Objective of the Study Definition of Terms
women in the story of Soyinka’s Death and The King’s Horseman 2012: 301- 303.
The third study is Ikfina Maufuriyah on her undergraduate thesis “The
Native’s Resistance against Colonialism in Wole Soyinka’s Death and The King’s Horseman
”. Using the colonialism approach, Maufuriyah tries to analyze what form of resistance that the native people of the Yoruba society tried to protect
their culture from the intervention of the colonialism. There are two problems she analyzed. The first problem discusses the different point of view of cultural
practice in Yoruba between the white and Yoruba people. The second problem discusses the resistance the local people do in preserving the practice.
The main issue Maufuriyah brings in her analysis is the existence of cultural oppression. She analyzed how the oppression can be seen through
Soyinka’s Death and The King’s Horseman. Her focus is on the cultural relation between the Yoruba people and the colonizer; how the relation impacted on the
local cultural believe. Compared to the analysis conducted in this research, the main focus will be how the local culture see the women of the local in the public
and domestic sphere. Even though the point of this research and Maufuriyah’s research are two different issues
, but the researcher will use Maufuriyah’s analysis on the society background.
The fourth study is Abeda Sultana ’s research. In his journal, he analyzed
the root of patriarchy and some theories that support and backlash it. Sultana defines patriarchy as the domination of male towards public and private spheres.
As stated in the opening of his journal that “patriarchy is the prime obstacle to women’s advancement and development”, Sultana tried to see the existence of
women’s subordination in one of the third world countries: Bangladesh. He argued that in the development of civilization, the level of male domination in the
society may be different from the nature of men’s control in the past but does not
mean that men are not in power anymore. He brings the example of how nowadays people may have Queens and women Presidents and Prime Ministers
but it does not cover the fact that besides there are indeed women in power, the rights of women are still not fully covered yet Sultana 2011: 1-2.
Sultana believes that the development of a nation could not be as modern as now without the contribution of women,
which is why he said that “no nation can progress without the help of women”. He argued that not only men who take
the world in the modernization alone but both men and women joint together to make it real Sultana 2011: 1.
He wrote on his journal about the root of patriarchy, there are two big groups conveying their thoughts. The first group, the traditionalists, values the
existence of men to dominate the world including women. The group believes that the male dominance is a “rule of nature” that has already been there and therefore
could not be changed. However, another group believe that the idea and the existence of patriarchy are merely “man-made” and further it still can be changed
Sultana, 2011: 3-6.
Sultana also quotes from Lerner about how Aristoteles, shared the same idea with the traditionalists, proposes about the root of patriarchy lies in the
description of women as ‘mutilated male’. Therefore as they are biologically
inferior, the same thing goes for their capability and ability to work things and create rational reasons. The extreme feminists supports this idea by claiming that
biological features of both men and women do not have anything to do with women
’s capability, however the idea of ‘male-ness’ and ‘female-ness’ do exist merely as the result of a long historical process. The process itself is not new. It
has been at work for about 2,500 years Sultana, 2011: 4-6. In conclusion, this research analyzes conflicting attitudes towards
women. The further research is to find how these ambivalences in the end propose the same idea which is to oppress women.