African Literature

 African literature consists of a body of work in different languages and various genres, ranging
from oral literature to literature written in colonial languages (French, Portuguese, and English).
Oral literature
 Oral literature (or orature) may be in prose or verse.
1. The prose - is often mythological or historical and can include tales of the trickster
character.
- Storytellers in Africa sometimes use call-and-response techniques to tell
their stories.
2. Poetry - often sung, includes: narrative epic, occupational verse, ritual verse, praise
poems of rulers and other prominent people.
- Griots (praise singers), tell their stories with music.
Also recited, often sung, are love songs, work songs, children's songs, along with epigrams, proverbs
and riddles. These oral traditions exist in many languages including Fula, Swahili, Hausa, and Wolof.

In Algeria, oral poetry was an important part of Berber traditions when the majority of the population
was illiterate. These poems, called Isefra, were used for aspects of both religious and secular life. The
religious poems included devotions, prophetic stories, and poems honoring saints. The secular poetry
could be about celebrations like births and weddings, or accounts of heroic warriors.
Pre-colonial literature
 Examples of pre-colonial African literature are numerous. In Ethiopia, there is a substantial
literature written in Ge'ez going back at least to the fourth century AD; the best-known work in
this tradition is the Kebra Negast, or "Book of Kings." One popular form of traditional African
folktale is the "trickster" story, in which a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with
larger creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the
Ashanti people of Ghana; Ijàpá, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare
found in central and East African folklore.[7] Other works in written form are abundant, namely
in North Africa, the Sahel regions of west Africa and on the Swahili coast. From Timbuktu alone,
there are an estimated 300,000 or more manuscripts tucked away in various libraries and
private collections,[8] mostly written in Arabic but some in the native languages (namely Fula
and Songhai).[9] Many were written at the famous University of Timbuktu. The material covers a
wide array of topics, including astronomy, poetry, law, history, faith, politics, and philosophy.
[10] Swahili literature similarly, draws inspiration from Islamic teachings but developed under
indigenous circumstances. One of the most renowned and earliest pieces of Swahili literature
being Utendi wa Tambuka or "The Story of Tambuka".

As for the Maghreb, North Africans such as Ibn Khaldun attained great distinction within Arabic
literature. Medieval North Africa boasted universities such as those of Fes and Cairo, with
copious amounts of literature to supplement them.
Colonial African literature
 In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues.
In 1911, Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford (also known as Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast (now
Ghana) published what probably the first African novel was written in English, Ethiopia
Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation. Although the work moves between fiction and political
 advocacy, its publication and positive reviews in the Western press mark a watershed moment
in African literature.
 During this period, African plays written in English began to emerge. Herbert Isaac Ernest
Dhlomo of South Africa published the first English-language African play, The Girl Who Killed to
Save: Nongqawuse the Liberator in 1935. In 1962, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o of Kenya wrote the first
East African drama, The Black Hermit, a cautionary tale about "tribalism" (discrimination
between African tribes).

African literature in the late colonial period (between the end of World War I and independence)
increasingly showed themes of liberation, independence, and (among Africans in francophone
territories) négritude.

Postcolonial African literature

 With liberation and increased literacy since most African nations gained their independence in
the 1950s and 1960s, African literature has grown dramatically in quantity and in recognition,
with numerous African works appearing in Western academic curricula and on "best of" lists
compiled since the end of the 20th century.
 African writers in this period wrote both in Western languages (notably English, French, and
Portuguese) and in traditional African languages such as Hausa.
 Ali A. Mazrui and others mention seven conflicts as themes: the clash between Africa's past and
present, between tradition and modernity, between indigenous and foreign, between
individualism and community, between socialism and capitalism, between development and
self-reliance and between Africanity and humanity. Other themes in this period include social
problems such as corruption, the economic disparities in newly independent countries, and the
rights and roles of women. Female writers are today far better represented in published African
literature than they were prior to independence. In 1986, Wole Soyinka became the first post-
independence African writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Previously, Algerian-born
Albert Camus had been awarded the prize in 1957.
Contemporary developments
 There have been a lot of literary productions in Africa since the beginning of the current decade
(2010), even though readers do not always follow in large numbers. One can also notice the
appearance of certain writings that break with the academic style. In addition, the shortage of
literary critics can be explored on the continent nowadays. Literary events seem to be very
fashionable, including literary awards, some of which can be distinguished by their original
concepts. The case of the Grand Prix of Literary Associations is quite illustrative. [18] Brittle
Paper, founded by Ainehi Edoro, has been described as "Africa’s leading literary journal".
Notable novels by African writers
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
 Is acclaimed as the finest novel written about life in Nigeria at the
end of the nineteenth century. Published in 1958, it is
unquestionably the world’s most widely read African novel, having
sold more than eight million copies in English and been translated
into fifty languages. But it offers far more than access to pre-colonial
Nigeria and the cataclysmic changes brought about by the British. It
also can be a window into the story of the Aborigines in Australia,
the Maori of New Zealand, and the First Nations of North, Central,
and South America in the “falling apart” of the indigenous cultures
of these and other places whose centres could not hold.
 Things Fall Apart tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of
which centre on Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in
Nigeria. The first story traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the
tribal world in which he lives. It provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict
between the individual societies. The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient,
concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo’s world through the arrival of
aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries.
- These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized and they are modulated by awareness
capable of encompassing the life of nature, history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.
Things Fall Apart is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern
African experience as seen from within.

Peter Abrahams (South Africa): Mine Boy

 Mine Boy is a 1946 novel by South African novelist Peter Abrahams.
Set in South Africa, the novel explores the stereotypes and institutions
that discriminate against working-class black Africans and was
perhaps the first South African book written in English to win
international acclaim.
 The book is about a young black man, fresh from the country,
becomes a mine worker in Johannesburg, adjusts to his harsh new
environment, and learns to combat racial injustice.
 The plot follows a black miner, Xuma, as he goes through a number of
struggles, including introduced disease from Europeans as well as
political and social trauma. [2] Xuma moves from his town to Malay
camp, a black area of Johannesburg, in search of work at the gold
mines. Leah, an illegal beer brewer, gives him a place to live. Xuma is against the racist
treatment of black Africans and fights it. Xuma falls in love with Leah’s niece, Eliza, who is
assimilationist, and then with Maisy. Xuma becomes a successful miner, working for the
supervisor Paddy. One of Leah's tenants, Johannes, and others, die in a mine accident and Xuma
and Paddy lead a strike.