Kehinde: Floundering between Two Opposite Worlds

Buchi Emecheta’nın romanları İngiltere’deki siyah kadınların yaşadığı çeşitli şekillerdeki dışlanmışlığın kurgusallaşmış delilleridir, çünkü Londra’da yaşayan siyah bir kadın yazar olarak Emecheta, yazılarında kendi hayatını yansıtır. Dahası, Emecheta’nın eserleri, İngiltere’deki siyah kadınların deneyimlediği çifte-sömürülmeyi yansıtır. Bir başka deyişle, bu yapı kadınları hem toplumsal, hem de özel anlamda etkiler. Hem aile, hem de toplum içinde ayrıma maruz kalırlar. Aslında, İngiltere’nin beyaz vatandaşları siyah insanların kendi toplumlarına girmesini tam olarak kabul edip, içselleştirememiştir. Sonuç olarak da, siyahlar kendilerini aşağılanmış ve dışlanmış hissederler. Özellikle de, siyah kadınlar İngiliz toplumundaki beyaz erkek ve kadınlar tarafından aşağıda görülür. Emecheta, Kehinde adlı romanında, çok-kültürlü bir toplumda iki-arada olan pozisyonlarından ötürü, geçiş dönemi ve anlaşmazlık içinde olan insanları anlatır. Bu insanlar ne kendi geleneksel değerlerine dönebilirler, ne de onları misafir eden toplumun modern değerlerine tam olarak uyum sağlayabilirler. Bunun sonucunda da, iki zıt alanda debelenirler. Bu makalede, Emecheta’nın “mesafe ve katılım” metotlarının kullanımı Kehinde ve kocası Albert’in Londra ve Nijerya toplumlarına katılım ve yabancılaşmalarıyla değerlendirilecektir. Dahası, Emecheta’nın Igbo toplumundaki kadınların durumlarını ‘ikili sömürü’nün (aslında ‘üçlü-sömürü’ çünkü beyaz adam, beyaz kadın ve siyah adam sömürüyor) öteki tarafı olarak göstermesi, yazarın Igbo toplumunu, kadınların dışlanmasını kendi toplumlarının devamı için gerekli bir ilke olarak benimseyen ataerkil bir toplum olarak betimlemesi yoluyla incelenecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

ikili-sömürü, Igbo kültürü, d›fllanm›fll›k, Buchi Emecheta

Kehinde: Floundering between Two Opposite Worlds

Buchi Emecheta’s novels are the fictionalised proofs that show the various forms of the marginalisation of black women in England because, as a black woman writer living in London, she reflects her own life within her writing. Furthermore, her works reflect the experience of the double colonisation that black women experience in Britain. In that respect, it could be said that these women are ‘colonised’ both within the British society outside, and the Igbo culture inside their household. In other words, this structure affects women both in public and private senses: they are subject to discrimination in the family and in the society. Actually, white citizens of England have not fully accepted and internalised the entrance of the black people to their own society. As a result, black people feel humiliated and marginalised. Especially, the black women are regarded as inferior both by the white males and females in British culture. Emecheta in her novel Kehinde writes about the people who are in transition and in conflict because of their in-between position within a multicultural society: they either cannot return to their own traditional values, or truly join the host society’s modern values. As a result, they flounder between two opposite domains. In this article, Emecheta’s usage of the methods of “distance and participation” both through Kehinde’s and her husband Albert’s involvement and estrangement in London and Nigerian society will be evaluated. Furthermore, Emecheta’s depiction of women’s position in Igbo society as the other side of the ‘double colonisation’ of women (which actually means “triple colonisation” because of white men, white women and black men’s exploiting black women) will be analysed through Emecheta’s depiction of Igbo society as a patriarchal one which accepts the marginalisation of women as an essential principle of the continuation of their society.

Keywords:

double colonisation, Igbo culture, marginalisation, Buchi Emecheta,

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