Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspo)

"The theoretical apparatus which forms the foundation [of "Binding Cultures"] will cause it to be a source that succeeding critics will not be able to ignore...Wilentz has done her research thoroughly, and makes convincing arguments for the connections between African and Afro-American women's culture." - Nellie McKay. The history of their literature predates Black women's acquisition of literacy. Orature, rooted in storytelling and the African/African-American folk tradition, was the province of Black women. Thus, when Black women began to create literary works, they looked to their foremothers, recasting orature into literature. This study examines the cultural bonds between African and African-American women as illustrated in the writings of contemporary authors of the United States and West Africa. The first section explores the writings of Nigerian Flora-wapa and Ghanaians Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, writers who focus on the role of women in passing on cultural values to future generations. The second section of the study is devoted to African-American writers Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Paule Marshall, who in self-conscious evocation of African culture help create a more integrated African-American community.