A contemporary selection of 22 African women's shortstories that vividly portray the everyday concerns of women's lives. The stories, divided into sections from north, south, east and west, cover such themes as the exploitation of serving girls, the experience of women behind veils, enduring friendships, the achievement of social power, independence of thought, and the affirmation of personal identity. These are new writers recording the new Africa with a fresh perspective. Authors whose stories are included in this landmark collection are: Northern Africa -- Nawal El Saadawi Assia Djebar Gisele Halimi Leila Sebbar Andree Chedid Southern Africa -- Tsitsi Dangarembga Bessie Head Jean Marquard Zoe Wicomb Sheila Fugard Farida Karodia Eastern Africa -- Evelyn Awuor Ayodo Violet Dias Lannoy Daisy Kabaragama Lina Magaia Western Africa -- Catherine Obianuju Acholonu Ifeoma Okoye Zaynab Alkali Orlanda Amarilis Aminata Maiga Ka

This anthology represents some of the best African poetry written in English in the last 30 years. The poets include Wole Soyinka, Dennis Brutus, Kojo Laing, Chenjerai Hove and Gabriel Gbadamosi.

"... a refreshing, thoughtful, critical map of this otherwise difficult battleground." -- Yale Review of Books "The essays... provide a powerful response to current conservative attacks on women's studies, feminist scholarship, and academic inquiry that foregrounds race, gender, and class." -- The Minnesota Review In the Canon's Mouth brings together two decades of writing by Lillian Robinson -- one of the pioneers of the "culture wars." Curriculum reform, changing the canon, multiculturalism, feminism, and political correctness: these issues have multiple labels, bestowed on different sides of a debate that began in the academy but that has become a matter of civic interest. Most of the well known books on these issues -- including bestsellers by Alan Bloom and Dinesh d'Souza -- come from the far right. They claim that feminists and cultural critics such as Lillian Robinson have taken over our universities. Robinson counters that the right is so frightened at losing its strangle-hold on the culture that it misrepresents a foothold as hegemony.

In this anthology the award-winning author Yvonne Vera brings together the stories of many talented writers from different parts of Africa.

A collection of 20 stories written between 1980-1991 which deal with themes relevant to various regions of Africa.

This first major anthology of African women's poetry offers an extensive selection of poetry by women all over the African continent.

African Women Writing Resistance is the first transnational anthology to focus on women’s strategies of resistance to the challenges they face in Africa today. The anthology brings together personal narratives, testimony, interviews, short stories, poetry, performance scripts, folktales, and lyrics. Thematically organized, it presents women’s writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital cutting, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile. Contributors include internationally recognized authors and activists such as Wangari Maathai and Nawal El Saadawi, as well as a host of vibrant new voices from all over the African continent and from the African diaspora. Interdisciplinary in scope, this collection provides an excellent introduction to contemporary African women’s literature and highlights social issues that are particular to Africa but are also of worldwide concern. It is an essential reference for students of African studies, world literature, anthropology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and women’s studies. A Choice Outstanding Academic Book Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association Best Books for High Schools, Best Books for Special Interests, and Best Books for Professional Use, selected by the American Association of School Libraries

Through the voice of Mee Ali, readers experience the rhythms and rituals of life in rural Namibia in interconnected stories. In Oshaantu, a place where women are the backbone of the home but are expected to submit to patriarchal dominance, Mee Ali is happily married. Her friend, Kauna, however, suffers at the hands of an abusive husband. When he is found dead at home, many of the villagers suspect her of poisoning him. Backtracking from that time, the novel, with its universal appeal, reveals the value of friendships, some of which are based on tradition while others grow out of strength of character, respect, and love.

Using oral accounts of their personal histories, this book recounts the lives and experiences of 22 black South African women, all born before 1915, from one small town in the Western Transvaal. This approach gives a unique insight into the history of South Africa in the twentieth century, as well as into the lives and world views of the unknown women who have been part of that history. North America: Heinemann

This accessible and unusually wide-ranging book is essential reading for anyone interested in postcolonial and African American women's writing. It provides a valuable gender and culture inflected critical introduction to well established women writers: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, Suniti Namjoshi, Bessie Head, and others from the U.S.A., India, Africa, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and introduces emergent writers from South East Asia, Cyprus and Oceania. Engaging with and clarifying contested critical areas of feminism and the postcolonial; exploring historical background and cultural context, economic, political, and psychoanalytic influences on gendered experience, it provides a cohesive discussion of key issues such as cultural and gendered identity, motherhood, mothertongue, language, relationships, women's economic constraints and sexual politics.