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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Woman Artist in Africa Today
Author:Mugo, MicereISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907)
Volume:19
Issue:1
Pages:49-69
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:women writers
oral literature
literature
Architecture and the Arts
Women's Issues
arts
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24486832
Abstract:African women's artistic productivity in the field of literature and orature tends to remain invisible. Commentaries of women artists and critics on African women's writing have identified gender discrimination as the primary reason for this situation. There is also a tendency in literary criticism to focus exclusively on the works of already well-established authors (male writers), which has adversely affected women's writing. A review of selected critics who have addressed African women's creativity shows that it was not until the nineteen eighties that full-scale published studies on women's writing started to emerge. Women have always dominated the African orature tradition, which can be divided into reactionary orature that celebrates patriarchal values of domination and progressive orature in the resistance tradition of 'mapinduzi' orature. In 'mapinduzi' orature women artists interrogate the structures of society that negate their existence, thus threatening the status quo. Statements by women writers, revealing how they view their art and its role in society, express a need for self-articulation in order to overcome the silence in which they experience oppression. Creative writing is empowering to them. They also affirm the extent to which they have been influenced by the women of their families, who told them orature stories. Finally, the article reflects on the tasks facing Codesria (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) to promote women's writing. Bibliogr., note, ref.
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