African literature
Encyclopedia
African literature refers to literature
of and from Africa
. As George Joseph notes on the first page of his chapter on African literature in Understanding Contemporary Africa, while the European perception of literature generally refers to written letters, the African concept includes oral literature
.
As George Joseph continues, while European views of literature often stressed a separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:
s", tell their stories with music. Also recited, often sung, are: love songs, work songs, children's songs, along with epigrams, proverbs and riddles.
African literature are numerous. Oral literature of west Africa includes the Epic of Sundiata
composed in medieval Mali, The older Epic of Dinga from the old Ghana Empire. In Ethiopia, originally written in Ge'ez script 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
; Ijàpá, 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). 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 others. 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 Fez and Cairo, with copious amounts of literature to supplement them.
'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
, Ngugi wa Thiong'o
of Kenya
wrote the first East African drama, The Black Hermit, a cautionary tale about "tribalism
" (racism
between African tribes).
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) négritude
. One of the leaders of the négritude movement, the poet and eventual President of Senegal
, Léopold Sédar Senghor
, published the first anthology of French-language poetry written by Africans in 1948
, Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French Language), featuring a preface by the French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre
.
Nor was the African literary clerisy of this time relatively divorced from the issues that it tackled. 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's Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967
between 1969 and 1970, and subsequently released without ever having stood trial; in London
in 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
died by the gallows of the Nigerian junta.
, French
, and Portuguese
) and in traditional African languages.
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. Algerian-born Albert Camus
had been awarded the 1957 prize.
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
of and from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. As George Joseph notes on the first page of his chapter on African literature in Understanding Contemporary Africa, while the European perception of literature generally refers to written letters, the African concept includes oral literature
Oral literature
Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do...
.
As George Joseph continues, while 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 "griotGriot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
s", tell their stories with music. Also recited, often sung, are: love songs, work songs, children's songs, along with epigrams, proverbs and riddles.
Precolonial literature
Examples of pre-colonialPrecolonialism
Precolonialism is a subdiscourse of colonialism explored by postcolonial theorists. Helena Norberg-Hodge has stated that, in order to do development studies, one has to first understand precolonialism. The concept of precolonialism has also been applied to literary studies with respect to such...
African literature are numerous. Oral literature of west Africa includes the Epic of Sundiata
Epic of Sundiata
The Sundiata Keita or Epic of Sundiata is an epic poem of the Malinke people and tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire...
composed in medieval Mali, The older Epic of Dinga from the old Ghana Empire. In Ethiopia, originally written in Ge'ez script 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
Anansi
Anansi the trickster is a spider, and is one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy; and in the Southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man...
, a spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
in the folklore of the Ashanti people of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
; Ijàpá, a tortoise
Tortoise
Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles . Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise...
in Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
folklore of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
; and Sungura, a hare
Hare
Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...
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
Fula language
The Fula or Fulani language is a language of West Africa. It is spoken as a first language by the and related groups from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan...
and Songhai). Many were written at the famous University of Timbuktu
University of Timbuktu
The University of Timbuktu was a medieval University in Mali, West Africa which comprised three schools; namely the Masajid of Djinguereber, the Masajid of Sidi Yahya, and the Masajid of Sankore. During its zenith, the university at Timbuktu had an average attendance of around 25,000 students...
. The material covers a wide array of topics, including Astronomy, Poetry, Law, History, Faith, Politics, and Philosophy among others. 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
Utendi wa Tambuka
Utend̠i wa Tambuka or Utenzi wa Tambuka , also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali , is an epic poem in the Swahili language dated 1728...
or "The Story of Tambuka".
In Islamic times, North Africans such as ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
attained great distinction within Arabic literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
. Medieval north Africa boasted Universities such as those of Fez 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 EquianoOlaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807...
's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano.-Plot introduction:...
(1789
1789 in literature
-Events:* Friedrich Schiller is appointed professor of history and philosophy at Jena.* The Children's Magazine, the first American periodical for children, is published in Hartford, Connecticut...
).
In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues. In 1911
1911 in literature
The year 1911 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*George Moore publishes the first of his three-volume Hail and Farewell .*Gallimard publishing house founded in Paris by Gaston Gallimard...
, Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford
J. E. Casely Hayford
Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford or Ekra-Agiman was a Fante journalist, author, lawyer, educator, and politician who supported pan-African nationalism...
(also known as Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast (now Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) 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
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
began to emerge. Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo
Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo
Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo is one of the major founding figures of South African literature and perhaps the first prolific African creative writer in English. His elder brother was the famous artist R.R.R. Dhlomo, and the great Zulu composer, R.T. Caluza, is a near relative...
of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
published the first English-language African play , The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongqawuse the Liberator in 1935
1935 in literature
The year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* June 15 - W. H. Auden enters a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.* July 30 - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain....
. In 1962
1962 in literature
The year 1962 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 7 - In an article in the New York Times Book Review, Gore Vidal calls Evelyn Waugh "our time's first satirist."...
, Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author, formerly working in English and now working in Gĩkũyũ. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature...
of Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
wrote the first East African drama, The Black Hermit, a cautionary tale about "tribalism
Tribalism
The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but, due to the small size of tribes, it is always a relatively simple role structure, with few significant social distinctions between individuals....
" (racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
between African tribes).
African literature in the late colonial period (between the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and independence) increasingly showed themes of liberation
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
, independence, and (among Africans in French-controlled territories) négritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
. One of the leaders of the négritude movement, the poet and eventual President of Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal . Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese...
, published the first anthology of French-language poetry written by Africans in 1948
1948 in literature
The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The Pulitzer Prize for the Novel is renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction....
, Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French Language), featuring a preface by the French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
.
Nor was the African literary clerisy of this time relatively divorced from the issues that it tackled. Many, indeed, suffered deeply and directly: censured for casting aside his artistic responsibilities in order to participate actively in warfare, Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was a Nigerian poet, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as the outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth century.-Early life:Okigbo was born on August...
was killed in battle for Biafra
Biafra
Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...
against the Nigerian movement of the 1960s' civil war; Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote is a South African poet and writer. He was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg and went to school in Alexandra, Lesotho and Soweto. He first became involved in Black Consciousness when he was finishing high school in Soweto...
was detained under South Africa's Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967
Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967
The Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 was a law of the South African Apartheid regime until all except section 7 was repealed under the Internal Security and Intimidation Amendment Act 138 of 1991.-Detention without trial:...
between 1969 and 1970, and subsequently released without ever having stood trial; in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1970, his countryman Arthur Norje committed suicide; Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
's Jack Mapanje
Jack Mapanje
Jack Mapanje is a Malawian writer and poet. He was the former head of English at the University of Malawi, and is currently a senior lecturer in English at Newcastle University.-Works:* Of Chameleons and Gods, 1981...
was incarcerated with neither charge nor trial because of an off-hand remark at a university pub; and, in 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa was a Nigerian author, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize...
died by the gallows of 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 20th century. African writers in this period wrote both in Western languages (notably EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
) and in traditional African languages.
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
1986 in literature
The year 1986 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Michael Grade. Controller of BBC One, axes plans to televise Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.-New books:*Kingsley Amis - The Old Devils...
, Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
became the first post-independence African writer to win the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in literature. Algerian-born Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
had been awarded the 1957 prize.
Noma Award
The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, begun in 1980, is presented for the outstanding work of the year in African literatures.Major novels from African writers
- Peter AbrahamsPeter AbrahamsPeter Abrahams is a South African novelist.His father was from Ethiopia and his mother was classified by South Africa as a mixed race person, a "Kleurling" or Coloured. He was born in Vrededorp, nearby Johannesburg, but left South Africa in 1939...
(South Africa): Mine Boy, This Island Now, A Wreath for Udom - Chinua AchebeChinua AchebeAlbert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): Arrow of GodArrow of GodArrow of God is a 1964 novel by Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's third novel following Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. These three books are sometimes called The African Trilogy...
, No Longer At EaseNo Longer at EaseNo Longer at Ease is a 1960 novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is the story of an Igbo man, Obi Okonkwo, who leaves his village for a British education and a job in the Nigerian colonial civil service, but who struggles to adapt to a Western lifestyle and ends up taking a bribe...
