African Literature

B1

d

Other Works

Discussions of African literature usually exclude essays and other nonfiction works, although some of these works constitute an important component of African writing. Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta’s Facing Mount Kenya (1938) combines anthropological, sociological, and mytho-historical information about the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest tribal group. Cape Verdean political leader Amílcar Cabral details his political vision in Return to the Source (1973). South Africa’s Bessie Head explores the making of modern Botswana and its character in Serowe: Village of the Rain Winds (1981). Soyinka’s Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981) is the first in a series of family memoirs.

Also noteworthy are autobiographies by women, especially those of South African women imprisoned during the apartheid period. Prominent among these are Ellen Kuzwayo’s Call Me Woman (1985), Caesarina Kona Makhoere’s No Child’s Play: In Prison Under Apartheid (1988), and Emma Mashinini’s Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life (1991).

B

2

Francophone African Literature

The French began colonizing parts of Africa in the mid-19th century. The areas they occupied covered most of West Africa—including what is now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal—as well as Madagascar. By the 1960s almost all the French territories had gained independence.

B2

a

Poetry

Francophone African poetry became known internationally with the publication of Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French Language, 1948) in Paris. The volume was edited by Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal. Senghor was one of a group of African and West Indian students in Paris who inaugurated a movement in the 1930s that was later dubbed négritude. The movement is characterized by its reversal of the colonialist portrayal of things African as evil, subhuman, or, at the least, inferior to all things European. Négritude proclaimed all things African superior to all things European. Even in color symbolism, négritude asserted that black is more beautiful than white, and soft, dark night is preferable to harsh daylight. For several decades this movement exercised a powerful influence over Francophone black literature.

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Among the best-known African négritude poets, along with Senghor, is his compatriot David Diop. Diop’s poetry is much more combative in tone than Senghor’s conciliatory verse, which tends to favor a mixture of European and African cultures that assimilates the best of each. The title of Diop’s anthology, Coups de pilon (1956; Hammer Blows, 1973), indicates the bitterness of his attitude toward colonialism. Another négritude writer of considerable importance is the Malagasy poet and playwright Jacques Rabémananjara, whose anthologies include Antsa (1956) and Antidote (1961).

After independence négritude came under severe criticism from young Francophone intellectuals who regarded its adulation of blackness as narcissistic and out of place. These critics felt that a continent beset with severe social, political, and economic problems was in need of self-criticism and calls to action instead. In response, the tone of Francophone poetry shifted to match a growing disillusionment and recognition of the need for change. This mood is reflected in the poems of Alpha Sow of Guinea, Emile Ologoudou of Benin, and others whose work is anthologized in Nouvelle somme de poésie de monde noir (New Sum of Poetry from the Negro World, 1966).

B2

b

Fiction

African fiction in French emerged in the 1920s, with the publication in Senegal of Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne’s Les trois volontés de Malik (Malik’s Three Wishes, 1920). The novel tells of a hard-working youth whose diligence, combined with a benevolent colonial atmosphere, brings all his wishes to fruition. This book, like Ousmane Socé’s Mirages de Paris (Mirages of Paris, 1937), is typical of early Francophone fiction in its admiration of the French. These works were superseded in the years leading to independence by fiction with a markedly different attitude toward France, including Une vie de Boy (1956; Houseboy, 1966) by Ferdinand Oyono of Cameroon and Le pauvre Christ de Bomba (1956; The Poor Christ of Bomba, 1971) by another Cameroonian writer, Mongo Beti. Both books direct merciless satire at French colonialism.

In fiction as in poetry, writers turned their attention to social problems soon after independence. A good example of this shift is Xala (1973; translated 1976), by Senegalese writer Ousmane Sembène, which presents a denunciation of corrupt government officials. Other works attest to the increasing visibility of women on the Francophone literary scene. They include Une si longue lettre (1980; So Long a Letter, 1981) by Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ and La grève des bàttu (1979; The Beggars’ Strike, 1981) by Aminata Sow Fall, also of Senegal.

B2

c

Drama

During the 1930s, students at the École William-Ponty, a college for training teachers in Dakar, Senegal, improvised performances that were based on African tales and incorporated African songs. Similar activity took place at the École Primaire Supérieure at Bingerville in Côte d’Ivoire. Plays by graduates of these schools were later published and performed.

One of the most celebrated Francophone playwrights is the Cameroonian Guillaume Oyono-Mbia, whose best-known work is Trois prétendants, un mari (1964; Three Suitors, One Husband, 1968). La mort de Chaka (The Death of Chaka, 1961) by Saydou Badian of Mali and Le zoulou (The Zulu, 1977) by Tchicaya U Tam’si of the Republic of the Congo are also noteworthy plays in French. Cameroonian Werewere Liking attracts interest for experiments with traditional rituals, as in Orphée Dafric: Théâtre-rituel (African Orpheus: Ritual Theater, 1981), which places the Greek myth of Orpheus in an African setting.

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