Download or read book Africa Wo/Man Palava written by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1996-04-15 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ogunyemi uses the novels to trace a Nigerian women's literary tradition that reflects an ideology centered on children and community. Of prime importance is the paradoxical Mammywata figure, the independent, childless mother, who serves as a basis for the postcolonial woman in the novels and in society at large. Ogunyemi tracks this figure through many permutations, from matriarch to writer, her multiple personalities reflecting competing loyalties. This sustained critical study counters prevailing "masculinist" theories of black literature in a powerful narrative of the Nigerian world.