African literature

African literature is literature of and from Africa and includes oral

literature (or "orature", in the term coined by Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu).
As George Joseph notes in his chapter on African literature in Understanding
Contemporary Africa, whereas European views of literature often stressed a
separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:
"Literature" can also imply an artistic use of words for the sake of art
alone. ...traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching.
Rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue
from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and
information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of
the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build.

Oral literature
Oral literature (or orature) may be in prose or verse. The prose is often
mythological or historical and can include tales of the trickster character.
Storytellers in Africa sometimes use call-and-response techniques to tell their
stories. Poetry, often sung, includes: narrative epic, occupational verse, ritual
verse, praise poems to rulers and other prominent people. Praise singers,
bards sometimes known as "griots", tell their stories with music. Also recited,
often sung, are love songs, work songs, children's songs, along
with epigrams, proverbs and riddles. A revised edition of Ruth Finnegan's
classic Oral Literature in Africa was released by the Cambridge-based Open
Book Publishers in September 2012.
Oral literatures have flourished in Africa for many centuries and take a
variety of forms including, in addition to the folk tales found in this lesson,
myths, epics, funeral dirges, praise poems, and proverbs. Myths, according
to Oyekan Owomoyela, usually "explain the interrelationships of all things
that exist, and provide for the group and its members a necessary sense of
their place in relation to their environment and the forces that order events
on earth" (2). Epics are elaborate literary forms, usually performed only by
experts on special occasions. They often recount the heroic exploits of
ancestors. Examples of epics include the Mwindo epic and the epic of
Sundjiata. Versions of both of these epics have been transcribed and

published in book form and may be available through public or university

libraries. Dirges, chanted during funeral ceremonies, lament the departed,
praise his/her memory, and ask for his/her protection. Praise poems are
"epithets called out in reference to an object (a person, a town, an animal, a
disease, and so on) in celebration of its outstanding qualities and
achievements" (Owomoyela 14). Praise poems have a variety of applications
and functions. Professional groups often create poems exclusive to them.
Prominent chiefs might appoint a professional performer to compile their
praise poems and perform them on special occasions. Professional
performers of praise poems might also travel from place to place and
perform for families or individuals for alms or a small fee. The following is
quoted from a praise poem to Shaka, the Zulu warrior and king:
Shaka went and erected temporary huts
Between the Nsuze and the Thukela,
In the country of Nyanya son of Manzawane;
He ate up Mantondo son of Tazi,
He felt him tasteless and spat him out,
He devoured Sihayo.
He who came dancing on the hillside of the Phuthiles,
And he overcame Msikazi among the Ndimoshes.
He met a long line of hah-de-dahs [ibis birds]
When he was going to destroy the foolish Pondos;
Shaka did not raid herds of cattle,
He raided herds of buck. (qtd. in Owomoyela 15)
Most well known of the African oral forms is probably the proverb, a short
witty or ironic statement, metaphorical in its formulation, that aims to
communicate a response to a particular situation, to offer advice, or to be
persuasive. The proverb is often employed as a rhetorical device, presenting
its speaker as the holder of cultural knowledge or authority. Yet, as much as
the proverb looks back to an African culture as its origin and source of
authority, it creates that African culture each time it is spoken and used to
make sense of immediate problems and occasions.
One final point: oral literary forms must not be conceptualized as simply precolonial, ancient, or traditional. Oral literary forms, such as folktales and
praise-songs, flourish in contemporary Africa. For example, performances of
oral tales are featured on radio, television, and in films. Oral literatures are

performed and created by women and men, and many African written
literary expressions incorporate the forms and tropes of oral literatures.

