Decimating the Goose

In an age when the rights of women are under constant and close scrutiny in the Western world, it is timely to remind ourselves of the appalling conditions in which women still spend their lives, in many parts of the African continent. Decimating the Goose is the story of Martha Clifford, who in her infancy witnessed brazen discrimination and the shoddy treatment of feminine issues in her patriarchal land of Qasabia. This is made worse by the huge prejudice against women, the marginalization and sexism: women sidelined as the `weaker sex,' told wishy-washy `feminine' stories and conditioned to be perpetually subservient to their male counterparts in the chauvinistic society. Believing that men are their oppressors and women should fight their own battles, young Martha teams up with like-minded feminists and together, they challenge their country's discriminatory laws, statutes as well as the dicta of culture, religion, tradition and customs all of which debase womanhood. Bruised, battered and imprisoned, these courageous women strive on until they are set free by the intervention of human rights groups abroad, a respite which only made them more resolute in their struggle for gender justice and egalitarianism. Martha's narrative also renders a critical assessment of her country's social life: intense corruption of the ruling class, a live-fast-and-die-young approach to life amongst youngsters, filth paraded as morality as well as the marginalization of tribes and ethnic bloc allegiances. This makes the novel an engrossing narrative so much that when a reader begins, she or he is spellbound to read it through to the end.