English 8 Lit

THE MEANING OF LITERATURE
-Collected oral and written works of a society that depict the people's beliefs,
values, mores and aspirations, as well as their struggles in life.
IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF LITERATURE
1. It shapes and influences cultural development.
2. It molds the minds of the people by sharing with others the intense realization of
human experience.
3. It preserves the experience of the past in cohesive manner. Timeless and forever
relevant, it appeals to one and all, anytime, anywhere because it deals with elemental
feelings, fundamental truths and universal conditions.
TYPES OF LITERATURE
1. PROSE
- literary works in the form of sentences and paragraphs.
2. POETRY
- The Highest Form of Talk
- literary works in the form of lines and stanzas.
KINDS OF PROSE
1. FICTION
-A lie told in a manner as to make it seem true.
- literary production of writers creative imagination.
2. NON- FICTION
- based on facts rather than imagination.
e.g.Essay - a short literary composition in prose dealing with a single matter

usually from a personal point of view of the author.
KINDS OF FICTION
1. PROSE ALLEGORY
- a prose form which the characters,ideas, and actions stand for something
else or for a system of ideas with meanings implied.
-Concrete characters are personifications of abstract ideas.
a. Fable
-the characters are usually animals talking like human beings but
keeping their animal traits.
-Moral is conveyed in the form of proverb.
b. Myths
-explaining the origin of the world and humankind.
c.Legends
-historical basis and possessing certain qualities that give the

tale verisimilitude.
2. PROSE ROMANCE
- stories of high culture, chivalric, magical and unrealistic.
a.Fairy Tales
- commonplace expression and typical themes are those which
develop from stock characters such as cruel king, cruel stepmother, naughty
sister,,magic,supernatural changes and restorations.
-Virtue is rewarded and always end happily.
3. PROSE NARRATIVES
a.Short Story
- a brief narrative that concentrates on one situation and involves two or

three characters.
b.Novel
- an extended narrative that includes more characters and complicated

plot.
c.Novelette
- intermediate between short story and the novels.
- more elaborate than a short story but can be read in a single sitting
unlike novel.
4.PROSE DRAMA
-a literary work written in dialogue and intended for presentation by actors.
a.Comedy
-aims primarily to amuse by its humorous speech and ends happily.
b.Tragedy
- morally significant struggle which ends disastrously.

KINDS OF POETRY
1.NARRATIVE POETRY
-tells a story in richly imaginative and rhythmical language.
a.Epic
- along,narrative poem divided into distinct parts and episodes bound

together by common relationship to a great hero.
b.Ballad
- a short narrative poem intended to be sung.
2. LYRIC POETRY
-expresses personal thoughts and feelings
a.Ode
- poem deals with a serious theme such as immortality.
-expresses enthusiasm, lofty praise of some person or thing.
b.Elegy
-a poem that can be distinguished by its subject death.
-contains authors personal grief.
c.Song
- melodious quality required by the singing voice.
d. Sonnet
- a poetic form of fourteen rhymed lines producing a single emotional

effect.
3.DRAMATIC POETRY
- portrays life and character through action in powerful, emotion-packed
lines.
BLACK AND WHITE THOUGHTS
" To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture."
Frantz Fanon
http://blackandwhitethought.blogspot.com/2011/06/
African literature
WRITTEN BY:
Harold Scheub
See Article History
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African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and
African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages.
Traditional written literature, which is limited to a smaller geographic area than is oral
literature, is most characteristic of those sub-Saharan cultures that have participated in
the cultures of the Mediterranean. In particular, there are written literatures in both
Hausa and Arabic, created by the scholars of what is now northern Nigeria, and the
Somali people have produced a traditional written literature. There are also works
written in Geez (Ethiopic) and Amharic, two of the languages of Ethiopia, which is the
one part of Africa where Christianity has been practiced long enough to be considered
traditional. Works written in European languages date primarily from the 20th century
onward. The literature of South Africa in English and Afrikaans is also covered in a
separate article, South African literature. See also African theatre.
The relationship between oral and written traditions and in particular between oral and
modern written literatures is one of great complexity and not a matter of simple
evolution. Modern African literatures were born in the educational systems imposed by
colonialism, with models drawn from Europe rather than existing African traditions. But
the African oral traditions exerted their own influence on these literatures.
Oral Traditions
The nature of storytelling
The storyteller speaks, time collapses, and the members of the audience are in the
presence of history. It is a time of masks. Reality, the present, is here, but with
explosive emotional images giving it a context. This is the storytellers art: to mask the
past, making it mysterious, seemingly inaccessible. But it is inaccessible only to ones
present intellect; it is always available to ones heart and soul, ones emotions. The
storyteller combines the audiences present waking state and its past condition of
semiconsciousness, and so the audience walks again in history, joining its forebears.
And history, always more than an academic subject, becomes for the audience a
collapsing of time. History becomes the audiences memory and a means of reliving of
an indeterminate and deeply obscure past.
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Storytelling is a sensory union of image and idea, a process of re-creating the past in
terms of the present; the storyteller uses realistic images to describe the present and
fantasy images to evoke and embody the substance of a cultures experience of the
past. These ancient fantasy images are the cultures heritage and the storytellers
bounty: they contain the emotional history of the culture, its most deeply felt yearnings
and fears, and they therefore have the capacity to elicit strong emotional responses
from members of audiences. During a performance, these envelop contemporary
imagesthe most unstable parts of the oral tradition, because they are by their nature
always in a state of fluxand thereby visit the past on the present.
It is the task of the storyteller to forge the fantasy images of the past into masks of the
realistic images of the present, enabling the performer to pitch the present to the past,
to visualize the present within a context ofand therefore in terms ofthe past. Flowing
through this potent emotional grid is a variety of ideas that have the look of antiquity and
ancestral sanction. Story occurs under the mesmerizing influence of performancethe
body of the performer, the music of her voice, the complex relationship between her and
her audience. It is a world unto itself, whole, with its own set of laws. Images that are
unlike are juxtaposed, and then the storyteller revealsto the delight and instruction of
the members of the audiencethe linkages between them that render them
homologous. In this way the past and the present are blended; ideas are thereby
generated, forming a conception of the present. Performance gives the images their
context and ensures the audience a ritual experience that bridges past and present and
shapes contemporary life.
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Storytelling is alive, ever in transition, never hardened in time. Stories are not meant to
be temporally frozen; they are always responding to contemporary realities, but in a
timeless fashion. Storytelling is therefore not a memorized art. The necessity for this
continual transformation of the story has to do with the regular fusing of fantasy and
images of the real, contemporary world. Performers take images from the present and
wed them to the past, and in that way the past regularly shapes an audiences
experience of the present. Storytellers reveal connections between humanswithin the
world, within a society, within a familyemphasizing an interdependence and the
disaster that occurs when obligations to ones fellows are forsaken. The artist makes the
linkages, the storyteller forges the bonds, tying past and present, joining humans to their
gods, to their leaders, to their families, to those they love, to their deepest fears and
hopes, and to the essential core of their societies and beliefs.
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The language of storytelling includes, on the one hand, image, the patterning of image,
and the manipulation of the body and voice of the storyteller and, on the other, the
memory and present state of the audience. A storytelling performance involves memory:
the recollection of each member of the audience of his experiences with respect to the
story being performed, the memory of his real-life experiences, and the similar
memories of the storyteller. It is the rhythm of storytelling that welds
these disparate experiences, yearnings, and thoughts into the images of the story. And
the images are known, familiar to the audience. That familiarity is a crucial part of
storytelling. The storyteller does not craft a story out of whole cloth: she re-creates the
ancient story within the context of the real, contemporary, known world. It is the
metaphorical relationship between these memories of the past and the known images of
the world of the present that constitutes the essence of storytelling. The story is never
history; it is built of the shards of history. Images are removed from historical contexts,
then reconstituted within the demanding and authoritative frame of the story. And it is
always a sensory experience, an experience of the emotions. Storytellers know that the
way to the mind is by way of the heart. The interpretative effects of the storytelling
experience give the members of the audience a refreshed sense of reality, a context for
their experiences that has no existence in reality. It is only when images of
contemporary life are woven into the ancient familiar images that metaphor is born and
experience becomes meaningful.
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Stories deal with change: mythic transformations of the cosmos, heroic transformations
of the culture, transformations of the lives of everyman. The storytelling experience is
always ritual, always a rite of passage; one relives the past and, by so doing, comes to
insight about present life. Myth is both a story and a fundamental structural device used
by storytellers. As a story, it reveals change at the beginning of time, with gods as the
central characters. As a storytelling tool for the creation of metaphor, it is both material
and method. The heroic epic unfolds within the context of myth, as does the tale. At the
heart of each of these genres is metaphor, and at the core of metaphor is riddle with its
associate, proverb. Each of these oral forms is characterized by a metaphorical
process, the result of patterned imagery. These universal art forms are rooted in the
specificities of the African experience.
The riddle
A pot without an opening. (An egg.)
The silly man who drags his intestines. (A needle and thread.)
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In the riddle, two unlike, and sometimes unlikely, things are compared. The obvious
thing that happens during this comparison is that a problem is set, then solved. But
there is something more important here, involving the riddle as a figurative form: the
riddle is composed of two sets, and, during the process of riddling, the aspects of each
of the sets are transferred to the other. On the surface it appears that the riddle is
largely an intellectual rather than a poetic activity. But through its imagery and the
tension between the two sets, the imagination of the audience is also engaged. As they
seek the solution to the riddle, the audience itself becomes a part of the images and
thereforeand most significantlyof the metaphorical transformation.
This may not seem a very complex activity on the level of the riddle, but in this
deceptively simple activity can be found the essential core of all storytelling, including
the interaction of imagery in lyric poetry, the tale, and the epic. In the same way as
those oral forms, the riddle works in a literal and in a figurative mode. During the
process of riddling, the literal mode interacts with the figurative in a vigorous and
creative way. It is that play between the literal and the figurative, between reality and
fantasy, that characterizes the riddle: in that relationship can be found metaphor, which
explains why it is that the riddle underlies other oral forms. The images in metaphor by
their nature evoke emotion; the dynamics of metaphor trap those emotions in the
images, and meaning is caught up in that activity. So meaning, even in such seemingly
simple operations as riddling, is more complex than it may appear.
The lyric
People were those who

Broke for me the string.
Therefore,
The place became like this to me,
On account of it,
Because the string was that which broke for me.
Therefore,
The place does not feel to me,
As the place used to feel to me,
On account of it.
For,
The place feels as if it stood open before me,
Because the string has broken for me.
Therefore,
The place does not feel pleasant to me,
On account of it.
(a San poem, from W.H.I. Bleek and L.C. Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman
Folklore [1911])
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The images in African lyric interact in dynamic fashion, establishing metaphorical
relationships within the poem, and so it is that riddling is the motor of the lyric. And, as
in riddles, so also in lyric: metaphor frequently involves and invokesparadox. In the lyric,
it is as if the singer were stitching a set of riddles into a single richly textured poem, the
series of riddling connections responsible for the ultimate experience of the poem. The
singer organizes and controls the emotions of the audience as he systematically works
his way through the levels of the poem, carefully establishing the connective threads
that bring the separate metaphorical sets into the poems totality. None of the separate
riddling relationships exists divorced from those others that compose the poem. As
these riddling relationships interact and interweave, the poet brings the audience to a
close, intense sense of the meaning of the poem. Each riddling relationship provides an
emotional clue to the overall design of the poem. Further clues to meaning are
discovered by the audience in the rhythmical aspects of the poem, the way the poet
organizes the images, the riddling organization itself, and the sound of the singers
voice as well as the movement of the singers body. As in the riddle, everything in the
lyric is directed to the revelation of metaphor.
The proverb
Work the clay while it is fresh.

Wisdom killed the wise man.
The African proverb seems initially to be a hackneyed expression, a trite leftover

repeated until it loses all force. But proverb is also performance, it is also metaphor, and
it is in its performance and metaphorical aspects that it achieves its power. In one
sense, the experience of a proverb is similar to that of a riddle and a lyric poem:
different images are brought into a relationship that is novel, that provides insight. When
one experiences proverbs in appropriate contexts, rather than in isolation, they come to
life. In the riddle the poser provides the two sides of the metaphor. In lyric poetry the two
sides are present in the poem but in a complex way; the members of the audience
derive their aesthetic experience from comprehending that complexity. The words of the
proverb are by themselves only one part of the metaphorical experience. The other side
of the riddle is not to be found in the same way it is in the riddle and the lyric. The
proverb establishes ties with its metaphorical equivalent in the real life of the members
of the audience or with the wisdom of the past. The words of the proverb are a riddle
waiting to happen. And when it happens, the African proverb ceases to be a grouping of
tired words.
The tale
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The riddle, lyric, and proverb are the materials that are at the dynamic centre of the tale.
The riddle contains within it the possibilities of metaphor; and the proverb elaborates the
metaphorical possibilities when the images of the tale are made lyricalthat is, when
they are rhythmically organized. Such images are drawn chiefly from two repertories:
from the contemporary world (these are the realistic images) and from the ancient
tradition (these are the fantasy images). These diverse images are brought together
during a storytelling performance by their rhythmic organization. Because the fantasy
images have the capacity to elicit strong emotional reactions from members of the
audience, these emotions are the raw material that is woven into the image organization
by the patterning. The audience thereby becomes an integral part of the story by
becoming a part of the metaphorical process that moves to meaning. And meaning,
therefore, is much more complex than an obvious homily that may be readily available
on the surface of the tale.

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This patterning of imagery is the main instrument that shapes a tale. In the simplest of
tales, a model is established, and then it is repeated in an almost identical way. In
a Xhosa story an ogre chases a woman and her two children. With each part of the
story, as the ogre moves closer and as the woman and her children are more intensely
imperiled, a song organizes the emotions of helplessness, of menace, and of terror,
even as it moves the story on its linear path:
Qwebethe, Qwebethe, what do you want?

Im leaving my food behind on the prairie,
Im leaving it behind,
Im leaving it behind.
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With little more than a brief introduction and a quick close, the storyteller develops this
tale. There is an uninterrupted linear movement of a realistic single character fleeing
from a fantasy ogrefrom a conflict to a resolution. But that fantasy and that reality are
controlled by the lyrical centre of the tale, and that seemingly simple mechanism
provides the core for complexity. That linear movement, even in the simplest stories, is
subverted by a cyclical movementin this case, the songand that is the engine of
metaphor. It is the cyclical movement of the tale that makes it possible to experience
linear details and images in such a way that they become equated one with the other.
So it is that the simplest tale becomes a model for more-complex narratives. That lyrical
centre gives the tale a potential for development.
In a more complex tale, the storyteller moves two characters through three worlds, each
of those worlds seemingly different. But by means of that lyrical pulse, the rhythmical
ordering of those worlds brings them into such alignment that the members of the
audience experience them as the same. It is this discernment of different images as
identical that results in complex structures, characters, events, and meanings. And what
brings those different images into this alignment is poetrymore specifically, the
metaphorical character of the lyrical poem. The very composition of tales makes it
possible to link them and to order them metaphorically. The possibilities of epic are
visible in the simplest of tales, and so also are the possibilities of the novel.
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The trickster tale, as it does with so much of the oral tradition, provides insights into this
matter of the construction of stories. Masks are the weapons of the trickster: he
creates illusions, bringing the real world and the world of illusion into temporary,
shimmering proximity, convincing his dupe of the reality of metaphor. That trickster and
his antic activities are another way of describing the metaphorical motor of storytelling.
Heroic poetry
Hero who surpasses other heroes!

