0 Obafeml t\wolowo unlversitv Press Limirea, ~ u d 5

TSSN 0189-7845

Printed by Obafemi Awolowo University Press Limited,

Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

TEXT, TEXlTALITY AND CONTKXTCfALITY -Paradigms Lost and Paradigms Regained in Literary Theo~y.

-Professor Mary E. Modupe Kolawole. Professor of English and Women's Studies, OAU - Ile-lfe.

1. lntroduction

Several factors are responsible for my location as a literary theorist. My interest derives fiom my recognition of a dearth of literary theorising in African literature in the early 1980s. There were debates about the definition, language and the audience of African literature. There was a lot of focus on practical/textual criticism and the sociolou of literature. I found literary theorising more inclusive and more challenging. I saw absences and gaps which just@ the claim in the humanities that the North gives the theory, the South gives the data. 1 felt challenged by this dichotomy and decided not to be a provider of data for the theory of European-American researchers on African literature. Literary theory also enhances perspectivism, inclusiveness and contextualisation. It has remained the sustained nexus and backbone of literary studies over the centuries. My research reveals that literary theory is the earliest and has remained the most findamental aspect of literary studies. Some scholars consider theory abstract. According to Mary Rogers, "theory connotes dispassionate scholarship and abstract ideas."' My objectives, therefore, include making literary theory concrete by injecting dynamic originality into it and not re-inventing the wheel.

2. Literary Theories in Historical Perspective

A historical hindsight reveals that literary theory has been enriched by inter-disciplinary influences. The mimetic genesis of ' hIary Rogers, 'Introduction'.Confempora~~~Ft.minini~f Theorj; Boston: hlacgratv Hills,

1999, p. I.

l i t e rx~ i ; r v csl~lains tlic ill~eractions \vitli otliel. clisc.ilrli~ii.-\ tliat l)rv\.idc extra-literary pal-apllcrnalia 1'Iicl.c has bl:c~l 21 ~ , c ~ l ; ~ l i t ! . I,cr\\-et,ll

advocates of purism or art for art 's sake and tho:;c !\.ho i~l?holtl t l~e versatility ofliterary thenrising. Literary crnati\~it?, and litclaly CI-iticis~rl started si~nultaneousl!~ \kith classical wr i tc r~ liiic ~\,:,cchylus and Aristophanes The 1atter.s work. llir 1;r3o;:, \ras oni . ol' the earliest examples of social satire as criticism. Colnposite sclli11i11-s like Plato and Aristotle who were not literary experts per se b u t pl~ilosopllers, scientific theorists, political scientists, and ideologl~es. provided the earliest definitions of literature and senel-ic co~iceptualisatio~l. From the beginning, literature was not intended to be a ' I ~ C I I ~ I . ~ I I rlesignatio~l' and was often a recreation of cultural histories \ \ i l l \ ~olitical and ideological undertones. The word, Aesthetics n,as a branch of philosophy before it became adopted in literary criticism. Specific periods adopted dominant literary traditions that defined literature. Instances are the Classical, Neo-classical, Elizabethan. Metaphysical and Romantic literary periods, The tn~eotieth centill-! \\.as the melti~ig pot oftheories as past traditions merged into oejj otl~?s to capture the restless spirit of the age Doininant llieories of the Ii~st millennium include Formalism, Marxism, Str-~~cturalism and Post-structuralis~i~, Modernism and Post-modernism, Existentialism. Semiotics, Deconstruction, lntertextuality and Feminism. 7'he period also witnessed counter-discursive tlicories such as Post-colonialism, Womanism and Multi-culturalism. Some of these highlights inform my research directly or tangentially.

3. Directions of Contemporary ite err;^ Theory

The context of the last millennium is significant as a period of pluralism of values, ideas, ideals, and ideologies The contelnpora~y period is also the age of computer and high technology and the literary trend is a mirror image of the larger society Globelisation has also intercepted the inter-activity of literature and other disciplines All these mediate the trends of modern literary theo~ising which is cliaracterised by bi~iaries iltid ambivalences. Liselottc Clarle afirmcd

I I I I I .rl ill 1notio11 the clialectics ol.belolipiny ant1 c s l ~ ~ a ~ i ~ c . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ l ! . i>I'lt\\.c i 1 1 1 ~ l ( - ; i l ~ . ol'inside illI(l olrfsitle '. Slle h~t l lc r idenlilie(1 ail ,111 I)il\\evnc>s . i l l ) vxj~a~isi\,e Iocirle and shiliirrg bor(/ers as the hallm;~~-k.s of 20"' cc.lil11r.)- litt1r;lrv st~rdies. (Bock & \l/el-thciln. 1986.). .lame.: ( 'lillbr-d itlso ol?scn etl [ha t in .'the 20th centunl, c u l ~ u l - ~ ~ and icientilies ~rclic~n 1i.ith I 7 : ~ t l l local arid transnational p0h:er-s to at1 unlxecedc~~tl:tI degree." 01 hc.1-s clescril-led these binaries as - R,l:rnichea n :~llc.etrr?., 01- XF:r nit I r i l:lti opposilion. Parker undersco~-ed the trend as "lino~-mial 0l>p(~si~i~.~111;" \vlliie Edward Said denoted the \\.est - eas! c~l~l~ositions nrvi bir~;tric.s. Colonial thinking of us/the~n. East,Q\!est. blot rl!'Sotltll. I ] ? . I I I ) ! W I I ~ C ~ thi:: (~~l t look This is the basis for post-colonial ilieor?: ;I ilieur> of corlnter discourse or speaking bat!,; r i in 1-lurd World literary studies. I t aJsc ~n shift Froni dominant literav tiincics to a s\.rlc:li~-i?nic approacll t o Ilterary st and reverbcl-:11i[~nq in ( o t !~~r .:'I \\'orld P O S ~ C C

1 lie iml- I S a n 011

udies. L ~lonial li

ocal sigi terature

1 I

nifiers IS . and .

theories encr;rll ~;c .I ; e : r ~ - ~ l i l i ) ~ I c t s k ; co~rflictual approacnes by rrtttpc

like L inst re-i h lanic )n itself

arns aga Ionizatic

Accortling to I-iechi~y Sock and Albert Wertheim, one factor for the persistct~ce of post colonialism is' he confluences and collisions butljeen thc ab~~r i~ i r i :~ l arid evteroal cultrrre. The other is the civil PI oblem and sr I ,~y;~c.\ !'mf nrcrsqar ilv arise as a once dependent area becomes indcl~c.liclent "' Edwa~d Said's theory of Orientalism sums

up post-colonial contradictions. "Reality is divided into \.arious collectives: languages, races, types, colours. mentalities. each category being not so much neutral designation as an evaluative interpl-etation" '. Such binomial oppositions include issues of place versus placenlent and displacement. Said poses the question, "...how can one study other cultures and peoples from a libertarian, or a non-repressive and non- manipulative perspective.. .T6 Others like Hommi Bhaba and Chinua Achebe debate the question of cultural colonialism and hybridisation. Bhaba maintains that cultural purity is not visible. His location of culture places the emphasis on cultural difference as opposed to cirltural diversity.

The radical Indian theorist, Chandra Talpade Mohanty classified native women or women in colonised nations, lower-class women, the peasants, the doubly oppressed, as the silenced category or the 'subaltern' and raises the crucial question, -'Can the subaltern speak?' 1 answered this question in my research. This subaltern irony is more related to women's literature but is central to any criticlue of colonised literature 'under western eyes.' She affirms that third world women 's realities are not homogeneous'. Benita Parry responded by challenging the post-colonial woman intellectual, to give a voice to the subaltern through their narratives. Another post-colonial critic, Abdul Janmohammed sees colonial literature as "an exploration of the boundaries of a world ofboundaries of 'civilisation', a world that has not (yet) been domesticated by European signification or codified in detail by its ideology." (Ashcroft, 1989). He also emphasises the Manichean allegory, a permanent opposition between the Self and the Other. Ngugi waThiong'o proffers the solution by advocating shifting the cultural centre or decentring European values ofjudgement through

Fdwvard Said. Orientalism. Ilkslern Concepts 4 1 h e Orient.-Hamondslvorth. Penpin, 1991. p.227.

"bid. - hlohanty Chrndra. Third llbrld Ilbnlen and and rhe Politics qiFe'erninisn1. Hloomington. Indiana 199 1.

multiculturalis~n. Otliers Ji~sti t:\' li).bridity as )[elen Tiffins col~siders it inevitable. Trihn Minh -ha is one ofthe most famous presenters ofthe arcliitectonics of otherness. a dominant discourse in Postcolonial literary studies.

