Module 1 – EXPLORING AFRICAN, EGYPTIAN AND ARABIAN

1 LITERATURE
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PROGRAM OUTCOMES

The College of Teacher Education:

At the end of the program, the graduates should be able to:
a. Explain the English language system, history and development comprehensively;
b. Communicate effectively, fluently and creatively using the English language in any
cultural and social setting;
c. Facilitate learning of the English language;
d. Work efficiently in any setting across the globe;
e. Display proficiency in job placement interviews;
f. Participate in discussion with various language systems; and
g. Produce well-written texts for research, academic and professional purposes.

COURSE TITLE

LIT6 – SURVEY OF AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course deals with an intensive study of the selected literary texts from Asia and Africa,
particularly India, China, Japan-the countries in the southeast region in Asia, and the African nations-south of
the Sahara, along socio-historical, philosophical, and literary underpinnings. Using research-based content
knowledge, the pre-service English teachers will be able to understand, analyze, and appreciate the
outstanding characteristics: contexts, dimensions, elements, genres and structures, of Afro-Asian literatures
which can lead to promotion of cultural tolerance. Moreover, they are expected to come up with an annotated
reading list of the chosen literary texts and a synthesis paper that presents their critical interpretation and
tolerance of diverse cultures encountered in the study of the select texts.

COURSE OUTCOMES (CMO)

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate content and research-based knowledge of Afro-Asian literature in the preparation of an
annotated reading list (ARL); and
2. Write a synthesis paper which encapsulates their understanding of the outstanding characteristics of
Afro-Asian literature along various viewpoints and lenses.

Module 1

EXPLORING AFRICAN, EGYPTIAN AND ARABIAN LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

This module focuses on the African, Egyptian and Arabian literature.

Africa has a long and complex literary history. Indeed, to suggest that one historical account can represent all
of the literature, across time, from all of the regions of Africa is misleading. Deciding when African literature
first appears, or when the tradition begins, are questions that are ultimately unanswerable, and determining
which literary forms originate in Africa and which are borrowed from elsewhere are issues over which literary
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critics continue to debate. Nevertheless, scholars of African literature have put forth a general historical
overview that allows readers, listeners, and students to gain a sense of the literary history of Africa.

In Ancient Egyptian literature, it comprises a wide array of narrative and poetic forms including inscriptions
on tombs, stele, obelisks, and temples; myths, stories, and legends; religious writings; philosophical works;
autobiographies; biographies; histories; poetry; hymns; personal essays; letters and court records.

Arabic literature has the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers (not necessarily native
speakers) of the Arabic language. It does not usually include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not
in the Arabic language such as Persian literature and Urdu literature. The Arabic word used for literature
is adab which is derived from a word meaning "to invite someone for a meal" and implies politeness, culture
and enrichment.

Arabic literature emerged in the sixth century with only fragments of the written language appearing before
then. It was the Qur'an in the seventh century which would have the greatest lasting effect on Arabic culture
and its literature. Arabic literature flourished during the Islamic Golden Age and continues to the present day.

Lesson 1

AFRICAN LITERATURE

Lesson Learning Outcomes

In this lesson, you should be able to:

1. characterize African literature;
2. share representative literary works by early and contemporary African writers; and
3. discuss the prevailing ethos, ideas and philosophies behind the chosen literary text.

PRE-ASSESSMENT

Multiple Choice

Instructions: Choose the correct answer.

1. It is a movement among African writers who used poetry to express the African’s pride for their color
and beauty of their race and country.
a. Negro b. Black Africans c. Negritude d. Griots

2. It is a poem written by David Diop describing his race and his country as proud and feeling greatly
honored, having dignity, independence or respect for oneself that indicates.
a. Little Rich Kid b. Africa c. Saturday d. Africa’s Plea

3. Who is/are the protagonist(s) of the poem AFRICA?

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a. the African people c. the European traders

b. the young African men d. the young African woman

4. It is a literature written for or by African people.

a. Chinese Literature c. Egyptian Literature

b. Arabian Literature d. African Literature

5. Western Africa is so called,

a. land of diamond c. land of gold

b. land of minerals d. land of wild animals
6. In ___________________animals are caged and men are free to walk around.

