REVIEWER

FOR
AFRICAN LITERATURE

Sources:
Book: Duka, C. R. (2001). The Literatures of Asia & Africa. Rex Bookstore, Inc.
Extracted from: PNU LET Reviewer
C. AFRICA

1. . Between 751 and 664 B.C. the

kingdom of Kush at the southern end of the Nile River gained strength and
prominence succeeding the New Kingdom of Egyptian civilization. Smaller
civilizations around the edges of the Sahara also existed among them the Fasa of the
northern Sudan, whose deeds are recalled by the Soninka oral epic, The Daust.
Aksum (3rd century A.D.), a rich kingdom in eastern Africa arose in what is now
Ethiopia. It served as the center of a trade route and developed its own writing
system. The Kingdom of Old Ghana (A.D. 300) the first of great civilizations in
western Africa succeeded by the empires of Old Mali and Songhai. The
legendary city of Timbuktu was a center of trade and culture in both the Mali and
Songhai empires. New cultures sprang up throughout the South: Luba and
Malawi empires in central Africa, the two Congo kingdoms, the Swahili culture of
eastern Africa, the kingdom of Old Zimbabwe, and the Zulu nation near the
southern tip of the cotinent.
(between A.D. 300 and A.D. 1600) marked the time when
sculpture, music, metalwork, textiles, and oral literature flourished.
Foreign influences came in the 4th century. The Roman Empire had proclaimed
Christianity as its state religion and taken control of the entire northern coast of
Africa including Egypt. Around 700 A.D. Islam, the religion of Mohammed,
was introduced into Africa as well as the Arabic writing system. Old Mali,
Somali and other eastern African nations were largely Muslim. Christianity and
colonialism came to sub-
Age. European powers created colonized countries in the late 1800s. Social and
political chaos reigned as traditional African nations were either split apart by
European colonizers or joined with incompatible neighbors.
Mid-1900s marked the independence and rebirth of traditional cultures written in
African languages.

2. Literary Forms.
a) Orature is the tradition of African oral literature which includes praise poems,
love poems, tales, ritual dramas, and moral instructions in the form of proverbs
and fables. It also includes epics and poems and narratives.

b) Griots, the keepers of oral literature in West Africa, may be a professional

storyteller, singer, or entertainer and were skilled at creating and transmitting the
many forms of African oral literature. Bards, storytellers, town criers, and oral
historians also preserved and continued the oral tradition.

c) Features of African oral literature:

repetition and parallel structure served foremost as memory aids for griots
and other storytellers. Repetition also creates rhythm, builds suspense, and
adds emphasis to parts of the poem or narrative. Repeated lines or refrains
often mark places where an audience can join in the oral performance.

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 repeat-and-vary technique in which lines or phrases are repeated with
slight variations, sometimes by changing a single word.
tonal assonance the tones in which syllables are spoken determine the
meanings of words like many Asian languages.
call-and-response format - includes spirited audience participation in which
the leader calls out a line or phrase and the audience responds with an
answering line or phrase becoming performers themselves.

d) Lyric Poems do not tell a story but instead, like songs, create a vivid, expressive

influence of the New Kingdom and were written to be sung with the
accompaniment of a harp or a set of reed pipes.

The Sorrow of Kodio by Baule Tribe

We were three women
Three men
And myself, Kodio Ango.
We were on our way to work in the city.
And I lost my wife Nanama on the way.
I alone have lost my wife
To me alone, such misery has happened,
To me alone, Kodio, the most handsome of the three men,
Such misery has happened.
In vain I call for my wife,
She died on the way like a chicken running.
How shall I tell her mother?
How shall I tell it to her, I Kodio,
When it is so hard to hold back my own pain.

e) Hymns of Praise Songs were offered to the sun god Aten. The Great Hymn to
Aten is the longest of several New Kingdom hymns. This hymn was found on the
wall of a tomb built for a royal scribe named Ay and his wife. In was intended to
assure their safety in the afterlife.

f) African Proverbs are much more than quaint old sayings. Instead, they represent
a poetic form that uses few words but achieves great depth of meaning and they

They are used to settle legal disputes, resolve ethical problems, and teach
children the philosophy of their people.
Often contain puns, rhymes, and clever allusions, they also provide
entertainment.
Mark power and eloquence of speakers in the community who know and use
them. Their ability to apply the proverbs to appropriate situations
demonstrates an understanding of social and political realities.

