Healing tongues : an exploration of the impact of orature on literary texts by Black women

Abstract

Most theories designed to appraise literary works by Africans and people of African descent have acknowledged the major influence of orature, but the concept (or conceptualisation) of orature in these works, mainly by men, has been focused only on limited aspects of orature. This thesis critically examines four theories: bolekaja criticism proposed by Chinwezu, Onwuchekwa Jemie and Ihechukwu Madubuike (1980); the blues as code and force as explicated by Houston Baker Jr. (1984); the signifyin(g) monkey as proffered by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.(1998); and the African imagination which has been put forward by Abiola Irele ( 2001).

Using a more holistic, feminist conception of orature, this thesis examines the ways in which orature in all its ramifications has impacted the works of seven women writers who are African or of African decent. The writers examined are: Phillis Wheatley, Lorraine Hansberry, Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Toni Morrison, Mariama Ba, and Tsitsi Dangarembga. In a bid to examine the relevance; of orature to their works, it highlights the presence of dialogic exchanges between their works and oral lore.

This thesis maintains that a dialogue exists between Black women writers and orature in more ways than male critics have acknowledged. It also shows that true to African oral tradition, intertextual dialogue takes place among these women writers.