Alternative Realities, Transformation and the Goddess Myth in African Women’s Fiction: A Sociological Perspective of Flora Nwapa’s Efuru

African women writers have engaged in rhetorics and performative strategies, designed to project a sense of self redefinition for women in Africa. This is because in many African societies, women are largely invisible. However, over the past few decades, the narrative seems to be encouraging. Women writers have started contesting gendered roles, institutionalized structures and power relations that define their realities. Thus the paper examines Flora Nwapa’s utilization of the goddess mythology, to create alternative realities for self-recreation of the African woman. The author demonstrates that Nwapa weaves the goddess myth in the plotline to assert a revisionist order in the trado-cultural space. The goddess imagery is invested to construct a woman-centered ideology that supports women to attain psychological, economic spiritual and emotional succuor away from the realms of tradition. A sociological theoretical perspective is deployed for elucidation.

Keywords: goddess myth, sociology, alternative realities, fiction.