African Literature Research Articles

A Study of Representation and Portrayal of Women in Selected Nigerian Arabic Plays

Research has shown that women are not well portrayed and un-equally represented as men in African Literature. This paper investigates how far this claim is true in relation to the Nigerian Arabic plays. The research is analytic and descriptive in nature. The study analyses the representation of women and describes their portrayal in six (6) randomly selected Nigerian Arabic plays namely; Ustadhun Ragma Anfih (A Teacher in Defiance of Him), Fi-Mash-had at-Tilifisyun (At the Television Viewing centre), Al-Dhakhirat(The Relic), Baqaaun Muqaddar (Destined to survive), As-sayyid Al-muhadir (Mr. Lecturer) and Al-Hasad (The Harvest).The result of the analyses of the characterization ,with the aid of ratio and simple percentage, reveals that women are poorly represented in all the selected plays and the examination of the roles assigned to women in the selected texts shows that women are portrayed as illiterate, evil, liars, sex toys and disobedient.This paper recommends that authors of the Nigerian Arabic plays should assign more positive roles to women in their writings to reveal some of the positive roles played by women in the society and equally put more female characters in the characterization.

Violence and narrative representation of women’s experiences in Sefi Atta’s Swallow and Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter

ABSTRACT Violence of diverse forms is often metaphorised in some African literature works as a semblance of culture and religion. Sefi Atta’s Swallow and Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter (SLaL) among other African writings experiment with themes of betrayal, conflict (violence), exploitation, hardship, death, and even friendship. These are epitomised in marriage, religio-cultural values, sexual harassment, transnational mobility, and divorce. Through the use of psychoanalytic theory in character and thematic depiction, the study revealed that both texts go beyond physical and psychological violence to the metaphorical and fictional discursive aspects of the female movement to self-actualisation. The representation of women’s experiences of violence in both texts had not only physical but also psychological dimensions portrayed in the narrative. Swallow, set in a stenchy-hustling Lagos, symbolises moral decadence and the insurrection of the unlikely female breadwinning. SLaL portrays the abandonment and vulnerability of brilliant and aspiring women. The estrangement of Ramatoulaye from her husband, despite her love and loyalty, and her subsequent subjugation to the Islamic mourning obligations after her husband’s death speaks volumes about the subtle violence women endure. Friendship becomes a coping strategy for violence in both texts.

Determinants of preterm prelabor rupture of fetal membrane among pregnant women in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Ethiopia is one of the countries where persistently high neonatal and maternal mortalities are reported. Preterm prelabor rupture of membrane (PPROM) plays an important contribution to these high mortalities. However, there is a paucity of comprehensive evidence about the epidemiology of PPROM in Ethiopia. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to assess the pooled prevalence and determinants of PPROM among pregnant women in Ethiopia. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted following the PRISMA guideline. Relevant literatures were searched on African Journals Online (AJOL), PubMed, Scopus, Epistemonikos, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and gray literature. All statistical analyses were performed using STATA 17 software. The random effect meta-analysis model was employed to summarize the pooled estimates. Heterogeneity between included studies was evaluated using I2 statistic. Egger's regression test and Begg's correlation test were employed to assess publication bias, in conjunction with funnel plot. Besides, the non-parametric trim-and-fill analysis, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis and meta-regression were also performed. A total of 13 original studies with 24,386 participants were considered in this systematic review. The pooled prevalence of PPROM was 6.58% (95% CI: 5.36, 7.79). Urinary tract infection (OR: 3.44; 95% CI: 1.81, 6.53), abnormal vaginal discharge (OR: 4.78; 95% CI: 2.85, 8.01), vaginal bleeding (OR: 2.04; 95% CI: 1.03, 4.06), history of PROM (OR: 4.64; 95% CI: 2.71, 7.95), history of abortion (OR: 3.06; 95% CI: 1.71, 5.46), malnutrition (OR: 5.24; 95% CI: 2.63, 10.44), anemia (OR: 3.97; 95% CI: 2.01, 7.85) and gestational diabetes (OR: 5.08; 95% CI: 1.93, 13.36) were significantly associated with PPROM. This meta-analysis found a high prevalence of PPROM in Ethiopia. Urinary tract infection, abnormal vaginal discharge, vaginal bleeding, history of PROM, history of abortion, malnutrition, anemia and gestational diabetes were risk factors for PPROM. Prevention and control of antenatal infections and malnutrition are highly recommended to reduce the magnitude of PPROM in Ethiopia. Additionally, healthcare providers should emphasize the identified risk factors. CRD42024536647.

