Oral Tradition as Feminist Counter-Discourse: Reconfiguring Patriarchy in Alobwed’Epie’s The Lady With a Beard

This study examines the intersection of oral tradition and gender dynamics within an African cultural context, arguing that patriarchal structures embedded in oral forms have historically silenced women’s voices while simultaneously providing tools for their resistance and self-assertion. In many traditional societies, women have functioned primarily as listeners rather than narrators of their own histories due to entrenched patriarchal norms (Lerner, 1986, p. 212). Drawing on feminist and African womanist theory, this paper explores how oral traditions—proverbs, rituals, songs, folktales, and praise forms—serve as cultural repositories that construct and reinforce gender roles in Bakossi society as represented in Emmanuel Alobwed’Epie’s The Lady With a Beard (Alobwed’Epie, 2005, p. 14). The study further demonstrates that although these traditions have often relegated women to passive roles, female characters in the novel appropriate the same cultural spaces that marginalize them to articulate agency, narrate their experiences, and challenge patriarchal authority (Nnaemeka, 2013, p. 364). Through qualitative textual analysis of the novel alongside ethnographic insights into Bakossi oral culture, the paper shows how Alobwed’Epie’s use of orality reveals the profound impact of gendered cultural norms on the African woman while simultaneously envisioning transformation. The emergence of the “new African woman”, embodied in the protagonist Emade, signifies a shift from silent endurance toward active negotiation of power and identity (Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994, p. 32). Ultimately, the study advocates a redefinition of gender roles grounded in cultural continuity yet oriented toward equity, asserting that oral tradition can function not only as a repository of patriarchy but also as a medium of feminist reconstruction and social change.