TITLE:
Africana Womanist Perspectives in the Selected Works of African Women Novelists/Writers
AUTHORS:
Rita Ndonibi
KEYWORDS:
Subjugation, Africana Womanism, Motherhood, Marriage, Women Liberation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.5,
May
30,
2023
ABSTRACT: The issue of women subjugation in the social,
cultural, political and economic space has been and still is a very active
debate. Flora Nwapa in her novel Efuru,
stresses on the dichotomies of marital subjugation. Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi
Emecheta and Ama Darko in their respective novels, Changes, Second Class Citizen and Beyond the Horizon, respectively, present these very challenges of
women in marriages and the professional/work space. As such this paper takes a
look at the subjugation of women in marriages and professional/work space,
using the already mentioned writers and their respective novels. The discussion will be done against the backdrop of
Clenora Hudson-Weems theory of Africana Womanism where she highlights
the most salient tenets and attributes of
Africana Womanism thus centering on, self-naming, motherhood and
recognition and flexibility. Following from the study, it is conspicuous that
the fight for women liberation (Hudson-Weems, 1993) in marriages and the
professional work space are ancient challenges that continue to journey with
the female gender. If given good education and the chance to own their world,
the African woman can change the world together with her counterpart which is
the call of all these women writers.