In his novel Dunia Uwanja wa Fujo (A Crazy World), author and scholar Prof Euphrase Kezilahabi questions conventional perceptions of masculinity and gender roles through the portrayal of male and female characters in a modern setting.
As he attempts to deconstruct the traditional patriarchal definition of man and woman, Prof Kezilahabi argues that masculinity is a fluid subject and that one can be masculine at one point and not at another.
The author challenges the conventional definition of masculinity through the portrayal of his female protagonist, Vera (Mama Resi), who displays masculine traits similar to those of men.
Prof Kezilahabi uses Vera as an example of women who transcend conventional gender boundaries. Through her, he dramatises how a woman can perform masculine roles that are traditionally and culturally assigned to men.
He depicts Vera fighting with a bus conductor when passengers are told to get out because it is stuck in mud and should be pushed.
Vera draws passengers’ attention, who are astounded by what they perceive to be her arrogance and aggression.
Through her, Prof Kezilahabi challenges common definitions and role play of masculinity and femininity.
Conventional patriarchal beliefs regard women as weak, non-aggressive, inferior and timid when compared to men. However, Vera disavows this notion.
She undermines masculinity and her actions are perceived as strange by those who think that a woman must be submissive, particularly before men.
Prof Kezilahabi makes it obvious that this perception is outdated. He shines a spotlight on society’s negative perception of women who try to cross traditional patriarchal boundaries by standing and fighting for their rights.
Such women are branded as stubborn and arrogant. The attitude of Tumaini, the bus conductor, towards Vera reveals fear and nervousness in the men’s world; fear because of their threatened masculinity as they do not expect to have a world where women act like a man.
Prof Kezilahabi reveals that this status quo can be destabilised when conventional gender roles are challenged in the contemporary world.
Through Vera and her husband Dennis, the author reverses gender roles by depicting a wife who assumes masculine roles and orders her husband to perform what are normally coded as female roles.
We are confronted by this situation in the scene where Vera arrives from the village with visitors and instructs her husband to cook and serve them because she is tired. Dennis agrees and acts as duly ordered.
From the traditional patriarchal perception of a man, we can argue that Dennis is feminised because he is made to perform feminine roles.
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