WHAT IS AFRICAN LITERATURE?

Inorder to understand african literature one has tohave an idear of what

constitute african literature.African literature comes from west africa,east
africa,south africa and its suburb Rhodesia.these literature are naturally
different from each other but they also have in common the fact that they
are written by young and middle age authors most of them born after
1930.all the african authors have a common character of being the
mirrow of society they come from.they address different issues which
affect the society either positively or negatively.

African literature means different thing to different people.some people

consider it a new world literature a genre with new messages.others
regard it as a political document characterized by the protest against
colonialism downgrading of the blacks.for some it is simply an
appendage to english and french literature.however african literaure is
didactic and instructive it is a documentary literature.

African writers who wrote in english were often accused of addressing

themselves to a western audience and to some extend they were
engaged in a debate with the west about the western interpretation of
africa and in a sense they were directing a message both at the colonizer
and the colonized.they were trying to reform african ideas about african
experiences but they were also trying to reform european ideas about the
african experiences by using the colonizers language to express his ideas.

Africans began to write during the negritude in africa which was an

attempt to put in placepositive values on african culture and to make
european aware that african has a culture,local traditions,that africa was
capable of high quality literature often based on the same premises as the
european were using.it was adresse to africans themselves who through
reading their literature could change their own minds about the
experience they have been through and today mosy of the africans
writing is addressed to local audiece inorder for them to pe able to
understand their culture and be able to appreciate it by learning its beauty
in books.

The experience of certain areas of africa of colonialism has been very

different from others.in certain rural areas the consciousness of being
dominated by an alien culture was minimal.their existence went on
regardless of who were on their soil.parts of africa never really felt the
impact of colonisation like the people along the coastline or in the
metropolitan cities.however the impact of colonialism was more sever in
african coutries than in any other commonwealth coutries.most of the
african writers-olive schriner,sembene ousmane,chinua achebe,wole
syinka,ngugi wa tiongo,and many others who have poerfully presented
the impact of colonialism and neo-colonialism to the downtrodden
masses of rheir country in their works.

Most african literature is an expression of its country social cnange.the

writers are cocerned about the past and present history of their country
and this concerns is reflected in their works.the social change that africa
had been subjected to since the colonisation of the country,the
cultural,political and missionary influences and its present state of
achieved independence with a growing awareness of both national
identity and modern problems.

Chinua achebe’s things fall apart is a worthy archetype of the novel which
shows the tragic cosequences of african’s encounter with europe.the
village of umofia is a representative of traditional ibo society.a similarity
can be drawn between the changes in the protagonist okonkwo’s life and
the social change that nigeria under went before and after its encounter
the european culture.having examine the strains andstresses in ibo society
in the wake of colonialist’s advance in things fall apart and arrow of God
and the problems facing the educated class in societyin modern nigeria on
nolonger at ease, in a man of the people achebe shows what nigeria made
of their countryconsequent to the departure of the imperialist.achebe also
wrote things fall apart to present a complex dynamic society to a western
audience who perceived african society as primitives,simple and
backward.unless africans could tell their side of their story,achebe
beleved that the africans experiences would forever be mistold even by
such well meaning authors as joyce cary in”mister johnson”.cary worked
in nigeria as a colonial administrator and was sympathetic to the nigerian
people.yet achebe felt that cavy along with other western writers such as
joseph conrad misunderstood africa.many european writers had presented
the continent as a dark place inhibited by people with impenetrable
primitive minds.achebe considered this reduction poirtrayal of african
racist.

Liberatin in literature challengespeople,community and thecontinent to

identify the positive elements in their heritage and inspires them to find
solutions to their problems.along with yoruba culture,wole soyinka also
advocates the them of liberation in hisworks.in his prison note” the man
died”,he says that the second phase of self liberation is the creation of a
continental languages as an instrument of continuing continental
struggle.the famous kenyan writer who is the father of literature in eatern
africa ngugi wa thiongo regarded the revision of of kenyan history as
essential to liberation from colonial lefacy.in his novel,” petals of
blood”,he explainsthrough the characters of karega and joseph,that the
spirit of liberation is a continuous process which is indicative of the
social conscousness of the people.

Similarly,ayi kwei armah’s novels,apart from their aesthetic beauty,are

deliberately crafted as tools of resistance and liberation.his novel “twow
thousand seasons and the healers” are regarded as novels of liberation
both these works are revolutionary in their perspective.in these novels
africans become the plot,characters,theme and the situation and Armah’s
novelistic vision is to emancipate the continent trom the forces of
slavery,colonialism and neo-colonialism.
Two thousand seasons provides a survey of the history of african from the
past to the future.its chronicles the life of the african people confronted
with cultural,religious, economic and social enslavement.it calls for a
struggle for their liberation.the novel is a fight not only to rehabilitate
african’s battered image but also to liberate it from slavery,
disintergration,distortion and dislocation of its unique african cultural
identity.