Precolonial literature
Examples of pre-colonial African literature are numerous. Oral literature of
west Africa includes the "Epic of Sundiata" composed in medieval Mali, and
the older "Epic of Dinga" from the old Ghana Empire. In Ethiopia, there is a
substantial literature written in Ge'ez going back at least to the 4th century
AD; the best-known work in this tradition is the Kebra Negast, or "Book of
Kings." One popular form of traditional African folktale is the "trickster" story,
where a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger
creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include Anansi, a spider in the
folklore of the Ashanti people of Ghana; Ijp, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore
of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central and East African
folklore. Other works in written form are abundant, namely in north Africa,
the Sahel regions of west Africa and on the Swahili coast.
From Timbuktu alone, there are an estimated 300,000 or more manuscripts
tucked away in various libraries and private collections, mostly written
in Arabic but some in the native languages (namely Fula and Songhai).
[7]
Many were written at the famous University of Timbuktu. The material
covers a wide array of topics, including Astronomy, Poetry, Law, History,
Faith, Politics, and Philosophy among other subjects.] Swahili
literature similarly, draws inspiration from Islamic teachings but developed
under indigenous circumstances. One of the most renowned and earliest
pieces of Swahili literature being Utendi wa Tambuka or "The Story of
Tambuka".
In Islamic times, North Africans such as ibn Khaldun attained great distinction
within Arabic literature. Medieval north Africa boasted universities such as
those of Fes and Cairo, with copious amounts of literature to supplement
them.

Colonial African literature

The African works best known in the West from the period of colonization and
the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah Equiano's The
Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789).
In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write
in those tongues. In 1911, Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford (also known as

Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) published what is probably the
first African novel written in English, Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race
Emancipation. Although the work moves between fiction and political
advocacy, its publication and positive reviews in the Western press mark a
watershed moment in African literature.
During this period, African plays 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, Ngg
wa Thiong'o ofKenya wrote the first East African drama, The Black Hermit, a
cautionary tale about "tribalism" (racism between African tribes).
Among the first pieces of African literature to receive significant worldwide
critical acclaim was Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Published in 1958,
late in the colonial era, Things Fall Apart analyzed the effect of colonialism
on traditional African society.[10]
African literature in the late colonial period (between the end of World War
I and independence) increasingly showed themes of liberation,
independence, and (among Africans in French-controlled
territories) ngritude. One of the leaders of the ngritude movement, the
poet and eventual President of Senegal, Lopold Sdar Senghor, published
in 1948 the first anthology of French-language poetry written by
Africans, Anthologie de la nouvelle posie ngre et malgache de langue
franaise (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French
Language), featuring a preface by the Frenchexistentialist writer Jean-Paul
Sartre.[11]
For many writers this emphasis was not restricted to their publishing. Many,
indeed, suffered deeply and directly: censured for casting aside his artistic
responsibilities in order to participate actively in warfare, Christopher
Okigbo was killed in battle for Biafra against the Nigerian movement of the
1960s' civil war; Mongane Wally Serote was detained under South
Africa'sTerrorism Act No 83 of 1967 between 1969 and 1970, and
subsequently released without ever having stood trial; in Londonin 1970, his
countryman Arthur Norje committed suicide; Malawi's Jack Mapanje was
incarcerated with neither charge nor trial because of an off-hand remark at a
university pub; and, in 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the Nigerian
junta.

Postcolonial African literature

With liberation and increased literacy since most African nations gained their
independence in the 1950s and 1960s, African literature has grown
dramatically in quantity and in recognition, with numerous African works
appearing in Western academic curricula and on "best of" lists compiled at
the end of the 19th century. African writers in this period wrote both in
Western languages (notably English, French, and Portuguese) and in
traditional African languages such as Hausa.
Ali A. Mazrui and others mention seven conflicts as themes: the clash
between Africa's past and present, between tradition and modernity,
between indigenous and foreign, between individualism and community,
between socialism and capitalism, between development and self-reliance
and between Africanity and humanity. Other themes in this period include
social problems such as corruption, the economic disparities in newly
independent countries, and the rights and roles of women. Female writers
are today far better represented in published African literature than they
were prior to independence.
In 1986, Wole Soyinka became the first post-independence African writer to
win the Nobel Prize in literature. Previously,Algerian-born Albert Camus had
been awarded the 1957 prize.

