Encyclopaedia of African Literature

Abstract

Simon Gikandi. Encyclopaedia of African Literature. New York: Routledge, 2003. xv + 629 pp. Index. $150.00. Cloth. Early scholars of African literature still remember how welcome Hans Zell's Readers' Guide to African Literature (1972) was in this new field of criticism. Since then, African literature has become an established discipline, and need for reliable reference works on all levels is even greater. Simon Gikandi's Encyclopaedia of African Literature now provides a comprehensive source of information on literature of entire continent, ranging geographically from Mediterranean to Cape of Good Hope and linguistically from Europhone literatures to those in African languages. It is a welcome supplement to existing reference works, most of which are restricted to literature in one language or one country. With its wide scope and comprehensiveness, Gikandi's Enyclopaedia will be a useful tool for students and scholars, although African language literatures are not really covered adequately in this work. Swahili literature, for example, which boasts of continent's oldest written history, receives an entry of only three and a half columns plus occasional references in entry on East African literature. Most of Encyclopaedia consists of entries on individual authors, but there are also articles on particular themes such as oral literature, media, feminist criticism, and gender and sexuality (unfortunately without bibliography). The editor presents surveys of literary developments on a regional basis, obviously to counter general (and problematic) practice of writing literary histories of Nigeria, Ghana, and so on. In case of South African literature, however, national literature paradigm is maintained in two consecutive articles, one on literature in African languages and other on literature in English, while Afrikaans literature is listed seperately. The specific political history of South certainly justifies a treatment in terms. The separation into English, Afrikaans, and African language literatures nevertheless repeats old model of segregated critical discourse which Michael Chapman has declared obsolete and inappropriate for rainbow nation (Southern African Literature, 1995). In regard to East African literature, Gikandi treats Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian literature as one entity, but justification proposed-that three countries were joined under British rule as East African Protectorate-is misleading. Tanzania has a double German-British colonial heritage, Kenya was a settler colony where peasants in highlands were expropriated, while in Ugandan Protectorate established kingdoms of Buganda, Toro, and Bunyoro continued to play an important role under indirect rule. all these factors make for very different postindependence histories. Beyond political differences, language policies in all three countries have varied drastically: In Tanzania Swahili was adopted as national language, whereas in Uganda Luganda speakers rejected Swahili, considering it language of military and of oppression. I would also strongly disagree with editor's assertion that the significance of Amin's era in Uganda lies in creative impulses it engendered among Ungandans and non-Ugandans alike, leading to an almost unprecedented flowering of literature in East Africa (159). It is true that Amin's reign of terror provided subject matter for a number of novels, plays, and films. But it is also true that Amin not only killed intellectuals and writers but also destroyed whole cultural infrastructure, driving writers, artists, and intellectuals into exile. At end of Amin-Obote terror, flourishing literature, publishing, and theater scene of Golden Age had completely vanished, and only thing left was shallow commercial theater of domestic farce. …