Male Absence and Single Parenthood in Black Writing: A Study of Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Lauretta Ngcobo’s Cross of Gold
Chapter One
Aim and Objectives
This study undertakes a comparative analysis of male absence and single parenthood in the novels of Wright, Morrison and Ngcobo. The aim of a comparative study is to help people ―achieve an accurate and deep understanding of one another and help to find terms and concepts by means of which they could explain themselves to one another and understand one another‖ (Adogbo and Ojo, 2003:16). Thus, this study attempts to foster the integration of Black people‘s emotion and psychology through the exploration of male absence and single parenthood by selected African-American and Black South African writers. The objectives of the study are to illustrate that:
- There is a congruence of the thematic and stylistic elements on male absence and single parenthood in African-American and Black South African literature.
- Realism is an appropriated narrative and aesthetic mode for signifying the extent to which male absence and single parenthood constitute a universal human experience.
- Wright, Morrison and Ngcobo employ the instrumentality of the novel form in revealing how literature illuminates social issues and signifies the pulse of the society.
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
In most African context, men are still pictured as the family heads they are. Such portrayal finds expression even in texts by prominent Black women like: Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa and Zaynab Alkali among others. However, in consonance with the written works of Blacks in other nations, some African-American and Black South Africans‘ writing also depict instances of Black men‘s failure to fulfill their parental responsibilities and maintain their positions as family heads. Adding to other factors, this situation owes credence to the varied colonial experiences as well as social changes which shaped and is still shaping the societies in focus. Thus:
… even though the structure of African households and families has been changing for many years…, some aspects of the African family were transformed while others were forced to adjust and accommodate the new realities of socio-economic and political systems that were brought about by colonial rule, urbanization and the penetration of other forms of Western influence into the African hinterland (Adepoju and Mbugua, 1997).
This suggests the dislodgement of spousal relationship which most often than not results in male absence and the prevalence of female-headed homes is not exempted the various transformations witnessed within most Black families. Despite the ‗benefits‘ of westernization, most African values – the beauty of chastity, motherhood and so on, are drastically influenced at the wake of its penetration. Contrary to the general claim of beauty, joy and pride attached to African motherhood especially by women like Emecheta (1987) in her Joys of Motherhood and Ngcobo (2007) in her article, African Motherhood – Myth and Reality, the socioeconomic pressure which cripples Black men‘s capacity for responsible fatherhood generally affects the original value placed on children and sustainable marriages contracted for that purpose. Besides perceiving familial disruptions as a by-product of social processes, this summation also considers cases of migration and non marital childbearing which are consequent on the high rate of spousal separation as well as divorce. Thus, this obviously contributes to the changing face of the African household. Also, ―more than half of all fatherless families are still created by … death, or incarceration, and nearly half of all out-of-wedlock births are now to cohabiting fathers and mothers‖ (Ellwood and Jencks, 2002). Thus, the infiltration of sexual
‗perversity‘ as a modern behaviour as well as definite dividend of colonialism evidently fosters a decline in the opposite sex marital relationship. Therefore:
Colonialism had a transforming impact on African ideologies of gender and sexuality. Administrators and missionaries introduced and enforced heterosexuality and homosexuality as central axis of sexual definition, and female domesticity within the patriarchal nuclear family as the ideal, healthy template for social organization. Pre-colonial relationships, identities, or practices that did not fit within this framework were often eradicated in the colonial encounter and its aftermaths (Munro, 2007).
