I Dare to Say
African Women Share Their Stories of Hope and Survival
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Featuring the real-life experiences of contemporary African women who tell of atrocities, pain, motherhood, marriage, love, and courage in their daily life, this gripping collection brings greater awareness to a continuing struggle. Denied a voice by their own culture for centuries, these women speak out for the first time, sharing poignant tales of abuse and womanhood robbed, revealing their methods of survival, and divulging their dreams for themselves and their children. A girl describes hiding under a blanket from the Lord's Resistance Army in search of child brides; a woman speaks of her family abuse and rejection followed by the deaths of her child and partner only to learn later that the father of her child was already married with eight children and had AIDS. Dramatic, sometimes heartbreaking, often inspiring, this is the first book to truly show what it means to be a 21st-century African woman.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this harrowing collection, women from rural Uganda tell their stories of rape, abuse, familial loyalty, and quiet courage. Those who shared their experiences with FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers' Association, include former prisoners of war, women in polygamous marriages, child brides, those suffering from HIV/AIDS, small business owners, and in one of the book's most moving sections, those enduring the humiliation of female genital mutilation. Habari suffers unspeakable pain and a month of bleeding after her circumcision, which leaves her infertile. Zayaga is shunned by her native village when she returns after being barred from her marital home in favor of her husband's co-wife. The Lord's Resistance Army abducts Hakim and her classmates from their secondary school and assigns them husbands they must submit to or be killed for refusing. Told in voices that are alternately frank, impassioned, angry, resigned, and resilient, these stories underscore the plight of rural women in a patriarchal society, where the husband's extended family tends to have control over the nuclear family, and where symbolic rites of passage, such as female circumcision, continue in secret. Highlighting the conflict between traditional and modern Africa, where women are beginning to speak out and seek legal advice, this is a heartfelt, inspiring book.
