Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:09:17.762Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cape Verdean and Mozambican Women's Literature: Liberating the National and Seizing the Intimate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Isabel P. B. Rodrigues  and
Kathleen Sheldon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In Mozambique and Cape Verde, writing in Portuguese by African women has directly engaged political reconstruction by denouncing colonial oppression and embracing national freedom. This article addresses the recent history of Lusophone African women's fiction, which has been pivotal in inscribing the intimate arena of sexuality and motherhood into power relations and has also revealed ways in which the domain of violence intersects with private lives. By focusing on two novels that exemplify this trend, this article demonstrates links between the political and the intimate. It also shows how Lusophone African authors contribute to healing social conflict through their narratives, and draws some conclusions about gender relations in the Lusophone African experience and across the continent.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Au Mozambique et au Cap Vert, les écrits de femmes africaines en langue portugaise ont participé directement à la reconstruction politique en dénonçant l'oppression coloniale et en adoptant les principes de liberté nationale. Cet article aborde l'évolution historique récente des romans d'écrivaines africaines de langue portugaise, qui ont été essentiels pour introduire les domaines privés de la sexualité et de la maternité dans l'arène publique des relations de pouvoir, et pour révéler les

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , December 2010 , pp. 77 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1986. Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Afolabi, Niyi. 2001. Golden Cage: Regeneration in Lusophone African Literature and Culture. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Afolabi, Niyi. 2003. “New Mozambican Women Writers.” In Seasons of Harvest: Essays on the Literatures of Lusophone Africa, edited by Afolabi, Niyi and Burness, Donald, 197–220. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Almeida, Germano. 2001. As Memórias de urn espírito. Mindelo, Cape Verde: Ilhéu Editora.Google Scholar
Almeida, Germano. 2004. O Mar na Lajinha. Mindelo, Cape Verde: Ilhéu Editora.Google Scholar
Almeida, Germano. 2006. Eva. Lisbon: Caminho.Google Scholar
Amarílis, Orlanda. 1974. Cais-do-Sodré té Salamansa: Cantos. Coimbra: Centelha.Google Scholar
Amarílis, Orlanda. 1983. Ilhéu dospassaros. Lisbon: Plátano Editora.Google Scholar
Amarílis, Orlanda. 1989. A Casa dos Mastros: Conlos caboverianos. Linda-a-Velha, Portugal: Edições ALAC.Google Scholar
Ardener, Edwin. 1975. “Belief and the Problem of Women.” In Perceiving Women, edited by Ardener, Shirley, 1–17. London: Malaby.Google Scholar
Arndt, Susan. 2000. “African Gender Trouble and African Womanism: An Interview with Chikwenye Ogunyemi and Wanjira Muthoni.” Signs 25: 709–26.Google Scholar
Bettencourt, Fátima. 1994. Semear em pó. Praia, Cape Verde: Ministério da Cultura e Comuniçãgao Social, Instituto Caboverdiano do Livro.Google Scholar
Bettencourt, Fátima. 1996. A Cruz do Rufino. Colecção Infanto Juvenil. Praia, Cape Verde: Ed. Embaixada de Portugal em Cabo Verde.Google Scholar
Bettencourt, Fátima. 2001. Um certo olhar. Praia, Cape Verde: Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional.Google Scholar
Bettencourt, Fátima. 2006. Mar, caminho adubado de esperança. Praia, Cape Verde: Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brito, Margarida. 1991. Canções infanlis. Cape Verde: Instituto Caboverdiano do Livro.Google Scholar
