Redefining the African Female Identity: A Palimpsestic Re-reading of Selected African Women's Writing

Abstract

This paper examines female Identity in selected works of African female writers across several generations of writers. The author uses the palimpsestic analogy as a critical tool in re-reading the selected texts. The study reveals that textual meaning, particularly as it relates to female identity, is couched in deep ironies, thereby giving multi-textual layers which are similar to a palimpsestic pattern. Consequently, the palimpsestic nature of these female identities, as the study reveals, affects authorial intentions, as several plausible meanings are unraveled. It is also evident that through the multi-layered presentation which gives a palimpsestic pattern, the new carved out female identities seem problematic. Most of these writers did not succeed in completely erasing ‘the namby pamby' women from literary texts as envisioned in most earlier texts written by African male writers. Consequently, female characters are still portrayed as prostitutes, murderers and other self-effacing images. Therefore, the study suggests that women writers should employ other means of crafting new identities for their female characters, identities as full citizens, free from patriarchy oppression utilizing positive aspects of our cultures in liberating and nurturing ways.