Literacy in Africa
A discussion of written African literatures raises a number of complicated and
complex problems and questions that only can be briefly sketched out here.
The first problem concerns the small readership for African literatures in
Africa. Over 50% of Africa's population is illiterate, and hence many Africans
cannot access written literatures. The scarcity of books available, the cost of
those books, and the scarcity of publishing houses in Africa exacerbate this
already critical situation. Despite this, publishing houses do exist in Africa,
and in countries such as Ghana and Zimbabwe, African publishers have
produced and sold many impressive works by African authors, many of which
are written in African languages.
Many of the works identified by teachers and researchers in North America
and Europe as African literature, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, for
example, are texts published by presses outside of Africa. Some of these

works are not even available to African readers. Likewise, what an American
teacher might recognize as an African novel might be very different from the
locally produced, popular novels that are sold to and read exclusively by
people living in Africa.
Scholars have identified three waves of literacy in Africa. The first occurred in
Ethiopia where written works have been discovered that appeared before the
earliest literatures in the Celtic and Germanic languages of Western Europe
(Gerard 47). The second wave of literacy moved across Africa with the
spread of Islam. Soon after the emergence of Islam in the seventh century,
its believers established themselves in North Africa through a series of
jihads, or holy wars. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Islam was carried
into the kingdom of Ghana. The religion continued to move eastward through
the nineteenth century (Owomoyela 23).
Remnants of narrative poetry in Swahili have been recovered from as early
as the eighteenth century. The poems, in epic form, describe the life of
Mohammed and his exploits against Christians. In West Africa, manuscripts in
Arabic verse have been dated to the fourteenth century. Several literatures,
known as ajami, written in the Arabic script for non-Arabic languages have
been discovered from the eighteenth century. The literatures were written in
Fulani (West Africa), Hausa (northern Nigeria), and Wolof (Senegal).
The encounter with Europe through trade relationships, missionary activities,
and colonialism propelled the third wave of literacy in Africa. In the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, literary activity in the British colonies
was conducted almost entirely in vernacular languages. Missionaries found it
more useful to translate the Bible into local languages than to teach English
to large numbers of Africans. This resulted in the production of hymns,
morality tales, and other literatures in African languages concerned with
propagating Christian values and morals. The first of these "Christianinspired African writings" emerged in South Africa (Owomoyela 28). Thomas
Mofolo studied theology at the Bible School of the Paris Evangelical Mission
at Morija (in present-day Lesotho). He worked as a teacher and clerk and was
a proofreader for the Morija Printing Press. The Press published his
novel, Moeti Oa Bochabella (The Traveler of the East) as a serial in the
newspaper Leselinyana in 1906. The novel reveals the influence of
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and tells the story of Fekesi, who, tired of all of
the sinfulness he sees around him, tries to find a perfect kingdom to the
East. West African writers, such as Chief Fagunwa who wrote in Yoruba,

produced similar works in African languages. Writers also recorded proverbs,

praise-poems, and other pieces of oral literature during this period.

Negritude
Although Africans had been writing in Portuguese as early as 1850 and a few
volumes of African writing in English and French had been published, an
explosion of African writing in European languages occured in the midtwentieth century. In the 1930s, black intellectuals from French colonies
living in Paris initiated a literary movement called Negritude. Negritude
emerged out of "a sudden grasp of racial identity and of cultural values"
(Gerard 51) and an awareness "of the wide discrepancies which existed
between the promise of the French system of assimilation and the reality"
(Owomoyela 37). The movement's founders looked to Africa to rediscover
and rehabilitate the African values that had been erased by French cultural
superiority. Negritude writers wrote poetry in French in which they presented
African traditions and cultures as antithetical, but equal, to European culture.
Out of this philosophical/literary movement came the creation of Presence
Africaine by Alioune Diop in 1947. The journal, according to its founder, was
an endeavor "to help define African originality and to hasten its introduction
into the modern world" (Owomoyela 39). Other Negritude authors include
Leopold Senghor, Aime Cesaire, and Leon Damas. Below is an excerpt from
Senghor's poem "Prayer to Masks":
Masks! Masks!
Black mask red mask, you white-and-black masks
Masks of the four points from which the Spirit blows
In silence I salute you!
Nor you the least, Lion-headed Ancestor
You guard this place forbidden to all laughter of women, to all smiles that
fade
You distill this air of eternity in which I breathe the air of my Fathers.
Masks of unmasked faces, stripped of the masks of illness and the lines of
age
You who have fashioned this portrait, this my face bent over the later of
white paper
In your own image, hear me! (Owomoyela 42).
In the mid-60s, Nigeria replaced French West Africa as the largest producer
and consumer of African literature, and literary production in English
surpassed that in French. Large numbers of talented writers in Francophone