This shows the havoc wrecked on black families in a changing Africa. The outlined position is given impetus by the fact that President Robert Mugabe‘s support for anti-gay laws as well as his public statements denigrating homosexuals depicts them as both un- Christian and un- African. Also, that Zanzibar‘s parliament unanimously passed a new law in April, 2004 instituting harsh prison sentences for same-sex sex acts confirms that homosexuality is pronounced un-African and un-Islamic. Notwithstanding, the spread of this behaviour especially among African-Americans and Black South Africans is not unconnected to the condoning of Gay Right Movement and activities in the US unlike the African countries – Uganda, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland, Kenya and Zimbabwe that passed anti-gay laws since the 1990s, and the banning of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the 1996 constitution of South Africa (Munro, 2007). The same way Baldwin‘s Another Country capture instances of homosexuality among African- Americans, so also South African prison literatures by LaGuma and Ngcobo among other writers feature homosexuality among inmates. ―The migrant labour system and the growth of cities (likewise) produced unruly new sexual cultures, from Cape Town‘s cross-dressing ‗motifs‘ to the systems of temporary male marriage that flourished in the mines‖ (Achmat; Amadiume; Moodie; and Murray in Munro, 2007). The place of slavery as well as western influence on Black people‘s desire and capacity to maintain familial relationships is captured thus:
CHAPTER THREE:
Racial Discrimination and the Disruption of Black South African Familiesin
Lauretta Ngcobo’s Cross of Gold
Introduction
This chapter explores Lauretta Ngcobo‘s Cross of Gold as a literary work that depicts the effects of racial discrimination upon the Black South African families. As male absence and single parenthood cannot be discussed in isolation from the family setting, this chapter particularly examines the frequency and extent of racial challenges within the family context. Given the previous chapter‘s consideration of the rise in the number of female-headed homes resulting from out-of-wedlock births and male absence by divorce, separation, incarceration and death among other factors, the fact that South Africa in 1998, also records over a fifth of all households run by single parents confirms that such familial challenge is not restricted to the western world alone. Therefore, this chapter further establishes that beyond the above factors, the context of male absence among Black South Africans largely varies from that of the African Americans. As several scholars and the history of South Africa reveal, the imposed taxes on Black South African families in rural areas and the need to fend for impoverished family members trigger a forced migration of men and fathers to the mines in search for jobs. Consequently, generations of disrupted households as well as shift in family life towards urban areas and away from cattle to cash payment of lobola becomes an integral part of their familial experiences (Smit, 2001; Hunter, 2006; and Mboya and Nesengani, 1999).
CHAPTER FOUR:
Black Writing and the Universality of Human Experience
This study shows that certain factors have in varied ways given rise to the recurring challenges of male absence and single parenthood in Black homesteads. Within the context of African-American and Black South African‘s writing, this chapter will attempt to illustrate the existence of thematic and stylistic linkages as well as polarities explored in relation to male absence and single parenthood. In an attempt to locate how these factors contribute to the universality of human experience, and foster male absence and single parenthood among African-Americans and Black South Africans, this chapter focuses on the comparative outlook of Richard Wright‘s Black Boy, Toni Morrison‘s Beloved and Lauretta Ngcobo‘s Cross of Gold. The three novels capture specific socio- historical periods of the African-Americans and Black South Africans – slavery, the height of Jim Crow Law (in South America) and settlers‘ colonialism respectively.
CHAPTER FIVE:
CONCLUSION
This thesis has examined male absence and single parenthood in Black writing using the novels of Richard Wright, Toni Morrison and Lauretta Ngcobo. The study considered the various projections of issues that are consequent upon the spread of male absence and single parenthood in Black homesteads. It posits that among other factors that contribute to the proliferation of male absence and single parenthood in Black families, racial discrimination is the most influential particularly because it is pivotal to the deprivation and dehumanizing challenges which lead to both voluntary and involuntary male absence resulting automatically to single parenthood. Although this familial dilemma is not restricted to the African-Americans and Black South Africans alone, but this study only focused on the two societies as a yardstick for comparing the contemporary occurrence of male absence and single parenthood confronting the Black race among other groups. By discussing the existence of similar familial problems located in the two societies with varied socio-historical and political experiences, this study established the universality of human experience especially that which cuts across the Black race. In other words, the study confirmed the argument that there is an affinity in the literary themes and styles of African-American and Black South African literature with male absence and single parenthood.
