New Women's Writing in African Literature (review)

This is the first issue of the African Literature journal to be edited by Ernest Emenyonu. He took over from the well-respected Eldred Durosimi Jones who founded the journal about thirty-five years ago. It is therefore appropriate that this issue is dedicated to Eldred and Marjorie Jones in recognition of their labor. The journal formerly known as African Literature Today has certainly scored marks in the criticism of African literatures, especially through its policy in dedicating specific issues to themes and genres like the novel; poetry; criticism; drama; the links between Africa, America, and the Caribbean; myth and history; women in African literature; oral and written poetry; the question of Language; orature; critical theory; new trends and generations; childhood; and exile and Southern African literature. It is indeed a wide canvas that demonstrates the scope of current issues in African literatures. Emenyonu follows the precedent set by the former editor of African Literature Today no. 15 by widening the scope in this first issue he has edited, entitled New Women's Writing in African Literature.

The editorial rightly stresses that "the rapid upsurge of writing by African women in the last two decades of the twentieth century was a most striking phenomenon in the development of modern African literature. It was not only apparent in the quantity and variety of output but also in the quality and craftsmanship of the writing. There have been remarkable innovative stylistic experimentations as well as thematic expansions into uncharted waters, alien domains and incursions into hitherto taboo subjects" (xi). The selection of articles in the present volume is continental in coverage and on female writers from Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Cameroon, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and of course South Africa. Unfortunately, there are no articles devoted to North African women writers, which could be a result of the problems associated with translating their works into English and the impediments arising from the poor distribution of books. But Emenyonu cannot be blamed, for an editor assesses only those articles submitted and, moreover, solicited articles may fail to get to the editor due to varied reasons. Nevertheless, New Women's Writing in African Literature is rich and it provides several interesting aspects that could be interrogated, assimilated, or appreciated.

Interestingly, the first essay is on the female poets from Northern Nigeria, an area that is often associated with the restrictions of the purdah tradition of Muslim culture. In this essay, Aderemi Raji-Oyelede in his survey of these female poets perceives their emergence as desert flowers. He discusses the poetry of Hannatu Abdullahi, Maria Ajima, Nana Ahmed, Binta Mohammed, Cecilia Kato, and Hauwa Sambo and arrives at a predictable conclusion. He observes that the main preoccupations of the poets include a romantic concern for the environment; celebration of motherhood, sisterhood, and womanhood; an unobtrusive critique of patriarchy and religion and representations of the vagaries of love. The primacy of love in these poems is unsurprising considering the fact that most fledgling poets commence with this theme. Raji-Oyelede concludes that aesthetically "much of the literary work from this region is marked by simple poetic diction, sometimes inventive and successful, and sometimes commonplace and uninspiring" (18). There is no doubt that the apt use of imagery enhances the writing of poetry, but then the harvest of a new generation of female poets from Northern Nigeria is just beginning and there is the hope that the desert flowers will bloom, multiply, and become attractive in their variety.

Two essays by Femi Osofisan and Ijeoma Nwajiaku discuss the works of Akachi Ezeigbo in comparison with Promise Okekwe (Osofisan) and in comparison with Chinwe Okechukwu (Nwajiaku). Osofisan is fascinated by the industry and prolific nature of Ezeigbo and Okekwe in producing fiction against the background of economic destabilization and political woes of their country. He uses the trilogy produced by Akachi Ezeibgo to illustrate her attempts at creating credible heroines as counterpoints...