Has Feminism Changed Women’s Realities in Africa? An Interrogation of the Poems of Ogundipe and Shire

Abstract

African feminist movements of the 1960’s marked the starting point of debates from
the origin of feminism in Africa to its impact on women and the society at large.
Literature has from the go been used as a vehicle to reflect the life and its vicissitude
on African women. African women writers have used literature as a platform to
challenge and re-imagine gender relations within their societies and the continent as a
whole. Yet, the question arises: despite half a century’s worth of literary production,
has the reality of women, as reflected in literature, changed? This paper thematically
interrogates the collection of poems by Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, Sew the Old Days and
Other Poems published in 1985, in comparison to Warsan Shire’s Teaching My Mother How
to Give Birth of 2011. Both poets are renowned for depicting current issues faced by
women and their struggles in patriarchal systems. A thematic analysis allows for the
inference of change: do these poets address the same struggles, or has almost thirtyyear difference brought about discernible changes?

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