The Emerging Lesbian Voice in Nigerian Feminist Literature


Unoma Azuah

Titilola Shoneyin

[Excerpt from a paper written for the conference “Versions and Subversions in African Literature,” organized by Women in Africa and the Diaspora (WAAD), Berlin, May 2002.]

“That we pay attention to those voices we have been taught to distrust, that we articulate what they teach us and act upon what we know.”
(Nancy K. Bereano)

In the 90s, when publishing houses closed their doors to creative writers due to the economic crunch in Nigeria, newspaper publications became an alternative means of publishing creative works. Newspapers like the Post Express and Vanguard first brought the emerging lesbian voice in Nigerian literature to public notice. The role they played is historic, because this voice might never have been heard.

The British Council workshop for budding female writers in Nigeria, held in January 1997 at the University of Ibadan, brought with it the emergence of a lesbian voice in Nigerian feminist literature through four women, Titilola Shoneyin (“Woman in Her Season”), Promise Okekwe (“Rebecca”), Temilola Abioye (“Taboo”) and myself (“Onishe,” “The Rebel”). This voice stands in sharp contrast to the existing feminist position of Nigerian female writers who advocate for complementarity between men and women, and the empowerment of women through motherhood.

None of the works of previous feminist literature in Nigeria address sexuality or sexual independence as a form of empowerment. And the possibility of looking at sexuality as a form of empowerment may be nonexistent, since even terms like Feminism have been held in much suspicion.

Consequently a declaration of sexual independence from men may seem to spell doom, but surprisingly the lesbian voice in Nigerian literature is radically questioning the dominant position.

The principal character in Titilola Shoneyin’s Woman in her Season (Post Express 28/12/96) is Mrs. Akadiran, who expresses her marital frustration: “Look at me. I’m forty-five. I’ve been to all the over-rated holiday resorts of the world, but they have not remotely contributed to my being a real woman back home, I was to come and benefit tremendously from my husband’s infidelity. He would bring me flight tickets and raw currency as a peace offering on resurfacing after days on end.”

On one of her many trips, she meets and falls in love with Zerelda, who manages a slimming farm in Zurich. Her workouts in Zerelda’s farm go beyond their physical description to symbolize her sexual fantasies. Every force applied to her exercise seem to represent the intensity of her urge to make love with Zerelda. “I soon began to live for nights when my spine would nest beautifully between her breasts under the satin covers that dissolved the stinging Swiss snow.”

One critical point runs through most of the stories, and that is the issues of lesbianism coming as an afterthought Mrs. Akadiran in Woman in her Season could not discover her true self on her own. It took her husband’s infidelity to force her into discovering her inner self, but she is not brave enough to abandon her “dead” marriage.

It is likely that women like the characters in these stories, such as Mrs. Akadiran, maintain lesbian relationships even as married women. They compromise to live in disguise. The belief of Nigerian society in heterosexual homes is so profound that bisexuality, in some cases, becomes most convenient.

Lesbianism may have slim chances of survival in Nigerian society, but the contrary could be the case of its literature. Most lesbians may prefer to identify with fictional characters rather than “come out” in a hostile society. This trend may popularize the literature even though it is likely to be regarded as X-rated. But an increase in such literature will hopefully alter society’s expectations.

Adrienne Rich gives insight into the issue of lesbian existence when she says that, “it comprises both the breaking of a taboo and the rejection of a compulsory way of life” and “it is a direct or indirect attack on the male right of access to women.” These stories bear testimony to a radical questioning of the dominant patriarchal culture, which may sooner or later be dismantled.


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