•ISSUE NUMBER ONE*  1997

<<  unveils the theoretical basis of an African
womanist ideology with its intervening act
of palaver-palava. Most practically, Afru a
Wo I Man Palava  places eight Nigerian fe-
male writers and thirty novels in contem-
porary  perspective, the texts  as counter-
narratives which respond to their male pre-
decessors  and contemporaries.  These in-
clude the pioneering work of Flora Nwapa,
the 'juju fiction' of Adaora  Lily Ulasi, the
'been-to'  novels  of Funmilayo  Fakunle,
Ifeoma  Okoye, Zaynab Alkali, Eno Obong
and  Simi  Bedford.  Essentially,  the  new
writers are read as constructive  activists
in nation-building and their novels as nar-
ratives of nationhood.

The absence of one, if not two, remark-
able new female novelists in the develop-
ing literary  canon  cannot however be ig-
nored.  Omowunmi  Segun's  The Third
Dimple (1992), winner of the prose fiction
prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors
in  1991 and Mobolaji Adenubi's Splendid
(1995), winner of the more prestigious All-
Africa  Okigbo  Prize for Literature  and a
high contender for last year's Noma Award
could have enriched the palaver  sauce in

09.1

the same brief but insightful  manner that Martina
Nwakoby's A House Divided (1985) is treated.

Aderemi  Raji-Oyelade teaches fiction at the University of
Ibadan.

Women's voices,
Dynamic voices

Mary Modupe Kolawole

TO YIN  Adewale-Nduba & Omowunmi  Segun,
ed. BREAKING THE SILENCE, Lagos. The
Women Writers of Nigeria, 1996. 142 pages.

A T  a  time  when

many  observers
and  critics cry
out  that  the Ni-
gerian literary scene needs a
fresh vitality, new voices and
new  vision  have  been in-
jected  into our literary pro-
duction. The new anthology
of short stories Breaking the
Silence is a unique addition
to existing anthologies of Af-
rican  short  stories  and a
turning point in the nation's
literary  canon.  Its unique-
ness is revealed in the title
as  w*ll as the editors, two

emergent  female  talents and
the publishers, Women Writers
of Nigeria. It is a landmark in
diverse other ways. Since the
emergence  of women pioneers
in the 60s, the previously male
dominated  literary  scene has
revealed  the  quest  for femi-
nine self-expression. The first
generation  of women  writers
including  Flora  Nwapa, Zulu
Sofola,  Molara  Ogundipe-
Leslie and Mabel Segun have
progressively  attempted the
crusade  of self-assertion  to
bring to life the famous Yoruba
proverb, 'Owo ara eni la fi ntu

Okoye, 

iwa ara eni se.'A second gen-
eration followed in the steps
of their  precursors to  high-
light the female intervention
in  Nigerian 
literature.
Ifeoma 
Tess
Onwueme and Zaynab Alkali
punctuated  the  creative
arena  to 
continue  the
womanist tradition. The third
phase  of Nigerian  women's
writing has begun at a cru-
cial moment. With the death
of Nwapa  and Sofola,  some
critics are beginning to hold
their  breath  as they wonder
about  the  continuity  of
women's literary creativity in
Nigeria to fill the gaps.

Breaking the Silence is a
timely  assurance  both  in
terms of the collection of new,
young  and  undocumented
women writers and the image
and  scope of the anthology.
Apart from two contributors,
Mabel  Segun  and  Ifeoma
Okoye, the other  seventeen
writers  are relatively new
comers who made their debut
in the last few years. Indeed,
some of the stories  are the