Swallow that disappears in the clouds,
Others disappearing into the heavens!
Son of Menzi!
Viper of Ndaba!
Erect, ready to strike,
It strikes the shields of men!
Father of the cock!
Why did it disappear over the mountains?
It annihilated men!
That is Shaka,
Son of Senzangakhona,
Of whom it is said, Bayede!
You are an elephant!
(from a heroic poem dedicated to the Zulu chief Shaka)
It is in heroic poetry, or panegyric, that lyric and image come into their most obvious
union. As in the tale and as in the lyric, riddle, and proverb, the essence of panegyric is
metaphor, although the metaphorical connections are sometimes somewhat obscure.
History is more clearly evident in panegyric, but it remains fragmented history, rejoined
according to the poetic intentions of the bard. Obvious metaphorical connections are
frequently made between historical personages or events and images of animals, for
example. The fantasy aspects of this kind of poetry are to be found in its construction, in
the merging of the real and the animal in metaphorical ways. It is within this
metaphorical context that the hero is described and assessed. As in other forms of oral
tradition, emotions associated with both historical and nonhistorical images are at the
heart of meaning in panegyric. It is the lyrical rhythm of panegyric that works such
emotions into form. In the process, history is reprocessed and given new meaning
within the context of contemporary experience. It is a dual activity: history is thereby
redefined at the same time that it shapes experiences of the present.
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Among the Tuareg of western Africa, a stringed instrument often accompanies the
creation of such poetry, and the main composers are women. The Songhai have mabe,
the professional bards; they are present at all rites of passage, celebrating,
accompanying, and cushioning the transformation being experienced. In Mauritania it is
the iggiw (plural iggawen) who creates heroic poetry and who plays the lute while
singing the songs of the warriors. The diare (plural diarou) is the bard among
the Soninke. He goes to battle with the soldiers, urging them, placing their martial
activities within the context of history, building their acts within the genealogies of their
family. Drums and trumpets sometimes accompany the maroka among the Hausa.
When a king is praised, the accompaniment becomes orchestral. Yoruba bards chant
the ijala, singing of lineage, and, with the oriki, saluting the notable. Among the Hima
of Uganda, the bard is the omwevugi. In the evenings, he sings of the omugabe, the
king, and of men in battle and of the cattle. The mbongi wa ku pfusha is the bard among
the Tonga of Mozambique. He too sings of the glories of the past, creating poetry about
chiefs and kings.
The images vary, their main organizing implement being the subject of the poem. It is
the metrical ordering of images, including sound and motion, that holds the poem
together, not the narrative of history.
The epic
In the epic can be found the merging of various frequently unrelated tales, the
metaphorical apparatus, the controlling mechanism found in the riddle and lyric, the
proverb, and heroic poetry to form a larger narrative. All of this centres on the character
of the hero and a gradual revelation of his frailty, uncertainties, and torments; he often
dies, or is deeply troubled, in the process of bringing the culture into a new dispensation
often prefigured in his resurrection or his coming into knowledge. The mythical
transformation caused by the creator gods and culture heroes is reproduced precisely in
the acts and the cyclical, tortured movements of the hero.
An epic may be built around a genealogical system, with parts of it developed and
embellished into a story. The epic, like the heroic poem, contains historical references
such as place-names and events; in the heroic poem these are not greatly developed.
When they are developed in an epic, they are built not around history but around a
fictional tale. The fictional tale ties the historical episode, person, or place-name to the
cultural history of the people. In an oral society, oral genres include history (the heroic
poem) and imaginative story (the tale). The epic combines the two, linking the historical
episode to the imaginative tale. Sometimes, myth is also a part of epic, with emphasis
on origins. The tale, the heroic poem, history, and myth are combined in the epic. In an
echo of the talewhere the emphasis is commonly on a central but always
nonhistorical charactera single historical or nonhistorical character is the centre of the
epic. And at the core of the epic is that same engine composed of the riddle, the lyric,
and the proverb.
Much is frequently made of the psychology of this central character when he appears in
the epic. He is given greater detail than the tale character, given deeper dimension. The
epic performer remembers the great events and turning points of cultural history. These
events change the culture. In the epic these elements are tied to the ancient images of
the culture (in the form of tale and myth), an act that thereby gives these events cultural
sanction. The tale and myth lend to the epic (and, by inference, to history) a magical,
supernatural atmosphere: all of nature is touched in the Malagasy epic Ibonia; in the
West African epic Sunjata, magic keeps Sumanguru in charge and enables Sunjata to
take over. It is a time of momentous change in the society. In Ibonia there are major
alterations in the relationship between men and women; in Sunjata and in the
epic Mwindo of the Nyanga people of Congo there are major political changes.
But, in Mwindo, why was Mwindo such a trickster? He was, after all, a great hero. And
why must he be taught by the gods after he has established his heroic credentials?
Central to this question is the notion of the transitional phaseof the betwixt and
between, of the someone or something that crosses yet exists between boundaries.
There is a paradox in Mwindos vulnerabilityhow, after all, can a hero be
vulnerable?but more important is his nonmoral energy during a period of change.
Mwindo is a liminal hero-trickster: he is liminal while he seeks his father, and then he
becomes liminal again at the hands of the gods. Out there is where the learning, the
transformation, occurs. The trickster energy befits and mirrors this in-between period, as
no laws are in existence. There is change and transformation, but it is guided by a
vision: in the myths, it is gods vision for the cosmos; in the tales, it is the societys vision
for completeness; in the epics, it is the heros vision for a new social dispensation.
The heroic epic is a grand blending of tale and myth, heroic poetry and history. These
separate genres are combined in the epic, and separate epics contain a greater or
lesser degree of eachhistory (and, to a lesser extent, poetry) is dominant in Sunjata,
heroic poetry and tale in Ibonia, and tale and myth (and, to a lesser extent, poetry)
in Mwindo. Oral societies have these separate categories: history, the imaginative tale,
heroic poetry, myth, and epic. Epic, therefore, is not simply history. History exists as a
separate genre. The essential characteristic of epic is not that it is history but that it
combines history and tale, fact and fancy, and worlds of reality and fantasy. The epic
becomes the grand summation of the culture because it takes major turning points in
history (always with towering historical or nonhistorical figures who symbolize these
turning points) and links them to tradition, giving the changes their sanction. The epic
hero may be revolutionary, but he does not signal a total break with the
past. Continuity is stressed in epicin fact, it is as if the shift in the direction of the
society is a return to the paradigm envisioned by ancient cultural wisdom. The effect of
the epic is to mythologize history, to bring history to the essence of the culture, to give
history the resonance of the ancient roots of the culture as these are expressed in myth,
imaginative tale (and motif), and metaphor. In heroic poetry, history is fragmented,
made discontinuous. In epic these discontinuous images are given a new form, that of
the imaginative tale. And the etiological aspects of history (that is, the historical
alteration of the society) are tied to the etiology of mythologyin other words, the acts
of the mortal hero are tied to the acts of the immortals.
History is not the significant genre involved in the epic. It is instead tale and myth that
organize the images of history and give those images their meaning. History by itself
has no significance: it achieves significance when it is juxtaposed to the images of a
tradition grounded in tales and myths. This suggests the great value that oral societies
place on the imaginative traditions: they are entertaining, certainly, but they are also
major organizing devices. As the tales take routine, everyday experiences of reality
andby placing them in the fanciful context of conflict and resolution with the emotion-
evoking motifs of the pastgive them a meaning and a completeness that they do not
actually have, so in epic is history given a form and a meaning that it does not possess.
This imaginative environment revises history, takes historical experiences and places
them into the context of the culture, and gives them cultural meaning. The epic is a
blending, then, of the ancient culture as it is represented through imaginative tradition
with historical events and personages. The divine trickster links heaven and earth, god
and human; the epic hero does the same but also links fancy and reality, myth and
history, and cultural continuity and historical disjunction.
What is graphically clear in the epics Ibonia and Sunjata is that heroic poetry, in the
form of the praise name, provides a context for the evolution of a heroic story. In both of
those epics, the panegyric forms a pattern, the effect of which is to tie the epic hero
decisively and at the same time to history and to the gods. Those epics, as well
as Mwindo, dramatize the rite of passage of a society or a culture: the heros movement
through the familiar stages of the ritual becomes a poetic metaphor for a like movement
of the society itself. The tale at the centre of the epic may be as straightforward as any
tale in the oral tradition. But that tale is linked to a complex of other tales, the whole
given an illusion of poetic unity by the heroic poetry, which in turn provides a lyrical
rhythm.
Storytelling is the mythos of a society: at the same time that it is conservative, at the
heart of nationalism, it is the propelling mechanism for change. The struggle between
the individual and the group, between the traditions that support and defend the rights of
the group and the sense of freedom that argues for undefined horizons of the
individualthis is the contest that characterizes the heros dilemma, and the hero in
turn is the personification of the quandary of the society itself and of its individual
members.
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Negritude
praise song
Lopold Senghor

Swahili literature
Oral and written storytelling traditions have had a parallel development, and in many
ways they have influenced each other. Ancient Egyptian scribes, early Hausa and
Swahili copyists and memorizers, and contemporary writers of popular novellas have
been the obvious and crucial transitional figures in the movement from oral to literary
traditions. What happened among the Hausa and Swahili was occurring elsewhere in
Africaamong the Fulani, in northern Ghana among the Guang, in Senegal among
the Tukulor and Wolof, and in Madagascar and Somalia.
The linkage between oral tradition and the written word is most obviously seen in pulp
literature: the Onitsha market literature of Nigeria; the popular fiction of Accra, Ghana;
the popular love and detective literature of Nairobi; the visualizing of story in the
complex comic strips sold in shops in Cape Town. But the linkage is also a crucial
characteristic of more-serious and more-complex fiction. One cannot fully appreciate the
works of Chinua Achebe or Ousmane Sembene without placing them into the context of
Africas classical period, its oral tradition. To be sure, the Arabic, English, French, and
Portuguese literary traditions along with Christianity and Islam and other effects of
colonialism in Africa also had a dynamic impact on African literature, but African writers
adapted those alien traditions and made them their own by placing them into these
African classical frames.
History and myth
As is the case with the oral tradition, written literature is a combination of the real and
the fantastic. It combines, on the one hand, the real (the contemporary world) and
history (the realistic world of the past) and, on the other, myth and hero, with metaphor
being the agent of transformation. This is the alchemy of the literary experience.
Literature is atomized, fragmented history. Transformation is the crucial activity of the
story, its dynamic movement. The writer is examining the relationship of the reader with
the world and with history. In the process of this examination, the writer invents
characters and events that correspond to history but are not history. At the centre of the
story is myth, the fantasy element, a character or event that moves beyond reality,
though it is always rooted in the real. In the oral tale this is clearly the fantasy character;
so it is, in a complex, refracted way, in written literature.
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Myth, which is deeply, intensely emotional, has to do with the gods and creation, with
the essence of a belief system; it is the imaged embodiment of a philosophical system,
the giving of form to thought and emotion. It is the driving force of a people, that
emotional force that defines a people; it is the everlasting form of a culture, hence its
link to the gods, to the heavens, to the forever. In mythic imagery is the embodiment of
significant emotionsthe hopes, fears, dreams, and nightmaresof a people. History
the story of a people, their institutions, and their communityis the way one likes to
think things happened, in the real world. The hero is everyman, moving through a
change, a transformation, and so moving into the myth, the essence, of his history. He
thereby becomes a part of it, representative of it, embodying the culture. The hero is
everyman with myth inside him. He has been mythicized; story does that. Metaphor is
the transformational process, the movement from the real to the mythic and back again
to the realchanged forever, because one has become mythicized, because one has
moved into history and returned with the elixir.
In serious literary works, the mythic fantasy characters are often derived from the oral
tradition; such characters include the Fool in Sheikh Hamidou Kanes Ambiguous
Adventure (1961), Kihika (and the mythicized Mugo) in Ngugi wa Thiongos A Grain of
Wheat (1967), Michael K in J.M. Coetzees Life and Times of Michael K (1983), Dan
and Sello in Bessie Heads A Question of Power (1973), Mustapha in al-ayyib
lis Season of Migration to the North (1966), and Nedjma in Kateb
Yacines Nedjma (1956). These are the ambiguous, charismatic shapers, those with
connections to the essence of history. In each case, a real-life character moves into a
relationship with a mythic character, and that movement is the movement of
the heros becoming a part of history, of culture. The real-life character is the hero who
is in the process of being created: Samba Diallo, Mugo, the doctor, Elizabeth, the
narrator, or the four pilgrims. Myth is the stuff of which the hero is being created. History
is the real, the past, the world against which this transformation is occurring and within
which the hero will move. The real contemporary world is the place from which the hero
comes and to which the hero will return. Metaphor is the heros transformation.
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The image of Africa, then, is that rich combination of myth and history, with the hero
embodying the essence of the history, or battling it, or somehow having a relationship
with it by means of the fantasy mythic character. It is in this relationship between reality
and fantasy, the shaped and the shaper, that the story has its power: Samba Diallo with
the Fool, Mugo with Kihika (and the mythicized Mugo), the doctor with Michael K,
Elizabeth with Dan and Sello, the narrator with Mustapha, the four pilgrims with Nedjma.
This relationship, which is a harbinger of change, occurs against a historical backdrop of
some kind, but that backdrop is not the image of Africa: that image is the relationship
between the mythical character and African/European history.
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The fantasy character provides access to history, to the essence of history. It is the
explanation of the historical background of the novels. The hero is the person who is
being brought into a new relationship with that history, be it the history of a certain
areaKenya or South Africa or Algeria, for exampleor of a wider areaof Africa
generally or, in the case of A Question of Power, the history of the world. These are the
keys, then: the hero who is being shaped, the fantasy character who is the ideological
and spiritual material being shaped and who is also the artist or shaper, and the larger
issues, the historical panorama. The fantasy character is crucial: he is the artists
palette, the mythic element of the story. This character is the heart and the spiritual
essence of history. This is the Fool, Kihika, Michael K, Dan and Sello, Mustapha,
Nedjma. Here is where reality and fantasy, history and fiction blend, the confluence that
is at the heart of story. The real-life character, the hero, comes into a relationship with
that mythic figure, and so the transformation begins, as the hero moves through an
intermediary period into history. It is the heros identification with history that makes it
possible for us to speak of the hero as a hero. This movement of a realistic character
into myth is metaphor, the blending of two seemingly unlike images. It is the power of
the story, the centre of the story, as Samba Diallo moves into the Fool, as Mugo moves
into Kihika, as the doctor moves into Michael K, as Elizabeth moves into Dan and Sello,
as the narrator moves into Mustapha, as the four pilgrims move into Nedjma. In this
movement the oral tradition is revealed as alive and well in literary works. The kinds of
imagery used by literary storytellers and the patterned way those reality and fantasy
images are organized in their written works are not new. The materials of storytelling,
whether in the oral or written tradition, are essentially the same.
The influence of oral traditions on modern writers
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Themes in the literary traditions of contemporary Africa are worked out frequently within
the strictures laid down by the imported religions Christianity and Islam and within the
struggle between traditional and modern, between rural and newly urban, between
genders, and between generations. The oral tradition is clearly evident in the popular
literature of the marketplace and the major urban centres, created by literary storytellers
who are manipulating the original materials much as oral storytellers do, at the same
time remaining faithful to the tradition. Some of the early writers sharpened their writing
abilities by translating works into African languages; others collected oral tradition; most
experienced their apprenticeships in one way or another within the contexts of living oral
traditions.
There was a clear interaction between the deeply rooted oral tradition and the
developing literary traditions of the 20th century. That interaction is revealed in the
placing of literary works into the forms of the oral tradition. The impact of the epic on the
novel, for instance, continues to influence writers today. The oral tradition in the work of
some of the early writers of the 20th centuryAmos Tutuola of Nigeria, D.O.
Fagunwa in Yoruba, Violet Dube in Zulu, S.E.K. Mqhayi in Xhosa, and Mario Antnio in
Portugueseis readily evident. Some of these writings were merely imitations of the
oral tradition and were therefore not influential. Such antiquarians did little more than
retell, recast, or transcribe materials from the oral tradition. But the work of writers such
as Tutuola had a dynamic effect on the developing literary tradition; such works went
beyond mere imitation.
The most successful of the early African writers knew what could be done with the oral
tradition; they understood how its structures and images could be transposed to a
literary mode, and they were able to distinguish mimicry from organic growth. Guybon
Sinxo explored the relationship between oral tradition and writing in his popular Xhosa
novels, and A.C. Jordan (in Xhosa), O.K. Matsepe (in Sotho), and R.R.R. Dhlomo (in
Zulu) built on that kind of writing, establishing new relationships not only between oral
and written materials but between the written and the writtenthat is, between the
writers of popular fiction and those writers who wished to create a more serious form of
literature. The threads that connect these three categories of artistic activity are many,
they are reciprocal, and they are essentially African, though there is no doubt that there
was also interaction with European traditions. Writers in Africa today owe much to
African oral tradition and to those authors who have occupied the space between the
two traditions, in an area of creative interaction.
Literatures In African Languages
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Ethiopian
Ethiopian literatures are composed in several

