the existing policies of the founding fathers which failed to address the exact conditions of
the women that “African women’s writing intersects with the overall need for self-perception,
interrogation of identity and the inevitability of action” (4). Kalu Wosu and Jane Nnamdi aver
that:
Women writers have taken up the challenges to deconstruct the narrative of
dominance which male authors have sustained for decades. These women find
expression in and through the emergence of the post-colonial feminist discourse.
The pioneering efforts of Flora Nwapa (Efuru, 1966; Idu, 1970) have given rise
to unprecedented feminist writing which seeks the total liberation of women.”
(145)
Female representation in Nigerian literature has moved beyond the age of Flora Nwapa’s
awareness of oppression and dehumanization of female gender to Chimamanda Adichie’s
definitive overture of actions/pathways that constitute the art of living for peaceful and equal
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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

coexistence of all genders in the society. In her Dear Ijeawele or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen
Suggestions (subsequently, shortened to A Feminist Manifesto), Adichie lays out fifteen points on
the essentials for raising a female child. It is on these fundamentals for female existence that this
paper examines Julie Okoh’s In Our Own Voices and Itohan. Through these plays, the paper
brings to life the essential points presented by Adichie. An investigation of these plays through
Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto also shows homogeneity in the writings of women where their
sole interests lie on dismantling patriarchal structures and reconstituting a new cultural
framework that can accommodate all harmoniously.

Review of Related Scholarship

Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto is a non-fictional text that comprises guides to living in a
gender-conscious world. The book was written in response to a friend’s request on how to raise
her baby girl as a feminist. Adichie affirms this in an interview with New York Times, when she
noted that “I ventured into writing that book because of [a] friend who once told me that she
wanted to raise her daughter as a feminist. She told me that she needed to raise her daughter as a
feminist so that she does n’t take the kind of nonsense she took; she wanted her daughter’s life to
be better than hers” (Zovoe Jonathan, 2017, np.). In a review of the text, Sana Goyal relates A
Feminist Manifesto to Adichie’s 2012 TEDxEuston talk, titled “We Should All be Feminist,” as a
continuation of Adichie’s feminist engagements which has evolved over the years. Goyal
compares the two texts by analyzing that:
On juxtaposing Adichie’s two feminist texts, one realises her own journey as a
twenty-first-century voice for feminism, from the assertive proclamation ‘We
Should All Be Feminists’ (italics mine) to the apprehensive, personal
‘suggestions’ – Adichie initially ‘felt it was too huge a task’ and later hoped that
the letter ‘would [serve]as a map of sorts for my own feminist thinking’, stressing
that she does not have ‘a set-in-stone-rule.’ (137)
Goyal further projects the book as a manual on feminism as well as a warning to what is not
feminism. She sums it up that “all through the book, Adichie’s perceptive wisdom is balanced
with her particular penchant for wry humour, and the slim book is swallowed like a pungent pill –
to be prescribed immediately to feminism’s misusers, and to misogynists, without further
diagnosis” (138).
Moffat Sebola points out that Adichie’s inspiration is drawn from both African and non-
African women’s realities, where she spots diminutive common practices that form the basis of
female oppression:
One would think that the varied challenges that women face, as cited in the
opening remarks of this article, would form the crux of Adichie’s feminist
manifesto. On the contrary, Adichiethematises issues that are easy to ignore or

