Vol. 6, Issue 2, Part C (2024)

The term "gender dynamics" describes how gender shapes and influences interpersonal interactions, behaviours, relationships, positions, opportunities, and power structures within a community or society. It always shakes things up by challenging old norms and pushing for new ways of relating to each other. Gender dynamics also show a complex mix of power relationships between masculinity and femininity influenced by personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and historical contexts. It continues to evolve with cultural, social, and historical changes. Gender dynamics is about how men and women experience and express their identities in the convergence of race, class, sex and disability in society. In gender dynamics, masculinity and femininity are social constructs rather than biological commands. In postcolonial societies, masculinity describes how colonial histories and legacies shape gender roles and identities to hold power and identity. On the other hand, postcolonial feminity establishes the collective strength, resistance and solidarity to subvert the masculine power found in traditions and cultural practices. This gender dynamics focus on the masculine control over women to marginalise, suppress and oppress them, on the contrary, women strive to decolonize the double colonization executed by the colonial powers and the phallogocentric dominance in their own communities. In Africa, Bessie Head is a renowned feminist writer due to her exploration of gender, identity, and the struggles faced by women in her novels and stories. Her feminist writings critique patriarchal systems and their impact on women's lives across race, class and gender. Her female characters often challenge traditional gender roles to seek autonomy and self-definition. This research paper explores the discourses of gender dynamics to examine the hegemonic subversion of men and the solidarity of women in Bessie Head’s The Collector of Treasures (1977). It also focuses on how Bessie Head reproduces the character of Dikeledi Mokopi to challenge domestic violence, gender inequality, and patriarchal marginalization to solidify a strong bond of sisterhood and womanhood in African black society.