The women and the part that they play in Ake, is very different from the women we have encountered in the other novels thus far. We see the women standing up for themselves and their families, as well as resorting to violence when need be. This is a complete 180 from Nervous conditions and the Book of Not. It seems this novel presents women that people who have been exposed to or grown up in "western culture" can more easily identify with. In class, when we were discussing Tambu, one of the things that we lamented most about her was that she and many of the women in her life wouldn't stand up for themselves. And when they did try to exert some independence, the results were almost always disastrous to their own self or their family.
Wild Christian is a very different "mother character" than most of the mothers already encountered in other novels. She seems to have brought everything into balance. Case and point: The large group of women want to exact vengeance on the tax collector who showed up late. Wild Christian would not allow them to harm him, and was able to persuade them only using her words. This is a complete flip from Tambu's mother, who is willing to sell out Babamukuru as well as berate and discourage her daughter. Her disposition is one I believe we can more easily identify with because we get the sense that she wants good things for her family, and she is willing to fight for them, but not resorting to unnecessarily violent means to get achieve the goal.
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I think balanced is a great way to describe Wild Christian; even though she has her fiery ways, she does seem to have her head on straight and know when to return to the calm. We can see how Wild Christian strives to be a mother figure in the way she speaks to Wole, and you're right in that we see that as kinder than Mai's scalding remarks to Tambu. I think your point about avoiding unnecessary violence is good to - we have one book that focuses on protests to violence and another that focuses on non-violence; maybe it's not a coincidence that we find a more relatable figure in the non-violent one.
ReplyDeleteShe certainly is Wild Christian. She is vehemently passionate, but then has this cool, placid, forgiving nature. She certainly maintains a balanced keel and think this is due to an honest subscription to a higher balanced sense of justice, almost like a super natural justice. This gives her a real sense of strength.
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