, Things Fall ApartThings Fall ApartThings Fall Apartis a 1958 English language novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African... - Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieChimamanda Ngozi AdichieChimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer.Her family is of Igbo descent. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.-Early life and education:...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): Half of a Yellow SunHalf of a Yellow SunHalf of a Yellow Sun is a novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Published in 2006 by Knopf/Anchor, it tells the story of two sisters, Olanna and Kainene, during the Biafran War.-Plot:... - Mohammed Naseehu AliMohammed Naseehu AliMohammed Naseehu Ali is an author, originally from Ghana. He is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Bennington College. His first book, a collection of short stories titled The Prophet of Zongo Street, was published in 2006 and received positive reviews...
(Ghana): The Prophet of Zongo Street - Elechi AmadiElechi AmadiElechi Amadi is a Nigerian author who has written five African novels - The Concubine, The Great Ponds, The Slave , Isiburu and Estrangement...
(Nigeria): The ConcubineThe Concubine (novel)The Concubine is the debut novel by Nigerian writer Elechi Amadi originally published in 1966. Set in a remote village in Eastern Nigeria, an area yet to be affected by European values and where society is orderly and predictable, the story concerns a woman 'of great beauty and dignity' who...
, The Great Ponds, Sunset in Biafra - Ayi Kwei ArmahAyi Kwei Armah-Early life and education:Born to Fante-speaking parents, and descending on his father's side from a royal family in the Ga nation, Armah was born in the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana, Having attended Achimota School, he left Ghana in 1959 to attend Groton School in Groton, MA. After...
(GhanaGhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
): The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet BornThe Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet BornThe Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is a novel by Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah. It was published in 1968. It tells the story of a nameless man who struggles to reconcile himself with the reality of post-independence Ghana.-Plot:... - Sefi AttaSefi AttaSefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1964, to a family of five children. Her father Abdul-Aziz Atta was the Secretary to Federal Government and Head of the Civil Service until his death in 1972, and she was raised by her mother Iyabo Atta....
(Nigeria): Everything Good Will Come - Ayesha Harruna Attah (Ghana): Harmattan Rain
- Mariama BâMariama BaMariama Bâ was a Senegalese author and feminist, who wrote in French. Born in Dakar, she was raised a Muslim, but at an early age came to criticise what she perceived as inequalities between the sexes resulting from [African] traditions...
(Senegal): Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter) - Mongo BetiMongo BetiAlexandre Biyidi Awala , known as Mongo Beti, was a Cameroonian writer.- Life :Though he lived in exile for many decades, Beti's life reveals an unflagging commitment to improvement of his home country...
(Cameroon): The Poor Christ of Bomba - Nana Brew-Hammond (Ghana): Powder Necklace
- J.M. Coetzee (South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
): Disgrace - Mia CoutoMia CoutoAntónio Emílio Leite Couto , better known as Mia Couto, is a world-renowned Mozambican writer.-Early years:Couto was born in the city of Beira, Mozambique’s second largest city, where he was also raised and schooled. He is the son of Portuguese emigrants who moved to the former Portuguese colony in...
(MozambiqueMozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
): Terra Sonâmbula (A Sleepwalking Land) - Tsitsi DangarembgaTsitsi DangarembgaTsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean author and filmmaker.- Biography :Dangarembga was born in Mutoko, Zimbabwe , in 1959 but spent part of her childhood in England. She began her education there, but concluded her A-levels in a missionary school back home, in the town of Mutare...
(ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
): Nervous ConditionsNervous ConditionsNervous Conditions is a novel by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga. Semi-autobiographical, it is set in the post-colonial Rhodesia of the 1960s... - Assia DjebarAssia DjebarAssia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen , an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's pre-eminent and most influential writers...
(AlgeriaAlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
): Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde - Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa (NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): Ogboju odẹ ninu igbo irunmalẹOgboju Ode ninu Igbo IrunmaleOgboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale is a 1938 novel by D.O. Fagunwa. It was the first full-length novel in Yoruba, and was one of the first novels to be written in any African language. It contains the picaresque tales of a Yoruba hunter encountering folklore elements, such as magic, monsters, spirits,...
