Feminism, femininity and sexuality in Obinna Udenwe’s ‘The Widow Who Died with Flowers in Her Mouth’

By Paul Liam

Abstract
This essay seeks to highlight the shift in the representation of women in contemporary Nigerian literature by male authors against the backdrop of the underrepresentation and, in most cases, omission of women in the depiction of traditional societies in early Nigerian and indeed African literature. Premised on the precept of textual analysis the essay deconstructs the sociocultural constructs underpinning African feminisms in the context of Obinna Udenwe’s construction of feminism and femininity in The Widow Who Died With Flowers in Her Mouth. Equally, the analysis examined the notion of women’s quest for ultimate agency in the face of limiting sociocultural systems occasioned by patriarchal influences. It also explored the exploitation of sexuality by women to attain economic freedom and power. Finally, it notes that women have achieved significant socioeconomic and political independence and inclusion, however, their expression of freedom is still measured via the lenses of subjective cultural ethos. Thus, the imbalance in the representation of women at different levels of the socioeconomic ladder highlights the need for strengthening existing advocacy efforts towards a holistic and inclusive representation of women at all levels of the socioeconomic chain.

Keywords: Feminism, Femininity, Sexuality, Patriarchy, African literature

Introduction
FOR decades, female representation in African literature has been a subject of critical discourse by scholars and critics. The subjective portrayal of female characters in African male narratives has attracted wide criticism and responses by scholars, critics, and writers who have argued that such depictions undermine the agency of women and their contributions to the development of society. Patriarchy has been an enabling force behind the misrepresentation of women in traditional African societies. Consistent advocacy by feminist groups, scholars, and writers through the production of women-centered narratives has significantly changed the perception and representation of women in Nigerian literature. Chimamanda Adichie, for example, has become a major global feminist advocate. Through her seminal speeches and writings, she has entrenched feminism into mainstream conversations, inspiring young girls not to settle for less or give in to the social limitations imposed on them by society. Her book, We Should All Be Feminists (2014) has become a feminist manifesto for young girls and women in Africa, sparking a new wave of feminist drive, especially in Nigeria.

Traditional African societies were governed by staunch patriarchal belief systems that empowered men over women. Although a lot has changed in terms of how women are perceived in many African societies as a result of modernization and sustained advocacy, elements of patriarchy still abound in many African cultures and societies. Patriarchy in African societies gave rise to the valorization of men and the flowerisation of women. Men’s superiority was based on their physical exploits suggests Mohammed (2007). It can be argued that women in traditional African societies were dissuaded from participating in strenuous physical activities by men because they were considered precious possessions or assets to be protected from harm or damage for the aggrandizement of their men. It was not the women who viewed themselves as incapable of heroic adventures.

Modern African literature in English has had the misfortune of being regarded majorly in the context of Africa’s encounter with European colonizers negating the rich oral history preceding the advent of colonialism. Thus, the misrepresentation of Africa’s historical antecedents to which women were critical stakeholders and not mere bystanders was occasioned by the colonial educational systems which were designed to project and reinforce Eurocentric ideals. Consequently, the literary exploration of African writers in responding to the prejudicial portrayal of African societies by European narratives concentrated on those aspects they considered critical to the decolonization agenda, particularly, they focused on those aspects in which men were the leading actors. Invariably, women were sidelined in these early representations leading to the lopsided reflection of African societies characterized by male heroism. It was a situation of men telling stories of male valour and industry in which women were passive spectators or sympathizers offering moral and emotional support to their valor men. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), Amadi’s The Concubine (1966), and Soyinka’s The Lion and The Jewel (1963) are notable African texts that embody the crisis of representation and gender bias. They portray women as social objects necessary in the realization of patriarchal ideations but who lack the agency to exert their humanity. In other words, women in early African texts were intended to serve primarily as embellishments to men’s accomplishments.