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 Kenya. Gutire muthenya ukiaga ta ungi. (No day dawns like another.)
South Africa. Akundlovu yasindwa umboko wayo.
(No elephant ever found its trunk too heavy.)
Kikuyu. Mbaara ti ucuru. (War is not porridge.)

g) Dilemma or Enigma Tale is an important kind of African moral tale intended for
listeners to discuss and debate. It is an open-ended story that concludes with a
question the asks the audience to choose form among several alternatives. By
encouraging animated discussion, a dilemma tale invites its audience to think
about right and wrong behavior and how to best live within society.

h) Ashanti Tale comes from Ashanti, whose traditional homeland is the dense and
hilly forest beyond the city of Kumasi in south-central Ghana which was
colonized by the British in the mid-19th century. But the Ashanti, protected in
their geographical stronghold, were able to maintain their ancient culture. The
tale exemplifies common occupations of the Ashanti such as farming, fishing, and
weaving. It combines such realistic elements with fantasy elements like talking
objects and animals.

i) Folk Tales have been handed down in the oral tradition from ancient times. The
stories represent a wide and colorful variety that embodies
most cherished religious and social beliefs. The tales are used to entertain, to
teach, and to explain. Nature and the close bond that Africans share with the
natural world are emphasized. The mystical importance of the forest, sometimes
called the bush, is often featured.
j) Origin stories include creation stories and stories explaining the origin of death.

k) Trickster Tale is an enormously popular type. The best known African trickster
figure is Anansi the Spider, both the hero and villain from the West African origin
to the Caribbean and other parts of the Western Hemisphere as a result of the
slave trade.

l) Moral Stories attempt to teach a lesson.

m) Humorous Stories is primarily intended to amuse.

The chief listened to them p

So the men went away, and the chief shook his head and mumbled to

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 n) Epics of vanished heroes partly human, partly superhuman, who embody the
highest values of a society ory, values, and
traditions. The African literary traditions boasts of several oral epics.
The Dausi from the Soninke
Monzon and the King of Kore from the Bambara of western Africa
The epic of Askia the Great, medieval ruler of the Songhai empire in western
Africa
The epic of the Zulu Empire of southern Africa
Sundiata from the Mandingo peoples of West Africa is the best-preserved and
the best-known African epic which is a blend of fact and legend. Sundiata
rful leader who in 1235 defeated
the Sosso nation of western Africa and reestablished the Mandingo Empire of
Old Mali. Supernatural powers are attributed to Sundiata and he is involved in
a mighty conflict between good and evil. It was first recorded in Guinea in the
1950s and was told by the griot Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate.

3. Negritude, is the literary movement of the 1930s

1950s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers living in
Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and the policy of assimilation. Its
leading figure was Leopold Sedar Senghor (1st president of the Republic of Senegal in
1960) , who along with Aime Cesaire from Martinique and Leo Damas from French
Guina, began to examine Western values critically and to reassess African culture.
The movement largely faded in the early 1960s when its political and cultural
objectives had been achieved in most African countries. The basic ideas behind
Negritude include:
Africans must look to their own cultural heritage to determine the values and
traditions that are most useful in the modern world.
Committed writers should use African subject matter and poetic traditions and
should excite a desire for political freedom.
Negritude itself encompasses the whole of African cultural, economic, social, and
political values.
The value and dignity of African traditions and peoples must be asserted.