4.. African literary theory.

African literature was born in the womb of several paradoxes as critics began to articulate the status of written and oral literature. Some scholars claim that orality is expressed in a mode different from writing and reading; they therefore consider the term, 'oral literature' contradictory. This explained the coinage of the word, ' orature' . There was a visible struggle with the contradictions which manifested in apprentice literature. Another focal point was the beginning and boundaries of African literature. Some scholars traced the origin of written African literature to slave narratives written in Europe and America in the 1 8h century by African slaves. Works by fieed slaves such as Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley became the prototypes of earliest African literature. But this rationale will qualifjl all the literature of Black Americans, Caribbean and Black European writers as African literature. Another school identified Thomas Mofolo's ( C ~ I Q ~ C I ) and Casely Mayford as the earliest writers ofAfrican literature.

African literature as we know it today emerged as a response to literary texts by Europeans (Joyce Carry, Joseph Conrad and others) that presented Africa 'through western eyes.' As the debate on African literature subsisted, writings by Africans - Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiony'o and Chinua Achebe among others, were classified as En~lisli literature. This necessitated a new nomenclature, 'literature in Encqlish' as a distinction fiorri English literature, The task of the African theorist at the bepinnincq, therefore, included addressing such issues, decoding abserices, silences and thematic clusters. African literary theory is often di~lecticnl but there is rtn imperative on the theorist, to resolve terrsiotls \vllile situatirlg new Atiican cilltural pnrndiglns,

The African theorist has often adopted meta-crit~cism 01- the criticism of criticism. The efforts of important pioneer critics such as Oyin Ogunba, James Ogude, Sam Asein, Abiola lrele. Ali Mazrui . yielded dividends in raising awareness about African literature and culture. There has been an increase in the interest in Afiican literature globally, Diverse theories emerged, ranging from cultural purity by Chinweizu's group and Cheik Anta Diop, to Ngugi's multiculturalism. A contested boundary has existed and still exists between thesis and antithesis, between self-definition and self-denial, between assimilation and dissimilation, between interiority and exteriority, between change and alterity, and most significant to my research, between male and female writers. Many critics have enunciated the inevitable polarities and ambivalence produced from these diverse contested sites.

Several western critics of Afr-ican literature have made landmark contributions and Bernth Lindfors is a giant in this process. Agostino Lombardo, borrowing the terminology fiom F.O. Matthiessen, has recently described the quantitative productions ofAf3can literature a s the "AWcan Renaissance". Lombardo and other critics have also revisited the qualitative texture and structure of A f i c a n literature by acknowledging the importance of the 'complex social machinery' that constitutes the crucible for Af i~can writing. The multicultural exposure has inevitably created what Lombardo describes as "an autochthonous culture, having orality, vvistrali~, gestualiy, as its main forms of expre~sion."~ I agree with this critic that African literature transcends the re-wfiting o f history and the recreation o f cultural agency. It is a complex o f values, both specific and transcendental, both national and trans-national. The dominance o f counter-discursive Afr-ican theories i s an aspect o f post-colonial literary studies. This manifests the hybrid identity, the dialectic o f double voices and the double- consc iousness o f Afr ican wr i t e r s and t h e doyens o f

African literature. African women jvriters have had to contend ivith an additional straturn ofambigt~ous identity. Their challenge transcends double consciousness and this necessitates multi-vocalitp.

5. My Research and Emerging Theoretical Patte

My research has been predicated on identi a t terns, recreating new configurations, new mythsiarchetypes and new dominant paradigms. My areas of my focus include, African, Diasporic, Cornonwealth, American, Postcolonial literatures, cultural and gender theorising. My approach is multi-disciplinary and cross-generic. I maintain the instrumentality of the text not as all-sufficient, but as the peephole to the authors' ideology, philosophy, experience, and belief systems that combine to shape and nurture the artistic skill and aesthetic sensibility. Theoretical borders are fluid as some theories overlap while others are flexible. Literary studies, like other disciplines in the humanities, is at a defining moment. It is located at the interface between history and episten~ology, fiction and realism, tradition and mod hange and alterity. The scholar who must make an impact has I ill these on board. It is even more daunting for African scholars who need to transgress existins academic spaces that already presuppose that Africa has little to offer the world and must be consumers of other people's ideas and technology. My research is also at the interface between textuality and contextuality. No literary

I I

theory can minimise the text as the baseline of criticism. But I reject the theory ofthe death ofthe author, which presumes that the author and auterist data are insignificant. I saw the literary theorist's challenge as that of revisiting the polarities where necessary, by searching for a more concilliatory approach.

ernity, cl :o take 2

four m: . I : A ---...

gets: lit€ .-L-- - 9 ' ~ I y research, I unc

as intertextuality, literature as Glnlu31b111, wx-tLure as counrer-alscourse &

and literature as a collective cultural repository or cultural histoq. Many cotemporary theories have a link to these, centrifugally or centripetally. This is also a n attempt to demystifil literary themy especi~lly for s~r~cients. 1 k l ~ v that Illally sti~[lc~lts consider literary

theow inaccessible, esoteric and difficult, when i t is not adecltlately presented.

lntertexto~lity is a theory that some scholars and students underrate. Afew years ago, a colleague told students that intertextuality is not a literary theory Although Plato and Aristotle did not use the word intertexuality, by defining literature as mimetic, as an imitation of other pre-existent texts, they located the earliest definitions of literature on inter-textual terrains and connections. I establish this theory as a salient issue that has occupied the front-burner of literary studies. The term, intertextuality was coined by the French critic, Julia Kriesteva in 1977 in her seminal work, 'Word, dialogue and novel' (sic) and 'Prolemes de la structuration du texte' . (Kriesteva, 1997). \ ,

This French critic of Bulgarian origin is a well-known linguist, a semiotics theorist and a feminist. Her theories are complex and diverse. 1 disagree with her articulation of feminism and her theory of "the father, the son and the woman ...." 1 am not preoccupied with her complex linguistic configurations either. However, her theory on intertextuality is sound and versatile. Judith Still and Micheal Worton elaborated on the term intertextuality and their work has brought it into the limelight in contemporary literary studies in an explicit way, "The theory of intertextuality insists that a t e a (for the moment to be understood in the narrower sense) cannot exist as a hermetic or self- sufficient whole, and so does not function as a closed system." The basic premise is that the writer is first a reader of texts before he becomes a writer of one. So the work of aq is influenced, deliberately or not, overtly or implicitly, by other texts, ideologies, literary traditions or linguistic patterns and belief systems of a particular social milieu. 1 agree with these critics in their observation that there subsists a "cross- fertilisation of the packaged textual material (my book) by all the texts which the reader brinys to it."'" Not only do texts fenilise each

, ' hiichenl Slill nritl Ji~tlill l \ \ 'nr l t~~l . otl. Inr~.r . fpyrrrol /~ ' : rhenyler nrrrl v ,, . p r ~ C I I C ~ Y , \ l~~~ ic l icwter : ~ ~ i n ~ i c l i e ~ ~ e r 1 '~ i ivervi ly llrc~q, 1991, 11 I . , I"',/

/

other, readers' expel-ience of a liter-ary tradition or tlleow enriches interpretation beyond the authorial intention.

The intertextual influence and motivation may not be fully apprehended or discerned as the readerlcritic brings other criteria of judgement into the perception of the work. OIa Rotimi7s play, The Gods Are No/ roBlm?e is a contrived intertextuality as the playwright deliberately based his play, with an overt title, on Oedipus' classical Greek play as its intertext. Similarly, Wole Soyinka's play, i%e Baccae ofl/ripaedes is a contrived intertextual creation. But in each case, the writer's genius, personal ideological orientation and collective cultural values reshape and recreate the issues and or form of the original Greek intertext.