Similarly, the works of early African female writers responded to the obliteration of women and the misrepresentation of their socioeconomic, cultural, and political realities by their male counterparts. Flora Nwapa’s Efuru (1966), Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979), and Zulu Sofola’s King Emene (1974), Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn (1984) among others problematized the intricate nature of gender relations and the plights of women in traditional African societies casting light on the patriarchal prejudices that stifled the socioeconomic and political advancement of women. Their textualization of social realities of African women heralded the emergence of powerful female voices in African literature such as Chimamanda Adichie, Sefi Attah, Chika Unigwe, Nnedi Okorafor, Unoma Azuah, Mnguember Vicky Sylvester, Razinat Mohammed, Lola Shoneyin, Molara Wood, Jumoke Verissimo, Safiya Ismaila Yero, etc. Their pioneering exploits in the world of literature changed the stereotypical narratives of the female as the subject forging new narratives and consciousness that contextualized the central roles of women in traditional and modern African societies.

Muhammed (2007) provides an elucidating contextualization of the crisis of women’s representation in early male Nigerian literature in her seminal essay Female Representation in Nigerian Literature. She argues that the “greatness’ of pre-independence Nigerian novels was premised on the “physical prowess of their protagonists, a virtue attributed to pre-colonial Nigerian societies.” Offering a critical anthropological context to the issues, Mohammed asserts:

The society had no time to waste with the womenfolk whose significant contributions to communal matters centered around singing and dancing during ceremonies. The women did not fit much into the heroic cadre of the society at that time and, therefore, were not subject of literary imagination or creativity. Indeed, in such a society, being a woman was like being sentenced to a life of insignificance and subsidiary existence. Perhaps, it is for this reason that Okonkwo’s mother hardly exists while his father, Unoka, an efulefu or worthless man who has never cleared even a footpath of his own, receives a mention even if it was a juxtaposition to his son.

Muhammed’s assertion that women were not considered worthy of valorization for lack of involvement in activities that projected physical dexterity but were preoccupied with endeavours like “singing and dancing during ceremonies” underscores the power dynamics in traditional African societies. It is a manifest display of male chauvinism perpetrated against women. Sadly, the undermining of women’s contributions to the development of society still exists in many Nigerian societies today, despite the laudable achievements of women in various spheres of life over the years. Mohammed, however, noted that the second generation of Nigerian writers made commendable efforts in changing the narrative through the representation of strong women characters in their writings. She asserts:

…it is pertinent to commend efforts made by second generation and contemporary writers for the positive shift in women’s roles in our literatures from the traditional portrayal of the status of women as persons relating always to others and depending on others especially the men, for every decision, to the ‘new woman’ image who possesses a well-controlled determination to get what she wants through her own articulations.

Indeed, the reimagination of women in Nigerian literature has gained momentum over the years as more Nigerian male writers have demonstrated unusual commitment to the representation of women in their works not just as appendages to the male characters but as independent and agency-wielding women with full control over their lives and destinies. Some of the notable contemporary male writers whose works have textualized the plight of women include E.E Sule in Makwala (2018), Abubakar Adam Ibrahim in Season of Crimson Blossoms (2015), and Obinna Udenwe in The Widow that Died with Flowers in Her Mouth (2023). In these works, women form the soul and nexus of the texts. In Sule’s Makwala, the existential challenges of women are projected against society’s unwillingness to provide social and economic security for women and children. In Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms, an elderly Muslim woman’s resolve to pursue sexual gratification with a younger man against society’s judgment and resentment is highlighted in its full glory. Udenwe’s The Widow Who Died with Flowers in Her Mouth explores the lives of sophisticated women determined to pursue happiness, career, and sexual pleasures without recourse to society’s dictate of women’s roles.

It is these noteworthy representations that informed this current exercise with a special focus on Udenwe’s textualization of women in his collection of short stories. The representation of women in Nigerian literature has changed significantly since Muhammed’s essay was published in 2007. There has been an unprecedented celebration of the industry and agency of women in Nigerian literature which was missing in the works of early Nigerian authors as highlighted by Muhammed. Contemporary male writers have become conscious of the underrepresentation of women in Nigerian fiction. This change may not be unconnected with the years of advocacy by women aided by the global clamour for women’s representation in all spheres of life. These feminist advocacies have resulted in the evolution of male feminists who are genuinely sympathetic to the plight of women culminating in the emergence of new narratives focusing on the problematization of women’s socioeconomic and political realities. It suffices to posit that feminism has been instrumental in decolonizing Nigerian literature from the grip of patriarchal contraptions which hitherto now undermined the agency of women via the perpetuation of a culture of stereotyping women as fit only for motherhood, domestic chores, and sexual gratification of men.

