Decoding the Perception of African Women in Amma Darko’s and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Selected Novels

Abstract

This article attempts to analyze how patriarchal society negatively perceives African women using Amma Darko’s and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s selected novels as backdrop. Through in-depth study and critical appreciation of the novels, these two authors depict the way the African woman is regarded, understood, and interpreted by herself in the male-dominated community or in a foreign territory; the African woman is nothing more than a naive, second-class citizen, reproducer, mere commodity, and man's appendage. Analysing the female characters in these novels, with a focus on Mara in Beyond the Horizon and Ifemelu in Americanah, we can understand the perception of African women from their own perspectives, while also considering the perception of African women by others in their given environment. Finally, this article will be informed by the decoding theory in terms of how these novels address the perception of the post-colonial and the modern African woman.