Achebe’s arrow of god is a study of an african man struggling to come to

terms with his identy when a nationizing colonial force undermines the
structure of his community and destroys his sense of security.the novel
shows that two issues central to the protagonist’s identity cricis remain,a
problem to nigeria today.if nigeria is a nation,are the iba or yoruba just
tribes?african writers warn that until the people of african understand
their pre-colonial foundations and restructure their society accordingly
,they cannot hope to build nations with hamonious ethnic co-
existence.the writers are often divided over the use of colonial languages
as national language.achebe’s “arrow of God is an example of a nattive
that probes the post-colonial identity by seeking to identify the moment
of transition of a society with a pre-colonial identity to one with a
national identity.

African literature is known for its rich traditions.in the novel things fall
apart, the social harmony of the village is evocked vividly through
achebe’s presentation of the customs and tradition extended from
birth,through marriage,to death and of the educatinal,religious and
hierachyical system in umofia village.achebe takes a strong satirical stand
in a man of the people, to show how the local traditions and customs are
expoited by the modern politician to meet their selfish needs.

Ngugi wa thiongo’s novel the river between has revealed ngugi’s interest
in society traditions and beliefs.he explores this field in the theme of
cultural conflict.the novel tells the story of the separation of two
neighbouring villages of central kenya caused by differences in faith and
set in the decades of roughly the earely 20th centuary.the bitternes
between them caused much hatred between the adults of each side.the
story talks about young leader waiyaki who has a role of uniting the two
villages kameno and makuyu through sacrifice and pain.the novel is set
during the colonial period when whites settlers arrived in kenya.ngugi wa
thiongo’s writings are interested in society,in his people’s day to day
activities and how these experiences affect their daily lives.this is
something he stated in in his speech he gave at the fifth general assembly
of the presbyerian church of east african in nairobi1970.ngugi’s writing
show great awareness of the fact that the social environment is open to
changes that affect man in his day to day existence.this is where ngugi’s
sensitivity lies as a writer. Ngugi does not merely look at the problems
affecting the individual line of his characters he goes further to expose the
pychological struggle and changes these problems produced in them.