Realism provided the basic theoretical framework for this study. The theory of realism has as one of its main focus the establishment of life-like dimension to the work of art. In this case, realistic issues and events that find expression in the selected texts are clearly identified and discussed in view of the societies that birthed them. Beginning with the colonial experience of both societies which spans the era of slavery, the height of Jim Crow Law and apartheid respectively, frequent arrests and detention, imprisonment, migration and exile (for safety or in search of greener pasture), high standard of living in the face of financial disempowerment and subsequent deaths or murder in cold blood are discussed in view of racial discrimination and under factors that foster male absence and single parenthood as found in African-American and Black South Africa literature. In view of literature as the literary work of art that is given impetus by the very society it (seeks to) projects, Black writing as well as the issues considered by the selected Black writers make a global village of the Black societies. Their delineations also painted creativity as a means of restoring past experiences in the present.
The study explores the socio-historical processes which do not only shape human experience but constitute aspects to the events that are consequent upon the spread of male absence and single parenthood among African-Americans and Black South Africans. Although the works of Wright, Morrison and Ngcobo are bound by the common concern – male absence and single parenthood in Black writings – in this study, it is worthy of note that their approaches to it vary significantly. The three writers thus, recognized racial discrimination, poverty, oppression, dehumanization, deprivation and untimely deaths as incidents which permeate the socio-historical environment of the African-Americans and Black South Africans. However, the studied writers differ in their assessment of other issues surrounding male absence and single parenthood. Though, Wright‘s initial deployment of Richard as a drunken child at age six agrees with Morrison‘s depiction of Sethe‘s run away boys in showing that single mothers are indeed inadequate in the maintenance of sanity in their homes; it is also true that Richard‘s success story significantly tallies with Mandla and Manqoba‘s in Cross of Gold. Thus, they establish the positive impact of single mothers on their children. In other words, this shows that Wright both concurs with Ngcobo in eulogizing the effort of single women in children upbringing as well as negates the view that undermines their potentials in parenting. Significantly, Morrison‘s depiction of Sethe‘s attempt at killing her children can equally be considered an indirect attempt by a single parent to safeguard her children‘s lives. Thus, she undoubtedly agrees with the other writers in negating the stereotype against women‘s ability at single parenting.
Whereas Wright depicts male absence in terms of death and desertion prompted by a father‘s inability to bear the ‗burden‘ of a sole provider, Morrison and Ngcobo‘s portrayal pictures male absence in the light of attempted actions braved by Black men for the liberation of the Black race. Also, the latter perceives male absence in the light of involuntary action necessitated by racial activities as arrest, imprisonment, exile, migration and subsequent deaths. To this end, Morrison and Ngcobo‘s position negates Wright‘s postulation which confirms male absence and single parenthood as an irresponsible attitude by some Black men though indirectly informed by racial discrimination.
Although, the three writers unanimously deploy instances of other men‘s influence on the children of their key female characters (…, Sethe and Sindisiwe respectively), only Wright and Ngcobo establish a positive benefit of such relationships on especially the boys- Richard and Mandla respectively. Whereas Richard has the privilege of going through several hands as Uncle Hoskins, Uncle Edward and the Whiteman with the library card he later uses, Mandla benefited from Marumo, Msebe and his grandfather. Against the emphasis laid on the presence of a male or father figure in the lives of especially male children, this establishes the place of both gender in the life and development of male children. Therefore, the areas of agreement and polarity highlighted in the themes that established the spread of male absence and single parenthood in the writers‘ delineation signifies aspects of similitude and diversity in human nature, opinion and experiences.
On the whole, the significance of this study lies in its drawing a comparative line upon which the works –Black Boy, Beloved and Cross of Gold – of prominent African American and Black South African authors like Richard Wright, Toni Morrison and Lauretta Ngcobo are respectively examined in relation to male absence and single parenthood.
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