Africa came to occupy important political and diplomatic posts and gave up
creative writing. Furthermore, the tenets of Negritude seemed far less
relevant after independence and as newly independent nations found
themselves facing civil wars, military coups and corruption (Gerard 53).
The vastness in size and population of Nigeria gave it an advantage over
smaller countries. In the 1950s, a large readership made up of clerks and
small traders and a steadily increasing number of high schools students
developed in Nigeria, and this readership enabled the emergence of Onitsha
market literatures. Ibadan college, founded in 1957, produced some of the
writers that came to the forefront in the 60s. East Africa followed West Africa,
and in the 60s, Makerere College became a productive center for East African
literature. By the mid-70s, after the coup that brought General Idi Amin to
power in Uganda, Kenya became the literary center in East Africa.

An African Literary Tradition

The written literatures, novels, plays, and poems in the 1950s and 60s have
been described as literatures of testimony. (See Kenneth W.
Harrow's Thresholds of Change in African Literature, Portsmouth and London:
Heinemann and James Curry, 1994.) Novels such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o's A
Grain of Wheat, Wole Soyinka's The Interpreters, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall
Apart, and Flora Nwapa's Efuru are a few of the novels that might be
described as literatures of testimony. These works, in part, attempt to
respond to derogatory representations of, and myths about, African culture.
Frequently written in the first person, literatures of testimony are concerned
with representing African reality and valorizing African culture.
The following generation of African authors produced literatures in European
languages that have been described as literatures of revolt. These texts
move away from the project of recuperating and reconstructing an African
past and focus on responding to, and revolting against, colonialism,
neocolonialism, and corruption. These literatures are more concerned with
the present realities of African life, and often represent the past negatively.
As Harrow explains, "instead of a past, a family, and a cultural background
being reconstructed in positive terms, exemplary of African culture, the past
is often viewed negatively, as something from which the protagonist has to
escape" (84). Mariama Ba's Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter), Birgo
Diop's L'Aventure Ambigue (Ambiguous Adventure), and Peter
Abrahams' Tell Freedom exemplify these literatures.

The final group into which one can organize African authors is post-revolt
writers. These writers move away from the use of realism and aim to develop
new discourses and literary styles. They often focus on oppressive African
regimes and employ an ironic style. The work of Sony Labou Tansi, Henri
Lopes, Yambo Ouloguem, and Ahmadou Kourouma illustrate the style and
content of post-revolt literatures.

Women and African Literature

African women, although receiving less notice from scholars and historians,
have been producing literature alongside African men. Women oral artists
and performers continue to create oral literatures, and a few examples of
these texts have been included in this lesson. In the early years of the
twentieth century, African women such as Lillith Kakaza, who wrote in Xhosa,
Victoria Swaartboo, who wrote in Xhosa, and Violet Dube working in Zulu
produced works of literature in African languages. Adelaide Casely-Hayford,
born in Sierra Leone, educated in England and Germany, and married to the
well-known lawyer Joseph Casely-Hayford represents the first generation of
women writing in European languages. Her short story "Mista Courifer,"
published in 1961, examines the collision between African and Western
cultures. These women, from elite backgrounds and educated in colonial
schools, began writing at about the time many of their countries gained
independence. They include Mabel Dove Danquah, from the Gold Coast,
Grace Ogot and Noni Jabavu of Kenya, and Flora Nwapa of Nigeria. Since the
1970s, African women have written a wide array of works that have been
well received by readers and teachers of African literature. A few of these
include Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Mariama Ba, Miriam
Tlali, Nafissatou Dialo, Aminata Sow Fall, Zulu Sofola, Fatima Dike, Rebeka
Njau and Micere Mugo.

