International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE) Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2018, PP 112-123 ISSN 2349-0373 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0381 (Online) http://dx.doi.org/10.20431/2349-0381.0503012 www.arcjournals.org International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE) Page | 112 Female Agency and Subjectivity in Some Selected West African War Novels Juliana Daniels* University of Education, Winneba, Ghana 1. INTRODUCTION Feminism as a movement has been around for the last four decades with the singular motive of advocating gender awareness. According to Showalter (1985, p.3) cited in Akung (2007, p.24), because men and women have different perspectives and interpretation of texts, it is important that women have their own voice regarding issues pertaining to women: … feminist criticism developed as part of the international women‟s movement … feminist criticism has shown that women readers and critics bring different perceptions and expectations to their literary experience, and has insisted that women have also told important stories of our culture. From the above, it is not merely sufficient that women write. It is also imperative that they interpret not only their own stories but also stories written about them by men. This is one way of curbing biases against women in literature hence the production of this paper. A gendered interpretation of literary texts ensures that society in general has access to a fair representation of women as the distorted images of women are revealed and critiqued. Another resultant effect of gendered interpretation of literary texts is the highlighting of female writers and the aesthetics of their art. According to Akung (2007, p.25), “feminist aesthetic logically celebrates female consciousness” Generally, despite the many years of tireless efforts put in by many writers such as Bessie Head, Ama Atta Aidoo, Ammato Darko, Elaine Showalter Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Elma Shaw and Pede Hollist amongst others, to propagate gender consciousness, gender inequality persists. Laqueur (1986, p.18) argues that there is rather a heightening of gender inequality where women remained „incommensurable‟ to men. Superstitions, stereotypes and traditions that uphold male superiority over females persist. Fwangyil (2011) affirms this by indicating that indeed many people generally perceive women in general, including African women, as compliant, flaccid and scrawny in predominantly male cultures. She however asserts that irrespective of this general opinion about women, in her view, the new crop of African women in Adichie‟s Purple Hibiscus are self-assured in a way that deflates this age-old acuity: Women are generally regarded as docile, passive and weak in most male-dominated societies. In this novel [Purple Hibiscus], the women work hard to debunk this age-long myth by asserting themselves and proving their mettle, regardless of the obstacles they face (p.271) Abstract: This article evaluates the subjectivity and agency of African women in Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, Purple Hibiscus, Pede Hollist’s So The Path Does Not Die and Elma Shaw’s Redemption Road. The discourse in the article is located within the framework of critical studies on third world women and in the locus of African Womanism. Within this framework, the discursive is constructed in the ambits of persistent distortion of the realisms of African women in literary works which impetuses the imperative need for a shift in literary paradigm in a way that projects the existentialisms of African women to reflect their trials and triumphs and navigation strategies. Consequently, the article examines how some third generation West African novels depict the agentic individuation of African women in their novels. The paper concludes that there is an emerging breed of African women who are capable of agency and subjectivity. Keywords: Hegemonic Feminism, Women, Womanism, Agency, Subjectivity, African Literature *Corresponding Author: Juliana Daniels, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana