Contemporary Africa and the Politics in Literature

Abstract

Contemporary Africa conflates the literary works of three major generations of writers that include the first generation of Sembene Ousmane, Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, Kofi Awoonor, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Ama Ata Aidoo, and J. P. Clark; the second generation comprising Niyi Osundare, Jack Mapanje, Nurudin Farar, Isidore Okpewho, Festus Iyayi, Femi Osofisan, Jack Mapanje, Frank Chipasula, Mandla Langa, and Tanure Ojaide; and the third generation consisting of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta, Vonani Bila, and other younger writers. This generational peri-odization is not rigid because it tends to take into consideration when a group of writers are in vogue and not when the writers stopped writing at some specific times. Some of the first generation African writers are still writing and many in the second group are as prolific as those in the third generation. These writers come from different countries such as Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, among others. As such, modern African literature comprises a range of writers with some dead, many others ageing and also the younger ones of different age-groups from a variety of countries in the African continent. Never before has Africa had as much quantity and diversity of literary works of writers from different generations.