Ayodabo Sunday, M.A English

The representations of gender in selected Nigerian children’s literature

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate how educational use of children’s literature, mainly novel, novel and poetry portrays gender issues and roles in our society. Indeed, researchers in and authors of children’s literature argue that the manner in which gender is represented in children’s literature had impacts on children’s attitudes and perceptions of gender-appropriate behaviour in society. Most accounts reveal that there has been gender inequality since time immemorial whereby female characters have played important roles in the house but not prominent roles in the society while the male characters have enjoyed societal recognition. Hence, Children’s reflections on gender in Debo Fakolujo’s Girls are Jewels, Agbo Areo’s playtext The Witch (a play for the young) and the poetry collection by Olusola Fadiya titled The Sunrise Poetry for Junior Secondary school , are analyzed to argue our point. Most children in the works expressed positive attitudes toward a change of traditional gender.

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Introduction

The patriarchal structure in our societies, as reflected in its literature, has influenced the life of

women and men in traditional society by assigning different roles and identities. Most children

literatures reveal that there has been gender inequality since time immemorial whereby female

characters have played important but not prominent roles in the society. Girls’ education has

focused on developing skills which reinforce their socialized roles in the private domain, such as

home care, economics, and general hygiene. More importantly, women have been bound to

staying home. As for boys, they have been prepared for dominant and high command roles that

determine societal dynamics in the public sphere. These include, among others, responsibilities

in the army and other leadership aspects of society-activities often requiring intelligence,

wisdom, and strength. These roles are in alignment with the roles discussed by Tsao (2008), who

claims that literature is a home for gender stereotypes. These literatures have been instrumental

in promoting and spreading a gender bias ideology. Many researchers in and authors of

children’s literature argue that the manner in which gender is represented in children’s literature

impacts children’s attitudes and perceptions of gender appropriate behaviour in society

(Bettelheim 1976; Hunt 1990, 1991; Geoff 1995; Zipes 1997; Singh 1998). From the texts under

study, especially the novel, it stands out clearly that female participation in public life has long

been culturally and socially constrained. The novel initially illustrates gender inequality as it

obstructs girls in the realisation of their full rights. At the same time, however, the texts also

show the strength of women fighting for change. My hope is that this gender awareness will

enable children to smoothly discuss and overcome issues of traditional gender stereotypes that

have long prevailed in our society.

The definition and designation of children literature

Theories pertinent to this study are found in the functions of children’s literature in general (see

for example, Bettelheim 1976; Hunt 1990, 1991; Geoff 1995; Zipes 1997). Children’s literature

comprises mainly material written specifically for children readership and includes literary

components such as novels, poetry, drama; it also includes superstitions, games and songs,

nursery rhymes, rituals, old and new tales, fables, myths, legends, poetry and proverbs. Literary

critics acknowledge that children’s literature belongs to the literary and socio-educational

systems at the same time as it is read for literary experience, entertainment, and recreation, as

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well as education and socialization (Hunt 1990; Sutherland 1997). It is generally believe that the

criteria for these divisions are vague, and books near a borderline may be classified either way.

Books for younger children tend to be written in very simple language, use large print, and have

many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex language, normal print,

and fewer, if any, illustrations.

There are debates on what constitutes children's literature. The United Nations Convention on the

Rights of the Child defines a child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the

law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". Hence, the UN has categories children

literatures into; Books written by children they opine that some books written for children, such

as The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford (9yrs) or The Juvenilia of Jane Austen, written to amuse

brothers and sisters, written by children. Also Barbara Newhall Follett wrote four books,

beginning with a novel called The House Without Windows at the age of nine. In 1937 two

schoolchildren, Pamela Whitlock and Katharine Hull’s The Far-Distant Oxus was considered

"the best children's book of 1937". Other examples includes In 1941 The Swish of the Curtain

written by Pamela Brown (17yrs), Dorothy Straight's How the World Began, S.E. Hinton's The

Outsiders and Nigerian 14 year old Temi Owasa’s Story my mama told me.

