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- 2. #2 Language &Historical Influences TOPIC OUTLINE Today's Discussion #1 Characteristics of African Literature #3 Types of African literature #4 African Writers and Poets #4 African Stories and Poems
- 3. CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRICAN LITERATURE Africanliterature is as diverse as the continent itself, but several characteristics and themes prevail throughout much of the written works emerging from Africa. African literature is meant in large part to be educational as well as entertaining. African literature isn't just the voices of African people during colonialism and the slave trade. It is much more than that. It covers the stories of African people before colonialism, during colonialism, and after colonialism (this is known as post-colonial literature). African literature reflects the stories of people from hundreds of years ago and the people who live now.
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- 5. LANGUAGE African literature notonly comes in the written form but also as oral literature. Before colonialism, Africans would tell their stories orally and through performance, sometimes using music as well. After colonialism, the African writers started to write in European languages such as English, Portuguese, and French. African authors who wrote in European languages were many times accused of trying to cater for a western audience but the true reason behind their intentions was to portray their experience in a language that the oppressors could understand.
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- 7. HISTORICAL INFLUENCES African writers’ focuson themes of freedom and independence, questions of identity and liberation In the period between 1881 and 1914, known as the ‘Scramble for Africa’, numerous European powers took control of most of Africa. Only three countries untouched by the Europeans were the Dervish State, Liberia, and Ethiopia. The slave trade that lasted approximately four hundred years is also another key historical influence on African literature. The Atlantic slave trade involved the movement of more than twelve million African people to America to work as slaves. Some of these slaves eventually gained their freedom and those who were literate started writing stories to fight against slavery by recounting their horrifying experiences as slaves. The first generation of these narrators was Ottobah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano, and Ignatius Sancho.
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- 9. TYPES OF AFRICAN LITERATURE Thetypes of African literature can be divided into four groups Oral African literature Pre-colonial African literature Colonial African literature Post-colonial literature These can further be divided into three periods of African literature: during African liberation, colonialism of Africa, and Africa after colonialism.
- 10. ORAL AFRICAN LITERATURE African oralliterature was performative. Themes were usually mythological and historical. Performance, tone, riddles, and proverbs were key components of oral African literature. The performer also often had visual aids during their performance. They were able to perform in specific ways by using mimicry, gestures, and expressions to produce an impact on their audience. Oral African literature was versatile and communal.
- 11. PRE-COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE Pre-colonial Africanliterature is the literature written between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries and includes the Atlantic slave trade. Stories were based on the folklore of different regions in African countries. It is important to understand that before colonial rule, African literature existed. Africans wrote in Africa as well as in the west and they also wrote in their native languages.
- 12. COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE Colonial AfricanLiterature was produced between the end of World War I and African independence (the date of which depends on the different countries, such as Ghana's 1957 independence from British control and Algeria's independence in 1962 from France). It contained themes of independence, liberation and négritude. Traditionally, Africans combine teaching in their art forms. For example, rather than writing or singing about beauty, African people use elements of beauty to portray crucial facts and information about African society.
- 13. POST COLONIAL AFRICAN LITERATURE Africanpostcolonial literature refers to writings produced after the political independence of various African states which were formerly subject to European colonial rule. Literature written by African authors in their home countries or in diaspora deals with issues of colonial experience or decolonization. The articles, collections of essays and monographs listed in the bibliography only provide glimpses at the extensive and elaborate discourses on African postcolonial writings.
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- 15. CHINUA ACHEBE One ofthe world’s most widely recognized and praised writers, Chinua Achebe wrote some of the most extraordinary works of the 20th century. Most famous novel: Things Fall Apart (1958), is a devastating depiction of the clash between traditional tribal values and the effects of colonial rule, as well as the tension between masculinity and femininity in highly patriarchal societies. Achebe is also a noted literary critic, particularly known for his passionate critique of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), in which he accuses the popular novel of rampant racism through its othering of the African continent and its people
- 16. CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE Adichie’s worksare primarily character-driven, interweaving the background of her native Nigeria and social and political events into the narrative. Her novel Purple Hibiscus (2003) is a bildungsroman, depicting the life experience of Kambili and her family during a military coup, while her latest work Americanah (2013) is an insightful portrayal of Nigerian immigrant life and race relations in America and the western world. Adichie’s works have been met with overwhelming praise and have been nominated for and won numerous awards, including the Orange Prize and Booker Prize.