My theoretical position is that literature as an imitation of life derives from certain sustainable principles. The imitative text is not necessarily inferior to the intertext or pre-text. Most literary works are located between two idiolects and or several sociolects. Literary discourse is open and incomplete as new readers will always bring new interpretations from personal experience or 'cultural assumptions.' Although the concept of intertextuality only came into the forefront in the 1960s, any text discourse implies intertextuality at various levels. It is a primal and composite theory as it equally recognises the importance ofthe author and the social environ. Many ofmy published works and work in progress deal with fbndamental intertextual relations especially in African literature. Akachi Ezeigbo's novel, The Last of /he Strong Ones is an overt re-writing of Achebe's Things FallApa1.f in a brilliant imaginative way. She has no apology for making Things Fa// Aparl the intertext as her objective is to recast the same moment in Nigeria's colonial history By redressing the invisibility and marginalisation of women in Achebe's ThingsFaI/Apart, Ezeigbo refocuses attention on women in traditional Igbo societies who were not in the social periphery and history confirms her position. The dynamic impact of the Uwabiala movement and Aba women's mobilisatio~~ confounded the colonial rulers and forced them to change

tax and other laws. ' / ~ ~ I I I , Y . s I~cdI Apcn-/ is silent 011 such spectacular. historical roles as \vomen occupy liminal positions in his writings tijr twenty one years until ,4~1lhi//.s c!fll?e S~r~a!lncrh. Ezeigbo represerits and re-presents women in a closer to reality fashion in her creation of four women giants who worked hand in hand with men to resist colonial incursion. They also intluenced the inevitable social change at the eve of colonial take-over. More recently Chimamanda Adichie recreated T ~ I T I ~ . S f i r / / Apnr.! in her award-winning novel, Pl~ty~lr Hihisc11.s

erature I :-*---,.4

Lit1 is an extended metaphor and a symbol whose intertextual I ~ I L G ~ Q L L ~ O ~ S transcend literary transactions. It derives from the impact of a wider range of pretexts - linguistic, cultural, philosophical, ideological, historical or political. According to Heidegger, "every work of art says something other than the mere thing itself, positing the work first as an allegory, and then a symbol." (Worton, 1990). As an example, Armah's axes of intertextuality are mostly historical in 7i1n 7horrsn1ld S'ensoi~s and The Hecrkl:~, but political in The Hemi/~jirl Oties Are No/ Ye/ Hot.il and several other novels. Infiomation that shape Armah's socialist beliefs gleaned from socialist literature then become intertexts and pretexts to his creative works. So, intertextuality transcends na'ive assumptions of imitation of other fictional works. Roland Bathes acknowledges Kriesteva's work as one of his own intertexts and observes, "The intertext is not necessarily a field of influences: rather it is a music of figures, metaphors, thought-words; it is the signifier as sirpr~. " (Rowland Bathes, 1976). In Writit~gDegree Zeiv, Bathes refers to intertextuality in specific terms: "...it is impossible to develop (my selected mode of writing) within duration without gradually becoming a prisoner of someone else's words and even of my own. A stubborn afterimage , which comes from all the previous modes of writing and even from the past of my own, drowns the sound of my present words."(Barthes., 1984). At the extreme end, one could perceive literary intertextuality in the light ofliterature as metaphor, as extended metapllor. as allefory and as syn~l~ol, looking at literature beyond the literal.

1 observe a new way of hystol-ifying reality in African fiction Akachi Ezeigbo's trilogy, 7Ke I.trv/ c?/ //7e ,\ltnt?g Orle5. ( 1 996), Horr.\c. c!f',\'ynlhoL\, (200 1). CI7iltltvrl oJ117r firgle, (2002) and Helon Habila's CIhitnlg.for L I I I A~lgel. (2004) Others are Andre Brink's T11e Ofher. Side of S~lettce, (2002) which has a context that is much more transparent than in Bq501.e 1 /;bigel (2004), Yvonne Vera's depiction of the war and freedom ambivalence in Zimbabwe is equally revealing as a process of historifjling reality because it derives largely from historical documents as we see in Nehanda, Witholrt a Name and The t o e I . South African writers have adopted this device in an increasingly explicit way. The historical pretexts to such works include the life stories of women giants such as Nehanda of Angola, Bakwa Turunku and her daughter, Queen Amina of Zaria, Nehanda of Zimbabwe and Nana Asantewa of the Asanti in Ghana. Others include Kabansa ofBonny, Nana of Jtsekiri and Madam Yoko of Sierra Leone. Groups who have refuted women's invisibility includes Abeokuta and Aba women, Ondo parallel high chiefs the Magira (queens) of Bornu. 1 researched into women mythic and legendary heroines and the formidable roles of women regents to establish that marginalisation is not indigenous to Africa. This is the crux of my book, Gender Perceptions m ~ d Development in Apiccr. ( Kolawole, 1997). I respond to the need for the centrality of "cultural imperatives and shifts" advocated by Obioma Nnaemeka. Lauretta Ngcobo's Aid 7hey Didr~ '1 Die, Helen Kunvayo's Call me Woman, Zakes Mda's three novels, Wqs of Dying,(1995), The Heart of Rednes (2000) and The Mcrdomm of Excelsior(2002). David Bell describes this device as 'storyfjrlng' and affirms that it is "complex and innovative"." This dialogue with the past is a common trend in African and postcolonial writing and is a pointer to the centrality of the dialogic imagination which is another theory emphasised in my research work.

" David Bell, "Simply a Tale? Zakes hlda and the art of .stor?fiir wen South .-Uirica". paper presentsd at Ihs Triennial ConFerencr. of the Europc.an :\ssociation for Common\realth l.iteratorr. and I anyagc. SYutlics.". llalta. 21-23 hlarch. 2005

0

+

3

"%

g

aZ

q<

,

3 2 s.

.- z

.e g

g z

vl

XC

D

vl

(D

< g

z.g

E

gF

;;t as

o ~

~2

2

JQ

~z

a

8.4

52

0 CD

0

O gg

gg

W.

O

33%"

g>

g4

17

;

CCa

%

'CP

4 5

cg

. rr -J

z;

EL

- 0

'"

,-=

;'3

C

"

5; s

2.3 0

H

,q

-. 0

0 5. 0

a

g.r

, 3

2 50,s 2

g 9

. =

0 a 9

.E

2.m

=

<

EO

vl

Fo

q

.

. 0

5.

% 3

. 9 %

*

?$

m

3=

g.0

3

CD P

o v;

*2.-=

e,

if

-. -

. E

L-%

3 @go -.

' ?$

0

s.

03. 2.

5' v

;' =r

0 u

and literatures written in English. Bill .Ashcroti. Helen Tiltin. Ellelie Boehmer. Stanle!: Bo1.g. hlal-gat-et Daymond. Lynn lnnes and a host of others were participants. The theme of that conference contirmed this concern with escli~sionist dispensatio~l in literary studies. 'Sharing Places: Searchiny for Comtnon Ground in a \Vorld of Continuing Exclusion.' There is a.new seal-ch for transcending the binaries. This has necessitated many migrant writers' use of literature to advocate the sharing of spaces and cultural border-crossing through trans- national and trans-cultural themes. This has implications in my theorising as we see in my article, 'Repossessing African Space: Self- healing and Self-retrieval in the Diaspora.' (Kolawole, 1997. ).

Migrant writing centres fluidity of space and hybrid identity which abiku trope symbloises in Yoruba world view. Soyinka, J.P. Clark and Ben Okri have centrewd this trope. It negates the presumption of a fixity or permanence of identity. W.E.B. Dubois coined the word :double consciousness' to describe the di\.ided awareness and reality of Africans in the Diaspora. Adrienne Rich calls it split awareness. Others look at post-colonial conditions and African identity in terms of singing in Babylon. Anthony K\vame Appiah stressed the dilemma of Africans singing cultural songs from the belly ofthe whale. alludinp to the scriptural lament ofthe Israelites, "... for there they that carried us away in captivity requires from us a song .... How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land'?" (Psalm 137, I)." Literally or metaphorically, the colonial encounter has had a profound influence on the psyche of African . writers and critics nlobally. G

Post-colonial writers are larsely preoccupied with de-centering culture, deconstructing and decoding of universalising canons, resisting cultural imperialism, orientalism, and ghetoisation, which characterise colonial literature and literary criticism. Since Saln~on Rushdie's

t'anlc-111s metaphor-. .the empire \\:~-itt.s bask'. 17osr -colonial thcnr-isinc I l ; i i I-~~:~:OII~V 1 1 1 , ~ 1 ~ < - 11ii111ic i)!l tll' !;.;\I;~ b ~ i ~ . l 1 k h v % ! ' ~ I \ ~ > < ~ ~ s I ~ !i!e~-ar!, st~~tlies. Bill Aslic~.c~ft. Garetli GI-itt?ths and Helen -1'iffins in tliei~. rnii.;terpieces have gathered together the ma.jo~- srr-i~lgs o f post-colonial discoilrse to ~ h o \ \ ~ tlie colnmon grounds and points of departure. The 1301ar- positions of writers and characters as ~vell as tlie contradictions of the colonial subjects as the mimic men by ITS. Naipaul. and Jennv Sliarpe. are reinforced by the emphasis on marzinalisation of subaltern sroups by Edward Said. Gayatri Spivak and others. Hornmi Bliabba's theories of hybridisation and essentialisnl continue to give way to diverse thesis and antithesis. The transparencv of the binaries of the Self and the Other has been critiqued by many theorists especiall~ Trill Minh-ha, Chinua Achebe, and Fredrick Jameson.

