Ellen Banda Aaku’s novel

, which won the Penguin Prize for African Writing in 2011, marks a new level in Zambian fiction, which is still little known beyond its borders. [Unlike Zimbabwean fiction and Malawian poetry (see Note).] Four factors are at play. First, the author belongs to a growing African literary diaspora (she currently resides in Kent, and has a Zambian-Ghanaian married name). Second, she belongs to a growing number of university-educated African women writers, middle-class professionals who give us an insider’s view into what it is like to be a woman (or, in

, a young girl) in a male-dominated African world. Third, rather than well-trodden themes such as race and culture conflict and rural-urban migration, there is a focus on the

of class,…

1663 words

Citation: Crehan, Stewart. "Patchwork". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 November 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39163, accessed 23 November 2024.]