THE MODERN AFRICAN WOMAN AS DEPICTED IN 'THE SMART MONEY WOMAN' A NOVEL BY ARESE UGWU.

Abstract

Incorporating a 21st century text by a female author whose work has not been studied in the literature terrain, this study sought to investigate and explore the depiction of the modern African woman as portrayed by Arese Ugwu in her text 'The Smart Money Woman'. This is because, early African literature describes female characters as belonging to the periphery where they had no own voice in public and were expected to perform domestic functions. These were roles that domesticated women and made them reliant on their husbands for survival. However, with the rise of modern awareness, urbanization and spread of female education, the African woman is increasingly being transformed from the nineteenth century feminine ideal. In addition to their culturally assigned roles, they are now career women, economically empowered and positive contributors to the growth of their societies and families. The study was driven by three objectives, to examine how Arese presented the transformation of African women, to examine what challenges African modern women face and to examine Arese’s allegiance to African feminism tenets as depicted in the novel 'The Smart Money Woman' by Arese Ugwu. The study adopted African feminism as a strand of Feminism theory. African feminism was used in analysis as it addresses the conditions and the needs for the African women and also rejects sexism and patriarchal norms and culture that pushes the African woman to the periphery. The study leveraged interpretation, analysis and conceptualization methodological approaches which involved a close reading of the texts. All were based on the qualitative research design and the textual analysis method. The findings in chapter five have shown that the modern African woman is resilient, cannot be boxed in harsh traditional beliefs, reasons and lives beyond repressive traditional norms. Lastly, the findings show that despite the positive transition, her full transformation into total freedom is hindered by traces of repressive practices and notions. The study recommends, therefore, that researchers look into how modern African men blend into the modern African woman's existence and the consequences of the African woman's transformation on their social interaction.