Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Themes of Black Woman

themes of black woman
Themes are the issues expressed in a piece of literary work. A few of the prominent themes in “Black Woman” are as follows.

Africa is beautiful

The main reason why Sedar Senghor had to write the poem “Black Woman” was to challenge the Whitemen’s view of the African people, especially the women. To the white, there is nothing worthy of praise in an African woman. Therefore, to counter this opinion, the poem describes the African woman as exceedingly beautiful. Using rich imagery, the poet describes the beautiful skin colour, lovely shape, and even as little detail as the gentleness of the hand was not left unmentioned.

Africa is womanly

Beyond the physical description of the beauty of the African women in the poem, Senghor tries to paint a picture of the continent of Africa as a woman. Looking at it from the lens of colonial rule, an experience that still tells on the psyche of an average African woman today, Senghor sees Africa as a land that has been stripped naked by the Whitemen through the exploitation of human and natural resources. By praising the African land despite her abuse by the white men, the poet seems to believe that Africa is unbreakable. Africa is “clothed with your colour which is life, with your form/which is beauty!” Also, talking about the fruitfulness of the continent, the poem reads that the land bears “firm-fleshed ripe fruit” from which African wine “is brewed”. All of these are pointing to the fecundity of the African continent and her amazing capability to withstand a calamity as huge as the slave trade and colonialism.

Black is beautiful 

Before Senghor, the world had been silent on the subject of blackness. Everything that reigned was white; on the other hand, every form of blackness was considered evil, inferior and weak. For instance, many words in the poem were chosen carefully to reflect the beauty of blackness. In the poem, the naked woman is said to be “clothed with your colour which is life.” This is pointing to blackness as representing life. And in another line, the black woman’s beauty is compared to that of an eagle. When you know that the eagle as a bird epitomizes beauty, elegance, and value, it is not far-fetched to say that the poem is idolizing, glorifying blackness, being African. 

Suggested: Themes of Elechi Amadi's The Concubine  

Fight against racism

The poem is clearly an anti-racism campaign. The poet tries, in the poem, to prove that blackness or being an African with black skin does not mean one is inferior. For this, the poem is a protest against any act of racial injustice. In an attempt to reset every negative description of the words “blackness” and “African”, Senghor praises the African woman and describes her as one of the most beautiful creations of God.

Africa as a mother of the earth

Leopold Sedar Senghor’s “Black Woman” goes beyond mere physical endowments of the woman, it also shows the African as a mother of other continents including Europe. To buttress this, expressions such as the following can be cited: “In your shadow I have grown up “, “under the shadow of your hair, my care is lightened by/the neighbouring sons of your eyes.” In the above lines, the black woman is said to be kind, compassionate and welcoming, as mothers are.

Read more great posts: Black Woman by Leopold Sedar Senghor

Read More »

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Black Woman by Léopold Sédar Senghor

Black woman by leopold sedar senghor

“Black Woman” is an interesting poem that extols the beauty of African women. But beyond the description of the physical properties of the black woman, the poem is about the beauty of the African continent.

During the period it was written, there was practically no poem that confidently eulogised the black beauty. All works of literature at the time were mostly about the white people and their “wonders”. This is not surprising because of the influence of colonialism on the blacks, who were taught to see everything about the White as superior.

Suggested: Analysis of "The Dining Table" by Gbanabom Hallowell

Therefore, as a form of response to white writers or poets painting very attractive pictures of the white woman in most of their literature, Leopold Sedar Senghor, having been influenced by Aimé Césaire Negritude, wrote the poem, “Black Woman” to show that the black woman is as (if not more than) beautiful.

In terms of setting, the poem centers around the African people, of course, since it is describing the African woman. Though the poem talks about the beauty of the African woman, the scope is not restricted to African women on the African continent alone, it reflects the exceptional beauty of the African woman wherever they may be.   

Read more great posts: Themes of Ambush 

Read More »

Saturday, October 30, 2021

NECO Results Released with 878,925 Credits in Maths And English

Neco Results released
The National Examination Council (NECO) has released the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) (internal) with a total of 878,935 candidates scoring credits and above including Mathematics and English Language.

This represents 71.64 per cent pass rate and when compared with the 2020 SSCE figure of 894,101 representing 73.89 per cent, there was a decrease of 2.25 per cent.  