Noma Award
Inaugurated in 1980, the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa is presented for
the outstanding work of the year in African literatures.
The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa (French:Le Prix Noma de
Publication en Afrique), which ran from 1980-2009, was an annual $10,000
prize for outstanding African writers and scholars who published in Africa.
Within four years of its establishment, the prize "had become the major book
award in Africa".[1] It was one of the series of Noma Prizes.

The prize was established in 1979 by Shoichi Noma (died 1984), president
of Kodansha Ltd, the largest publishing house in Japan, to encourage the
publication of works by African authors.[2] The award was annual and given to
any new book published in three categories: literature, juvenile and scholarly.
The award was sponsored by Kodansha Ltd, administered by the
quarterly African Book Publishing Record,[3] and presented under the
auspices of UNESCO. Books were admissible in any of the languages of
Africa, whether local or European. The award was ended in 2009 after the
Noma family ceased its sponsorship.[4]
Winners

1980: Une Si Longue Lettre by Mariama B

1981: Health Education for the Community by Felix C. Adi
1982: The Brassmans Secret by Meshack Asare
1983: Criminal Procedure in Ghana by Austin N.E. Amissah
1984: Mesandiki wa Mau Mau Ithaamirio-in [prison memoirs in Gikuyu]
by Gakaara wa Wanjau, Fools and other storiesby Njabulo Ndebele
1985: La Trahison de Marianne by Bernard Nanga
1986: Sobreviver em Tarrafal de Santiago [poetry] by Antnio Jacinto
1987: Villes de Cte dIvoire, 1893-1940 by Pierre Kipr
1988: Working Life. Factoris, Townships, and Popular Culture on the
Rand, 1886-1940 by Luli Callinicos
1989: Bones by Chenjerai Hove
1990: Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge by Francis
Wilson & Mamphela Ramphele
1991: Waiting Laughters [poetry] by Niyi Osundare
1992: A comme Algriennes by Souad Khodja; One Day, Long Ago.
More Stories from a Shona Childhood by Charles Mungoshi, illustrated by
Luke Toronga
1993: Third World Express by Mongane Wally Serote
1994: A Modern Economic History of Africa. Volume 1: The Nineteenth
Century (Dakar: CODESRIA, 1993)
1995: Triomf by Marlene van Niekerk
1996: Destins paralleles by Kitia Toure
1997: Mfantsipim and the Making of Ghana: A Centenary History,
1876-1976 by A. Adu Boahen
1998: The Politics of Liberation in South Sudan: An Insider's
View by Peter Adwok Nyaba
1999: L'interpretation des reves dans la region Senegambienne. Suivi
de la clef des songes de la Senegambie de l'Egypte pharaonique et de la
tradition islamique by Djibril Samb.[5]

2000: Ufundishaji wa Fasihi: Nadharia na Mbinu by Kimani

Njogu & Rocha Chimera
2001: Odun Ifa/Ifa Festival by Abosede Emanuel
2002: The Arabic Novel: Bibliography and Critical Introduction, 18651995 by Hamdi Sakkut
2003: Walter and Albertina Sisulu. In Our Lifetime by Elinor Sisulu
2004: In 2004 the jury decided not to select a winner, but did give four
titles Honourable Mention:
The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo Ndebele
The Plays of Miracle and Wonder by Brett Bailey
Lanre and the Queen of the Stream by Tunde Lawal-Solarin
A Dictionary of Yoruba Personal Names by Adeboye Babalola &
Olugboyega Alaba
2005: La mmoire ampute by Werewere Liking
2006: In a Ribbon of Rhythm by Lebogang Mashile
2007: Strife by Shimmer Chinodya
2008: Beginnings of a Dream by Zachariah Rapola
2009: Lawless and Other Stories by Sefi Atta [6]