Brookshaw, David. 1996. “Cape Verde.” In The Poskolonial Literature of Lusophone Africa, edited by Chabal, Patrick, 179–233. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Campos, Sandra. 2004. “Corporeal Identity: Representation of Female Sexuality and the Body in the Novels of Paulina Chiziane.” In Sexual/Textual Empires: Gender and Marginalily in Lusophone African. Literature, edited by Owen, Hilary and Rothwell, Phillip, 137–54. Lusophone Studies 2, University of Bristol, Department, of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies.Google Scholar
Chabal, Patrick. 1994. “Paulina Chiziane.” In Vozes Moçambicanas: Literatura e Nacionalidade, edited by Chabal, Patrick, 292–301. Lisbon: Vega.Google Scholar
Chabal, Patrick. 1996. The Postcolonial Literature of Lusophone Africa. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Chiziane, Paulina. 1990. Balada de amor ao venlo. Maputo: Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, Colecção Karingana.Google Scholar
Chiziane, Paulina. 1994. “Eu, mulher … Por uma nova visão do mundo.” In Eu mulher em Moçambique, edited by Afonso, Ana Elisa de Santana, 11–18. Maputo: GEGREF.Google Scholar
Chiziane, Paulina. 1999. Ventos do apocalipse. 2nd edition. Lisbon: Caminho.Google Scholar
Chiziane, Paulina. 2000. O sétimo juramento. Lisbon: Caminho.Google Scholar
Chiziane, Paulina. 2002. Niketche: Uma história depoligamia. Lisbon: Caminho.Google Scholar
Chiziane, Paulina. 2008. O alegre canto da perdiz. Lisbon: Caminho.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1998. “It's All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation.” Hypatia 13 (3): 62–82.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1999. “What's in a Name? Womanism, Black Feminism and Beyond.” In Race, Identity, and Citizenship, edited by Torres, Rodolfo P., Mirón, Louis F., and Xavier, Jonathan. Indianapolis: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
da Fonseca, Lília. 1958. Poemas da hora presente. Lisbon: Orion.Google Scholar
Dickinson, Margaret, ed. 1972. When Bullets Begin to Flower. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.Google Scholar
Dlamini, Nombuso. 2001. “Literacy, Womanism and Struggle: Reflections on the Practices of an African Woman.” Journal of International Women's Studies 2 (3): 78–93.Google Scholar
Duarte, Vera. 1993. Amanhã a madrugada. Lisbon: Vega. Google Scholar
Duarte, Vera. 2001. Arquipelago da paixão. Praia: Artiletra.Google Scholar
Duarte, Vera. 2004. A candidata. Luanda: União dos Escritores Angolanos.Google Scholar
Elder, Arlene A. 1995. “‘Who Can Take the Multitude and Lock It in a Cage?’ Noemia De Sousa, Micere Mugo, Ellen Kuzwayo: Three African Women's Voices of Resistance.” In Moving Beyond Boundaries, vol. 2, Black Women's Diasporas, edited by Davies, Carole Boyce, 255–71. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Emenyonu, Ernest N. 2004. “New Women's Writing: A Phenomenal Rise.” In New Women's Writing in African Literature, edited by Emenyonu, Ernest N., xi–xiii. African Literature Today 24. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Farmer, Paul. 1999. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fernandes, Maria Paula Rocha Monteiro. 1998. Os Contos da Paul. Cabo Verde: Grafica de Mindelo.Google Scholar
Ferreira, Hermínia Gomes da Cruz Curado. 2000. Estórias de encantar. Mindelo: Instituto de Promoção Cultural, Gráfica do Mindelo.Google Scholar
Ferreira, Hermínia Gomes da Cruz Curado. 2003. A magia das palavras. Praia, Cape Verde: Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro.Google Scholar
Ferreira, Manuel. 1976. “An Unknown Literature: African Writing in Portuguese.” West African Journal of Modern Languages 2: 145–60.Google Scholar
Ferreira, Ondina Maria Fonseca Rodrigues. 2001. Amor na ilha e outras paragens. Cabo Verde: Gráfica do Mindelo.Google Scholar