Announcing the release of the results, the Register and Chief Executive of NECO, Professor Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, said a total of 1,233,631 candidates registered while 1,226,796 actually sat for the examination.

He explained that candidates who made five credits and above irrespective of English Language and Mathematics were 1,226,796 representing 94.04 per cent.

Suggested: NECO Releases 2019 November/December Results

Also, when compared with the 2020 SSCE figure of 1,112,041 representing 91.91 per cent, there was an increase of 2.13 per cent.

He however noted that a total of 20,003 candidates were involved in various examination malpractices, representing 1.63 per cent, compared to 33,470 representing 2.61 per cent cases recorded in 2020.

He attributed the delay in the release of the results of both internal and external candidates to challenges facing the council. 

source: https://tribuneonlineng.com/878925-candidates-get-credits-in-english-mathematics-as-neco-releases-ssce-results/amp/

Other Great Posts

Literature Texts/Syllabus for WAEC/WASSCE 2021-2025 

JAMB UTME Subject Combination for Accounting

Read More »

Friday, March 27, 2020

5 Hot Business Ideas You Can Tap Into Before You Get Your Dream Job


business ideas in Nigeria

You’re a fresh graduate, just out of the school system probably awaiting National Youth Service Corps or you’re already in the labour market, patiently waiting. Don’t despair as there abound several business opportunities you can benefit from. All you need to do is open your eyes to the realisation that you’re no longer in the academic environment, a school system that is always almost unrealistic compared to the hustling and bustling nature of the real world, a stunning world where a countless number of graduates roam the streets in search of the few available jobs. Now isn’t that scary?
Read More »

Friday, March 20, 2020

The Joys of Motherhood Themes

The Joys of Motherhood themes


The Joys of Motherhood themes are the issues discussed by Buchi Emecheta in the novel. Through these issues, we might come to terms with our own reality and see for ourselves why people act as they do.
more-->

From cultural beliefs to poverty, education, religion and marriage, Buchi Emecheta gives us a complete idea of what motherhood is to the African, from different perspectives: the old and new views.

The Joys of Motherhood Themes

Explained below are the different Joys of Motherhood themes that Buchi Emecheta seems to pass across to us brilliantly in a way that will make us understand ourselves and our world better.

1. Theme of Cultural Belief

The novel, The Joys of Motherhood, revolves around Nnu Ego, a young woman so deeply rooted in the custom and tradition of her people, she wouldn't stop reminding everyone who cares to listen how great her father is. In fact, her life throughout the story shows a woman who doesn't want to let go of her old life for the new one. Even the fact that she now lives in Lagos where a woman also has to work and supports the family does not really bother her. Another interesting aspect of this is the belief in chi, a personal god responsible for the people's fate. When Nnu Ego consults the dibia, a herbalist regarding her infertility, she is told her chi is responsible. Little wonder then that after losing her first male child, she goes haywire. Emecheta lets us into her thinking thus:
It would all soon be over, right there under the deep water that ran below Carter Bridge. Then she would be able to seek out and meet her chi, her personal god, and she would ask her why she had punished her so. She knew her chi was a woman, not just because to her way of thinking only a woman would be so thorough in punishing another. Apart from that, had she not been told many times at home in Ibuza that her chi was an slave woman who had been forced to die with her mistress when the latter was being buried? So the slave woman was making sure that Nnu Ego's own life was a catalogue of disasters. (p. 9)
This clearly expresses the belief in reincarnation in the novel.


2. Theme of Poverty

As one of the Joys of Motherhood themes, Emecheta seems to drive home a point that life in a rural area is more prosperous than in the city. Even Nnu Ego won't stop making reference to this whenever Nnaife, her husband, can't live up to his expectations. Apart from that, is it not ironical that a poor Nnaife who slaves for a white master as a laundryman could take on more than one wife? Even more interesting is an idea that sometimes poverty is self-inflicted. For instance, had Nnaife been reasonable with spending the money he makes each time, life could have been a little easier on them. And when we talk of poverty in the novel, we cannot but make reference to the very touching scene of Oshia’s illness. The boy looks so thin Nnu Ego fears he is going to die until Iyawo Itsekiri, her neighbour comes to their rescue. Meanwhile, Nnu Ego had earlier believed the boy was suffering from fever, but Iyawo Itsekiri’s diagnosis soon proves her wrong after giving her a plate of porridge to feed him. It turns out the poor boy is actually suffering from malnutrition. Here’s how Emecheta aptly puts it:
Iyawo Itsekiri’s fears proved quite unfounded. Oshia did not wait to be invited. He crawled from the mat on which he was lying, and at his efforts to reach the bowl of porridge his mother wept – he was like a moving carcass. But he refused her help, and reached the wooden tray just as Iyawo brought in the spoons. All of them, with the exception of the baby who was peacefully sleeping on the bed, pounced on the stew. Nnu Ego swore that she had never tasted anything so tasty. (p. 105)

