All in one basket, yet not full.” This best describes issues affecting African literary works, writers and critics in the evolving African society.
The critic, often times, misinterprets the thematic preoccupations of the writer, which is why the writer, at times, cannot be pleased with the interpretations from critics.
This reflects the combative nature of postcolonial African society; the problem of disestablishment of Westernised literary canons and values, the problem of domesticating Western criticism into African society, the problem of not originally understanding the core values African system, the problem of being a victim of what one accuses others of.
This problem can be categorised as the everlasting issue of the trio — class, race and gender.
This lack of respect for differences makes the postcolonial issues unresolved in our society. In the face of the intellectual chaos, the writer and critic finally meet in a single book of 588 pages with 11 chapters.
Then, this is a reflection that the African literature is facing a new generation different from the first, second, third and fourth generations. What would this new generation look like?
Ezekiel Fajenyo’s The Writings of May Ifeoma Nwoye: A critical Literary Analysis offers explanations about how this new emerging society would look like in the future.
The first chapter, the introductory aspect of the book, brings to the readers the biographical account of May Ifeoma Nwoye and the sociological configuration of her society, in which the main character introduces and examines the oppression and exploitation of the female gender in Africa.
As Nwoye reveals to the author: “I was pushed into doing accounting by my family. But my real love was drama and …,” she further states that “Women are always forced to prove their worth within the stringent boundaries of male-dominated profession like….” Nwoye is a perfect symbolism of the African society. With the forces and pressure, she has her way into her passion with faith in God and hard work.
This first chapter tells it all about Nwoye’s stand in all her literary outputs. It is normal for a woman to be a feminist, who is totally conscious of the place of the female gender in her domestic and foreign environment.
Fajenyo’s critical analysis of Nwoye’s writings perfectly demystify the complexities in approaching new African literature. In the intellectual discussion, it is important to note that the gender crisis is not just the confrontation of woman against man for equality and freedom, but that of a war across the boundaries of Africa.
This book is a representation of a consistent genius, Fajenyo, who has beaten existing conventions in his approach to literary works. The manner and pattern in which the book is structures is the way African writers are to be read.
It is important to know how to read a literary work, Fajenyo’s contributions, relates to knowing the writer first, then reading the writer’s work before reading criticisms about the book and the writer.
Through the life and writings of May Ifeoma Nwoye, Fajenyo has contributed immensely to humanity. This book, not just as the first of its kind, would last countless centuries in the compendium of African criticisms.
and then