Across these intertwined narratives, Aidoo reveals how deeply language shapes gender and power in African societies. Patriarchy speaks in both whispers and commands, glorifying women’s sacrifice through idioms, and romanticising their suffering through proverbs, as seen in Esi’s conversation with her grandmother, Nana. Also, through casual conversations, patriarchal language is used to reduce women’s ambitions to “Western” delusions.
Throughout the film, gendered language serves as a weapon of subjugation. When Patrick says Irene is “good for nothing,” and Appiah praises another woman as “a woman of virtue” because she “knows how to cook, wash, and [work] like a woman,” language becomes a tool for erasure and female subjugation. Each insult and “compliment” reinforces a hierarchy where womanhood is synonymous with servitude. As Nigerian critic Obododimma Oha notes, female subjugation thrives through symbolic violence—through everyday words that strip women of dignity while elevating men.
Cover Image Courtesy: Thought Catalog // Unsplash Derek Walcott’s “Love after Love” masterfully explores the inner journey of self-discovery, where patience, compassion, and slow revelation converge to awaken the self. The poem begins with a gentle cadence of patience, compassion, and empathy, as the narrator tenderly assures the other, “The time will come.” This reassuring phrase precedes an intimate invitation…