Fonseca, Maria Nazareth Soares. 1999. “Vozes femininas em afrodições poéticas: Brasil e África portuguesa.” In A mulher escritora em África e na América Latino, edited by Martinho, Ana Maria Mão-de-Ferro, 173–85. Évora, Portugal: Editorial NUM.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1980. The History of Sexuality. Translated by Hurley, Robert. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Gal, Susan. 1991. “Between Speech and Silence: The Problematics of Research on Language and Gender.” In Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era, edited by di Leonardo, Micaela, 175–203. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hale, Thomas A. 2006. “Bursting at the Seams: New Dimensions for African Literature in the 21 st Century.” In New Directions in African Literature, edited by Emenyonu, Ernest N., 10–21. African Literature Today 26. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Russell G. 2003. “A Feminist Dance of Love, Eroticism, and Life: Paulina Chiziane's Novelistic Recreation of Tradition and Language in Postcolonial Mozambique.” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 10: 153–67.Google Scholar
Hudson-Weems, Clenora. 1993. Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves. Troy, Mich.: Bedford.Google Scholar
Kolawole, Mary E. Modupe. 1997. Womanism and African Consciousness. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Kolawole, Mary E. Modupe. 2004. “Re-Conceptualizing African Gender Theory: Feminism, Womanism and the Arere Metaphor.” In Re-Thinking Sexualities in Africa, edited by Arnfred, Signe, 251–66. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Lara, Alda. 1973. Poemas. 3rd edition. Lobito, Angola: Capricórnio.Google Scholar
Magaia, Lina. 1988. Dumba Nengue: Run for Your Life, Peasant Tales of Tragedy in Mozambique. Translated by Wolfers, Michael. Trenton, N J.: Africa World Press Google Scholar
Mariano, Gabriel. 1991. Cultura caboverdeana: Ensaios. Lisbon: Vega.Google Scholar
Martinho, Ana Maria Mão-de-Ferro. 1993. “O fantástico na obra de Orlanda Amarílis.” Vertice 55: 78–80.Google Scholar
Martinho, Ana Maria Mão-de-Ferro, ed. 1994. Contos de África escritos por mulheres. Évora, Portugal: Pendor.Google Scholar
Martinho, Ana Maria Mão-de-Ferro, ed. 1999. A mulher escritora em África e na América Latina. Évora, Portugal: Editorial NUM.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1991. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” In Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, edited by Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Russo, Ann, and Torres, Lourdes, 51–80. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Momplé, Lília. 1988. Ninguém matou Suhura. Maputo: Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos.Google Scholar
Momplé, Lília. 1995. Neighbours. Maputo: Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos.Google Scholar
Momplé, Lília. 1997. Os olhos da cobra verde. Maputo: Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos.Google Scholar
Momplé, Lília. 1999. “A mulher escritora e o cânone-aproximação e roptura.” In A mullier escritora em África e na América Latina, edited by Martinho, Ana Maria Mão-de-Ferro, 31–34. Évora, Portugal: Editorial NUM.Google Scholar
Momplé, Lília. 2001. Neighbours: The Story of a Murder. Translated by Bartlett, Richard and de Oliveira, Isaura. Oxford: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Momplé, Lília. 2005 (2002). “Celina's Banquet.” Translated by Bartlett, Richard. In Timbuktu, Timbuktu: A Selection of Works from the Caine Prize for African Writing 2001, 63–75. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.Google Scholar
Moser, Gerald M. 1989. “African Literature in Portuguese: The First Written, the Last Discovered.” African Forum 2 (4): 78–96.Google Scholar
Neto, Maria Eugénia. 1989. O vaticínio da Kianda: Na piroga do tempo. Lisbon: Caminho.Google Scholar