The second categories are Books written for children, Children's literature is usually understood

to comprise books intentionally written for children to read. Nancy Anderson, associate professor

in the College of Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa, defines children's

literature as all books written for children, "excluding works such as comic books, joke books,

cartoon books, and nonfiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as

dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference material". Some of this work is also very popular

among adults. J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was originally written and marketed for

children, but it was so popular among children and adults that The New York Times created a

separate bestseller list. Another work dating back to the Victorian Era is Charles Dicken's A

Christmas Carol. Both children and adults continue to enjoy this story and the lessons it teaches.

Often no consensus is reached whether a given work is best categorized as adult or children's

literature, and many books are marketed for both adults and children. Another set is the group of

books being written by Africans for African schoolchildren. The range of stories is wide, from

Cyprian Ekwensi's retelling of Hausa tales in An African Night's Entertainment to the

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experiences of a Nigerian schoolgirl in England in Audrey Ajose's Yomi's Adventures. These

books, which would have to be imported, have the advantage of presenting and interpreting

African life as Africans view it. Though few of these books are of outstanding quality or have as

attractive a format as some of the picture stories previously mentioned, they would be a factual

supplement to the children's literature which is easily accessible in this country.

The third category and the most restrictive definition of children's literature are those books

various authorities determine are "appropriate" for children, such as teachers, reviewers,

scholars, parents, publishers, librarians, retailers, and the various book-award committees.

Parents wishing to protect their children from the unhappier aspects of life often find the

traditional fairy tales, nursery rhymes and other voyages of discovery problematic, because often

the first thing this story does is remove the adult influence, leaving the central character to learn

to cope on his or her own: prominent examples of this include Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown's

Schooldays (1857), F.W. Farrar's Eric Philippa Pearce’s Tom's Midnight Garden and a story of

an African boy written by Attilio Gatti, tiltled Saranga, the Pygmy. Many see such isolation of

child characters from supporting adults as necessary preparation for the transition to adulthood.

The broadest definition of children's literature applies to books that are actually selected and read

by children. Children choose many books, such as comics, which some would not consider being

literature at all in the traditional sense; they also choose literary classics and recognized great

works by modern writers, and often enjoy stories which speak on multiple levels. Someone who

enjoyed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a child may come back to the text as an adult and

see the darker themes that were lost on them as younger readers.

In addition, many classic books that were originally intended for adults are now commonly

thought of as works for children. Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was originally

intended for an adult audience. Today it is widely read as a part of children's school curriculum

in the United States.

The importance of children’s literature lies in the development of children’s moral, intellectual,

and linguistic abilities. Most stories are amazing and, as Yitah and Komasi (2009, 244) put it,

“seek to inculcate in the child reader an appreciation for certain cultural values and

disapprobation of undesirable behaviour”. Firstly, children’s literature is entertaining and

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associated with language acquisition. It also enhances children’s motivation to read. Moreover,

specialists in children’s literature and education believe that it helps them grow up into sociable

and virtuous future citizens (Bettelheim 1976; Hunt 1990; Sutherland 1997; Zipes 1997).

Oittinen (1993, 41) holds that while reading and by experiencing different emotions, children

learn how to cope with their feelings and solve problems in life. Also, Bettelheim (1976) argues

that genres encountered in children’s literature are both therapeutic and informative.

Furthermore, they convey a socializing content meant to make children behave in the ways that

fit them into the society. Heroes or heroines are engaged in a struggle to uproot the evil grass in

the society.

Secondly, children’s literature conveys an educational message since plots in most genres are

“dramatization of stormy conflicts of good and evil” (Sutherland 1997, 6). Our childhood

experiences reveal that after or while listening to or reading an interesting or sad story, children

internalize it and act it out in play or in their mind. In most stories the emphasis is put on positive

aspects of the story where goodness will triumph over evil. At the end of the story, the dilemma

is most often resolved in an interesting, amusing, or satisfactory manner- thus constituting a good

story for children. The literature serves not only to instruct but also to amuse and make moral

lessons and social structures more palatable to children (Zipes 1997). All in all, as the Roman

poet Horace affirms, the raison d’être of children’s literature, like adults’, is “to delight and

instruct” the child audience in a specific way (Leitch 2001).