3. Theme of Education

Of all the themes in the novel, this appears the most emphatically established. The essence of getting an education is so drummed into our ears as if it is the magic wand to instant success. Well, when we consider that the story is set in a pre-independence Nigeria, we cannot ignore the significant role of education, most especially one earned outside of the country, in nation-building. So apart from being very proud of his son Oshia for doing well in school and their unrealistic expectations from him when he completes Standard Six, his going abroad on a scholarship for further education makes Nnu Ego and Nnaife superheroes in spite of their disappointment. But the question really is, could the Owulums have misprioritised their reasons for sending their sons to school? Also, when after all the sacrifices made to pave the way for the boys to be educated, all Nnaife could ever get in return is Oshia’s rudeness, we are faced with yet another question about the freedom that comes with being educated. Even Nnu Ego only gets to enjoy the dividend of her sons’ education posthumously through a fanciful burial. Could this be a way to tell us to not think of education as an investment that needs to instantly yield returns? Or to put in it another way, how much of education is worth the sacrifice for it? Similarly, it is touching that Nnu Ego has to seek Mama Abby’s help each time she needs to visit the post office or the army barracks. With this, education really is light.


4. Theme of Religion

In Nigeria, nay Africa, religion is everything – it is hope, it is a community, it is opportunities, it is also a lifestyle. In Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, it is all of these and more to different characters in the story. To Nnu Ego religion is a belief system, it is custom and tradition that must be adhered to. Despite her living in Lagos where people would rather bother themselves on how to make ends meet Nnu Ego still believes her chi is responsible for all her woes. For Nnaife however, even though he lives in the city and has really not left everything tradition, he really has less time for church-going. Even being a Christian won’t stop him from inheriting his late brother’s four wives though he knows his new religion doesn’t accept polygamy. How about the dibia Nnu Ego runs to for help for protection of Oshia from anyone who might want to harm him out of jealousy and for Nnaife against the ghost-playing-the-guitar story which Adim later finds laughable? Obviously, to that dibia, religion puts food on his table as sacrifices will have to be made with food items and some money. To further establish the state of religion among many Nigerian city dwellers, Emecheta's use of the story of Nnaife going to the church to offer a bribe to one of the pastors who has promised to help him find a job is a pointer to the fact that most people commit to a religion for the material gains they derive from it. After all, people attend church or mosque activities with the hope they might have the rare opportunity to network with the rich and the influential in society. So as one of Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood themes, this is pointing to the notion of religion by the African.

5. Theme of Marriage

The issue of marriage is archetypal in African Literature. You hardly read a truly African novel without one. From Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter, Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine this is a recurrent issue. This is probably because marriage in Africa presents a unique perspective that sets the tone for a highly resourceful idea about an ideal situation. Of course, the ideal situation is that a marriage should be mutually beneficial to both the husband and the wife. But in an African setting – in this case, a Nigerian setting – marriage means social approval; it means long term servitude and sacrifice. In Africa, an infertile woman is often mocked, molested and abandoned. In short, having children (even in poverty) is an achievement and approval of a social standard. It is this Nnu Ego demonstrates throughout the story. Had she not cared much about what people would say and how scornful she would look in the eyes of the people if she has just one child, she could have subscribed to the idea of family planning and probably could have escaped the abject poverty that they swim in. But due to societal judgment of her, she sees herself a failure when she loses Ngozi, her first male child, and therefore attempts to commit suicide. Even much more interesting is the commodification of childbearing. To an average African, the more children you have, the richer you will be. This is why to Nnaife, his male children, Oshia and Adim are an investment he is waiting to cash on when the time is ripe. Isn’t that the reason he gets mad at Oshia when the latter decides to further his education rather than stop at Standard Six to take over the financial responsibilities in the home? Not to mention his impatience to marry off the twins – Taiwo and Kehinde – so that at least he could reap the fruit of his labour through their bride price. As one of the Joys of Motherhood themes, marriage is presented as an institution where childbearing is the ultimate achievement of the wife whether she is happy or not.   

