Activity Segregation: Disrupting Snail-Sense Feminist Consciousness in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Plays

Abstract

Extant studies on Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s plays are mostly preoccupied with the female characters’ revolt against and liberation from patriarchy and traditional norms that undermine their rights in the African setting. This study dissents from attempts to conclude that the female characters achieve freedom from the other sex and debilitating tradition because of their feminist trait. The paper contends that the concept of activity segregation provides ephemeral conditions for the women to organize and rage against exploitative male folk; when such enabling environment is non-existent, the females are inclined to accept patriarchal tendencies and socio-cultural realities in the African world and this would make the sustenance of their liberation impossible. Using the snail-sense feminist theory, the study embarks on qualitative and introspective research. It examines how momentary spatial parting of female and male genders temporarily fuels what has been misconstrued by some critics as snail-sense feminist consciousness in Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s plays, Hands That Crush Stone and Barmaid and the Witches of Izunga. In attempting to disrupt the stance of existing researches, the researcher randomly selects relevant characters, dialogues/language, situations and settings from the two play texts and analyzes them against the backdrop of the assumptions of snail-sense Afro-feminist strain. The strain under-explores the tendency for African women to embrace their gender roles and accept their conditions of living in the absence enabling environment for them to revolt against their perceived subjugation by the male-folk. The study finds that the female characters in the plays only seize the opportunity of social distancing from the males to launch their liberation bid, they fail to confront the male in the absence of action space. Thus, the researcher challenges the reliance on snail-sense feminist streak by previous studies on the plays to arrive at the conclusion that the female characters succeed in their revolt. That the women slowly act as snails, which are never as aggressive as the angered gender, to reach their goals does not suggest their total success in the battle of the sexes. Freedom from patriarchy and tradition continues to elude them.