Urban Women in Neo-colonial Africa (Paperback)

This study explores several western feminist theories that have been applied to African women, and demonstrates how Clenora Hudson-Weems's theory of Africana Womanism has its basis in African culture instead of the more commonly used western one. It also examines Chela Sandoval's "Methodology of the Oppressed," in order to address postmodern power structure and methods of resistance. It suggests a combination of Clenora Hudson-Weems's Africana Womanism and Chela Sandoval's postmodern "Methodology of the Oppressed," for which it proposes the designation, Postmodern Africana Womanism. With that as a tool, this work explores the following novels: Yvonne Vera's Butterfly Burning, Mariama Bâ's Scarlet Song, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Devil on the Cross. The aim is to examine the new power dynamics in Africa, and how the failure to recognize, or belated recognition, of them leads the main female characters to tragic ends. Central to the argument is the dissolution of traditional African cultures and the effects of western culture in the African context.