AFRICAN LITERATURE

Oral and written literature of the continent of Africa, not necessarily in the languages indigenous to Africa. Most of African written literature is in European languages (including English, French, and Portuguese), owing to European colonization of the continent from the 16th century to the mid-20th century. However, works in African languages have increasingly received recognition since the late 20th century. This article deals mainly with African literature south of the Sahara; for more information on literatures of North Africa see Arabic Literature.

Oral Literature.

Africa has a rich and varied oral literature, which has grown since the beginnings of African societies and continues to flourish today. The written literature of Africa has always shown a debt to the oral literature, which takes a variety of forms. Proverbs and riddles convey the accepted social codes of conduct, while myths and legends teach a belief in the supernatural as well as explain the origins and development of states, clans, and other important social organizations. Legends and myths are usually regarded as grounded in fact; in many instances, they have proved to be extremely accurate accounts of the history of a people. Folktales, on the other hand, are recognized as fiction. The most famous African folktales feature the tortoise, hare, and spider. Similar folktales are widespread on the continent and have been carried from Africa to the Caribbean, Latin America, and the U.S.

In the 20th century, largely through the efforts of anthropologists and historians, a good portion of the oral literature of certain areas, such as southern Africa, the regions formerly known as Ruanda and Buganda, and parts of the Congo region, have been recorded. Proverbs from East Africa have been recorded by the American linguist Albert Scheven (1913–2000) and published as Swahili Proverbs in 1981.

Early Written Literature.

The earliest written African literature is North African. North African writings have been more closely tied to cultures of Europe and the Middle East than to those of the rest of Africa. Pre-modern literature of Africa north of the Sahara, such as the works of the early Christian theologian St. Augustine or of the 14th-century Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun, is often considered part of Latin or Arabic literature.

Much of the early written literature of West Africa was influenced by Islamic writings, as transmitted by North Africans, in both form and content. The earliest known West African works were 16th-century writings by such Sudanese Islamic scholars as Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi (1596–c. 1655), the author of Tarikh as-Sudan (History of the Sudan), and Mahmud Kati (1468?–1570?), who wrote Tarikh al-Fettach. These works set down the oral traditions of the western Sudanic empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in the style of Arabic histories.

The earliest West African written poetry tended to be religious, and the best of it reflected a familiarity with pre-Islamic Arabic poetry as well as North African religious writing. Perhaps the most famous West African religious poet was Abdullah ibn Muhammed Fudi (1767–1828), emir of Gwandu and brother of the Muslim reformer Shedu Uthman (c. 1754–1817).

The written literature of East Africa also shows the influence of Arabic models. An anonymous history of the city-state of Kilwa Kisiwani, written about 1520 in Arabic, is the earliest known example. Written Swahili versions of the histories of a number of city-states, as well as “message” poems, usually written with a moral or religious point of view, soon began to appear. The earliest known original Swahili work, the epic poem Utendi wa Tambuka (Story of Tambuka), is dated 1728.

Swahili poetry was largely derived from Arabic poetry. Swahili writers of epic verse borrowed from the romantic traditions surrounding the Prophet Muhammad and then freely elaborated on them to meet the tastes of their listeners and readers. By the 19th century, Swahili poetry had gone beyond Arabic themes and taken up such indigenous Bantu (see African Languages) forms as ritual songs.

The most famous Swahili poems date from the 19th and 20th centuries. The greatest religious poem, Utendi wa Inkishafi (Soul's Awakening), written by Sayyid Abdallah bin Nasir (c. 1720–1810), illustrates the vanity of earthly life through an account of the fall of the city-state of Pate. The oral tradition of Liyongo, a 13th-century contender for the throne of Shagga, is preserved in the epic poem Utendi wa Liyongo Fumo (Epic of Liyongo Fumo), first recorded in Arabic script around 1880 by Muhammad bin Abubakar (d. 1913) from Malindi (Kenya).

