Fighting the Oppressors: the African Women's Struggle in Aidoo’s Two Sisters and Wedding at the Cross

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African literature is rich with examples of the plight that African women suffered during the political and social changes the continent experienced after colonialism. In Ama Aito Aidoo’s short story “Two Sisters”, and “Wedding at the Cross”, the lives of three different women are explored as they navigate a world dominated by not only the men in their lives, but by the omnipresent feeling of colonialism. The women in Aidoo’s “Two Sisters” Mercy and Connie, represent some of the difficulties perpetrated by the rigid societal structure they exist under, and the oppressing force of the men in their lives. Similarly, in “Wedding at the Cross”, the main female protagonist, Miriamu, is bound by societal pressures to assume the role of obedient housewife, and undergoes a loss of self after her husband is consumed with gaining success in post-colonial Africa. Through these stories Aiddo and Thiongo’o represent African women and their struggles as well as their journey to assert themselves independently from the men in their life and their society during a time where the continent itself was struggling with its own identity in the aftermath of Western colonization.
Women in Africa have historically been oppressed by their society and “have fought patriarchy and male privilege for centuries” (McFadden). In the two short stories, this fact is reiterated early on as the reader is made aware of the way African society has molded itself around the ideal that men are superior to women. In “Wedding at the Cross” the speaker opens up by remarking of how “nice” Miriamu’s family is, her husband being “the successful timber merchant; and she, the obedient wife who did her duty to God, husband and family” (1038). Their society values women an...

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...ee change and cannot attain control of their own lives if they do not speak up and stand up to their oppresors. Miriamu “raised her head. . . proudly” to stand by what she wanted and believed.
The short stories “Two Sisters” and “Wedding at the Cross” are filled with examples of the powerful hand men and Western colonialism played in the lives of African women, but they also provide examples of women rising above these oppressors. Ama Aito Aidoo and Ngugi Wa Thiong'o give a representation of the societies that hindered and oppressed African women in a post-colonial Africa. Through the actions taken by the characters, the authors offer commentary on the social situation and on the way women can change their position. The short stories depict the everyday life of the women and take the reader through their journey for independence from men and Western colonialism.

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