A cabaça-útero de Òsun: um olhar para o corpo materno na literatura beninense

Abstract

From a perspective on the female characters of the novels Presqu'une Vie and Pour unites poignée de gombos, by the writers Carmen Toudonou and Sophie Adonon, respectively, this article seeks to analyze how these women experience motherhood from the place in which they are inserted, Benin, a country located in West Africa, that went through a great process of colonization by France, which brought about profound changes in its socio-cultural and political aspects. In Presqu'une Vie e Pour unites poignée de gombos, both the first-person view character and the third-person view character tell stories, portray several aspects that involve the female universe, from their roles in beninense society and their links with the sacred and ancestry, which lead readers to understand their processes of identity reformulation and the rescue of power that help them overcome the various forms of oppression that surround them. Our perspective will be focused on the experiences of these female characters regarding motherhood, understanding the different relations they establish with their maternal body and the reverberations that come with the act of mothering. As theoretical contributions, this article will follow the path of epistemologies thought by women who seek a resignification of motherhood within Western feminist studies, such as Andrea O'Reilly's concept of Matricentric Feminism. As well as concepts of motherhood thought by African and Afro-diasporic women, who, rescuing African values about being a mother, enable us to see the dynamics experienced by women in different African societies and the black diaspora. We highlight the concepts of other-mothering and mothering of the mind, coined by the American Patrícia Hill-Collins, and the Motherism, thought by the Nigerian Catherine Acholonu. Frantz Fanon; Bell Hooks; Sylvia Tamale; Nkiru Nzegwu; Oyeronke Oyewumi; Carla Akotirene’s theoretical contributions will also be relevant to our analysis.

Keywords: Maternity; Beninense Literature; Female Authorship; Carmen Toudonou; Sophie Adonon.