To define African Literature, one question needs to be answered first, ‘should African Literature be written in African languages’? In the 1960s, much diatribe was exchanged by African literary artists within their caucus, and outside with different scholars interested in African Literature. According to the argument, African literature must be written in an African language. To this Chinua Achebe responded, “You cannot cram African literature in a small, neat definition. I do not see African literature as one unit but as associated units – in fact, the sum total of all the national and ethnic literatures of Africa”,
In
defining African Literature, one therefore needs to search deeper than the
surface, to find the essence of what is truly African. There is need to go
beyond the impression that has been created about a continent that holds a
wealth of knowledge, carefully embedded in its culture and people. African
Literature should be described holistically and not in parts. Many attempts
have been made at defining African Literature. The definition that stands out
is that it is written or unwritten forms of valuable literature that has
incorporated cultures, languages, norms and practices of people and societies
that hail from Africa. It is work of the African continent. African Literature
has been written in what has been referred to as colonial languages, such as
English, Portuguese and French, (Mbagwu, 2011) .
African
literature has undergone a lot of change since the pre-colonial era. In
discussing the changes, it is important to recognise what have been the major
influences. For example, what have been the major themes over the centuries? How
have different writers handled the various literary forms?
Pre-colonial
literature comprised oral traditional forms for the most part. However, there were
written literatures from all over Africa. In east Africa, Ethiopia to be precise,
literature was written in Ge’ez as far back as the fourth century AD, the most renowned
work being the Kebra Negast or the Book of kings. Folklores were also written
among the Ashanti of Ghana, Yoruba of Nigeria, (Stephanie Newell, 2002) . The popular hare
stories can be traced back to central and southern Africa. More works came
out of North Africa and from the Swahili coast. From the University of Timbuktu
alone, 300,000 manuscripts
tucked away in various libraries and private collections, mostly
written in Arabic but some in the
native languages (namely Fula and Songhai), (Encarta., 2009) .
In the 18th
century written works that marked the colonisation period and the slave trade
included Olaudah Equiano’s ‘The interesting narratives of the life of Olaudah
Equiano, written in 1789. Most the themes centred on the arrival of the
Europeans and narratives about the slave trade. The major influence during this
era, is the language, as most writers started to write in the language of the
Europeans. During this period, African plays written in English began to emerge. Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo
of South Africa published the first English-language African
play, The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongqawuse the Liberator
in 1935. In 1962, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o of Kenya
wrote the first East African drama, The Black Hermit, a cautionary tale about "tribalism" (discrimination between African tribes). The most acclaimed
novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’ is a product of the early colonial period, (Dashu, 2013) . The themes bordered
on the arrival of the Europeans and the conflicts that arose thereafter.
With the
turn of the century, liberation struggles were strong influence on writing. Themes
about independence and freedom became part of African literature. Writers faced
either faced jail time or were killed because of their ideas. Among Africans in French-controlled territories) négritude. One of the leaders of the négritude movement, the
poet and eventual President of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor,
published in 1948 the first anthology
of French-language poetry written by Africans, (Mboya, 1970) .
Modern African
literature has significantly changed. There are a lot of literary productions
in Africa, even though there are not as many readers and
followers. Certain writings have appeared that have broken the academic style. There
is a lot of pressure on the modern African writer. For example, the competition
for readership, awards and so on.
There is a future
for African literature. Africans are yet to tell their own story. For the
modern writer, there is need to maintain balance between the demands of literary
world in modern days and the need to maintain what is African in all literary
forms.
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(2018). Britannica . Retrieved from Britannica.com
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Mbagwu, C. E.
(2011). Promoting Access to African Research . Retrieved from African
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Mboya, T. (1970). The
Challenge of Nationhood. Oxford : Heinemann Educational Books .
Scheub, E. A.
(2018, December 31). Encoclopaedia Britannica . Retrieved from
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Sparknotes .
(2018). Sparknotes. Retrieved from
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(2002). Stephanie Newell, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: 'How to Play
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