GENDER ROLES, WOMEN AND THE POLITICS OF BECOMING IN ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN’S UNDER THE BROWN RUSTED ROOF

: Society’s strict insistence on prescribed gender-typed roles and behaviours has eventually become a parameter that defines the expectations for each sex. These expectations, among other things, include how men and women, as well as boys and girls, should behave and look like, and what they ought to do and also not to do. This has consequently created, reinforced, and perpetuated


Introduction
Gender politics in Africa is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon.It is the bedrock of every form of gender relations: male -female, female -female, male -male and female-male relations.In Africa, as in other parts of the world, gender relationship usually involves a form of power relationship and this suggests that every human being has the inherent will to dominate or be in possession of power in every relationship(s) he or she engages in.Mercy Oduyoye notes that "hoarding power has often proved disastrous in human history.This innate tendency to dominate or to "hoard power" by one class or group usually results in the subjugation, oppression, and marginalization of the other class or group" (4).
Literally and very oftenly, "gender" is usually used interchangeably with "sex", but scholars have argued that the two concepts are apparently different.The USAID defines sex as "the biological characteristics that define humans as female or male" (21).Gender, on the other hand, is defined as the economic, political and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female.By contrast, the term gender refers to the social aspect of differences and hierarchies between male and female.Gender is evident in the social world, shaping how we think about ourselves, guiding our interaction with others and influencing our work and family life.Richard Schaefer also opines that "gender is a social construction" (11).He further adds that, "gender refers to social distinctions between the sexes, which are established by the society" (12).Schaefer contends that: "We socially construct our behaviour so as to create or exaggerate male-female differences.Yet our society still focuses on "masculine" and "feminine" qualities as if men and women must be evaluated in those terms.Clearly, we continue to "do gender", and our construction of gender continues to define significantly different expectations for females and males" (12).
Gender politics, therefore, is the relationship of power between both the masculine and feminine gender, or within the masculine and the feminine gender.It involves a societal mechanism, which manipulates gender in order to demonstrate the superiority of one gender to the other.Arguably, gender is about politics of recognition.It is the maneuvering of gender for some gains or advantage without regard to what is just or right and could be seen as an ideological construct to maneuver gender by a class for the purpose of personal aggrandisement.

Issues in Gender Discourse
Gender is a socially constructed order.It is socially constructed because the delineation of social roles and the way the sexes-male and female are conceived, attract different levels of distinction.Feminists view gender as a set of expectations that are generated within the context of a particular social and economic structure and is reproduced and transmitted through a process of social learning.In this way, the expectations become fundamental components of our personalities.According to Rogers Webster, "gender is a socially constructed difference which forms the basis of inequality, oppression and exploitation between sexes" (72).Suffice it to state that the term "gender" is used to capture the different roles of sexes in society.This has been the bane of societal development, particularly in Africa where the aspirations, expectations, and desires of the sexes are conditioned on the dictates of the socio-cultural and religious structures in the society.
Perhaps this informs Imoh Emenyi's position in her paper entitled, "Women as Symbols of Patriarchal Capitalism" where she states: "The male and female children are socialized differently; the former is groomed to be a conqueror while the latter is trained to meet his needs.The prominence given to male traits as attributes that are positively valued has culminated in the institutionalization of male dominance.The female is planted in domestic space as a wife and mother…" (38).
The unparalleled pedestal on which the two genders-male and female is placed is the ultimate cause of female marginalization, suppression, and erasure of self-value and esteem.Akorede Dammy also notes that: "Gender stereotyping and gender discrimination are closely tied to the issue of sexuality.These are barriers to woman's positive sense of worth and achievement.They affect woman's progress and advancement, so that pre-designed roles assigned by culture and tradition limit the woman from attaining possible self-fulfillment."(34) As pontificated by Francis in Buchi Emecheta's Second Class Citizen: "A Woman is a second-class human, to be slept with at any time, even during the day, and if she refused, to have sense beaten into her until she gave in, to be ordered out of bed after he had done with her; to make sure she washed his clothes and get his meals ready at the right time.There was no need to have an intelligent conversation with his wife, because, you see, she might start getting ideas."(181) In the same vein, Badua in Ama Ata Aidoo's Anowa declares that "a woman's roles are marrying, bearing children and tending to farm" and that in order for her man to be man, a woman must not think or talk" (85).