a. zoo b. national park c. forest d. luneta

7. In _________________wild animals roam around freely without wires or cages and people have to
remain safely enclosed in cars or truck.

a. zoo b. national park c. forest d. luneta

8. It is one of the oldest kingdom of the present day. It is also the center of learning, religion and
commerce in pre-colonial West africa.

a. Kingdom of Ghana c. Kingdom of Mali

b. kingdom of Nri d. Kingdom of Soghai

9. Africa has _____% of the diamond mines in the world.

a. 55% b. 90% c. 98% d. 40%

10. The first man appeared in _________.

a. Arabia Egypt c. China d. Africa

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LESSON MAP

Moral

Historical
Background of African Writers Religious
African Literature
and Poets Social

AFRICAN CULTURE AND

VALUES

AFRICA
Drama
Political Aesthetic

Economic
Poetry
Kinjeketile

Africa Saturday Little

Short Stories Rich Boy

Things fall
The Gentlemen
Apart
of the Jungle
Hands of
the Blacks

The map illustrates the content and coverage the lesson.

CORE CONTENTS

ENGAGE

APPRECIATING THE IMPORTANCE OF Literature

Activity 1
Instructions: Explain each question briefly:
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EXPLORE :

AFRICA
Africa is called the dark continent not because of the complexion of the inhabitants but because
most people know very little about it. Africa is not a dark continent; it is a land flush with a vivid light. It is the
last of the continents to feel the influence of Western civilization; therefore, many people consider it backward
continent.
Africa covers an area as large as the United States, Western Europe, India and China put together.
It has one-fifth of the entire land surface of the globe. It is an unbelievably rich continent. It contains ninety-
eight percent of the diamond mines of the world and fifty-five percent of the gold mines. It produces two-
thirds of the world’s supply of palm oil It has immense reserves of water power.
Archeologist are now becoming increasingly sure that the first man appeared in Africa. Fossilized
remains of man have been found that that, when given the carbon dating test, show man roamed the African
continent two million years ago. No such fossilized testimony is available anywhere else in the world. Stone
implements have also been found in certain parts of Africa that testify to two million years of human
occupation.
NATIONAL PARKS IN AFRICA
The animals alone in Africa make the continent extremely interesting and unique among all
continents. Nowhere else in the world are they found in such variety and abundance. There is also no other
place where man can see the in their natural habitat and not in the zoos. The Africans have always lived very
close to wild, savage animals. The people fear them, eat them, and worship them. Animals play a dominant
role in African mythology and folk stories.

AFRICAN ART
In recent years, primitive African art has been copied and imitated by Western nations.
Government museums and private collectors have completed in acquiring primitive African ceremonial
masks. Wooden figures with distorted limbs have aroused wonder and admiration. African intricate carvings
have been fantastically praised.
African art is closely associated with religion. It is very primitive in nature and is closely
associated with superstition. Masks are terrifying because they are intended to frighten away evil spirits.
Contemporary dance music is based on African music its short rhythm based largely on the
drum beat. African music is bound up with religious ceremony, composed as a prayer for rain and for
success in hunting and in war. The drum, being the force in African music, comes in different types. Drums
maybe entirely wood, hollowed and slit; they may be made of wood and hide – elephant ears are especially
valued for this purpose. It is believed that the invention of the drum was related to the ritual of driving the
spirits of the dead away.
African drums are so constructed that the sound travels over a long distance, more than
eight or nine miles. Relays of drummers can easily send messages with astonishing speed over very long
distances. A “drum message” can be sent a hundred miles away in two hours. In some parts of tropical
Africa, drums never stop beating; they drive foreigners mildly crazy.

