Question

“Women are their own enemies.” Discuss this statement deriving your Illustrations from Henry Ole Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah.

Answer 1

1. Mama Milanoi clearly brings this out when she is unable to stand up for her own daughters. Her adherence to tradition makes her a mere spectator as the girls go through torture like forced marriage to Oloisudori and even Taiyo’s forced circumcision by colluding with the Esoit women. Thus ending up an enemy to the girls.
2. The brutality and contempt witnessed as Enkoiboni addressed Resian is evidence of women being their own worst enemies. She insults and mistreats Resian by intruding her privacy when she wants to confirm whether she was pregnant. She plans for her marriage to her son and even forced circumcision without her consent. This clearly shows that women are their own worst enemies.
3. Simiren’s wives are compliant of the dictates of traditions unquestionably. When Mama Milanoi goes to seek advice pertaining Oloisudori’s case, they tell her that she and her husband were behaving like the proverbial greedy hyena that straddled two parallel paths with the ridiculous intention of reaching two destinations simultaneously so as not to miss the meals in either places. Yeiyo botorr also concludes that Resian has evil spirits when she stands her ground and also questions the nerve of the men sitting comfortably and waiting for food to be brought by women.
4. Female circumcision was perpetrated by the women themselves as they tried to fight the torture and oppression metted to them by the Ilarinkon warriors. They simply are the reason that they have to contend with F.G.M today. All the perpetrators of female circumcision are women to an extent that Taiyo composed a song for the three women calling them “three blind mice” i.e. the Enkamuratani, (circumciser), the (spy) enkasakutoni and enkaitoyoni(midwife).