In my search for "new modes of conceptuality", Kristeva's coriceptualisation of the 'vertical axis', which emphasises the importance oftest and context, is also crucial to lily ivork. The literan text as a mediator always points to the si~nificance of context. In Afi-ican literature. this context is both historical and cultural. Kriesteva hi~liliglits an ambivalence, that ofthe "insertion of history into a text and the text into history." Everythins is related to the way ofknowing, of self-knowled~e. of epistemology Mundibe eniphasises gnosis in Afiican philosophy. Much of the imases representin3 Africa by non- African writers were and are still located in the realm of tarzanism and neotarzanism. Soyinka and others have ad\rocated the rejection of self-negation of this kind. This implies that self-criticism is also important and this is the reason for the dominance of the gleam/gloon~ metaphor in many African works.

Recreating new critical tools has been a challenge. 1 recognise tlie validity of the thesis of the radical black American critic, Audre Lorde, "For fl?c8 mnsfer :s fool.s 111ill r,crprr* c/isn~otr/l~~ fhe ~(I.S/PI. :v l~on.v~," (p. 112). * r l i ~ t one needs special tools to unpack colonial heritage atid nencnlolrialis~?i hns Ijeeri I he tlircad rutini~r~ through mueh ~~ostcolaninl li~(h~.att~~c. But I suygrst t h i ~ t the I I IH.FI~I"S tool CRII Oe

adapted. Soriie scliolars see migrant \\,rtters as subiects ofdisplnc.e~~~cn~ and V S . Naipaul pol-trayed this in his works. T l i e ~ ~ maint21ili rlial migrant critic,s in the Diaspora cannot continue to use the litert1t-y yardsticks imposed bv the masters. 7flie exile writers are not ti~ll!: reitite~rated into tlie new 'home'. The question of home then beco~ries a contested one as many African arid other post-colonial writers are located in the 'third space,' tlie twilight zone ( Kolawole, 2002).

Rejecting the master's tool, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o proposes shifting the cultural centre through multiculturalistn. It is a coutiter- discursive reaction to the continuity of the tradition that judges other literatures against European canons. His call \\;as Followed by many other African critics. (Ngugi \va Thiong'o, 1994). 1 was pri\:ileged to have met him at a one-day workshop in Union. New Jersey, LISA in March 1995. In my interview with this giant of African literary production, he confirmed that there is a paradox in singing cultural songs in a strange land. His writings in Gikuyu cannot be read by his immediate proximate readers in the United States. This dilemma explains why he and others have become cultural apostles more than ever and touches 011 literature as a cultural repositoly. Several other third world critics arc theorising issues central to post-colonialists. Anand Komar and T:r.,!llk Welz recently depicted the need to situate cultural change in a historical crucible. Simon Gikandi, a migrant critic, has been advocating a re-assessment of the impact of modernity on African and third world societies, maintaining that tradition and modernity have co-existed longer and oneis not superior to the other.

I interrogated the persistence of colonial referentiality in Third World literature so many years after independence in my research. I identified some of the reasons why recent literary scholarship has become so heavily post-marked - post-structuralism, post-modernism, post-colonialism, post-feminism, post-development, and even post- humanity. One of tlie reasons is the omnipresence of the past. Human experience is not delineated in chronolopical patterns and checkered chronology is anotlier way in which ol~istentologv is percei\,td 011e

cannot overlook our colonial historv. \\;liicli now manifests as neocolonialisni and shape the artistic iniityination. But d\vellinz i l l the space of the tw.ilight zone. the space of 'in-bet~veeness'. the space between the nislit and day. accounts for much of the pessimism in African literature. 'the beairtyhl ones are not yet born.' 'why are we so blessed'?' Transcendins the postniark is crucial and many writers are doing so. Tess On\weme's play. '7k// I / to CVonlen ' is ostentatiousl~ a post-feminist- play. However, post-ness arid past-ness are still ubiquitous as \Yilliam Faulkner aptly affirms, this omnipresence,t' "The past is riot dead; it is not even past." blany African writers and critics maintain that in Afi-ican world-view. life is a continuum as the past, tlie present and even tlie fbture criss-cross. Tliought patterns are not always spatially constructed, the past shapes the present and epistenioloyy is not always chronological. This has been a dominant theme for .Ayi kwei Armali, Ngugi Wa T l i i o n ~ ' ~ , Senbene Ousmane, Wole Soyitika and Chinua Achebe.

1 support blicliel ~oucault who advocates diversity of methods to encapsulate the complexity of disc'ourse. Sushela Nasta also calls for a "multiplicity of perspectives". (Nasta, 199 I ) She recognises the thrust ofpostcolonial critique to include correcting the imbalance and the binaries for self-reclamation as she asserts,

It is not only a question of redressing the balance; the reclamation is more simply shifting the ground of a series of opposition and areas of struggle: whether tnale/female, coloniserlnative, blacklwhite, femi ~stcolonial/posts~ Thir -Id, traditional lit counter alscourses and forms.I3

mist. pc first w o ~

tructural erary cal

ist, nonsl

h,ly works on metatiction and mv life-ston. approach inclutle i~ltenrie-\~s with writer.; and critics including Zulu Sofola, Nyugi LYa -l'liiong'o. Ama Ata Aidoo. lfeoma Okoye and Oyin Ogunba. 1 ir~terviewed Efba Sutherland's daughters, Esi Sutherland-Addie and Amo~vi Sutherland-Phillips at a meeting of the Women Writing Africa i n Bamako Mali. (Kolawole. 1998). This elicited important information about her life, her work and her ideological position on African literature and women writers. Similarly. I interviewed Zulu Sofola and the interview constitutes a chapter in my book. ZII/II .Yqfolo. Her. Llfe mnl Her Wm-ks ( 1999) Sucli interviews bring out profound issues that info~med the writer's aesthetics. Autobiography and biography unfold the importance of memory to the writer's self- inscription both at personal and collective levels:

Some African women writers have used metafiction to declare overtly a direct correlation between the fictional process and the reality of their experience. Literature becomes useful as its own met, .ge.. . .This self-referential process is ther; as it allows direct self-commentary by unveiling temporarily the veil of fiction. (Kolawole, 1997, 167.)

Literature as a Cultural Repository

The interplay between culture and post-colonialism is very significant to my work. Rejecting imposed nlojlalities involves eliciting positive wonh in one's own culture.. .Some writers look for stability in i\frican cultlire as a womb of retreat, to deal with the problem of migration and dispossession. I see a way out of the cultural quagmire as an attempt not only to shift the cultural center but also for African writers and theorists to consciously make a cultural detour to Afi-ica, refocus on African values and literary practice. So those who opt for migration as well as those of us who are in ARica as cultural hybrids

need to sing ne\\ cultural .so~rg..a 'OII o trt.cr c.111 l ' c ~ f i ~ , / I I I I i ~ ~ v r trl.tr L'III

,ye. ' Tli~s e~plains the increase in culti~ral nationalism in liter-ar\ theorising and this has been the bane of 111y research.

J

tive mecl

lo use lit nent iss ---- PI-:.

Ir,tlna ii. Snk . ..

'The root of the word culture is ciucial to an understanding of the status of literature as a repository- an arsenal, a storehouse of cultural -\dues and codes. Culture is a derivative of the Latin word, ciiltlrru, wliicli means to nurture, tend or cultivate. Literature is one of the best transmitters of cultural values and a tool for nurturing it as it tends and carries it from one generation to another. Literature as a form of cultural production, derives its definition, essence and fbnctionalitv fi-om this conceptualisation of culture. My work on cultural theories provides a multi-disciplinary macro-theoretical framework for the micro-theoretical constructs that are specific to literature A new emphasis on culture as a determinant of many aspects of human development emerged from the World Conference on Cultural Policies (MONDIACULT) held in Mexico City in 1982 and the United Nations Decade of Culture that followed (1 988- 1997. Culture is not static but dynamic, adaptive and evolutionary. As a follow-up to that conference, Ato Wolde Michael Chemu affirmed, "all nations, nationalities and peoples have the right to build their culture in any way they believe beneficial." Burama Sagnia also raises a verv salient question, " If we accept the postulate that culture is an adapi hanism that constantly adjusts to satisfjr human, biological and : :eds, shouldn't we then ask ourselves whether the best way rorward for Africa is to marginalize the role of culture in development frameworks and process or to use it as a platform or springboard for development."'-' My current research involve works by writers wk erature to sensitise the society on burning social

* and develop1 ues more than ever before. Writers like Wale Okediran, Ifeun~a L I I I W U ~ ~ , Lawrence Darnani, May Nwoye and many

.Ir

Runma. S l l u y ia . Coordi~untov. .\li.ic..;~ :ollcsc for Culture and De\.elop111<111. In a he!.nol<. \ddres.: dcli\.ereiI at thz ~ ~ I ~ \ I ~ I S ~ I I I I ! I I \4i)rksl10p 011 .C111ltlrc'. C;e~~dcr i111tl I ) < \ . ~ I o ~ I I I z I I ~ i l l I . : ; I s I c I ~ ~ i111d S O ~ I I I I C ~ I .\li.icill~ I:~~gli\ll-S!>ci~lri~l~ C O L I I I ~ ~ ~ C S .

