African Literature

Transmission of Literature
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
 Mythology
• 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.
• At the center 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.
• The hero is everyman with myth inside him.
• In serious literary works, the mythic fantasy characters are often derived from the oral
tradition
Gods and Goddesses of African Myth
• BUMBA: From the Bushongo in the Congo comes Bumba, the African Creator God of
Vomit.
• Then out of the darkness came Bumba, a giant pale-skinned figure.
• He was not feeling well. In fact he had not been feeling well for millions of years. He
was lonely, and the unbearable solitude was making him ill.
• Troubled by a ballooning bellyache, he staggered, moaned and vomited up the Sun .
• Light burst forth into the Universe — and he choked out the Moon. The stars came
next and then, with a tremendous effort, he threw up the planet Earth. We do live in a
very sick world.
• he vomited forth nine animals, an assortment of humans, and a pile of diced carrots.
• Exhausted from his labors, he sat and watched as the nine creatures multiplied. After
a while, they had evolved into every living thing on Earth. Which goes to show that
Creationism and Evolution are both right.
• He had three sons: Nyonye-ngana, Chonganda and Chedi – bumba.
 Shango
• SHANGO: God of Thunder, Drums and
Dance, having been elevated from being a
famous warrior and the fourth King of the
Yoruba.
• his special number is six, and he likes the
colors red and white. When thunder is heard
you should salute him by crying 'Cabio Sile
Shango' or words to that effect.
• Apart from his dog, he also favors roosters
and turtles, and if you invite him to a feast
you will need to stock up on bananas,
apples, cornmeal, okra, red wine and rum.
• He has a relationship with Oya which can at
times be very tempestuous as he is very
much a ladies man, and in great demand as
a dancer, and for playing the drums.
• He does not get on well with his brother
Ogun and is not averse to a good punch-up.
But he's a good God to have on your side as
he can be very loyal and protective.
Yemaya
• One of the Orishas, she is the Mother of
Waters and Childbirth, and has stylish
color preferences of blue and crystal.
• She is slow moving and her skirts billow
a lot in wave-like motions. She has a
curious aversion to salt — so she will
float over the ocean but not in it. She is
also a Moon Goddess.
Eligua
• Trickster God of Crossroads, Beginnings
and Opportunity.
• He's the Guardian of the Crossroads of
Life. Whenever there are decisions to be
made, he provides opportunities and
second chances.
• He's also messenger to the higher Gods.
• As a Trickster God, the childlike Elegua
can sometimes make things even more
complicated. At a whim he can turn a
simple choice into a vast conundrum of
paradox.
Ala
• mother goddess, ruler of the underworld,
goddess of fertility.
• It is believed that the soul of the dead reside
in her sacred womb.
 Roots of Myth
• Myths and legends developed over thousands of years in Africa south of the Sahara.
Among the influences on their development were the mass migrations that took place
from time to time.
• About 7,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Hottentot and the Bushmen began moving
from the Sahara toward southern Africa.
• Five thousand years later, people who spoke Bantu languages began spreading out from
Cameroon, on Africa's west coast, until they eventually inhabited much of sub-Saharan
Africa.
• Such migrations caused myths and legends to spread from group to group and led to a
mixing of myths and legends. The migrations also gave rise to new stories about events
in the history of those peoples. For instance, as Bantu groups settled in new homelands,
they developed legends to explain the origins of their ruling families and the structure of
their societies.
• The number of gods and goddesses varies from culture to culture. The Buganda of east
central Africa have one of the largest pantheons, with 20 or more deities. Many peoples
regard the earth, sun, and moon as gods. In the Congo River region, the most densely
wooded part of Africa, the forest itself is a deity—or else a mysterious otherworld where
spirits dwell.
• The peoples of Africa did not use written language until modern times. Instead, they
possessed rich and complex oral traditions, passing myths, legends, and history from
generation to generation in spoken form. In some cultures, professional storytellers—
called griots—preserved the oral tradition.
