Literature of Africa and

Seychelles
Muhammad Mateen
 Introduction of Africa
• Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent, after Asia in both
cases.
• At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6%
of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.
• With 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population.
• Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was
19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.
• Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and
second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. 
• Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography,
climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neo-colonialism, lack of democracy, and
corruption.
The Incredibly Diverse Traditions and
Cultures of Africa
Africa ~ An Influx of Cultures
• The hominid race was walked the land of Africa around 8 million to 5 million
years ago. Many different languages, religions and types of economic activities
developed on this continent. The Arabs crossed into North Africa in the 7th
century AD.
People of Africa
• There are many tribes, ethnic groups and communities in Africa. Some
communities have a large population of about millions of people, while some
ethnic tribes number a few hundred. Each tribe follows its own culture and
tradition.
• The Afar are tribal people that live in Ethiopian desert lands. They follow their
own culture, and are nomads, living solely on their livestock.
Traditions of Africa:
• As you have read in the above paragraphs, African culture is mixed with the innumerable
tribes and ethnic groups. The influence of European and Arab cultures, has also provided
a taste of uniqueness to the culture of Africa. Family is the most important part of every
culture here.
• According to one unique traditional culture, the people of Lobola follow an interesting
custom. The groom has to pay the father of the bride to compensate for the ‘loss’ of his
daughter to the man in marriage. 
Languages:
• There are over hundred languages and dialects spoken in Africa. The most prominent
languages spoken include, Arabic, Swahili, and Hausa. You will find several official
languages in one country. Many Africans speak Malagasy, English, Spanish, French,
Bambara, Sotho, etc.
Food:
• Food and drink again reflects the diversity and colonial traditions. African cuisine includes
traditional fruits and vegetables, meat and milk products. A simple village diet includes,
milk, yogurt, and whey.
African Literature:

• African literature reflects the stories of people from hundreds of years ago
and the people who live now. It is a hugely important part of the literary world
as it brings underrepresented voices to the fore and allows them to re-tell
their experiences of the world.
• 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: Characteristics
• There are many defining characteristics of African literature and African books.
Though there are differences between the literature of each country, the following
characteristics are present in most books.

1.Language

• African literature not only 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. Their stories would share similar themes such as
denouncing European colonisation of the African countries, the greatness of their
African past before the European countries invaded, and hope for independence in
the future of Africa.
2. Historical influences

• Another characteristic of African literature is the writers’ focus on 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.
• The only three countries untouched by the Europeans were the Dervish State,
Liberia, and Ethiopia.
• 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.
Types of African literature

• The different types 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.
 Oral African literature
Oral literature, including 
• Stories.
• Dramas,
• Riddles, 
• Histories, 
• Myths,
• Songs,
• Proverbs,
Expressions, were frequently employed to educate and entertain children. Oral histories, myt
hs, and proverbs additionally serve to remind whole communities of their ancestors' heroic d
eeds, their past, and the precedents for their customs and traditions. Essential to oral literatur
e is a concern for presentation and oratory. Folktale tellers use call-
response techniques. A griot (praise singer) will accompany a narrative with music.
Pre-colonial African literature

• Pre-colonial African literature is the literature written between the fifteenth and
nineteenth centuries and includes the Atlantic slave trade.

• These stories were based on the folklore of different regions in African countries.

– For example, Sungura is a hare in folklore in East Africa and Central Africa.
Often, these stories included mischievous animal characters such as Anansi, a
spider found in the folklore of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana.
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.
 Colonial African literature
• Colonial African Literature 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.
 Post-colonial African Literature

• Writers in this period wrote in both western languages and African languages.

• The main themes that African authors explore in post-colonial African Literature are
the relationship between modernity and tradition, the relationship between Africa’s
past and Africa’s present, individuality and collectivism, the notion of foreignness and
indigenous, capitalism and socialism, and what it means to be African.

• Writers who reflect these themes in their writing include Chinua Achebe in Arrow of

God (1964) and Ngugi wa Thiong'o in Wizard of the Crow (2006).
• In the quote below from Purple Hibiscus (2003) by Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie, the author reflects on the relationship between
Africa's past and present by showing how Kambili has been taught
to see God as white. For her, God can't be her skin colour as the
colour black isn't 'pure' enough for God. It also presents the
strained relationship she has with her skin colour and her
understanding that the colour white is good and pure:

‘When she made a U-turn and went back the way we had come,
I let my mind drift, imagining God laying out the hills of Nsukka
with his wide white hands, crescent-moon shadows underneath
his nails just like Father Benedict’s.’ 
Short stories in African literature

• Wives at war and other stories (1980) by Flora Nwapa

• This collection of short stories focuses on the involvement of women in

wars. They portray the different experiences of women during the Nigerian
civil war and show the bravery of the military leaders of Biafra's women's
organisations. These women started a war against the bureaucracy that
didn't allow them to represent their homeland around the world.
Let’s tell this story properly (2014) by
Jennifer Nansugba Makumbi

In this collection of short stories, Makumbi

presents the lives of Ugandans in Britain.
Whether they are highly visible individuals or
barely noticed, whether they care for the
elderly or work in hospitals, Makumbi aims to
show how the lives of Ugandans who live in
Britain are not included in 'White British' life.
As these characters try to find themselves in
Britain, their homeland drifts further and
further away from them.
Seychelles

Introduction Seychelles is an island country

spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the
Indian Ocean. It is east of mainland Africa, and the
most proximate country is Madagascar. The
geography consists of narrow coastal strips and
central ranges of hills.
• Seychelles is the only one to have achieved the 6 goals set forth by the
UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) Education for
All program.
• These goals, which were to be met by 2015, include:
• establish free primary education,
• improve the quality of education,
• improve childhood education,
• improve adult literacy by 50%,
• provide gender equality in the classroom, and address the educational
needs of youth and adults.
• The government of Seychelles first began promoting adult literacy during the
1980’s, which is also when free public education became available.
• All of these efforts in the educational sector have worked to make Seychelles
one of the most literate countries in Africa.
Antoine Abel: The Father Of
Seychelles Literature
• Deemed one of the most prolific and versatile Seychellois writers and revered as an
exponent of the indigenous culture of the island nation, Antoine Abel has done his
country justice through his literary accomplishments.
• Considered to be the father of Seychelles literature, in Abel’s long career he wrote
novels, short stories, poetry and plays in French, English and Creole; many of which
engaged with the folklore of the Seychelles, and the natural environment of the
islands.
• Antoine Abel (1934-2004) has left a profound legacy for Seychellois literature,
shaping the course of the literary culture on this Indian Ocean archipelago.
As Pat Matyot, another Seychellois writer stated, ‘He was something of a mentor
who set off a whole new way of looking at life when he wrote Mon Poeme Natal,
the ultimate summary of how we are bound to the nature’.
Criticism on writers

• 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.