There is growing ambivalence in the concept of gender in our societies today principally because its definition has moved from biological to social, implying that gender categories are not simply limited to male corresponding to man and female corresponding to woman, as it was traditionally, but man can now pass for woman and vice versa depending on the individual. These new constructions have contributed to reshaping and reformulating assigned roles and expectations of individuals, along with creating conflict particularly when such roles, attitudes and behaviour are considered non-conformist. In such a situation, there is need for creation of a new space particularly in culturally diverse settings where values conflict with each other. Gurnah's Paradise is replete with differing notions of gender and the way they are valued, used and trusted. It is from this perspective that this study explores the varying perspectives on gender, that is, gender binary, gender variance and gender fluid, their roles, relationships and representations and how these prompt the search for new spaces within diverse and contradicting cultural settings. Individuals within such settings manifest traits which enforce continuities in creating, structuring and sustaining gender differences. Thus, individuals' reassertion of their gender positions alongside carving out their own spaces is investigated. By implication, individual's experience of gender and how it helps in forming their social identities in relation to other members of society is examined. This reveals that no matter how absurd gender categories may seem, they are bound to (co)exist due to diversity in cultures and individual perceptions of self.
<em>Negotiating identity and the determining conditions of these identities are inextricable linked to the history of colonialism and its related practices of slavery, displacement and racial and cultural discrimination. Added to these are the recent waves of migration which have led to transnational experiences of misrepresentations that formerly colonised people are faced with, and which they have to deal with in order to assert or form new identities. The domain of beauty and its complex discourses involving its relationship to identity are intricately linked to ideology and power relations. The destabilisation of the African identity, especially in diaspora contexts, has been a direct consequence of the supremacist ideologies of the colonising powers. One of the fundamental questions raised by the cultural issues surrounding beauty is: how can the African overcome social expectations of beauty based on western standards that play negatively on their sense of identity? The answer to this question lies in the diverse definitions of beauty from different cultural perspectives. When awareness is raised on issues of racial stereotypes and cultural prejudices, the process of demystification of the myth of racial superiority begins, signalling also the start of the African’s journey towards a new conceptualisation of self.</em>
Most colonized African countries and Cameroon in particular took over the partial management of their political, economic and social affairs after independence from colonial rule. However, the persistent and continuous exploitation, oppression and suppression, added with the system of "divide and rule" witnessed during colonial rule destroyed the communal spirit of the traditional African society and substituted it with individualism. Thus a continuation of the legacy of dominance and inequality is witnessed way after the departure of the colonial masters. In Cameroon specifically, the transfer of leadership seemed to create another form of internal colonization as the leaders were simply perverted imitators of colonial values. In the process of amassing wealth and satisfying their selfish egos, state resources are drained, the rate of unemployment keeps increasing, paving the way to general unease amongst the unprivileged class. At the backdrop of Confucian principles of good governance, this paper examines the ways in which power is abused and misused by those of the ruling ethnic clan in fictional Ewawa, and how this results in a state of insufficient development and national inertia. It also looks into the possibilities of redress and avenues for change.
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