Criminal Genius in African American and US Literature, 1793-1845. Erin Forbes

Criminal Genius in African American and US Literature, 1793-1845. Erin Forbes

Development, validation, and application of a South African Dietary Polyphenol Data Quality Assessment Tool

There is a wealth of South African scientific literature studying and reporting on dietary polyphenols in research articles and academic literature. The evaluation of data quality is critical to ensure polyphenol data compiled from various scientific journals and academic texts are acceptable in terms of compilation standards. This study aimed to develop, validate, and apply a country specific South African dietary polyphenol data quality assessment tool (SADPDQAT). The evaluation tool considered nine evaluation categories with a maximum score of 5. For each literature source assessed, a quality score and confidence code was assigned. Validation analysis revealed generally consistent results between raters with an average percentage agreement of 65 %, no scores falling outside of Bland-Altman limits of agreement and a moderate internal consistency α = 0.533 which was improved to 0.616. Applying the tool to 383 scientific studies showed that most literature obtained a quality score between 70 and 79 % resulting in a confidence code of “B” (n = 166, 43 %) and a score between 60 and 69 % resulting in a confidence code of “C” (n = 125, 33 %). The SADPDQAT can be used to evaluate a variety of dietary polyphenol containing literature and aids in setting priorities for further research in this area.

IDENTITY CONFUSION IN DOROTHY WEST’S THE LIVING IS EASY

Literature is a media for conveying the authors’ ideas and feelings to the payers, or it is a mean of relief for them to bare their souls. In this context, literature involves an enormous place in human life. In this regard, African American literature has an important place in American literature and culture. It is also one of the strongest pillars of the literature produced by black writers in the United States of America. African American literature goes and continues in the course of history as oral literature from generation to generation. Since African Americans’ place changes gradually in the USA- due to racism in particular- their viewpoint of literature changes, too. African American history predates the foundation of the United States of America as an independent country, so their literature has deep roots, consisting of rich oral culture in poetry, including gospel music, blues, rap, and spirituals along with written poetry, and slave narrations. Although African Americans come from slave ancestors, they have been able to leave a deep effect on the literature of the United States when they are brought to the continent of America. African American literature is mainly based on autobiographical spiritual narratives, and before the American Civil War African Americans’ literature consists of memoirs of people who escape from slavery. So, African American literature has witnessed the problem of racial discrimination in its existential aspect. But in the progress of time, black writers go deep into verbal literature and perform their own experiences. Dorothy West, in her novel Living is Easy criticizes the blacks who mimes the whites. When we scrutinize, it is possible to penetrate that the writer wants to reflect her own experiences via narration and criticizes her own past. Writing is a kind of purgation for West since she writes about herself. In this study, we aim to point out the impulses that foster Dorothy West’s narration from a Freudian point of view.

Examining the Contribution of Selected African Novels to the Naming Rites

In the African context, a new-born baby receives his or her names during the naming ceremony. After receiving all the names, these names play a very important role in the existence of an African family. But with colonization, the way Africans received names has drastically changed because of the interference of the new cultures that were brought by the colonizers. One of the main factors that are part of the changes is Christianity. It is this regard that African writers in the quest of African dignity try to depict through the various novels in this article in which circumstances names are given, and how the naming ceremonies are affected with colonization until in this era of Globalization. These naming ceremonies have great importance in the existence of Africans and that is why they have been painted vividly in African literature.

