Theorizing an Africana Womanist’s Resistance to Patriarchy in Monyaise’s Bogosi Kupe

Abstract

This article examines the resistance of an African woman to patriarchy in the Setswana novel, Bogosi Kupe. To illustrate this resistance, it analyzes a woman protagonist, Matlhodi, in this Setswana novel. The article contends that Matlhodi employs self-defining and authentic stratagems to counteract both patriarchal hegemony, and familial, cultural, and ideological hegemony. Employing Africana womanism and Africana critical theory, it argues that Matlhodi deploys her body, her clandestine love affair, her pregnancy, and her husband’s death as weapons to resist the patriarchal ethos foisted on her by her family.