The apex of Neria’s(1991) narrative is brought out by a court drama that pits the plaintive Neria—
against the defendant, Phineas. In a cross-examination encounter, Phineas is asked by the lawyer why he sees himself fit to take custody of his brother’s family as well as inherit his property. His response is that: (1) he is entitled to inherit his bother’s property because he is a blood relative; (2) he fears that Neria would end up taking everything to a new her husband if she gets married again;
(3) it was quite ‘natural’ as tradition dictates that he should look after his brother’s family; (4) children are complaining that they are not having enough food, and that Neria is now finding it difficult to raise school fees for the children; (5) as a traditional man he has no problem looking after his brother’s family since he has a shop and cattle that he can use as source of income;(6) and that he thinks Neria is emotionally disturbed to a point where she can abuse the children so he sees it fit to protect children from Neria’s occasional emotional out-bursts.
The cultural humus in Phineas’ submission is grounded in a worn-out traditional system that is desperately attempts to provide rationale humanity that has no other multiple worlds containing complex challenges. It is outdated, but ironically, its modernity is its capacity to be recalled in the
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‘present’ in order to police the cultural boundaries of what African womanhood should aspire to be.
This exploitative version of African tradition survives by projecting its values as natural. It resents other narratives that question its own truths. It inhibits imagining other potential and democratic practices that Africa had and can have in the future. The tradition knows itself through a valorization of values that are projected as forming the totality of African cultural meanings (Wolffe, 1992). The language describing Neria as emotionally disturbed justifies, and re-enforces the traditionally ingrained stereotypes of women as ‘tender and emotionally weak’ (Brooks-Gunn & Matthews, 1979:
19-20).
In a stereotype as formalised cultural censorship, ‘naturalisation’ is favourabe for its capability to normalise an exploitative process while attempt to contain social change. A version of African customary law favored by Phineas threatens to foreclose critical debate on changing African identities. It tries to ‘arrest’ culturally possible ideas on changing values from which new human agency can be realised. The version obscures reality and hopes to achieve the silencing or censoring of new ideas by invoking a language of cultural purity and vacuous spiritual authenticity.
In the film Neria, the traditionalising discourse from Phineas is mocked. For example, in another scene, as the court adjoins a group of women reassure Neria through song:
Neria rambawakashinga /Neria be strong and stead fast/Dzamara wasvika kumagumo/Till you reach to the end of the case/Neria rambawakashinga/Neria be strong and stead fast/Dzamara wasvika kumagumo/Till you reach to the end of the case
In presenting a scene where only women are seen encouraging a fellow woman, the filmic narrative of Neria(1991) is attempting to supply cultural scaffolds based on the view of African sisterhood. It seems as if women realize that they are weakened by men when women allow themselves to be set against each other. To this extent, the film Neria tends to be moving away from the stereotype of a
‘weak’ woman and of women as socially disorganised. This new agency is meant to undermine patriarchal aspirations that would seek to silence the voice of women. An idea of a civic organisation created to defend women’s rights is in the making in Neria. This organization is significant in fighting collective censorship of women’s rights. Speaking with a collective voice, it would be difficult to censor women’s views. The triumph of this ‘feminist’ narrative that seeks to oppose the institutionalisation of silencing of women is made possible in the modern courts where some more enlightened African men pass judgment that undercut Phineas’ authoritarian and totalitarian
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traditionalist views on inheritance of property of a deceased relative who is survived by a wife and children.
In passing the judgment, the modern court charges Phineas with a criminal offence of harassing a widow, expropriating the estate of the deceased without consent from the wife and negatively affect the emotional feelings of the children. The custody of the children remains with Neria, and Phineas was told to retain back all the properties that he had forcefully taken from Neria’s house. At the rural home, Neria refused to choose a husband that will look after her, and instead, selected his son as one who will look after her. Ambuya, speaking as the voice of traditional women, finally acknowledges that cultural practices must be adjusted to the changing times, and finally sides with her daughter-in-law. Her transition from being a hard core supporter of the traditional customary law of inheritance, to one woman that appreciates modern values that bestows independence on women to choose their destinies reflects the shifting and ‘contestable’ nature of traditions and cultures as they battle to legitimise themselves within the public domain where other radicalising discourses are taking centre stage. To this extent, Neria succeeds in undermining culturally constructed censorship attitudes embedded in obscurantist attitudes found in certain traditionalising discourses authorised by patriarchy.
In Neria the loss of women’s rights are embedded in the unwritten African customary law. This law is unstable and can be interpreted in abusive ways. It seems therefore, that for years the African patriarchy has used customary law to censor, prevent, inhibit and even determine the careers that women could assume in a traditional setting. Because these traditional and fragmentary laws were pitted against the humanity of black women, through Neria it has been shown that a pre-condition for unshackling women from the violence of this law was to confront its assumption in a more superior and modern court. In other words, censorship of women’s views is embedded in their everyday cultural practices that they have received from past generations. At the same time, cultural censorship of women can be destroyed when women begin to wield superior knowledge of how they are oppressed and also when they acquire knowledge related to what they need to do to undermine these forms of culturally engrained censorship practices.
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