This is an important book about an important topic that some misguided
cultural nationalists would rather keep wrapped under the silences and
perversions of tradition. A subject that has generated intense debate
about culture, gender, sexuality, women's rights and human rights; this
book offers the searing, unsparing gaze that only literature can
provide. The collection derives its freshness and power from its
excavation of representations in the work of African and Diasporan
writers.