Objectification, Rejection, Suppression, and Feminine Resistance in African Novel

Abstract

This paper undertakes a study on the depiction of the position and condition of women characters in the social context of the setting of African novel, King Lazarus by Mongo Beti. In most cases in African societies, women are treated as no less consumable sexual objects whose lives are totally controlled by the men. They are also used as mere political collateral by the elders of their respective clans. Beti in the novel treats the dehumanizing conditions African women found themselves in the society. Their personal humiliation, suppression, rejection and suffering are ignored by these men (both the African and the European characters) in the novel. The paper, therefore, examines through the feminist concept of objectification the suffering, humiliation, and rejection faced by the female characters in the hands of both the African and the European characters as demonstrated by Mongo Beti in the novel. It also probes into the resistance put against these unjust acts of repudiation and rejection by the women as portrayed in the novel, which serves as a catalyst for disaster later in the clan. In summary, this article, investigated and examined the author’s portrayal of the condition of the female characters in the novel in the hands of both the colonizing men and the colonized men and the form of resistance by the female gender in the African society during colonialism and beyond.