In the Castle of My Skin: (Re)Inscribing an African “Feminist” Identity in Changes and Faceless

Abstract

abstract:The analysis of African feminism in literary works is now a well-established area in literature. Most of the research on Changes and Faceless focuses on a thematic or stylistic study of the text. An often-underexplored area is how these two authors utilize the element of characterization to (re)inscribe the boundaries of African-centered feminist identities. To fill this gap, this article comparatively analyses the portrayal of “feminist” identity in Aidoo’s Changes (1994) and Darko’s Faceless (2003). The article reaffirms the stance assumed by Nigerian theorists like Nnaemeka, Ogundipe-Leslie, and Akachi that the feminist in Africa is accommodative, compromising, and collaborative. Using negofeminism (No ego feminism) theory as an analytical framework, this article reveals that in Faceless, the female characters who survive and thrive are those who live out the very tenets of the theory. In Changes, Esi is isolated in the end because she chose individualism over communalism. Consequently, this article extends the scholarship on literary representation of African feminism in women-authored novels. This validates the conclusion that African feminism as portrayed by Aidoo and Darko is truly representative of indigenous societies.