Hegemonic masculinity, with patriarchal supremacy and female subservience are the norms of many African societies. Suffering in silence goes along with the traditional place of woman in African societies as they observe sexist hierarchy of power. Physical attack and its wounds flourish in an atmosphere of secrecy and silence. Silence to such…

Emecheta's writing gives an impression to readers that specifically, Nigerian culture is passive and patriarchal and that she does not see a suitable position for women in such a depressing male dominated society. The pivotal issues in the novel are slavery, motherhood, marriage and African traditions over its influence of the modern world.…

This paper explores the conflicting points of view of the narrator and Saeed in Tayyib Salih's novel. Their conflict emanates from psychological and ideological sources and foreshadows their relations with the western civilization and women. While some scenes and events of the novel introduce Saeed as an alter ego or double of the narrator for…

What strategies does a female writer develop to overcome her anxiety of correcting the moral decadence in her society? Inappropriate as the use of pornography and profanity must have always seemed, Amma Darko has managed to put some positive and meritorious spins on them and seriously use them. In this paper, we examine how in two books,…

This study has attempted to revisit gender issues presented in the New Literatures of Africa in English to investigate whether there is, indeed, an alternative vision of these issues. In spite of the great contributions of female writers in this literature, it has continued to be a male-dominated terrain. It is from this perspective that we…

This study reframes Yvonne Vera's novel, "The Stone Virgins" as a potential secondary school literature text in the Zimbabwean curriculum through which a pedagogy of expiation could be re-imagined. The argument is that the traumatic experiences that Zimbabwe has gone through as a nation require open re-engagement and debate. The study…

The essays in this collection discuss multicultural issues in children's and adolescent literature, focusing particularly on African and African American cultures. They challenge everyone's understanding of what, in an age of globalization, multicultural texts really are. Cumulatively, these essays illustrate multicultural literature's power to…

Zora Neale Hurston, in "TEWWG," deconstructs the image of two important literary tropes that were deeply embedded in the African American literary tradition: the dispirited black female and the tragic mulatto. Both of these characters, Nanny as the dispirited black female and Janie as the tragic mulatto, are haunted by their traumatic histories.…

Discusses eight novels by the following female novelists from Africa: (1) Buchi Emecheta; (2) Flora Nwapa; (3) Bessie Head; and (4) Mariama Ba. Explores customs and attitudes that cause the most suffering to their female characters. Examines signs of change which suggest hope for the elimination of these causes. (JS)

In today's interconnected and global society, socially responsive learning is an integral part of educational excellence. This book encourages socially responsive learning by showing the reader how to use traditional African folk tales and quality children's books, young adult novels, classic literature, and film media about Africa as the mode for…