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Article: Polygamy in African fiction.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Program of English Studies, University of Natal. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Abstract
Polygamy in the form of polygyny is still practised all over Africa and remains an obstacle to female emancipation in many countries, including South Africa, where it is recognised legally by the Customary Marriages Act. This article examines the rhetoric surrounding polygamy in a number of African texts, including critical articles, the thirteenth-century epic Sundiata, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher's biography of Christina Sibiya and novels by Mariama Ba, Buchi Emecheta, Chinua Achebe, Es'kia Mphahlele, Ama Ata Aidoo, Lazarus Miti and Onuora Nzekwu. Although a small number of these texts argue in favour of the stability and order of traditional African ...