Matriarchy to Take Over National Duties? A Result of Failure in Nigerian (And African) Political Patriarchy of Neo-Colonial States

Abstract

This article examines the above topic, first of all, in the words of Maurice O"Connor (2008), as a narrative of internal dissent: Achebe reminiscing how issues in the earlier novels and in the present state of Nigeria merge as one continuous odious history of national disorientation and distortion. It, therefore, uses the storytelling methodology Achebe employs to discuss this historiography of distortion, by examining views of the key narrators who have shared the disillusioning experiences: the horrors of violence and oppression , effecting mass poverty, disillusionment and dehumanization. We examine also why storytelling is said to be of primary importance especially vis-à-vis African literature: examining the narratives as a cultural, consciousness-raising art, especially with regard to what should be the role of women in post-colonial African narratives. In discussing this, the article bears down on Beatrice as the embodiment of what, in narrative politics, Hanggi (2012) has called sane, saving politics of love, the hope for Nigeria/Africa. Through these discourses of the chief narrators, therefore, we see how Achebe endows Beatrice with the symbol of the inherent love in Motherhood that should end the horrors of "the single story" of pre and post-colonial male power, privilege and patriarchy (