In an article titled "Gender and Embodiment: Expectations of Maleness in a Zambian Village", Paul Dover explores how virility is the catalyst for masculinity among the Goba people in Zambia.The Goba believe that a real man is one with a "strong back", who is implicitly a potent man.As Dover points out, such a man is referred to as murume akasimba (a man of power) and his power is manifested in his capacity to bear children.Once he gets married, he expects his wife to have as many children as she can.The more children a man has, the more virile he is considered by the community.But if his wife fails to bear any children, the man will marry a second wife.This is one of the reasons polygamy becomes a recurrent decimal among the Goba people.The male-cultivated concern is aimed at coercing women, through some cultural institutions, into accepting a submissive and servile image of womanhood.Kufre Akpan and Isonguyo Akpan reveal that the above development "…informs the unanimity of some African feminist scholars that substantial part of African cultural practices is hostile to women.When the culture does not overtly sanction dehumanising treatment of women, it remains silent, while the women continue to suffer" (30).At another instance, Kufre Akpan avers that the situation is another "agonizing index of deformities that characterise socio-political space of the postcolonial African nation states" (28).Yet, no society is static and these are areas gender analysts and writers advocate a relevant and significant change in a globalised world where women are active in social, political and economic affairs of the nation.
The unfavourable portrayal of women by African male writers ignited a literary outburst that culminated in female writers' attempt to counter the impaired picture of African womanhood by reversing the roles of women in African fiction written by men.Sunderland Jane summarises the areas of concern of these studies thus: "Gender imbalance in texts includes invisibility (fewer males than females or vice versa), occupational stereotyping (females/males in fewer and more manual occupational roles; relationship stereotyping (women more in relation with men than men with women); personal characteristic stereotyping (women as emotional and timid); disempowering discourse roles (more males talking first and degradation (blatant sexism to the point of misogamy)" (55-56) It is against this background that African female writers began to present female protagonists who are pitted against all odds, yet emerge liberated and determined to exist with or without the man.
In Nigerian literature, the subjugation of women in literary texts continued for several decades till about the 1980s when feminist writings started emerging gradually.Female writers like Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa and Zulu Sofola came into the scene with their landmark publications.Their writings did not mark a significant turning point in the history of African literature, it revolutionised the portrayal of women in African literary works.
In view of this, the primary goal of women's literature appears to be an effort in correcting and re-directing attention to the ideals and worldview of women while charting the significance of the feminine element in literary texts.Sylvester Mutunda avers that "African women have redefined womanhood, corrected the absurd female images in African literature and culture" (16).This is because in countries like Nigeria, men wield a lot of control over women in terms of economic resources as well as in their homes.In J. P. Clark's The Wives Revolt, for instance, there is an exposure of gender inequality and social prejudice; hence the women's revolt in the play.Women in contemporary Nigerian society are therefore currently less dependent on men as can be seen in Zaynab Alkali's The Virtuous Woman where she promotes the right and education of the girl-child.This is in contrast to the ideal traditional female painted by Achebe in Things Fall Apart in which the traditional roles of women were mothers, wives, among others.Okonkwo for instance slaughters a goat for one of his wives for having three sons.Even Elechi Amadi in The Concubine exposes Madume's dissatisfaction over his wife's inability to have a male child.
However, Imoh Emenyi in Intersection of Gender Voices states that the common agenda of women writers and critics "is relocating the redefinition of self out of a perspective into a female perspective" (127).This is why Abimbola Adelakun's work shows a radical departure from the mainstream women by constantly redefining their roles and depicting their respectability as human beings with a dignified place in society.In line with this idea of recreating self-assertive women, Monica Udoette avers that "the victim of oppression needs a kind of consciousness-raising move to realize that "the personal is political" like what Shug does for Celie" in Alice Walker's The Color Purple (79).In the words of David Udoinwang and Kufre Akpan, this kind of study "constitutes veritable platform for dialogue, for synergizing discourse of value-reengineering, socio-economic justice and of moral despair" (185).Elsewhere, Monica Udoette adds that raising female consciousness in works is the feminist writer's commitment to "subverting patriarchal culture … and reconstructing the African female image by making her valuable and indispensable in the society" (66).Thus, one could say that consciousness awakening through female friendships is an important tool of selfredefinition for female characters in African women's writing.

