Finding the Oppressed Voice in the African Female Text
Amidst the sound and the fury of their lives that are controlled by colonialists and the men, African women's voices have been stifled. However, the voices of the African women rebelling against the cultural expectations of them to be silent and submissive can be discerned within the texts of Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions, Bessie Head's Maru, Sindiwe Magona's Mother to Mother, Ama Ata Aidoo's Changes: A Love Story, Calixthe Beyala's The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me, Assia Djebar's A Sister to Scheherazade, Nawal El Saadawi's God Dies by the Nile and Emecheta Buchi's The Joys of Motherhood.
Unmediated by the bias of male authors, these writers illuminate the oppressive relationship between man and wife in many African households. Through their eyes, readers from the Western world can begin to understand the vast cultural differences that separate Western women from African women. Therefore, in their attempt to forge an united stance against female oppression, it is essential that Western feminists acknowledge these fundamental differences.
In order for African women to rise above their oppressed status, they need to tap into the powerful and unique female energy that radiates from their unique voices that deviate from the ethnocentric perspective of white women. Throughout these texts, the heroines are perpetually carving a space for themselves so that they can speak without interruption, with the fear of breaking rules. Most of all, they need a stage without a visible audience, without being dependent on the need to be acknowledged with a response. For these women, the important first step is to assert themselves and their identity so that they can exist without the recognition of the men in their lives and the families. These works mark the journey of the painful formation of that voice and a creation of a world that celebrates the African female identity.
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