Abstract

The understanding of gender and its role  in society have long been under Western authority, ultimately continuing colonial narratives both in academia and general culture.  
The ongoing disparity between global academic authorities impedes the ability for alternative gender discourses to rise to the surface and be legitimized. This paper discusses Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater with a specific interest in the gendered vocabulary and aesthetics it employs which, in their nonconformance to Western gender discourses, decentralizes the Western voice. This is addressed through analysis of the effects Emezi's rejection of Western vocabulary has on both the narrative and on how the reader understands the protagonist’s relationship with gender. Turning from general aesthetic to cultural influence, I conclude that in its rejection of Western thought, Freshwater constitutes an inherent act of decolonization that is important in dispelling the Eurocentrism that remains rampant in African literary studies.