Nnaemeka, Obioma, ed. 1996. Sisterhood, Feminisms and Power: From Africa to the Diaspora. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Nnolim, Charles E. 2006. “African Literature in the 21st Century: Challenges for Writers and Critics.” In New Directions in African Literature, edited by Emenyonu, Ernest N., 1–9. African Literature Today 26. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Nwajiaku, Ijeoma C. 2004. “Representations of the Womanist Discourse in the Short Fiction of Akachi Ezeigbo and Chinwe Okechukwu.” In New Women's Writing in African Literature, edited by Emenyonu, Ernest N., 55–68. African Literature Today 24. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
Ogunyemi, Chikwenye Okonjo. 1985. “Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English.” Signs 11: 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogunyemi, Chikwenye Okonjo. 1995. Africa Wo/Man Palava. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Owen, Hilary. 2003. “The Serpent's Tongue: Gendering Autoethnography in Paulina Chiziane's Balada de Amor ao Venlo .” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 10: 169–84.Google Scholar
Owen, Hilary. 2007. “Paulina Chiziane: The Unmanning of Mozambique.” In Mother Africa, Father Marx: Women's Writing in Mozambique, 1948–2002, 169–213. Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell University Press.Google Scholar
Oyewumi, Oyeronke. 1997. The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Disarurses. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Oyewumi, Oyeronke. 2000. “Family Bonds/Conceptual Binds: African Notes on Feminist Epistemologies.” Signs 25: 1093–98.Google Scholar
Passos, Joana. 2008. “Lusophone Literatures: Tales from Cape Verde and Mozambican Memories of the Apocalypse.” Wasafiri 22 (3): 65–71.Google Scholar
Phillips, Layli, and McCaskill, Barbara. 1995. “Who's Schooling Who? Black Women and the Bringing of the Everyday into Academe, or Why We Started ‘The Womanist.’” Signs 20: 1007–18.Google Scholar
Ramos, Ivone Aida Lopes Rodrigues Fernandes. 1990. Vidas vividas. Cape Verde: Gráfica de Mindelo.Google Scholar
Ramos, Ivone Aida Lopes Rodrigues Fernandes. 2000. Futcera ta cendê na rotcha. Cape Verde: Burótica de São Vicente.Google Scholar
Salústio, Dina. 1994. Mornas eram as noites. Praia: Instituto Caboverdiano do Livro.Google Scholar
Salústio, Dina. 1998. A louca do Serrano. Praia: Instituto Caboverdiano do Livro.Google Scholar
Salústio, Dina. 2001. Violência contra as mulheres. Cape Verde: Instituto da Condição Feminina.Google Scholar
Sapega, Ellen W. 2004. “ Morabeza in the Metropolis: Gender, Emigration and the Colonial Relation in Pre-Independence Cape Verdean Literature.” In Sexual/Textual Empires: Gender and Marginality in Lusophone African Literature, edited by Owen, Hilary and Rothwell, Phillip, 45–63. Lusophone Studies 2, University of Bristol, Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Simone Pereira. 2006. “ Niketche, uma dança para muitos corpos.” In Saberes e fazeres de gênero: Entre o local e o global, edited by Minella, Luzinete Simões and Funck, Susana Bornéo, 177–92. Floranópolis, Brazil: Editora da UFSC.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Kathleen, and Rodrigues, Isabel Fêo P. B.. 2008. “ Outras Vozes: Women's Writings in Lusophone Africa.” African and Asian Studies 7: 423–45.Google Scholar
Silveira, Onésimo. 1963. Consciencialização na literatura caboverdiana. Lisbon: Casa dos Estudantes do Império.Google Scholar
Spencer, Maria Helena. 2005. Contos, crómicas e reportagens. Edited by Ferreira, Ondina. Praia: Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro.Google Scholar
Tripp, Aili Mari. 2000. “Rethinking Difference: Comparative Perspectives from Africa.” Signs 25: 649–75.Google Scholar
Walker, Alice. 1983. In Search of Our Mother's Gardens: Womanist Prose. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Williams, Claire. 2004. “Maidens, Matriarchs and Martyrs: Mozambican Women in the Works of Lília Momplé.” In Sexual/Textual Empires: Gender and Marginality in Lusophone African Literature, edited by Owen, Hilary and Rothwell, Phillip, 117–35. Lusophone Studies 2, University of Bristol Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies.Google Scholar