A critical study on Female Genital Mutilation in Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy

Abstract

African American literature traces its origin to the latter half of the 18^th century when the African American population was still acaged one.  Slaves were viewed as subhuman and incapable of mastering “the arts and sciences”. They were transported as human cargo across the Atlantic Ocean to plantations in the West Indies.  The enslaved Africans were then sold to European colonies. The servant of servants who has no history, “No value and culture”. African American writers concentrate the development of integral part of American culture and literature.  This literature can be termed as documentation of the multi-faceted nature of oppression, feminism, racism and dispossession of blacks.Women of African origin in the United States were keenly aware of the impact of race, class, gender and oppression upon their lives.  The history of black women in United States began with the forced migration of millions of African women from the interiors of the west coast of Africa.  These African American women begantheirnarratives in the late 18^th century by writers such as Phillis Wheatley.  It expands to cover writers such as Ida B. Wells, Amanda Berry, and others who took up the work for women’s rights.  We plan to cover the Harlem Renaissance with writers such as Marita Bonner, Zora Neale Hurston, and others.  Finally, we’ve targeted writers from the movements of the 1960s such as Maya Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, and Rosa Guy as well as recent writings by authors including Michelle Wallace and Patricia Hill Collins, covering issues such as Womanism and Black Feminism.