Major novels from African writers

Peter Abrahams (South Africa): Mine Boy, This Island Now, A Wreath for
Udom

Deon Opperman (South Africa): Donkerland (Dark

Land), Kruispad (Crossroad), Hartland (Heartland)
Chinua Achebe (Nigeria): Arrow of God, No Longer At Ease, Things Fall
Apart
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria): Purple Hibiscus,Half of a Yellow
Sun
Andre Brink (South Africa): 'n Droe Wit Seisoen (A Dry White
Season), Gerugte van Reen (Rumours of Rain)
K. Sello Duiker (South Africa): Thirteen Cents, The Quiet Violence of
Dreams
Jos Eduardo Agualusa (Angola): Rainy Season, Creole,The Book of
Chameleons, My Father's Wives
Mohammed Naseehu Ali (Ghana): The Prophet of Zongo Street
Germano Almeida (Cape Verde): O dia das calas roladas, The Last Will
and Testament of Senhor da Silva Arajo

Elechi Amadi (Nigeria): The Concubine, The Great Ponds, Sunset in

Biafra

Karel Schoeman (South Africa): n Ander Land (Another Country), Na die

Geliefde Land (Promised Land)
Ayi Kwei Armah (Ghana): The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
Sefi Atta (Nigeria): Everything Good Will Come
Ayesha Harruna Attah (Ghana): Harmattan Rain
Athol Fugard (South Africa): Tsotsi
Mariama B (Senegal): Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter)
Mongo Beti (Cameroon): The Poor Christ of Bomba
J.M. Coetzee (South Africa): Disgrace, Life & Times of Michael K
Mia Couto (Mozambique): Terra Sonmbula (A Sleepwalking Land)
Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe): Nervous Conditions
Mohammed Dib (Algeria): "La grande maison"
Assia Djebar (Algeria): Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde
Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria): The Bride Price, The Joys of Motherhood
Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa (Nigeria): Ogboju od ninu igbo
irunmal (The Forest of a Thousand Demons)
Nuruddin Farah (Somalia): From a Crooked Rib, Maps,Sweet and Sour
Milk
Nadine Gordimer (South Africa): Burger's People, The
Conservationist, July's People
Alex La Guma (South Africa): In the Fog of the Seasons' End, The Stone
Country, Time of the Butcherbird, A Walk in the Night
Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa): Triomf (Triumph)
Bessie Head (Botswana): When Rain Clouds Gather
Moses Isegawa (Uganda) Abyssinian Chronicles
E. K. M. Dido (South Africa): 'n Stringetjie Blou Krale (A String of Blue
Beads), Die Storie van Monica Peters (The Story of Monica Peters)
Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco): The Sacred Night, The Sand Child, This
Blinding Absence of Light
Cheikh Hamidou Kane (Senegal): L'Aventure Ambigu
Yasmina Khadra (Algeria): The Swallows of Kabul
Camara Laye (Guinea): The Radiance of the King
Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt): The Beginning and the End,Cairo
Trilogy, Children of Gebelawi, Midaq Alley
Charles Mangua (Kenya): A Tail in the Mouth