In all, Buchi Emecheta is one of Africa’s finest writers and her treatment of some of Nigeria’s prominent issues in The Joys of Motherhood is not only artistically powerful but also didactically relevant.       

Click Here To Read More Topnotch Articles On The Blog
Read More »

Friday, March 13, 2020

The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta: A Plot Analysis

the joys of motherhood plot

This is a complete plot of Buchi Emecheta’s great novel, The Joys of Motherhood.

The story opens with Nnu Ego running like a madwoman to commit suicide in the Lagos Lagoon. Emecheta tells us: “She would soon be there, she told herself. It would all soon be over, right there under the deep water that ran below Carter Bridge. Then she would be able to seek out and meet her chi, her personal god, and she would ask her why she had punished her so.”
Read More »

Friday, February 14, 2020

Literature Texts/Syllabus For WAEC/WASSCE 2021 – 2025



Literature Texts For WAEC

Did you know that the new literature-in-English texts or syllabus for WAEC/WASSCE 2021- 2025 is out? Yes, the reading texts for poems, plays and novels you will need for the academic sessions that will span 2021 till 2025 has been released by WAEC.
more-->

As we are still in 2020, the new literature texts for WAEC takes effect next year 2021. This means that if you’re a teacher, you can start teaching students in SSS1 and SSS2 the new texts. As for the SS3 students, they will still be taught using the 2016-2020 syllabus as it expires this year.

Literature Texts For WAEC/WASSCE 2021 – 2025

Drama Text for contextual questions in the Objective

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare   

African Poetry

 “Black Woman” by Leopard Sedar Senghor
 “The Leader and the Led” by Niyi Osundare
 “The Green Lands” by Agostinho Neto
 “The Songs of the Woman of my Land” by Oumar Farouk Sesay
 “Raider of the Treasure Trove” by Lade Wosomu
 “A Government Driver On His Retirement” by Onu Chibuike

Non-African Poetry

“The Good-Morrow” by John Donne
 “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou
 “The Journey of the Magi” by T.S. Eliot
 “Do not Go Gentle into the Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
 “Binsey Poplars (felled 1879)” by G.M. Hopkins
 “Bat” by David H. Lawrence


African Prose

Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta   
Unexpected Joy at Dawn by Alex Agyei-Agyiri (2018 edition)

Non-African Prose

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison  

African Drama

Let Me Die Alone by John K. Kargbo
The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka

Non-African Drama
Look Back in Anger by John Osborne 
Fences by August Wilson

There you have it.

How to Excel in Literature-in-English in WAEC/WASSCE

Now that you have the full list of recommended texts needed for the 2021-2025 WAEC/WASSCE literature, you should start preparing. And one of the best ways to prepare hard for literature examinations is to read the texts. Yes, reading the given texts goes a long way in your understanding of the books. Also, when you read the texts, you will be able to analyse it very well. It is a deeper understanding of the texts that will bring about a brilliant analysis. It is after this exercise that an extra material probably online becomes useful.

In all, what is most important is not that you have the list of the texts, what is most important is that you have begun to study each of the given texts thoroughly ahead of your examinations. As you do this and complement it with online materials, passing literature in flying colours becomes achievable.


Read More »

Thursday, February 6, 2020

NECO Releases 2019 November/December SSCE Result


Neco November December result

The National Examination Council (NECO) has released the results of the 2019 November/December Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE).
Read More »

Thursday, January 23, 2020

JAMB UTME Subject Combination For Accounting


UTME jamb Accounting

Want to know what the JAMB UTME subject combination for Accounting is? You've come to the right place.

One of the most respected professions today is Accounting. Studying Accounting at the university comes with a lot of benefits and requires a lot of efforts. If you’re looking to study an Accounting course at any university in Nigeria, it is important you know the subject combination in JAMB UTME.
Read More »

Thursday, December 5, 2019

A List of Undergraduate Scholarships For Nigerian Students 2020/2021


undergraduate scholarships for Nigerian students

Are you searching for a complete list of undergraduate scholarships for Nigerian students? Congrats! Here’s where you can find them. Several scholarships abound for Nigerians as study aids and education funds.
Read More »