African cultural rebirth: a literary approach

Abstract

African culture has suffered a serious neglect since the attainment of independence in the 1960s by many of the countries of Africa. This appalling situation has been caused mainly by the imposition of the colonial master's foreign language. These cultures have indeed ruptured the autochthonous African traditions thereby making some Africans alien to their cultures. This paper, as a way of introduction, clarifies the relationship between humanities and pure sciences. It examines, as part of humanistic studies, the literary creation of the pre-independence period of Africa as presented by the Negritude movement. While making a case for the renaissance of the fading African cultures through some of the Negritude postulations, it seeks to re-evaluate the Negritude concept and position vis-à-vis other cultures of the world and advocate a fruitful symbiosis where one culture does not inferiorize the other. Some Negritude works, especially the poems of Léopold Sédar Senghor, Birago Diop, David Diop, and Camara Laye are analyzed with a view to advocating a regeneration of African traditions. This paper concludes that while cultural symbiosis needs to be encouraged, African cultural values must be protected from total domination by foreign influences.