Exploring feminism
UDENWE’S textualization of women can be better appreciated from the multipolarity of the text’s categorization of women and their exercise of power based on certain factors such as the level of education, social/environmental influence, and economic independence. These variables are critical in understanding how a woman recognizes and asserts her agency in a society governed by patriarchal ethos. Thus, through the analysis of four situations in The Widow Who Died with Flowers in Her Mouth, an attempt will be made to highlight Udenwe’s textual representation of women. The text presupposes that a well-educated woman who is well travelled and has been exposed to the modern ways of the Western world through socialization is bound to prioritize her feelings, career growth, and financial independence over marriage and raising a family. Such a woman cannot be controlled or manipulated by a man. This depiction can be inferred through the character of Sylvia, a Western-educated university professor whose ultimate goal is to reach the pinnacle of her academic career but who by a twist of fate falls in love and marries Anugo, an OND holder, car wash operator, and businessman, who although successful, belongs to a lower social class. As is to be expected this relationship turns problematic for the ambitious Sylvia whose quest for career accomplishment doesn’t allow her to fulfill her marital obligations which are typically expected of women in traditional African marriages. But this is the twenty-first century where women have become breadwinners for their families and are happy to support the family economically. But Anugo is a traditional Igbo man even though he is an avid reader of literary novels which is what attracted Sylvia to him in the first place.

Sylvia doesn’t have time to cook, clean, and look after her husband and this bothers Anugo who against his mother’s counsel went ahead to marry a woman who is more educated and exposed than him. His mother had foretold that he could not control a more educated woman. To make matters worse, Sylvia loves Anugo’s cooking because according to her, he is a better cook and therefore, reasons that it is okay for him to be the family’s cook. Anugo, a traditional Igbo man, would not settle for such an alien lifestyle where he would be turned into a cook in his own house. Sylvia offers to hire a maid to do the house chores but Anugo refuses insisting it is her responsibility as his wife to cook, bear children, and take care of the house. This constant disagreement creates tension in the marriage and Sylvia soon develops mental fatigue which results in her packing her bags and leaving the house and marriage. Sylvia also contributed ideas and finance to the expansion of Anugo’s thriving business which means nothing to him as long as Sylvia is not performing her marital responsibility of cooking and taking care of the house.

The foregoing assertion summarizes the sociocultural dilemma a modern successful woman goes through in the name of marriage. Her education and achievements are regarded as meaningless as long as they are not performing the traditional roles assigned to them by patriarchy, implying that a woman’s greatest achievement is keeping a successful home in the African context. The following excerpt from the story “Everything is Not Enough” (293) buttresses this position more lucidly:

Anugo noticed that Sylvia stopped cooking completely entirely. He refused her a cook and a maid.
“You are my wife,” he said. Since you are stubborn, we either do the cooking by ourselves, do the washing and house chores by ourselves or leave them unattended.” Anugo was determined to prove to her that he was the man. No matter what, he must teach her a lesson. He banned Sandy and the girls from coming to do anything. He took his clothes to the laundry at the car wash and left hers unwashed. It had been Sylvia’s idea to start a laundry business at the car wash (318).