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

trivialise, particularly because they are not necessarily ‘ground-breaking’ but are
important to consider in the discourse on identity and its attendant politics. Such
issues include, but are not limited to, appraisals of onomastic renaissance in
Africa, challenging stereotypic perceptions of black women’s physiognomy,
confronting the racialisation of black women’s hair and defying ideologies that
perpetuate women’s commodification (2).
Sebola analyzes the book as a vehicle through which Adichie uses her voice to advocate for the
advancement of Black women. These women are giving voices through the various characters
Adichie adorns in her other works. These strong voices are also reflected in Okoh’s plays where
resilient female characters affect constructive social changes.
Julie Okoh is a creative writer who has left a lasting impression on literature, especially
theater, by giving female characters voices and expressing the realities of women. As a
playwright, Okoh has written plays that examine the many facets of female oppression and
subjugation, including marriage, circumcision, childbirth, and ethnicity. The relatable themes
depicted in most of her works enable Chidi T. Maduka’s description of her as a feminist voice
that “resonates impressively in the tradition of the Nigerian drama in English written by women.
Her ideas on feminism emerging from her works point to a distinctive orientation in the
movement which has assumed many dimensions in Europe and Africa” (1). With many plays to
her credit, Sunday Edum and Godwin Bamah portray Julie Okoh as “an accomplished
international scholar with an impressive teaching, publications, performances and curriculum
development experiences” (xxiii). Charity Anya in the foreword of In Our Own Voices describes
Okoh as “a consistent feminist voice crying out for change for women” (v). Though Okoh’s
plays such as Mask, The Mannequins, Edewede, Who can Fight the Gods, Aisha, Our Wife
Forever, Closed Doors, and In the Fullness of Time have garnered critical attention, In Our Own
Voices and Itohan are yet to get adequate critical reviews as both plays were published in 2021
and 2023 respectively. This further elevates the critical purview of these plays, investigated
through the reconstructive modalities of Adichie.

Conceptualizing Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto

A Feminist Manifesto is a guide that contains fifteen suggestions on how to raise a
resilient female child in a patriarchal dominated society. The text is written in an epistolary form,
as a response to a friend who seeks Adichie’s assistance on raising her daughter to be a feminist
(this paper addresses only those points relevant or applicable to Okoh’s texts under study). The
suggestions raised are intertwined and they are applicable to both raising a feminist and learning
how to become a feminist, or in a revealing note, how to maximize one’s individuality. For
Adichie, feminism is contextual; however, there are two feminist tools applicable for dealing with
situations:

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

The first is your premise, the solid unbending belief that you start off with. What
is your premise? Your feminist premise should be: I matter. I matter equally. Not
‘if only.’ Not ‘as long as.’ I matter equally. Full stop.

The second tool is a question: can you reverse X and get the same results? (4)

Adichie believes that if X can generate the same result/response when reversed then there is
parity, and that makes it acceptable. The whole text is enshrined in the identification of a being as
an individual even when connected with others. Individuality is laid bare in the first suggestion
which is tagged as “Be a full person.” By being a full person, Adichie draws the attention of her
friend to her multi-facet potentials. She can be a mother, wife, career woman at the same time and
understands the flaws in human nature, allowing her to ask for assistance when necessary. She
dismantles the patriarchal identification of women that depicts women as just mothers and
nothing else. Adichie points out the necessity of double finance flow in the family, where both
parents contribute to the financial upkeep of the family. Joseph Chukwu in his study, “Role of
Women in the Growth of the Traditional Igbo Economy” asserts that:

In virtually every aspect of the economy, women played some dynamic roles in
nurturing and developing the resources and economic potentials of Igbo land to
enviable heights. The production process as well as the commerce networks of
the economy witnessed steady and remarkable growth under the pivotal strength
of the women folk (45).

This shows that a sustainable economy requires the input of both men and women; women have
been contributing from the onset to the growth and development of the society.

This dual contribution in the society is also reflected in Adichie’s idea of parenting.
Parenting is a conjoined affair and not restricted to a specific gender, “the idea of gender roles is
absolute nonsense” (10). The family is the first place of socialization and events observed at
home have the greatest influence on a child's mentality. For Adichie, when both parents expunge
gender stereotypes and raise children as individuals and not as male or female, it empowers the
children and gives them “space to reach their full potential” (14). She warns against a provisional
female equality which she tags Feminism Lite:

Feminism Lite uses analogies like he is the head and you are the neck.’ Or ‘he is
driving but you are in the front seat.’ More troubling is the idea, in Feminism
Lite, that men are naturally superior but should be expected to ‘treat women
well.’ No. No. No. there must be more than male benevolence as the basis for a
woman’s well-being. (16)
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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

Adichie advocates for a full equality for women or nothing at all, therefore, what is good or
harmful for one gender is also applicable to the other. She urges her friend to instill in her
daughter a curiosity about language and its gender usage, “Teach her to question men who can
have empathy for women only if they see them as relational rather than as individual equal
humans” (23). By questioning gender discriminatory language or action, the daughter defines
herself as an individual with equal right and privilege as the male gender. Also it enables her pick
up whatever hobby or career she likes as she sees no restriction.

