Notes toward the bibliography of Nigerian women's poetry (1985-2006).(Bibliography)

Publication: Research in African Literatures

Publication Date: 01-JAN-08

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Since the publication of Ifi Amadiume's Passion Waves (1985), so many remarkable single-authored volumes have appeared on the Nigerian literary scene that it has become necessary to attempt a bibliographic count of the many collections produced by women authors in the past two decades. In a general sense, so much discourse of contemporary African literature has underrepresented the works of the few women poets on the continent that the appearance of The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry by Stella and Frank Chipasula in 1995 was a salutary textual turn towards a revisionist scholarship of postcolonial African poetry. Although the book featured the works of four Nigerian writers, among others on the continent, it did not include the poetry of Mabel Segun and Flora Nwapa, both regarded as path-breakers and important members of first generation of Nigerian literary tradition. Other anthologies that have featured representative women writers include Frances Ademola s Reflections: Nigerian Prose and Verse (1962), the Festac Anthology of Nigerian New Writing (1977) edited by Cyprian Ekwensi, The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry (1984) (1) edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, Harry Garuba's Voices from the Fringe (1988), Adewale Maja-Pearce's Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English (1990), Tijan Sallah's New Poets of West Africa (1995), Uche Nduka's ... and auf den Strassen eine Pest: Junge nigerianische Lyrik (1996), Toyin Adewale's Twenty-eve New Nigerian Poets (2000), and The New African Poetry (2000) edited by Tanure Ojaide and Tijan Sallah. I have also presented a number of Nigerian "Third Generation" authors, including the women poets, in the issues of Drumvoices Revue. (2) These and similar integrative anthologies have encouraged recognition of some of the significant women s voices of contemporary Nigerian poetry. (3)

At the present time, even more women authors have emerged as significant representative voices of the new Nigerian literary tradition so that it has become necessary to focus closely on the literary output and, in this respect, to draw specific attention to the yet unacknowledged presence of the womans persona...

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