In all novels,ngugi wa thiongo tries to uplift the cultural heritage of

africa by explaining the colonial sujugation to the kenyans,by
presentingbefore every kenya what he was,what he is and where he is
being led in to. His novel petals of blood give the picture of traditiional
gikuyu society and how the peaceful life of the gikuyu was bspoiled with
intrution of the europeans. In this novel his presents the life of a young
man waiyaki who fails in bringing about reconcialation between tradition
and christianity. This was not the bof waiyaki a lone but it was social
problem which affected many societies and tribes during the 1920`s. the
social life of thye traditional societies which aimed at comunial
consciuosness has been disturbed by the entrance of the european in
africa. Gugi seams to suggest that the dlemma of the merses to make
achoce between tradition and christianity as resulted in confusion. His
uggested that a blend of good qualities opf both tradition or a
reconciliation between the two would have been a better choice. But luck
of social awhereness among the the people created cheoles in the society
which ultimately led to the destruction of traditional values.
Africa is also known for his rich for oral tradition/ literature. The
ghanian poet kofi awoonor researched into the poetic forms of the ewe
ethnic group, which resulted in the publication his guidians of the sacred
wood, ewe poetry, a collection containing awoonors English transactions
of the oral recitation. Asimilar thread which links the tradition and
mordan is seen in the poetry of okot bitek.
Place and experience of di8splacement are both important features of
african literature it originated against the background of a complex
history of colonisation and decolonisation. Displacement cousede by by
colonisation took several forms physical dispacement and fegurative
displacement. The fugaratve displacement as vissble inthe relationship of
black african writters writing to african letaraly canon which has
dominated by white african writting. The other form as of displacement
include displacement brought about by the appropriatio of land by
european colonizers, the displacement resulted from the forced removcals
under certein upperthide l was, this coused imprisionment resulting from
hostile political policy
Awalk in tyhe night and other stories is a collection of short stries by
south african athor and anti apperthide activist alex laguma. This book
was published in 1968 and it contains seven short stories that major on
the thyme of injustice as arising from south africans. Injustices arising
from south africans system of resial apperthide. The title piece, awalk in
the night, tells thye story of un impoverished black southa african man
who is tempted to join a gang after being unjustly firedv from his job.
The other stories in tyhe book take place in acrowded prisio, a restorant
and a boxing ring. Laguma wrote the short story a walk in the night to
present the strugle against opprestion by a agroup of acharacters in cape
towns`s tougherst district in particular the moral desolution of a young
man who is unjustky fired from his job. It generate thyme of protest
which depi9cts the degrading effect of apper5hide upon a ghetto family in
the stone country which grew out of laguma experiences in prision.
African liteature exposes issues sarrounding women in politics in the
novel our husband has gone mad again by ola rotimi, Rotimis major
thyme is women politics with little information and instruction from
lekoja, browns american wife, sikira un ilitrate wfe of lekoja a bandones
her husband and takes to politics 2hich she feels will loosen her from the
grips of oppresion and get her devidence of democracy and popularity.
Surpricingly toward the end of the play she seen as the party
gobernatorial candidate compaigning for vote. Rotimi tries expose the
society in thus play that women and men are created equaly and what
aman can do a woman can do it batter.
African literature depict various ways in which a person can come to
birth or come of age. In Coming to birth education has been use as a
source of women economic empowerment across the world. In most
society, education has been advocated as one of the ways for a society
development. Many authors across the African continents address the
issue of education in their writing. However education in African was
done on a discriminatory bases where girls were not educated to the same
level as boys. This practice confined women to homes and reduced them
to subordinate roles in the homes. This initial societal stand has been
contested by pointing out that ability to access some form of
independence for a girl to make her own choices which is pivoted on her
ability to take a position and make personal decision which helps her to
stand up for herself. In coming to birth, paulinas determination and self
will to go to craft home collage in her status as a married woman is a
challenge to a society that give boys priority to education over a girl.
Paulinas accomplishment at the end of the book demonstrate that women
can equal y be successful Marjorie demonstrate that with an education as
a tool, a person can accomplish anything in life and become whatever
they want to become. Education is a tool for empowerment in our society,
with education a person can become of age biologically psychologically
and sociologically.
African literature is also used as a tool to present the historical past in
the mode imaginative variation. In the play Kinjeketile Hussein uses
memory tragedy and heroic event in Tanganyika history to reconstruct the
past as a tool for resistance Hussein reconstruct the memorable
experiences of southern Tanganyika in an artistic work. The play
kinjeketile is directly connected to contemporary views regarding
memory and the per-formative art particularly in connection with
Tanzania struggle with powerful forces under neo-colonianism and
imperialism.
In Kinjeketile Hussein revisit more significant memories of the lives
of souther5n Tanganyika. The play becomes sight where people can learn
and remember what transpired between souther Tanganyika an the
Germans, rethinks about the past the present and feature. Memory of
hostile colonial encounter shape the notion of individuality and group
identity of the character as they come to terms with traumatic experiences
hence making the play capture the complex historical and emotional
nuisance of the lives of the southern Tanganyika under German colonial
rule.
African literature often documents how corrupt modern African
government perpetuate the suffering the African people thyme of
corruption is a major problem in post colonial African in novel A Man of
the people c Chenua Achebe tells about revolutionary activities of Odili
Samalu who aimed to overthrow the existing corrupt and irresponsible
government with his friends against Chief the honourable M.A Nanga
with his followers. Chenua achebe wrote the novel Aman of the people to
show into details how leaders are corrupt and they use power to get what
they want.
 For example chief Nanga uses his position to blind the mass so that
they can not see his evils. Nanga uses his money to sponsor Edna for the
purpose of winning her. He tries to bribe Odili to withdraw competing
with him. He also receive bribe from the British companies. This novel
shows how corruption is the root course of African problem.
African writers employ difference styles in writing to bring
importance thing to their work. In the play burning rugs by Francis
imbuga, imbuga employs style of symbolism to bring out theme of
cultural conflict between western way of life and traditional way of life.
Imbuga has also use the choice of names to indicate modernity and
tradition. In the play, the two drums represents cultural conflict, one drum
symbolises western life and another symbolises traditional life. Dennis
represent modernisation and Agala his father represent tradition.
Africans literature dresses theme of moral decadency, wole soyinka’s
The Beautification of area boy presents theme of moral decadence in the
ritual of money making episode where a victim claimed his genital had
been collected by the accursed for rituals in the quest for wealth. Through
the episode equally ex-ray the level of superstition in the society but its a
common phenomenon in the present day society.
Nawal El Saadawi in her novel ,God dies by the Nile she gives the
reader an interesting look at a time end place seams to have no equality
between men and women as asocial feminist writer she sees class as a
central to women`s lives yet not ignoring the impact of patriarchy on the
life too. For El saadawi, women are victims of both the capital list class
and patriarchy.Her argument is that women in God dies by the Nile are
victims of the patriarchal class system consolidated by politics religion
and social customs. In society the patriarch class ideology is used to
survive an oppressive system, brutal forces is implemented and instilled
in society. The impact of such ideology of women has been manifested
through doubled moral standard, rape, sexual exploitation, psychological
instability, illegitimate children and violence.
In this book, El saadawi shed light upon the pligt of poor women
4mployed by upper class people at shamefully law salaries and who are
frequently sexually abused by their master and masters sons. Saadawis
tries hard to de-construct the patriarchal class system by revealing its dark
side where women are preyed upon, rape and destroyed for being women
and even men are illuminated for railing to support such system. God
dies by the Nile end with a note of resistance against the patriarchal class
system by both Fatheya and zakeya respectively. This is massage to read
as that collective effort by women all over the world regardless of their
class, race and religion are urgently needed to eradicate their oppression
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