The above passage highlights the greed and selfishness of a man driven by the sheer desire to exert his patriarchal indoctrination against his wife to prove that he is the man of the house. Cultural belief systems play a role in how men perceive women. Many cultures have for centuries held that women are inferior to men, these negative cultural practices contributed to creating the impression that once a woman is married, she becomes a subordinate human being who must obey the instructions of her husband forgetting that a married woman is a mature human being with rights, personal aspirations, feelings and emotions. Anugo’s attempt to control and order Sylvia around as if she were his child or maid speaks to the disregard that many men have for women irrespective of a woman’s education, career, or social attainments. To some men, a woman is a woman regardless of what social status she attains in society. This explains why in some parts of Nigeria some men have been reported to outrightly refuse to work under women’s leadership. Even now, women in leadership positions in Nigeria face contemptuous behaviour from their male colleagues who constantly undermine their capacities for the simple fact that they are women. typical reflection of an average African man who wants to be in charge by all means that he refuses to see the invaluable strengths and values of his wife. Undertaking domestic chores like washing, cooking, and cleaning the house are some of the ways by which men deliberately attempt to humble women they consider too proud or stubborn. By demeaning Sylvia’s education and superior social status and insisting she perform domestic chores even though she has the means to hire domestic staff, Anugo hopes to prove that he is a man whom his wife must submit to. But Sylvia’s response to his tirade about cooking is instructive:

“A woman mustn’t cook. I am not sure any law, even the Bible has it that a woman must cook. You used to cook before we got married. You used to prepare wonderful meals, why can’t you cook now? Your hands have been infected and eaten up by leprosy?” (318)-=-

Sylvia’s sarcastic response to Anugo’s attempt to discipline her underscores the imperative of having a good education, economic independence, and knowing one’s worth. Sylvia can express herself and debunk Anugo’s charade because she knows she is the bigger person between her and her husband. She has nothing to lose if the marriage crashes. But Sylvia is not an uncompromising educated woman, in several instances in the story, she compromises by washing and cooking for her husband, but Anugo wants her life to depend on these chores. He wants to be the provider, the man in charge of the home. Unfortunately, Sylvia is not the type of woman to be pushed around or committed to routine house chores with an important career to tend to. Reacting to Anugo’s perturbance, she reminds him of her standing in society and what is of utmost importance to her. She asserts:

“I am not. Listen to me. I am a professor. I am busy. I contribute much to this house…to our business just like you. I am a human being. I want meals, I want sleep. I want rest. I also want to be pampered like you. I—I want to be fucked too. Because you are a man doesn’t make you a baby. It doesn’t give you the privilege to never do all the things you used to do when you were a bachelor” (319).

Far from merely x-raying the power dynamics between males and females in a patriarchal society like Nigeria, Udenwe sets out primarily to educate other men on how to treat women, especially women who are more educated and economically successful. For example, despite the prestige that marrying a professor bestows on him, plus the brilliant ideas gives him, and the financial support gave him to grow the family business, Anugo, a typical traditional man is more concerned about proving his masculinity rather than focusing on the most important things such as building wealth that their unborn children will inherit since they agreed to wait till Sylvia has attained some milestones in her career. It also portrays the insecurity of men when involved with more sophisticated women, they tend to use mundane means to undermine and control such a woman. Sylvia represents the evolved modern African woman, she is well-educated, strong, aware, successful, and cannot be humbled by a man’s insecurity. Udenwe, by accentuating the social-cultural conditions that belie the development of women aligns with the ideals of feminism which advocates for social and economic parity between men and women.

Anugo’s mother is the epitome of an African matriarch who is well-cultured in the patriarchal conditioning that forms the moral and value systems of traditional society. In many traditional African societies, women served as the executioners of the repressive edicts designed to condition women to the services of men. Hence, it is expected that Anugo’s mother would reject Sylvia as a wife for her son. In her diatribe against Sylvia, Anugo’s mother remarks:

Good for you. But this is the second time you are bringing her here. She calls you by your name one kain one kain, without respect. I have served you people food and she never joined me in the kitchen or offered to serve the meal. Haba! She was just crossing her legs here and there. A good woman doesn’t cross her legs one kain like an ashawo (310).

