Surviving Adversity: Resilience of African Women in Selected Short Stories

Abstract

African women have gone through a lot of adversities but despite their sad history, they have become the epitome of resilience. This study examined how women in selected African short stories showed resilience in spite their various struggles. The African short stories that were analyzed in the study are: Girls at War by Chinua Achebe, Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, The Lovers by Bessie Head, The Rain Came by Grace A. Ogot, and Heavy Moments by Ama Ata Aidoo. Textual analysis of the stories yielded the following results: majority of the female characters in the stories had experienced monetary crisis, female characters’ other sources of physical and mental stress were traditions, gender inequality, and identity crisis, and most of them showed negativity as their initial reaction when faced with their problems, but in the end, they bounced back and accepted their situation. Thus, most of these women though plagued with money woes and stressed by too many traditional rituals and inequalities still relied on their own strength and embraced the situation they were in. They had the courage to pursue their decisions, letting go of fear, practicing patience, and using their own adversity to help them become stronger. The empowering stories of these African women can inspire women who are facing adversity anywhere in the world. In using short stories of women who are also experiencing misfortune in other countries, this study will contribute to future research on related topics.