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36
Palabres, Revue d’Etudes Africaines, Vol. III, n°1, 2000.
social et biologique. Cette critique peut s'exprimer de façon distincte ou/et associée à
un examen minutieux des autres formes d'oppression, d'inégalité et de discrimination.
Par ailleurs, les féministes africaines considèrent les hommes comme des alliés(
potentiels) dans leur lutte contre l'oppression sexiste et recherches des solutions
possibles à la situation des femmes opprimées.
Introduction
«White women as well as black have to speak and be spoken in the plural; no one here
can be adequately scripted in black and white.» (M.J. Daymond)
«Whatever the differences between black and white feminism, there can be no doubt that both
share certain aesthetic attitudes.» (Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo)
«When people ask me rather bluntly, every now and then whether I am a feminist, I not
only answer yes, but I go on to insist that every woman and every man should be a
feminist - especially if they believe that Africans should take charge of African land,
African wealth, African lives, and the burden of African development.» (Ama Ata Aidoo)
t the London Book Fair in 1984, in a conversation with the American literary
scholar Alison Perry, the Nigerian woman writer Flora Nwapa became indignant
at the fact that, just because she wrote about women, she was constantly «accused» of
being a feminist. But she wanted nothing to do with feminism because of its anti-men
stance. At most, she said, she could identify with Walker’s term womanist. 2 A
In July
1992, Nwapa took part in a women’s conference in Nsukka at which the topic of
feminism was debated. In a discussion she explained her attitude toward feminism:
Years back, when I go on my tours to America and Europe, I’m usually asked, ’Are you
a feminist?’ I deny that I am a feminist [...] Having heard Obioma 3 on Monday [...], I
think that I will go out and say that I am a feminist [...] because Obioma said [...] that
feminism is about possibilities; there are possibilities [...] Let us not be afraid to say that
we are feminists [...] Globally, we need one another 4 .
When Marie Umeh asked her in December of the same year, what she had to say to the
fact that the white US-American scholar Katherine Frank, known for her radical
feminist readings of African women writers, considered her a radical feminist, 5 Nwapa
2 Cf.: Perry, Alison, "Meeting Flora Nwapa", West Africa, 3487, June 18th, 1984, 1262.
3 Obioma Nnaemeka, a Nigerian literary critic who refers to herself as a feminist, organized this conference. In
her opening speech she spoke about the possibilities of feminism and feminist scholarship. She expressed her
conviction that true feminists do not only believe in alternatives, but also try to make them into reality (cf.:
Nnaemeka, Obioma, "Feminism, Rebellious Women, and Cultural Boundaries: Rereading Flora Nwapa and Her
Compatriots", Research in African Literatures, 26, 2, 1995, 83, note 1).
4 Nwapa, cit. in Nnaemeka 1995: 82 - 83.
5 Cf.: Frank, Katherine, "The Death of the Slave Girl: African Womanhood in the Novels of Buchi Emecheta",
World Literature Written in English, 21, 3, 1982, 476 - 497; Frank, Katherine, "Feminist Criticism and the
African Novel", African Literature Today, 14, 1984, 34 - 48; Frank, Katherine, "Women without Men: The
Feminist Novel in Africa", African Literature Today, 15, 1987, 14 - 34.