Africanness and Britishness Pedigree and Research of African English literature

As an intersection of African literature and English literature, Afro-British literature has become a common carrier of “Africanness” and “Englishness”, not only upholding the thick tradition of African local culture, but also powerfully supporting and expressing “Africanness” through its potential discourse of resistance and emancipatory demands. Not only does it hold on to the thick African local cultural tradition and strongly support and speak of “Africanness”, but it also intervenes in, subverts and reshapes “Britishness” through its potential discourse of resistance and demand for liberation. Afro-British literature has made an important contribution to the mutual understanding and appreciation of the two literary traditions and to the connection of cultures, ethnic groups and societies in two different regions across the oceans, providing an excellent and realistic blueprint for the construction of culture in the post-imperial and post-racial era, and shaping a paradigm for the construction of community in the context of globalization and pluralism nowadays.

The reality of poetic structure in modern African literature written in Arabic language Analytical descriptive study

This research ends with an explanation of the poetic structure of African poetry written in Arabic. The aim of the study is related to knowing the new poetic structure of African poetry, which can only be achieved after knowing the poetic structure of the Arabs. It is known that ancient Arabic poetic structure proceeds from the initial introductions to the basic purpose of the poem, as mentioned by critics, and we find a multiplicity of themes within it. As for new poetry, it has its own structure which differs. of the traditional structure in terms of linguistic aspect, forms and themes. African literature written in Arabic knew these literary facts, and African poets paid attention in their poetic productions to the new poetic structure which differs from the vertical structure of poetry. Using poetic models, we were able to explain the poetic structure of old and new African poetry written in Arabic.

Positive psychology constructs associated with academic success in South African secondary schools: A scoping review

In the South African education system, there is consistent concern about academic success and how it can be supported. Using a positive psychology lens could add additional insight on aspects of positive psychological functioning that may be associated with academic success. This scoping review examined literature on positive psychology constructs identified in association with academic success in South African secondary schools. Databases and other relevant sources were searched for studies implemented between 2007 and 2022. The search strategy yielded 15 studies for analysis. The results indicate that out of 46 potential positive psychology constructs, only 25 have been investigated in South African literature. The most researched construct was social support, followed by achievement motivation, and hope.

“Cut on the Bias”: Toni Cade Bambara as a Touchstone of Black Feminist Humor Studies

ABSTRACT As a writer, editor, scholar, and activist, Toni Cade Bambara left an indelible imprint on African American literature and Black feminist thought. This article elucidates Bambara’s significance to Black women’s humorous practice and articulates the mutuality between Black feminism’s ongoing project to render Black women visible and to recover and engage in the bounty of Black women’s humorous expression. Through her “cut on the bias” approach to using humor in the short story “Medley,” Bambara offers an “alternate design sensibility” of racial and gender difference that illuminates the perspective of being Black and female.

Linguopoetic Analysis of the Perception of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Novel in Kyrgyz and Russian Cultures

This article analyzes the linguopoetic perception of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe novel in Kyrgyz and Russian cultures. The goal of the study is not only to analyze the linguistic and poetic means used in the translation and adaptation of the novel into Kyrgyz and Russian languages but also to identify the differences and similarities in the interpretation of the text by representatives of both cultures. The paper examines the cultural contexts that influence the perception of the novel and analyzes how these contexts are reflected in the lexical and stylistic features of the translation. Special attention is given to how Kyrgyz and Russian ethnocultural values manifest in the interpretation of the plot and imagery of the work. The study reveals the features of the linguocultural adaptation of the novel and allows conclusions to be drawn about the significance of the linguopoetic approach in comparative literary studies. In the concluding part of this work, we will review the interpretation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's work in contemporary African American studies, focusing primarily on the interpretation of the novel proposed by Henry Louis Gates Jr., a leading historian, and theorist of African American literature, which reflects the radical Afrocentrism of the 1960s and 1990s.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Study from a Feminist Perspective

The 20th century saw the emergence of feminist theory and gender studies as literary concepts. African literature from the 1890s examines gender issues and women's identities from various perspectives. "Things Fall Apart" prompts a gender dynamics study. It examines a range of feminist concerns that represent power dynamics, femininity, and masculinity. Achebe, influenced by colonialist literature, presents an image of pre-colonial Igbo culture to refute Eurocentric myths. The research focuses on patriarchy, its substantial effects on gender, and how it limits and influences women's lives. The analysis, which takes feminist perspectives, looks at the nuances of patriarchy and the ways that female characters Ezinma, Nneka, and Ekwefi resist in anticipation of social norms. Along with scientific publications and research papers, the book serves as the main source. This study dissects patriarchy's role in dismantling gender equilibrium. .

