Choiceless Choices: Constructing the Female Child’s Body in Tola Rotimi Abraham’s Black Sunday

Abstract

This article investigates constructions of the female child’s body in Tola Rotimi Abraham’s Black Sunday. It is premised on the idea that society discursively constructs (condemns) female children as tacit subjects in the Nigeria depicted in the novel; and that they have no choice but submit to the dictates of patriarchy in order to survive a harsh and unforgiving environment. Using Lawrence Langer’s notion of choiceless choice, the article argues that because of the existential predicament she finds herself in, the female child is forced to take a decision that is motivated by survival and lack of choice. Such form of choicelessness contributes to images of the fragmented female child’s body and identity, and it is the source of the unending forms of abuse women and girls suffer at the hands of patriarchy. The article further argues for choiceless choice as a form of resistance that the twin girls in Abraham's Black Sunday adopt to navigate the existential predicament they find themselves in.