Violence Against Women: A Reading of Amma Darko’s Faceless

Abstract

Abstract: Despite the increasing worldwide interest for a society without discrimination, the space occupied by contemporary African women is still a domain that needs a close examination. Literature being the domain of visibility and audibility, especially in problematizing African women’s space, several researchers have interrogated Amma Darko’s Faceless from various angles, to point out the socio economic and political problems faced by women and or children (basically girl children); but, however, our reading of the novel presents alternative realities that are not yet evoked. That is, in Faceless, Amma Darko does not only voice the problems of African women, to strike women’s awareness to break the yoke of silence, but, also and mainly, the novel is addressed to the leaders whose attitudes and conspiracy of silence have exposed women to various kind of violence. For Darko, the truth of the matter is that in a society where there is “the National Commission on Children, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, FIDA, the Nation Council on Women and Development and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice” (Darko, 2013:182), security issue, in general, and women’s security, in particular, should not be a matter of personal concern or even that of any non-governmental organizations such as MUTE. Within the framework of gender studies, our findings have revealed that not only women are marginalized but also and mainly that the marginalization is due to the loss of priorities by the government.