languages: Geez, Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigr, Oromo, and Harari. Most of the literature in
Ethiopia has been in Geez and Amharic. The classical language is Geez, but over
time Geez literature became the domain of a small portion of the population. The more
common spoken language, Amharic, became widespread when it was used for political
and religious purposes to reach a larger part of the population.
Geez was the literary language in Ethiopia from a very early period, most importantly
from the 13th century. The Kebra nagast (Glory of Kings), written from 1314 to 1322,
relates the birth of Menelikthe son of Solomon and Makada, the queen of Sheba
who became the king of Ethiopia. The work became a crucial part of the literature and
culture of Ethiopia. Royal chronicles were written, and there was some secular poetry.
But most of the writing was religious in nature and tone. Many translations of religious
works were produced, as were works having to do with the lives of Zagwe kings. In the
15th century, Taamra Maryam (The Miracles of Mary) was written, and this was to
become a major work in Ethiopia. There were also translations from Arabic.
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At the end of the 19th century, missionaries brought the printing press to Ethiopia, and
books were published in Amharic. Early Amharic works such as Mistire Sillase (1910
11; The Mystery of the Trinity) were rooted in traditional literary works. Newspapers in
Amharic began to appear in 1924 and 1925, and there were translations of European
literary works, including an Amharic translation of John Bunyans The Pilgrims
Progress, by Gabra Giyorgis Terfe, that was to influence later Amharic literary work.
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Two writers created the foundation for the Amharic literary tradition. The first novel
written in Amharic was Libb-waled tarik (1908; An Imagined Story), by Afawark Gabra
Iyasus. The oral storytelling tradition is clearly in evidence in this novel, in which a girl
disguised as a boy becomes the centre of complex love involvements, the climax of
which includes the conversion of a love-smitten king to Christianity. Heruy Walda
Sellasse, an Ethiopian foreign minister who became the countrys first major writer,
wrote two novels that are critical of child marriage and that extol Christianity and
Western technology. But he was also critical of the Christian church and proposed in
one of his novels its reform. In his second novel, Haddis alem (1924; The New World),
he wrote of a youth who is educated in Europe and who, when he returns to Ethiopia,
experiences clashes between his European education and the traditions of his past.
Drama was also developed at this time. Playwrights included Tekle Hawaryat Tekle
Maryam, who wrote a comedy in 1911, Yoftahe Niguse, and Menghistu Lemma, who
wrote plays that satirized the conflict between tradition and the West. Poetry included
works in praise of the Ethiopian emperor. Gabra Egziabeher frequently took
an acerbic view of traditional life and attitudes in his poetry.
After World War II, important writers continued to compose works in Amharic. Mekonnin
Indalkachew wrote Silsawi Dawit (194950; David III), Ye-dem zemen (19541955;
Era of Blood), and Taytu Bitul (195758), all historical novels. Girmachew Tekle
Hawaryat wrote the novel Araya (194849), about the journeying of the peasant Araya
to Europe to be educated and his struggle to decide whether to remain there or return to
Africa. One of Ethiopias most popular novels, it explores generational conflict as well as
the conflict between tradition and modernism. Kabbada Mikael became a significant
playwright, biographer, and historian. Other writers also dealt with the conflict between
the old and the new, with issues of social justice, and with political problems. Central
themes in post-World War II Amharic literature are the relationship between humans
and God, the difficulties of life, and the importance of humility and acceptance. Kabbada
Mikael wrote drama reinforcing Christian values, attacking materialism, and exploring
historical events. Taddasa Liban wrote short stories that examine the relationship
between the old and the new in Ethiopian society. Asras Asfa Wasan wrote poetry and
historical novels about political events, including the military coup attempted against
Emperor Haile Selassie I in December 1960. Writers such as Mengistu Gedamu and
Pawlos Nyonyo became more and more concerned in their works with social issues,
and the widespread struggle between tradition and modernism was debated. Novelists
looked further afield and wrote about apartheid in South Africa and the African
nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba. At the turn of the 21st century there was also a
concern with preserving traditional materials in Amharic.
Hausa
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The first novels written in Hausa were the result of a competition launched in 1933 by
the Translation Bureau in northern Nigeria. One year later the bureau
published Muhammadu Bellos Gandoki, in which its hero, Gandoki, struggles against
the British colonial regime. Bello does in Gandoki what many writers were doing in other
parts of Africa during this period: he experiments with form and content. His novel
blends the Hausa oral tradition and the novel, resulting in a story patterned on the
heroic cycle; it also introduces a strong thread of Islamic history. Didacticelements,
however, are awkwardly interposed and severely dilute Gandokis aesthetic content (as
often happened in other similarly experimental African novels). But Bellos efforts would
eventually give rise to a more sophisticated tradition of novel writing in Hausa. His
experimentation would also find its most successful expression in Amos Tutolas
English-language novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952).
It is possible that written Hausa goes back as far as the 14th or 15th century. Arabic
writing among the Hausa dates from the end of the 15th century. Early poets included
Ibn al-abbgh and Muhammad al-Barnw. Other early writers in Arabic were
Abdullahi Sikka and Sheikh Jibrl ibn Umar. At the beginning of the 19th century,
the Hausa language was written in an Arabic script called ajami. In 1903, under the
influence of the British, the Latin alphabet was added. Nana Asmau wrote poetry,
primarily religious, in Arabic, Hausa, and Fula in Arabic ajami script.
Islamic Hausa poetry was a continuation of Arabic classical poetry. There was also
secular poetry, including the war song of Abdullahi dan Fodio. Usman dan Fodio,
Abdullahis older brother and the founder of the Fulani empire in the first decade of the
19th century, wrote Wallahi Wallahi (By God, By God), which dealt with the clash
between religion and contemporary political reality. Social problems were also
considered by Alhaji Umaru in his poem Wakar talauci da wadata (1903; Song of
Poverty and of Wealth). There was poetic reaction to the presence of British colonial
forces: Malam Shiitus Bakandamiya (Hippo-Hide Whip) and Alhaji Umarus Zuwan
nasara (Arrival of the Christians). Much poetry dealt with the Prophet Muhammad and
other Islamic leaders. There was mystical poetry as well, especially among the Sufi.
Religious and secular poetry continued through the 20th century and included the work
of Garba Affa, Saadu Zungur, Mudi Sipikin, Naibi Sulaimanu Wali, and Aliyu Na Mangi,
a blind poet from Zaria. Salihu Kontagora and Garba Gwandu emphasized the need for
an accumulation of knowledge in the contemporary world. Muazu Hadeja wrote didactic
poetry. Religious and didactic poetry continue to be written among the Hausa.
The novel Shaihu Umar, by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a prime minister of the
Federation of Nigeria, is set in a Hausa village and Egypt. Jiki magayi (1955; You Will
Pay for the Injustice You Caused), also a Translation Bureau prizewinner, was written
by Rupert East and J. Tafida Wusasa. It is a novel of love, and it moves from realism to
fantasy. Idon matambayi (The Eye of the Inquirer), by Muhammadu Gwarzo,
and Ruwan bagaja (1957; The Water of Cure), by Alhaji Abubakar Imam, mingle African
and Western oral tradition with realism. Nagari na kowa (1959; Good to Everyone), by
Jabiru Abdullahi, is the story of Salihi, who comes to represent traditional Islamic virtues
in a world in which such virtues are endangered. Nuhu Bamalis Bala da Babiya (1954;
Bala and Babiya) deals with conflicts in an urban dwelling. Ahmadu Ingawas Iliya
dam Maikarfi (1959; The Story of Iliya Dam Maikarfi) has to do with Iliya, a sickly boy
who is cured by angels and then embarks on a crusade of peace. Saidu Ahmed
Dauras Tauraruwar hamada (1959; Star of the Desert) centres on Zulkaratu, who is
kidnapped and taken to a ruler; it is a story with folkloric elements. Dau fataken
dare (Dau, the Nocturnal Merchants), by Tanko Zango, deals with robbers who live in
a forest; the story is told with much fantasy imagery. In Umaru Dembos Tauraruwa mai
wutsiya (1969; The Comet), Kilba, a boy, travels into space.
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Hausa drama has been influenced by the oral tradition. Dramatists include Aminu Kano,
Abubakar Tunau, Alhaji Muhammed Sada, Adamu dan Goggo, and Dauda Kano. In the
1980s there began to appear littattafan soyayya (books of love), popular romances by
such writers as Bilkisu Ahmed Funtuwa (Allura cikin ruwa [1994; Needle in a
Haystack], Wa ya san gobe? [1996; Who Knows What Tomorrow Will Bring?], and Ki
yarda da ni [1997; Agree with Me]) and Balaraba Ramat Yakubu (Budurwar
zuciya [1987; Young at Heart], Alhaki kuykuyo ne [1990; Retribution Is Inescapable],
and Wa zai auri jahila? [1990; Who Will Marry the Ignorant Woman?]). These works
deal with the experiences of Hausa women and address such subjects as polygamy,
women and education, and forced marriages.
Shona
Feso (1956), a historical novel, was the first literary work to be published in Shona. An
account of the invasion of the Rozwi kingdom and an expression of longing for the
traditional past, it was written by Solomon M. Mutswairo. Another early
novel, Nzvengamutsvairo (1957; Dodge the Broom), by Bernard T.G. Chidzero, has to
do with themes that dominate prose writing in Shona: the attempt to remain true to
Shona tradition, the breaking down of Shona culture, the ugly aspects of Western ideas,
and the Christian who attempts to blend past and present. In 1959 Mutswairos
novel Murambiwa Goredema (Murambiwa, the Son of Goredema; Eng.
trans. Murambiwa Goredema) was published; it depicts the conflict between the African
past and the urbanized, Westernized, and Christianized contemporary world, with an
emphasis on the need to establish roots within the reality of the world as it is. Also in
1959 John Marangwanda published a novel, Kumazivandadzoka (Who Goes There
Never Comes Back), which describes the effects of Western-style education and the
consequent alienation from traditional society: Saraoga, a boy, is attracted to the city,
becomes corrupted, changes his name, and is arrested and jailed. He again changes
his name, having renounced his mother, who nevertheless continues to seek him.
Education is also a danger in Xavier S. Marimazhiras Ndakaziva haitungamiri (1962; If
I Had Known): Kufakunesu is a wicked teacher, but in the end Christianity brings him to
a new life. The loss of traditional values is treated in Kenneth S. Bepswas Ndakamuda
dakara afa (1960; I Loved Her unto Death), with its emphasis on love and a desire
to cultivate Christian ideals of love: Rujeko and Taremba embody Christian love, but evil
in the form of the jealous Shingirai assaults that relationship. The conflict between
Christianity and tradition is also the subject of L. Washington Chapavadzas Wechitatu
muzvinaguhwa (1963; Two Is Company, Three Is None), an attack on polygamy:
Mazarandanda, married to two women, becomes angered as his wives compete with
each other. Giles Kuimbas Gehena harina moto (1965; Hell Has No Fire) depicts a
woman who is wholly evil; the forces of good and evil struggle, revealing inner conflicts
in other characters in the novel. Emmanuel F. Ribeiros Muchadura (1967; You Shall
Confess) is a reassessment of traditional Shona views of the ancestral spirits.
The major Shona writer of novels during the 20th century was Patrick Chakaipa.
His Karikoga gumiremiseve (1958; Karikoga and His Ten Arrows) is a blend of fantasy
(it is based on a tale from the Shona oral tradition) and history, a love story focusing on
conflicts between Shona and Ndebele peoples. Pfumo reropa (1961; The Spear of
Blood) depicts the dangers of the misuse of power in traditional times: a chief, Ndyire,
manipulates the traditional system to his own selfish advantage. This novel resembles
the Nyanga epic Mwindo: a son of the chief, Tanganeropa, escapes his fathers
murderous wrath to return later and overcome the tyrant. Christianity becomes a theme
in Chakaipas third novel, Rudo ibofu (1962; Love Is Blind), having to do with the
conflict between tradition and Christianity: Rowesai is beaten by her father when she
decides to become a nun. She is later mauled by a leopard. At a dramatic and climactic
movement, she returns home as a nun, and her father converts to
Christianity. Garandichauya (1963; I Shall Return) and Dzasukwa mwana-asina-
hembe (1967; Dzasukwa Beer-for-Sale) focus on contemporary urban life and
its vicissitudes. In the former, Matamba, a boy from the country, falls into the clutches of
a prostitute, Muchaneta. When he returns to his rural home, having been rendered
moneyless by Muchaneta and blinded by her male friends, he finds his wife awaiting
him. In the latter, the corrosive effects of colonialism on Shona tradition are dramatized.
In Nhoroondo dzokuwanana (1958; The Way to Get Married), Paul Chidyausiku

attempts to bring into union traditional Shona beliefs and Christianity: using marriage as
the focal point, it describes a modern African couple, Tadzimirwa and Chiwoniso,
moving into their married life within the context of the two conflicting forces.
Chidyausikus novel Nyadzi dzinokunda rufu (1962; Dishonour Greater than Death;
Eng. trans. Nyadzi dzinokunda rufu) has its hero, Nyika, move from the traditional world
into an urban setting where he is debased and disgraced. Chidyausiku wrote the first
published Shona play, Ndakambokuyambira (1968; I Warned You), which also deals
with the contest resulting when perceived notions of traditionalism are placed within an
urban context. His novel Karumekangu (1970), which takes as its setting urban locales
in Zimbabwe and South Africa, is an effort to blend tradition and urbanism.
The first published poetry in Shona was Soko risina musoro (1958; The Tale Without a
Head; Eng. trans. Soko risina musoro), by Herbert W. Chitepo, a somewhat allegorical
poem about a wandering African who must make a decision whether to preserve
custom or to move in new directions. Wilson Chivaura wrote poetry as well, some of
which was published in Madetembedzo (1969). Shona poetry also appeared in such
journals as Poet, Two Tone, and Chirimo.
Somali
Hikmad Soomaali (Somali Wisdom), a collection of traditional stories in the Somali

