AMMA DARKO: Faceless 1. Comment on Fofo's visit to Maa Tsuru. 2. To what extent are men portrayed as oppressors of women in the novel?

Answer Details

1. Fofo's visit to Maa Tsuru. In Amma Darko's Faceless, Fofo's visit to her mother, Maa Tsuru, is a moving and revealing episode that exposes the broken bond between mother and child and the wider collapse of the family. Fofo, a street girl, returns to the home she fled in search of understanding after the murder of her sister Baby T. Instead of comfort she finds a mother worn down by poverty, superstition and the domination of men. Maa Tsuru, believed to be cursed, has surrendered her authority to the ruthless Kpakpo and is unable, or unwilling, to protect or reclaim her daughters. The visit shows the reader how neglect and hardship have severed natural affection, how a mother can fail her children under the weight of want and male manipulation, and it deepens Fofo's, and the reader's, understanding of the forces that pushed the girls onto the streets. The reunion is painful rather than tender, underlining the theme of the disintegration of the family.

2. Men as oppressors of women. To a very large extent, Faceless portrays men as oppressors of women. Nearly every female character suffers at the hands of a man. Maa Tsuru is exploited and abandoned first by Kwei, the father of her early children, and then dominated and impoverished by Kpakpo, who cares nothing for her daughters' welfare. Baby T is sexually abused, first by Onko and then by Kpakpo's arrangements, and finally forced into child prostitution that ends in her murder, all engineered or enabled by men. Fofo, too, faces the constant threat of male violence and abuse on the streets. The men in the novel exploit women sexually and economically, evade responsibility for their children, and use women as objects of pleasure and profit. Yet Darko balances this picture: not all men oppress. Kabria's husband Adade, and the men connected with the MUTE organisation and the media, work alongside the women to expose injustice and seek reform. Above all, the strong women of MUTE, Kabria, Sylv Po, Dina and others, resist and fight back, showing female agency against male oppression. So while men are largely presented as oppressors, the novel also offers examples of cooperation and hope, and celebrates women's capacity to combat their oppression.