Get premium membership and access revision papers with marking schemes, video lessons and live classes.

Processing. Please wait.

Basing your argument on Blossoms of the Savannah, illustrate how modern women find it hard to fit in a society that embrace traditional cultural practices

Answer Text:
Traditionally, the world was male-centered and male-dominated. This has changed over time due to rise of
modernism which embraced the issues of class, gender, the struggle for knowledge, and the senselessness and alienation of the time. The novel Blossoms of the Savannah is one of literary works that illustrates the struggle that women influenced by modernism have to go through in a male dominant society.

Ole Kaelo has raised his girls in Nakuru Town and now that he has been rentrenched,he relocates to his village, Nasila.Taiyo and Resian who have never lived in the village before find it hard to fit due to culture shock. This is evident when they feel that the frequent visitors who come very early to ask for breakfast even before they were awake were violating their privacy. They are confronted severally for not having undergone the circumcision ritual. This makes them dread being forced to do it especially after Ole Musanka’s speech during the home coming party. Through this we are able to see their struggle to fit in Nasila.

Having being raised in Nakuru town, Resian is ambitious about joining Egerton University. She is very optimistic that her sister Taiyo will persuade her father to buy their idea of getting educated. In the contrary, their father’s plan is to marry her off to Oloisudori. This marks the beginning of her fight to liberation. We can see that in Nasila women are married very early and do not acquire modern education, and this is not what Resian wants in life. It is so humiliating for her and her sister to fit in a society that demeans a woman.

Minik is educated at the Makerere University and is a career woman. She owns a ranch and manages it. She is so hated by Nasila people for carrying out crusades against FGM. Ole Musanka calls her wasp. She is facing opposition and rejection for being against negative cultural practices. She has to live as an enemy of the people since she is a modern woman.

In the Nasila culture, women are seen as possessions and unable to choose their own husbands. The modern women in this novel fights against this archaic notion. That’s why we see Resian refusing to get married to Oloisudori at an early age. She disagrees with her father and runs away from home. Even Minik fights for helpless girls who are forced to do the same and rescues them to her place. This is the struggle they have to go through to live their lives as modern women.

Olarinkoi mockingly tells Resian that he wants to see how educated her body is. He wants to rape her which is a very retrogressive act.He knows that Resian is a modern lady who has quest for education but he still plans to forcibly circumcise and marry her. In his house we can see the struggle Resian has to go through to find freedom and liberty against oppressive men.

In conclusion modern women in this novel have to go through a lot to exist among the traditionalist in Nasila society. As illustrated above, fitting in such a society is a real nightmare to them.