POETR

Y
Agostinho Neto
(September 17, 1922 – September
10, 1979) served as the first
President of Angola (1975–1979),
leading the Popular Movement for
the Liberation of Angola (MPLA)
in the war for independence and
the civil war. His birthday is
celebrated as National Heroes
Day, a public holiday in Angola.
KINAXIXI
Léopold Sédar Senghor
(9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001)
was a Senegalese poet, politician, and
cultural theorist who for two decades
served as the first President of Senegal
(1960 – 1980) .Senghor was the first
African elected as a member of Académie
Française. Before independence, he
founded the political party called the

Senegalese Democratic Bloc.

BLACK WOMAN
SALUTATION TO THE DAWN
by Kalidasa
THE PRIDE TO BE AN
AFRICAN
Leonard Okema – Acholi Land!
Rise up Africa
 INDIA, a land overflowing with religion and the
religious spirit, has a written literature that started with
Vedic holy texts some time after 1500.
These homilies and hymns gave rise to the
Upanishads, a body a religious prose writings
philosophical in nature and dealing with basic tenets of
Hinduism, the dominant religion of India.
 Later, oral history, legend, and moral
tales were fused into two-great books:

The Mahabharata, considered the

national epic of India, and the Ramayana.
Other major additions to the literature of India are
the Punaras (400 B.C.-1400 A.D.) and the
Panchatantra (450 A.D.), which is a collection
of five books of fables and short tales
interspersed with poetry.
Another form of literature was the shastas, which
sought to systematize all learning in the form of
laws for the arts and sciences.
The seventh century A.D. saw the peak of
classical poetry. Drama and lyric poetry
abounded. During this period, Kalidasa
emerged as a poet and writer of note.
He produced three masterpieces
which Shakuntala, a play, is the most
celebrated.    
  In the latter part of the Middle Ages,
the courts of the Mogul emperors, which
produced Perso-Arabic writing inspired a
literature in Urdu. The major artistic form
was the ghazal, a stylized form of lyrical
folk song. 
 短歌 

短歌 
 Early works of Japanese literature were heavily
influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature,
often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an
influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan.
Eventually, Japanese literature developed into a separate
style in its own right as Japanese writers began writing their own
works about Japan, although the influence of Chinese literature
and Classical Chinese remained until the end of the Edo period.
Since Japan reopened its ports to Western trading and
diplomacy in the 19thcentury, Western and Eastern literature have
strongly affected each other and continue to do so.
 Haiku
• is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three
qualities:
 The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru). This is often represented by the
juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji ("cutting word")
between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the
moment of separation and colors the manner in which the juxtaposed
elements are related.
 Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three
phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively.
 A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive
but defined list of such words.
Examples:
 I.
 at the age old pond
 a frog leaps into water
 a deep resonance
  II.
 the first cold shower
 even the monkey seems to want
 a little coat of straw
Tanka 

 Tanka ( 短歌  "short poem"?) is a genre of

classical Japanese poetry and one of the major
genres of Japanese literature.
 On the white sand
 Of the beach of a small isle
 In the Eastern Sea
 I, my face streaked with tears,
 Am playing with a crab
 – Ishikawa Takuboku
 Historical
Background of
Afro-Asian
Literature
 African and Asian cultures are some of the oldest
in the world. It is thought that man started in Africa
migrating to populate the rest of the world.

As genetic changes occurred there were also

newer ethnicities spreading around the world.
Combinations of these ethnicities occurred giving rise
to mixed races.
All of this culture and thought of what happened in the
past has been revealed through written and anthropological
studies.

The literal start of Afro-Asian literature is hard to depict

considering literature and writings have been around for
millennia, even prior to the "modern" world; however, the
term Afro-Asian literature is newer to the scene.
 Afro-Asian literature is a subset of world literature
studies. It has become a separate segment in English in
which stories are based on experiences in Africa, Asia or
other cultures in the same area that help one understand the
differences in culture.

Many of the texts discuss world peace that the writers

would like to see in order to find improved lives.
 Afro-Asian history are part of the culture's oral
history - these poems or songs were passed down from
generation to generation, and they told of the unique
struggles and successes of Afro-Asian people.

Later, when more people were able to read and

write, history became recorded in prose, plays, and
textbooks.
In a literal sense, the background of Afro-Asian literature
dates to the very beginnings of when the first mixed race
individual began writing.

An exact date is harder to come by given the wide topic

this question asks to be answered. Like most literature
you can be assured that earlier written documents were
based on stories passed by word of mouth.
 Afro-Asian
Short Stories
 Characteristics of an Afro-Asian
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction which
can be read at a single sitting.
 It ought to combine matter-of-fact description
with poetic atmosphere.
 It ought to present a unified impression of
temper, tone, colour, and effect.
 It mostly shows a decisive moment of life.
 There is often little action, hardly any character
development, but we get a snapshot of life.
 Its plot is not very complex (in contrast to the novel),
but it creates a unified impression and leaves us with a
vivid sensation rather than a number of remembered
facts.
 There is a close connection between the short story and
the poem as there is both a unique union of idea and
structure.
Examples of Afro-Asian Short
Story
Afro-Asian
Novels
 Afro Asian literature is a form of writing
that is written by African Asians. This is in
terms of poems and novels. This is regarded
as different form of writing.
Afro-Asian literature is a term for novels
or writing such as poems written by people
from mixed African-arab ethnicity, or african-
asian ethnicity.
 In modern times, a part of world
literature, Afro-Asian literature is a
separate segment of writing [in English]
of experiences in Africa and Asia to
further cultural understanding and world
peace. 
 Example of Afro-Asian Novel
Ngugi wa Thiong'o - the distinguished African
writer and Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience
(Kenya 1977), has been at the forefront of discussions on
the role of indigenous languages in decolonization,
particularly in Africa, and has provided inspiration to
anti-colonialist struggles throughout the world. 
Ngugi wa Thiong'o novels include Weep Not Child
(1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat
(1967), Petals of Blood (1977), Devil on a Cross (1982)
and Matigari Ma Njiruungi (1986).
 In 1977 Kenyan authorities detained Ngugi
without charge after the production of his play,
Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want).
The drama, staged in the Gikuyu language with
a cast of peasants and workers from the village of
Kamiriithu, was sharply critical of the inequalities
and deprivation faced by ordinary Kenyans. Amnesty
International designated Ngugi a Prisoner of
Conscience, and he was released in 1978.
References:
 http://poetry.wordpress.com/2005/10/19/leonard-okema-acholi-
land/
 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rise-up-africa-2/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku
 Keene, Donald, Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the
Modern Era - Poetry, Drama, Criticism (A History of Japanese
Literature, Volume 4), Columbia University Press, 1999
 http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jimbol2010-420187-
afro-asian-literature-education-ppt-powerpoint/