In summary, the main kinds of children's literature which has existed are in order of decreasing

frequency, factual compendia, animal stories, geographies, and stories about children. The bulk

of traditional children Literature consists of folktales, which conveys the legends, customs,

superstitions, and beliefs of people in past times fiction, for example the surveys of modern

African life, folktales, and history. However, it is believed most children literatures have

characterized by; conventional introductions and conclusions, brief stories with simple and direct

plots, cause and effect, didactic morals etc. Research has revealed that writers often neglect the

discourse of gender in thier survey. The reason being that writers are always conscious of the

adverse psychological effect gender complexities can have on children if exposed to. But gender

representations in literature have also finds its way into children literature to view how gender is

represented among children. This demonstration is not viewed only from the view point of

children only but also adult’s attitudes toward the children are brought to fore.

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We therefore seek in this essay to explore the themes of gender as represented in children

literature of our choice. At foremost, we tend to examine how gender is being represented in

literature generally. The historical overview will however set forth our discussions of gender

representations in the carefully chosen literary works from the three genre of literature which

includes; a novel by Debo Fakolujo’s written Girls are Jewels, a play text by Agbo Areo titled

The Witch and Sunrise Poetry for Junior Secondary school, a collection of poems written by

Olusola Fadiya.

Literature and gender

The interpretation of the gender classification is believed to have more to do with the

socialization process of the individual rather than the biological endowment of nature. In support

of this, Simone de Beauvoir (1989) argued that one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. In

the same breath, we may argue, and metaphorically so, that one is not born, but becomes, a man.

How does one becomes a man or woman? Every society has its own socializing engines that

effectively transfer gender ideology. However literature is one of these prominent engines. As

Bisi Ogunsina (1997) points out, literature, whether oral or written, is a transmitter of ideology, it

does more than transmit ideology; in many cases it creates.

Obviously, creative writings in Africa particularly from the pre-colonial age to the early colonial

era were dominated by male writers. Femi Ojo – Ade (1983) observes that:

African literature is male created, male oriented chauvinistic art. An honour roll of our literary giants clearly proves that point…Man constitutes the majority and women the minority (158-159)

As it is generally consented that a writer is a product of his/her society, the unpleasant images

and/or portraits of the African woman by male writers – products of a patriarchal society is

informed by how women have been unreasonably suppressed and their voices and aspirations

muffled. Early works of pioneer African novelists like Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, and

Cyprian Ekwensi have depicted the African woman in the light of the aforementioned status.

In their works, weakness, indecision, and cowardice are attributed to women. For example,

Okonkwo’s illustration of a man breaking the head of a wandering goat in Things Fall Apart tells

us all about the attributes of men: brutal force, and irrational behaviour. Achebe goes on in the

novel to tell his reader about the lionized male as husband over numerous wives, as a dictator -

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father, and as indomitable. This portrait of the lionized male in the novel also permeates into

other literary works of other writers who project the woman as a fated being whose destiny is to

serve and not to be heard or respected.

However, with the coming of age of the group of female writers that Tess Onwueme describes as

literary foremothers, the resilience, inner beauty, radiating grace and energy, and faithfulness of

the African woman started to be projected. Many women writers and critics have in desperate

moves come out with several literary concepts and/or ideas. Ogundipe-Leslie propounds the

concept of “Stiwanism” – an acronym meaning: Social Transformation in Africa including

Women; Catherine Acholonu came out with “Motherism”; and lately Modupe Ebun Kolawole,

Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo and a host of others are in the forefront of “Womanism”. These

concepts and ideological stands have been reflected in literary works especially by women. Flora

Nwapa’s Efuru in Efuru is presented as a strong, resilient and noble woman; Buchi Emecheta’s

Nnu Ego in Joys of Motherhood is industrious, brave, and highly intelligent

And as we argue in this present discourse, these forms of gender representations have also been

permeated into children’s literature but done in a conscious and subtle manner.

Children’s Literature and Gender

Everything we read...constructs us, makes us who we are, by presenting our image of ourselves as girls and women, as boys and men (Mem Fox, 1993).

Besides being an important resource for developing children's language skills, children's books

play a significant part in transmitting a society's culture to children. Gender roles are an

important part of this culture. How genders are portrayed in children's books thus contributes to

the image children develop of their own role and that of their gender in society.