Abimbola Adelakun's Representation of Gender Crisis
The need to destroy and deconstruct the walls of patriarchy necessitates the emergence of feminist writers like Adelakun Abimbola Adunni in the African literary landscape.This becomes necessary as the task of erasing the burden of African women can no longer be overstated.This is also because the African woman carries with her a tripartite anthropocentric burden.In the existing social order women are not recognized.Social institutions and interactions are also conditioned by patriarchal constructs that dichotomise the man and the woman along binary opposites such as independent/dependent, strong/weak, cultured/unrefined, superior/inferior.
Judith Butler, in "Gender Performativity" frowns at this dependence on physical attributes for individuals to be categorised as male and female, at the expense of innate ability.To her, gender is not a fixed phenomenon and sex does not depend on gender.In her submission, "gender does not denote a substantive being, but a relative point of convergence among culturally and historically specific sets of relations" (13).In other words, gender is nurtured, which implies that one is not necessarily born a man or woman but simply become one.In this regard, Adelakun's intention in Under the Brown Rusted Roofs is to expose patriarchy and female disabilities which hide under the walls of polygamy and at the same time urge women to take up the fight for their own liberation and independence.
The novel is in epistolary form and addresses every woman, as it exposes patriarchy as a negative factor to the meaningful existence of women.Adelakun has shown deep concern about certain subjugating conditions that women undergo and then tries to use Under the Brown Rusted Roofs to emancipate them from such conditions.For instance, the idea of polygamy as a site for women's oppression cannot be overemphasised.Romanus Aboh posits that "younger members of polygamous marriages…provide materials for sexual identification" where they are expected to satisfy the cravings of their husbands.( 38).As such in Adelakun's novel, "sex is euphemistically described as food" in the polygamous milieu.(40).Furthermore, the subjugation of women is a plague that cuts across African societies and other parts of the world.The writer, thus, presents or brings to fore all or some of the issues that affect women in contemporary society despite the advent of modernism in our contemporary society.Some of these cultural practices which devalue women are still being tenaciously upheld in some societies.
Basically, the novel highlights the fact that even in contemporary society; some traditions and religions like Islam, African Traditional Religion and others require men to marry more than one wife.Marriage in this context or instance is not a union of equals but an affirmation of subjugation that reduces women to sexual gratifiers, child bearers and care providers.In the text, one begins to feel for Alake who is Baba n'sale's eighth wife as she begins to labour in the man's house.Thus: "Her major duty when she got into the house was to cook for all the children since she was the youngest one.They would all disappear while she was doing the cooking, only to reappear when the food was done and begin to demand their share.There was never a word of appreciation from the children and she stopped expecting to ever get any when one day, dog-tired, the children piled a mountain of from launch for her to wash.She still had to fetch water and almost immediately after that, would have to begin to cook their supper.The other wives watched her without as much as lifting a finger to help her and if their meals were late, she was in for it.Unfortunately, she was the only wife whose laps were warm so, her duties extended beyond the day and at night; she continued working, this time, under Baba n'sale… It was a torturous time for her and she ran back to her father's house once only to be returned by her father."(38 -39) It becomes worrisome why cooking should be regarded as a kind of marriageability test for women.The above scenario makes it look as if cooking skill came preinstalled in the vagina.Cooking and in fact, all domestic works are life skills that could be learnt by both men and women.It could also elude anybody.
It is therefore a patriarchal power show to condition women to the precinct of cooking.Okonkwo in Achebe's Things Fall Apart also strongly and audibly communicates this conditioning, when he physically assaults his wife Anasi, for failing to provide his lunch, as if she went away with the kitchen and cooking utensils.This is one of the consequences of women who try to exhibit unorthodox behaviour.This may have informed Gloria Chukukere's submission that: "a woman's honour and dignity often consist in her adherence to idealised norms of wifehood and motherhood" (7).This also explains Butler's protest of "the compulsory order of sex, gender or desire" (5).In other words, she rejects the idea that gender is stable.This, according to her, implies that: "assuming for the moment the stability of binary sex, it does not follow that the construction of men will accrue exclusively to the bodies of males or that women will interpret only female bodies" (9).Gender is seen as a multiple interpretations of sex and not a fixed thing.Apart from reproductive functions, anybody can do anything.
