Emericist Episteme of Thomas Didymus in the African Socio-cultural Context

Abstract

In time past, studies on gender and domestic violence in Africa and the world at large became attached only to women while men have been presented as perpetrators, focusing on patriarchal structures such as culture and religion that relegate and victimize women. This paper, therefore, investigates the representation of domestic violence against women in Stella Oyedepo’s The Rebellion of the Bumpy Chested and Barclays Anyakaroma’s Dance on his Grave. This paper identifies some behaviour adopted by the offenders and the offended as tactics used in inflicting violnce on their victims such as physical, verbal, emotional and psychological, intimidation and economic coercion. The paper adopts Ogunyemi’s “womanism” as the theoretical framework. The research methods adopted are descriptive and content analyses. The finding reveals the misrepresentation of female in the different literatures that are analysed. This paper therefore suggests that women should accept the cultural realities of their gender rather than agitate for unequal gender parity that often leads to destructive violence. In conclusion, domestic violence is universal and not women issue alone because it affects men and children as well. This paper thus recommends that there should be an establishment of desired social interaction between men and women in the society through proper communication such as literatures, media, and drama. The view of this paper is that the reduction or eradication of domestic violence against women will reduce psychological trauma and improve social productivity. Keywords: Gender Construct, Domestic Violence, Tactics, Victim and Men.