language recorded by Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal, was published in 1956. Shire
Jaamac Axmed published materials from the Somali oral tradition as Gabayo,
maahmaah, iyo sheekooyin yaryar (1965; Poems, Proverbs, and Short Stories). He
also edited a literary journal, Iftiinka aqoonta (Light of Education), and published two
short novels in 1973: Halgankiii nolosha (Life Struggle), dealing with the traditional
past in negative terms, and Rooxaan (The Spirits). Further stories from the oral
tradition were written down and published in Cabdulqaadir F. Bootaans Murti iyo
sheekooyin (1973; Traditional Wisdom and Stories) and Muuse Cumar
Islaams Sheekooyin Soomaaliyeed (1973; Somali Stories).
Poetry is a major form of expression in the Somali oral tradition. Its different types
include the gabay, usually chanted, the jiifto, also chanted and usually moody,
the geeraar, short and dealing with war, the buraambur, composed by women,
the heello, or balwo, made up of short love poems and popular on the radio, and
the hees, popular poetry. Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan)
created poetry as a weapon, mainly in the oral tradition. Farah Nuur, Qamaan Bulhan,
and Salaan Arrabey were also well-known poets. Abdillahi Muuse created didactic
poems; Ismaaiil Mire and Sheikh Aqib Abdullah Jama composed religious poetry. Ilmi
Bowndheri wrote love poetry.
Drama has also flourished in the Somali language, and here, as in the languages other
written forms, the oral tradition continues to have a dynamic influence. In 1968 Hassan
Shekh Mumin wrote the play Shabeelnaagood (Leopard Among the Women), which has
to do with marriage and the relations between men and women in contemporary
contexts. Verse influenced by Somali oral tradition plays a major role in this drama. Ali
Sugule, another playwright, wrote Kalahaab iyo kalahaad (1966; Wide Apart and Flown
Asunder), a play concerning traditional and modern ideas about marriage and relations
between the generations.
A story by Axmed Cartan Xaange Qawdhan iyo Qoran published in 1967 in the
journal Horseed examined the situation of women in traditional society. He wrote the
first play in Somali, Samawada (1968), depicting womens role in the independence
struggle after World War II. Somalias daily newspaper serialized stories as well,
including works by Axmed Faarax Cali Idaajaa and Yuusuf Axmed Hero.
In his novel Aqoondarro waa u nacab jacayl (1974; Ignorance Is the Enemy of Love)
the first novel published in SomaliFaarax Maxamed Jaamac Cawl criticized the
traditional past. He made use of documentary sources having to do with the struggle
against colonialism in the early 20th century, when forces under the leadership of
Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan fought, among others, the British colonial powers. The two
central characters in the novel, Cali Maxamed Xasan and Cawrala Barre, were based
on historical characters. The author also brings the oral poetry tradition into the novel,
its characters speaking in poetic language. The novel launches an assault on
ignorance, as the title suggests, born of, among other things, illiteracy. And it takes a
positive view of Somali women. Customs having to do with marriage play an important
role in the novel, especially the subverting of such customs for ones own ends. Cawrala
and Calimaax meet onboard a ship that has sailed from Aden, and they fall in love. But
Cawrala has been promised by her father to another man. Because of a rough sea, the
ship founders, and Calimaax rescues Cawrala from the water. Cawralas love for
Calimaax intensifies, and her relations with her father are therefore strained. She sends
a letter to Calimaax, who, because he cannot read, has Sugulle, his new father-in-law,
read it to him, and this leads to difficulties with his wifes family. When Cawrala learns of
this, she is distressed. Then she learns that Calimaax died while at war. When Cawrala
laments his death, her mother forces her to leave home. Then, at night, a voice comes
to Cawrala, telling her that a hero does not die. And in fact, Calimaax did not die; he
was wounded, but he survived. Alone and wounded, he must fight a leopard, and the
words of Cawralas letter sustain him. In the meantime, Cawrala is miserable, and she
debates with her parents and members of her communitywhether she should marry the
man her father has selected for her. She is forced to marry the man, Geelbadane. But
she becomes so ill that he sends her back to her family. Calimaax, learning of this,
sends a message to her family, asking that she be allowed to marry him. Her family
agrees, but she dies before the marriage can take place. Two years after that, still
suffering from his wounds and his love for Cawrala, Calimaax dies. A later novel by
Cawl, Garbaduubkii gumeysiga (1978; The Shackles of Colonialism), has to do with
contemporary history.
Southern Sotho
The first writer in the Southern Sotho language was Azariele M. Sekese, who gathered
Sotho oral traditions and published them in Mekhoa ea Basotho le maele le
litsomo (1893; Customs and Stories of the Sotho). He also wrote a popular animal
story, Bukana ea tsomo tsa pitso ea linonyana, le tseko ea Sefofu le Seritsa (1928; The
Book of Stories of the Meeting of the Birds, and the Lawsuit between Sefofu and
Seritsa). Historical events, a central focus in much early Sotho literature, are depicted,
for example, in J.J. Machobanes Mahaheng a mato (1946; In the Dark Caves)
and Senate, shoeshoe a Moshoeshoe (1954; Senate, the Pride of Moshoeshoe), both
of which treat events during the reign of the Sotho chief Moshoeshoe. M. Damane wrote
the historical novel Moorosi, morena oa Baphuthi (1948; Moorosi, the King of the
Baphuthi), the story of Moorosi and his dealings with the British. S.M. Guma wrote
historical novels about King Mohlomi (1960) and Queen Mmanthathisis (1962).
The prolific B. Makalo Khaketla published a play in 1947, Moshoeshoe le
baruti (Moshoeshoe and the Missionaries), and historical themes can be found in
plays by E.A.S. Lesoro and B. Malefane, both of whom wrote dramas about the Zulu
chief Shaka. Much of Sotho poetry is derived from the oral tradition; Zakea D.
Mangoaelas collection Lithoko tsa marena a Basotho (1921; Praise of the Sotho Kings)
is the most outstanding example.
The giant figure in Southern Sotho literature is Thomas Mokopu Mofolo. His three
novels were Moeti oa bochabela (1907; The Traveller of the East), Pitseng (1910; In
the Pot; Eng. trans. Pitseng), and Chaka (1925; Eng. trans. Chaka: An Historical
Romance). The Traveller of the East is clearly influenced by Bunyans Pilgrims
Progress (which had been translated into Southern Sotho in 1872): it is an allegorical
work that views Christianity as light and Africa as darkness. Pitseng has to do with
conflicting views of marriage, Christian and traditional. Chaka is a novel about Shaka; it
is an effective blending of Sotho oral tradition and contemporary historical reality and,
from the point of view of storytelling, a yoking of oral and literary forms. Mofolo depends
on the oral traditionmore specifically, the traditional heroic cyclefor the formal
structure of his work. But, like Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall
Apart (1958), Chaka uses a stark element of realism to break with the romanticism and
the circular ordering of oral tradition. By moving the novels central character, Chaka,
out of the purely oral realm and into a more psychologically realistic mode, Mofolo is
able to present his interpretation of the Zulu chief. Mofolos work is significant not only
as a fictionalized historical biography but as a crucial work positioned confidently on the
boundaries ofand revealing the clear connection betweenthe oral and the written.
Mofolo effectively brings the historical Shaka into the context of a psychological Shaka,
and it is the oral tradition that makes this complex layering process possible. In Mofolos
novel the mythic being Isanusi, who serves as both an actor in the narrative and a
commentator on it, enables Mofolo to generate this layering. The importance of Chaka,
then, is not that it is history; it is not. It is a comment on history. Mofolos technique is
derived from oral historians in Southern Africa, who interlaced history with commentary.
Mofolos inclusion of a character such as Isanusi keeps the novel from becoming overly
didactic and also sustains its status as a work of art.
Sotho tradition is a central concern of B.M. Khaketla in his novel Meokho ea