What Alake suffers in Baba n'sale's house is so severe that she almost passed out.She was just in her late twenties but the pains, sufferings and agonies made her look older than her age.The writer carefully presents this in the excerpts below: "Alake was Baba n'sale's eighth wife or so but the junior wife of the two who had so far survived the experience of living with the man and were still currently in his house.She was of average height, fair and there were vestiges of beauty on her face.She could not be more than twenty-eight but looked a decade older, the extra years having been conferred on her body as a result of frequent and excessive childbearing and the politics of living with Baba n'sale and his wives."(38) Just like Nnuego in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood, Adelakun's Under the Brown Rusted Roofs presents a lady who works and got scorched by the sun and gets no reward for all her sufferings.Religious entities like Islam and some cultures in Africa and other parts of the world appear to allow the woman to shoulder responsibilities that include victimisation in the family.For Alake, her redemptive strategy manifests in becoming frequently pregnant and welcoming its accompanying illnesses that give her some of succor and freedom from work.

Polygamy as an Institution in a Gendered Environment
In Adelakun's Under the Brown Rusted Roofs, the insatiability of men is ridiculed in their search and quest for more wives.The new age represented by Alake scorns obsolete customs that hold the women fold hostage.The man in contemporary society especially in the Islamic world is not aware that a man should or is expected to have only one wife.He is not aware that marriage is a union based on a mutual agreement.Hence, to liberate women from the age-long traditions of patriarchy, Adelakun believes that polygamy must be rejected.The author's call for rejection of polygamy corroborates Butler's belief that social norms are created by human beings, and there is no social norm that cannot be changed.However, the male characters in the text keep marrying new wives.Alhaji Arigbabuwo is a wealthy and prominent polygamist.The reader is told that he takes turns sleeping with his wives and provides for them.On the other hand, Baba N'sale is too poor to run a polygamous home yet he has eight wives and exposes them to the worst kind of treatment even inconvenient sexual positions and bedding arrangements.This is presented in the excerpt below: "Risi did not reply.She was doing her best to make herself as comfortable as she could in her husband's bed and when she had managed to be a little, Baba N'sale asked if she was undressed and she quickly loosened her wrapper.He came onto her and she did her best to stay in one place despite the bed which kept making her buttocks enter into that large hole where the springs were loose."Be still!" he commanded in a loud whisper."It is not my fault", she whimpered."It is the bed", he hissed and when he had heaved himself two more times, he came and came off her.He got back to his own space on the bed and was soon fast asleep" (83) On the other hand, Alhaji Arigbabuwo's position of wealth projects a masculine display of arrogance where he insists that wives should be both thankful for his benevolence in marrying them and fearful that they could be replaced and sent out of his house.This is presented in the text as Sikira and Afusa are exchanging words on who should cook for Iyale Agba.Alhaji avers thus: "I suppose you women want me to get angry?He said as he burst into the eede.Sikira shouted back at him."Agbaya!You will lock yourself up in the room and come out to tell us you don't want to get angry!Get angry!Sikira, did you run into madness or madness run into you… sikira, have you forgotten this is my house and I, Alhaji Arigbabuwo married you with my money?As a reply, he gave her a slap that sent her flying across the room."(17) Sikira is beaten, not just because she challenges Alhaji, but because she is not expected to speak back to a man.Her voice is expected not to be heard.She is always expected to understand that she is in a male-dominated world.This further buttresses Chukukere's position that: "…the respect and love which a woman earns is relative to the degree of her adaptation to these roles" (7).It is Sikira's reaction to the beating her husband gives her that encapsulates the dehumanizing treatment that polygamy brings on African societies.Thus: ""My life is spoilt", she cried.I have married the wrong husband.They warned me not to marry another woman's husband; I was the one who did not listen.She fell on the floor and rolled to and fro."He beat me because of Iya Alate."My life is spoilt…" "Shut up your mouth!"It was Baba N'sale's voice.He was a short wiry old man who was stooped with seasons of life but was never absent from any scent of a fight between a man and his wife in Agboole Alabeni.He was the oldest man in the Agboola with a strong voice that belied his years."A woman losses character and blames her head for not giving her a good husband.What if he beats you because of Afusa?Is he not your husband."(18) Here, the concept of polygamy as an institution introduced by men to subjugate women comes to the limelight.Baba N'sale represents the aged-long tradition that requires women to be silent even when they are being beaten or maltreated.This tradition justifies men and their actions thereby giving them every right to marry as many women as possible and lord over them.This practice is hidden under the walls of polygamy and is built and designed by men to oppress their female counterparts.Some women are married off at a very tender age.Society under polygamy permits a man to go as far as sending away any wife that misbehaves and replacing her with a new one.This is presented in the excerpt below: "Alhaji, Baba N'sale said.If I were you, I will take another wife!Do you hear what I said?Take another wife!I Olayowola Amoo, when I was still in the bottle and people called me gin; I didn't take any kind of nonsense from any woman.When a woman misbehaves, I send her away and replace her with two!Sikira is too troublesome.She has trouble in her blood, Alhaji's brother added."(29) The above explication points to the fact that women are subjugated under polygamy.They are made to submit to their husbands at all costs and at the least provocation, they are dumped and replaced by young wives.