Harmonizing Africa’s linguistic symphony: navigating the complexities of translating African literature using a postcolonial theory

Harmonizing Africa’s linguistic symphony: navigating the complexities of translating African literature using a postcolonial theory

Gendering visions of the postcolonial modernist state through names: a literary onomastic analysis of Nii Ayikwei Parkes’s Tail of the Blue Bird (2009)

African literature is a crucial arena for deconstructing norms, and imagining communities or alternative modes of sociality and being. In many postcolonial African literary works, particularly those grappling with the legacy of European colonisation and the challenges of nation-building, the modernist state is frequently depicted as an entity emblematic of violence and dispossession inflicted upon the populace. However, it is also sometimes portrayed as offering a degree of hope and possibility amidst the turmoil. Drawing on literary onomastics and insights from Rights and Feminist theories, the article examines Parkes’ strategic use of names to articulate ethicality in Tail of the Blue Bird. Parkes argues for a true decolonisation by radically replacing and reassessing the patriarchal ideology that creates violence and trauma in postcolonial societies. This should happen by embracing the feminine principles represented by the main female characters in the novel. The article shows that the semiotics and character roles of Esi Mensisi and Yaa Somu as women constitute crucial sites for Parkes’ rumination on human flourishing and ethicality in the postcolonial modernist state. The article has implications for studies on literary onomastics, characterisation, and how African writers attempt to reimagine postcolonial politics and sociality.

The Moral Law of Ngozi Crime in Two Zimbabwean Novels: The Case of Emmanuel Ribeiro’s Muchadura (1967) and Solomon Mwapangidza’s Rebel Soldier (2013)

The modern Western-inspired Literature and Law movement has inspired African works of art in which the creative imagination perceives itself as a form of moral law. In Africa, a literature and law movement has given rise to dynamic discourses of human rights. Human rights scholars have then tended to read imaginative works with a legal handbook on the side to try to verify the veracity of legal acts in works of art. In these legal-literary perspectives, the question regarding the extent to which the literary imagination imagines itself as a source of indigenous law is undervalued. This current desktop study examines what can be gained by prefacing African and indigenous literature as the point of departure when debating the elements of a contemporary literature and law movement in Africa. My unit of analysis consists of two novels, Muchadura (You shall confess) by Emmanuel Ribeiro, and Rebel Soldier (2013) by Solomon Mwapangidza. My argument is that in the two novels the narrativisation of the ngozi crime challenges current understandings of transitional justices such as retributive, compensatory, restorative, distributive, and emancipatory justices and denies the stability ascribed to them in African legal scholarship.

Leveraging implementation science for secondary prevention of cervical cancer in South Africa

Aim Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer and the top cause of cancer deaths amongst women in South Africa. Evidence-based interventions for secondary prevention of cervical cancer (cervical screening followed by treatment of identified pre-cancerous lesions) are available in South Africa’s health system, yet cervical cancer incidence remains high. This paper argues that this is partly due to implementation failure, i.e., deploying a good intervention ineffectively. Interventions found efficacious in controlled research settings may not achieve desired health outcomes when deployed in the real world due to implementation failure. Methods The field of implementation science offers frameworks for enhancing effective implementation. These frameworks guide the identification of implementation barriers and selection of context-relevant strategies for addressing them. This paper applies implementation science frameworks to secondary prevention in South Africa and promotes using such frameworks in cervical cancer prevention programming. Findings The problem of secondary prevention of cervical cancer in South Africa is contextualised. The paper conceptualises effective implementation as the attainment of implementation outcomes including acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, implementation cost, reach, and sustainability of evidence-based interventions. Drawing from the South African literature, examples of ineffective and failed implementation of secondary prevention interventions are presented including: low acceptability of screening by users and providers, sub-optimal adoption of screening provision by providers, low feasibility of hospital-centred pre-cancer treatment provision, low implementation fidelity, and limited reach of screening and pre-cancer treatment. Finally, using two examples, the paper provides practical guidance on how implementation science frameworks could be leveraged in South Africa to mitigate implementation failure. Conclusions Greater application of and capacity building in implementation science are recommended to contribute towards strengthening cervical cancer secondary prevention in South Africa.