.\il~lis . \ I X I ~ ~ ~ I . I.tl~iol~i:~ X - I I . .\priI I'I'.)'. I).?

and monoculture. They have crossed "the shade\\; lines" of division to conie to terms ~v i t l i tlie inevitability oftranscultl~~-a1 and transnational interconnections. They are re-visionin? and re-envisioning space.

I 6. Is l i t e ra t~~re relevant in the Age of High Technology?

hlany of our students ask the cliallengin~ question, "What is the rele\lance, what are the opportunities for sraduates of the arts in this age of computer and high technology?" As early as 1991, when many African scholars still considered computer skill as a tool for research in the science related disciplines. I became conlputer literate and availed myself of the immeasurable tecl~nological and Internet research resources and networking available to scholars in the humanities before it became the norm here in Nigeria. This was enhanced by my nomination as one often West Afiican women scholars sponsored for an intensive program in lnternet Connectivity, Networking and web site desi~ning at the klichiyan State university, East Idansing, USA in the year 2000. My research has subsequently proved that high technolo~y cannot minimise the arts but does highlight artistic potentials, skills and effectiveness of research methodology. The multi-media enriched my accessibility to data in my chosen research focus as the lnternet has encouraged an unprecedented accessibility to knowledge and my international relevance. Again, the way out is to refocus on the relevance of African culture and using technology to sustain this relevance. Technology cannot displace culture; it can enhance it in diverse ways. This has been one of my challenges as a scholar. I am happy that Pqwer Point presentation has enriched this lecture.

There is an interesting theory that emerged in the last years of the last millenium which brings out an intersection between literature and technology. It is relevant to my research as a myth theorist. Scientific myths such as the Superman are not new. But the cyborg mvth adds new dimensions to literary and gender theories as a hybrid, a.n amalgam of machine and organism or machine and man through

wearable computet- or si~nilar- de\.ices The myth ofthe cyborg emerges fro111 the concept of usins scientitic and teclinolo~ical devices to re- enersise tlie hunlan in ;) supernatural way. I t is used in medical science as w ell in coupling orsanism and machine In literature, this myth is expressive of the persistence o f dualities. ambivalences and contradictions. Literary theorists see the cyborg as a hybrid of fiction and social reality, fiction and fact. in a world of dissolving boundaries of identity. Cybors then becomes an ontology, an amalgamated image of imaginativeness and material reality according to Donna Halaway in -The Cyborg Manifesto.' She uses the cyborg metaphor to provide new modes of conceptualising women's experience. Beyond the conceptual framework of the cyborg, structurally, science fiction is a hybrid and the antecedent of :chnological discoveries. The space fictio ; of scientic discoveries in certain cases ana rnls suggests recrearlng scientific discoveries first imaginatively, t 'cominy real. American critics also theorise Cybors feminism. fi-ican context, the cybors is a valid image. not only for the multiple hybrid identity of tlie .African woman, but also a type ofthe profound resilience, alnlost supernatural image needed for the Afiican woman to deal with her multiple roles as wife, mother, professional, cultural agency and others.

The arts will survive in this age of high technology because the world will always need the artist to humanise the society; but the art including literature must adapt to the exigencies of the time. The humanities scholar cannot afford cyberphobia.

r Paradigms

My work explores the dynamics of social change and its effect on African literary production. The colonial experience and attendant social change remain traumatic to African experience. This leads to the crucial issue of alterity. Alterity is the state of remaining yourself against impending forces of self-fra2mentation and self-negation. The dialectic tension between clianse and changeability is at tlie core of

7. New

many !

n series I , I .

)efore be In the A.

xientifil are prc

111s thei)r-c: The atteinpt to I-elnail1 olleself'at a collt.zri\.~ le\.el is often rnisr.epresented by non-.4fi-icails 3.: resistance lo change and pri~~iiti\,ism. But I reject tliis notion i l~ i ( i aver that the Ati-ican's allerity. tlie ability to remain !,oiirself and retai~i sour identiti a positive mark, 1 find a Yon~ba pro\.erb very rele\ a111 to this postl~lation. "A,~/ILII*(I ojo o l 'nrt~r o rrilc IIY), orrilr tli o tri<<rhc~,f~tt~.'- -the rain tlood will try to demolish the house but tlie ownel \rill not allo~v tliis to Iiappe~l.!. (Kola\vule. 2004). Self-naming has become a crucial call by Africans and Blacks in the Diaspora h ly work has identified certain cateyries based on African epistemology anit inodalities of self-namin~. 1 ha\;e grouped works into three categories. based on African perceptions - and paradigms.

tliis concellr usefi~l in delirling a thir-tl .:~ppr-c~acl~. G~12~1lctu bl-inss out the i~-ori\. o f (lie mc~der-11 ..\l'ricarl .; p~-t.dicamenr in cont'l.(~nling neocolonial paradox of clispossession litel-ally 01- metaphol-icall!,. Gui~uletu re\.eals the squalor-. pc,Lrertv and tlisol-ientation of Blacks as i t is located in tlie si~burb of one of the most de\,eloped. most sophisticated ~iiost beautifiil .African cosmopolis. But gr~yuletn is expressi\re oftlie fact that Afi-icans can still take pride in their colture. even from the social perip1ie1-v of esiste~lce. The neo-negritudinist works fit into this cateson., These concepts_ k i k l ~ s ~ ~ k i ~ . saot~i l~rrcrr

trenous and g~grtletrr are lily original contrib~~tions to the search for indi, modalities of description and classification of African literature.

:anons s~ rary attri

. . ,

-

!;I 8. Gender and African literatnre - \I.'~lllen ;Is critici-d nlass. uku is the Swahili word for parroting or rote ilnitation.

I This i s 11 to early apprentice literature. Early literary wol-ks by ji hly sender researcli is one ( ~ f the most imponant aspects of many African literary pioneers fit into this apologetic pal-l.oting I tny 11 literary tlleorist, hly early research had 110 special gellder Categorl;. h'lan}' writers hale shifted from parrotins as t]iey interpose I

focu ,y fello\vsllip at ComeIl as a Rockefeller Visiting Scholar.

- - .~ch as Ac ibute in i

. .

culture specific paraphernalia. This is an approach that characterises lnanv earl!, .African works in( 5 the first phase of women,s writing. with heroines that were $ agic heroines, the fit71me f ir i~~fr.

Saani Baat is a Senegambian concept that means voice- throwing and the transgression of existing space. It is the core of the thesis by the Gambian scholar, Siga Jajne ( 1 994). 1 relate this to devices that transgress western ( :liebe's trans-literation, which has become a major lite Zfrican literature. This is also evident in the shift from traplc aero~nism to strong women that force their voices on existing discourses 'by Breaking the veil of silence.' We see this in Zulu Sofola's - O I I ~ L ' I I 011111, Aldoo' A/IO\I~CI as well as - Nwapa's I.i.i,n~e)? Are Dffer.rtl/ and 011e 1.s Olorlgli. Achebe's Anll7ills "Ithe S ' C ~ Y I H I ~ ~ . kdoo ' s Chon7ge:rs Onwueme's Tf~e Reign of CCtmhio

, . and I;// it /o ?VOIITW~ are other examples.

