##issue.issue##

##issue.vol## 5 ##issue.no## 2 (2016)

The Subversion of Patriarchy and Women’s Empowerment in Henry Ole Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah

https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v5i2.142
Eliah Mwaifuge

Corresponding Author(s) : Eliah Mwaifuge

eliah.mwaifuge@duce.ac.tz

Journal of Humanities & Social Science (JHSS), ##issue.vol## 5 ##issue.no## 2 (2016)

##article.abstract##

This paper builds on the arguments presented by Muriungi and Muriiki (2013) on
gender-based violence (GBV) in African literature. Focusing on Ole Kulet‘s Blossoms of
the Savannah, Muriungi and Muriiki furnish the particulars of Nasila culture and its
effect on women in general terms. They do not explain how the novel attempts to
subvert patriarchy and empower women characters. They further demonstrate the
way Ole Kulet uses the novel to explore GBV among the Maasai in Kenya. As a result,
the novel‘s powerful and deliberate attempt to subvert patriarchy remains largely
unexplored. This study, therefore, examines how Ole Kulet‘s Blossoms of the Savannah
subverts the patriarchy system of the Nasila culture to empower the projection of the
female characters in the novel. In this regards, it is argued that the characters of
Taiyo, Resian and Minik are manifestations of the novel‘s rejection of the patriarchy
system. Consequently, the novel turns a traditional negative depiction of women into
a positive depiction of women. The paper further argues that the novel uses the
patriarchy system as a backdrop to subvert the system. In fact, the portrayal of women
in the novel is informed by feminists‘ theory of equity between men and women,
coupled with the need to foster women‘s dignity. This feminist leaning emboldens the
novel‘s rhetorical agenda of subverting patriarchy to empower women characters.
 

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The Subversion of Patriarchy and Women’s Empowerment in Henry Ole Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah. (2022). Journal of Humanities & Social Science (JHSS), 5(2). https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v5i2.142
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