On the issue of marriage, Adichie emphasizes that marriage is not an accomplishment

because it can be wonderful or awful. The consequence of perceiving marriage as an achievement
is that it limits women from harnessing their potentials; man becomes the ultimate price for self-
fulfillment. However, she emphasizes the importance of her friend being aware of the romance in
her daughter’s life in order to guide her. Adichie appreciates the value of both collective and
individual identity. Identity starts first as recognition of one’s individuality and progresses to
inclusion in a common identity, “Teach her to take pride in the history of Africans, and in the
black diaspora.” Understanding her root and accepting positive cultural practice will aid her
appreciate her self-identity (34). Also, “teach her to question our culture’s selective use of
biology as ‘reasons’ for social norms” (41).Adichie emphasizes culture’s selective use of biology
to justify masculine privileges such as sole custody of children and promiscuity. Such usage
oppresses the female gender and places them as second class instead of being in parity with their
partners. But she warns about the danger of transforming the oppressed into saints as “female
goodness is as normal as female evil” (50). Furthermore, the oppressors are not only men, but
there are female misogynists who are quick to distance themselves from the feminist movement
and portray feminism as evil. This shows that some of the oppressors of the female gender are
women. Adichie sums up her suggestions with states “teach her about difference” (51). For her,
making a difference is a necessity for survival and not extra-ordinary. Also, difference for people
is not the same; this should be recognized.

The points raised in A Feminist Manifesto are instructions which some female writers
have represented in their writings, mostly in fictional works. Okoh’s writings depict strong
female characters who have overcome adversities. In Our Own Voices and Itohanbring some of
Adichie’s suggestion to life, despite the fact that both writers wrote at separate times. This
demonstrates that both writers wrote based on the existents in their societies and a common
interest of the female gender for a better society. This paper investigates the similarities of
writings by examining the traits and actions of female characters in Okoh’s works through some
of Adichie’s ideas.

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

Highlights in Julie Okoh’s Plays through the Lens of Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto

In Our Own Voices presents female characters from different parts of Nigeria that have
united to speak in one voice. These women’s voices are oxymoronic in the sense that their
narrations are different but at the same time pointing towards a similar direction – female
emancipation. They choose the Ikhio dance drama which is an aspect of their culture to express
the plights of women caused by patriarchy, which is deeply rooted in the people’s culture. In
contrast to In Our own Voices which tells the story of eight women, Itohan presents the travail of
a single woman caught in the web of cultural enslavement – child betrothal. In the two texts,
Okoh creates mothers who are also career women that support their families. To affirm how
important it is for a woman to maintain a career and at the same time be a mother, Adichie notes
that “you don’t even have to love your job; you can merely love what your job does for you – the
confidence and self-fulfillment that come with doing and earning” (6). Woman I in In Our Own
Voices, a mother of three, describes herself as “A high executive officer in the Nigerian Federal
Civil Service” (6). To show her satisfaction in her career, she affirms that “I am financially self-
sufficient” (6). But her independence constitutes the basis of misogynist attitude from her
husband who feels intimidated by her financial strength:

You dunce, you idiot, you ‘yeye’ woman!’

You want to prove that you have money.

That’s why many men in this country

Don’t want to marry educated women.

You want your freedom and liberty

You want to compete with men.

You want to be the head of the family. (7)

He controls her income and abuses her to an extent of scarring her face with acid. Woman V,
who is identified as working class woman, uses her work as a flight mode to escape widowhood
dehumanization by her in-laws:

After this period, I was expected to spend

Another six months, indoor, with members of the family.

At the end of which, I would go to the market

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

Accompanied by drummers, dancers, and the Umuada.

After dancing at the market place, returning home,

I would entertain the people with food and drinks till dusk…

I told them that my leave of absence was over.

I had to return to Owerri to resume work (50).

Her financial contributions in their home is overlooked by her in-laws as they cart away all the
properties she acquired with her late husband under the guise that it belongs to their brother.
Woman II does not fall into a financially independent wife amidst being “robed in expensive
velvet and lace materials, bedecked with exotic filigrees and trinkets” (23). She bemoans her
situation where she is denied of doing anything after being gifted as a ‘commodity’ to the
President. Her aspirations as a human comes to an end as she becomes the fourth wife of the
President; she is placed in his mansion “like a spare tire under the booth of a car” (23).

