Engendering an Alternative Approach to Otherness in African Women's Autobiography

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the reading of otherness in African women's autobiography. It is inspired by the Oloto proverbial of the Yoruba people of South West Nigeria which projects otherness as the uniqueness and power of the individual to speak for ‘self’ as an ‘other’. It examines the strategies employed by Wambui Otieno in her autobiography, Mau Mau's Daughter: A Life History to celebrate her otherness as defined by the Oloto proverb and demonstrates how the socio-political history of Kenya has shaped her life narrative. It concludes that her autobiography exemplifies the uniqueness of the female subject-narrator within the ethos of communality in African societies.