Sexual hegemony in Riwan or the sand path and My very own men by Ken Bugul

This article explores the use of sex as a tool of domination in two novels by the Senegalese writer Ken Bugul, namely Riwan ou le chemin de sable (1999) and Mes hommes a moi (2008). A study of these novels reveals that sex is used as a hegemonic tool, but at the same time is employed by different characters as a counter-hegemonic mechanism. The author tackles the theme of sexual hegemony differently in both novels. Riwan ou le chemin de sable portrays a situation of women in polygamous marriages. While, at the outset, this might seem to be a case of male hegemony, Ken Bugul argues that women who enter into these marriages do so willingly and have the power to make decisions. In the second novel, however, the character named Dior, who, because of the suffering she received as a young girl at the hands of men, wants to dominate men both sexually and intellectually by surpassing them and always trying to be better than them. Through the two novels, the author shows that, no matter the circumstances, women are able to break barriers and transcend conditions of marginalisation. Our reading will combine the Gramscian and the feminist approach. Postcolonial theory is also used in discussions concerning the relations between Europe and Africa, as propounded by Martins (2015) in her analysis of polygyny as a hegemonic tool.