Characterization in children’s literature has traditionally been gender-biased and stereotyped

according to research on gender issues and role perceptions in children’s literature (Scott and

Feldman-Summers 1979; Davies 1993, 2003; Singh 1998; Trepanier-Street and Romatowski

1999; Tsao 2008). In this respect, in most children literature male characters have been portrayed

as being strong, potent, and powerful, with mastery themes such as cleverness and adventure,

whereas female characters were portrayed as impotent, weak, passive, naive, even sweet, with

second sex themes such as beauty, gentility, domesticity, marriage, emotions, motherhood, and

so on. It is believed that children as old as 4 to 5 years can already associate male and female

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characters with supremacy and dependency respectively. Stereotypic gendered characterization

can be harmful in the way that it can limit both boys and girls in the full realization of their

potential and expectations. As Tsao (2008) points out in a study on gender issues in young

children’s literature, gender stereotypes depicting girls as weak, passive, and beautiful deprive

them of a range of strong, alternative role models, which only increases inferiority complex in

girls. However, as the situation stands in this century, women are encouraged to be independent

and rely on their brains rather than beauty. Similarly, male portrayals of lacking emotions, fear,

and so on, pressure in many ways boys to behave in this way. Prior research on gender role

perception in children’s literature, examining the influence of young children’s gender attitudes

regarding occupational roles (Trepanier-Street and Romatowski 1999) and assessing children’s

reactions to stories in which females are portrayed in traditionally male roles (Scott and

Feldman-Summers 1979) has shown that the influence of stereotypic and non-stereotypic gender

role exposure to children is enormous. When female main characters are portrayed in

traditionally male roles, girl-readers are enthusiastic about their performances and eager to

engage in the same activities as those performed by the main characters.

A Critique of gender representation and image in Debo Fakolujo’s Girls are Jewels, Abgo

Areo’s The Witch and Olusola Fadiya’s Sunrise Poetry for Junior Secondary school.

Noticeably, writers have been gender conscious in their representation of gender. These writers

often designed activities for the purpose of promoting gender awareness and using them to

explore issues such as: respect for oneself and other individuals, similarities and differences

between boys and girls, traditional and non-traditional gender roles, gender stereotypes, and

friendships between boys and girls. This is true of the poetry collection written by Olusola

Fadiya and. Not every poem in the collections depicts gender issues, but we seek to carefully

identify the ones that discuss gender issues. Consciously, he actively portrays girls/women in a

positive light with active, dynamic roles and also tries not to represent either gender in a

stereotypical manner. Nevertheless, careful reading of these literatures also presents stark

stereotypical difference between two sexes. For example, Debo Fakolujo’s Girls are Jewels

chronicles the disturbing story of Mr Sanya who had fifteen female children and a male child but

decided and vowed not waste his money on his girl’s educations. He is not happy because he is

not having more male children. It saddens his heart and it eventually affected his relationship

with his female children. However, his friend’s intellectual intervention was the factor behind the

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drastic turn of the event of the novel which made Mr. Sanya to appreciate the usefulness of

female children in the society. Agbo Areo’s The Witch is a funny dramatization of the hilarious

and innocent behavior of seven year old Tope and her brother Ola, which sometimes causes

confusion for her parent and some other adults. Though the play stresses the themes of morality,

unity, and African way of life, the themes are depicted on the basics of gender association in a

society.

Gender representation exists in the content, language and illustrations of a large number of

children's books (Jett-Simpson & Masland, 1993). This representation may be seen in the extent

to which a gender is represented as the main character in children's books and how that gender is

depicted. In Girls are Jewel, we are exposed to the gender bias towards female children from the

parent perspectives:

Despite that fact he (Mr. Sanya) had money, his children were not well educated. More so sixteen of them were girls. His money could not give him the deserved and desired happiness and joy. There are certain things money cannot buy. He saw all his daughters as children of sorrow (6)

Mr. Sanya also confirm; “My friend you are fortunate to have married a wife. And this single

wife bore you four boys and a girl, you are having a peaceful home,” Mr. Sanya explained (6).

