Positive Portrayal of Women in African Prose: A Cursory Look at Sembène Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood and Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes.

Abstract

African novelists have long been seen as biased in their portrayal of female characters. This practice is condemned by many feminist writers as perpetuating male dominance and subjugating against women. However, Sembène Ousmane and Ama Ata Aidoo gave a different account of women characters in their works by assigning them positive roles. This paper asserts that the action of these two Anglophone and Francophone writers marks a shift from the status quo and is indicative of their stance as committed feminist writers. The paper further establishes that their stance offers the needed pretext to make a case for social and economic advancement of women in the two works. Finally, the paper concludes that characterization of women in these works by the two novelists helps to create an awareness of the power of the female species as an equal force in national development.

Key words: Feminism, Marxism, domination, positive portrayal, liberation, progress.