Okoh also presents a working class woman in Itohan. In the play, both Itohan and her
husband Emiator contribute financially to the upkeep of the family. While Itohan is a school
teacher, Emiator is described as a civil servant. Her mother, Ebakota, notes her financial
independence as one of the attributes that justifies her fidelity:

How could you accuse her of infidelity? What could have lured her? Is it money?
She has her own income. Is it his looks? You are more handsome than him. Or
are you not performing your duty as a husband? Man, use your head. (33)

Using financial dependence as a cause of infidelity for a woman is patriarchal as the same cannot
be attributed to Okharedia’s promiscuity, for “if you criticize X in women but do not criticize X
in men, then you do not have a problem with X, you have a problem with women” (Adichie, 22).

Parental intrusion is the bane of some of the female characters in the two texts. In raising
children, Emiator sees it as a joint responsibility. This is in contrast to Isibor Aghenta’s (Itohan’s
father) belief that a kid is owned by the father and that only he can make major decision about the
child. His response to his wife when questioned why he betrothed his daughter to Okharedia
without her knowledge shows his patriarchal stance on child ownership:

And so what? When did it become the responsibility of women in this land to
give out their daughters’ hand in marriage? (38)

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

The two major texts describe a typical practice in Africa where fathers make all decisions
on their children’s future. Children are frequently seen in African culture as belonging first and
foremost to the father, “But if we truly depended on biology as the root of social norms, then
children would be identified as their mother’s rather than their father’s because when a child is
born, the parent we are biologically – and incontrovertibly – certain of is the mother” (Adichie,
41). In Our Own Voices, Woman II’s fate as a gift to the President is sealed by her uncle who is
the head of the family; this act is met with applaud as the people see her as a “befitting gift” (22).
Her initial revolt fetches a reprimand by her uncle who did not fail to remind her of her duty as a
daughter:

Behave yourself! An obedient daughter

Is the pride of her family.

Respect your family. Inu go. (22)

Also, Woman III is stylishly sold out at the age of eleven to an Alhaji who demanded her hand in
marriage in lieu of the debt her father owed him. This leads to early pregnancy and complication
that degenerates to Vesicovaginal Fistula.

But it could be worse in a situation where the child is neglected by both parents. Woman VI
becomes sexually hyperactive after being raped severally by her cousin. She is a product of
parental negligence and has to bear the trauma all her life:

When I was growing up

My parents were hardly at home.

They left me with Aduke, our housemaid.

If they were at home, they spent most of the time

Quarrelling and fighting with each other. (55-56)

The irresponsibility of her parents to reconcile the duty of raising their child together ends up
ruining the child and this damage follows her into adulthood. This is why Adichie advises, “Do it
together” (8).

Most feminists’ works are constructed to question the existing cultural norms that
subjugate the rights of the female gender. The women in these works do not demand for extra but
their rights, “Women actually don’t need to be championed and revered; they just need to be
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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

treated as equal human beings” (Adichie, 24). In Our Own Voices is all about dismantling cultural
biases that oppress the female gender. Eight women from different states in Nigeria, tagged
Woman I to VIII, get together for their stories to be heard directly in order to challenge prior
narratives about women presented by their male counterparts:

Many stories have been told about women in this country

Some half true, some completely false

Stories composed from male perspective

Stories narrated especially by men.

But here we are, women from different parts of this country

Gathered together to frankly narrate

Stories about our personal experiences…. (3)

These women, in their various states, want to make a difference and their first step is to raise their
voices. By doing so, they create awareness of their situations caused by cultural practices. African
societies protect the rights of the male gender by elevating them above the female gender.

When women speak up against oppression, they are chastised by men and some women
who defend such oppressive culture. Woman I, who is physically and sexually abused, gets
reprimanded by her father in-law when she complained. Her father in-law describes it as a sign of
love, while her mother in-law blames her and warns her to “refrain from doing whatever makes
him to beat you” (10). Even the police throw out her report as they perceive “wife beating is a
family affair” (13). The police, who are sworn to safeguard the people, abandon the victims to
their tormentors. Woman VI is also mocked by the police to provide evidence of real penetration.
She laments:

Police exploitation!