The African traditional belief of viewing female children as no children at all persists in this

novel. It is believed that a family of only female children has austere future while a male child,

even only one will definitely continues the family traditions. Mr. Sanya further confirms this

position by prophesying doom:

I cannot deceive you. I shall be having a bleak future. Bisi, Bolu, KiKe, my first three female children got impregnated. As a result I have decided not to send then and other female children to school. The only one boy among them, I shall spend my last kobo upon…and the boy will take over my property (6)

It is painfully that this kind of social construct also adversely affects the general development of

female children in the society as seen in Sanya’s reluctance to further the education of his female

children. The general identification of female as dormant and sometimes unimpressive sex is

brought to the fore when Sanya is of the opinion that his wives cannot give him any useful

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advice. “They are all after money” he said. Hence, he went to his ‘male’ friend Gbade who he

believes is adequately effective than his ‘female’ wives.

In Agbo Areo’s The Witch, the mythical verification of ‘female’ old women as witch (aje) is

brought to fore as Tope asks her mother during their story time:

The old woman we saw one day when we are going to school, why is she a witch? (5)

Unfortunately, the myth gradually penetrated into the school. She tells her mother that she comes

across the story from her ‘aunty’ in the school

But aunty told us at school that a witch is an old woman. That she looks thin, like the moon I saw one night. That she kills children, fries them, and eats them with her friends in the night (6)

In a different way, Olusola in his poetry seeks to establish a bias gender free representation of the

sexes when he sees or tries to advocate for equality between the two; Baby girl is as good as

baby boy/Both of them can grow up/Baby girl is as good as baby boy/Baby girl, baby boy, all are

future doctors/Child is child/Either male or female. (30)

Children's books frequently portray girls as acted upon rather than active (Fox, 1993). Girls are

represented as sweet, naive, conforming, and dependent, while boys are typically described as

strong, busy, adventurous, independent, and capable (Ernst, 1995; Jett-Simpson & Masland,

1993). This individual representation is evident in Girls are Jewel as Gbade highlights the

different between both sexes;

Boys of today have no time for their parents. They are busy planning how to be somebody in life…this is the true situation with all boys. But girls in their marital home will keep on remembering their parents, confirmed Gbade. (10)

Child and girls as symbols of sexual harassment and abuse also depict girls as instrument that is

always acted upon. In Girls are Jewel, Bisi a primary five school student is sexually abuse by a

cocoa merchant, Mr. Boladale who is also a friend to the girl’s father. He had jokingly said to

Bisi’s mother; “You are having a charming girl in this house…I am going to marry your

daughter, Bisi. I admired her. She looks gay” (48) The mother thought he was joking until Mr.

Boladale made his intentions known to her husband which was met with violent opposition. This

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had been the practice in our societies, especially Africa. Young girls are exposed to early

marriage proposal at a tender age which completely eroded female education in our society.

Boys tend to have roles as fighters, adventurers and rescuers, while girls in their passive role tend

to be caretakers, caring mothers, and princesses in need of rescuing, and characters that support

the male figure. In African societies, it is regrettable that women have been brainwash to accept

this kind of gender symbols that present them as weaker sex. A good example is seen in Girls

are Jewel during the student’s rampage on the campus against various governments’ dishonest

activities. It was the ‘male’ students that actively partake in the protest while the ‘female’

students were mandated to cook for the entire student. (43) Often, girl characters achieve their

goals because others help them, whereas boys do so because they demonstrate ingenuity and/or

perseverance.

An ethical representation of gender is the one that depicts women as the repository of moral and

ethics. In The Witch, the children are always seen going to their mother after the day’s job to tell

them stories that teach them about morals, ethics, and Africa traditional norms. As one of the

gender role expected of women they are responsible for inculcating the mores and values of the

society to children through telling them stories and legends while they are still young. In the

contrary men are portray as the busy type. In the story, the father is always busy with the

television whenever the mother is educating the children through stories and fairytales (7).

