Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 32 views

    African Psyche and Literatures

    Uploaded by

    gch8rdgytv
    This document provides information about African literature including its oral and written traditions. It discusses the major forms of oral literature such as myths, praise poems, folktales, and epics. It outlines the three waves of literacy in Africa and describes some important written works including novels by Chinua Achebe, Ferdinand Oyono, and poems by Leopold Senghor. The document also profiles some of Africa's major literary figures such as Achebe, Gordimer, Head, Senghor, Soyinka, and P'Bitek and the Negritude movement.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    African Psyche and Literatures

    Uploaded by

    gch8rdgytv
    32 views42 pages
    This document provides information about African literature including its oral and written traditions. It discusses the major forms of oral literature such as myths, praise poems, folktales, and epics. It outlines the three waves of literacy in Africa and describes some important written works including novels by Chinua Achebe, Ferdinand Oyono, and poems by Leopold Senghor. The document also profiles some of Africa's major literary figures such as Achebe, Gordimer, Head, Senghor, Soyinka, and P'Bitek and the Negritude movement.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    AFRICAN PSYCHE AND LITERATURES

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document provides information about African literature including its oral and written traditions. It discusses the major forms of oral literature such as myths, praise poems, folktales, and epics. It outlines the three waves of literacy in Africa and describes some important written works including novels by Chinua Achebe, Ferdinand Oyono, and poems by Leopold Senghor. The document also profiles some of Africa's major literary figures such as Achebe, Gordimer, Head, Senghor, Soyinka, and P'Bitek and the Negritude movement.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    32 views42 pages

    African Psyche and Literatures

    Uploaded by

    gch8rdgytv
    This document provides information about African literature including its oral and written traditions. It discusses the major forms of oral literature such as myths, praise poems, folktales, and epics. It outlines the three waves of literacy in Africa and describes some important written works including novels by Chinua Achebe, Ferdinand Oyono, and poems by Leopold Senghor. The document also profiles some of Africa's major literary figures such as Achebe, Gordimer, Head, Senghor, Soyinka, and P'Bitek and the Negritude movement.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 42

    AFRICAN

    LITERATURE
    AFRICA
    From the Latin word “Aprica”
    which means “Sunny”
    AFRICA
    • The world's second-largest and
    second-most populous continent,
    after Asia in both cases.
    AFRICA
    • It covers about one-fifth of the
    total land surface area of
    Earth.
    AFRICA

    • There are 54 countries in Africa


    today, according to the United
    Nations.
    AFRICA

    • There are more than a thousand languages spoken in


    Africa.

    • There are at least 75 languages in Africa which have


    more than one million speakers.
    AFRICAN
    LITERATURE
    AFRICAN LITERATURE

    The development of African


    literature, from its oral tradition up
    to the current trends, reflects the
    history of its people, the continents
    feelings and the minds of its
    population.
    AFRICAN LITERATURE
    The Dark Continent enjoys a vast
    collection of masterpieces, both in
    oral and written literature.
    African
    LITERARY
    FORMS
    ORAL LITERATURE /
    orature

    • African literature is Oral in


    Nature.
    • It take a variety of forms
    including folktales, myths,
    epics, praise poems, funeral
    dirges, and proverbs.
    orature

    • African oral literature


    includes praise poems,
    love poems, tales, ritual
    dramas, and moral
    instructions in the form of
    proverbs and fables. It
    also includes epics and
    poems and narratives.
    griots

    • a professional storyteller,
    singer, or entertainer and
    were skilled at creating
    and transmitting the
    many forms of African
    oral literature.
    MYTHS
    • Usually explain
    interrelationships of all things
    that exist.
    PRAISE POEMS
    • Are epithets called out in reference
    to an object in celebration of its
    outstanding qualities and
    achievements.
    Funeral dirges
    • Chanted during funeral ceremonies.
    folktales
    • A tale passed down through a
    people group that is usually based on
    superstition.

    • These oral traditions were usually


    used to teach socially accepted
    behaviour and values within
    African society.
    African Proverbs

    • are much more than quaint old sayings.


