Women all over the world are protesting against men and the patriarchal way culture, religion, education and all ramifications of life have been shaped. And these give women little or no voice.
Through different channels, women have been voicing out their demands, some for equality with men, while for some, it is equity.
Different academics have written about voice of women. J P. Clark in his work, The Wives Revolt, writes about how women in the society should be and he portrayed women and their character (in his world) to the world through the play.
In response to his work, Lara Owoeye portrays women differently in her own world and through different binoculars, as not cantankerous, jobless, violent and louts, but diplomatic, workaholic, intelligent and smart ones as against J.P. Clarks’s women.
The play with the Atunse villagers gathered in front of the king’s palace celebrating. After the celebration, the king announces that Hon. Owambe who is contesting for a post in the house of representatives to represent his constituent has given the whole community a sum of five hundred thousand, and the king is to distribute it among the whole villagers and this leads to a tussle between the male gender and the female gender.
The male chiefs among them immediately conclude that the money should be shared according to the custom of shares, that is, sharing through the head of each family and through that channel the whole village will be the beneficiary of the money. This exasperates Iyalode and Iyaloja and other women present, they therefore stand against the method, positing that the means of sharing the money is a biased one. Some quarters (minorities) in the village will be left out, the widows, the maidens and the old women won’t be able to benefit from the money if distributed via the head of the family, hence, the money should be shared among women and each wife will be accountable to her husband, children, in as much the widows and old ones will also be beneficiary to the money.
This stirs up serious disagreement between the chiefs and the villagers which forces the king to adjourn the meeting till another day when they shall decide on what channel the money should be shared.
The day after that announcement of the money, the women if Atunse gathers at Iyaloja’s stall and discuss how to tackle the issue on ground, how they will not be cheated by men in Atunse. Then they come up with the idea of revolting by leaving the village to the neighbouring village until men in Atunse dance to their tune.
They decide not to fight for equality, rather, for equity in their movement and instead of being violent, they show diplomacy and tactfulness in their fight.
Night to exhibit their plan comes, all women if Atunse leaves their village to the nearby village and stays for three weeks in order to make men feel their worth and agree to their terms. Men in Atunse on the other end, initially feel they are still in control, threatening the women to head back, threatening to marry new wif(ves) over them. But this does not last, young ones among them start to complain to the chiefs until they eventually agree that the women should be called back to Atunse.
Emissary is being sent to Atunse women to appease them and tell them they have agreed to their terms in which the women get excited and come back to Atunse , got the money shared at 40/60 percentage and there is peace thereof.
The play critically shoes the power of unity among women, their control and worth in the society, as not the part of humanity that should be side-lined, rather, they should be recognised, respected and honoured in the society.
The play has the themes of oppression, class consciousness, unity, diplomacy, exploitation and equity which built up the intrinsic message of the author.
The play is able to paint women as useful and needed part of humanity that is not needed in the kitchen alone, but other field in life, teaching, health, trade and other field as against The Wives Revolt by J.P. Clark that women are redundant and violent ones.
The play with the linguistic item deployed is able to successfully represent women as responsible ones in the society and not kitchen tool as society views them.
©Joshua OLADEBO, 2021
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