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Summary
In the heart-wrenching story of Ogadinma, Ukamaka Olisakwe exposes the silence surrounding gender-based violence, impacts on victims, and the enabling factors that allow this crime to persist. Ukamaka tells the story of 17-year-old Ogadinma, who was raped, forced into an abusive marriage, and endure years of GBV. Her journey reflects how societal expectations, patriarchy and gender inequality enable abuse and violence against women.
One of the core goals of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is to demand accountability from perpetrators of violence. The novel Ogadinma shows the stark reality of what happens when society protects perpetrators, silences women’s sufferings, and promotes systematic injustice. Ukamaka Olisakwe’s novel Ogadinma vividly captures the activism’s central message to “speak out and stop the silence” surrounding gender-based violence (GBV). Using Ogadinma as a case study, Ukamaka exposes how patriarchy, gender roles, purity culture, and male dominance facilitate violence against women. Ultimately, suggesting that men should be excused and forgiven for the crimes they committed because we live in a patriarchal society.
Ukamaka tells the life journey of 17-year-old Ogadinma, whose dream of attending a university was shattered after she became pregnant following a rape incident. Instead of seeking justice for her, the family regarded the rape as a stain on the family’s honour, chose to shame and exile her to Lagos to live with her aunt. Meanwhile, the perpetrator faces no legal or social repercussions depicting how men’s crimes are excused, and the societal framework shifts the blame to the victim’s purity.
Another theme the novel exposed is the internalised justification keepers of patriarchy provide for men’s violence. Ogadinma’s aunt, Ada, pressured her into an undesirable, abusive marriage and repeatedly told her to submit to her husband’s will, regardless of the abuse. The act is an agent of the patriarchal structure that excused Tobe’s violence, normalised Ogadinma’s silence, and perserves silence around GBV. On a deeper surface, the novel shed lights on inherent factors that led to prevalent femicide in Nigeria; the harmful cultural belief that a husband has the right to discipline his wife, social structure that positions women as subordinate to men, societal silence that allows abuse to continue in the name of family private matters, male dominance, and control.
Significantly, the novel explores postpartum depression, a rarely discussed theme in African literature. Ukamaka critiques the pervasive societal narrative that motherhood is a purely joyous period and its perfect version. She highlights the difficulty Ogadinma experienced in bonding with her baby and the feelings of inadequacy and despair. These are obvious symptoms of PPD, and Ogadinma’s story is used to break the silence around it. Her story emphasised that it is a real health issue, not the woman’s failure. The novel simply conveys to readers that women deserve support and care, especially during pregnancy and after childbirth.
Feminism always championed women’s financial independence. This is truly expressed in Ogadinma’s decision to secretly start a makeup artistry business. This independent venture provides a source of income, independent and a means to survive. This is also a crucial turning point in her life as it prompts the final decision to leave her husband and priortise her right to live free from violence, societal expectations, coercion, and abuse.
Ogadinma’s journey from a silenced victim to a woman who reclaims her voice directly aligns with the campaign’s mission of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. It’s a powerful literary fiction that spotlights victim’s trauma, the impacts of GBV, societal silence/failure, and the systematic injustice that the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence aims to eradicate.
