A slippery road for the female gender

A review of Rabiat Muhammed Ganiyu’s The Making of a Total Woman by Folorunsho Moshood

THE book, The Making of a Total Woman, written by Rabiat Muhammed Ganiyu, a beneficiary of the Ebedi Writers Residency, Iseyin, is a 2020 publication of Kraft Books Limited, one of the few leading publishing outfits in Nigeria with a rich tradition of publishing poetry works.

The Making of a Total Woman is a 78-page book, which is divided into 17 chapters with most of the chapters dealing with different but interwoven themes of feminine importance. The book, written in third person singular, is an instructional material, a great guide towards making the female gender live a fulfilled life.

If life is truly a journey, every child, especially the girl-child, has a long way to go. The journey from girlhood to womanhood is a journey of answers begging for questions, and a trip of solutions searching for problems because the road leading to a fulfilled life seems to be smooth, but it is very slippery. No star has a smooth ride to stardom.

The preface and the introduction by the author as well as the foreword by Wale Okediran succinctly open the mind of the reader to what the book is set out to offer and achieve. It is all about the trip from girlhood to motherhood and beyond.

What is moving and compelling in Okediran’s foreword are actually the stages a girl-child will pass through in life before becoming a total woman. While the preface tells a well known scriptural tale of the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden and later on the planet earth in relation to marriage, the author uses the introduction to set a tone of comparison between the functionality of an ancient woman and that of a modern woman in and outside the home.

From there, the theme and sub-themes of the book explode across the page with instructional, persuasive and warning words which are skillfully combined by the author to form the directional guide for women on the road to a fulfilled life.

Chapter one, ‘The Girl-Child’, which starts with the birth of the girl-child, deals extensively with issues around the boy-child preference as they affect his female counterpart in ancient times. But in modern times, the slogan is, ‘What a man can do, a woman can even do better’. The era of choosing a spouse for her when she is ripe for marriage is gone.

In chapter two, ‘The Fiancée’, the girl-child has become a lady. The author uses this chapter to guide all ladies who are aspiring to enter into a marital life to be cautious. The guide includes dos and don’ts of the process of choosing a suitor perhaps from the pool of suitors. In all, the young lady should involve God as her guide in the selection process. In other words, the author is telling the reader that for unmarried couples,  no pre-marital sex. The author instructs every aspiring wife to cut off any man who demands for sex before marriage.

From chapter three to chapter five, the author paints the expected scenarios that a woman will encounter from the wedding day till she becomes a bride and settles down as the Chief Executive Officer for home affairs if her husband is wealthy or the Managing Director of home affairs if her husband has meager resources.

Chapter seven explains the expected changes in a new mother, especially a first-time mother, in relation to her roles and environment. The preparation for naming ceremony and what to expect during and after the ceremony are explained also in this chapter.

The travails, challenges and joy of motherhood are extensively covered from chapter eight, ‘The New Mother’ to chapter 12, ‘The Working Mother.’

The metaphor of an empty nest when the children have developed the wings given to them by their mother and father and flown away into their own respective nests thereby leaving the parental nest alone for their mother and father will interest the reader in chapter 13.

The how-to of coping with the empty nest syndrome for every parent is eye-opening and enlightening.

The golden years are nothing but old age when the woman or mother will become a senior citizen with grey hair and wisdom. It is a time for the mother to sit back and enjoy the fruits of her labour. But she needs to stay healthy.

Chapter 14 deals with what she needs to be doing and eating to stay happy and healthy for longevity.

The last three chapters directly link the power and the roles of women to community and national development.

The strength of this book lies in the fact that it is a product of qualitative research based on observations and experiences. Every moral issue that the book powerfully and gratefully pushes to the reader can be seen, proved and touched. This will make every woman to see herself in the book.

It will make the girl-child to cautiously climb the hill of childhood and view the outcrop of delightful womanhood that tells a tale of joyful pain, and a tale of painful joy.

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