Abstract
This paper explores realist presentations of women as healers and custodians of indigenous knowledge in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s The Last of the Strong Ones, and Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. Through a comparative literary analysis, the study highlights how these authors reveal women’s bodies, midwifery, herbal medicine, and spiritual authority within traditional African healing systems. Applying realist narrative techniques, the novels affirm the epistemic authenticity of female-centred practices while exposing the sociopolitical struggles introduced by colonial medical approaches. The analysis shows that healing functions not only as a cultural and spiritual practice but also as a gendered form of resistance against colonialism, patriarchy, and epistemic erasure. Despite varying tones and representational strategies, all three texts underscore the resilience and adaptability of African women’s roles in sustaining communal health, spirituality, and cultural identity. Healing, in this context, is both symbolic and practical, a location of continuity, contestation, and transformation in African literary imaginations.