A History of Twentieth-Century African Literatures

In his introduction to this book, Oyekan Owomoyela defines modern African literatures as essentially a twentieth-century phenomenon. While he agrees on the continuity between traditional oral literature and modern literature, he underscores the differences between the two. He also stipulates that coverage is limited to sub-Saharan Africa, which is seen here as a cultural entity. Such is the background against which Owomoyela presents the thirteen essays of the volume, which focus on the historical dimension of the growth of African literature.

English-language fiction in West Africa is the concern of J. A. Peters in the first essay. The author mentions three waves of writers which extend from 1952 to 1965, from 1965 to 1972, and from 1976 to 1988. Among the themes developed, Peters cites colonialism and its conflict with traditional cultures, the opposition between tradition and modernity, disillusionment, and war. He concludes his essay with a survey of the critical activity that has been carried out so far.

A. A. Elder's essay on English-language fiction from East Africa falls into two main parts, one dealing with general subjects and the other with the production of individual countries. Elder first recalls the Conference of African Writers of English Expression (Kampala, 1962) and the East African Writers' Conference (Nairobi, 1971), two landmarks that served as catalysts for a number of young writers. She mentions the publishing opportunities then available: student journals such as Penpoint and literary journals such as Transition. Elder also sketches the most important themes dealt with: the Emergency period in the 1950s, traditional culture, tribalism, as well as the land issue and its implications.

In his essay on English-language fiction from South Africa, J. F. Povey deals with the short story and the novel written over the last forty years. About the novel he notes the difficulty in discriminating between factual and artistic truth and relates to this fact the dilemma writers of all races face when addressing the race issue which lends its uniqueness to South African literature. Povey, however, admits that attitudes toward the racial problem can only be contrasting between whites and blacks, since the former "remain to some degree outsiders in the struggle" (89).

T. Knipp starts his study of the English-language poetry by recalling that this genre has been practiced for more than 100 years. He then indicates that contemporary poets belong to two generations - the ironist one, with a predominance of Nigerian poets, and the disillusioned one. According to Knipp, their poetry derives its imagery from two basic myths: the historical myth in which Africa is depicted in pastoral images, and the psychological myth involving the Westernized African in a cyclical journey that takes him from his traditional village to the West and back to Africa. Knipp finally concentrates on the South African poets who belong to two generations whose appellations are self-explanatory: the Sharpeville and the Soweto generations.

J. N. Amankulor begins his analysis of English-language drama and theater by underscoring the two components of contemporary African theater: the indigenous component and the Western tradition. The latter dates back to the colonial days when government- and church-sponsored theaters were built with a view to presenting European civilization favorably. Amankulor notes that the achievement of independence coincided with the emergence of playwrights who declared themselves independent of the schools, churches, and even the BBC, which contributed much to the development of contemporary African theater. He contends that playwrights of the 1970s and the 1980s are more concerned with the sociopolitical problems of independent Africa.

Dealing with French-language fiction, S. Woodward traces its origin back to the publication of A. M. Diagne's Les trois volontes de Malic (1920). She distinguishes two periods - one from 1920 to 1953, the other one from 1953 to the present. After S. Anozie, she applies the term new realism to a number of novels that go beyond anti-colonialism and Negritude, such as Ouologuem's Le devoir de violence. Woodward rites anticolonialism and the affirmation of African identity as the main themes developed in the Francophone novel. She also addresses the problem of the publishing opportunities from the early days to the present. Woodward is optimistic about the future of the Francophone novel, a feeling which she justifies, curiously, by the success of Senghor's poetry.

French-language poetry is E. Makward's concern in the next essay, which the author starts by mentioning the Paris beginnings with the Legitime Defense and L'etudiant noir groups. Makward specifies that Negritude as an ideology and movement started with the first issue of Presence Africaine (1947) and Senghor's Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache (1948). Post-Negritude poetry is associated with Nouvelle somme de poesie du monde noir (1966), a volume of verse that brought together such different poets as D. Diop, E. Maunick, U. Tam'Si, and H. Lopes. To Makward, the future of Francophone poetry rests on the continuation of the Negritude themes and more attempts at borrowing from traditional African verbal forms.