Dehumanization and Gender inequality in Buchi Emechetas The Slave Girl

African society is a group of people living together in one compound which comprises a man and woman and their children. Society describes by social orders and connected with social relations between people who share a particular culture and same institutions. Therefore, the issue of domestic violence within the family members is the one of the major challenges affecting African women. African narratives have numerously portrayed men who have treated their wives as common slaves or as their inferior and insignificant ‘other’ because cultural norms permit it. Patriarchal structure however, are intentionally created against women’s progress. Florence Onye Buchi Emecheta was a Nigerian born British novelist. Her novels deal principally with the life experiences of Nigerian women, who are subordinated in an indigenous society deeply influenced by the western values introduced by British colonists. Emecheta who mainly writes about women, explores challenge women’s roles at great depth and traditional ideas of women’s activities in society. In the novel The Slave Girl, Emecheta turned our attention to the distinctive colour of existing and cultural networks of slavery in Africa at the turn of the century. The Slave Girl by Buchi Emecheta, focuses on colonial slave and patriarchal postcolonial women suffering and several forms of subjugation. The novel illuminates strict and harsh treatment for weaker girls who are sold to domestic slaver.

Keywords: Slavery, Patriarchy, Victimization. African Womanhood, Subjugation