How does our understanding of African culture shift when we begin from the perspective of women? What can the African perspective offer theories of culture and of gender difference? This unique book brings together a wide variety of African academics and other researchers to explore the links between literature, popular culture and theories of gender. The first part looks at African gender theory. The book then goes on to analyse women's writing, uncovering the ways in which different writers have approached, appropriated and subverted issues of female creativity, stereotypes of 'African Woman' and colonial history. Part three looks at the interaction of sexual politics, polemics and popular culture, including explorations of the gender dynamics of mask performance and oral story-telling. This major analysis of gender in popular and postcolonial cultural production is essential reading for students and academics in women's studies, cultural studies and literature.