A professor of gender studies, French language and literature at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Doris Obieje, has explained how Francophone African women had been able to counter and change the male writers’ illustration of the female folk in their literature.
She said: “Long before now, especially during the colonial period, African male writers, particularly in the Francophone countries, usually portrayed female characters in their literature as passive, oppressed, adulterous, betrayal, unusual beings, among others.
“However, the narrative changed when some female writers came on board and challenged the patriarchal stereotypes by using the female’s real identity to write about African women from their own perspectives in various contexts.”
She noted this change led to the rise of the term ‘Her story’ against the age-long ‘His story,’ a perspective through which she claimed men most times see women.
Obieje, a researcher and senior lecturer at NOUN, gave this explanation at the university’s 24th inaugural lecture, recently.
She spoke on a topic, ‘Her story in the Words of Francophone Africa Novelists.’
According to the don, “it was the male gender who largely dominated Francophone African literature during this period, especially in the early decades of the 20th Century.”
Obieje listed some of the African women writers who changed the narrative in the Francophone countries to include Mariama Bâ, Aminata Sow Fall, Eric Touya de Marenne, Calixthe Beyala, Aurore Koechlin and Aja Awa Thiam, Fatou Keita, among others.
She posited that all these writers were influenced by various literary movements, trends and societal norms and they represented different regions, generations, and backgrounds of Francophone Africa.
She described them as great novelists because they had, through their writings, provided various platforms for women to tell their own stories and reclaim their place in the society.
In his remark at the forum, the vice chancellor of NOUN, Professor Olufemi Peters, commended the inaugural lecturer for her rich contribution to the field of French language and literature and her simple style of presentation of the lecture.
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