Ellen Banda-Aaku, Patchwork

Stewart Crehan (University of Zambia)
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Ellen Banda Aaku’s novel

Patchwork

, which won the Penguin Prize for African Writing in 2011, marks a new level in Zambian fiction, which is still little known beyond its borders. [Unlike Zimbabwean fiction and Malawian poetry (see Note).] Four factors are at play. First, the author belongs to a growing African literary diaspora (she currently resides in Kent, and has a Zambian-Ghanaian married name). Second, she belongs to a growing number of university-educated African women writers, middle-class professionals who give us an insider’s view into what it is like to be a woman (or, in

Patchwork

, a young girl) in a male-dominated African world. Third, rather than well-trodden themes such as race and culture conflict and rural-urban migration, there is a focus on the

minutiae

of class,…

1663 words

Citation: Crehan, Stewart. "Patchwork". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 November 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39163, accessed 29 March 2024.]

39163 Patchwork 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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