A. A brief background and history of African literature

Africa has a long and complex literary history. Indeed, to suggest that one historical account can
represent all of the literature, across time, from all of the regions of Africa is misleading. Deciding when
African literature first appears, or when the tradition begins, are questions that are ultimately unanswerable,
and determining which literary forms originate in Africa and which are borrowed from elsewhere are issues
over which literary critics continue to debate. Nevertheless, scholars of African literature have put forth a
general historical overview that allows readers, listeners, and students to gain a sense of the literary history
of Africa.
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THE RISE OF AFRICA’S GREAT CIVILIZATION

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.
• Africa’s Golden Age (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-Saharan Africa towards the close of Africa’s Golden 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.

LITERARY FORMS.
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 a) epics
and poems and narratives.
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.
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.
• 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.
Lyric Poems do not tell a story but instead, like songs, create a vivid, expressive testament to a
speaker’s thoughts or emotional state. Love lyrics were an 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
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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.
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.
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 function as the essence of people’s
values and knowledge.
➢ 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. 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.)
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.
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 the African people’s 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.
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.
Moral Stories attempt to teach a lesson. m) Humorous Stories is primarily intended to amuse. “Talk”
The chief listened to them patiently, but he couldn’t refrain from scowling. “Now, this is really a wild
story,” he said at last. “You’d better all go back to your work before I punish you for disturbing the
peace.” So the men went away, and the chief shook his head and mumbled to himself, “Nonsense
like that upsets the community” “Fantastic, isn’t it?” his stool said, “Imagine, a talking yam!”
Epics of vanished heroes – partly human, partly superhuman, who embody the highest values of a
society – carry with them a culture’s history, 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 Keita, the story’s hero really existed
as a powerful 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.
NEGRITUDE
Negritude, which means literally ‘blackness,’ 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:
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✓ 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.

AFRICAN POETRY
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 negritude, intensified
by the poet’s catholic piety.
❖ Totem by Leopold Senghor shows the eternal linkage of the living with the dead.
❖ Letters to Martha by Dennis Brutus is the poet’s most famous collection that speaks of the humiliation,
the despondency, the indignity of prison life.
❖ Train Journey by Dennis Brutus reflects the poet’s social commitment, as he reacts to the poverty
around him amidst material progress especially and acutely felt by the innocent victims, the children
❖ Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka is the poet’s most anthologized poem that reflects
Negritude. It is a satirical poem between a Black man seeking the landlady’s permission to
accommodate him in her lodging house. The poetic dialogue reveals the landlady’s deep-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-confession.
“Madam,” I warned, 5“I hate a wasted journey – I am African.”
Silence. Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding.
Voice, when it came, lipstick coated, long gold-rolled cigarette-holder pipped.
Caught I was foully.
10“HOW DARK?” … I had not misheard … “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?”
Button B. Button A. Stench 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
Africa of proud warriors on ancestral savannahs
Africa that my grandmother sings
On the bank of her distant river I have never known you
But my face is full of your blood
Your beautiful black blood which waters the wide fields
The blood of your sweat
The sweat of your work
The work of your slavery
The slavery of your children
Africa tell me Africa
Is this really you this back which is bent
And breaks under the load of insult
This back trembling with red weals
Which says yes to the whip on the hot roads of noon
Then gravely a voice replies to me Impetuous son that tree robust and young
That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers
That is Africa your Africa which grows
Grows patiently obstinately A
nd whose fruit little by little learn
The bitter taste of liberty.

