AFRICAN FEMINISM AND ZULU SOFOLA’S PARADIGM SHIFT IN THE SWEET TRAP

Abstract

The war of the sexes is as old as the human society, but to a large extent, this egocentric superiority conflict between the male and female folk appears to place men at advantage position that make them lords over women. Consequently, patriarchism has continued to motivate different forms of agitations among Western, Oriental and African women. However, from late nineteenth century through to the early twentieth century, the term
feminism was used to describe these agitations as they dovetail into movements, organizations and ideological conceptions. Incidentally, as the wind of feminism continued to blow across the globe, it became fragmented and metamorphosed into various forms of feminism of which African feminism is one. At its inception, African feminism replicated the general feminist manifesto that strived towards de-womanizing women, hating men, lesbianism and all forms of pervasion. Events took a dramatic turn and repositioned the views of some African feminists who undertook the reappraisal of the feminist agenda in Africa. Womanism, Motherism and STIWANISM are outcomes of these feminist reforms in Africa. Zulu sofola appears to have captured this paradigm shift in her play The Sweet Trap. The researchers assess the impact of Sofola’s paradigm shift on the entire liberation agenda as
well as its influence over Nigerian feminist writers like Marbel I. Evwierhoma, Irene Salami Agunloye, Molara Ogundipe, Catherine Acholonu, Tracie Utoh and Ngozi Udengwu. Case study, content analysis and personal observation research methods were adopted for the realization of research objectives.