    Instead, they represent a poetic form
    that uses few words but achieves great
    depth of meaning and they function as
    the essence of people’s values and
    knowledge.
    epic
    • is a long, often book-length,
    narrative in verse form that re-tells
    the heroic journey of a single
    person, or group of persons.
    Famous african epic:
    • The Dausi from the Soninke
    • Monzon and the King of Kore from the Bambara of
    Western Africa
    • The Epic of Askia the Great, medieval ruler of the Songhai
    empire in Western Africa
    • The Epic of the Zulu Empire of Southern Africa
    • Sundiata from the Mandingo Peoples of West Africa is the
    best-preserved and the best-known African epic which is a
    blend of fact and legend.
    Written
    literature
    • Includes novels, plays, poems,
    hymns, and tales.
    Written
    literature
    • Includes novels, plays, poems,
    hymns, and tales.
    Scholars have identified
    three (3) waves of
    literacy in Africa:
    01. ethiopia

    • Where written works have been discovered that


    appeared before the earliest literatures in the Celtic
    and Germanic Languages of Western Europe.
    02. Africa
    • After the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, its
    believers established themselves in North Africa
    through a series of “jihads” or “holy wars”.
    03. europe

    • Through trade relationships, missionary activities,


    and colonialism propelled the 3rd wave of literacy in
    Africa.
    Famous african literary works
    Poetry:

    • TOTEM - by Leopold Senghor shows the eternal linkage of


    the living with the dead.

    • LETTERS TO MARTHA – by Dennis Brutus that speaks of


    the humiliation, the despondency, the indignity of prison life
    Poetry:

    • SONG OF LAWINO – by Okot P’Bitek shows the clash


    between African and Western values.

    • AFRICA– by David Diop poems that achieves its impact


    by a series of climatic sentences and rhetorical questions
    Novels:

    • THE HOUSEBOY– by Ferdnand Oyono that points out


    the dillusionment of a boy who leave his parents
    maltreatment to enlist his services as an acolyte to a
    missionary.

    • THINGS FALL APART– by Chinua Achebe a vivid


    picture of Africa before the colonization by the British.
    AFRICAN
    MAJOR
    WRITERS
    Chinua Achebe (1930)

    • Proclaimed as the “Father of African Literature”

    • A prominent Nigerian novelist acclaimed for his


    unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological
    disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western
    customs and values upon traditional African society.

    “One of the truest tests of integrity is its


    blunt refusal to be compromised.”
    Chinua Achebe (1930)

    • His writings, including the novel


    “Things Fall Apart”, have
    introduced readers throughout the
    world to creative uses of language
    and form, as well as to factual
    inside accounts of modern
    African life and history.
    Nadine Gordimer (1923)

    • is a South African novelist and short story


    writer whose major theme was exile and
    alienation. She received the Nobel Prize for
    Literature in 1991.
    Bessie Head
    (–1986)
    • African writer who described the
    contradictions and shortcomings of pre-
    colonial and post-colonial African
    society in morally didactic novels and
    stories.
    Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906)

    • is a poet and statesman who was co-


    founder of the Negritude movement in
    African art and literature.
    • He became President of Senegal in 1960.
    • His works include: Songs of Shadow,
    Black Offerings, Major Elegies,
    Poetical Work.
    negritude

    • means literally ‘blackness,’


    • is the literary movement of the 1930s – 1950s that began among
    French-speaking African and Caribbean writers living in Paris as a
    protest against French colonial rule and the policy of assimilation.
    Basic idea of negritude:
    • Africans must look to their own cultural heritage to determine the values and
    traditions that are most useful in the modern world.

    • Committed writers should use African subject matter and poetic traditions and
    should excite a desire for political freedom.

    • Negritude itself encompasses the whole of African cultural, economic, social, and
    political values.

    • The value and dignity of African traditions and peoples must be asserted
    Example of negritude:
    • Telephone Conversation

    Author Wole Soyinka


    Is the poet’s most anthologized poem that reflects
    Negritude. It is a satirical poem between a Blackman
    seeking the landlady’s permission to accommodate him
    in her lodging house. The poetic dialogue reveals the
    landlady’s deep-rooted prejudice against the colored
    people as the caller plays up on it.
    Okot P’’Bitek
    (1982)
    • was born in Uganda during the
    British domination and was
    embodied in a contrast of cultures.
    Wole Soyinka
    (1934)
    • Nigerian playwright and political
    activist who received the Nobel Prize for
    Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote
    of modern West Africa in a satirical style,
    but his serious intent and his belief in the
    evils inherent in the exercise of power
    were usually evident in his work as well.
    -end-

    You might also like