Exploring female friendship in African literature: From Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter (2008) to Binwell Sinyangwe’s A Cowrie of Hope (2000)

Abstract

There have been several arguments over the years that women are their own worst adversaries. The smallest quarrel among women is sometimes followed by the statement, ‘women are their own enemies.’ Most women have internalized this adage and established prejudiced and biased notions about women they hardly know. Despite this, African female writers have written about female friendship and how women have united, rescued, and established solidarity with one another to endure oppression and patriarchy. Using Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter and other African literary texts, this article investigates the theme of friendship in African literature.  Using the theory of sisterhood, the article highlights how writers have explored diverse forms of deep and honest friendship among women, women genuinely forgiving each other and coming together to achieve a common course. The discussion is achieved by focusing on the theory of sisterhood’s depiction of friendship. The article concludes that women have and can form a great bond of friendship and the issue of women subjugating women is human nature and not a natural negative feminine gender reaction.