Oral Poetic Techniques as Decolonial Creative Strategies in Osundare’s The Word is an Egg

Modern Nigerian poetry in English was dominated in the 1950s and 1960s by the writing of Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, and Christopher Okigbo. The trio, regarded as pioneers and the first generation of Nigerian poets, succeeded largely with their adoption of modernist techniques to convey African material. By the 1970s, their writing came under scrutiny with the call to decolonise African literature and, by extension, Nigerian poetry in English. In this article, I demonstrate how Niyi Osundare demystifies the form and language of Nigerian poetry in English by the creative deployment of oral techniques in selected poems. I argue that Osundare, as a Nigerian second-generation poet, decolonises and democratises modern Nigerian poetry by delinking from his predecessors’ Eurocentric conception of poetry. The article is in five parts. The first part provides an introduction, the second is a background review of the development of Nigerian poetry in English from which the research problem, purpose, and aim are identified. The third part is on the structure of The Word is an Egg. The fourth part analyses the oral poetic techniques employed by Osundare as decolonial creative strategies, and the fifth provides a concluding attestation of the transformative nature of Osundare’s poetic art.

As die Cape Flats Kon Praat: Locality and the Literature of Precarious Living

This paper discusses the importance of Brian Fredericks’s short story collection, As die Cape Flats Kon Praat (If the Cape Flats Could Speak), published in 2020. The nine stories in the collection present different narratives of male characters and their experiences on the living areas outside Cape Town collectively known as the Cape Flats. These areas are synonymous with poverty and violence, identifiers that simultaneously suggest urgent attention but also reductive stereotyping. Two of the stories in the collection are examined here for information they provide about the intersections between gang culture and family relations, as well as how both are shaped by senses of place. How geographical space (here, space that was engineered during apartheid) influences and is influenced by the movements and actions of people is a point of theoretical interest in this article. This is supported by a short study of the workings of Cape Flats gangs and the transactional role played by violence. Fredericks’s collection joins a growing and necessary library of redress that reflects the value of Cape Flats narratives as essential to South African literature. That this collection includes the language of Afrikaaps, which is undergoing a similar re-evaluation in recent knowledge production, underscores the relevance of newer output that sheds light on the social codes, cultural grammars, and moral economies of a hitherto underrepresented literary region.

An Overview of Caribbean and African Literary Theories

As it is believed, Africa is the cradle of humankind, where humans also left for other parts of the world during the slave trade and also during World War I and II. At the abolition of the slave trade, many African descendants settled where they could call home, like in the Caribbean islands and other parts of the world, as a result of the ancestral and cultural attachment between Africa and the places where the descendants of the slaves where we could see some similarities in their ways of life. We can see these facts also translate into the African and Caribbean writers' literary works, among other spheres of life. The analyses show that while both literatures share common concerns related to colonial legacy and the quest for identity, they are distinguished by unique historical and socio-political contexts that influence their narrative perspectives. For example, African literature tends to focus more on the effects of colonization and decolonization on the African continent, while Caribbean literature often emphasizes the dynamics of the diaspora and the multiple facets of Caribbean identity. In addition, this study examines the use of language and literary techniques specific to each region, as well as the contributions of major literary figures such as aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Monique Ilboudo, Werewe Liking, Wole Soyinka, Maryse Condé and many others. Finally, this comparison offers a deeper understanding of the richness and diversity of postcolonial literature while highlighting the unique voices and shared experiences of African and Caribbean writers.