❖ Song of Lawino by Okot P’Bitek is a sequence of poems about the clash between African and
Western values and is regarded as the first important poem in “English to emerge from Eastern
Africa. Lawino’s song is a plea for the Ugandans to look back to traditional village life and recapture
African values.
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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 foreign missionary. After the priest’s
death, he becomes a helper of a white plantation owner, discovers the liaison of his master’s wife,
and gets murdered later 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 epigraph from Yeats’ The Second Coming: ‘things fall apart/ the center cannot
hold/ mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’ The novel laments over the disintegration of Nigerian
society, represented 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; a man’s social status is determined by the people’s esteem and
by possession of fields of yams and 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 title of which is alluded
to Eliot’s The Journey of the Magi: ‘We returned to our places, these kingdoms,/ But no longer at ease
here, in the old dispensation.’ The returning hero fails to cope with disgrace and social pressure.
Okwonko’s son has 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 receives bribes, and therefore is ‘no longer at ease.’
The Poor Christ of Bombay by Mongo Beti begins en medias res and exposes the inhumanity of
colonialism. The novel tells of Fr. Drumont’s disillusionment after 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 in the priest’s compound. It turns 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 without first understanding the natives’ culture.
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-existence of religion with people’s lifestyle at the same time stressing the influence of
education to enlighten people about their sociopolitical responsibilities.
Heirs to the Past by Driss Chraili is an allegorical, parable-like novel. After 16 years of absence, the
anti-hero Driss Ferdi returns to Morocco for his father’s 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
people. His older brother Jaad who was ‘born once and had ided several times’ 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 child. Doumbe’s
remark 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.
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AFRICAN LITERATURE
African literature, literary works of the African continent. African literature consists of a body of work in differ
ent languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to literature written in colonial languages (Fren
ch, Portuguese, and English).
Oral literature, including stories, dramas, riddles, histories, myths, songs, proverbs, and other expressions, is
frequently employed to educate and entertain children. Oral histories, myths, and proverbs additionally serve
to remind whole communities of their ancestors' heroic deeds, their past, and the precedents for their custom
s and traditions. Essential to oral literature is a concern for presentation and oratory. Folktale tellers use call-
response techniques. A griot (praise singer) will accompany a narrative with music.
Some of the first African writings to gain attention in the West were the poignant slave narratives, such as Th
e Interesting Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)
, which described vividly the horrors of slavery and the slave trade. As Africans became literate in their own l
anguages, they often reacted against colonial repression in their writings. Others looked to their own past for
subjects. Thomas Mofolo, for example, wrote Chaka (tr. 1931), about the famous Zulu military leader, in Susu
to.

AFRICAN CULTURE AND VALUES

Having looked at the concept and meaning of culture and having established the place of values in a culture,
we want to bring this down to the African context. A culture is an embodiment of different values with all of
them closely related to each other. That is why one can meaningfully talk about social, moral, religious,
political, aesthetic and even economic values of a culture. Let us now look at these values piece-meal, as
this would give us an understanding how they manifest in an African culture and the importance being
attached to them.

1. SOCIAL VALUES

Social values can simply be seen as those beliefs and practices that are practiced by any particular society.
The society has a way of dictating the beliefs and practices that are performed either routinely by its
members or performed whenever the occasion demands. Hence, we have festivals, games, sports and
dances that are peculiar to different societies. These activities are carried out by the society because they
are seen to be necessary. Some social values, especially in African society, cannot exactly be separated
from religious, moral, political values and so on. This is why we can see that in a traditional African society
like in Ibibio land (Nigeria), festivals which were celebrated often had religious undertones - they ended with
sacrifices that were offered to certain deities on special days in order to attract their goodwill on the members
of the society. Social values are backed by customary laws. They comprise of those traditional carnivals that
a people see as necessary for their meaningful survival. Let us illustrate with an example: the new yam
festival as practiced in Ibibio land has a way of encouraging hard work and checking famine. It was a thing of
shame for any man to buy yams for his family within the first two to three weeks after the festival. Doing so
would expose a man as being too lazy. These festivals really discipline the society because nobody is to do
anything when it is not time. For instance, new yam could not be eaten until the new yam festival has been
celebrated.

