African Literature

The Beginnings of African Literature

   The first African literature was around 2300-2100, when the Egyptians begin using burial texts. This included de papyrus.  All of this starts in a oral way; proverbs and riddles, epic narratives, oration and personal testimony, praise poetry and songs, chants and rituals, stories, legends and folk tales. The traveling performers (griots) kept the oral tradition alive. 

Later, they started writing; they wrote a lot about religion and culture.
The earliest written Sub-Saharan Literature is very influenced by Islamic literature (the anonymous history of the city-state of Kilwa Kisiwani). The first African history (History of the Sudan) is written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi. In 1728 the earliest written Swahili work (Utendi wa Tambuka) is very influenced from Muslim tradition.

The Period of Colonization

Europeans arrived for the natural resources and tried to destroy the culture of the Africans, to make them slaves. The oral ytaditios and written works wew threatened fue to the Christian beliefs.

 But African Literature survived this attack. The narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa was the first slave narrative that was published.  Achebe used his awesome narrative to stop  slavery. In Africa, Swahili poetry took off the influence of Islam and introduce native Bantu forms. The Europeans, brought journalism and government schools to Africa,  this helped a lot to the development of literature. Local newspapers had sections of local African poetry and short stories. Oliver Schreiner (Story of an African Farm) is considered the first African classic analysis of racial and sexual issues. Other notable writers, such as Samuel Mqhayi and Thomas Mofolo begin showing Africans as human characters.

   

The negritude movement

Developing in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. This movement was one of the premiere literary movements. The background of this movement was due to the rejections and desire of identity. They wanted to create consciousness of their black identity, their history, culture, etc…  In a 1967 interview, Cesaire explained: "We lived in an atmosphere of rejection, and we developed an inferiority complex." The desire to establish an identity begins with "a concrete consciousness of what we are--…that we are black . . . and have a history. . . there have been beautiful and important black civilizations…that  its values were values that could still make an important contribution to the world." Léopold Sédar Senghor was one of the prime thinkers of this movement. Later he  became president Senegal, creating a tradition of African writers becoming active political figures.

 "Things Fall Apart" This is the most read work of African Literature ever written.
Achebe opened the door  many Africans to have international recognition. One important event was that african women begin to let their voice be heard. African Literature is only gaining momentum as time marches onwards.

African iterature was very important, because thanks to this, the people that once were invisible, beacame known by everyone.

-Bibliography
*Unc.edu
African Literature
Unc.edu (1930) African Literature. [online] Available at: http://www.unc.edu/~hhalpin/ThingsFallApart/literature.html [Accessed: 21 Jan 2013].

Chinua Achebe Biography

Chinua Achebe (born 16 November 1930) is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. Widely acclaimed for his work in English Literature. Born to Christian evangelical parents he was raised in a town Ogidi,in Igboland, in Eastern Nigeria. He is best known for his first novel “Things Fall Apart”

Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures.He got his early education in English and the Igbo traditions and colonial legacy played a great part in the growing years of his life. Thereafter, he went to University of Ibadan for further studies where he studied literature and medicine. Then he opted for teaching for a short period, but later on joined the Nigerian Broadcasting company in Lagos as Director of External Broadcasting.

In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy. He wrote No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God in 1960, and A Man of the People in 1966. Another achievement was his novel, Anthills of the Savannah. He has also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections.

He was also appointed the Editor of renowned Nigerian literary Magazine, Okike. One of his remarkable achievements includes Iwa ndi Ibo, a bilingual publication of Igbo cultural life. He was honored as Emeritus Professor at University of Nigeria. He also has twenty honorary doctorates to his name from universities all over the world.

Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. Achebe is one writer who has always been involved in his country’s depicting the problems and difficulties faced by his countrymen in the post-colonial era.Achebe's novels focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of Western and Traditional African values during and after the colonial era.

-Bibliography
*Famousauthors.org
Chinua Achebe | Biography, Books and Facts
Famousauthors.org (1958) Chinua Achebe | Biography, Books and Facts. [online] Available at: http://www.famousauthors.org/chinua-achebe [Accessed: 21 Jan 2013].

*Biografiasyvidas.com
Biografia de Chinua Achebe
Biografiasyvidas.com (1930) Biografia de Chinua Achebe. [online] Available at: http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/a/achebe.htm [Accessed: 21 Jan 2013].

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." - C.S. Lewis

Literature is a big part of history. Thanks to literature we can understand our past. We´ve learn so much about the people of the past thanks to literature.  We can learn how humans have changed, what they used to do in the past and how they used to think.  It’s like a prove we have of our past.  And people in the future will be able to see how we live now. They will be able to see how we changed our way of thinking and living. We are changing a lot and is important to keep on track of those changes.

Literature makes us understand everything that is around us. Trough literature we can learn what people think and the reason they think that way, trough literature, we can learn many things about different subjects.  
Thanks to literature people is able to open their mind and develop it. In this way, we can see the world in a different prospective, we can see the world with others people´s eyes.  

I think that to be able to grow up as a person, you have to be able to understand others and not be closed to your own ideas, and that is a door that literature has.
Without literature we wouldn’t be able to understand human nature.