Women Writers and Peace Building in Africa: Possibilities for a MoreSocially 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.