THE METAPHORS FOR WOMEN IN FLORA NWAPA’S “CASSAVA SONG

Abstract

Most African societies are patriarchal where men tend to be the heads of their household and bread winners of their families while women are seen as weak and dependent upon men for support, guidance and protection. Men are the protectors of the society during wars while women are often the victims of atrocities committed. Even though things are gradually improving in terms of male dominance in African societies, women are still lagging behind in many respects. This is said to have prompted some writers to decry the situation in their writings. These writers protest the position of woman in African society on issues regarding barrenness, witchcraft, misfortune and other vices attributed to women. Flora Nwapa is one of the pioneer women writers in Africa whose major thematic concern is women and their position in African society. Her poem, “Cassava Song” is one of such works that compare African woman’s experience with that of a food crop called cassava. Drawing on Sarah Sceats’ insights into food imagery in her book Food, Consumption and the Body in Contemporary Women Fiction 2003 , this paper aims to critically examine the poem “Cassava Song” to study how Nwapa artistically uses cassava as a metaphor for women in the African context

Keywords

• Poetry, Poem, Woman, Cassava, Africa

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