African Women Writers Across Generations: Navigating Local Contexts and Evolving Feminist Approaches

Abstract Scholars in African feminism have historically repudiated the concept of feminism, which has been perceived as a Western imposition. Through a literary analysis of Ekomo (Nsué Angüe, 1985), Efuru (Nwapa, 1966) and Une si longue lettre (Bâ, 1979), the current article examines how first-generation African women writers approach the conditions that oppress women. Furthermore, the article discusses how the approach to women’s challenges in first-generation novels differs from the forms of feminism that are being articulated more recently by African feminist activists. The findings show that Nsué Angüe, Nwapa, and Bâ’s novels project the experiences and concerns of their female characters through the various ways of liberating women in the local context such as nego-feminism and snail-sense feminism. These African variants of feminism cater to their local peculiarities in ways that reflect the differences between African and Western cultures. However, these earlier approaches to women’s challenges do not align with the forms of feminism articulated today.