thabo (1951; Tears of Joy). In it a young man, Moeketsi, falls in love, but his beloveds
parents want her to marry someone else. He meets another young woman, but she is
engaged to a man she does not know, and by now Moeketsis parents have chosen a
bride for him. It turns out that he is the man selected for the young woman, and she is
the woman selected as his bride. Ramasoabi le Potso (1937; Ramasoabi and Potso),
by M.L. Maile, and Sekhona sa joala (A Mug of Beer), by T.M. Mofokengboth
didactic, moralizing storieswere among the earliest dramatic works in Southern Sotho.
The conflict between Sotho tradition and the West, including Christianity, can be found
in a number of Sotho works. Everitt Lechesa Segoete wrote the novel Monono ke
moholi ke mouoane (1910; Riches Are Like Mist and Fog), which in a heavily
moralizing way treats the conflict between Sotho tradition and the world of the whites:
Khitane falls in with a criminal, Malebaleba, goes to jail, and then is converted to
Christianity by Malebaleba, who has become an evangelist. Albert Nqhekus novel Arola
naheng ea Maburu (1942; Arola Among the Boers) deals with the conflicts between
blacks and whites, between the rural and the urban, and between tradition and
modernism. Playwrights such as Maile and Khaketla wrote of polygamy; others
examined marriage (J.G. Mocoancoeng), love relationships (J.J. Moiloa, J.D. Koote,
P.S. Motsieloa, V.G.L. Leutsoa, and J.S. Monare), and Christianity and tradition
(Mofokeng).
Swahili
Swahili literature is usually divided into classical and contemporary periods and genres.
There were early historical works, such as Tarekhe ya Pate (The Pate Chronicle);
reassembled by the 19th-century scholar Fumo Omar al-Nabhani, it describes events
from the 13th to the 19th century. Another chronicle, Khabari za Lamu (The Lamu
Chronicle), takes the 18th and 19th centuries as its subject. Both religious and secular
poetry, showing the influence of Muslim Arabic literature and of the East African culture
from which it arose, was a central vehicle of written literary expression. Al Inkishafi (The
Souls Awakening), by Sayyid Abdallah bin Ali bin Nasir, has closer connections to
historical reality, albeit still within an Islamic context. The didactic Utendi wa Mwana
Kupona (1858; Poem of Mwana Kupona) was written by the first prominent Swahili
female poet, Mwana Kupona binti Msham. Love poetry, like other poetry, was sung with
or without musical accompaniment. The epic of the legendary figure Fumo Liyongo wa
Bauri, who likely lived during the 12th century, was created by Muhammad Kijumwa
(Utenzi wa Fumo Liyongo [1913; The Epic of Fumo Liyongo). Muyaka bin Haji al-
Ghassaniy wrote much poetry, including works with nationalistic topics. There were also
contemporary epics, including Utenzi wa vita vya Wadachi kutamalaki mrima, 1307
A.H. (1955; The German Conquest of the Swahili Coast, 1897 A.D.), by Hemedi bin
Abdallah bin Said Masudi al-Buhriy, and Utenzi wa vita vya Maji Maji (1933; The Epic
of the Maji Maji Rebellion), by Abdul Karim bin Jamaliddini. A novel, Habari za
Wakilindi (The Story of the Wakilindi Lineage; Eng. trans. The Kilindi), published in
three volumes between 1895 and 1907 by Abdallah bin Hemedi bin Ali Ajjemy, deals
with the Kilindi, the rulers of the state of Usambara.
It was Shaaban Robert who had the most dynamic and long-lasting effect on
contemporary Swahili literature. He wrote poetry, prose, and proverbs. Almasi za
Afrika (1960; African Diamonds) is one of his famous books of poetry. Of his prose, his
utopian novel trilogy is among his best-known works: Kusadikika, nchi iliyo
angani (1951; Kusadikika, a Country in the Sky), Adili na nduguze (1952; Adili and His
Brothers), and Kufikirika (written in 1946, published posthumously in 1967). Adili and
His Brothers is told largely by means of flashbacks. In Kusadikika a fantasy land is
created. This largely didactic novel is heavy with morals, as suggested by the allegorical
names given to the characters. (In the succeeding works of his trilogy, Robert moves
away from the homiletic somewhat.) By means of flashbacks and images of the
future, Kusadikika tells the story of Karama, which occurs mainly in a courtroom. Like
many other African authors of his time, he juxtaposes the oral and the written in this
novel; it is his experimentation with narrative time that is unique. Robert also wrote
essays and Utenzi wa vita vya uhuru, 1939 hata 1945 (1967; The Epic of the Freedom
War, 1939 to 1945).
Significant poetry collections include Amri Abedis Sheria za kutunga mashairi na diwani
ya Amri (1954; The Principles of Poetics Together with a Collection of Poems by
Amri). Ahmad Nassir and Abdilatif Abdalla also wrote poetry. Abdallas Sauti ya
dhiki (1973; The Voice of Agony) contains poems composed between 1969 and 1972,
when he was a political prisoner. Euphrase Kezilahabi wrote poetry (as in Karibu
ndani [1988; Come In]) that led the way to the establishment of free verse in Swahili.
Other experimenters with poetry included Mugyabuso M. Mulokozi and Kulikoyela K.
Kahigi, who together published Malenga wa bara (1976). Ebrahim N. Hussein and
Penina Muhando produced innovative dramatic forms through a synthesis of Western
drama and traditional storytelling and verse. A play by Hussein, Kinjeketile (1969; Eng.
trans. Kinjeketile), deals with the Maji Maji uprising, and Muhando wrote such plays
as Hatia (1972; Guilt), Tambueni haki zetu (1973; Reveal Our Rights), Heshima
yangu (1974; My Honour), and Pambo (1975; Decoration). The Paukwa Theatre
Association of Tanzania produced Ayubu, published in 1984. Henry Kuria experimented
with drama with such plays as Nakupenda, lakini (1957; I Love You, But).
Muhammad Saleh Abdulla Farsy wrote the novel Kurwa and Doto: maelezo ya makazi
katika kijiji cha Unguja yaani Zanzibar (1960; Kurwa and Doto: A Novel Depicting
Community Life in a Zanzibari Village). Another utopian novel was written by Paul O.
Ugula, Ufunguo wenye hazina (1969; The Key to the Treasure). There were also
novels about contemporary society, including Kuishi kwingi ni kuona mengi (1968;
Living Long Is to Experience Much) and Alipanda upepo kuvuna tufani (1969; He
Who Sows the Wind Reaps the Storm), by J.N. Somba. Christianity is a strong
influence in these novels. The Mau Mau uprising is treated in a novel by P.M.
Kareithi, Kaburi bila msalaba (1969; Grave Without a Cross). Muhammad Said Abdulla
wrote the first Swahili detective novel, Mzimu wa watu wa kale (1960; Graveyard of the
Ancestors), and with the appearance of Faraji Katalambullas Simu ya kifo (1965;
Phone Call of Death), the genre hit its stride. G.C. Mkangis novel Ukiwa (1975;
Loneliness) and Ndyanao Balisidyas novel Shida (1975; Hardship) focus on
contemporary social conflicts.
Popular newspaper fiction was a major source of literary storytelling during the 20th
century. It appeared in such newspapers as Baraza and Taifa Weekly and included
writing by A.T. Banzi (Lazima nimwoe nitulize moyo [1970; I Have to Marry Her to
Calm My Heart]) and Bob N. Okoth (Rashidi akasikia busu kali lamvuta ulimi [1969;
Rashidi Felt a Wild Kiss Pulling His Tongue]). In the 1980s this genre flourished with
works by such authors as the prolific Ben R. Mtobwa and Rashidi Ali Akwilombe.
In addition to pushing the boundaries of verse, Kezilahabi also experimented with the
novel form; Nagona (1990) is an example. He had a major influence on the
contemporary novel. In his Rosa Mistika (1971) the effects of alien cultures
on indigenous cultures are measured. In Kichwamaji (1974; Waterhead) he treats the
conflict between the generations, and in Dunia uwanja wa fujo (1975; The World Is a
Field of Chaos) he emphasizes the effects of foreign cultures on indigenous cultures.
His critical stand on Tanzanias socialism is reflected in Gamba la nyoka (1979; The
Snakes Skin). In Kwaheri Iselamagazi (1992; Goodbye, Iselamagazi), Bernard
Mapalala explores critically the rule of the Nyamwezi warlord Mirambo during the 19th
century. The topic of AIDS emerged in the 1980s in novels such as Kifo cha
AIDS (1988; An AIDS Death), by Clemence Merinyo.
Xhosa
The first piece of Xhosa writing was a hymn written in the early 19th century by
Ntsikana. The Bible was translated between the 1820s and 1859. Lovedale Press was
established in the 19th century by the London Missionary Society. In 1837 the
Wesleyans published a journal, Umshumayeli Indaba (The Preachers News), which
ran to 1841. Lovedale, the Scots mission, was the centre of early Xhosa
writing. Ikhwezi was produced during the years 1844 and 1845. The Wesleyan
missionaries started a magazine in 1850, Isitunywa Senyanga (The Monthly
Messenger); its publication was interrupted by one of the frontier wars. A monthly in
both Xhosa and English, Indaba (The News), edited by William Govan, ran from 1862
until 1865; it was succeeded by The Kaffir Express in 1876, to be replaced by Isigidimi
samaXhosa (The Xhosa Messenger), in Xhosa only. John Tengo Jabavu and William
Gqoba were its editors. It ceased publication with Gqobas death in 1888. Imvo
Zabantsundu (Opinions of the Africans) was a newspaper edited by Jabavu, who was
assisted by John Knox Bokwe. Izwi Labantu (The Voice of the People) began
publication in 1897 with Nathaniel Cyril Mhala as its editor; it was financially assisted
by Cecil Rhodes, who had resigned as prime minister of Cape Colony in 1896. Much
early Xhosa prose and poetry appeared in these periodicals.
African protest, which was not allowed in works published by the mission presses, was
heard in the journals. In fact, Imvo Zabantsundu was suppressed by military authorities
during the South African War. Gqoba and William Wawuchope Citashe published
politically potent poetry in the newspapers. Jonas Ntsiko (pseudonym uHadi
Waseluhlangeni [Harp of the Nation]) in 1877 urged Isigidimi samaXhosa to speak out
on political issues. Poets such as Henry Masila Ndawo and S.E.K. Mqhayi assailed
white South Africans for creating an increasingly repressive atmosphere for
blacks. James J.R. Jolobe attempted in his poetry to blend nostalgia for the Xhosa past
with an acceptance of the Christian present. (Indeed, many early writers of prose and
verse had Christian backgrounds that were the result of their having attended
missionary schools, and so shared Jolobes thematic concerns.) Mqhayi was called "the
father of Xhosa poetry" by the Zulu poet and novelist Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, but
Jolobe was the innovator who experimented aggressively with form.
Some of the first prose writers, such as Gqoba and W.B. Rubusana, were concerned
with putting into print materials from the Xhosa oral traditions. Tiyo Soga and his son,
John Henderson Soga, translated Bunyans Pilgrims Progress into Xhosa as uHambo
lomhambi (1866 and 1926). Henry Masila Ndawos first novel, uHambo
lukaGqoboka (1909; The Journey of a Convert), was heavily influenced by the first half
of that translation. The Xhosa oral tradition also had an effect on Ndawos work,
including the novel uNolishwa (1931), about a woman whose name means "Misfortune."
Brought up in an urban environment, she is the cause of difficulties among her people
and between the races. In uNomathamsanqa noSigebenga (1937; Nomathamsanqa
and Sigebenga)the name Nomathamsanqa meaning "Good Fortune" and the name
Sigebenga meaning "Criminal" or "Ogre"the son of a traditional chief provides
sustenance for his people. Enoch S. Guma, in his novel uNomalizo; okanye, izinto
zalomhlaba ngamajingiqiwu (1918; Nomalizo; or, The Things of This Life Are Sheer
Vanity), wrote a somewhat allegorical study of two boys, borrowing the structure of the
story from the Xhosa oral tradition.
Guybon Sinxos novels describe city life in a way similar to those of Alex La Guma, a
South African writer, and those of the Nigerian author Cyprian Ekwensi. In
Sinxos uNomsa (1922), the main character, Nomsa, becomes aware of the dangers of
urban living, learning "that the very people who most pride themselves on their
civilization" act against those ideals. In the end, Nomsa marries the village drunk and
reforms him; she then returns with him to the country, where she creates a loving home,
albeit a Christian one. In Sinxos second novel, Umfundisi waseMthuqwasi (1927; The
Priest of Mthuqwasi), Thamsanqa, a businessman, has a dream that inspires him to
become a Christian minister, but in so doing he severs his connections with his
traditional past and soon after dies, exhausted. His brother-in-law, however, combines
Christianity and Xhosa tradition in his life, and he survives. Sinxos third novel,
published in 1939, was Umzali wolahleko (The Prodigal Parent), the story of a boy,
Ndopho, and his brother, Ndimeni. Ndopho is spoiled; Ndimeni does all the work in the
household. Ndimenis labours bring him success, while Ndophos self-involvement leads
him steadily down. Sinxo moralizes, "No Xhosa will flourish if he continues to drink!"
The greatest achievement in Xhosa writing, and one of Africas finest novels,
is Ingqumbo yeminyanya (1940; The Wrath of the Ancestors), written by A.C. Jordan. In
this novel Jordan explores the central issue that concerned most of the writers who
came before himthe relationship between African tradition and the intrusion of the
West into African societiesand in the process he moves the novel form into greater
complexity and nuance. In an unsparingly realistic way, Zwelinzima, the novels central
character, is confronted with the demands of Mpondomise tradition and Western
Christianity, of past and present. What dooms Zwelinzima is that he is unable to bring
these warring sides into harmony. Like Okonkwo in Achebes Things Fall Apart and
Chaka in Mofolos Chaka, Zwelinzima is given the opportunity to assume a heroic role,
but, because of an essential flaw, he is brought down in a starkly realistic manner by an
internal psychological struggle. That struggle is the conflict within his society writ small.
Other novelists after Jordan continued in various ways and with varied degrees of
success to deal with these same issues, including P.M. Lutshete in Unyana
wolahleko (1965; The Prodigal Son) and Peter M. Mtuze in uDingezweni (1966). In
E.B. Ndovelas Sikondini (1966), the character Zwilakhe cuts himself off from Xhosa
customs and lives an unhappy life, while Jongikhaya, who has steadily followed Xhosa
customs, is happily married and has become a successful businessman. Westernized
Africans and uncompromising Xhosa traditionalists are at cross-purposes in Z.S.
Qangules Izagweba (1972; Weapons). In K.S. Bongelas Alitshoni
lingenandaba (1971; The Sun Does Not Set Without News), the reader is led to a
revelation of the corruption that results when traditional ties are broken. Christianity and
urban corruption are at the centre of Witness K. Tamsanqas Inzala kaMlungisi (1954;
The Progeny of Mlungisi). Tradition and modernism are a theme in D.Z.
Dyaftas Ikamva lethu (1953; Our Ancestry) and E.S.M. Dlovas Umvuzo
wesono (1954; The Wages of Sin). Other authorssuch as Aaron Mazambana
Mmango, Marcus A.P. Ngani, Bertrand Bomela, Godfrey Mzamane, D.M. Lupuwana,
and Minazana Danaconfronted very similar issues. These writers tried to come to
terms with the world that so enthralled 19th-century Xhosa intellectuals but that lost its
appeal as the marginalized role of the African in it became more and more evident.
Yoruba
In a story from the Yoruba oral tradition, a boy moves farther and farther away from
home. With the assistance of a fantasy character, a fox, the boy is able to meet the
challenges set by ominous oba (kings) in three kingdoms, each a greater distance from
the boys home. The fox becomes the storytellers means of revealing the developing
wisdom of the boy, who steadily loses his innocence and moves to manhood. This oral
tale is the framework for the best-known work in Yoruba and the most significant
contribution of the Yoruba language to fiction: D.O. Fagunwas Ogboju ode ninu igbo
irunmale (1938; The Forest of a Thousand Daemons), which contains fantasy and
realistic images along with religious didacticism and Bunyanesque allegory, all placed
within a frame story that echoes that of The Thousand and One Nights. The novel very
effectively combines the literary and oral forces at work among Yoruba artists of the
time. Its central character is Akara-ogun. He moves into a forest three times, each time
confronting fantasy characters and each time involved in a difficult task. In the end, he
and his followers go to a wise man who reveals to them the accumulated wisdom of
their adventures. The work was successful and was followed by others, all written in a
similar way: Igbo olodumare (1949; The Jungle of the Almighty), Ireke-
Onibudo (1949), and Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje (1954; Irinkerindo the Hunter in the
Town of Igbo Elegbeje; Eng. trans. Expedition to the Mount of Thought), all rich
combinations of Yoruba and Western images and influences. Fagunwas final
novel, Adiitu olodumare (1961; Gods Mystery-Knot), placed a more contemporary
story into the familiar fantasy framework: so as to help his poverty-stricken parents, the
central character, Adiitu, journeys into a forest, struggles with creatures of the forest,
and finds his parents dead when he returns home. He moves into heaven in a dream,
where he encounters his parents. He falls in love with Iyunade, and they are marooned
on an island, where he saves her. When they get to their home, a friend of Adiitu
attempts to destroy the relationship, but in the end they are married. Realism is faced
with fantasy in the structure of the story, in the characters, and in the events. This
combination of a folktale with a realistic frame revealed new possibilities to Yoruba
writers.
There are two competing strands in Yoruba literature, one influenced by the rich Yoruba
oral tradition, the other receiving its impetus from the West. The history of Yoruba
literature moves between these forces. The earliest literary works were translations of
Bunyans Pilgrims Progress, published as Ilosiwaju ero-mimo in 1866, and of the Bible,
published as Bibeli mimo in 1900. There was an early series of Yoruba school
readers, Iwe kika Yoruba (190915), containing prose and poetry. The first written
poetry, by such poets as J. Sobowale Sowande and A. Kolawole Ajisafe, dealt with
personal and historical experiences. These poems combined traditional poetic
structures and contemporary events as well as religious influences. At about the same
time, Denrele Adetimkan Obasa published, in 1927, a volume of materials from the
Yoruba oral tradition (other volumes followed in 1934 and 1945).
A realistic treatment of the Yoruba past was attempted by Adekanmi Oyedele, whose
novel Aiye re! (1947; What People Do!) deals with traditional Yoruba life. Isaac
Oluwole Delanos Aiye daiye oyinbo (1955; Changing Times: The White Man Among
Us) is another novel in this realistic vein; it deals with the coming of the Europeans. His
second novel, Lojo ojo un (1963; In Olden Times), is also a historical novel. Joseph
Folahan Odunjo also wrote two novels, Omo oku orun (1964; The Deceased Womans
Daughter) and Kuye (1964), the latter about a Cinderella-type boy who moves from
misery to happiness.
Other works, perhaps influenced by Fagunwa, melded fantasy and realism: Olorun
esan (1952; Gods Vengeance), by Gabriel Ibitoye Ojo, and Ogun Kiriji (1961; The
Kiriji War), by Olaiya Fagbamigbe, also have oral roots. J. Ogunsina Ogundele wrote
novels, including Ibu-Olokun (1956; The Deeps of Olokun) and Ejigbede lona isalu-
orun (1956; Ejigbede Going to Heaven), that move characters into realms of fantasy.
D.J. Fatanmi wrote Korimale ninu igbo Adimula (1967; Korimale in the Forest of
Adimula), which also shows the influence of Fagunwa. Femi Jeboda
wrote Olowolaiyemo (1964), a realistic novel having to do with life in a Yoruba city.
Adebayo Faletis works, such as the short novel Ogun awitele (1965; A War Foreseen)
and the narrative poem Eda ko laropin (1956; Dont Underrate), display fantasy roots.
Faleti also published a historical novel, Omo olokun-esin (1970; Son of the Horses
Master). Afolabi Olabimtan wrote a realistic novel, Kekere ekun (1967; Leopard Boy),
a heavily Christian work. Akinwunmi Isola wrote O le ku (1974; Fearful Incidents), a
realistic novel.
Drama was also being developed in the middle of the 20th century. Olanipekun Esans
plays based on Greek tragedies were produced in 1965 and 1966. Other significant
playwrights include Faleti, Olabimtan, Hubert Ogunde, and Duro Ladipo.
Zulu
Like most other African literatures, Zulu literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries
falls into two distinct categories, one concerned with traditional (Zulu) life and customs,
the other with Christianity. These two broad areas of early literary activity combined in
the 1930s in an imaginative literature that focused on a conflict that profoundly
preoccupied southern African writers for decadesthe conflict between the urban,
Christian, Westernized milieu and the traditional, largely rural African past.
There were early translations of the Christian scriptures in the mid-19th century.
Bunyans Pilgrims Progress was also translated and published in two parts (1868 and
1895). Magema kaMagwaza Fuzes Abantu abamnyama lapha bavela
ngakhona (Where the Black People Came From) was published in 1922. Written
works on Zulu customs also appeared, including Petros Lamulas Isabelo
sikaZulu (1936; Zulu Heritage) and T.Z. Masondos Amasiko esiZulu (1940; Zulu
Customs). R.H. Thembus story uMamazane (1947) includes references to Zulu
tradition. Cyril Lincoln Sibusiso Nyembezi and Otty Ezrom Howard Mandlakayise
Nxumalo compiled Zulu customs, as did Leonhard L.J. Mncwango, Moses John
Ngcobo, and M.A. Xaba. Violet Dubes Woza nazo (1935; Come with Stories), Alan
Hamilton S. Mbata and Garland Clement S. Mdhladhlas uChakijana bogcololo
umphephethi wezinduku zabafo (1927; Chakijana the Clever One, the Medicator of the
Mens Fighting Sticks), and F.L.A. Ntulis Izinganekwane nezindaba ezindala (1939;
Oral Narratives and Ancient Traditions) are compilations of oral stories. Nyembezi
gathered and annotated Zulu and Swati heroic poems in Izibongo zamakhosi (1958;
Heroic Poems of the Chiefs), and E.I.S. Mdhladhlas uMgcogcoma (1947; Here and
There) contains Zulu narratives.
These early Zulu writers were amassing the raw materials with which the modern Zulu
novel would be built. Christian influence from abroad would combine with the
techniques of traditional Zulu oral traditions to create this new form. There would also
be one additional ingredient: the events that constituted Zulu history. Two outstanding
early writers dealt with historical figures and events. One, John Langalibalele Dube,
became the first Zulu to write a novel in his native language with Insila kaShaka (1933;
Shakas Servant; Eng. trans. Jeqe, the Bodyservant of King Shaka). The
second, R.R.R. Dhlomo, published a popular series of five novels on Zulu
kings: uDingane (1936), uShaka (1937), uMpande (1938), uCetshwayo (1952),
and uDinuzulu (1968). Other historical novels include Lamulas uZulu
kaMalandela (1924). S.B.L. Mbathas Nawe Mbopha kaSithayi (1971; You Too,
Mbopha, Son of Sithayi) is built on the drama of Shakas assassination, as is Elliot
Zondis drama Ukufa kukaShaka (1966; The Death of Shaka); and Benedict Wallet
Vilakazis uDingiswayo kaJobe (1939; Dingiswayo, Son of Jobe) is a study of Shakas
mentor, the Mtetwa leader Dingiswayo. Among other written works based on Zulu
history are Muntu s uSimpofu (1969); L.S. Luthangos uMohlomi (1938), a biography of
Mohlomi, the adviser of the Sotho chief Moshoeshoe; and Imithi ephundliwe (1968;
Barked Trees), an imaginative work by Moses Hlela and Christopher Nkosi based on
the Zulu War. The historical trickster Chakijana, who became famous during the
Bambatha Rebellion, is depicted in A.Z. Zungus uSukabekhuluma (1933), and Bethuel
Blose Ndelu composed a drama, Mageba lazihlonza (1962; I Swear by Mageba, the
Dream Has Materialized), set during the reign of the Zulu king Cetshwayo.
At the heart of Zulu literature of the 20th century is oral tradition. The magical aura of
the oral is present but disguised in the written tradition of the Zulu people. The
movement from the oral to the written was achieved without difficulty: in the beginning,
some Zulu authors utilized written forms as venues for sermonizing; others simply
reproduced the oral in writing. But more adventurous and creative writers quickly saw
the connections between the two and fashioned written works using the looms of the
oral. Zulu literature owes something to influences from the West, but the indigenous oral
tradition is dominant. Stories of the contemporary world are constructed over the old
oral stories; the space of the eternal, an aspect of the ancient tradition, gives way to the
space of the immediate, and the values expressed in the oral stories continue to
influence the written ones.
In a number of novels, Zulu writers contend with the conflict between tradition and
Christianity. In James N. Gumbis Baba ngixolele (1966; Father, Forgive Me), a girl,
Fikile, struggles with what she perceives as a gap between those two worlds. S.V.H.
Mdluli explores the same theme in uBhekizwe namadodana akhe (1966; Bhekizwe and
His Young Sons): a good son retains his ties with his parents (i.e., tradition) and
becomes a successful teacher. A bad son goes wrong and is on the edge of destruction
until he recovers his roots. J.M. Zamas novel Nigabe ngani? (1948; On What Do You
Pride Yourself?) is similarly constructed around positive and negative characters. A
stepmother, Mamathunjwa, spoils her own children, Simangaliso and Nomacala, but
despises her two stepchildren, Msweli and Hluphekile. Christianity is not the villain;
instead it is the relaxation of Zulu values that is the problem. Msweli and Hluphekile
succeed, while the pampered children die in shame. This insistence on retaining a
connection with the African past produced a literature interwoven with Negritude, or
black consciousness, a theme that would become a dominant one in South African
politics in the 1960s and 70s.
Dhlomos novel Indlela yababi (1946; The Bad Path) investigates the polarity between
urbanized life and traditional practices and concludes that the former is unstable. A
similar theme is developed in a novel by Jordan Kush Ngubane, Uvalo
lwezinhlonzi (1956; Fear of Authority). Gumbis novel Wayesezofika ekhaya (1966;
He Was About to Go Home) shows a country boy turning to crime as a result of
urbanization. There is much of the Zulu oral tradition and of Pilgrims Progress in such
novels, both in content and in form. The influence of Jordans The Wrath of the
Ancestors can be seen in Kenneth Bhengus Umbuso weZembe nenkinga
kaBhekifa (1959; The Government of Zembe and Bhekifas Problem): a chief and his
wife, both educated in schools influenced by the West, come into conflict with Zulu
tradition. A city trickster cons country people out of their savings in Nyembezis Inkinsela
yaseMgungundlovu (1961; The Man from Mgungundlovu). That theme persists in
Nyembezis most successful novel, Mntanami! Mntanami! (1950; My Child! My Child!;
Eng. trans. Mntanami! Mntanami!): the character Jabulani loves the city, but,
unprepared to deal with it, he becomes a criminal. In Nxumalos Ngisinga
empumalanga (1969; I Look to the East), a man loses his children when Zulu tradition
is compromised. In Ikusasa alaziwa (1961; Tomorrow Is Not Known), Nxumalo shows
that the urban environment need not be fatal and that Christianity and Zulu values can
together act as guides.
Zulu poetry varies widely, from imitating ancient Zulu poetic forms to analyzing the
system of apartheid that dominated life in South Africa during the 20th century. Some of
the finest Zulu poetry can be found in two collections by Nxumalo, Ikhwezi (1965; The
Morning Star) and Umzwangedwa (1968; Self-Consciousness). In Hayani
maZulu (1969; Sing, Zulu People), P. Myeni sought to adapt ancient forms to modern
literary Zulu. Other Zulu poets who wrote during the second half of the 20th century
include Deuteronomy Bhekinkosi Z. Ntuli (Amangwevu [1969; Uppercuts]), J.C.
Dlamini (Inzululwane [1957; Giddiness; Eng. trans. Inzululwane]), N.J. Makhaye (Isoka
lakwaZulu [1972; The Young Man of kwaZulu]), M.T. Mazibuko (Ithongwane [1969;
Snuffbox]), and Elliot Alphas Nsizwane kaTimothy Mkize (Kuyokoma Amathe [1970;
Until the Mouth Dries Up]).
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Afrikaans
Afrikaans literature in South Africa can be viewed in the context of Dutch literary
tradition or South African literary tradition. Within an African context, Afrikaans literature
will be forever on the outside. As is the case with the language, it is caught in an identity
crisis that was created irrevocably by the fiercely defended political and cultural identity
of the Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in 1652 and whose descendants,
together with English-speaking whites, took over the government in 1948, after which
the notorious system of apartheid was enshrined in laws that would be demolished only
in the early 1990s. The conservative branch of the Afrikaner people, always the most
numerous and the most powerful, was in conflict throughout the 20th century with a
talented and growing group of young poets and novelists, such as C. Louis
Leipoldt and Breyten Breytenbach, who sought to broaden the confines of an
increasingly limited people and literature. The history of Afrikaans literature is the history
of the Afrikaners, an alien people whose literature is a testimony to that state of
alienation.
Afrikaans, with its roots in Dutch, has been spoken in South Africa mainly by whites
since the 18th century. The First Afrikaans Language Movement began in 1875, led
by Stephanus Jacobus du Toit and others; it represented an effort to make Afrikaans a
language separate from Dutch. The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Patriot (The
Patriot), began publication in 1876. The linguistic shift from Dutch to Afrikaans did not
occur without considerable dispute among the whites of Dutch descent. It was after
the South African War (18991902)which became a prominent subject of early
Afrikaans literaturethat Afrikaans became a significant written language. Winternag
(1905; Winters Night), a poem by Eugne Marais, and Die vlakte (1906; The
Plain), a poem by Jan Celliers, dramatically ushered in this new literary language,
along with language organizations such as the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie (founded
1909). Die brandwag (The Outpost), a magazine, had a literary section from 1910. The
Hertzog Prize for poetry, prose, and drama in Afrikaans was established in 1914.
Publishing houses specializing in Afrikaans publications began in 1914 and 1915. In
1914 Cornelius Jakob Langenhoven fostered Afrikaans in schools, and the language
was soon after studied at universities and used as a medium of instruction. Parliament
recognized Afrikaans as an official language in 1925, six years after it was named the
language of the Dutch Reformed Church. Earlier 19th-century writing had been heavily
didactic; by the 1920s this had begun to change.
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Poets became the most potent harbingers of the new language as the Second Afrikaans
Language Movement began; they included Leipoldt, Marais, Celliers, Jakob Daniel du
Toit (Totius), Daniel Franois Malherbe, and Toon van den Heever. Leipoldt, who would
one day be condemned as a traitor to Afrikaners, was probably one of the greatest and
most original poets of the early 20th century, while Marais in his poetry linked European
tradition to the realities of life in South Africa. Prose also appeared during this period,
moving away from such melodramatic works as Johannes van Wyk (1906), a novel by
J.H.H. de Waal, to more rigorously realistic historical works, such as those by Gustav
Preller. Realism began to dominate Afrikaans prose, especially in the work of Jochem
van Bruggen, who wrote a trilogy, the first part of which was Ampie, die
natuurkind (1931; Ampie, the Child of Nature), a study of a poor white in South Africa.
A.A. Pienaar (pseudonym Sangiro) wrote popular books about animals. Drama also
began to flourish through the writings of Leipoldt, Langenhoven, and H.A. Fagan.
Langenhoven was also a popular poet, as was A.G. Visser.
Dramatic events in the 1930sincluding a drought that caused many farmers to move
to the cities, significant political changes, a sharpening of racial conflict, and the
deepening of the Afrikaans-English conflictisolated Afrikaners more dramatically in
South Africa, and fiercely partisan organizations such as the Afrikaner-Broederbond and
Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge gained new adherents. The Afrikaner
poets known as the Dertigers (Thirtyers, or writers of the 1930s) infuriated
conservative Afrikaners with a new type of poetry. The poetry of W.E.G. Louw, N.P. van
Wyk Louw, and Elisabeth Eybers was at the heart of this fertile activity, which centred
on experimentation with form. Van Wyk Louws Raka (1941) is a rhymed study of evil,
with Raka as the incarnation of this evil taking over a community. Uys
Krige wrote romantic poetry but is known for his war poetry and as a dramatist. There
was prose written during this period by Abraham H. Jonker, C.M. van den Heever, and
Johannes van Melle, whose Bart Nel (1936), dealing with the Afrikaner rebellion of
191415, is considered by some to be the finest novel in Afrikaans.
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After World War II, literary magazines carried Afrikaans works. D.J. Opperman
continued the experimentation with the Afrikaans language in his poetry, and he
introduced decisively South African racial themes into his work. In 1954 Arthur Fula
became one of the first black Africans to write a novel in Afrikaans. Audrey Blignault and
Elise Muller wrote short stories and essays. Anna M. Louw wrote novels.
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The Sestigers (Sixtyers, or writers of the 1960s) attempted to do for prose what the
Dertigers had done for poetry. Jan Rabie, Etienne Leroux, Dolf van Niekerk, Andr P.
Brink, Abraham de Vries, and Chris Barnard experimented with the novel and moved
into areas largely forbidden until that time, such as sex and atheism. Brinks Lobola vir
die lewe (1962; Pledge for Life) and Orgie (1965; Orgy) caused sensations. Bartho
Smit wrote Moeder Hanna (1959; Mother Hanna), an acclaimed drama about the
South African War. He also wrote Putsonderwater (1962; Well-Without-Water),
considered among the finest plays produced in Afrikaans; it could not be performed
because of its political message. Elsa Joubert wrote a novel about a black woman, Die
swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (1978; The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena,
or Poppie). Karel Schoemans n Ander land (1984; Another Country) moved into the
sensitive political and social realities of South Africa. Adam Small wrote works, such
as Kanna hy k hystoe (1965; KannaHe Is Coming Home), that revealed the realities
of the lives of nonwhites in South Africa. Ingrid Jonker wrote intensely personal
poetry. Breytenbach wrote surreal poetry, his work revealing his struggle with the
Afrikaners political situation in South Africa. His Katastrofes (1964; Catastrophes) is a
series of sketches that take racism, death, and madness as their subjects.

