Women, Islam and Tradition in Zaynab Alkali’s The Stillborn.

Abstract

The general impression conveyed about West African literature especially in the field of literary criticism is one of a cultural activity that is largely a mixture of Christian and indigenous African traditions. Yet, to a considerable extent, Islam has influenced the way some important writers define themselves and their art. Certainly, Zaynab Alkali’s writing speaks of the Muslim experience but it is also carefully situated within the boundaries of what is acceptable to Islamic notions of good writing. She elaborates a vision that incorporates Islamic ideas of individual responsibility through her depiction of tensions which exist between essence and appearance, and between ethics and external behavior. This paper will attempt to situate Alkali’s The Stillborn within orientalist discourse which sees the Muslim woman as the “other”, backward, victimized, and imprisoned in seclusion. It will argue that misconceptions about the passivity of Muslim women are challenged by the portrayal of them in this novel. Furthermore, it will suggest that while Alkali’s emphasis on family relationships and the part women play in them is directly connected to the prominence given to both in Islam. The orientalist tendency to homogenize Muslim women regardless of their cultural background is questioned by the struggle for ascendency between Islamic beliefs and traditional practices found in the novel’s referent society.