Anugo’s mother’s comment as reflected in the passage above is definitive of traditional women’s response to their sons bringing home a more exposed and educated lady for marriage. Their first instinct is to protect their sons’ masculinity which is inextricably linked to their ability to be able to control and command their sons’ wives. While such mothers may not always have their way, they end up disowning male children who go on to marry such women just as in the case of Anugo whose mother vowed never to visit him again until Sylvia leaves. Undeterred by his mother’s rejection of Sylvia, Anugo insists on marrying her even chastising his mother for calling Sylvia an “ashawo.” His response to his mother is represented below for emphasis:

“I want to marry her, Mama. Women should support one another. This is 2013, and you talk like this. What happened to women’s liberation? I know that if you had your way you would have studied for your master’s and PhD and you wouldn’t have been living in this kind of place, married to Papa, who used to beat you sometimes” (310).

Anugo’s response to his mother reflects the evolution of the 21st-century Nigerian male who has become conscious of the plight of women and has become a male feminist who condemns women for holding other women accountable to obsolete traditional morals that suppress the freedom of women. It is also a scathing critique of the failures of the traditional men who held themselves to little standards and beat their wives as a way of disciplining them. Anugo indirectly makes jest at his father’s life and inability to break even economically by referring to his father’s house as “this kind place” implying that he is not proud of his upbringing. This illustrates the manifest disposition of male feminism predicated on the rejection of the notion of patriarchal dominance over women including physical, emotional, and economic dominance. Udenwe highlights this by noting Anugo’s strong resentment over his father’s seeming failures and abuse of his mother. Male feminism appears to be centered on self-criticism and the condemnation of traditional patriarchal traits of maleness.

We can deduce this claim in Adichie’s problematization of male feminism in Purple Hibiscus (2003) using Jaja’s response to his father’s death as a point of reference. Jaja expresses no sympathy nor does he mourn his father’s death like a normal child whether male or female would instead, he despises his father for the abuse he put his mother through while alive. To recompense for his father’s failures and maltreatment of his mother, Jaja takes responsibility for his father’s murder and ends up going to prison for a crime committed by his mother. Why is it imperative for Jaja to go to prison for a crime he did not commit? It is to accentuate the notion that the postmodern male consciousness is governed by feminist social values that not only prioritize the protection of women but promote self-debasement. Jaja blames himself for failing to protect his mother against his late father’s abuses. Male feminism is thus marked by an obvious desire to protect women from male dominance even though the hallmark of patriarchy is somewhat premised on the protection of women. However, the difference between traditional males raised with patriarchal consciousness and males raised in post-patriarchal society is that the patriarchal male is aggressive in exerting dominance over women while the male feminist is effeminate and considerate towards women.

Thus, through Sylvia’s character, Udenwe highlights the intricacy of feminism characterized by the quest to project women’s independence and equality to men as demonstrated in the text. This assertion is corroborated by Sylvia’s reaction to the restrictive behaviours of Anugo towards her when she posits: “That is the problem with you men; you cage women like birds. A woman is not supposed to be adventurous—I can’t live like that” (325). And with this instructive declaration, Sylvia packs her bags and leaves the house underscoring the point that she has the liberty to do whatever she likes as an independent woman.

Femininity and the alternative woman
IN this section, I shall explore Udenwe’s imagination of the alternative woman who despite her education and social status is regarded as being culturally sensitive and fits into the traditionally defined notion of a ‘good woman’ in the context of African sociocultural realities. I shall focus on the character of Ifunanya a practicing medical doctor whom Udenwe uses to establish the notions of binary about how women are perceived in traditional settings. However, before we delve into the discussion, some context on African feminist ideation might be expedient. African feminist scholars have examined several theoretical thoughts aimed at foregrounding the core of African feminism in the context of the abundance of the social realities peculiar to various African societies indicating the absence of a cultural hegemony in the conceptualization, understanding and interpretation of African feminist thoughts. African feminist ideologies are thus influenced by contextual peculiarities. Dosekun (2019) underscores this assertion when she states: “A handful of African women scholars propose to model African feminisms on values, traditions, philosophies and/or cosmologies which they claim are African inherently. It follows, in their accounts, that these models are inherently and markedly distinct from those of the Western world” (6). Ashaolu (2021) in her explication of the centrality of the “environmental mother” in the discourse of African femininity as an essential component of the theory of Motherism propounded by Acholonu, asserts:

Motherism as a theory exhibits diverse aspects of African femininity, one of which presents women as preservers of the environment and advocates of symbiotic relationships between humans and ecosystems. A considerable part of Acholonu’s argument centres environmental Motherism which lays emphasis on the maternal qualities of women and sees “the woman as an extension of the earth mother—the global nurturer of all creation” (Acholonu 120, as cited in Ashaolu, 2021).