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These themes persisted through the end of the 20th century. Riana Scheepers, in Die
ding in die vuur (1990; The Thing in the Fire), a collection of short stories, blended
Zulu oral tradition with the world of apartheid. Marlene van Niekerk wrote Triomf (1994;
Triumph; Eng. trans. Triomf), a novel based on Sophiatown, a black settlement near
Johannesburg that was replaced by the South African government in the 1950s and
60s by a white working-class suburb dubbed Triomf. In Lettie Viljoens Klaaglied vir
Koos (1984; Lament for Koos), a husband leaves his family to join the fight against
apartheid. In his novels Toorberg (1986; Ancestral Voices) and Kikoejoe (1996; Kikuyu),
Etienne van Heerden dealt with 20th-century South African history. (See also treatment
of literature in Afrikaans in South African literature.)
English
Early works in English in western Africa include a Liberian novel, Love in Ebony: A West
African Romance, published in 1932 by Charles Cooper (pseudonym Varfelli Karlee), as
well as such works of Ghanaian pulp literature as J. Benibengor Blays Emelias
Promise and Fulfilment (1944). R.E. Obeng, a Ghanaian, wrote Eighteenpence (1941),
an early work on the conflict between African and European cultures. Other early
popular writers in Ghana include Asare Konadu, Efua Sutherland, and Kwesi Brew. The
Nigerian Amos Tutuola wrote The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine
Tapster in the Deads Town (1952), its construction revealing a clear linkage between
the oral and literary traditions. In it the hero moves to Deads Town to bring his tapster
back to the land of the living; the elixir that the hero brings back from the land of the
dead, however, is an egg that is death-dealing as surely as it is life-giving. Tutuola is
faithful to oral tradition, but he places the traditional journeying tale into a very
contemporary framework.
Nigeria has been a font of creative writing in English, from the works of Chinua
Achebe to those of Ben Okri. Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1986, is known for his drama, poetry, and prose. His The Interpreters (1965) weaves
stories from the contemporary world to the mythic and historical past, manipulating time
so that in the end the very structure of the story is a comment on the lives of the several
protagonists. Soyinka was a contributor to and coeditor of the influential journal Black
Orpheus, founded in 1957 and containing the early works of poets such as Christopher
Okigbo of Nigeria, Dennis Brutus and Alex La Guma of South Africa, and Tchicaya U
Tamsi of Congo (Brazzaville). Another literary journal, The Horn, launched in 1958
by John Pepper Clark, provided additional opportunities for writers to have their works
published. Transition, a literary journal begun in Uganda in 1960 by Rajat Neogi, was
also a valuable outlet for many African writers.
Achebes Things Fall Apart (1958) is perhaps the best-known African novel of the 20th
century. Its main character is Okonkwo, whose tragic and fatal flaw, his overweening
ambition, wounds him. His frenzied desire to be anything but what his father was
causes him to develop a warped view of his society, so that in the end that view
becomes (thanks to seven humiliating years in exile) reality to him. When he returns, he
cannot accept seeing his people in the throes of adapting to the intruding whites, and
things fall apart for him: it is not the society he envisioned, and he takes his life. Things
Fall Apart is a precolonial novel that ends with the coming of colonialism, which triggers
Okonkwos demise. Okonkwo is in any case doomed because of his skewed
vision. Flora Nwapa wrote the novel Efuru (1966), the story of a talented, brilliant, and
beautiful woman who, living in a small community, is confined by tradition. A womans
fundamental role, childbearing, is prescribed for her, and if she does not fulfill that role
she suffers the negative criticism of members of her society. Borrowing a technique
from the oral tradition, Nwapa injects the dimension of fantasy through the character of
the goddess Uhamiri, who is a mythic counterpart to the real-life Efuru. In The Slave
Girl (1977) the novelist Buchi Emecheta tells the story of Ojebeta, who, as she journeys
from childhood to adulthood, moves not to freedom and independence but from one
form of slavery to another. Okri blends fantasy and reality in his novel The Famished
Road (1991; part of a trilogy that also includes Songs of Enchantment [1993]
and Infinite Riches [1998]). In the novel, which addresses the reality of postcolonial
Nigeria, Okri uses myth, the Yoruba abiku (spirit child), and other fantasy images to
shift between preindependence and postindependence settings. The spiritual and real
worlds are linked in the novel, the one a dimension of the other, in a narrative mode that
African storytellers have been using for centuries.
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In other parts of western Africa, Lenrie Peters of The Gambia and Syl Cheyney-Coker
of Sierra Leone were among the most important 20th-century writers. The novelist Ebou
Dibba and the poet Tijan M. Sallah were also from The Gambia. Cameroonian authors
writing in English during the second half of the 20th century include Babila Mutia, John
S. Dinga, and Jedida Asheri. Writers in Ghana during the same period include Amma
Darko, B. Kojo Laing, Kofi Awoonor, and Ayi Kwei Armah. In Fragments (1970) Armah
tells of a youth, Baako, who returns from the United States to his Ghanaian family and is
torn between the new demands of his home and the consequent subversion of a
traditional past represented by the mythic Naana, his blind grandmother, who
establishes a context for the tragic story Baako is experiencing.
The dominant writer to emerge from East Africa is the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiongo. In A
Grain of Wheat (1967) he tells the story of Mugo, alone and alienated, farming after
having played a role in the Mau Mau rebellion; though he has considered himself the
Moses of his people, he has a terrible secret. As Mugos story unfolds, the novelist
works into his narrative other stories, including those of Gikonyo, Mumbi, and Karanja,
each of whom has an unsavoury past as well. Ngugi constructs the story around the
proverb Kikulacho ki nguoni mwako (That which bites you is in your own clothing).
Later in his career Ngugi, who spent many years in exile from Kenya, engaged many
writers in a debate as to whether African writers should compose their works in
European or African languages.
Other East African novelists include Okello Oculi, Grace Ogot, Peter K. Palangyo, and
W.E. Mkufya. In Timothy Wangusas novel Upon This Mountain (1989), the character
Mwambu climbs a mountain and comes of age. In two novels from Uganda a boy
moves to manhood: Abyssinian Chronicles (2000), by Moses Isegawa, and The Season
of Thomas Tebo (1986), by John Nagenda, the latter an allegorical novel in which a
boys loss of innocence is tied to politics in that country. One of Africas greatest
novelists is the Somali writer Nuruddin Farah, who wrote a trilogy composed of the
novels Maps (1986), Gifts (1992), and Secrets (1998). Maps is the story of a youth,
Askar, growing up in a Somalia divided by Ethiopia. With the mythic Misra, who
becomes his surrogate mother, and by means of a geographical movement that occurs
within a rich mixture of politics and sex, the boy seeks his identity, a quest that becomes
linked to the identity of the land across which he moves.
From Malawi came such writers as Jack Mapanje, whose collection of poems Skipping
Without Ropes (1998) reflects on his four years as a political prisoner, and David
Rubadiri. Other writers from Southern Africa include Fwanyanga M. Mulikita and
Dominic Mulaisho from Zambia and Berhane Mariam Sahle Sellassie, Daniachew
Worku, and Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin from Ethiopia. Solomon M. Mutswairo, Dambudzo
Marechera, Shimmer Chinodya, Chenjerai Hove, Yvonne Vera, Alexander Kanengoni,
J. Nozipo Maraire, and Batisai Parwada are among Zimbabwes writers in English. Tsitsi
Dangarembga wrote Nervous Conditions (1988), a story of two Shona girls, Tambudzai
and Nyasha, both attempting to find their place in contemporary Zimbabwe. Nyasha has
been abroad and wonders about the effect that Westernization has had on her and her
family, while Tambudzai is longing to break out of her traditional world. Looming in the
background are mythic figures, including Lucia, Tambudzais aunt.
Doris Lessing is a British writer who spent her early years in what is today Zimbabwe.
Her novel The Grass Is Singing (1950) centres on Dick Turner and Mary Turner, a white
couple attempting to become a part of the rural African landscape. Lessing depicts
a stereotyped African character, Moses, a black servant, whose name gives him
historical and religious resonance. He becomes dominant over the European Mary,
manipulating her fears and love of him until in the end he destroys her. Lessing finds
mythic fantasy dimensions in the Europeans, much as Mustafa Saeed does in the
women of England in al-ayyib lis novel Season of Migration to the North (1966).
There is much writing in English by expatriates that is rooted in South Africa, from the
poetry of Thomas Pringle to E.A. Kendalls The English Boy at the Cape (1835), the
novels of H. Rider Haggard and John Buchan, and Turning Wheels (1937), by Stuart
Cloete. Olive Schreiner was the first major South African-born writer. Her novel The
Story of an African Farm (1883) continues to have an international resonance. Pauline
Smith wrote powerful short stories; her novel The Beadle (1926) deals largely with the
experiences of Afrikaners in the Eastern Cape region. Sarah Gertrude Millin had an
international audience with such works as Gods Stepchildren (1924). The short-lived
literary review Voorslag (Whiplash), begun in 1926, published for wider audiences
work by such poets as Roy Campbell, William Plomer, and Laurens van der Post.
A common subject in the works of the many South African authors writing in English
during the 20th century is the racial segregation, codified as apartheid in 1948, that
dominated the country until the early 1990s. In two early novels, Mine Boy (1946),
by Peter Abrahams, and Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), by Alan Paton, black Africans
go to Johannesburg and experience the terror of apartheid. In To Every Birth Its
Blood (1981), Mongane Wally Serote tells the stories of Tsi Molope and Oupa Molope.
Tsi looks to his past and wonders, Where does a river begin to take its journey to the
sea? The world in which Oupathe son of Mary, Tsis sisterlives postdates the
Soweto uprising of 1976, a time when resistance to apartheid took hold of a new
generation and South Africa witnessed attacks and bombings. Because of their
experiences with the police, the Molope family becomes more politicized. Serote wants
the reader to see the human side of his characterstheir vulnerabilities, their
uncertaintieswhile he also wants to demonstrate that it is not an easy matter to make
the revolutionary leap. A Ride on the Whirlwind (1981), by Sydney Sipho Sepamla,
which is set in Soweto, exposes the fearful effects of apartheid.
The playwright Athol Fugard in 1982 produced his play Master Haroldand the Boys,
the story of a white boy, Hally, in a restaurant in which two black African men, Willie
Malopo and Sam Semela, are waiters. It is a story of a boys coming of age within the
realities of the racist system of South Africa. As the story develops, Hally transfers his
fear, love, and hate of his father to Sam, and in the end he treats Sam as he cannot
treat his father. The result is to open anew the wounds of apartheid. The novel Julys
People (1981), by Nadine Gordimer, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1991, takes place in an imagined postindependence South Africa. The story deals with
the Smales, a white couple, and their relationship with July, their black servant. By
means of flashbacks the Smales reconstruct their past, the world of a Johannesburg
suburb during the apartheid period. There is a war, and Maureen Smale and Bamford
Smale escape from their suburban home and go north, where these erstwhile liberals
come to Julys rural home and learn, by their interactions with July and his family and
friends, that they cannot move past their former relationship with their servant and
cannot see him from any perspective but that of liberal, self-confident white overlords.
That hopelessly compromised position is the impasse that Gordimer investigates in this
novel. D.M. Zwelonke is the pseudonymous author of Robben Island (1973), a novel
dealing with the political prison maintained by the South African government off the
shores of Cape Town from the mid-1960s. It is the story of Bekimpi, an African political
leader jailed at Robben Island, and it relates his dreams and fantasies, his despair and
anger, and his torture and death.
Athol Fugard (centre) with actors John Kani (left) and Winston Ntshona, 1973.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, wrote Life and Times of
Michael K (1983), a story with a blurred hero and an indistinct historical and
geographical background. It describes a war that could be any war, a country that could
be any country, a bureaucracy that could be any bureaucracy. Through it all, Michael
Ka frail, nondescript, mute man of 30, born with a cleft lipsurvives, not betraying his
past, for he has no past, tied as he is to the unbroken continuity of history. So does
Coetzee link apartheid to the ages. The novel becomes, in the end, an affirmation of
humanity; the Earth is destroyed, a man is incarcerated, but he will return, crawling out
of the dust of ruin, re-creating the Earth, making it grow and fructify.
J.M. Coetzee, 2004.
Tiziana FabiAFP/Getty Images
Maru (1971), a novel by Bessie Head, tells a story about the liberation of the San
people from ethnic and racial oppression and about the liberation of the Tswana people
of Dilepe from their prejudices and hatreds. It is a story of a flawed world and the
attempts of two mythic people, Maru and Margaret Cadmore, to restore it to its former
perfection. It is also a love storyMargaret, the loathed Masarwa, opens the hearts of
Moleka and Dikeledias well as a political storyMargaret animates Marus political
vision with love and art. In the end, Maru is a realistic story with a mythic overlay in
which oral and literary traditions are brought together.
French
In the work of the earliest African writers in French can be found the themes that run
through this literature to the present day. These themes have to do with African
tradition, with French colonialism and the displacement of Africans both physically and
spiritually from their native tradition, with attempts to blend the French and the African
traditions, and with postindependence efforts to piece the shards of African tradition and
the French colonial experience into a new reality.
In his novel Les Trois volonts de Malic (1920; The Three Wishes of Malic), the
Senegalese writer Ahmadou Mapat Diagne anticipates such later writers as Sheikh
Hamidou Kane, also of Senegal. In Diagnes novel, Malic, a Wolof boy, is embroiled in a
struggle between Muslim tradition and the influence of the West. He goes to a French-
run school to study; then, instead of going to Qurnic school as his parents wish, he
becomes a blacksmith. Other early African works in French frequently deal with the
tensions between country and city, between African and French culture, and between
traditional religious practices and Islam. The novel Force-bont (1926; Much Good
Will), by Bakary Diallo of Senegal, deals with a youth caught in a conflict between his
Muslim background and Western values and culture. The Beninese writer Paul
Hazoum wrote Doguicimi (1938; Eng. trans. Doguicimi), a historical novel depicting the
time of the reign of the king Gezo in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey. Some writers
focused solely on African tradition, with its positive and negative qualities; these writers
include Flix Couchoro, whose novel LEsclave (1929; The Slave) examines slavery in
traditional Dahomey. The Senegalese writer Ousmane Soc wrote Karim (1935), a
novel that depicts a young Wolof caught between traditional and Western values. He
leaves the countryside for the Senegalese cities of Saint-Louis and Dakar but loses
everything when he falls prey to the cities wiles; he returns, in the end, to traditional
ways of living. The novel depicts the new society that was being born in early 20th-
century Africa. Mirages de Paris (1937; Mirages of Paris) has to do with a Senegalese
student in Paris who falls in love with a Frenchwoman. Abdoulaye Sadji of Senegal
wrote Mamouna (1958; Eng. trans. Mamouna), about an African girl who leaves home
and goes to Dakar, where she is seduced. She returns to her home and bears a child
who dies; she becomes ill but then recovers her traditional roots.
Womens place in Cameroonian society is the subject of Joseph Owonos Tante