2. MORAL VALUES

African culture is embedded in strong moral considerations. It has a system of various beliefs and customs
which every individual ought to keep in order to live long and to avoid bringing curses on them and others.
Adultery, stealing and other forms of immoral behavior are strongly discouraged and whenever a suspected
offender denies a charge brought against him, he would be taken to a soothsayer or made to take an oath for
proof of innocence. In Ibibio land for instance, ukang (ordeal) is very popular as a method of crime detection.
The soothsayer who specializes in it sets a pot of boiling oil, drops a stone into it and asks the suspects to
attempt to retrieve the stone. The guiltless can reach to the bottom of the pot and retrieve the stone without
the hair on his arms getting burnt. But when the culprit approaches the pot, it rages and boils over in a
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manner that even the most daring criminal would hesitate to make an attempt at retrieving the stone. The
fear of being made to go through such ordeal or to be stripped naked and taken round the community as in
the case of stealing, adequately checks crimes of some sort. African proverbs and wise sayings have a rich
repository of wisdom. The proverbs warn the African against evil conduct and, according to Mbiti (1977: 8),
are "therefore a major source of African wisdom and a valuable part of African heritage". African culture has
a moral code that forbids doing harm to a relative, a kinsman, an in-law, a foreigner and a stranger, except
when such a person is involved in an immoral act; and if that is the case, it is advisable to stay away from
such an individual and even at death, their corpses would not be dignified with a noble burial in a coffin and
grave. Mothers of twins were not welcome and were regarded as the harbinger of evil, hence unacceptable.

3. RELIGIOUS VALUES

Religion in African societies seems to be the fulcrum around which every activity revolves. Hence religious
values are not toyed with. African traditional religion, wherever it is practiced, has some defining
characteristics. For instance, it possesses the concept of a Supreme Being which is invisible and indigenous.
It holds a belief in the existence of the human soul and the soul does not die with the body. African traditional
religion also has the belief that good and bad spirits do exist and that these spirits are what make
communication with the Supreme Being possible. Above all, it holds a moral sense of justice and truth and
the knowledge of the existence of good and evil (Umoh 2005: 68). African religious values seem to permeate
every facet of the life of the African and the African believes that anything can be imbued with spiritual
significance. The worship of different deities on different days goes on to show that the African people hold
their religious values in high esteem. Sorcerers and diviners are seen to be mediating between God and man
and interpreting God's wishes to the mortal. The diviners, sorcerers and soothsayers help to streamline
human behavior in the society and people are afraid to commit offences because of the fear of being
exposed by the diviners and sorcerers.

4. POLITICAL VALUES

The African society definitely has political institutions with heads of such institutions as respected individuals.
The most significant thing about the traditional society is that the political hierarchy begins with the family.
Each family has a family head; each village has a village head. From these, we have clan head and above
the clan head, is the paramount ruler. This kind of political arrangement is observable in the Southern part of
Nigeria. Prior to the coming of Western colonization and its subsequent subversion of the African traditional
political arrangements, African societies had their council of chiefs, advisers, cult groups, and so on. It was
believed that disloyalty to a leader was disloyalty to God and the position of leadership was either hereditary
or by conquest. In Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, for instance, even though the traditional political institution was
overwhelmingly totalitarian, there were still some checks and balances. Any ruler who attempted to usurp
powers was beheaded by the Ekpo cult. Antia (2005: 145) writes that "such checks and balances were
enforced by the existence of secret societies, cults, societal norms, traditional symbols and objects, various
classes of chiefs who performed different functions on the different aspects of life". Hence, with respect to
political values, we can see that it is inextricably linked with religious, social, moral values and so on. It is the
political value that a people hold which makes them accord respect to their political institutions and leaders.

5 AESTHETIC VALUES

The African concept of aesthetics is predicated on the fundamental traditional belief system which gave vent
to the production of the art. Now art is usually seen as human enterprise concerned with the production of
aesthetic objects. Thus, when a people in their leisure time try to produce or create objects that they consider
admirable, their sense of aesthetic value is brought to bear. If we see art as being concerned with the
production of aesthetic objects, then we can truly say of African aesthetic value that it is immensely rich. Let
us have an example: the sense of beauty of the Ibibio people is epitomized in their fattened maidens whom
they call mbopo. These fattened maidens are confined to a room where they are fed with traditional cuisines.
The idea behind it is to prepare the maiden and make her look as good, healthy and beautiful as possible for
her husband. This is usually done before marriage and after child birth. The Western model of beauty is not
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13 LITERATURE

like this. It is often pictured as slim-looking young ladies who move in staggered steps. This shows that the
African aesthetic value and sense of what is beautiful is markedly different. Aesthetic value is what informs a
people's arts and crafts as it affects their sense of what is beautiful as opposed to that which is ugly. The
aesthetic value of a society influences the artist in his endeavor to produce aesthetic objects that are
acceptable to the society in which he lives.

