VIOLENCE AND THE GIRL-CHILD: 
FEMINIST VOICES IN AFRICAN FICTION 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ifeoma Odinye 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

First published in Nigeria in 2021  

 

ISBN: 979-978-8454-82-4 

 

 

Copyright © Ifeoma Odinye, 2021 

 

Telephone: 08032617858 

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval 

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, 

recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner. 

 

Printed by: 

Thinkers Publishers 

P.O. Box 306 Agulu 

Anambra State, Nigeria 

E-mail: thinkerspublishers@yahoo.com 

Website: https://thinkerspublishers.business.site 

Phone: 07031048438, 08038393389 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Dedication 

 

               

             To 

The ‘Girl-Child— 

the muse that spurred the writing of this textbook. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Preface 
 

This book aims at exposing readers to the concepts, nature and scope of violence in African 

literary scholarship. In this book, I have made efforts to capture and clearly discuss a 

collective and dynamic concept of “Gender-Based Violence” as a literary phenomenon 

laced with the aura of verisimilitude. 

 

As a researcher in the humanistic disciplines, I deemed it necessary to communicate a 

pattern of bizarre ideology on gender-based violence that is gradually becoming 

normalized. This ideology stems from the fact that the possibilities of certain cultural or 

societal trends affect the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of the girl-child 

leading to loss of self-esteem, fear/anxiety, neurosis or death. In this regard, as an African 

scholar who is dedicated in contributing to academic readership, I used some selected 

imaginative pieces to evoke the feeling of plausibility. The selected novelists for the 

discussion are all Africans by origin. Also, the discussion of the selected novels artistically 

and intellectually depicts experiences in African cultural milieux. 

 

Notably, this book stems from the ideas built on my Ph.D research. These ideas have been 

designed to offer interesting contribution to academic readership in the areas of gender 

studies and literary criticism. The feminist and psychoanalytic perspectives of the 

discussion make the book very interesting and educative. 

 

 

Ifeoma Ezinne Odinye (PhD) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Contents 

 

Dedication ……………………………………………………..  I    

Preface ………………………………………………………… IV 

Table of contents ……………………………………………… V                                                     

 

Chapter One: The Concept of Violence ……………….............. 1 

Introduction ………………………………………………............. 1 

Nature and Scope of Violence ……………………………………. 2 

Gender-Based Violence as an Ideology ………………………….. 8 

Gender-Based Violence and Literature ………………………..... 10 

 

Chapter Two: The Girl-Child and Gender-Based Violence … 14 

The Girl-Child …………………………………………………… 14 

The Girl-Child and Human Rights ………………………………. 21 

  

Chapter Three: Reviews on the Novels of Emecheta,  

Yvonne Vera, Nuruddin Farah and Ikechukwu Asika ………. 28 

Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price ………………………………. 28 

Yvonne Vera’s Under the Tongue ……………………………….. 33 

Nuruddin Farah’s From a Crooked Rib ………………………….. 37 

Ikechukwu Asika’s Tamara ……………………………………… 40 

 

Chapter Four: Feminist and Psychoanalytic Perspectives to the Dimensions of 

Violence against the Girl-Child in Female Selected Novels 

……………………………………………………………. 43 

Cultural Violence against the Girl-Child in Buchi Emecheta’s  

The Bride Price …………………………………………………… 43 

Gender Inequality and Male Child   Syndrome …………… 45 

       Forced Marriage …………………………………………... 53 

       Female Assertiveness as a Strategy for Emancipation in  

       The Bride Price …………………………………………… 62 

       Sexual Abuse against the Girl-Child in Yvonne Vera’s  

       Under the Tongue ………………………………………… 70 

        Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Narrative    

         Representation of Traumatic Experiences ……………….. 71 

Female Bonding and Female Assertiveness    

         as Strategies for Emancipation ………………………… 87 

 

Chapter Five: Feminist and Psychoanalytic Perspectives to the Dimensions of 

Violence against the Girl-Child in Male Selected Novels 

…………………………………………………………. 90 



Physical and Psychological Violence against the Girl-Child in Nuruddin Farah’s From a 

Crooked Rib ……………………….. 90 

 Gender Roles and Discrimination ……………………… 91 

           Forced Marriage ………………………………………... 96 

Female Assertiveness and Female Bonding as  

Strategies for Emancipation…………………………….. 107 

Domestic Violence in Ikechukwu Asika’s Tamara …………… 122 

           Domestic Violence in the Familial Context ……………. 123 

           Trafficking and Sexual Abuse of the Girl–Child ………. 133 

Female Assertiveness as a Strategy for Emancipation …. 139 

 

Chapter Six: Aspects of Style in the Novels of Buchi Emecheta, Yvonne Vera, 

Nuruddin Farah and Ikechukwu Asika ……. 142 

Plot …………………………………………………………….. 143 

Use of Language ………………………………………………. 153 

Setting …………………………………………………………. 177 

Narrative Technique …………………………………………… 184 

 

Chapter Seven: Gender-Based Violence: Points of Comparison in the Selected Novels 

of Emecheta, Vera, Farah and Asika …. 197 

Consciousness-Raising: Recommendations for Curbing Gender-Based Violence 

………………………………………………… 204 

 

Works Cited …………………………………………………… 207