Gender and culture in the novel Ukuqhawuka kwembeleko

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The objective of this study is to examine culture and gender in the Xhosa novel, Ukuqhawukakwembeleko, which was one of the popular novels in the 1980s. The novel is about forcedmarriages, but the fact that such marriages are forced on educated children has disastrousends. In as far as the Xhosa culture of forced marriages is concerned, the novelist makes apoint that it is a soulless marriage, it dehumanises both the minors who are involved in it andit treats the woman being married as if she were an object that is sold. In the humiliatingprocess the father of the young woman gets good cattle to his satisfaction.In the Xhosa novel, Ukuqhawuka kwembeleko, the fact that Zoleka resisted such a marriageto the end of her life shows that traditional Xhosa women used to be treated as objects oftheir patriarchal society that sees them as objects that should die at their in-laws. Becausethat is where they belong, their fathers need cattle with such an exchange. But Zoleka, as amodern educated woman, has been empowered to resist such dehumanisation. She rebelsagainst hlonipha culture of her in-laws. She shows them that she is not their bought property,and also that she would not bow to the pressure of their patriarchal rules. She doeseverything possible in the book to flaunt the rules of their hlonipha culture, and eventually theyfeel she is a makoti not worthy their valuable cattle. She consequently leaves and claims herindependence. Her rebellious acts are a feminist declaration that the educated women of the1980s challenge the male dominated system by not obeying to its rules.Yet how her father tracts her down after her departure from her in-laws and chases her with ahorse home, whilst he severely beats her up in public to the horror of onlookers, is anindication that the gate keepers of the Xhosa patriarchal system are prepared to go to alllengths, including using the cruelest methods, to defend the system that has, over the years,benefited them in all aspects of life. But the fact that Zoleka eventually wins and retains herindependence and later commits suicide, is a feminist statement that the modern Xhosawomen are willing to liberate themselves even if it means taking their lives.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University