FEMALE BONDING AND FEMALE LANGUAGE: METAPHORS FOR CHAUVINISTIC SUBVERSION AND FEMALE SURVIVAL IN EZEIGBO’S THE LAST OF THE STRONG ONES AND BA’S SO LONG A LETTER

The need to deconstruct and subvert phallocentric walls of patriarchy necessitates the emergence of women writers on the African literary landscape. The task of erasing the tripartite anthropocentric burden of the African woman can no longer be overstated. This paper serves as a unilateral contribution amidst multifaceted voices yearning for humanistic and pragmatic disburdening of the African woman. The study precisely examines how Akachi Ezeigbo, in the pre-colonial and colonial Umuga society in The Last of the Strong Ones, and Mariama Ba, in the postcolonial moslem society of Dakar in So Long A Letter bond women and imbue them with the most appropriate assertive language in order to shatter the granitic tenets of patriarchy. The study got insights from the more accommodating concept of African feminism. The study is of the opinion that bonding and its concomitant rebellious language provide both physical and psychological therapy and strength for the African woman in redefining her image.