‘Adie ba l’okun; ara o r’okun - ara o r’adie’ – A Socio-Cultural Dissection of Gender Stereotypes and its Implications for the Contemporary Nigerian Society

Abstract

Exposure to various cultures, civilization, and technological developments has brought in diverse knowledge and experiences to Africa in contemporary times. These intrusions have far reaching negative implications for us as a people especially as it regards authenticating and propagating our values and identity. To this end, it is only apt to assert that unlike the roles and essence of gender assertion and propagation that stood us out as Africans in the past, socio-cultural factors such as education, ethnicity and economic status amongst others have come to be indices for continually redefining and propagating gender and its roles contextually. Thus, this new phenomenon which wears the gab of gender stereotyping, is catalytic in family bound. This paper therefore utilizes a sociological gender conceptual framework to analyse selected works of Ahmed Yerima and Ezenwanebe Osita, examining perceived gender stereotypical performances especially in the contemporary Nigeria. The work critically analyses identified characters in Ahmed Yerima’s The Mirror Cracks and Ezenwanebe’s Adaugo vis-a-vis their actions, in the light of the theoretical frameworks of hegemonic masculinity and African Womanism under the ambience of the social reality of the present-day Nigeria. The implications of gender stereotype in the analysis is used to evaluate and interrogate factors responsible for individual and family disorientation and disillusionment while advocating for a critical revisit to the gender theories in Africa that shall tilt towards solving the peculiar problems of family units in Africa and by extension the society at large. The paper concludes that the Matriarchal Womanism and Womanist Masculinity is not only a preferred tangible and pragmatic solution to most of the questions bedevilling the society presently, but it is equally worth subjecting to more academic rigours. The result will provide tangible solutions to the identified problems in the paper, and also to those problems present in some homes and the society.

Keywords: Gender, stereotypes, disillusionment, sustainability, conceptual evolution