Re: {UAH} Where are the women in African non-fiction?

Villager is a naturalist, goes about in the nude!!!

Villager

With regards from ACE-AGE

> On Nov 8, 2014, at 14:06, Ikanos Doyen <amb.ikanos.doyen@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Careful,
>
> what U ask for could materialize!
> then where will U run & hide-
> under villager's light sweater?
>
> - Peace
>
>> On 11/8/14, jim muwanga <muwangajim@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Robu
>>
>> U want Afrikan women to start writing the truth?
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Sat, Nov 8, 2014 at 12:48 PM, Robukui . <robukui.1@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Where are the women in African non-fiction?
>>> How African women are discouraged from writing creative non-fiction and
>>> why it matters.
>>> Last updated: 21 Jul 2014 16:15
>>> [image: Minna Salami]
>>> Minna Salami
>>> <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/minna-salami-.html>
>>>
>>> Minna Salami writes, speaks and advocates on a broad range of Africa,
>>> diaspora and feminist issues. She writes the award-winning blog,
>>> MsAfropolitan, and is a member of the Duke University's GLOBAL EDUCATOR
>>> <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/women-african-non-fiction-201472115825979364.html#>
>>> Network
>>> as well as the Guardian's Africa Network.
>>> RSS
>>> <http://www.aljazeera.com/Services/Rss/?PostingId=2014721151112215325>
>>> LISTEN
>>> <http://app.eu.readspeaker.com/cgi-bin/rsent?customerid=5707&lang=en_us&voice=Kate&readid=tdTextContent&url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/women-african-non-fiction-201472115825979364.html>
>>> [image: Email Article]
>>>
>>> [image: Print Article]
>>>
>>> [image: Share article]
>>>
>>> [image: Send Feedback]
>>> Dambisa Moyo is an important voice in African non-fiction writing [Getty
>>> Images]
>>>
>>> For a continent of its size and history, Africa does offer plenty of
>>> interesting topics for popular creative non-fiction. The majority of
>>> creative non-fiction books about African society that have enjoyed
>>> international success are by non-Africans
>>> <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/mar/16/news> or by white Africans
>>> <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-of-Africa-Non-Fiction/lm/H517YD2WTQMV>.
>>> There are clear reasons for the Eurocentric bias. Producing a culture of
>>> vibrant public intellectual thought is a challenge in societies dealing
>>> with socio-economic struggles and historical burdens
>>> <http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100164710>. African writers -
>>> women and men - lack the support systems and publishing opportunities
>>> available in the West.
>>>
>>> Furthermore, men seem to be much more active
>>> <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Contemporary-Africa-Non-Fiction-Fiction/lm/RA5GBGUI00CJH>
>>> in
>>> shaping ideas about Africa than women are. Unlike fiction writing, where
>>> women writers are doing well
>>> <http://www.msafropolitan.com/2014/03/review-books-african-women-writers.html>,
>>> gender inequality in the African non-fiction literary scene remains an
>>> unambiguous and crippling problem. Sure, writers like Dambisa Moyo, Noo
>>> Saro-Wiwa, Pumla Dineo-Gqola and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are contributing with
>>> compelling and heated investigations of African matters, but the
>>> non-fiction genre generally suffers from a lack of writing by African
>>> women.
>>>
>>> This is because, like women everywhere
>>> <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/wikipedias-sexism-toward-female-novelists.html?_r=0>,
>>> African women are systematically discouraged from probing intellectual
>>> matters. Let me give you some examples. At a recent workshop in Gambia
>>> where I led sessions about communication as a tool for feminist activism
>>> with a dynamic group of women, our discussions centred on how
>>> challenging,
>>> if not dangerous, it can be for African women to write about social,
>>> political and cultural situations. One of the participants was imprisoned
>>> for writing about how the regime oppresses women; another young woman's
>>> family and husband cut ties with her because she spoke out about - and
>>> against - experiencing female genital cutting.
>>>
>>> INDEED
>>> <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/women-african-non-fiction-201472115825979364.html#>,
>>> due to deeply ingrained patriarchal beliefs about women's
>>> self-expression,
>>> women who write about society may become subject to persecution
>>> <https://worldpulse.com/node/51167>, ostracism
>>> <http://www.awdf.org/dr-isatou-touray-and-amie-bojang-sissoho-vindicated-renewed-focus-on-fgm-in-the-gambia/>
>>> and imprisonment <http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/16785.html>. In
>>> addition, female creative non-fiction writers are habitually
>>> underrepresented in critical discussions: They are largely excluded from
>>> awards <http://home.comcast.net/~antaylor1/alanpaton.html>, power lists
>>> <http://africasacountry.com/africanthinkers/>, references
>>> <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/484162?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104330178837>
>>> and
>>> so on.
>>>
>>> Furthermore, the public sphere of creative non-fiction generally favours
>>> <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/06/men-dominate-books-world-study-vida>
>>> "masculine"
>>> topics. Books by women writers, especially those that include gendered
>>> analyses, are dismissed as tackling "women's issues" even if it is also a
>>> book about, say, conflict in a nation. As this type of reasoning goes: If
