Raising Their Voices: Women’s Quest for Freedom and Identity in African Women’s Writing

Whether living in the traditional or modern setting, women in Africa often confront a variety of challenges including space and role limitations, social contradictions, cultural disintegration and political struggles. This article attempts to show how women negotiate their space within such constraints. It adopts a feminist analysis of A kind of Marriage by Buchi Emecheta and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie to show that women’s voices as well as acts of everyday resistance portray their understanding of their environment and determined effort to cultivate a new identity. The paper demonstrates that identity within marriage should not be static but a terrain through which women can reconstruct a new identity; a fellowship where they find strength among their own kind. Re-defining women’s identity in African literature is a timely Endeavour as women in real life situations are continually breaking out from the societal prescribed roles and positions to cultivate new identities.