Peaceful Home and Character Development: the Womanist Impression for Nation Building as Expressed in Nwapa’s Efuru

Abstract

The first social environment a child finds himself or herself is the home. Every child imitates and emulates what he or she sees or hear from the parents particularly the mother. The child spends most of his or her time with the mother at infancy. The interactions at home especially the attitudes of the parents, their belief and dispositions to issues and situations generally go a long way to mold the character of their child (ren). This paper examines the womanist submission about nation building considering the fact that how people behave what people do in the public are reflections of what they are back home. The opinion is that the home should be made conducive (peaceful home) for desirable character development. African women play vital role in this regard. This is the impression of Nwapa, Flora as presented in Efuru. The conclusion is that, human deficiencies should be forgiven while virtues should be appreciated.  So, husbands and wives should co-operatively work and pull resources together to achieve results and ensure peaceful homes which in turn make a peaceful nation.