African Women, Culture, and Society in Contemporary African Novels

Abstract

This chapter critically examines selected works by the twenty-first century African writers: Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay with me, Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s Kintu. These three contemporary novels vividly represent issues and events for engaging the lives and experiences of women in Africa. Providing a sociological grounding for the analysis of the three contemporary novels, the chapter aptly presents the persistence of cultural expectations in marriage, sexuality, and motherhood and the devastating consequences for African women. The novels reveal how varied cultural practices in the respective African communities have affected the marital experiences of African women especially in their quest for the attainment of motherhood for the satisfaction of such unfair cultural requirements. The chapter concludes that African women are disadvantaged in several marital relationships and the major culprit for the unfair marital practices is the unfair cultural demands on women. The chapter also recommends the need for an improvement of the social status of African women through greater access to superior education as a measure to alleviate the diminished status of African women in relation to these cultural expectations.