Dynamics of Tradition and Modernity in Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

Abstract

African Literature in recent years especially after the independence from colonialism obtained a very gigantic position in the world literature and caused manifold critics to center their look on it. Most of the African writers have done their best to indicate the drawbacks of today and gaps of past in various forms. Although there is much criticism on Buchi Emecheta’s Bride Price, in the realm of my research about the mentioned topic this aspect has been relatively overlooked. This paper is an attempt to elucidate and explore the vivid encounters of modernity and tradition with their dominances on each other from the perspective of the author who does her best to bring hope of the future back and eradicate the superstitions of the past in the sights of African varied castes by the novel Bride Price written by Buchi Emecheta. For the sake of achieving this goal, the novel will be examined from different perspectives related to feminism and the tribe’s negative attitude towards it, slavery and its permanent root in the minds , education and its influence on the way of thinking, culture and acceptance of Superstitions as real life facts in various settings (urban and rural). At the end of this investigation via this novel we will come to this conclusion that even in the darkest part of Africa there is always hope, and in order to obtain the success of altering peoples formed minds a man should fight with everything even destiny. By exploring mentioned aspects it is expected that modernization should have upper hand in our lives over tradition.