eiendora  Book*  Supplement

9

ISSUE NUMBER ONE*  1997 •

<<  first to be published by their
authors. The editors have in-
jected  new voices  and  new
perspectives  into  African
women's  literature.  The  di-
versity of thematic  concerns
as well as the variety of form
enhance the unique worth of
this  anthology.  The format
adopted  by the editors pro-
vides  vital  biographical and
bibliographical  information
about  the  contributors.
Recognising the need to intro-
duce the new comers, this for-
mat  makes  the Anthology a
resource material of a kind.
Toying  Adewale-Nduka
and  Omowumi  Segun  have
broken the culture of silence
with a bang. These dynamic
young  talents  are equally
poised to revitalise Nigerian
curricula  and encourage a
reading culture. WRITA has
already started a tour of some
Nigerian  cities  to promote
Breaking the Silence. These
women will stop at nothing to
see their dream come true in
empowering young Nigerians
towards  a new attitude to
reading and promote creative
interests  and skills. By put-
ting  together  an exclusively
female collection which is also

published  by women  writers,
women  are re-inscribing and
re-creating  themselves in re-
sponse  to older  writers  like
Molara Ogundipe-Leslie.

The themes range from tra-
ditional to contemporary and
topical issues. Some stories re-
cast oral myths and folklore in
a brilliant way while most re-
iterate problems that are pecu-
liar to women.  Burning con-
temporary social reality - failed
bank,  corruption,  the other
woman  and  her child, ex-
tended  family's  intrusion, are
presented  with  a new  con-
sciousness.  Women  are  por-
trayed  not as passive  suffer-
ing victims like older heroines
but we see women responding
positively  or aggressively to
intimidation. Women are also
presented as facing contempo-
rary challenges and sometimes
helping each other to come to
terms  with  their  problems.
Specific  references  to femi-
nists,  Beijing  and women's
empowerment,  and  social
change removes the veil of fic-
tion to show the zeal of these
writers and the urge to bring
fiction  close to their gender ide-
ology. Many of the writers seem
to say, 'resilience and resource-

fulness  will  take  women a
long way.'

Nigerian  women  writers
have indeed come a long way
as the tellers of their own sto-
ries  and the publishers of
their  newfound  good  news -
to recreate themselves. These
stories have shifted  women's
image in Nigerian  literature
from  marginal  liminal  posi-
tions to the centre. These new
voices are creating  new im-
ages as they concern women's
reality. I met these two young
literary crusaders at the Brit-
ish  High  Commission  in
Ibadan recently. I had a chat
with  both  Toyin  and
Omowumi and I was left with
no doubt that these bubbling
budding artists will go a long
way  to  project  Nigerian
women's  writing  unto the
threshold  of renewed  vigour
at  the turn  of this  century.
Judging the likely trend from
the  genius of these  duo, we
are in deed at the intersection
of a womanist literary renais-
sance.

Mary Modupe Kolawole. Associate
of the African  Gender Institute,
recently returned  from the
University of Cape Town to Ife
where she lectures in literature .

When is a Nation ?

Segun  Ayobolu

Wole  Soyinba. THE OPEN SORE
OF A CONTINENT : A PERSONAL
NARRATIVE OF THE NIGERIAN
CRISIS. Oxford  University  Press,
New  York,  1996,  170 pp.

I N his celebrated 1974 interview with the

journalist, John Agetua  after the publi
cation of The Man Died, Wole Soyinka
gave poignant expression to his percep-
tion of the social utility of literature. 'For me',
he declared 'a book is a hand  grenade which
you detonate under a stagnant way of looking
at the world'. Two and a half decades after that

encounter, Africa's  first  Nobel literature prize
winner has certainly not changed his view. His
latest  literary offering,  characteristically  pro-
vocative and captivating, is a veritable  time-
bomb which is bound to explode indolent, self-
serving assumptions as regards the parameters
of the national  question, the character of the
State and the foundations of nationhood in con-
temporary Nigeria.

Spurred primarily by the annulment of the
June 12, 1993 presidential election, widely be-
lieved to have been won by detained Chief MKO
Abiola,  The Open Snre of a Continent is  per-
haps the most penetrating and disturbing con-
tribution to ongoing debate on the future of Ni-
geria. Along with the June 12 debacle, the Ogoni
struggle and the subsequent  execution  of its
foremost symbol, writer and  environmentalist

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