Women Writers and Peace Building in Africa: Possibilities for a More Socially Engaged Writing

Abstract

Literature in contemporary times is dominated by feminist themes. They often play around Gender-Based issues such as, Violence against Women, Harmful Traditional Practices, Patriarchy and its offensive impact on women, Gender Discrimination and of course, Romance. Much as these issues are germane and strictly women topical, they do not reflect sufficiently the emerging trends in women experiences all over the world. There is a global experience of violence which is currently subjecting women and children to vulnerabilities such as destruction of property, perpetual fear and loss of loved ones, abject poverty and loss of access to education.  Peace scholars have often reiterated the idea that the cost of conflict is as enormous as that of its transformation and that conflict is better prevented than managed or resolved. It has also been established that women often get to know about an impending conflict before most men in the society. Likewise, more peace scholars believe that women as natural peacebuilders can effectively prevent, mitigate and resolve conflicts thereby forestalling the attendant unpleasant consequences of conflict. This paper seeks to foreground the nature of peacebuilding and the power of the female writer to harness her natural instincts to build structures of peace thereby preventing violent conflict in Africa through her writings.