Aboriginalism to Womanism: X-Raying Nuruddin Farah’s From a Crooked Rib and Ngozi Chuma-Udeh’s Echoes of A New Dawn

Abstract

The astounding talents of African feminist writers depict the struggles women have faced over the years in the contemporary African communities. Ordinarily, the intricacies of the doctrine of Womanism have been the major themes in t he works of these authors who passionately fight against the oppression of women from the contemporary African patriarchal pressures. Womanism as a doctrine has become an inescapable theme in their works where it has come to be for them, a plea for life, f or recognition of women as human beings not as separate or in opposition to their male counterparts, but as partners who work together from the location of shared community and the collective experiences to foster peace and progress in their local communities, a plea for the right of the women to participate effectively in their contemporary society, and a fervent plea for equity, fair play and justice. This paper looks at the dynamics of Womanism as a movement in the African literary terrain where it intends to explore the nuanced, often controversial portrayals of Womanism by African feminist writers who were bold enough to speak their minds not considering the outcome. This will be done by capturing Womanism through the lenses of an East African writer, Nuruddin Farah in „From a Crooked Rib‟ (1970) and a Nigerian writer, Ngozi Chuma-Udeh in „Echoes of a New Dawn‟ (2008).