4. African Poetry is more eloquent in its expression of Negritude since it is the poets
who first articulated their thoughts and feelings about the inhumanity suffered by their
own people.
Paris in the Snow swings between assimilation of French, European culture or

Totem by Leopold Senghor shows the eternal linkage of the living with the dead.
Letters to Martha by Dennis Brutus
speaks of the humiliation, the despondency, the indignity of prison life.

Train Journey by Dennis Brutus ment, as he

reacts to the poverty around him amidst material progress especially and acutely felt
by the innocent victims, the children

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Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka
that reflects Negritude. It is a satirical poem between a Black man seeking the

-rooted prejudice against the colored people as

the caller plays up on it.

Excerpt from Telephone Conversation

The price seemed reasonable, location
indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
off premises. Nothing remained
but self-
5

Silence. Silenced transmission of

pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
10

of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.

Africa by David Diop is a poem that achieves its impact by a series of climactic
sentences and rhetorical questions

Africa

Africa, my Africa This back trembling with red weals

Africa of proud warriors on ancestral savannahs Which says yes to the whip on the hot
Africa that my grandmother sings roads of noon
On the bank of her distant river Then gravely a voice replies to me
I have never known you Impetuous son that tree robust and
But my face is full of your blood young
Your beautiful black blood which waters That tree over there
the wide fields Splendidly alone amidst white and faded
The blood of your sweat flowers
The sweat of your work That is Africa your Africa which grows
The work of your slavery Grows patiently obstinately
The slavery of your children And whose fruit little by little learn
Africa tell me Africa The bitter taste of liberty.
Is this really you this back which is bent
And breaks under the load of insult

Song of Lawino by is a sequence of poems about the clash between

back to traditional village life and recapture African values.

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5. Novels.
The Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono points out the disillusionment of Toundi, a
boy who leaves his parents maltreatment to enlist his services as an acolyte to a
white

in the woods as they catch up with him. Toundi symbolizes the disenchantment, the
coming of age, and utter despondency of the Camerooninans over the corruption
and immortality of the whites. The novel is developed in the form of a recit, the
French style of a diary-like confessional work.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe depict a vivid picture of Africa before the
colonization by the British. The title is an epi The Second
Coming

in the story by Okwonko, once a respected chieftain who looses his leadership and
falls from grace after the coming of the whites. Cultural values are woven around
the plot to mark its authenticity: polygamy since the character is Muslim; tribal law
is held supreme by the gwugwu, respected elders in the community

physical prowess; community life is shown in drinking sprees, funeral wakes, and
sports festivals.

No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe is a sequel to Things Fall Apart and the
The Journey of the Magi
places, these kingdoms,/ But no longer at ease
returning hero fails to cope with disgrace and social pressure. Okw
to live up to the expectations of the Umuofians, after winning a scholarship in
London, where he reads literature, not law as is expected of him, he has to dress up,
he must have a car, he has to maintain his social standing, and he should not marry
an Ozu, an outcast. In the end, the tragic hero succumgs to temptation, he, too

The Poor Christ of Bombay by Mongo Beti begins en medias res and exposes the
inhumanity of colonialism. The n
the discovery of the degradation of the native women, betrothed, but forced to work
like slaves in the sixa. The government steps into the picture as syphilis spreads out
s out that the native whose weakness is wine,
women, and song has been made overseer of the sixa when the Belgian priest goes
out to attend to his other mission work. Developed through recite or diary entries,
the novel is a satire on the failure of religion to integrate to national psychology

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 The River Between by James Ngugi show the clash of traditional values and
contemporary ethics and mores. The Honia River is symbolically taken as a
metaphor of tribal and Christian unity the Makuyu tribe conducts Christian rites
while the Kamenos hold circumcision rituals. Muthoni, the heroine, although a
new-born Christian, desires the pagan ritual. She dies in the end but Waiyaki, the
teacher, does not teach vengeance against Joshua, the leader of the Kamenos, but
unity with them. Ngugi poses co-
same time stressing the influence of education to enlighten people about their socio-
political responsibilities.

