A Comparative Study of Gendered Loneliness in Selected African Novels and Biblical Marital Narratives

Abstract

This study examines the paradox of marriage as a culturally and theologically celebrated site of companionship and as a recurring space of gendered loneliness in selected African novels and biblical marital narratives. The problem addressed is the tendency of dominant African cultural and Christian discourses to idealise marriage as emotionally fulfilling, socially stabilising and spiritually sanctioned, while giving limited critical attention to the silence, emotional neglect, reproductive anxiety, unequal affection and gendered power relations that may exist within the institution. Using qualitative textual analysis, the study reads Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood and Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions alongside Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Genesis 29-30 and 1 Samuel 1. The analysis is guided by Social Role Theory and Attachment Theory, which together clarify how culturally assigned marital roles and emotional bonds shape intimacy, alienation and dissatisfaction. The study finds that women's loneliness often emerges from enforced silence, reproductive pressure, emotional neglect, economic dependency and patriarchal authority, while men's loneliness is shaped by expectations of stoicism, provision, control and emotional restraint. By placing African fiction in dialogue with biblical narratives, the paper shows that scripture contains complex representations of companionship, rivalry, barrenness, unequal affection, longing and emotional alienation. The study concludes that marriage in African cultural and Christian contexts requires a more humane reimagining centred on empathy, mutual recognition, emotional reciprocity and gender equity.