literature is as old as most African societies. In Igbo and Yoruba cultures, histories are preserved, and cultural norms are passed down through folktales and fables.
1.3. "Ngambika" and the Commitment of African Female Writers.
Ngambika is a word that captures the totality of the African woman’s feminist thought or need. This phrase is used in Carole Boyce-Davies’ coedited work Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature (1986). African feminist discourses are made largely possible through female authored literatures by African women. Closely tied to stiwanism is the commitment of the African female writer (it has been said that the commitment of the African female writer is) to tell the realities of the African woman. It has been …show more content…
In this novel, Okonkwo’s wives are presented as acquisitions that can be treated any way the owner deems fit. But, readers can see women fighting back, albeit their own way, in African female authored novels. In Mariama BA, Buchi Emecheta, and Sefi Atta’s works, there seem to be common trend of women who are competitive and bold enough to get what they want or desire. Women like these either do not exist or are portrayed as bad women in male authored African literature. The question then is, do these bold, ambitious and self-assertive or self-reliant women exist in African cultures? Against Western feminist myth of the submissive traditional African women. Ogundipe corrects that, “rural women who have never heard of the Women’s Movement in the West and probably will never hear of it, have created their own patterns of emancipation, and, in the process, are spearheading social change for better or for worse” (51). These self-assertive and self-reliant women are obviously missing from most male authored literature. And these roles either positive or negative started gaining attention with the writings of Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata Aido and Mariama
1.3. "Ngambika" and the Commitment of African Female Writers.
Ngambika is a word that captures the totality of the African woman’s feminist thought or need. This phrase is used in Carole Boyce-Davies’ coedited work Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature (1986). African feminist discourses are made largely possible through female authored literatures by African women. Closely tied to stiwanism is the commitment of the African female writer (it has been said that the commitment of the African female writer is) to tell the realities of the African woman. It has been …show more content…
In this novel, Okonkwo’s wives are presented as acquisitions that can be treated any way the owner deems fit. But, readers can see women fighting back, albeit their own way, in African female authored novels. In Mariama BA, Buchi Emecheta, and Sefi Atta’s works, there seem to be common trend of women who are competitive and bold enough to get what they want or desire. Women like these either do not exist or are portrayed as bad women in male authored African literature. The question then is, do these bold, ambitious and self-assertive or self-reliant women exist in African cultures? Against Western feminist myth of the submissive traditional African women. Ogundipe corrects that, “rural women who have never heard of the Women’s Movement in the West and probably will never hear of it, have created their own patterns of emancipation, and, in the process, are spearheading social change for better or for worse” (51). These self-assertive and self-reliant women are obviously missing from most male authored literature. And these roles either positive or negative started gaining attention with the writings of Buchi Emecheta, Ama Ata Aido and Mariama