Similarly, Bádéjo (1998) cited in Dosekun (2019) explains African feminism within the precept of celebrating the femininity of the African woman. She asserts that African feminism:

embraces femininity, beauty, power, serenity, inner harmony, and a complex matrix of power. It is always poised and centered in womanness. It demonstrates that power and femininity are intertwined rather than antithetical. African femininity complements African masculinity, and defends both with the ferocity of the lioness while simultaneously seeking male defense of both as critical, demonstrable, and mutually obligatory (Bádéjo 1998: 94, as cited in Dosekun, 2019).

These ideologies underline the dynamic nature of African feminist discourse and how we perceive the representation of women in African literature. They help us in the context of this analysis to understand the uniqueness of the characters of Sylvia and Ifunanya as parallels. Both women have attained the highest level of education and have respectable careers; Sylvia is a renowned university professor, and Ifunanya on the other hand is a successful medical doctor. Similarly, both women happen to have fallen in love with the same man, an Ordinary National Diploma certificate holder, Anugo. Through their involvement with Anugo, we are introduced to how modern African women perceive themselves about how they respond to traditional social systems and its attendant consequences on their quest for career accomplishment. Udenwe also projects how society responds to successful African women using the instrumentality of marriage as a premise for this assessment.

Ifunanya is a medical doctor who falls in love with Anugo after Sylvia packs her things and leaves due to the sociocultural restrictions that threaten her marriage and career. She exercises her agency as an independent and sophisticated woman who couldn’t be caged or subject to traditional marital obligations already highlighted in the early part of this essay. Then comes Ifunanya, an equally educated woman, a medical doctor who is oriented towards upholding traditionally assigned gender roles like cooking, washing her husband’s clothes, cleaning the house, etc. She embodies in the context of the text, the values of an African woman. These qualities endear her to Anugo and his mother. Although Anugo expresses concern about marrying another woman who is more educated than him, Ifunanya’s humility ensnares him:

But then, Ifunanya was homely and had a lot of respect for him. If Anugo was talking, she would keep quiet and make her points later. She would call every two hours to find out how he was doing, if he had eaten, what he ate, if he enjoyed what he ate, and if he said no, she would come and prepare something for him. She said she didn’t always have time for laundry, since she was always on call, but it was her duty as a woman. It broke his heart. The only thing he had discovered about this tall, dark-complexioned lady was that she was slightly bow leg which looked sexy and that she cried easily. He wondered if he could cope with someone who cried a lot (328-329).

Anugo’s fascination with Ifunanya’s humility and softness denotes the stereotypical orientation of the patriarchal perception of women. Although Sylvia is willing to compromise by offering to pay for a house help, laundry, and the development of the businesses, Anugo insists on her cooking, washing, and cleaning the house without recourse to her demanding career as a university professor which consumes most of her time, making her incapable of attending the basic domestic tasks that a house help would have taken care of. Ifunanya is portrayed as a respectful, homely, caring, and selfless woman who loves to cook and doesn’t talk back when Anugo is talking and cries a lot. She is also portrayed as feeling sorry when the demands of her job as a medical doctor don’t allow her to do the laundry. This depiction by Udenwe highlights the deeply rooted patriarchal values ingrained in the subconsciousness of traditional African men sustained by patriarchal mothers. This is why when Ifunanya asks Anugo where they are headed with the relationship Anugo responds by indirectly subjecting their future together to his mother’s directional approval. In other words, if his mother, the enabler of patriarchal social values doesn’t approve there is a chance they may not end up together, especially considering his previous experience when he disobeyed the matriarch by marrying Sylvia, the marriage crashed just as his mother had predicted. However, based on Anugo’s assessment, Ifunanya is the type of woman his mother would approve of the qualities he has taken the time to note about her.