>>> gender is emphasised in a text, then it is feminist and lacks gravitas.
>>> Talk to Al Jazeera - Wole Soyinka: 'Islam is not in danger'
>>>
>>> As a result, when it comes to creative non-fiction writing about African
>>> society, many important works do not become the references for social
>>> analysis that they should be. Books like Leymah Gbowee's*Mighty Be Our
>>> Powers*, Wangaari Maathai's*Unbowed* or *The Devil That Danced on Water*
>>> by
>>> Aminatta Forna are not simply books written from a woman's point of view
>>> about women's lives, but they are important books about African political
>>> and social life.
>>>
>>> I don't mean to suggest that every woman who writes creative non-fiction
>>> about African society is anAfrican feminist
>>> <http://www.msafropolitan.com/2012/08/7-key-issues-in-african-feminist-thought.html>.
>>> My point is that there is no such thing as a "feminine" or a "masculine"
>>> topic when discussing society. Rather most social affairs - when
>>> addressed
>>> thoroughly - *are* gendered.
>>>
>>> The critical issues of the day: be they development, globalisation,
>>> citizenship etc., affect men and women in different ways. Therefore, it
>>> is
>>> those books (mostly written by men), which fail to consider the impact of
>>> their subject on half of the populace, that miss the mark. Great
>>> literature
>>> has no gender, (nor race, class or sexual preference), but men's
>>> centrality
>>> in African creative non-fiction writing is an expression of how male
>>> dominance is systemically and culturally reinforced and how women are
>>> made
>>> to feel that their ideas do not matter.
>>>
>>> Toni Morrison wrote in her brilliant treatment on race in American
>>> writing
>>> <http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674673779> that a key
>>> role of the writer is to "transform aspects of their social grounding
>>> into
>>> aspects of language". This is a suitable way to put the task of the
>>> twenty-first century African writer.
>>>
>>> Africa finds itself at a paradoxical moment. On the one hand, a
>>> progressive wave of socio-political, economic and cultural change is
>>> sweeping the continent. Yet on the other hand, for every step forward
>>> there
>>> is a concurrent concern. For example, while the Nigerian economy became
>>> Africa's
>>> largest <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26913497> and one of the
>>> fastest growing in the world
>>> <http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2014/04/nigerias-economy-bigger-everyone-thought>,
>>> the country is struggling to counter steadily multiplying acts of terror
>>> <http://ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/170017-terrorism-crippling-nigeria-says-cjn>
>>> .
>>>
>>> Culturally too, African films like Half of a Yellow Sun
>>> <http://panatv.com/blog/pana-tv-signs-deals-to-stream-half-of-a-yellow-sun-in-us-and-uk/>
>>> are
>>> performing well internationally but in Nigeria, the film, which tackles
>>> the
>>> country's civil war, has been subject to an unfounded censorship
>>> <http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/21/opinion/why-cant-nigerians-half-yellow-sun/>
>>> .
>>>
>>> In Uganda, strong economic growth in the past decade has enabled
>>> substantial poverty reduction in the country and there has been rapid
>>> progress in infrastructure development within agriculture, transport and
>>> energy sectors. Yet the recently established regressive anti-gay policies
>>> cast a shadow over the otherwise encouraging development
>>> <http://allafrica.com/stories/201407072337.html>.
>>>
>>> In such times of instability and dynamic change, non-fiction writers can
>>> help by providing stabilising narratives which could give direction to
>>> African societies. Moreover, it is important that *African *writers lead
>>> the way in this drive for progressive transformation in Africa.
>>>
>>> This is not to suggest that writers of all ethnicities should, can, or do
>>> not write informed and analytical material about African society: they
>>> should, can, and do. However, writers whose identities are vested in
>>> Africa
>>> are prone to approach issues with all the nuance, balance and
>>> attentiveness
>>> needed.
>>>
>>> It is equally crucial that black African women shape the discourse. To
>>> make sense of Africa today - of its complex socio-economic politics,
>>> cultural trends, ongoing conflicts, educational prospects, increasing
>>> religiosity, post-colonial discourses and so on - women must be
>>> encouraged
>>> to step forward as thought leaders and authors of creative non-fiction.
>>> To
>>> enable that, it is key that we understand that it is not because women
>>> have
>>> not had something to say or because their writing about society is less
>>> popular than men's, but rather because they have been written out of the
>>> "malestream" literary sphere. It's high time to write them back in.
>>>
>>> *Minna Salami writes, speaks and advocates on a broad range of Africa,
>>> diaspora and feminist issues. She writes the award-winning blog,
>>> MsAfropolitan, and is a member of the Duke University's GLOBAL EDUCATOR
>>> <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/women-african-non-fiction-201472115825979364.html#>
>>> Network
>>> as well as the Guardian's (UK) Africa Network.*
>>>
>>> *Follow her on Twitter @MsAfropolitan.
>>> <https://twitter.com/MsAfropolitan>*
>>>
>>> *The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
>>> necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.*
>>>
>>> *Viele GruBe*
>>> *Robukui*
>>>
>>> --
> Amb. Ikanos Ka Doyen Alwasi Ata -** *Alواسع* *الهدية
>
> --
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--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.