Bella (1959; Aunt Bella), the first novel to be published in Cameroon. Paul Lomami-
Tshibamba of Congo (Brazzaville) wrote Ngando le crocodile (1948; Ngando the
Crocodile; Eng. trans. Ngando), a story rooted in African tradition. Faralako: roman
dun petit village africaine (1958; Faralako: Novel of a Little African Village), by Emile
Ciss, is an early Guinean novel that examines African tradition and Western
technology. Jean Malonga, born in Congo (Brazzaville), wrote Coeur dAryenne (1954;
Heart of Aryenne), an anticolonial novel. Traditional African society is the primary
concern of the novels Le Fils du ftiche (1955; The Son of Charm), by David Ananou
of Togo, and Crpuscule des temps anciens (1962; Twilight of the Ancient Days), by
Nazi Boni of Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso).
In Madagascar the journal La Revue de Madagascar (founded in 1933) encouraged

writing by Malagasy writers and included the poetry of Jean-Joseph Rabarivelo,
whose La Coupe de cendres (1924; Cutting the Ashes) and Sylves (1927; Forests)
were collections of poetry that sought to blend French and Malagasy cultural traditions
and that shared many of the themes later taken up by the Negritude movement. Other
early poets writing in French in Madagascar include Elie-Charles Abraham, E.
Randriamarozaka, and Paul Razafimahazo. douard Bezoro produced one of the first
Malagasy novels: La Soeur inconnue (1932; The Unknown Sister), a historical novel
about the conflict between the French and the Merina (Hova) state in Madagascar at the
turn of the 20th century. Michel-Francis Robinary founded the newspaper Lclair de
lEmyrne and wrote poetry collected in Les Fleurs dfuntes (1927; Dead Flowers).
After World War I, many of the Africans who had served in the French army remained in
France, bringing pressure on the country to end colonialism and political assimilation.
They met with blacks from the United States, and the result was a new concern with
and pride in African cultural identity. This acknowledgement of blacknessof black
roots, black history, and black civilizationsbecame part of the struggle against
colonialism and evolved, under the tutelage of Lopold Senghor of Senegal, Aim
Csaire of Martinique, and Lon-Gontran Damas of French Guiana, into the movement
that became known as Negritude. Csaires Cahier dun retour au pays
natal (1939; Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, or Return to My Native Land) and
Senghors Anthologie de la nouvelle posie ngre et malgache de langue
franaise (1948; Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry of the French
Language) are among the important works of this movement, as is Senghors own
poetry, including Chants dombre (1945; Songs of the Shade) and thiopiques (1956).
The struggle had earlier been waged in such short-lived journals as Lgitime
dfense (1932; Legitimate Defense) and Ltudiant noir (1935; The Black Student).
In 1947 the journal Prsence africaine (African Presence) was inaugurated; it would
play a significant role in the encouragement and development of Francophone writing.
Birago Diop of Senegal wrote poetry (e.g., Leurres et lueurs [1960; Lures and
Gleams]), some of which emphasizes its connections with the ancestral African past. In
Madagascar Jacques Rabemananjara wrote verse, collected in such volumes as Sur
les marches du soir (1942; On the Edges of the Evening), and plays, including Les
Dieux malgaches (1947; The Malagasy Gods), that were part of the Negritude
movement. Bernard Binlin Dadi of Cte dIvoire wrote the
autobiographical Climbi (1956; Eng. trans. Climbi), a novel dealing with traditional
African society and the modern world, as well as drama and lyrical poetry. Fily Dabo
Sissoko of Mali emphasized African tradition in such works as Harmakhis: pomes du
terroir africain (1955; Harmakhis: Poems of the African Land) and Pomes de lAfrique
noire (1963; Poems from Black Africa). Lamine Diakhat of Senegal wrote Negritude
poetry, as did the Senegalese Lamine Niang in Ngristique (1968). David Diop of
Senegal was a poet of protest in his Coups de pilon (1956; Hammer Blows). The
Congolese poet Antoine-Roger Bolamba wrote Esanzo: Chants pour mon
pays (1955; Esanzo: Songs for My Country), a collection of Negritude poetry.
In Cte dIvoire Anoma Kanie wrote love poetry (Les Eaux du Como [1951; The
Waters of the Como]), as did Maurice Kone (La Guirlande des verbes [1961; A
Garden of Words]). From Benin came such poets as Richard G. Dogbeh-David and
Paulin Joachim. In Cameroon, Elolongu Epanya Yondo wrote Kamerun!
Kamerun! (1960; Cameroon! Cameroon!), Franois Sengat-Kuo wrote Collier de
cauris (1970; Necklace of Cowry Shells), and Jean-Paul Nyuna wrote La Nuit de ma
vie (1961; The Darkness of My Life). In Guinea prominent poets of the 20th century
include Keita Fodeba, Mamadou Traor (Ray Autra), and Condetto Nenekhaly-Camara.
Other poets of the period include William J.F. Syad of Somalia and Toussaint Viderot
Mensah of Togo. The novelist and poet Pierre Bambot is among the Central African
Republics most important writers of the 20th century. The Congolese writer Tchicaya U
Tamsi published poetry dealing with colonialism (e.g., Epitom [1962; Epitome]
and Le Ventre [1964; The Belly]).
Sidiki Dembele of Mali wrote a novel, Les Inutiles (1960; The Useless Ones), urging
African intellectuals to return to their traditional homes. Denis Oussou-Essui of Cte
dIvoire published a novel in 1965 that also dealt with the strains between African
tradition and urban life. Guinean Camara Laye wrote an autobiographical
novel, LEnfant noir (1953; The African Child). His most important publication was the
novel Le Regard du roi (1954; The Radiance of the King), the story of Clarence, a white
man, who, as he moves deeper and deeper into an African forest, is progressively shorn
of his Western ways and pride. At his nadir, he begins anew, when, naked and alone,
he embraces an ambiguous African king. Mongo Beti (a pseudonym of Alexandre Biyidi-
Awala) of Cameroon wrote Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (1956; The Poor Christ of
Bomba), a story that deals with the complex relationship between Christianity and
colonialism in Africa. His Mission termine (1957; The Finished Mission; Eng.
trans. Mission to Kala) treats the uneasy fit of traditional Africa and Western colonialism,
and Le Roi miracul (1958; Eng. trans. King Lazarus) depicts a generational struggle
within the context of a quixotic view of African tradition. Another novelist from
Cameroon, Benjamin Matip, wrote Afrique, nous tignorons (1956; Africa, We Dont Pay
Attention to You), which shows young people caught between the white mans world
and the traditional African world. Ferdinand Lopold Oyono, also a Cameroonian
novelist, wrote Une Vie de boy (1956; A Life of a Boy; Eng. trans. Houseboy), the story
of a boy, Toundi, who leaves his rural home and goes to the town of Dangan, where he
becomes the servant for a French commandant and his wife. Toundi undergoes a type
of puberty rite of passage as his experiences among the whites slowly reveal to him the
masks that cover their religion, their justice system, and their family ideals. Oyono also
wrote Le Vieux ngre et la mdaille (1956; The Old Man and the Medal) and Chemin
dEurope (1960; The Road to Europe). The novels of Francis BebeyLe Fils dAgatha
Moudio (1967; Agatha Moudios Son), La Poupe ashanti (1973; The Ashanti Doll),
and Le Roi Albert dEffidi (1976; King Albert)show the influence of African oral
tradition in their style and themes. In the earliest of those novels, a man falls in love, but
his society clings to a tradition that will not allow him to marry the woman of his choice.
Ousmane Sembne was a major film director and a significant novelist. Les Bouts de
bois de Dieu (1960; Gods Bits of Wood), his greatest novel, describes the last gasp of
colonialism through the story of a railroad strike. In it Bakayoko is the spokesman for a
future that will combine African humanism and European technology. The characters Fa
Keta, Penda, and Ramatoulaye are all committed to change; each one is involved in
the strike, and each also demonstrates dignity and eloquence. Fa Keta retains his
nobility in the face of torture, Penda in the face of ostracism, and Ramatoulaye in the
face of enormous want and deprivation. Through it all stands Bakayoko, who single-
mindedly pursues change, although he understands that change cannot be abrupt; it
must be anchored in the past. Hence his concern for tradition, of which the novels
women are symbols. Seydou Badian Kouyat of Mali wrote a play about the Zulu leader
Shaka: La Mort de Chaka (1962; The Death of Shaka). Ak Loba of Cte dIvoire
wrote Kocoumbo, ltudiant noir (1960; Kocoumbo, the Black Student), which treats
the negative efforts of France on traditional African values. His Les Fils de
Kouretcha (1970; The Sons of Kouretcha) is a study of the effects of industrialization
on traditional societies. Olympe Bhly-Qunum of Benin wrote the novel Un Pige sans
fin (1960; Snares Without End), which focuses on the African traditional past. The
Senegalese writer Sheikh Hamidou Kane wrote LAventure ambigu (1961; Ambiguous
Adventure), a novel that considers the African and Muslim identity of its main character,
Samba, within the context of Western philosophical thought. In his novel Le Soleil noir
point (1962; The Sun a Black Dot), Charles Nokan of Cte dIvoire deals with efforts to
bring a nation to freedom.
In Africas postindependence period, similar themes persisted but were readjusted to