6. ECONOMIC VALUES

Economic values of the traditional African society are marked by cooperation. The traditional economy, which
is mainly based on farming and fishing, was co-operative in nature. In Ibibio land, for instance, friends and
relatives would come and assist in doing farm work not because they will be paid but so that if it happens that
they need such assistance in the near future, they will be sure to find it. Children were seen to provide the
main labor force. That is why a man took pride in having many of them, especially males. The synergetic
nature of the African society is what made two or more individuals to pool their resources together and uplift
each other economically through the system of contributions called osusu. Apart from this, they even
cooperated in the building of houses and doing other things for their fellow members. When any of them was
in difficulty, all members rallied around and helped him or her. Hence, we can state without fear of
contradiction that the economic values of the traditional African society such as the Ibibio were founded on
hard work and cooperation.

Having looked at some of the values that characterize the African culture, it is important to state here that
these values are inextricably bound together and are to be comprehended in their totality as African cultural
values

AFRICAN WRITERS AND POETS

• Chinua Achebe (African Literary Titan) was born in the village of Ogidi, Nigeria in Western Africa in
1931.His father was a missionary and so Achebe was brought up as a Christian, though he had many
of the traditions and values of the Ibo culture. He worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company
before leaving in 1966 to concentrate on writing. During conflict between the Nigerians and Biafrans
(1967-1970), Achebe worked as a diplomat for the Biafran cause. In the early stages of the war, he
and his wife had a narrow escape from death when their flat was bombed. By 1970 the Biafran tribe
had been starved into surrendering. He taught in many American universities, but he is also known for
being a novelist who explores how European culture affected African society. His novels describe the
traditions and speech of the Ibo tribe and follows their struggle to free themselves from the European
culture and influences. This poem is seen as an aspect of this struggle. Vultures are compared to a
Nazi Commandant who preys greedily and ruthlessly on the helpless. Chinua Achebe’s war
experiences are reflected in the 1971 collection Beware, Soul Brother, where the poe

• Hussein (born 1943) is a Tanzanian playwright and poet. His first play, Kinjeketile (1969), written
in Swahili is considered "a landmark of Tanzanian theater." The play soon became one of the
standard subjects for Kiswahili exams in Tanzania and Kenya. By 1981, it had already been reprinted
six times.
Other plays written by Hussein include: Mashetani (1971), an overtly political play; Jogoo
Kijijini (1976), an experiment in dramatic performance; and Arusi (1980), in which Hussein expresses
disillusionment with the Tanzanian political theory Ujamaa. Short plays of his include: Wakati
Ukuta (1967)
Hussein was educated at the University of Eastern Africa where he studied French and Theatre Arts.
There he wrote some of his first few short plays, Wakati Ukuta (Time is a Wall) and Alikiona -
Consequences. These early works often focus on themes of tensions between the old and new
generations and the tensions leftover from European colonialism. He was taught about the European
structure of a "well- made play", but became more interested in traditional African forms of theatre
during his time there were some of his early plays, like Alikiona, incorporate elements of Kichekesho,
which is a comedic interlude found in the middle of many taarab performances.
The following are his works:
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14 LITERATURE

Plays Short Plays

• Kinjeketile, 1969 • Wakati Ukuta - Time is a Wall, 1967
• Michezo ya kuigiza, 1970
• Mashetani, 1971
• Arusi, 1980
• Jogoo Kijijini, 1987
• Jambo la maana, 1982
• Kwenye ukingo wa Thim, 1988
• Ujamaa
Alikiona - Consequences
Collection of Poems