(The Forest of a Thousand Demons) - Nuruddin FarahNuruddin FarahNuruddin Farah is a prominent Somali novelist.-Early years:Born in Baidoa, Somalia, Farah is the son of a merchant father and a poet mother. As a child, he attended school at Kallafo in the Ogaden, and studied English, Arabic, and Amharic. In 1963, three years after Somalia's independence, Farah...
(SomaliaSomaliaSomalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
): From a Crooked Rib, Maps, Sweet and Sour Milk - Arthur Gakwandi (Uganda): Kosiya Kifefe
- Nadine GordimerNadine GordimerNadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
(South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
): The ConservationistThe ConservationistThe Conservationist is a 1974 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction.-Plot summary:... - Alex La GumaAlex La GumaAlex La Guma was a South African novelist, leader of the South African Coloured People’s Organisation and a defendant in the Treason Trial, whose works helped characterise the movement against the apartheid era in South Africa...
(South Africa): In The Fog of The season's End, The Stone Country, Time of the Butcherbird, A Walk in the Night - Bessie HeadBessie HeadBessie Emery Head is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer.-Biography:Bessie Emery Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a wealthy white South African woman and a black servant when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa...
(BotswanaBotswanaBotswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
): When Rain Clouds Gather - Moses IsegawaMoses IsegawaMoses Isegawa, also known as Sey Wava , is a Ugandan author. He has written novels set against the political turmoil of Uganda, which he left in 1990 for the Netherlands. His debut novel Abyssinian Chronicles, was first published in Amsterdam in 1998, selling more than 100,000 copies and gaining...
(Uganda) Abyssinian Chronicles - Cheikh Hamidou KaneCheikh Hamidou KaneCheikh Hamidou Kane is a Senegalese writer best known for his prize winning novel L'aventure ambiguë , about the interactions of western and African cultures. Its hero is a Fulani boy who goes to study in France...
(Senegal): L'Aventure Ambiguë - Yasmina KhadraYasmina KhadraYasmina Khadra is the pen name of the Algerian author Mohammed Moulessehoul .-Biography:Moulessehoul, an officer in the Algerian army, adopted a woman's pseudonym to avoid military censorship...
(AlgeriaAlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
): The Swallows of Kabul - Camara LayeCamara LayeCamara Laye was an African writer from Guinea. During his time at college he wrote The African Child , a novel based loosely on his own childhood. He would later become a writer of many essays and was a foe of the government of Guinea...
(GuineaGuineaGuinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
): The Radiance of the King - Naguib MahfouzNaguib MahfouzNaguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
(EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
): The Beginning and the EndThe Beginning and the EndThe Beginning and the End may refer to:*Alpha and Omega , an appellation of God in the book of Revelation*The Beginning and the End , by Bizzy Bone*"The Beginning and the End", a song by Isis from the album Oceanic...
, Cairo TrilogyCairo TrilogyThe Cairo Trilogy or ) is a trilogy of novels written by the Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz.The three novels are, in order:* Palace Walk...
, Children of GebelawiChildren of GebelawiChildren of Gabalawi, is a novel by the Egyptian writer and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. It is also known by its Egyptian dialectal transliteration, Awlad Haretna, formal Arabic transliteration, Awlaadu Haaratena and by the alternative translated transliteral Arabic title of "Children of Our...
, Midaq Alley - Charles ManguaCharles ManguaCharles Mangua is a Kenyan fiction writer. His novels explore, among other issues, the "hardship and urban poverty" experienced by ordinary people in places such as Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.Sobania, N. 2003, , Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, pp. 74-75.Mangua's style is irreverent...
(KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
): A Tail in the Mouth - Sarah Ladipo ManyikaSarah Ladipo ManyikaSarah Ladipo Manyika is an Anglo-Nigerian writer. She was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, and England. Her writing includes published essays, academic papers, book reviews and short stories. Sarah's first novel, In Dependence, was published by Legend Press in 2008...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): In Dependence - Dambudzo MarecheraDambudzo MarecheraDambudzo Marechera was a Zimbabwean novelist and poet.-Early life:...
(ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
): The House of HungerThe House of HungerThe House of Hunger is a short story collection by the late Dambudzo Marechera. Subtitled Short Stories, this work is actually a collection of one novella of 80-odd pages and nine sketches / stories...
' - Dalene MattheeDalene MattheeDalene Matthee was a South African author who wrote mainly in Afrikaans, although her books were translated into fourteen other languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Icelandic....
(South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
): Kringe in 'n bos (Circles in a forest) - Thomas MofoloThomas MofoloThomas Mokopu Mofolo is considered to be the greatest Basotho author. He wrote mostly in the Sesotho language, but his most popular book, Chaka, has been translated into English and other languages....
(South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
/LesothoLesothoLesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
): ChakaChaka (novel)Chaka is the most famous novel by the writer Thomas Mofolo of Lesotho. Written in Sotho, it is a mythic retelling of the story of the rise and fall of the Zulu emperor-king Shaka. It was named one of the twelve best works of African literature of the 20th century by a panel organized by Ali Mazrui.... - Meja MwangiMeja MwangiMeja Mwangi is one of Kenya's leading novelists. Mwangi has worked in the film industry, including screenwriting, assistant directing, casting and location management....
(Kenya): Carcase for HoundsCarcase for HoundsCarcase for Hounds is a novel by Kenyan writer Meja Mwangi first published in 1974. The novel concerns the Mau Mau liberation struggle during the latter days of British colonial rule and attempts, by the actions of the main protagonists, to show how Mau Mau was organized and why it took so long for...
, Going Down river Road, Kill me Quick - Lewis NkosiLewis NkosiLewis Nkosi was a South African writer and essayist. He was a multifaceted personality, and attempted every literary genre, literary criticism, poetry, drama, and novels.-Later life:...
(South Africa):Mandela's Ego, Mating Birds, Underground People - Nnedi Okorafor (NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): Zahrah the WindseekerZahrah the WindseekerZahrah the Windseeker , written by Nnedi Okorafor, is one of a very small handful of young adult fantasy novels that incorporate the myths and folklore and culture of West Africa. It is the winner of the 2008 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa... - Ben OkriBen OkriBen Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri has become the leading figure of his generation of Nigerian writers who have largely abandoned the social and historical themes of Chinua Achebe, and brought together modernist narrative strategies and Nigerian oral and literary...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): The Famished RoadThe Famished RoadThe Famished Road is the Booker Prize-winning novel written by Nigerian author Ben Okri. The novel, published in 1991, follows Azaro, an abiku or spirit child, living in an unnamed most likely Nigerian city. The novel employs a unique narrative style incorporating the spirit world with the "real"... - Yambo OuologuemYambo OuologuemYambo Ouologuem is a Malian writer. His first novel, Le Devoir de Violence , won the Prix Renaudot. He later published Lettre à la France nègre , and Les mille et une bibles du sexe under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph...
(MaliMaliMali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
): Le Devoir de Violence - Alan PatonAlan PatonAlan Stewart Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist.-Family:Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province , the son of a minor civil servant. After attending Maritzburg College, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Natal in his hometown, followed...
(South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
): Cry, The Beloved CountryCry, The Beloved CountryCry, the Beloved Country is a novel by South African author Alan Paton. It was first published in New York City in 1948 by Charles Scribner's Sons and in London by Jonathan Cape; noted American publisher Bennett Cerf remarked at that year's meeting of the American Booksellers Association that there... - Benjamin SeheneBenjamin SeheneBenjamin Sehene is a Rwandan author whose work primarily focuses on questions of identity and the events surrounding the Rwandan genocide. He has spent much of life in Canada and France....
(RwandaRwandaRwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
): Le Feu sous la Soutane (Fire under the Cassock) - Ousmane SembèneOusmane SembèneOusmane Sembène , often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer...
(SenegalSenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
): XalaXalaXala is a 1975 Senegalese film directed by Ousmane Sembène. It is an adaptation of Sembène's own 1973 novel of the same name. The film depicts El Hadji, a politician in Senegal, who is cursed with crippling erectile dysfunction upon the day of his marriage to his third wife...