• Myths are usually used by Africans to explain the origin if things and how it came to be.
 Trickster
• Many African myths feature a trickster. The trickster may be a god, an animal, or a human being. His
pranks and mischief cause trouble among gods, among humans, or between gods and humans.
• West Africans tell many tales of a wandering trickster spirit known as Eshu among the Yoruba. This
trickster is associated with change and with quarrels; in some accounts, he is the messenger
between the world and the supreme god.
• Animal tricksters are often small, helpless creatures who manage to outwit bigger and fiercer
animals. Anansi, the spider trickster of the Ashanti people, is known throughout West and Central
Africa. Tortoises and hares also appear as tricksters. In one such tale, the hare tricks a
hippopotamus and an elephant into clearing a field for him.
• Unggoy at ang Pagong – is a king of a trickster.
• Other stories about animals show them helping humans. The San Bushmen say that a sacred
praying mantis gave them words and fire, and the Bambara people of Mali say that an antelope
taught them agriculture. A popular form of entertainment is the animal fable, a story about talking
animals with human characteristics. Many fables offer imaginative explanations of features of the
natural world, such as why bats hang with their heads downward or why leopards have spots.
Anansi the Spider
• Once there were no stories in the world. The Sky-God, Nyame, had them all. Anansi went
to Nyame and asked how much they would cost to buy.
• Nyame set a high price: Anansi must bring back Onini the Python, Osebo the Leopard,
the Mmoboro Hornets, and Mmoatia, the dwarf.
• Anansi set about capturing these.
First he went to where Python lived
and debated out loud whether
Python was really longer than the
palm branch or not as his wife Aso
says. Python overheard and, when
Anansi explained the debate,
agreed to lie along the palm branch.
Because he cannot easily make
himself completely straight a true
impression of his actual length is
difficult to obtain, so Python agreed
to be tied to the branch. When he
was completely tied, Anansi took
him to Nyame.
• To catch the leopard, Anansi
dug a deep hole in the
ground. When the leopard fell
in the hole Anansi offered to
help him out with his webs.
Once the leopard was out of
the hole though he was
bound in Anansi's webs and
was carried away.
• To catch the hornets, Anansi
filled a calabash with water
and poured some over a
banana leaf he held over his
head and some over the nest,
calling out that it was raining.
He suggested the hornets get
into the empty calabash, and
when they obliged, he quickly
sealed the opening.
• To catch the dwarf he made a doll and
covered it with sticky gum. He placed the
doll under the odum tree where the dwarfs
play and put some yam in a bowl in front
of it. When the dwarf came and ate the
yam she thanked the doll which of course
did not reply. Annoyed at its bad manners
she struck it, first with one hand then the
other. The hands stuck and Anansi
captured her.
• Anansi handed his captives over to
Nyame who rewards him with the
stories, which now become known
as Anansi stories or Anansesem.
The Congo
Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room,
Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable, [A deep rolling bass.]
Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table,
Pounded on the table, Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom,
Hard as they were able, Boom, boom, BOOM,
With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom,
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
THEN I had religion,
THEN I had a vision.
I could not turn from their revel in derision. [More deliberate. Solemnly chanted.]
THEN I SAW THE CONGO, CREEPING THROUGH THE BLACK,
CUTTING THROUGH THE FOREST WITH A GOLDEN TRACK.
Then along that riverbank A thousand miles
Tattooed cannibals danced in files;
Then I heard the boom of the blood-lust song [A rapidly piling climax of speed and racket.]
And a thigh-bone beating on a tin-pan gong.
And "BLOOD" screamed the whistles and the fifes of the warriors,
"BLOOD" screamed the skull-faced, lean witch-doctors,
"Whirl ye the deadly voo-doo rattle,
Harry the uplands, Steal all the cattle,
Rattle-rattle, rattle-rattle, Bing. Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM,"
[With a philosophic pause.]
•
ORISHAS: Guardian spirits under the collective patronage of top God OLORUN.