Feminist writing, or women's writing? Francophone women writers of subsaharan Africa in light of readers and literary critics

This article gives voice to feminine and"feminist" writers and critics of S ubsaharian Francophone African literature. It shows how this literature has been the object of many controversies. Feminism, as a Western movement, ha s a negative connotation in Africa because it doesn't befit this continent' s reality. African women writers who choose feminism as a means to liberate the African woman, her body and her writing must deal with the censorship of the reader/critic, which conditions their writing and forces them to eng age in an ongoing process of discursive negotiations. This article also sho ws that in spite of the controversy which surrounds such writings, women wr iters and critics agree on the face that the feminist movement implies most ly western sociocultural values. Thus, it seems important to be most cautio us when applying feminist theories to African texts.