• 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, and music, which confirmed his belief in Africa’s contribution to
modern culture. 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 became Negritude’s
foremost spokesman and edited an anthology of French-language poetry by black African that
became a seminal text of the Negritude movement.
• Okot P’Bitek (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 Prison, A Shuttle in the Crypt, Mandela’s
Earth and Other Poems.
• 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 the dreams of on’s youth are corrupted, and how innocence is lost. Among her works are:
The Soft Voice of the Serpent, Burger’s Daughter, July’s People, A Sport of Nature, My Son’s Story.
• Bessie Head (1937 –1986) described the contradictions and shortcomings of preand 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 (1940) wrote twelve books on children’s stories known as the 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 Ministry of Education and later served as Kabaka’s librarian.
She was a journalist of The Uganda Nation and later a columnist for a Nairobi newspaper. Among her
works are: KalasandaRevisited, The Smugglers, The Money Game.
• 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 his characters: “You will never be a
good writer so long as you don’t defend a cause.” Sembene tells his stories from out of Africa’s past
and relates their relevance and meaning for contemporary society. His works include, O My Country,
My Beautiful People, God’s Bits of Wood, The Storm.
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• David Diop [1927-1960 ] was born in Bordeaux, France, Diop is often considered one of the most
promising French West African poets. His short life's work often involved his longing for Africa and his
empathy for those fighting against the French colonization of the mainland. His work shows a hatred
for the oppressors and the aforementioned empathy for the oppressed.

David Diop was born in Bordeaux, France, of a Senegalese father and a Cameroonian mother.
Following the death of his father he was raised by his mother. Diop lived an uprooted life, moving
frequently from his childhood onwards between France and West Africa and his primary education
was in Senegal though he continued it at the the Lycée Marcelin Berthelot in Paris
He started writing poems while he was still in school, and his poems started appearing in Présence
Africaine at the age of 15. Several of his poems were published in Léopold Senghor's famous
anthology, which became a landmark of modern black writing in French.
He employed casual narrative styles in his poetry, and thus it became a new style of protest poetry. In
1960, Diop and his wife were killed in a plane crash returning to France from Dakar. Most of his work
was unpublished and supposedly destroyed in the crash; all that remains of his poetic bibliography
are the twenty-two poems published during his lifetime in the collection Coups de Pillon from
Présence Africaine in 1956. It was posthumously published in English as Hammer Blows, translated
and edited by Simon Mpondo and Frank Jones (African Writers Series, 1975) by Heineman.

• Jomo Kenyatta (Mzee Jomo Kenyatta), born 20 October 1891, was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist
and politician. He was a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group–Kenya’s largest–and was educated by
Presbyterian missionaries. Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, was
convicted by Kenya’s British rulers of leading the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white
settlers and the colonial government. An advocate of nonviolence and conservatism, he pleaded
innocent in the highly politicized trial. 1961, Jomo Kenyatta was released by British colonial
authorities after nearly nine years of imprisonment and detention. Two years later, Kenya achieved
independence and Kenyatta became prime minister. Once portrayed as a menacing symbol of African
nationalism, he brought stability to the country and defended Western interests during his 15 years as
Kenyan leader.
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was the President of Kenya from independence in 1963 to his death in 1978,
serving first as Prime Minister (1963–64) and then as President (1964–78). Kenyatta was a well-
educated intellectual who authored several books, and is remembered as a Pan-Africanist. He is also
the father of Kenya’s fourth and current President, Uhuru Kenyatta.

Jomo Kenyatta ‘Facing Mount Kenya’ Seminal Work

Kenyatta returned to London several times to petition for African rights and then remained in Europe
in the 1930s to receive a formal education at various institutions, including Moscow University. In
1938, he published his seminal work, Facing Mount Kenya, which praised traditional Kikuyu society
and discussed its plight under colonial rule. During World War II, he lived in England, lecturing and
writing.

