Author Interrogates Negative Effects of the Silence Culture

An author and strategic communicator, Nono Ogochukwu Eloike, has radically interrogated the negative effects of the silence culture on women through her self-help book ‘Ichabod’. 

The engagement took place during her first book reading event, weekend, at Ouida Lagos. The event had distinguished journalists, authors, book lovers, feminists and liberalists present to unanimously denounce the silence culture and chart the cause for an envisaged future for women.

Through her book, ‘Ichabod: Daughters Who Did Not Inherit their Mothers Silence’, Eloike narrated a unique, but powerful story using realistic happenstances and events on how women for centuries have sacrificed their purpose and destinies in exchange for societal approval through marriage. 

The author argued that feminism benefits the society immensely, not just women because it promotes right of choice and self-determination which allows people to be more authentic and honest in their way of life. The author pointed out that women are constantly evolving due to their nature of being custodian of human continuity, thus, there is always mental, physical and spiritual evolutionary changes taking place within a woman. 

“These changes demand that she changes too, thus, it is unnatural and unhealthy for a man to force a woman to remain the same as he met her because he is insecure with her becoming.”

On the other hand, she argued that men arrive at their purpose early in life as they are usually birthed in a society that fosters their right of encourage and consider independence of will as masculine and not a feminine trait. “This partial societal expectations and norms fosters pretentious living amongst women pushing them to make choices that they would usually not make if they had autonomy of will and resource.”

Eloike added that if women and men would help and support more women to be authentic and make life choices before marriage, divorce rate will significantly decline because parties intending to marry will get to know truthfully themselves before taking the marital vows. This way, there won’t be any surprises or shock of one outgrowing the other.

“The institutionalization of the silence culture births impunity, femicide and the suppression of women. In such a a society, women who speak their minds and are actively deciding the trajectory of their lives are called stubborn, unmarriageable, loud and unsubmissive. “Usually, what a patriarchal society calls submission is subjugation. That is, forcefully taking from women their will power and right of agency so that they can follow through an already established process which is designed to serve patriarchy with little or no benefit for women,” Eloike said.

The event was an inspiring meeting of likeminded women and men who convened to denounce their rights of silence in the face of impunity. 

Women were encouraged to produce seeds and outcomes that will establish their presence on earth and stop living lives by the sidelines. 

They were advised to learn to own their successes and victories more than they own the pressure, their weaknesses and failures.

The book reading ended with a book signing session, meet and greet with the author and a photo session with participants.