Princes of Igboland

Inchoate feudalization, feudal masculinity and postcolonial patriarchy in Ifeoma Okoye’s radical feminist narratives

Bibliographic Data

ID6030779
AuthorsAdam Mayer (0000-0003-4129-5004, Department of International Relations and Communication, Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University of Győr, Győr, Hungary, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume18
Issue1-2
Pages95-108
Publication date2020-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725843.2020.1773239
OpenAlexW3036496442
LanguageEN
References cited34

Space for emancipatory projects during military rule in Nigeria shrinks considerably (1983–1999, with short interruptions). This affects anti-feudalist initiatives and radical feminist movements equally. Ifeoma Okoye, the preeminent socialist-feminist writer of Igboland, publishes novels and short stories in these years that deal with women’s lives and that attack post-colonial patriarchy. Her novel Men Without Ears also uncovers the mechanisms by which processes of feudalization come to characterize ethnic Igbo regions that hitherto had had no traditional rulers. Okoye in the novel weaves a narrative around a particularly toxic kind of masculinity, feudal masculinity, which imprints the newly instituted faux Igbo royal and faux Igbo feudatory. In Okoye’s world, Nigerian mainstream academic feminists, criminal uncles who try to disinherit orphans, and Igbo royalty with invented ranks but with very real thugs in their employ, all represent the comprador class that directs the developmental failure of Nigeria under military rule and beyond

Art · Feudalism · Igbo · Literature · Mainstream · Masculinity · Narrative · Patriarchy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy

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