- 17. Ayi Kwei Armah’snovels are known for their intense, powerful depictions of political devastation and social frustration in Armah’s native Ghana. His works were greatly influenced by French existential philosophers, such as Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and as such hold themes of despair, disillusionment and irrationality. His most famous work, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) centers around an unnamed protagonist who attempts to understand his self and his country in the wake of post-independence. AYI KWEI ARMAH
- 18. One of Africa’smost influential women authors, Mariama Bâ is known for her powerful feminist texts, which address the issues of gender inequality in her native Senegal and wider Africa. Her anger and frustration at the patriarchal structures which defined her life spill over into her literature: her novel So Long A Letter (1981) depicts, simultaneously, its protagonist’s strength and powerlessness within marriage and wider society. MARIAMA BÂ
- 19. Nuruddin Farah haswritten numerous plays, novels and short stories, all of which revolve around his experiences of his native country. The title of his first novel From a Crooked Rib (1970) stems from a Somalian proverb “God created woman from a crooked rib, and anyone who trieth to straighten it, breaketh it”, and is a commentary on the sufferings of women in Somalian society through the narrative of a young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. His subsequent works feature similar social criticism, dealing with themes of war and post-colonial identity. NURUDDIN FARAH
- 20. Aminatta Forna firstdrew attention for her memoir. Her memoir entitled The Devil That Danced on Water (2003), an extraordinarily brave account of her family’s experiences living in war-torn Sierra Leone, and in particular her father’s tragic fate as a political dissident. Forna has gone on to write several novels, each of them critically acclaimed: her work The Memory of Love (2010) juxtaposes personal stories of love and loss within the wider context of the devastation of the Sierre Leone civil war, and was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction. AMINATTA FORNA
- 21. NADINE GORDIMER One ofthe apartheid era’s most prolific writers. Nadine Gordimer’s works powerfully explore social, moral, and racial issues in a South Africa under apartheid rule. Despite winning a Nobel Prize in Literature for her prodigious skills in portraying a society interwoven with racial tensions, Gordimer’s most famous and controversial works were banned from South Africa for daring to speak out against the oppressive governmental structures of the time. Her novel Burger’s Daughter follows the struggles of a group of anti- apartheid activists, and was read in secret by Nelson Mandela during his time on Robben Island.
- 22. ALAIN MABANCKOU His novelsare strikingly character-focused, often featuring ensemble casts of figures. Originating from the Republic of Congo, Alain Mabanckou’s works are written primarily in French, and are well known for their biting wit, sharp satire and insightful social commentary into both Africa and African immigrants in France. His book Broken Glass, which focuses on a former Congolese teacher and his interactions with the locals in the bar he frequents, or his novel Black Bazar, which details the experiences of various African immigrants in an Afro-Cuban bar in Paris.
- 23. His young experiencegreatly informed his future writing. Ben Okri’s childhood was divided between England and time in his native Nigeria. His first highly acclaimed novels Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981) were reflections on the devastation of the Nigerian civil war which Okri himself observed firsthand. His later novels met with equal praise: The Famished Road (1991), which tells the story of Azaro, a spirit child, is a fascinating blend of realism and depictions of the spirit world, and won the Booker Prize. BEN OKRI
- 24. Ngugi wa Thiong’ois one of Africa’s most important and influential postcolonial writers. He began his writing career with novels written in English, which nevertheless revolved around postcolonial themes of the individual and the community in Africa versus colonial powers and cultures. Wa Thiong’o was imprisoned without trial for over a year by the government for the staging of a politically controversial play; after his release, he committed to writing works only in his native Gikuyi and Swahili, citing language as a key tool for decolonizing the mindset and culture of African readers and writer. NGUGI WA THIONG’O
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- 26. IF WE MUSTDIE VIDEO AMONG E INSERT ANI. TOM PA MA INSERT MWEHEHEHEH Author: Claude Mckay
- 27. I AM ANAFRICAN CHILD VIDEO AMONG E INSERT ANI. TOM PA MA INSERT MWEHEHEHEH Author: Puno Selesho
- 28. HOMEWARD VIDEO AMONG EINSERT ANI. TOM PA MA INSERT MWEHEHEHEH Author: Bassey Ikpi
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