Gt~guletu means 'our pl-ide' in Xhosa languaze and it is also the name of a Black to\vnship on tlie nutskin of Cape Town. 1 find

I i ( 199 , obsen,ed that gender was an e~nersent nlaior criterioll of I scliolarstiip in the Iiunlanities :s, and liealtli sci At that

I point most books focused or I criteria of asse: nder i n

vork as a

ature ocl etweene .

g s like E ,e~nsel\le

Africa incloding African litera~urr I set out to str~ng together the views ofivi-icans about women's realitv from my research into history, legends. mytlls, oral genres, folktales. proverbs and others. African liter< cupies a site that 1 describe as the twilight zone, a site of in-bl ss. The issue of difference or otherness has therefore contlnueci lo engender many episte~llological negotiations My works also explore women's alterity. not as a negative resistance to change but a manifestation of changeability even as they resist cultural and sender self-~iegation. African ivomen writers' agency is remarkable through their resilience. Tliere was an overwhelming gap in African women's perception of gender and a yearning for naming their own stm ecting ta llack feminism. African women havc jtitute th itical mass.

ences. ssing gel

1 identiti1 wit11 Alice \jralker and Cllikwe~iye Okonjo-Osunye~ni. Clellora tlutl-t,~i-\\~er~l~c i111t1 others i n their yearning for mole inclusii'e

ways of naming black jvomen's stl-i~ygle. ill!. thcil~.etical book. Il,b~~as/i.mr LII*/ 4fi.icce1 ~ot,,r.scioe.s11~~.s. raised \.alicl iloestions and rletines wonifinism,, "What then is ~vumanism'? To Africans. wo~nanism is the totality offeminine self-expression. selt-retrieval and self-assertion in positive cultural rvays." (Kolawole. 1997. p.24). Wornanism is not a man-hatins ideology I t underscores racial and cultural relevance. the centrality of the family. and the need for men and women to work together to achieve gender justice, gender equity and women's empowerment. (Kolawole 1997, 2004, 2050 i. Just as feminist literary criticism has become a major tool of critical research. I see that womanism is an adapted version of this. an attempt to inhrse cultural and racial nationalism into sender literary theory

When 1 started seminars and teachins on womanism, some colleagues here believe that 'he who pays the piper dictates the tune' and were skeptical about piloting an alternative to feminism miglit which might offend donor a_uencies as they asked, "Who lvill sponsor this?" Others prefer to retain the term feminism maintain the staus quo bly clialleqe was to inject an African perspective. thus increasing the options in gender conceptualisation. Feminism itself is not monolithic. The diversities include liberal, socialist, Existentialist, postmodern feminisms. Others include eco-feminism and the latest variant, cyborg feminism. My South African experience is significant. As a foundation Associate and a scholar -in-residence for 3 months at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town in 1997, my works on womanism turned scholarship around in South Africa. It became a focal point in diverse ways. I challenged universal sisterhood and advocated focusing on racial and cultural mediations. hSly books are now on the read )f universities in . The USA, Asia and many African s. There have bc ests froin German publishers for righrs ro rranslate my works into German. At R recent conference in Cape Town in January 2005, conllnents by renowned proRssors of literatiire ill universities sucb as Stellnibosch. C ' i q ~ c 'Tow~i. Natal. Sweden. USA and others humbled rile. ~~l)~~nfesaor.

ing list c countrie * - L - a ~~

Europe, :en requ

-

vuu are a ce~rbl-it)-. .-\ icgcni. I lust can-t i~nagine lea\-in? this conferellde rfithout shaking hands \ \ i t11 )ou.'. .-\'ou have been inaking wai.es i~n South Africa i n the last fi\:e !-ears." '' h.laq7 Kolawole's paper has gi\en u s a clue to the prohlems of sender studies in the last ten She lias given us the way funvard ... These commentators include the famous literary Professor. Kristen Petersen. The world was \vaitillp for a scholar with couraee to sing African song in stranse lands bvlt rooted in Africa. I

I

1 also researched into women's genres in oral literature as I

tools of self-expression in dyna~nic ways These genres as avenues fpr rvonien's self-assertion rehte the claims of voicelessness and invisibility. 1 agree with Micere Mugo and Molara ogundipe-~esl'ie that we only need to search for sites of African \vomen's audibility. visibility and power. Such sites are revealed in the female oral literary eenres which were avenues of dynamic involvement in the social process as I remarked in m y works, "A plethora of feinale genres exists among the Yorubar. These include Obitun songs; Olori sonas. Aremo songs, Ao-oka. gelede, Olele and Ala~no songs. The Fulqni Rori songsin Northern Nigeria consist of overt modes of self- expression and self- assertion for the women in this esoteric reli_eiobs croup. Other genres specifically dominated by women include Haulsa u

women's court poetry, lybo birth songs, Ogori Ewere. many pany3ebc poems and folktales, anlong others." ( Kolawole, 1997). E l s ewhp in Africa women had a voice in many oral genres that are exclusively female: rcrs~a satirical maiden senre of Ghana, .n~~cl t i bridal son&, lmpongo among the ila and Tonga of ZambiaJkan Dirges, Galla lampoons, Karnba grinding songs and numerous gender myths. ahd proverbs. (Kolawole, 1997; 19998). Much work has been done in tpe area of images of women in African proverbs by Minekke Schipper, Susan k d t , Helen Mu~ambe, Kehinde Yusuf. lfennyi Ama and ~ulis/na Abbenyi,

I I

Collragl~rs and stll(Iet\ts involved ill gender rcsearcl~ acr ss disciplines i ~ ) i . ~ ~ \ l l i \ t e ( i 111y i11l)ox \vit11 reql~ests ~OI. t ~ s s i s t i ~ ~ ~ c e . R r

information. Iiterarur-e re\:ie~vs ant1 rel'er-ences on gender in Africa. Recently my lvork sounded a caution in this pr.ocess of repl-esenting /\ti-ican \vumen's views according to donor agenda. They mat' not be rot-egrounding issues that will transform Afi-ican \+-omen fro111 their liminal spaces, from the margin to the centre. At a recent international conference on .Writing Afric,ati ~vornen'. I ~varned about self-centre research and so called representation of African women. I propose a re-presentation of African women using the trope of 'writing-in".. the Yo~uba tradition that ensures a cautious approach to getting to know the bride as African wonten have become t he proverbial beautihl bride for researchers. 1 saw lily task in the light of Leela Dube's contention, probing the "ethnocentric bias ofwestern feminist scholars who tend to interpret data fi-on1 other cultures in the perspective of the experiences acquired in their own cultures and their understanding of female-male relations from tliern.""

Fagunwa's hlount Lamgbodo symbol dramatises a gender tension - men as custodians of the master key to societies' multiple problems. The quest for Lamgbodo involved only Inen, seven brave hunters. Women are revealing their resourcehlness through literature. Moving Nigerian literature from Mount Lamgbgodo has been a major objective for these women. I also use the metaphor of the arere tree in my theorising of the ambiguity of women's space and voice. A Yoruba proverb sums up this contradiction, "ile /i obirn.ir? ti rise toto cn.c.l.e, igi arere ni hi/ r~ihe. "- a house that allow women's vocality will have the arere tree growing in i t Arere tree is not allowed to grow near human habitation due to its offensive is a strong tree that is valuable in building constructi neration of women writers are deconstructing the arere metaphor. These include Toying Adewale, Omorvunmi Segun, Maria Ajima and a host of others. Canonisation oftexts is another challenge for me. 1 deliberately worked on new writings by young Nigerian writers to establish and publicise

! odour t on. YOL

)ut arere lnger gel

their- works. l worked on Toyin )\dewale's anthology, Hrecrkiltg 1/7r

1 1 Siler~ce for this reason.

iany sch

: I Some ofthe best known feminist theorists today include h l a ~ Eagleton, Mary Evans, hlaggie Hutnnls, and Mary Rogers They have

i proffered some of the most earth-shaking theories. Let me state here I I

that feminism is a theory that cuts across many disciplines It is a valid theory to philosophers, sociologists, historians, anthropolo_eists,

4 political scientists, cultural scholars, scientists, technologists and medical researchers. It is easily the most crosscutting theory in modern 1 scholarship. It is therefore unfortunate that here in Nigeria among some scholars, feminism is denigrated as beine unscholarly. And -

olars sre

p se WOmi its statu

becau : still ignorant 1( about

relat ivel search tl

y new; n 001.

