Title: IS THE FUTURE FEMALE?
Author: OKEY NWAMADI
Publisher: GOLDRIDGE PUBLISHING
YEAR: 2021
pagination: 173
Reviewer: HENRY AKUBUIRO
By Henry Akubuiro
Is the Future Female? Okey Nwamadi, Goldridge Publishing, 2021, pp. 173
Okey Nwamadi doesn’t only interrogate life’s realities in his literary works, as a bard and a novelist, he also promotes family and Christian values in his writings. He is also concerned with the place of females in the scheme of things and how the world would become a better place with mutual coexistence.
Enter Is the Future Female? The rhetorical question posed on the cover page of Nwamadi’s latest book with the photo of smiling females is attention riveting. Even if you are the patriarchal godfather, it’s highly enticing to explore its content and not merely second-guess where the author is going.
Reading through the book, one is easily struck by the author’s stylistic collage and symmetry in vision. There is a coalescent melding of experiential, ecclesiastical, scholarly and social nuggets in the book in a way that is mentally seductive.
Nwamadi envisages an ideal environment for men and women to realise they are natural partners in the development of society. He desires to see a world that encourage boys and girls to practise love from an early age, as well as dismantling cultures, philosophies and orientations that fosters discrimination between sexes.
This exciting new book is structured in three parts, which, among others, addresses topics such as enthroning female consciousness, gender equality, role of men in building stronger family relationships, significance of the womb, and why women matter. The marvel of Nwamadi’s discourse is that he makes it difficult for you to accuse him of condescending. He is not a nerd, needless to say. His remedial approach stems from a desire for a harmonious existence, not one that privileges a particular gender over the other.
For us to appreciate the injustice meted on women, the author writes:
“Society has been unfair to women: it questions their rights to reproduction, refuses to educate and empower them, discriminate and stigmatise them and yet expect love from them. This is the height of insensitivity…” (p. 25).
Hence, Nwamadi advocates for parenting as the starting point to shaping society, because, when we start from the home to help young people develop the right mindset or gender perspectives, it will be easier for them to absorb the right values on gender relationships when they are grown.
Using biblical references in the first chapter, the author echoes the creation of man and woman. We are told that what God had in mind while creating a woman was “completeness for man”. Thus, a woman is what illuminates him (man) and makes him shine, or as the author puts it, “a beauty put in front of man to shape his ruddiness” (p. 35). For God designed a man and woman to be together from the beginning, the author struggles to understand same-sex unions.
Using his own marital experience as an example, the author says there is hope for couples who grow up through unfavourable circumstances, which explains why they should “taste the love and care of God in Christ Jesus and go through a healthy mind renewal process before entering any committed relationships” (p. 36).
Nwamadi calls on men, especially husbands, to rise up as feminist enthusiasts as a means of encouraging our women to maximise their potentials. For one, their economic and socio-political aspirations are critical for the development of Africa.
The beginning of the second part of the book says that girls are like sculptures in a palace. It is the duty of their parents to help them build self confidence by flattering them more often than not. The author recounts his personal encounter with his daughter when she was nine when he calmed her agitated mind by telling her, “Remember, pretty girls don’t cry. It spoils their faces,” which worked a little later. This book teaches us that parenting is an art to diligently carve the destiny of a daughter, shaping her to indeed look like a pillar standing in a palace (p. 80).
Nwamadi’s book enlightens parents to watch out for shifty tendencies in the girl child and correct them early in life. Again, a man who pays attention to his wife will not find it difficult to relate with his daughters. Besides, a man’s emotional intelligence of a girl child is invaluable, says the book.
Readers will find it interesting to savour the topics on girls and courage, birthing nations, etc.
In chapter three, which is the titular chapter, the author takes time to address the future of womanhood. He emphasises the imperative of supporting the girl child to leverage the post-Covid 19 change to define a new identity. In order to chart a new course, he offers five powerful nuggets to maximise (find out for yourself in the third chapter).
The determined girl child, Nwamadi tells us, has no reason to fail, for the odds are in her favour, and the future is waiting for her. The author cautions, however, that “that future is not hers alone: it is a future she will build with a man”. I recommend this book for women, as well as men. Everybody is important.