Disruption of Gender Norms to Advance Contemporary Politics: A Radical Feminist Analysis of Efo Kodjo Mawugbe's In the Chest of a Woman
Abstract
This paper deconstructs leadership and kingship politics in the Ghanaian West-African culture as it pertains to gender. It proves that what governs the concept of the throne is unequivocally masculine and simply a game. The thesis further argues the need to encourage subversively radical methods in dealing with entrenched sexism that permeate the royal system and the current political system. Through Efo Kodjo Mawugbe's play In the Chest of a Woman, the research establishes that the concept of power in the Ghanaian traditional system is rigid and, consequently, requires unorthodox deviance to challenge gender oppression. It concludes that for women in Ghana to have any substantive political transformation, radicalism must be reconceptualized and integrated into West-African feminism for activism purposes and not avoided entirely.