My research re-iterates the conceptualisation and practice of womanist theories. Womanism was coined by two Black scholars, Nice Walker and Chikwenye Okonjo-Ogunyemi in 1982 as a means of self-naming and to inject black consciousness into gender scholarship. Womanism is now being celebrated as black rvomen's contribution to the debates on gender and my work is one of the most applauded all over the world because of the originality of ideas. 1 have been honoured and 1 am still being applauded for increasing the options of gender concptualisation and methodology. Just as mainstream scholars like Sandra Harding, Rose-Marie Tong, Angela Miles, Jane Parpart, Mary Rogers and Mary Evans have underscored feminism as a sound theory and tool of scholars lerous Black writers such as, Chandra Monh; ne D' A1 4bena Busia, Amina Mama, Trion min ha, Madhu Kishwa, Leela Dube, Shushela Nasta and Audre Lorde are elucidating Black feminism. Alice Walker, Chikwenve Osunyemi-Okonjo, Juliana Abbenyi, Clenora Huds ns and I rought womanis I aesthetics to the a slobal gc iolarship. I wish 7e case on this riote. ~vornanisnl, WISILI I wa> not coined by me, llke feminism, is a litct arv theorv and ~nethodology recoenised internationallv. 1 will like

, - [ have b. :nder sct .:-L .. .,."

modern ~ t y , Ire - - ..

hip, nurr Imeida, 1

T 1

t literaq to rest tl ...

to appeal to colleagues who still lack knowied~e about feminism a n d womanism to surfthe Internet, read around on these concepts and it will surprise them that the world has gone beyond the level of asking questions about the authenticity of these gender canons. A scholar can be defined as a citizen of a world of ideas: the more you have access to ideas, the more you become a dynamic participant in this world of ever-changing and ever-widening epistemological horizons. Ignorance can no longer be celebrated or validated in these days of high technology and information explosion.

9. Conclusion - a Postscript.

Since I became a professor, I have felt a fresh impetus to continue to shape and influence contemporary scholarship in my discipline. As a professor ofEnylish. my focus on cutting-edge theories have earned me above average international recognition and outreaches. As a foundation member of the Centre for Gender and Social studies of this great university and the first editor-in chief of the centre's journal, I have worked with colleagues from various other disciplines because of my multi-disciplinary approach. My research has national and international implications that make it a reference point in international academia in literary theory in general and in gender theories in particular.

,d the i~ I literary

s alter - . .. . -

I have relocate nterplay between textuality and contextualization as vital paradigms. I uphold alterity, not as a resistance to change, but as an act of sustained purposive resilience by Blacks in refusing to allow their culture to be swept away by the flood of social change. In a oun on the usual pejorative use of the word native to describe nc lean aborigines, I uphold the Mican literary writer and critic a natives in search of alternatives. I brought such alternatives Into my research by increasing the options oftheoretical formulations in a cultural vortex, using African concepts and terminologies that have not been used befi~re. My work departs from re-inventing the wheel or parroting other existing theories but it

transgresses univholesome borlndaries I recoy~lise agency. both1 cultural and gender, as a positive attribute in the verbonlotor context1 ofAfrica I have tried to re-centre lost sustainable valuable paradigmsl with new culti~ral epistemology

I adopt new configurations bv rejecting self-negation and cultural closure. My work postulates theories that discourage treatin$ African literature as ahistorical, acultural or a /ohl,/a I-am through cultural contextualisation. Literature is not a neutral designation as id takes root firmly in culture and is intercepted by class, race, ideology/ philosophy, sociolo~y, history and other extra-literary paraphernalia1 It shows an interface between the personal and the collective, the oral and the written, the traditional and the modern, the indigenous an4 the exotic. My theories emphasise epistemology - different levels of knowing and perception of reality from a diversity of locations Dogmatic theorising that views literature from a single theoretica framework cannot accommodate the plurality of African people' complex experience and fragmented history and culture. My principl L has been, adapt, adopt and recreate new paradigms I researcheh into uncharted aspects of oral literature, myths and women's traditional locations that help shape written literature because Africa, as b verbomotor society, still depends on orality in social transaction. h I

recommend a delibera reflection of the mode

te link b rn age.

. .

etween I : and tec

. .-

dinator s terature .

mmer pr ave beer - . .

'ogram a I meanin -

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Sir, the last twenty rive years of research in this university have brought wonderkl opportunitie national, regional and international because of the versatility of scholarship. 1 have enjoyed university research funds. I received thk United States National Endowment for the Humanities/USIA award in 1990. 1 was the only Black and African at the summer program dt UCLA, Berkeley and the coorl 'aid, a su ~n thb problem of race in American li would h ~glesjs if 1 was not there. As a Rockefeller Visiting bcholar at ~ o r n e l l Uni\.ersity in 199 1-42 1 did not realise that being i \*en such an awarp I

SELECTED REFERENCES l3usia. Abena, ( I095), in an intervie\v with hlEMKolawole in her office at Rutsers U1iiversitv. Ne\v Bnrnswick. New Jersey.

I Chinua, Achebe. A~rlol-t~ir~g f i t otr ('retrfiott Dnj: London: Hans Zell, I 1982 ed.

Adewale, Toyin and O~nowunm~ of Silelzce. Lagos: WRI'

i Segun.

Aidoo, Ama Ata. '-Unwelcom ind Decorative slaves- 01- Glimpses of women ,, , , , i ters and Characters in Contemporary African Literature", in Ernest Emeyonu, ed,. Literatzrie arid Society: SelectedE.snq:s IJ Aji.icmi 1.itr1nfirr.e. Oguta, Nigeria, Zim Pan, 1 989.

;I Ilangarembga, Tsitsi, (1992). "Interview" in Jane Wilkinson ed. Iili-rlkirlg With Afi-icon Writers, London: James Curry.

II (1989), Interview with Flora Veit-Wild on Black

Womert 5 Witiiig: Cro.r.rir1g the Rotrridaries, ed. Carole Boyce- ,I Davis, Frankfurt a.M : Ehling, 1 83.

Amadiume, Ifi, (1 98 7), ntnle Dnughtei.~, Female H~uhni~tis. London: Zed Books.

i i (1 994) in Siga: ,Jot/i7ialqf Wm~eit in Clrlhn'e and Society 19:4, Summer.

, Signe. (2004) Rethiiikirtg Sem~alifies iri Aj.icn. Uppsala: Nordic Afric Institute.

I -.Dy Almeida, 1rene.Frnl I. (I 994). e Afi.icnrt Wonten: Desti-oyi~~g I 1 the Ehil~tiriess of ~r/e t~ce. Gainsville: Florida University Press.

Amdt, 1

Susan. ( 1 998). Afi.icali Wonteit lr Litern/~/re: 0rcrttt1.e cr~rd ~iltertextz/ali4:. Bayreut h: Bayreut h African Studies 48.

%'he Last Ezeigbo, Akachi Theodora. (1 996). 7 of the Strong Ones. Lagos, Nigeria: Vista Books.

Amdt, Susan, 777e D~wanucs of Africa?? Fen111ii.1n1, Translated by Isabel Cole. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002.

Emecheta, Buchi. (1990, 1985). "Interview with Buchi Emecheta," 12.2, Ra Shinr, , Davidson and Marie Umeh.

0 Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, Hc

Back. Theoly and Prac London: NY: Routledge.

:]en Tiffi; tice in ,

n. (1 989) 777e Entpire Writes Post-colonicrl Lite~-ntr~r-e.s.

I

(1 989) "Interview: The Two cultures," in Raoul -Gra Afiicari L bices: hlter~ Sidney, Australia: Dan:

a of Being in Between md John Stotesbury, eerl Afi'ican Writers,

Awe, Bolanle. Nigerian Women SancoreBookcraft, 1992

;torical Perspective. Ibadan:

Emecheta, Buchi in interview with Mane Umeh, Women and Social Realism in Buchi Emecheta, PhD. D thesis submitted to the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Bhabha Hommi,

Bhasin, Khamla and Nighat Said: "The nelevance of Feminism in South-East Asia" 1 Evans, Mary (1 994.) The Wornari Q~re

Boehmer, Elleke. "Of Godesses and Stories: Gender and a New Politics in Ar~thil1.s ofthe Sm)oi~mrh, 'Tetersert otld Rtrthr~fod, ('hirirta Achehe: a C'efehratiotl. Portsmouth, N H , Heinnemann. 1990.

I Harding , Sandra. (1 987). Fbmir7ist Methodofogy. B ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ l l r n g t o n , Indiana University Press.

Hedwig Bock Rr Albert Wertheiln eds. Essyays on Contemporary Poslcnloni~l Fiction . Mmchen. Max Hueberg Verlag. 1986.

i I

NZ

rA

0

0

i ,o

s s

o.

?

ci3

2;

. g

< =;.

ij-

4,"

%

2-

z 5

. cn

2

z-3

5

& =

zg

1. Q

"Z 7

68 E

5-2

E y

z2

J

= "

W

cg

*%

>

*z 2

zg z-

oo-.