Perhaps the polygamous setting in the novel is a direct offshoot of the geographical setting of the novel as Kole Odutola opines that "references to 'Baba N' sale', Akowe, Alaafin Kudeti and such names … throw light on the multi-religiosity of Ibadan" (334).Men in polygamous families see themselves as immortals that cannot be spoken to anyhow or challenged by any woman.In the conversation between Alake and Sirika, the reader is made to understand that the only language Alhaji understands is sex.This is presented in the excerpt below: "You had better let your head be correct.As for me, I did not come to this world to suffer.Alhaji has money but I cannot spend all my days here.At least, Alhaji has money but this Baba has nothing to offer than this penis.I don't know why I should be squeezed every night on an empty stomach.And it not as if he doesn't have money, he is just mean.You had better not get pregnant again for him, how?Alaka asked.This Baba, if you reject sleep with him, he will stop at nothing to punish you."(43) Thus, women in polygamous families are made to suffer and die in silence.In Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood, the arrival of Adaku subjects Nneugo to emotional pains and sufferings and life is not easy for Nnaife, their husband.Nnuego's response to Adaku who congratulates her after giving birth to a set of twins is that "one can hardly afford to have one girl in a town like this to say nothing of two" (126 -127).In So Long a Letter, Ramatoulaye is abandoned because of polygamy while Aissatou divorces Mawdo Ba because she cannot take the pains any longer.Both women say "no" to polygamy because it affects the social, emotional, mental and psychological well-being of women as the man lords over them as seen in Achebe's Things Fall Apart where Okonkwo lords over his wives and even goes ahead to beat one of them in a week of peace.Thus, it could be said in this regard that polygamy is an institution designed and channeled into society by men to the detriment of women.Despite the change brought about by civilisation, polygamy has remained unchallenged, hiding under the walls of religion and culture to afflict women in contemporary society.

Conclusion
This paper has examined gender politics in Abimbola Adelakun's Under the Brown Rusted Roofs paying attention to the author's female consciousness-raising and awareness of the disadvantaged men through culture, religion and legislation impose on women.It is a known fact that societal constructs set motherhood and procreation as the woman's major source of fulfillment, but contemporary African women are seeking new avenues for self-fulfillment, arguing that it is now unattainable, obnoxious and unacceptable that womanhood is validated only through motherhood and procreation, where procreation implies the male child principle.Hence, Adelakun's intention seems to uncover men's dominance; the evils of polygamy and female disabilities and, at the same time urges the women to take up the fight and say no to polygamy and female disabilities for their own liberation.However, this position does not see "man" as the primary "enemy" neither does it rate against marriage as destructive, but rather discourages polygamy as the unhealthy site for women conflicts and gender wars.
The novel presents the subjugation of women under a rusted roof despite the advent of modernism and civilization as a plague that cuts across African societies and other parts of the world.Many cultures devalue women and this is a social evil that calls for a concerted effort for women to join hands and fight the monster called polygamy, hidden under the walls of "patriarchy" and "male chauvinism".Just like Alhaji and Baba N'sale's wives, many women in different parts of the world are sexually abused and these countries do not have laws that protect them against polygamy, domestic violence, battery, and girl-child devaluation.The text Creative Commons licensing terms Author(s) will retain the copyright of their published articles agreeing that a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) terms will be applied to their work.Under the terms of this license, no permission is required from the author(s) or publisher for members of the community to copy, distribute, transmit or adapt the article content, providing a proper, prominent and unambiguous attribution to the authors in a manner that makes clear that the materials are being reused under permission of a Creative Commons License.Views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this research article are views, opinions and conclusions of the author(s).and European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies shall not be responsible or answerable for any loss, damage or liability caused in relation to/arising out of conflicts of interest, copyright violations and inappropriate or inaccurate use of any kind content related or integrated into the research work.All the published works are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).