Post-Colonial Women’s Literature as a Tool for Assisting Social Work Students to Understand of the Impact of Colonization on the Lives of Women in Developing African Societies.

 

Patricia A. Groves, Ph.D., L.I.S.W.

Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies

The University of Toledo

 

Abstract:

This presentation will focus on the use of literary works by post-colonial African women as a means to develop student understanding of the African post-colonial experience.  The works of Tsitsi Dangarembga, Mariama B?, and Ama Ata Aidoo will be examined in relation to their demonstration of the impact of colonization.

 

Description:

This presentation will focus on the use of post-colonial writings by African women as a means for enabling students to understand the African post-colonial experience.  Three writings will be discussed in the presentation:  Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean writer, So Long a Letter by Mariama B?, from Senegal, and the play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, by Ama Ata Aidoo, a Ghanaian writer.  Each of these authors presents the lives of women whose lives are complicated by the conflicts created by clashes between tradition and modernity.

Frantz Fanon has identified the impact of colonization of African Societies by European nation states, but he has been strongly criticized for presenting these issues from a male perspective that negates the female experience.  By examining the lives of women as presented in the above mentioned writings, students can develop an understanding of the lived experiences of women in African post-colonial societies.  The conflicts faced by these women related to the emphasis on individualism by westernized cultures and the social traditions of African cultures are brought to life in different ways in each of the writings.  Often, the protagonists are faced with choices that can lead to alienation from their own language, history, and traditions.  While the opportunities presented by the culture of the colonizer enable women to fulfill their personal potential and expand their intellectual and psychological boundaries, these changes do not without loss.

The imaginary space created through literature invites students to imagine realistic situations in a non-ideological way that is to sense the experience of the protagonist before placing one’s own values upon the protagonist and her lived experience.  Through reading the novel or play, one can enter into the lives of people who live beyond the boundaries of one’s own experience.  By reading and discussing these literary works, the social work student can gain valuable understanding with little risk to self or others.

Social workers have a role in the developing world, as well as in the domestic arena.  Even those social workers that work within our national borders are being faced with ever-larger numbers of immigrants from the developing world.  In order to provide adequate services in both national and international arenas, it is imperative that social workers understand the complicated issues related to colonization and its long-standing after-effects.

Selected passages from the three literary works will be utilized to illustrate the impact of colonialism on women’s lives.

 

 

Aidoo, Ama Ata (1965) The Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa.  White Plains, Longman Press.

 

B. Mariama (1980) So Long a Letter. Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann Press.

 

Dangarembga, Tsitsi (1988) Nervous Conditions.   Harare, The Zimbabwe Publishing House.

 

Poulos, J.  (1996)  Fanon page: Biography and Bibliography, from a Postcolonial Studies Viewpoint.  www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Fanon.html