SPEECH, ACTIONS AS TOOLS OF OPPRESSION, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

ABSTRACT

This study examines Speech, Actions, Oppression and Violence in Purple Hibiscus and Joys of Motherhood. The study adopts the analysis of two texts Oppression and Violence in Purple Hibiscus and Joys of Motherhood. The study adopted the theoretical explanation of Ogunyemi’s womanist theory was adopted in conceptualizing for womanist analysis of Purple Hibiscus and The Joys of Motherhood. The text captures womanism in the words. Purple Hibiscus, present Papa Eugene as embodiment of the colonial legacy and its violence, while Aunty Ifeoma family is refine postcolonial image that problematizes the integration the colonial and patriarchal legacies, harnessing the spaces and relationships of freedom-freedom that empowers people to be, to do, as the narrator tells us. Hence the defiance of Jaja and indeed of Kambili and their mother, is associated with Aunty Ifeoma's garden with its rare purple hibiscus flowers that began the process of breaking the silence and opening the space for those under the oppressive rule of Papa Eugene to assert themselves, insisting on their right to human dignity-the right to speak and to be heard, the right to worship in their African language; the right to associate with those who believe differently.