conform to worlds in which new societies were being forged. Many French-language
novels of the last decades of the 20th century deal with familial struggles within a
traditional society that can never again be the same. Maimouna Abdoulaye of Senegal
wrote Un Cri du coeur (1986; A Cry from the Heart), a novel dealing with women living
in an indifferent male society. Josette Abondio of Cte dIvoire is the author of Kouassi
Kokoma mre (1993; Kouassi KokoMy Mother), a novel about a woman whose
existence narrows with the death of her male partner. Marie Thrse Assiga-Ahanda of
Cameroon wrote the novel Socits africaines et High Society (1978; African
Societies and High Society), a story about two people returning to their country after
colonialism, only to find a new kind of colonialisman internal kind. Marie-Gisle Aka of
Cte dIvoire wrote Les Haillons de lamour (1994; The Remnants of Love), a novel
having to do with a girls difficulties with her father. A novel written in 1990 by Philomne
Bassek of Cameroon deals with the plight of a mother of 11 children who has a harsh
husband. Poverty and the upper classes preoccupy Aminata Sow Fall of Senegal in Le
Jujubier du patriarche (1993; The Patriarchs Jujube). The Gabonese writer Justine
Mintsa writes of tragic life in a contemporary African village in a novel published in 2000.
The relationship between Africa and Europe remained a theme through the end of the
20th century. Assatou Cissokho, a Senegalese writer, in Dakar, la touriste
autochtone (1986; Dakar, the Native Tourist), depicts a character returning from
Europe and finding things much the same in Dakar. In a 1999 novel, the Cameroonian
novelist Nathalie Etok tells the story of an African who is an illegal immigrant in Paris.
A young African woman in Paris is the focus of Gisle Hountondji in Une Citronnelle
dans la neige (1986; Lemongrass in the Snow). Henri Lopes is a Congolese novelist,
as is Maguy Kabamba, who wrote La Dette coloniale (1995; The Colonial Debt),
depicting Africa and Europe as seen through the eyes of a young African student.
Portuguese
The literature in Portuguese of Cape Verde often focuses on the affinities and the
strains between Portugal and Cape Verde. Escapism is a theme in some of the poetry.
In the classical phase of Cape Verdean literature, from the late 19th century to the first
half of the 20th, poets such as Jos Lopes da Silva (Saudades da ptria [1952;
Homesickness]) emphasized Europe. Janurio Leite (Poesias [1952]) and Mrio Pinto
(Ensaios poticos [1911; Poetic Essays]) wrote nationalistic poetry. Other early poets
include Pedro Monteiro Cardoso, who published Jardim das Hesprides in 1926,
and Eugnio Tavares, who was among the first Cape Verdean writers to publish in
Crioulo, the Portuguese creole language widely used on the islands. Antnio Pedro
wrote a book of exotic poems published in 1929. These early classical poets struggled
with the tension between Europe and Africa and between the Portuguese language and
Crioulo, the Portuguese creole used on the islands. Brazil was also to become a crucial
theme.
In 1936 there was a literary revolution when Claridade (Clarity), a literary review,
appeared. It was published nine times between 1936 and 1960 and had a considerable
influence. A number of so-called Claridade poets emerged, deepening the tension
between Africa and Europe; Jorge Barbosa, who was among the founders of Claridade,
was one of them. His first collection of poetry, published in 1935, was nostalgic and
romantic and placed its emphasis on the everyday person.
Baltazar Lopes (pseudonym Oswaldo Alcntara) wrote of the suffering of Cape

Verdeans. His Chiquinho (1947) was a Portuguese-language novel, and it fell into
precisely the same pattern as works composed elsewhere in Africa, such as Pita
Nwanas Igbo-language Omenuko (1935), Samuel Yosia Ntaras Nyanja
novel Nthondo (1933), and Stephen Andrea Mpashis Bemba story Cekesoni Aingila
Ubusoja (1950); in typical heroic fashion, Chiquinho leaves the home of his birth,
journeys to the Brazilian city of So Vicente, where he is educated, then returns to his
home. While Lopes follows the traditional movement of the oral tradition, he does so
with grim realism. When Chiquinho goes to So Vicente, his experience is anything but
glorious: he is out of work and alienated from his surroundings. And his return home is
not an improvement; there he finds poverty and suffering. Lopes plays with the form of
his story here. In the first part, Chiquinhos home world is romanticized, which is a
dynamic contrast with the second part of the story: So Vicente and the experience of
aloneness and sadness. But, using irony as his device, Lopes brings those two worlds
into metaphorical union: the world of Chiquinhos past is actually revealed in the world
of So Vicente. In the third part of the novel, when he returns to the world of his
childhood, Chiquinho discovers that it is no different from the alien world from which he
has just departed. So it is that the child has come of age and has moved through his
puberty rite of passage: the fantasy world of his childhood has been jarred into reality by
his experiences in So Vicente. Realism and fantasy thus come into union in this story,
the fantasy world of childhood juxtaposed with the real world of adulthood, and the two
are experienced now as the same. Materials from the oral tradition are the stuff of
Lopess literary storytelling: he makes critical alterations as he moves from
the romance of the tale to the realism of the novel.
Another Claridade poet was Manuel Lopes, who was also among the journals founders;
he was a novelist and short-story writer as well. His poetry is suffused with a personal
lyricism and with social themes, which reflect his concern with the problems and the
cultural values of Cape Verde. His novel Chuva braba (1956; Wild Rain) addresses
some of the same themes. Cape Verdean folklore is woven into his short stories,
including O galo que cantou na baa (1959; The Cock that Crowed in the Bay).
The literary magazine Presena (Presence), founded in 1927, was a revolutionary

Portuguese publication, urging a break with the Portuguese past and encouraging ties
to Cape Verde. Claridade led in 1944 to the founding of a new
review, Certeza (Certainty), and with it came a new generation of poets,
including Antnio Aurlio Gonalves, Aguinaldo Fonseca, Antnio Nunes, Srgio
Frusoni, and Djunga, who infused Cape Verdean literature with a new, youthful spirit
that retained a continued emphasis on life in the islands. This generation also
represented a new political voice, demanding change and reform.
So Tom and Prncipe also produced writing in Portuguese during the first half of the
20th century. Caetano da Costa Alegre wrote poetry, published posthumously
as Versos in 1916, that deals with the tension between Africa and Portugal. Joo Maria
de Fonseca Viana de Almeidas Mai Pon: contos africanos (1937; Mai Pon:
African Stories) centres on racial prejudice and self-awareness. Francisco Jos
Tenreiro, influenced by Aim Csaire, was an early Negritude poet; his poetry appears
in Ilha de nome santo (1942; Island of the Holy Name).
African literature in Portuguese in Angola has its origins in a book of poetry written by
Jos da Silva Maia Ferreira, Espontaneidades da minha alma (1849; My Souls
Spontaneous Outpourings). But the most significant early figure was Joaquim Dias
Cordeiro da Matta, whose book of poetry Delrios (Delirium) was published in 1887. A
number of newspapers and journals provided possibilities for authors to publish their
work in these early years, but this was not a cultivated practice. A novel was serialized
in 1929: Antnio de Assis Jniors O segredo da morte (The Dead Girls Secret), a
story of racial conflict and acculturation. scar Ribas wrote novels and poetry; his
novel Uango-feitio (1951; The Evil Spell) incorporates local oral tradition. The poetry
and prose of Geraldo Bessa Victor reveal the struggle of a writer caught between
Portuguese and African traditions. Fernando Monteiro de Castro Soromenho wrote
novels, including Terra morta (1949; Dying Land) and Viragem (1957; The Turn), that
depict the impact of colonialism on the Angolan people. Born in Portugal, the
poet Tomaz Vieira da Cruz both struggled with and embraced a sense of exile during
the decades he spent in Angola. The Movimento dos Jovens Intelectuais (Movement of
Young Intellectuals) in 1947 and 1948 emphasized Angolan traditions and folklore,
influencing such writers as Agostinho Neto, Mrio Pinto de Andrade, and Viriato da
Cruz.
Angolan poets often dealt with relations between blacks and whites, as Ernesto Lara
Filho did in his Picada de Marimbondo (1961; The Sting of Marimbondo). The
publisher Imbondeiro encouraged the publication of works by Angolan authors, who
continued to struggle with racial conflicts and the plight of
the assimilado (those assimilated to Portuguese culture and Roman Catholicism). Mrio
Antnio wrote of the loss of the African past, and Luandino Vieira (pseudonym of Jos
Vieira Mateus da Graa) described life in the Angolan city of Luanda (Luuanda [1963]).
In 1961 he was arrested and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. From the middle of
the 20th century the writing of poetry was encouraged by the Sociedade Cultural de
Angola (Angolan Cultural Society).
Pepetela (Artur Carlos Maurcio Pestana dos Santos) wrote novels, such
as Mayombe (1980; Eng. trans. Mayombe), about the civil war that followed Angolas
independence in 1975. He also looked to the more distant past: Yaka (1984; Eng.
trans. Yaka) deals with 19th-century Angola, and Lueji (1989) is a story of an African
princess of the 17th century. His A gerao da utopia (1992; A Generation of Utopia)
takes the countrys anticolonial struggle as its theme. In 1997 he won the Cames
Prize, the most important prize in Lusophone literature. Manuel Pedro Pacaviras
novel Nzinga Mbandi (1975) depicts an African queen, Nzinga, of the 16th and 17th
centuries and describes relations between Angolans and Portuguese. History is also the
context for Jos Eduardo Agualusas novels A Conjura (1989), which focuses on the
city of Luanda, with fictional characters that espouse nationalistic views worked into a
context of historical figures, and Nao crioula (1997; Creole), a 19th-century adventure
set in Angola, Brazil, and Portugal.
In Mozambique, Joo Albasini was, in 1918, one of the founders of O Brado

Africano (The African Roar), a bilingual weekly in Portuguese and Ronga in which
many of Mozambiques writers had their work first published. Albasinis collection of
short stories O livro da dor (The Book of Sorrow) was published in 1925. Rui de
Noronha composed poetry, collected in Sonetos (1943; Sonnets), addressed to
his patria do misterio (mysterious homeland). Caetano Campo, a Portuguese
journalist, wrote stories and poetry; one of his books of poetry, Nyaka (1942), is a
nostalgic view of Africa. Clima (1959; Climate) is a collection of poetry by Orlando
Mendes, a Portuguese born in Mozambique. Joo Dias wrote Godido e outros
contos (1952; Godido and Other Stories); he was Mozambiques first African-born
writer of modern prose. The works of poet Augusto de Conrado include Fibras dum
corao (1931; Fibres of a Heart) and Divagaes (1938). In 1941 the
periodical Itinerrio was founded, and numerous new writers published their first works
in this journal.
Nationalist and political literature was important to writers in Mozambique during the
second half of the 20th century. In 1952 another journal, Msaho, began publication; it
included works by such poets as Alberto Lacerda and Nomia de Sousa. Marcelino dos
Santos (Kalungano) wrote poetry steeped in African tradition, while Rui Nogars poetry
captured the atmosphere of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Jos
Craveirinha consciously evolved new poetic forms at a time when attempts were being
made to create a distinctively Mozambican literature (Moambicanidade). He had a
major role to play in these efforts. In his poetry can be found realism, folklore, and
Negritude. Another journal appeared in 1957, Paralelo 20 (The 20th Parallel), that
emphasized Mozambican prose and verse. The newspaper Notcias (News) in 1958
and 1959 encouraged creative Mozambican writing. O amor diurno (1962; Love Day by
Day) is a collection of poetry by Fernando Couto. Important poets during the second
half of the 20th century include Virglio de Lemos, whose work was banned (he was
also imprisoned), and Rui Knopfli, whose work includes O pas dos outros (1959; The
Country Belonging to Others). Heliodoro Baptistas poetry in A Filha de Thandi (1991)
is poetry of intensity, with its emphasis on form and image. Lus Carlos
Patraquims Vinte e tal novas formulaes e uma elegia carnvora (1991) is of the same
quality. Vieira Simes and Ildio Rocha wrote short stories.
Lus Bernardo Honwana, a Frelimo militant who was jailed for several years in the
1960s, wrote short stories collected in Ns matmos o Co-Tinhoso (1964; We Killed
Mangy-Dog & Other Stories). Mia Couto wrote Terra sonmbula (1992; Sleepwalking
Land); its publication was a major event in prose writing in Mozambique. Couto moves
between reality and fantasy in his writing. In A varanda de frangipani (1996; Under the
Frangipani), for instance, a man returns from the dead to become a spirit that moves
into the mind of a Mozambican police inspector. Couto blends folklore and historical
events, such as Mozambiques civil war, into this tale. Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa wrote the
novel Ualalapi (1987), which deals with an African king who struggled against
Portuguese colonialism. Paulina Chiziane wrote Balada de amor ao vento (1990), a
novel that looks more realistically and less romantically at the African past and that
blends the fantasy of folklore with realism. Short-story writers of the late 20th century
include Macelo Panguana (As vozes que falam de verdade [1987], A balada dos
deuses [1991]) and Suleiman Cassamo. Llia Mompl published the short-story
collection Ningum mataou Suhura (1988; Nobody Killed Suhura) and the
novels Neighbours (1995; Eng. trans. Neighbours: The Story of Murder) and Os olhos
da cobra verde (1997; The Eyes of the Green Cobra).
https://www.britannica.com/art/African-literature/Literatures-in-European-and-European-
derived-languages

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THE MEANING OF LITERATURE

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF LITERATURE

1. It shapes and influences cultural development.

- literary works in the form of sentences and paragraphs.

- The Highest Form of Talk

- literary works in the form of lines and stanzas.

-A lie told in a manner as to make it seem true.

- literary production of writers creative imagination.

e.g.Essay - a short literary composition in prose dealing with a single matter

-Concrete characters are personifications of abstract ideas.

-Moral is conveyed in the form of proverb.

-explaining the origin of the world and humankind.

-historical basis and possessing certain qualities that give the

- stories of high culture, chivalric, magical and unrealistic.

-Virtue is rewarded and always end happily.

- a brief narrative that concentrates on one situation and involves two or

- an extended narrative that includes more characters and complicated

- intermediate between short story and the novels.

-a literary work written in dialogue and intended for presentation by actors.

-aims primarily to amuse by its humorous speech and ends happily.

- morally significant struggle which ends disastrously.

-tells a story in richly imaginative and rhythmical language.

- along,narrative poem divided into distinct parts and episodes bound

- a short narrative poem intended to be sung.

-expresses personal thoughts and feelings

- poem deals with a serious theme such as immortality.

-expresses enthusiasm, lofty praise of some person or thing.

-a poem that can be distinguished by its subject death.

-contains authors personal grief.

- melodious quality required by the singing voice.

- a poetic form of fourteen rhymed lines producing a single emotional

BLACK AND WHITE THOUGHTS

" To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture."

See Article History

South African literature

The nature of storytelling

New Zealand literature

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

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BRITANNICA LISTS & QUIZZES

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South African literature

People were those who

New Zealand literature

Work the clay while it is fresh.

The African proverb seems initially to be a hackneyed expression, a trite leftover

Where Did the Word Hippie Come From?

Summer of Love Week

Where Did the Peace Sign Come From?

BRITANNICA LISTS & QUIZZES

The Vietnam War

7 Everyday English Idioms and Where They Come From

Museums of the Western World

Six Fascinating Festivals from Around the World

Qwebethe, Qwebethe, what do you want?

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

CONNECT WITH BRITANNICA

Hero who surpasses other heroes!

Saint Paul, the Apostle