The portrayal of women’s rights violation in the Ugandan novel (1979 - 2006)

Abstract

This research studied women’s rights violations in the Ugandan novels. In the scope of this study, women’s rights traversed were those that fall within social-economic rights.

The research puts across two major arguments in correlating the Ugandan novel and women rights; the first argument is that the Ugandan novel lays emphasis on women rights violations and the second argument is that male and female Ugandan novelists offer different perspectives and emphasize different issues in their depiction of human rights violations. From this angle the research identifies and discusses women’s social-economic rights violations. It also compares the portrayal of these rights violations by male and female Ugandan authors.

The research studies human rights as fundamental human needs without which people are unable to follow up other human ambitions. In this line the study appeals to people’s desire for some baseline liberty and opportunity, a subsistence amount of income and wealth, living in a stable and secure social context and a provision for at least minimal respect and dignity. The novels discussed have been interrogated in light of these baseline objects of fundamental interest for every human being and also in line with the realities of the societies of these novels. The research, particularly notes the fluid relationship between human rights activism and human rights violation, since often times, the celebration of our rights doubles as the violation of other people’s rights. In studying human rights in Ugandan novels, this research has taken on a qualitative research approach though as part of data collection, the researcher had conversations with two of the six authors. He interacted with two because; they are the only ones who were willing to freely talk about their novels. The research found out that both male and female authors variously depict women’s rights violation though women authors depicted such rights violation more as conscience commitment on their part unlike their male counterparts depicted these violations as part of women’s broader society. As such there were more liberative actions taken by characters in the women authored novels than in their male counterparts. Giving a human rights perspective to the Ugandan novel proved a worthwhile engagement since it has provided new angles from which to view Ugandan literature especially considering that most Ugandan literature depicts social reality.