African Female Writers

Paper Summary:

Emergence of oppressed African women. How their texts reveal rebellion against the cultural expectations of their society. Examines eight books. Subject matter includes cultural differences that separate Western women from African women. African womanism vs. Western feminism. Colonial oppression. Husband/wife relationships. Role of the African matriarch. Emergence of female identity.

From the Paper:

"Finding the Oppressed Voice in the African Female Text


Amidst the sound and the fury of their lives that are controlled by colonialists and the men, African women's voices have been stifled. However, the voices of the African women rebelling against the cultural expectations of them to be silent and submissive can be discerned within the texts of Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, Bessie Head's Maru, Sindiwe Magona's Mother to Mother, Ama Ata Aidoo's Changes: A Love Story, Calixthe Beyala's The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me, Assia Djebar's A Sister to Scheherazade, Nawal El Saadawi's God Dies by the Nile and Emecheta Buchi's The Joys of Motherhood.
Unmediated by the bias of male authors, these writers illuminate the oppressive relationship between man and wife in many African households. Through their eyes, readers from the..."

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