, The Black Docker(Le Docker Noir), God's Bits of WoodGod's Bits of WoodGod's Bits of Wood is a 1960 novel by the Senegalese author Ousmane Sembène that concerns a railroad strike in colonial Senegal of the 1940s. It was written in French under the title Les bouts de bois de Dieu. The book deals with several ways that the Senegalese and Malians responded to colonialism...
(Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu), The last of the Empire(Le dernier de l'Empire), Tribal scarsTribal ScarsTribal Scars is a collection of short stories by Senegalese author Ousmane Sembène. It was originally published in French as Voltaique.-Contents:* "The False Prophet"* "The Bilal's Fourth Wife"* "In the Face of History"* "Love in Sandy Lane"...
(Voltaïque) - Wole SoyinkaWole SoyinkaAkinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
(Nigeria): The Intepreters, Seasons of Anomy, - Ngugi wa Thiong'oNgugi wa Thiong'oNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan author, formerly working in English and now working in Gĩkũyũ. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature...
(Kenya): A Grain of WheatA Grain of WheatA Grain of Wheat is a novel by Kenyan novelist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The novel weaves several stories together during the state of emergency in Kenya's struggle for independence , focusing on the quiet Mugo, whose life is ruled by a dark secret. The plot revolves around his home village's preparations...
, Magitari, Petals of BloodPetals of BloodPetals of Blood is a novel written by Ngugi wa Thiong'o first published in 1977. Set in Kenya just after independece, the story follows four of the novel's major characters - Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega - whose lives are all intertwined due to the Mau Mau rebellion. In order to escape city...
, Weep Not, ChildWeep Not, ChildWeep Not, Child is Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's first novel, published in 1964 under the name James Ngugi. It was the first English novel to be published by an East African. Thiong'o's works deal with the relationship between Africans and the British colonists in Africa, and are heavily...
, Wizard of the CrowWizard of the CrowWizard of the Crow is a novel written by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, his first novel in more than twenty years. The story is set in the imaginary Free Republic of Abruria, autocratically governed by one man, known only as the Ruler... - Monenembo Tierno (GuineaGuineaGuinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
): King of Kahel - Gracy Ukala (NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
): Dizzy Angel - Yvonne VeraYvonne VeraYvonne Vera was an award-winning author from Zimbabwe. Her novels are known for their poetic prose, difficult subject-matter, and their strong women characters, and are firmly rooted in Zimbabwe's difficult past...
(ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
): Butterfly Burning (ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
) - Birhanu ZerihunBirhanu zerihunBirhanu Zerihun was an Ethiopian writer noted for his clear and crisp writing style, which contrasted against the more complex writing style popular in his time. While he started writing literature in school, Zerihun never wrote professionally until he became a journalist in 1959/1960...
(EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
): Ye'imba debdabbéwoch "Yearful Letters"
Major African poets
- Chinua AchebeChinua AchebeAlbert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) - Ama Ata AidooAma Ata AidooProfessor Ama Ata Aidoo, née Christina Ama Aidoo is a Ghanaian author and playwright.-Life:She grew up in a Fante royal household, the daughter of Nana Yaw Fama, chief of Abeadzi Kyiakor, and Maame Abasema. She was sent by her father to the Wesley Girls' High School in Cape Coast from 1961 to 1964...
(GhanaGhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) - Jared Angira (KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
) - Kofi AnyidohoKofi AnyidohoKofi Anyidoho is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists. He was educated in Ghana and the U.S., gaining his Ph.D. at the University of Texas...
(GhanaGhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) - Kofi AwoonorKofi AwoonorKofi Awoonor is a Ghanaian poet and author, whose work combines the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization....
(GhanaGhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) - Sahlesillasse Birhanemariam (EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
) - Dennis BrutusDennis BrutusDennis Vincent Brutus was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have apartheid South Africa banned from the Olympic Games.-Life and work:...