Although the Sudanic areas of West Africa and the coastal areas of East Africa had a rich written literature predating contact with Europeans, the literature of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa remained oral until the establishment of European mission and government schools.

Among the first Africans to write in English was Olaudah Equiano (c. 1750–97), who was kidnapped as a child from the Benin region of Nigeria and shipped to the U.S. as a slave. As a free man in Great Britain, he wrote an autobiography (1789) under the pseudonym of Gustavus Vassa.

20th-Century Literature.

Near the beginning of the 20th century, Africans began to publish original creative works in African and European languages.

South Africa.

In South Africa a number of skilled poets and novelists appeared. Samuel E. K. Mqhayi (1875–1945) wrote extensively in Xhosa and showed its strength as a medium for written literature. Novelists such as Thomas Mofolo (1877–1948) and Solomon T. Plaatje (1877–1932), provoked by the indignities suffered by black South Africans at the hands of white Africans, sought to portray black Africans as complex, moral human beings. Mofolo's third novel, Chaka the Zulu (1925; trans. 1931), is a fictional treatment of Shaka, a 19th-century Zulu warlord. Written in Mofolo's native Sotho, the book is considered a classic in that language. Plaatje's novel Mhudi, a historical romance about Shaka's lieutenant Mzilikazi (c. 1790–1868), was published in 1930. His style, which incorporates praise songs, is in the tradition of Bantu oral literature.

In the mid-20th century many black South African writers, because of government apartheid policies, left their homes and lived abroad, at least until the white minority government was abolished. Among those emigrants were Peter Abrahams and Es'kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele (1919– ). Tell Freedom (1954), an autobiography, is considered Abrahams's best work; in it he writes of the racial oppression he suffered as a child in Johannesburg. Mphahlele is a major critic of black African literature. In his work The African Image (1962), he discusses both black and white African literature; he deplores its obsession with race relations and calls for a broader and deeper treatment of characters from other points of view. Other noted writers include A. C. Jordan (1906–68), writing in Xhosa, and the Zulu poet R. R. R. Dhlomo (1901–71). Prose writers Alex La Guma (1925–85) and William “Bloke” Modisane (1923–86) and playwright, novelist, and critic Lewis Nkosi (1936– ) earned early recognition. Dennis Brutus (1924– ), is a prominent black South African poet, known also for his anti-apartheid activity. His most famous work, Sirens Knuckles Boots, published in 1962, depicts the effects of racial repression on everyday life, and his Still the Sirens (1993) is noted for its lyricism.

White South Africans have a long tradition of creative writing, both in Afrikaans and in English. Among early writers in English was Olive Schreiner (1855–1920), whose novel The Story of an African Farm (1883) was a pioneering exploration of relations between the races and between the sexes. Writers in Afrikaans have included poets such as D. J. Opperman (1914–85) and Breyten Breytenbach (1939– ), considered one of the finest writers in the language. Formerly a supporter of Afrikaner nationalism, Breytenbach wrote The Confessions of an Albino Terrorist (1985) in English and, in exile in Paris, renounced his native language. The Confessions is an unflinching exploration of the effects of his seven years in South African prisons on charges of terrorism.

The writer J. M. Coetzee grew up as bilingual in English and Afrikaans; his major works, in English, include two Booker Prize novels, and in 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Other prominent South African writers in English include the novelists Alan Paton and Doris Lessing, as well as the short-story writer and novelist Nadine Gordimer, also a Nobel laureate for literature (1991). South Africa's foremost playwright is Athol Fugard.; in plays such as The Blood Knot (1961), Boesman and Lena (1969), and Master Harold. . . & the Boys (1982), he openly defied government policies.

West Africa.

Poetry has been the dominant literary form among Africans writing in French. Léopold Sédar Senghor, the poet-president of Senegal, led the Négritude movement, which was extremely influential in shaping the thinking of French-speaking intellectuals. Négritude, which reached its height in the 1930s and '40s, was a protest against the French policy of assimilation and a reassertion of the positive values of African culture. Birago Diop (1906–89) and David Diop (1927–60), both poets, were also associated with the movement.

