SECTION E - African Prose LONELY DAYS - BAYO ADEBOWALE "No woman's life is ever complete without a man" How is this applicable to Yaremi in the Novel?

Answer Details

The proverb-like assertion that 'no woman's life is ever complete without a man' expresses the traditional belief that a woman needs a husband to give her worth and security. In Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days, the widow Yaremi's life is a sustained response to this claim, and in the end her example both illustrates the pressure of the belief and challenges its truth.

The pressure of the belief on Yaremi. After the death of her husband Ajumobi, Yaremi is subjected to the full weight of this traditional expectation. The community treats a womanhood without a man as incomplete. She endures the harsh widowhood rites, the suspicion and gossip of her co-wives and the village, and above all the pressure to be inherited by one of Ajumobi's kinsmen or to take another husband. Suitors and custom insist that she cannot stand alone.

Yaremi's loneliness as apparent proof. The title itself, and Yaremi's frequent memories of Ajumobi, show that widowhood does bring her real loneliness. In her solitary nights she recalls her husband's companionship, and the ache of his absence seems, at first, to confirm that a woman is diminished without a man.

Yaremi's refutation of the belief. Yet Yaremi finally resists the proverb. She rejects the suitors and refuses to be inherited, choosing dignified independence. She sustains herself through her industry as a farmer, weaver and trader, raises her voice among the widows, and finds meaning in self-reliance, memory and the respect of the young. She proves that a woman can be whole in her own right.

Balanced judgement. The novel therefore both acknowledges the emotional cost of being without a man and denies that this cost makes a woman incomplete. Yaremi's strength quietly overturns the traditional assumption.

In conclusion, the statement applies to Yaremi chiefly as a belief she confronts and overcomes. Though she feels the loneliness of widowhood, her courage, industry and self-respect show that a woman's life can be complete through her own worth, and Adebowale uses her to question the traditional view of women.