5s

n7

P

E~

,Jol~t.ncrl c?f'Ge17~iet. c r t d Dei~c./op/n~~/rt it? A,fi.icn ed. Journal of t h e Center for Gender- a n d Development in Africa, Obafemi A~volowo University, Ile- I fe. Vol. 1, No. I , 1997.

- "Space for the Subaltern: Representation and Re- presentation of Heroinism in Flora Nwapa's Novels'' ill

Enlergiizg Pe~.~sj~ecti~~es oti 1,'lol.a N~rlcipc~, ed. hlarie Umeh. 1997.

-- "Gender and Social Vision in the Nizerian Novel," in Nigei.iar~ FVontc~r in Socinl Cltcnrge, Women's Studies\ O.A.U Press and Mount St. Vincent, ~a l i fax , Canada Publication, 1995, pp 193-206.

One Masculine, One Feminine and One for the Neuter Board: Faces of Eve in Soyinka's Novels," in Oyin Ogunba, Soj.irlkn: A Collectio~t qf C~-i/~ccrl Essays. Ibadan: Syndicated Communications, 1994." One hlasculine, One Feminine and One for the Neuter Board Faces of Eve in soyinka's Novels," in Oyin Oqunba. Soyinka: A Collectio~l of Critical Ibadan: Syndicated Communications, 1994, pp 55- 64:

- ---- " Gender Myths, Self Image and Metaphor in Flora Nwapa's One 1s E~lorrgh and Women AIL? D@ei.e~~/, 117

flora N~l~apcr, Ernest Emeyonu, Calabar, ICALEL 1994,

, "Gender Myths, Self-Image and Metaphor in Flora Nwapa's Orre /.sE/1o11gl1, ed. Ebele Eko et. al. Calabar, Nigeria: University of Calabar Press. (1 994).

-- " An Afr-ican View of Transatlantic Slavery and the Role of Oral Test~mony ( Orature) in Creating a New Legacy" in fiattsntla~ltic S/ai1erj: Agnirlst Himtan Digr?i(~:

I ed. Anthony Tibbles, London: HIvISO, 1994, pp. 105-1 1 I .

- -. . . - . - hliriama Ba and N a ~ v a l El Saadawi: Vary'ing ,+\pl~oaches tn Fe~ninisnl." ,lorr~./~trl r!/ I:/~,yli.vl~ ,Y/r~c/ies, 011(lol 1992, pp.93-98

"Kofi Awoonot- as a Prophet of Conscience," A~;.;L'LIIY I , C I I I ~ I I C I ~ ~ S c ) I I c / C ~ I I ~ I ~ I . ~ ' , C,2. 1992. School of Oriental and African Studies, London: London University, 199 1 . pp. 125-132.

"The Omnipresent Past and the Quest for Self- Retrieval in the African Novel," A.sj)rc/.s of' Cor~~nto~n~~enl/h J,iter.at~n.e, Vol. 1 , Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, 1989- pp. 122ff.

"Social Dynamics of Folklore, Ogori Oral Literature as a Tool of Communal Development," Nigerian Folklore Association Publication, i 985, pp.5980K

"Chant-Festivals: The Core of Traditional and Modern Life of Ogori People," Smotra, Vol.XVI1, Zagreb, 1985, pp. 1 jff.

Mazrui, Ali. Ciil/trrzrlI~orces in Wo~.kl Polilics, New Hampshire, 1990.

Mba, Nina, ( I 982), Nigeriarr Vhnterr Mobilized, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Mikell, Gwendolyn. (1 997). Afi.icnlt Fentinism. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Mugo, Micere, Seminar Paper on Politics, Gender and Cultural Production, Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1992.

Nasta, Sushela A4o//~erfmds: Black Women's Writingfrom Africn, /he Carihhen~i and Solrth~ve,s/ Asia. London: The Woman's Press, 199 1 .

Okonjo-Ogunyemi. C:liil;\venye -L.C'onianisnl: the Dynamics of [lie Contemporan. Black Fe~nale Novel in En,olish.',\'iqtr.s. Val I I . No. 1 . 1952.

Okri, Ben. Kriesten Holst Petersen and Anna Rutherford. Chiiir~crAchebe, A Celehratioi, (London: Heinemann, 1990).

Po.stco/oi?i~rl St11tlie.s. Melbourne, Australia. Journal of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, April 2002.

I

Richard. David. "Repossessing Time: Chinua Achebe7s Airthillx qf he Smioinlo. " Peterson and Rutherford, 01). cit., pp. 130-1 38.

1

I laine, ede. (1 997). linages of Wonlei1 k Heaith: Tile Socia/ Construction of Gendered Health. Abo-Turku, Finland: Abo Academy Institute of Women's Studies.

Rushwan, Hamid el. a/. (1 983). Fenrole C'ir.ct~rncision in the S I I ~ ~ I : Prevo/encc, Complications, Attitr~de.~ m1d Ciicrtges, Faculty of Medicine, Khatoum, Sudan

Rwebangira, Ma~dalena, K. & Rita Liljestrom ed. (1998). Harakcr, Haraka .. . .Look Before Yon Leap - - - Yollth at the C?.oss-roads of Co.storn and Moderltity UPPSALA, : SIDA- SAREC/ Nordic Africa Institute. I

Social Identities: ./or~ri~al for the S ~ I I ~ : of race, N~tllurt urrd C?~/t~n.e. Califax PublicationsTaylor and Francis, Vol. 9 No. 1 , March 2003.

Spivak, Gayatri. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (eds), Marxism and the Interprtation of Culture, London: Macmillan, 1988.

The LLife and Times of His Royal Highness Oba Atayese Adebobqjo iv J.l?4ifrh Deji of Ahwe. Commemorative Brochure, 1999. I

I -Sagnia, Burama. (1 997). Keynote Address, Workshop on Culture,

Gender and Development for

Sclialk\i yk. Johanna ( 1 995) Review ol' Documents Related to SIDA's Strateg! on 'Gender CQ Deireloprnent' Stokhollrie SID.4 r)oc~i~~~entalion Paper fi-om Policy Developtnent

Sepl.'ala, Pekka Kc Bertha Koda.ed. ( 1 998). 771e hlc~kirig of' a Per.iphc~~~!: Econornic development and cultural encounters in souther11 Tanzania.Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute Seminar PI oceedings, No. 32 Eastern and Southern Africa, Addis Ababa.

-Sepal, Lynne. W ~ J Fe~tinisnz? Gender Psychology, Politics. Cambridge, Polity PreslBlackwell Publishes, 1002.

Snyder, Margaret & Mary Tadesse. ( 1 99 1 ). Afr.icni1 Women aid L>e~a/opn~eitt. London: Zed Books.

-Socit-rl I~je~lfities: , J ~ I I I . ~ I ~ T / for the S I I I L ~ ? of Race, Nation nrld C~llturu. Califax PublicationsTaylor and Francis, Vol. 9 No. 1, March 2003.

-Spivak, Gayatri. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (eds), Marxism and the Interprtation of Culture, London: Macmillan, 1988. Cited in Bill

-Sweetman, David. Women. (1984). Leaders irt A.frican Htsto~y London: Heinemann.

The IJfk and 7i'rnes qfH1.s ROJ-a1 Higii~tess Oha Atayese Adehohajo iv J.P -144'" Ikji of Ak~~rc. Commemorative Brochure, 1999.

Thiam, Awa, (1 986), Black Sisters, Sl~eak 0211: Fen~irlisln and (1,131~re.ssion h Black A.f,.ica, London: Pluto Press.

Tcvoniey, Leslie. ed. Wonlei1 111 Coi~ten~porm~ C11lt11re: Roles arid Identifies irl f imce and Spain. Bristol, Intellect Books, 2000.

Tong, Rose-Marie (1 989) Feminist Thoz~giit. San Francisco: \Vestwoocl

:er, Alice. 1r7 ,Sen?.ch of Our. Mothel- :s C~cnz/erl.s, (San Diego Harcourt, 1983). p.xii.

Willi ams-Ntiri, Daphne, ( 1993), Introduction t o .4,fr.ic.i/1in Womanism, b y Clenora Hudson-Weerns, Troy, Michigan Bedford Publishers.

Judith . I --.. , .-. a

~ n , Micheal and Still, l i~te?.te.uf~~nli(y: 771eo1.1r.s nll~l

Practice. Moncr~e.\let; idanche.srei. (hii\~e?..si& Press, 1990.