Abstract

While many present Alice Walker’s novel Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) entirely as a strong feminist/womanist discourse, this work sees that the African American writer’s solidarity with African women and her passionate attempt to expose the atrocity of female genital mutilation practiced in some African countries are immersed in negative stereotyping of African women, their social roles and culture. The article finds a striking similarity between Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy. A close examination of the language and ideas in the novel shows how Walker’s woman discourse abounds with critical remarks that measure aspects of Africans’ life with Anglophone standards. Surprisingly, the novel has not encountered much criticism for that, and the article argues that such an ethnocentric approach should, at least, be problematized.