SAMPLE OF LITERATURE REVIEW IN A TOPIC RELATED TOTRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN SOME WEST AFRICAN NOVELISTS WORKS

Abstract

African traditional religion is one of the starting points of the West African literature, and in most of the first generation of West African writers’ novels, the topic is largely developed. These novelists have observed many of the qualities and roles ascribed to traditional religion in the expression of the African cultural identity. Any West African critic who neglects religion in his writings is also neglecting an important, even indispensable literary movement of the past, which has played a crucial role in the African's quest to the present, and a direction for the future. The African past was decapitated by the slave trade and the white domination, and the writers reconstruct the West African pre-colonial era, through its religious and cultural practices. African traditional religion is one of the starting points of the West African literature, and in most of the first generation of West African writers’ novels, the topic is largely developed. These novelists have observed many of the qualities and roles ascribed to traditional religion in the expression of the African cultural identity. Any West African critic who neglects religion in his writings is also neglecting an important, even indispensable literary movement of the past, which has played a crucial role in the African's quest to the present, and a direction for the future.