In this Book

summary
African Women Writing Resistance is the first transnational anthology to focus on women’s strategies of resistance to the challenges they face in Africa today.  The anthology brings together personal narratives, testimony, interviews, short stories, poetry, performance scripts, folktales, and lyrics. Thematically organized, it presents women’s writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital cutting, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile.
    Contributors include internationally recognized authors and activists such as Wangari Maathai and Nawal El Saadawi, as well as a host of vibrant new voices from all over the African continent and from the African diaspora. Interdisciplinary in scope, this collection provides an excellent introduction to contemporary African women’s literature and highlights social issues that are particular to Africa but are also of worldwide concern.  It is an essential reference for students of African studies, world literature, anthropology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and women’s studies.
 
 
A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association

Best Books for High Schools, Best Books for Special Interests, and Best Books for Professional Use, selected by the American Association of School Libraries

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Frontmatter
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-xi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface: Roots of the Collection
  2. pp. xiii-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xv-xviii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Foreword: A Song in Seven Stanzas for Our Granddaughters
  2. pp. xix-xxi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. African Women Writing Resistance: An Introduction
  2. pp. 3-11
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 1. Engaging with Tradition
  1. The Day When God Changed His Mind
  2. pp. 15-21
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Old Woman
  2. pp. 22-26
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Interview with Kaya a Mbaya (Congo), a Babongo Woman
  2. pp. 27-32
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Interview with Elisabeth Bouanga (Congo-Brazzaville): Remembrance of Things Past
  2. pp. 33-38
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 2. Speaking Out: Young Women on Sexuality
  2. pp. 39-41
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Woman Weep No More
  2. pp. 43-49
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Letters to My Cousin
  2. pp. 50-58
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Story of Faith
  2. pp. 59-74
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Lovesung for a Father, with Poet’s Note
  2. pp. 75-83
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. It’s Not Rape If . . .
  2. p. 84
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. To Be or Not to Be a Lesbian: The Dilemma of Cameroon’s Women Soccer Players
  2. pp. 85-89
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. My Name Is Kasha
  2. pp. 90-92
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Cosmo Africa and Other Poems
  2. pp. 93-95
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 3. Challenging the Institution of Marriage
  2. pp. 97-99
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Child
  2. pp. 101-103
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Hailstones on Zamfara
  2. pp. 104-117
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Good Woman
  2. pp. 118-130
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Ngomwa
  2. pp. 131-139
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. They Came in the Morning
  2. pp. 140-148
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Battle of the Words: Oratory as Women’s Tool of Resistance to the Challenges of Polygamy in Contemporary Wolof Society
  2. pp. 149-166
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 4. Focusing on Survival: Women’s Health Issues
  2. pp. 167-169
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Tell Me Why: Two Poems
  2. pp. 171-173
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Surviving Me
  2. pp. 174-191
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Struggle to End the Practice of Female Genital Mutilation
  2. pp. 192-197
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Slow Poison
  2. pp. 198-209
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Just Keep Talking: Two Poems
  2. pp. 210-211
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Tell Me a Lie
  2. pp. 212-213
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Prayers and Meditation Heal Despair
  2. pp. 214-217
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 5. Taking a Stand: Women as Activists against War, Environmental Degradation, and Social Conflict
  2. pp. 219-221
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. A Poem Written in the Ink of the Blood Shed in Rwanda, with Poet’s Note
  2. pp. 223-227
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Excerpt from Biography of Ash
  2. pp. 228-234
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Women’s Responses to State Violence in the Niger Delta
  2. pp. 235-247
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Excerpt from Child Soldier: Fighting for My Life
  2. pp. 248-258
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Don’t Get Mad, Get Elected! A Conversation with Activist Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
  2. pp. 259-263
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 6. Writing from a Different Place: Perspectives on Exile and Diaspora
  1. Musings of an African Woman: Excerpts from a Memoir in Progress
  2. pp. 267-272
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. A Moroccan Woman in the Glocal Village: Reflections on Islam, Identity, and Cultural Legacies
  2. pp. 273-280
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Knowing Your Place
  2. pp. 281-284
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Letter to Clara
  2. pp. 285-291
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 7. Standing at the Edge of Time: African Women’s Visions of the Past, Present, and Future
  1. “We Are Our Grandmothers’ Dreams”: African Women Envision the Future
  2. pp. 295-312
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Liberation
  2. pp. 313-314
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Suggestions for Further Reading
  2. pp. 315-325
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contributors
  2. pp. 327-337
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.