Jomo Kenyatta President Of Kenya African Union (KAU)

In 1946, he returned to Kenya and in 1947 became president of the newly formed Kenya African
Union (KAU). He pushed for majority rule, recruiting both Kikuyus and non-Kikuyus into the nonviolent
movement, but the white settler minority was unyielding in refusing a significant role for blacks in the
colonial government.

Mau Mau

The Mau Mau drew its supporters from the Kikuyu people, the majority of whom lived in the crowded
reserves of Kiambu, Nyeri and Fort Hall. They regard land as their only form of security and many had
too little to be able to make a living. They resent the fact the Europeans farm the much more
profitable and sparsely-populated so-called “White Highlands” and therefore have a much better
standard of living. The British Government had hoped the policy of arresting the Mau Mau leadership
would put an end to the rising tide of violence. But there were warnings of retaliations. Another of the
oaths taken by Mau Mau members was to follow Mr Kenyatta if he was arrested and try to free him.
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In 1952, Kikuyu group called Mau Mau began a guerrilla war against the settlers and colonial
government, leading to bloodshed, political turmoil, and the forced internment of tens of thousands of
Kikuyus in detainment camps. Kenyatta played little role in the rebellion, but he was vilified by the
British and put on trial in 1952 with five other KUA leaders for “managing the Mau Mau terrorist
organization.” An advocate of nonviolence and conservatism, he pleaded innocent in the highly
politicized trial but was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison.

He spent six years in jail and then was sent to an internal exile at Lodwar, where he lived under house
arrest. Meanwhile, the British government slowly began steering Kenya to black majority rule. In 1960,
the Kenya African National Union (KANU) was organized by black nationalists, and Kenyatta was
elected president in absentia. The party announced it would not take part in any government until
Kenyatta was freed. Kenyatta pledged the protection of settlers’ rights in an independent Kenya, and
on August 14, 1961, he was finally allowed to return to Kikuyuland. After a week of house arrest in the
company of his family and supporters, he was formally released on August 21.

In 1962, he went to London to negotiate Kenyan independence, and in May 1963 he led the KANU to
victory in pre-independence elections. On December 12, 1963, Kenya celebrated its independence,
and Kenyatta formally became prime minister. The next year, a new constitution established Kenya as
a republic, and Kenyatta was elected president.

• Legendary Zimbabwean writer Charles Mungoshi turned 70 on December 2, 2017. Mungoshi

handles a broad range of literary genres and styles in a way that is very rarely surpassed by many in
the so- called Third Wold today.
His literary profile is compact. He is a novelist, poet, short-story writer, playwright, film scriptwriter,
actor, editor, translator, and consultant.
While each of the other prominent writers of Zimbabwe like Yvonne Vera, Dambudzo Marechera,
Shimmer Chinodya, Aaron Chiundura Moyo and Ndabezinhle Sigogo, have tended to write in English
or Shona or Ndebele only, Mungoshi has written convincingly and continuously in both Shona and
English.
In 1975 alone, for instance, Mungoshi published two books: Waiting for the Rain (a novel in English)
and Ndiko Kupindana Kwemazuva (a novel in Shona).
These two works exude separate amazing qualities that one wonders how they could have been
written “back to back.” That ambidexterity was no fluke because later, in 1980, Mungoshi repeated a
similar feat, publishing Inongova Njakenjake (a play in Shona) and Some Kinds of Wounds (a short-
story collection in English).
It is as if Mungoshi writes simultaneously with two pens — one in the left hand and the other in the
right hand! In fact, between 1970 and 2000, a period of 30 years, Mungoshi made an average of one
major publication in every one and a half years and won a prize of sorts for each of them.

EXPLAIN

UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF LANGUAGE

Activity 3
Instructions: Explain each question briefly.
1. What are the characteristics of African Literature?
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2. What are the difference of the literary works from early and contemporary writers?
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3. Identify at least five other African writers/ authors with their respective literary works.?
 Module 1 – EXPLORING AFRICAN, EGYPTIAN AND ARABIAN
17 LITERATURE

__________________________________________________________________________
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4. How do Africans uplift each other’s company?
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5. How do Africans hold their religious value?
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