Only a few West African novelists produced works in French. These writers have, however, been among the most talented on the continent. Camara Laye (1928–80) of Guinea was remarkable for the psychological insights of his novels. His autobiographical novel The Dark Child (1953; trans. 1954) is considered a masterpiece. Cameroon has produced two novelists, Mongo Beti (pseudonym of Alexandre Biyidi Awala; 1932–2001) and Ferdinand Oyono (1929– ), who have written extremely powerful and searching satire.

In West Africa, the Bible's first translation in the Yoruba ethnic group's language, completed in the mid-1880s in a script developed by the Nigerian Anglican Bishop Ajayi Crowther (1807–91), appeared in 1900. Since the 1940s, however, an impressive body of West Africans writing in English has been created. Nigeria in particular has produced many writers, of whom Amos Tutuola (1920–97), who wrote in a Yoruba-influenced version of English, and Chinua Achebe are the most important. Tutuola became internationally known after publication of The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952). Written as legend and myth, it has been compared by English critics with the 17th-century allegory The Pilgrim's Progress by the English writer John Bunyan. Achebe examined Western civilization's threat to traditional values in his early novel Things Fall Apart (1958). A Man of the People (1966) is a political satire on corruption in an unnamed African country. The Nigerian poet-dramatist Wole Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in literature, writes in English but draws inspiration from Yoruba myths. He was an outspoken critic of Nigeria's military regime, and he has produced a considerable body of poetry; plays such as Death and the King's Horseman (1975); and the novel The Interpreters (1965), a satirical analysis of modern Nigeria and its ancient traditions. Ijaw (Nigerian) myths and social situations have been used in a provocative way by the Nigerian poet and playwright John Pepper Clark (1935– ). The Nigerian poet Gabriel Okara (1921– ) wrote The Voice, one of the few African novels to concentrate exclusively on African characters and values. Sierra Leone's best-known novelist is William Conton (1925–2003). His African (1960), about a young African who has been educated in England, points up cultural differences.

Ghana's Kofi Awoonor (1935– ) is considered one of Africa's most exciting poets; his works deal with the conflicts of life and the ominous presence of death. Ayi Kwei Armah (1939– ), a Ghanaian novelist, depicted the end of the regime of Ghana's president Kwame Nkrumah in the novel The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968).

East Africa.

Literature of East Africa in the 20th century included important autobiographical works, such as those of Kenyans Josiah Kariuki (1929–75), who wrote Mau Mau Detainee (1963), and R. Mugo Gatheru (1925– ), who wrote Child of Two Worlds (1964). A later figure, Kenyan, James Ngugi (1938– ), is the author of several short stories and novels; his works deal with the impact of Christianity on African life and are remarkable for their clarity and simplicity of writing. Jean Joseph Rabéarivelo (1901–37) of Madagascar wrote in French and is considered one of the greatest African poets. After modeling his earlier poems on French symbolist writings, Rabéarivelo turned to a brilliant use of the vernacular ballad form of Madagascar. Shaaban Robert (1909–62) of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) was East Africa's leading Swahili poet and essayist. His best-known work, Kusadikika (“To Be Believed,” 1951), examines political trends in Tanganyika. The work is an allegory patterned on Gulliver's Travels, an 18th-satire by Jonathan Swift. One of the most widely read works in East Africa is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as translated into Swahili in 1966 by Tanzania's then president, Julius Nyerere. Among outstanding later writers is the Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah (1945– ), well known for his trilogy Blood in the Sun (Maps, 1986; Gifts, 1992; and Secrets, 1998). J.T.Sa., JAMES T. SABIN, M.A., Ph.D. & W.E.W., WILLIAM E. WELMERS, Th.M., Ph.D.