A Feminist Perspective in Aminatta Forna’s Ancestor Stones

Forna’s Ancestor Stones is a feminist novel that seeks to rewrite the experiences of women in Africa in the feminist perspective. It also challenges the demeaning treatments and tendencies of the menfolk. Before today, women struggled to gain respect, recognition and societal independence in Africa because of the patriarchal society. Nowadays they are breaking the demeaning and stereotypical images that disturb their position and advancement. African women writers took to the stage in fulfilment of that goal. Aminatta Forna, a Sierra Leonean writer is among the women writers who have chosen to rewrite their story. The voice we heard in her work in rewriting the women experience is the feminist voice. Ancestor Stones is a classic example of rewriting women’s experience in a feminist perspective. Thus, this paper scrutinizes thoroughly women’s intellectual ability and assertiveness from a feminist perspective in Forna’s Ancestor Stones. It seeks to view the institution of polygyny and how it is perceived by both the older and the twenty first generation of the African women. The research paper concludes that the twenty first century women are radical and uncompromising while the older generation is assertive but belongs to nego-feminism and seek to embrace polygyny.