Zed Books Writing African Women: Gender, Popular Culture and Literature in West Africa (African Culture Archive)

How does our understanding of Africa shift when we begin from the perspective of women? What can the African perspective offer theories of culture and of gender difference? This work, as unique and insightful today as when it was first published, brings together a wide variety of African academics and other researchers to explore the links between literature, popular culture and theories of gender. Beginning with a ground-breaking overview of African gender theory, the book goes on to analyse women's writing, uncovering the ways different writers have approached issues of female creativity and colonial history, as well as the ways in which they have subverted popular stereotypes around African women. The contributors also explore the related gender dynamics of mask performance and oral story-telling.  This major analysis of gender in popular and postcolonial cultural production remains essential reading for students and academics in women's studies, cultural studies and literature. Review ‘Clear, informed thinking about the gendered nexus of culture and power is needed more than ever. The new publication of Newell’s collection is an event to be applauded, and its contents to be pondered.’ Wendy Griswold, from the Foreword About the Author Stephanie Newell is a professor of English at the Yale University, specialising in West African literature. Her other books include The Power to Name: A History of Anonymity in Colonial West Africa (2013) and The Forgers Tale: The Search for Odeziaku (2006). Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Writing African Women Gender, Popular Culture and Literature in West Africa By Stephanie Newell Zed Books Ltd Copyright © 1997 Stepehanie NEwell All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-78699-069-3 Contents Acknowledgements, Foreword by Wendy Griswold, INTRODUCTION Writing African women: gender, popular culture and literature in West Africa STEPHANIE NEWELL, PART I Theory and Politics, 1 Reading towards a theorization of African women's writing: African women writers within feminist gynocriticism NANA WILSON-TAGOE, 2 Masculinity: the military, women and cultural politics in Nigeria BAYO OGUNJIMI, 3 Women's role in Ghana's social development AKOSUA GYAMFUAA-FOFIE, PART II Literatures, 4 A life on the women's page: Treena Kwenta's Diary JANE BRYCE, 5 Recovering lost voices: the short stories of Mabel Dove-Danquah NAANA JANE OPOKU-AGYEMANG, 6 Rewriting popular myths of female subordination: selected stories by Theodora Adimora-Ezeigbo and May Ifeoma Nwoye CHINYERE GRACE OKAFOR, 7 Gender conflict in Flora Nwapa's novels THEODORA AKACHI EZEIGBO, 8 Culture and gender semantics in Flora Nwapa's poetry OBODODIMMA OHA, 9 Behind the veil in northern Nigeria: the writing of Zaynab Alkali and Hauwa Ali MARGARET HAUWA KASSAM, 10 The onus of womanhood: Mariama Ba and Zaynab Alkali IBIYEMI MOJOLA, 11 Narrative technique and the politics of gender: Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy and No Sweetness Here CHIOMA OPARA, PART III Popular Culture, 12 Hausa women as oral storytellers in northern Nigeria SANI ABBA ALIYU, 13 Gender politics in West African mask performance CHINYERE GRACE OKAFOR, 14 Anatomy of masculine power: three perspectives on marriage and gender in Nigerian non-fiction STEPHANIE NEWELL, 15 Gender tempered through metal: women in metal-casting in Benin City, Nigeria ADEPEJU LAYIWOLA, Index, CHAPTER 1 Reading towards a theorization of African women's writing: African women writers within feminist gynocriticism NANA WILSON-TAGOE The writing of African women has frequently been read within a representational problematic in which the text becomes merely the image of a given reality. In such a context critical evaluation remains trapped in surface descriptions and analyses which tend to elicit only the normative knowledge of the writing. A reading of African women's writing within a feminist framework can bring new energy a