Sarah Ladipo Manyika (Nigeria): In Dependence

Dambudzo Marechera (Zimbabwe): The House of Hunger
Dalene Matthee (South Africa): Kringe in 'n bos (Circles in a Forest)
Thomas Mofolo (South Africa/Lesotho): Chaka
Meja Mwangi (Kenya): Carcase for Hounds, Going Down River Road, Kill
Me Quick
Lewis Nkosi (South Africa): Mandela's Ego, Mating Birds,Underground
People
Nnedi Okorafor (Nigeria): Zahrah the Windseeker
Ben Okri (Nigeria): The Famished Road
Yambo Ouologuem (Mali): Le Devoir de Violence
Olive Schreiner (South Africa): The Story of an African Farm
Alan Paton (South Africa): Cry, The Beloved Country
Pepetela (Angola) : Muana Pu, Mayombe, A Gloriosa Famlia
Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt) : Woman at Point Zero
Tayeb Salih (Sudan): "Season of Migration to the North"
Zakes Mda (South Africa): Ways of Dying, The Heart of Redness
Benjamin Sehene (Rwanda): Le Feu sous la Soutane(Fire under the
Cassock)
Ousmane Sembne (Senegal): Xala, The Black Docker(Le Docker
Noir), God's Bits of Wood (Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu), The Last of the
Empire (Le dernier de l'Empire), Tribal Scars (Voltaque)
Wole Soyinka (Nigeria): The Interpreters, Seasons of Anomy,
Ngg wa Thiong'o (Kenya): A Grain of Wheat, Matigari,Petals of
Blood, Weep Not, Child, Wizard of the Crow
Sol Plaatjie (South Africa): Mhudi
Yvonne Vera (Zimbabwe): Butterfly Burning
Chris Barnard (South Africa): Bundu, Mahala
Jos Luandino Vieira (Angola): Luuanda
Birhanu Zerihun (Ethiopia): Ye'imba debdabbwoch"Yearful Letters"
Rayda Jacobs (South Africa): The Slave Book, Eyes of the
Sky, Confessions of a Gambler
Joseph Jeffrey Walters (Liberia): Guanya Pau, A Story of An African
Princess, 1891
Bai Tamia Moore (Liberia): Murder in the Cassava Patch
Wilton K. Sankawolo (Liberia) Birds Are Singing

Notable African poets

Antjie Krog (South Africa)

Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
Georges Andriamanantena (Rado)
(Madagascar)
Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana)
Jared Angira (Kenya)
Kofi Anyidoho (Ghana)
Kofi Awoonor (Ghana)
Sahlesillasse
Birhanemariam(Ethiopia)
Dennis Brutus (South Africa)
Glynn Burridge (Seychelles)
Abena Busia (Ghana)
John Pepper Clark (Nigeria)
Jos Craveirinha (Mozambique)
Viriato Clemente da Cruz (Angola)
Tsegaye Gebremedhin (Ethiopia)
Abbe Gubenga (Ethiopia)
Don Mattera (South Africa)
Jonathan Kariara (Kenya)
Joseph Kariuki (Kenya)
Susan Kiguli (Uganda)
Ahmadou Kourouma (Ivory Coast)
Togara Muzanenhamo (Zimbabwe)
Arthur Nortje (South Africa)
Gabriel Okara (Nigeria)
Ingrid Jonker (South Africa)
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley (Liberia)
K. Moses Nagbe (Liberia)

Bai Tamia Moore(Liberia)

Prof. Jack Mapanje (Malawi)
Nii Parkes (Ghana)
Christopher Okigbo (Nigeria)
Ben Okri (Nigeria)
Okot P'Bitek (Uganda)
Lenrie Peters (Gambia)
Jean-Joseph
Rabearivelo(Madagascar)
Jacques
Rabemananjara(Madagascar)
Elie Rajaonarison (Madagascar)
Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa)
Ny Avana
Ramanantoanina(Madagascar)
Pierre Randrianarisoa(Madagascar)
Jean Verdi Salomon Razakandraina
(Dox) (Madagascar)
David Rubadiri (Malawi, Uganda)
Lopold Sdar Senghor (Senegal)
Vronique Tadjo (Ivory Coast)
Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)
Hadraawi (Somalia)
Dagnachew Werku (Ethiopia)
Bewketu Seyoum (Ethiopia)
Adam Small (South Africa)
Getinet Eniyew ( Ethiopia)
Debede Seyfu ( Ethiopia)
Eugene Marais (South Africa)
Armnio Vieira (Cape Verde)

WORLD
LITERATURE
(AFRICA)

Submitted by:
Group 2
Manalang, Ruwie
Duenas, Angelo
Evangelista, Alvin
Gadiane, Christian
Nalang, Feliza J
Sallegue, Sarah Rose

BSBA MM 4-5D