SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT AND EMPOWERMENT IN CHIMAMANDA N. ADICHIE'S PURPLE HIBISCUS

This paper explores the phenomenon of women’s disempowerment and empowerment as the result of their childhood experiences. To this end, it draws on Chimamanda N. Adichie’s novel, Purple Hibiscus. In this novel, Kambili and her brother Jaja have experienced the lifestyle of three different towns and village; Enugu, Abba and Nsukka. Enugu, their home place has been oppressive to them whereas Abba and Nsukka, their village and their aunt’s place, have favoured their empowerment. The focus is on the way Kambili’s transformation has taken place as a result of her contact with Abba and Nsukka. This experience has allowed her to compare her lifestyle to Amaka’s and her mother to Aunty Ifeoma. She feels that she has not received the right education and needs to change. She is now open up, expresses herself freely and takes responsibility. Kambili’s progress conforms with Molara Ogundipe-Leslie’s Stiwanism which confronts the family as a site for social transformation as far as gender relations are concerned.