When the children tries to question the gender inequality they observed between their parent;

“but mummy, when you are cooking in the kitchen, Daddy does not cook with you” the mother

is however quick to educate them about each gender roles:

Mummy: Tope! But Daddy does not complain that Mummy eats everything. And I don’t complain that Daddy does not come to cook with me at kitchen. The day I complain, I will go on strike, from the kitchen. (18)

It is believe that African woman do not feel that the acceptance of her man’s dominance

necessarily diminished her. On the contrary, some critics view female’s femininity as consisting

in her cheerful acceptance of and willingness to fulfill her allotted role

Daddy also went on to describe one of those allotted roles often attributed to women when he

eulogies his mother as a nice and caring woman. Daddy says that:

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Tope, my late mother was not a witch. She was kind to everybody. Before she died, when you were a baby, she came here to help your mother to care for you. She bathed you, she washed your dirty nappies. She kept you warm on her back with her wrapper cloth. When you cried, she rocked you and sang you beautiful songs. Lullabies. She loved everybody, and everybody loved her. She was not a witch (24)

In the poetry collection, The Sunrise Poetry for Junior Secondary school , the author also

established the role played by each gender. In the poem “Monday Morning”, the male are seen as

active while the female takes care of the house; father is busy preparing to go work/Sister is

busy, busy serving the breakfast/mother too is busy tidying up to go to work. (Line 2-4, p 14)

Another good example is seen in the poem “Priceless mother” and “Busy father”. “Priceless

mother” beautifully depicts the women as caretaker and a caring mother whose major role in the

society is to have children; Who is like my mother/Who gave me life and I live/Who gave me her

breast to suck/Her breast I suck and I grow so well. (Line 1-6, p 26) This representation

suggested that the African woman’s importance only resided in her nurturing and soothing

potential, and in her reproductive fertility. The poem “Busy father” on the other hand described a

hardworking man as against the passive mother; Father is busy/working round the clock for the

sake of the family/Father is working hard, wakes early before others/Walking to the work

place/For the sake of all (line 1-8, p. 28).

The importance of folktales as a tool of teaching morals and unity is observed from the important

roles women played in the play The Witch. The moral lessons derive after the story of Mr. Belly

(p. 13-15) reveals that everybody is important because of their collectiveness. The play did not

only preach unity but figuratively advocate for gender equality. The mother comment;

That is, we must all work together every time. Everybody must do his or her duty without complaining. If anybody fails to do his duty in the family, all will not go well in the family (17)

It is believe that tales about human beings and those about animals are nearly equal. They all

teach the same morals. In most collections of African folktales for children, animal stories are

predominant. However, gender representation from insect’s perspectives is also depicted in the

collection. This is funnily done as the author takes a cursory look at productive and reproductive

life of the bees. He explored their idealistic and organizational skills. He opens with the

exaltation of the bees; Busy bees wonderful bees/How organized is your city/Well arranged and

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tidy/Everywhere is very neat. (Line 1-4) and later move to show each social roles; Soldiers

(male) bees defend the city bravely/Builder bees are hard-working/The queen bees are rather

big/Bringing forth the baby bees/Bees city has many nurses/Who care for the baby bees. The big

size of the female bees no ways present them as dominant but actually as a spacious type whose

size is only useful for the production of many children. Their size can be connected with the

biological part of female being that differentiates them from the male. This is one of the poems

that excellently portray gender as perceived in African society.

Obviously, Fadiya do not intend to portray each gender in a stereotypical manner, because he

tries as much as possible to portray both sexes, especially the female in a positive light with

active, dynamic roles. In fact he follows the path of other African writers who have placed

women on a pedestal and worshiped as “Mother Africa”, but they are still seen essentially in

their role as nurturing, fertile, compassionate wife and mother. Hence, we are presented with

divergence roles where the male is seen as more active than the female counterpart.

Gender stereotypical roles are constraining to both genders. Just as females are trapped in

passive and whiny roles, boys and men are rarely described as people demonstrating emotions of

sadness, fear and selflessness, having hobbies/occupations that are not stereotypically male and

in roles where they aren't competing or meeting high expectations. “Greed” shows the extent to

which a boy can be so selfish;

Greedy boy, selfish boy

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Continue to Continue to eat, continue to drink

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Greedy Greedy boy, selfish boy

Do you Do you remember that other children

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Are Are still coming to this birthday party?

