Globalisation and African womens bodies: Some fictional representations

Gender as an important resonance in the transnational dynamics of globalisation significantly compels African women to transgress orthodox boundaries and traditional spaces which often limit them to domestic spheres. Particularly in the global south, for instance, the gendered forces of globalisation, complexly restructures people and spaces such that African women’s identities and sexualities are profoundly altered. How then do female African writers represent this highly sexualised phenomenon in their artistic productions? This essay examines the specificities of the gendered forces of globalisation from the perspectives of two contemporaneous female West African writers—Amma Darko and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo in their novels Beyond the Horizon and Trafficked. The route of this literary study is a trajectory that attempts to reveal some of the emerging patterns of globalisation especially on African women’s bodies. The essay also demonstrates, among other things, how the sexualities and the psychology of these women subsequently constrain new directions in the theorisation of African women’s identities. Key words: Identities, sexualities, globalisation, West African women’s fiction, gender.