Re-capturing the self: Nigerian women and the drama of empowerment

To appreciate fully the magnitude of the changing Nigerian women's images in creative literature a thorough search into the history, myths, anthropology, economics, social and political customs was undertaken. Scholarly works by Nigerians and other Africanists were investigated in order to authenticate the power of women which existed in traditional Nigerian culture before it was repressed by British colonialism.; In contemporary literature by both Nigerian men and women, women are empowered to challenge the establishment, to take their lives into their own control, and to venture into business and artistic professions. Nigerian women's images are now given the social recognition and dignity which their grandmothers possessed.; Chikwenye Ogunyemi has brought together the fundamental and underlying currents of collaboration existent in traditional Nigerian culture and she has named them African Womanism. The concept of Womanism was begun by Alice Walker and is now expanded by Ogunyemi and others. Womanism includes the desire for a more effective discourse between the genders and the accepting of responsibility by all parties to have a more constructive building of relationships. Ogunyemi signifies Siddon Look, which is pidgin for a Nigerian tactic for sitting down and discussing a problem in order to find a solution and to arrive at a consensus. Womanism aspires to formulate a woman-centered vernacular theory in combination with an Afro-centric ideology which is used in bi-gender discourse.; In the plays of Zulu Sofola and Tess Onwueme are found examples of womanism at work even though the plays were written before Ogunyemi's published theoretical ideas. In the work of these two playwrights is identified the need for the reevaluation of old cultural and social customs and the implementation of new perspectives.; It is freshness and newness that Womanism brings to politics, society, philosophy and literature.