Thematic milestones and literary explorations of black existentiality in black literature

Abstract

ABSTRACTTranscending beyond the older themes of colonialism, racial pride, Pan-African idealism, to those contemporary issues that have resulted to political independence, the emergence of black writing has necessitated the need to re-evaluate the African cultural, socio-political and economic status in the post-colonial era. The global spread of Blacks through migration has incurred great challenges for the existence of the Blacks whose presence are conspicuously announced by their natural pigmentation. From a sociological/historical perspective, this essay explores some of these thematic milestones against the historiography of black existence in new environments and how Black writers have successfully evinced this relationship. It focuses on shifts in perspectives to issues prevalent in the Black world. Apart from racial pride, other concerns that have recursively questioned the Black race afterwards are predicated on socio-political concepts such as colonial/modern slavery, human trafficking, racism, ethnicity, imperialisms, migration, Black women rights/sexuality, slum living, etc. The essay concludes that these issues have given impetus for responses from the perspectives of black writers, creating for Black Literature an active enterprise that is equally responsible for the direction of the Black race.