When Anugo nurses the fear that his mother might object to his marrying her, she responds calmly, “‘I will convince Mama’” (329). Consequently, Ifunanya’s character is shown as demonstrating the balance between being educated, acquiring economic independence, and being culturally sensitive to the social structures that govern one’s society. By juxtaposing Sylvia’s overt feminist disposition anchored on her drive for career success and self-consciousness with Ifunanya’s cultural sensitivity and balanced career goals, Udenwe presupposes that society must adjust to the changes shaping the world. It also implies that traditional values systems must accommodate the needs of independent and career-driven women who may be willing to be married to a man despite his social status but may not be inclined to perform traditional gender roles to stay married, especially if they have the economy agency to support in sustaining the home. Gone are the days when women jettisoned their career and educational aspirations for marriage to honour their parents in obedience to social expectations.

Sex as a means of economic exchange
HAVING established the first two variables of this essay, I shall explore the final variable which has to do with the representation of sexuality in the text to show how some women deploy sex as a means of economic exchange. I shall focus on the character of two women Ama and Patina in illustrating this portrayal which is critical to how society views women of easy virtues in juxtaposing with women with social and economic agency like Sylvia and Ifunanya. Two scenarios will be briefly highlighted in this part of the essay. The first scenario is captured in the story titled “Obama Talorin Shop” (119) which explores the life of Ama, a young uneducated lady who returns to her village from Port Harcourt to open a tailoring shop and whose feminine endowment exudes sexuality that scandalizes the men in her village. All the men want to have their way with her and being a woman of easy virtues who has seen it all in Port Harcourt, she indulges them as a gateway to acquiring economic fortunes.

Ama represents women at the social and economic margins of society who without the privilege of formal education or career struggle through life surviving on the gratification they get from involving in sexual relationships with men. Although, a professional tailor, Ama’s strongest economic assets are her sexual features which men are willing to die for. Armed with this awareness, she trades her sexuality for the good life men are willing to offer her. What is instructive about Ama’s portrayal is her willingness to use her sexuality to exploit the lustful men who want a taste of her. But far from the commercialization of her sexuality, Ama is a manifest depiction of the social inequality that makes women vulnerable to the predatory antics of perverse men in society. While some people might argue that there is no justification for engaging in the sex trade in exchange for economic agency, some, such as when confronted with existential challenges, use their sexuality as a means of survival. If Ama were to be educated and economically empowered like Sylvia and Ifunanya, she would likely not trade her body for money since she would be working and earning good money to take care of her needs and would not become a sexual object being fought over by men old enough to be her father. Stressing Ama’s sexual dexterity, the narrator posits:

Ama bent down and took the massive penis into her mouth and swallowed and gagged and laughed. Asari fell off the stool. His head hit the sewing machine. It was painful, but there was no need of standing up. Ama knelt beside him and continued, making sure her hands found his nipples, twisting this way and that (128).

This graphic representation is illustrative of Ama’s sexual perversion and negative influence on the community necessitating the planned mob action against her by other women who perceive her promiscuous lifestyle as detrimental to the sanctity of marriage and the community at large. She is seen as a symbol of shame and moral turpitude to womanhood, while the men who voluntarily lust after her are regarded as victims of her sensuality. This exposes society’s bias against women. Women are held to higher moral standards while men who engineer and sponsor immorality are unscathed by the wand of justice, reinforcing the notion that moral ethos in traditional and even modern societies is hinged on patriarchal predilection. After all, it is the men who make the laws, women are merely expected to adhere to the laws.

Furthermore, putting the moral burden of society on the shoulders of a deprived young girl only goes to show how society doesn’t care about the development of young girls and women in general. A trained tailor and returnee looking to start a new life in the village is ambushed by lustful men who want to sleep with her instead of encouraging and supporting her to establish her sewing business which would benefit the community, especially the women whose clothes would be sewn by her, but both the women, men and the community end up exploiting her vulnerability yet she is to be blamed for being too beautiful to be resisted by corrupt men. If a young woman isn’t safe in her father’s house, where else would she be saved? This is the critical question Ama’s character poses to society.