(South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) - Glynn Burridge (SeychellesSeychellesSeychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
) - Abena Busia (GhanaGhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) - John Pepper ClarkJohn Pepper ClarkJohn Pepper Clark-Bekederemo is a Nigerian poet and playwright who publishes under the name J.P. Clark.-Life:Born to Ijaw parents, Clark received his early education at the Native Administration School and the prestigious Government College in Ughelli, and his BA degree in English at the...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) - Tsegaye Gebremedhin (EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
) - Abbe Gubenga (EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
) - Jonathan KariaraJonathan KariaraJonathan Kariara was a Kenyan poet who wrote works including "A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree". He was also for several years the manager of Oxford University Press's branch office in Nairobi. Over the same period he ran regular workshops for writers in order to encourage and stimulate local...
(KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
) - Joseph Kariuki (KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
) - Susan Kiguli (UgandaUgandaUganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
) - Ahmadou KouroumaAhmadou KouroumaAhmadou Kourouma was an Ivorian novelist.-Life:The eldest son of a distinguished Malinké family, Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Côte d'Ivoire. Raised by his uncle, he initially pursued studies in Bamako, Mali...
(Ivory Coast) - Arthur NortjeArthur NortjeArthur Nortje was a South African poet.He was born in Oudtshoorn, and went to school in Port Elizabeth, being taught by the acclaimed writer Dennis Brutus...
(South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) - Gabriel OkaraGabriel OkaraGabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara is a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bomoundi in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. In 1979, he was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.-Writing:His most famous poem is "Piano and Drums"...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) - Christopher OkigboChristopher OkigboChristopher Ifekandu Okigbo was a Nigerian poet, who died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as the outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth century.-Early life:Okigbo was born on August...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) - Ben OkriBen OkriBen Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri has become the leading figure of his generation of Nigerian writers who have largely abandoned the social and historical themes of Chinua Achebe, and brought together modernist narrative strategies and Nigerian oral and literary...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) - Okot P'BitekOkot p'BitekOkot p'Bitek was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for Song of Lawino, a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised...
(UgandaUgandaUganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
) - Lenrie PetersLenrie PetersLenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters ) was a Gambian surgeon, novelist, and poet.-Background:Peters was born in Bathurst to Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters and Kezia Rosemary. Lenrie Sr. was a Sierra Leone Creole of West Indian or black American origin. Kezia Rosemary was a Gambian Creole of Sierra Leonean...
(Gambia) - David RubadiriDavid RubadiriJames David Rubadiri is a Malawian diplomat, academic and poet. At independence in 1964, Rubadiri was appointed Malawi's first ambassador to the United States and the United Nations...
(MalawiMalawiThe Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, UgandaUgandaUganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
) - Léopold Sédar SenghorLéopold Sédar SenghorLéopold Sédar Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal . Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese...
(SenegalSenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
) - Wole SoyinkaWole SoyinkaAkinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
(NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
) - Dagnachew Werku(EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
)
Secondary literature
- Encyclopedia of African Literature, ed Simon Gikandi, London: Routledge, 2003.
- The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, eds Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi, 2 vols, Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Table of contents
- Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present, ed. Margaret Busby (Random House, 1992).
- General History of AfricaGeneral History of AfricaThe ' is a two-phase project undertaken by UNESCO from 1964 to the present. The 1964 General Conference of UNESCO, during its 13th Session, instructed the Organization to undertake this initiative after the newly independent African Member States expressed a strong desire to reclaim their cultural...
, vol. VIII, ed. Ali A. MazruiAli MazruiAli Al'amin Mazrui is an academic and political writer on African and Islamic studies and North-South relations. He is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.-Education:Mazrui...
, UNESCO, 1993, ch. 19, "The development of modern literature since 1935," Ali A. Mazrui et al. - Understanding Contemporary Africa, eds April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon, Lynne Rienner, London, 1996, ch. 12, "African Literature", George Joseph.
- Dagnachew Werku, The Thirteenth Sun (1968).
- Sahlesillasse Berhanemariam, The Warrior King (1974).
See also
- List of African writers
- African cinemaAfrican cinemaThe term African cinema refers to the film production in Africa, following formal independence. Some of the countries in North Africa developed a national film industry much earlier and are related to West Asian cinema...
- Nigerian literatureNigerian literatureNigeria has produced many prolific writers. Many have won accolades for their writing abilities, including Daniel O. Fagunwa, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Buchi Emecheta, Elechi Amadi Ben Okri...