Heirs to the Past by Driss Chraili is an allegorical, parable-like novel. After 16

years of absence, the anti-
funeral. The Signeur leaves his legacy via a tape recorder in which he tells the
family members his last will and testament. Each chapter in the novel reveals his
relationship with them, and at the same time lays bare the psychology of these

because of his childishness and irresponsibility. His idiotic brother, Nagib, has
become a total burden to the family. His mother feels betrayed, after doin her roles
as wife and mother for 30 years, as she yearns for her freedom. Driss flies back to
Europe completely alienated fro his people, religion, and civilization.
A Few Days and Few Nights by Mbella Sonne Dipoko deals withracial prejudice.
In the novel originally written in French, a Cameroonian scholar studying in France
is torn between the love of a Swedish girl and a Parisienne show father owns a
business establishment in Africa. The father rules out the possibility of marriage.
Therese, their daughter commits suicide and Doumbe, the Camerronian, thinks only
of the future of Bibi, the Swedish who is expecting his chil
that the African is like a turtle which carries it home wherever it goes implies the
racial pride and love for the native grounds.

The Interpreters by Wole Soyinka is about a group of young intellectuals who

function as artists in their talks with one another as they try to place themselves in
the context of the world about them.

6. Major Writers.
Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906) is a poet and statesman who was cofounder of the
Negritude movement in African art and literature. He went to Paris on a scholarship
and later taught in the French school system. During these years Senghor
discovered the unmistakable imprint of African art on modern painting, sculpture,

Drafted during WWII, he was captured and spent two years in Nazi concentration
camp where he wrote some of his finest poems. He became president of Senegal in
1960. His works include: Songs of Shadow, Black Offerings, Major Elegies,
Poetical Work. He
anthology of French-language poetry by black African that became a seminal text
of the Negritude movement.

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 (1930 1982) was born in Uganda during the British domination and
was embodied in a contrast of cultures. He attended English-speaking schools but
never lost touch with traditional African values and used his wide array of talents to
pursue his interests in both African and Western cultures. Among his works are:
Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, African Religions and Western Scholarship,
Religion of the Central Luo, Horn of My Love.

Wole Soyinka (1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelis, and critic who was
the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He
wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style and with a tragic sense of the
obstacles to human progress. He taught literature and drama and headed theater
groups at various Nigerian universities. Among his works are: plays A Dance of
the Forests, The Lion and the Jewel, The Trials of Brother Jero; novels The
Interpreters, Season of Anomy; poems Idanre and Other Poems, Poems from
.

Chinua Achebe (1930) is a prominent Igbo novelist acclaimed for his

unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation
accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional
African society. His particular concern was with emergent Africa at its moments of
crisis. His works include, Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, A
Man of the People, Anthills of Savanah.

Nadine Gordimer (1923) is a South African novelist and short story writer whose
major theme was exile and alienation. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1991. Gordimer was writing by age 9 and published her first story in a magazine
at 15. Her works exhibit a clear, controlled, and unsentimental technique that
became her hallmark. She examines how public events affect individual lives, how

works are:
.

Bessie Head (1937 1986) described the contradictions and shortcomings of pre-
and postcolonial African society in morally didactic novels and stories. She
suffered rejection and alienation from an early age being born of an illegal union
between her white mother and black father. Among her works are: When Rain
Clouds Gather, A Question of Power, The Collector of Treasures, Serowe.

Barbara Kimenye
Moses series which are now a standard reading fare for African school children.
She also worked for many years for His Highness the Kabaka of Uganda, in the

of The Uganda Nation and later a columnist for a Nairobi newspaper. Among her
works are: KalasandaRevisited, The Smugglers, The Money Game.

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Ousmane Sembene (1923) is a writer and filmmaker from Senegal. His works
reveal an intense commitment to political and social change. In the words of one of

relevance and meaning for contemporary society. His works include, O My

.

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