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Still Still you want to collect the fourth plate of rice

Collect Collect and eat, you are so greedy (line 1-11, p. 36)

Male’s giddiness persists in “A Thief” where male children are portrayed as thief, rude, callous;

A thief is guilty of theft/He steals biscuits and chin-chin/ /He lifts mother’s soup’s pot cover/And

steals pieces of meat and fish (line 1-8, p.44).

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Children's books are often illustrated, sometimes lavishly, in a way that projects the major

themes of the novel. Generally, the artwork plays a greater role in books intended for the

youngest readers (especially pre-literate children). Children's picture books can be a cognitively

accessible source of high quality art for young children. Gender as discuss in this essay is further

exemplified by artwork (pictures). In Girls are Jewel, pictures on pages 26 and 36 relate the

experiences and characteristics of females to their roles. Picture 26 pictured arrays of well seated

women and their children that were listening attentively to a man who also give out money to

them. In the poetry collection, each poem is attached with illustrative pictures that added

meaning to the poems. In the poems “Priceless mother” and “Busy father”, picture 27 pictured a

sitting mother breastfeeding her baby while p.29 present a well dress man going to work. A boy

dipping his hands into a pot definitely signifies a thief in the poem, “The Thief”. Another

stereotypical picture can be found on p.64 where hunters were shown dancing and carrying guns

in their hands. This signifies traits of bravery, boldness and aggressiveness that are regularly

associated with males.

At the same time, however, books containing images that conflict with gender stereotypes

provide children the opportunity to re-examine their gender beliefs and assumptions. Thus, texts

can provide children with alternative role models and inspire them to adopt more egalitarian

gender attitudes.

In conclusion

This study set out to identify gender related themes from a cultural discourse in order to

determine how gender is constructed in African societies. It specifically examines a selection of

three literary texts from Nigeria. The texts were studied to uncover the gender-inflected themes,

images, language and pictures. Our discussion of the texts has shown that gender as portrayed in

children literature is seen from different perspectives. The novel Girls are Jewels portray women

from both positive and negative side. The novel demonstrates two levels of gender understanding

as constructed by both girls and boys. The first level is that of the egalitarian view of gender. The

male characters in the novel emphasized that there should not be any distinction as to who goes

to school and not. They state that girls’ potentialities should not be underestimated or underrated.

The second level is that of outstanding performance of females who were later given the chance

to go to school. For them, it is not strange that females outperform males. The poetry collection

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by Fadiya seems to be neutral and gender conscious in term of its discourse with few poems

examining the difference between the sexes. The Witch turn out to be a positive representation of

the feminine gender by debunking the falsified myth of every ‘old women is a witch’. Another

lesson drawn from the drama concerns the parents’ consideration of their children. Both parents

reflect on thier children in the same way. Both Tope and Ola wash the plate, cook food and clean

the house together.

However, for better presentation our suggestion is for writers to write books and stories that do

not portray either gender in a stereotypical manner. It is pertinent to write gender-neutral books

where individuals are portrayed with distinctive personalities irrespective of their gender.

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References

Areo, A. 2004. The Witch. Ibadan: Agbo Areo Publishers

Davies, B. 1993. Shards of glass: Children reading & writing beyond gendered identities. NewJersey: Hampton Press, Inc

Fadiya, Olusola, 2006. Sunrise Poetry for Junior Secondary Schools. Ibadan: Lasswell Books.

Fakolujo, Debo. Girls are Jewels

Geoff, F. 1995. Celebrating children’s literature in education. New York: Teacher's College

Hardy, E.2005. ‘Children Literature’. The New Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopedia

Leitch, V. B. 2001 (ed.) The Norton anthology of theory and criticism. New York: W. W. Norton& Company Inc.

Ojo-Ade, F. 1983. Female writers, male critics. Recent trends in the Nigerian novel. African

literature today. Ed. E.D, Jones .London: Heinemann. 158-159.

Pierre Canisius Ruterana.2012. Children’s Reflections on Gender Equality in Fairy Tales: A

Rwanda Case Study. The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.4, no.9.

Singh, M. 1998. Gender issues in children's literature. ERIC Digest. Accessed October 14, 2012,from http://www.indiana.edu/-reading / ieo/ digests/ d135.html

Tsao, Y. L. 2008. Gender issues in young children’s literature. Reading Improvement 45 (3):108-14.

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