The second scenario is not different from Ama’s hedonism. In the story, “The Housekeeper” (81), Udenwe examines the life of Patina, a French migrant from an unknown place who comes to Nigeria to work after being released from prison. While working as a housekeeper for a rich woman in Abakaliki, her madam turns her into a masseuse and sex slave forcing her to perform lesbian acts. Overjoyed by the miraculous hands of Patina, her Madam invites her equally wealthy friend Ola to share in her joy. So, Patina becomes the giver of unprecedented massage-induced pleasures and orgasm. Without recourse to Patina’s feelings and dignity, the two rich women abuse her with reckless abandon. She was, after all, a helpless migrant who couldn’t defend herself even if she wanted to or so they thought. They also forget that there is a consequence for everything. So, tired of being abused and used as a sexual slave, Patina plots their deaths by promising to give them an unusual massage experience by proposing to attend to them separately to which they agree albeit reluctantly. After leading them on with pleasurable massages, she makes them bathe with the gallons of hydrochloric acid she had prepared. They die separately without knowing what happened to the other person. Patina then flushes their remains into the toilet leaving no trace of their existence.

Patina, a sexy lady between the ages of forty-eight and fifty-eight narrates her life’s story to Dad, a thirty-two-year-old plumber she invites to fix the blocked soakaway filled with the remains of the two rich women she had murdered. This narration takes place after she held him hostage for weeks drowning him in sex and wine. Describing the sexual torture Patina puts Dad through, the narrator opines: “She placed a finger on her lips and did everything unthinkable to him with her mouth and tongue before taking him—exhaustion, hunger, and all, while Voulezy sang about ships and seas and life” (101). Patina’s sexual perversion is reminiscent of someone suffering from Nymphomania which according to Dexter (2024) is a term used to “describe an assigned female who has excessive sexual desires.” As Dad observes through the narrator: “…she walked about nude and took him several times a day. The poor thing had been bruised and healed and then bruised again. Yet, whenever she poured wine on him and gave him a massage, he was ready to have her” (103). Furthermore, she only allows him to walk around the house when she wants and the doors are always locked and feeds once every day in the mornings. According to the narrator: “She fed him once a day, only in the mornings, telling him that an overfed man was tired during domestic affairs. She would rub his head and care his ears as she told him this” (104). Patina’s sexual behaviours and statements are manifest indications of Nymphomania.

However, Patina’s nymphomaniac behaviour is a consequence of the psychological abuse she experienced at the hands of her former employers. Dad on the other hand is a representation of young men who want to get involved with rich older women for financial gratification. Through his reflection in the narration, the narrator reveals how he had hoped to one day live in a mansion like the one he worked in. Sadly, he ends up in the hands of a sick woman who turns him into a sex slave. Even though Patina is kind enough to pay him in dollars, he will live the rest of his life with the trauma she inflicts on him.

Conclusion
THIS essay has attempted to highlight the shift in the representation of women in contemporary Nigerian literature by male authors against the backdrop of the underrepresentation and, in most cases, omission of women in the depiction of traditional societies in early Nigerian and indeed African literature. Premised on the precepts of discourse and textual analysis the essay deconstructs the sociocultural constructs underpinning African feminisms in the context of Udenwe’s construction of feminism and femininity in The Widow Who Died With Flowers in Her Mouth. Equally, the analysis examined the notion of women’s quest for ultimate agency in the face of limiting sociocultural systems occasioned by patriarchal influences. It also explores the exploitation of sexuality by women to attain economic freedom and power. Finally, it notes that women have achieved significant economic and political independence and inclusion, however, their expression of freedom is still measured via the lenses of subjective cultural ethos. Thus, the imbalance in the representation of women at different levels of the socioeconomic ladder highlights the need for strengthening existing advocacy efforts towards a holistic and inclusive representation of women at all levels of the socioeconomic chain.

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