Judicial prevarication!

Political moral depravity!

Administrative ineptitude!

I hate, I hate, I hate them all!

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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

Elements of oppression and suppression…. (64)

Woman VII is let down by the legal system, which fails to defend her as a rape victim. The Sharia
court labels her an adulteress and sentences her to death by stoning. The rapist gets released
owing to lack of evidence; but the intervention of human rights activists saves her life. Woman V
is forced to take an oath and drink the water obtained from washing her husband’s corpse after
being accused of killing her husband who died by accident. Though she takes the oath with a
Bible, she refuses to drink the bathing water. Woman IV is kept uncomfortable in her
matrimonial home by her mother in-law who demands her to “prove your womanhood! Give me
an heir!” (36). She is unable to bear a child as a result of her early circumcision; a compulsory
cultural practice in her society that denies women sexual pleasure. She resolves to end her
marriage by breaking ‘the half stool’ handed to her at marriage (the half stool signifies that she
has been cut off from her people and belongs only to her husband).

Itohan makes a difference in her community by questioning the culture of child betrothal.
She defies her people’s culture by marrying Emiator, the man she loves, instead of Okharedia, her
betrothed. Her father affirms his right to betroth her as rooted in the people’s culture:

Don’t scream at me as if I have committed a crime. Our tradition gives me that

prerogative. Besides, betrothal is an ancient tradition practiced all over the world
from time immemorial. It is there in the Bible. Mary was betrothed to Joseph
before the holy spirit impregnated her. So, it is not a new thing. (39)

This ancient practice is the source of Itohan’s misery. Her father initially rejects her marriage as
Emiator is not the chosen one for her. It is this culture that accords Okharedia the right to walk
into Itohan and Emiator’s house to lay claim on their children. Also, the superiority placed on the
male gender which makes them deny Okharedia (who has only girls) a chieftaincy title enforces
him to kidnap Itohan’s son, Usifo. Itohan proposes a different culture that promotes rather than
oppresses people:

For the sake of peace, creativity, development and progress, I am pleading that
the betrothal tradition should be abrogated with immediate effect. Our children,
male or female, should be allowed to choose their own spouse. (52)

Her proposal recognizes the difference in gender and how their individual rights should be
respected, “People walk different paths in the world and that as long as those paths do no harm to
others, they are valid paths….” (Adichie, 52). She believes in culture that is responsive to societal
changes; what is obtainable in the past can only be preserved if it fosters societal growth and
harmony. Queen I describes Itohan as “campaigning for liberty of choice for the girl child so that
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 ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Spotlight: A Critical Analysis of Julie Okoh’s
Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 3 No. 1 Selected Plays through the Lens of
Chimamanda Adichie’s A Feminist Manifesto
Nkiru Doris Onyemachi

she can contribute to the development and progress of her community” (62). But her effort yields
nothing much as the tradition is maintained and Okharedia gets the chieftaincy after presenting
the kidnapped child, Usifo, as his son.

Conclusion
Feminism has gone beyond an ideology to become a way of life that should be passed
down through generations. This is to enhance a harmonious coexistence of genders in the society.
The writings of Adichie and Okoh have demonstrated that Africa still has a long way to go in
reevaluating cultural practices that have negative impacts on the female gender. The women’s
narratives in In our own Voices and Itohan are relatable issues as they are all about issues that
women face on daily basis in most societies. Domestic violence, rape, commodification of
women, child marriage, widowhood practice, child molestation, victimization, and betrothal are
all challenges plaguing mostly the female gender but negatively affecting the society at large.
These ills are justified by the culture that elevates the male gender over the female gender. These
are the common practices that propelled Adichie to enthusiastically accept the task of writing a
feminist manifesto for her friend’s daughter. Some of the suggestions raised in A Feminist
Manifesto are the changes the major female characters in Okoh’s In our own Voices and Itohan
desire for a liberated society.

Works Cited
Adichie, Ngozi Chimamanda. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen
Suggestions. Kachifo Limited, 2017.

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