WOMEN ACTIVISM IN SEMBENE OUSMANE’S GOD’S BITS OF WOOD AND TANURE OJAIDE’S THE ACTIVIST

Women have experienced oppression and subjugation over time in the society. Patriarchy and society have not only limited women from attaining their potentials but agonizingly repressed them. Women have therefore adopted various methods to resist and protest all manner of suppressions. One significant approach is the use of activism. This study on Sembene Ousmane‟s God’s Bits of Wood and Tanure Ojaide‟s The Activist evaluates the effort by the two authors to capture the effect of collective women agitation against marginalisation, oppression, capitalism and class stratification in the society, as projected in the texts. It offers some reviews in relation to the topic. The objectives of the study were to ascertain how women activists in the selected novels of Ousmane and Ojaide used their numbers to get freedom from tyrants, colonial masters, capitalists and oppressors for their people in different societies through some activists‟ acts and protest. It is the researcher‟s observation that group activism of women despite its relevance to conflict resolution, as represented in different African texts still does not get the much deserved critical attention. Through a Marxist interpretation of God’s Bits of Wood and The Activist, women activism in Senegal railway workers‟ strike and women protest in the Niger Delta result in huge success. Using a Marxist Feminist theoretical framework, the study underscores the fact that without the collective intervention of women at so many levels, success would have been a mirage.