WAEC AND NECO QUESTIONS: THE ROLE RACE PLAYED IN THE LIVING STANDARD OF THE OFILIS AND COMPARISON OF ADAH AND FRANCIS IN SECOND CLASS CITIZEN
THE ROLE RACE PLAYED TO DAMPEN THE LIVING STANDARD OF THE OFILIS
The Ofilis are Ada’s family members i.e. Pa, Ma, Boy and Adah. The role race plays can be seen through Ada’s stay in England. Adah ‘Ofilis’ expectations in life are high and she pursues them through all odds. Born at the time when male children are held in high esteem, her birth is not recorded and her education is not taken seriously. She is a disappointment to both her parents and her society. She arrives at a time everyone was expecting a boy. With determination Adah gets through primary and secondary education after which she marries and gets a well paid job as a Librarian in the American Consulate. Her zeal to travel to United Kingdom is engineered by the rousing welcome given to lawyer Nweze on his return from the UK. “But she made a secret vow to herself that she would go to United Kingdom one day” p17. Adah also want to be referred to as ‘been to'. She sells the idea to her husband, Francis who goes there first to study accounting and he is later joined by Adah and their two children Titi and Vicky that she has in Nigeria.
The role race played is so pronounced in United Kingdom that immigrants especially blacks are underrated. Francis tells Adah on her arrival in England ‘you may be living like an elite but the day you land in England, you are a second-class citizen’. p43. Racism limits the blacks. For example, places like high-brow restaurants on Finchley Road are not places for blacks p63.
For a black to secure accommodation, it is a herculean task. When Adah is disgusted by the accommodation of Francis, he tells her “this is the best I can do. You see accommodation is very short in London especially for black people... We are all blacks, all coloured, and the only houses we can get are horrors like these” p41. Blacks are also expected to foster their children p50. Adah faces a lot of criticism and hatred for making her children live in the same apartment with her. This is also a major reason why they were evicted from their house and rendered to seek fresh accommodation. Most black women in England work in factories which is considered suitable for housewives especially black. Adah however decides not to bring herself so low but seeks job as a librarian which she gets after some time. In England, Adah gets to know that blacks are inferior and that “her colour was something she was supposed to be ashamed of” p76.
When Francis and Adah have to leave their first accommodation, they contend with serous discrimination before they get another one because they are black. In some places where there are vacant rooms, “nearly all the notices had sorry no coloured” on them p76. Their search for accommodation at Hewley Street is a great embarrassment to their being.
The land lady never thought them to be the black because Adah closes her noise to talk on phone. And they also chose to go see the Landlady at night so that their colour would blend with the night. On citing them, the woman loses her voice that “at first, Adah thought the woman was about to have an epileptic seizure” p84. When she eventually regains her voice, she tells them that the rooms have been taken and points them to some of waste land across the road where no houses exist. This is an outright rejection because they are black.
When Vicky, Adah’s child becomes sick as a result of bed-bug bite on Christmas day, the white doctor called upon fails to come to attend to Vicky mainly because he is a black child. It is a Chinese doctor who is also considered a second class that attends to him P149.
In England, Titi, Adah’s first child is noticed to be verbally numbed because of fear of being beaten with belt by her father if she attempts to speak Yoruba which she is fluent in. Titi tells her friend who teases her in Yoruba “Don’t talk to me, my dad will cane me with belt if I speak in Yoruba”. Here again, any other language apart from English makes somebody a second class citizen.
Emecheta’s depiction of race in the novel is seen even amongst Nigerian immigrants abroad. Yoruba and Ibo people acquire sceptical and stereotyped ideas toward one another. (75)
COMPARISON OF ADAH AND FRANCIS
In Second Class Citizen, the theme of marriage and the struggle for survival in a male dominated society is paramount in the novel. In Adah’s society, girls and women alike do not count. They were married off as willed. They could only be seen not heard. This theme plays in the relationship between Ada and Francis in their marriage as the couple differs on things that binds them together.
Ada and Francis are both of Igbo descent and are brought up in Lagos. They both travel abroad. Adah is Boy’s sister Ada is the daughter of Pa and Ma. . She educates herself despite intimidating constraints. Adah forces herself to school as she stole into Mr Cole's class, her neighbour and this act caused her mother, Ma to be punished for child negligence. She therefore joins Boy, her brother to attend Ladi-Lak institute. She never relented in pursuing education even after Pa dies and Ma is given away to any man. She stays with her maternal family and is only allowed to continue her education because they believe that the more she is educated the higher her bride price. She stole her Uncle Vincent money to pay for her scholarship form and got into Methodist Girls High School. She gets job at the American Library Consulate and marries Francis early. Francis is a young man aspiring to become an accountant. He and Ada marry rather early. He proceeds to the UK to pursue his accounting ambition with the support of his wife.
Adah proves to be hardworking while Francis in downright lazy. Adah secures job as a Librarian in the UK even when other blacks think she should only take up factory job. Francis does nothing but claims to be studying only to fail his exams over and over again. Adah is sensitive and affectionate but her husband is rather opportunistic, insensitive and selfish. Adah takes care of the family’s expenses including Francis through her salary. Adah is committed to the marriage, while Francis cares little about his wife and children. Francis refusal to look after the children while Adah is away at work makes Adah finds a minder. She takes her children to Trudy, the baby minder and takes them back home after work while Francis does nothing.
Francis plays the male chauvinist while Ada resists the oppression of male domination. Francis believes the man is the head of his wife. He believes the wife must be brought under the control of her husband. Francis burns the manuscript of Adah's story because he considers the story not worthy of her to be written. He kills Adah's “Brain child”. Adah moves out of the out with her children into a rented apartment. Francis attempts to force Adah back to him but she stood her ground. Adah respects the institution of marriage while Francis does not seem to comprehend the union of husband and wife.
While Francis regards marriage as all sex, Ada favours some control over and moderation in sex in the marriage. After the birth of Bubu, Adah goes for birth control measures. She forges Francis signature to apply for capping birth control measures. Francis gets to know of this and he beats her. She becomes pregnant again and gives birth to Dada. Adah sees children as gifts that should be cared for, protected and brought up in a disciplined mental and psychological regulation. She sees child upbringing as a mandatory parental responsibility that cannot be waived, relinquished or passed on to third parties.
She is bent on getting a conducive accommodation that can help her nurse and raise the children. Francis is unconcerned about all these. Adah wants the best for her children while Francis does not care about them.
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