African Literature Research Articles

Academics with disabilities during transformation to a New African University in South Africa

The idea of transformation to a ‘new African university’ has become topical in contemporary African education scholarship. Whilst it is claimed that the process seeks to include all stakeholders, academics with disabilities are excluded because of discourses and dynamics in Africa’s higher education that have remained deeply embedded in Eurocentric thinking and mind-set. This paper applied Critical Disability Theory to analyse the challenges that face academics with disabilities in the areas of teaching, research, community engagement and doctoral supervision in South African higher education and that must be appropriately and adequately addressed for a successful transformation to a “‘new’ African University”. Data were collected through an analysis of South African literature on exclusion of students with disabilities as research, community engagement and supervision are regarded as a continuum and involve both students and the academics. Findings revealed that academics with disabilities are confronted with specific challenges similar to those faced by students with disabilities, as they all function within the same context during transformation to a ‘new African university’. The challenges are inaccessible physical environment, negative attitudes from the community members, impairment-related disadvantages, lack of adequate funding and lack of adequate media for use, which all compound to limit their functioning like their able-bodied counterparts. Including the voice of academics with disabilities in disability policy was proposed as a way to alleviate the challenges they confront enabling them to contribute positively to scholarship and thus affirm the transformation to a new African University

Representation of Educational Elitism and Entrepreneurship Merit in Contemporary Africa: A Cultural Shift to Self-Fulfilment

This paper explores and acknowledges the recurring theme of education in African literature, which is often depicted as both a means to reclaim African identity and culture and a tool for social mobility and economic empowerment. Using the Interpretive Interactionism methodology, the study identifies a growing emphasis on the representation of entrepreneurship as a form of vocational training, experiential and work-based learning that can supplement or even replace traditional educational qualifications. This evolving perspective reflects cultural shifts to self-fulfilment, where entrepreneurship is seen as a viable path to success. This study contributes to our understanding of the multifaceted role of education in postcolonial francophone African literature. The findings highlight the complex nature of education in many African societies and its potential for positive transformation as well as challenges to traditional notions of elitism, empowerment, and self-fulfilment.

“Poetry alerting us to our propensity to repeat errors of the past”. Michael Chapman and Phil van Schalkwyk in conversation with Karina Jarzyńska on Adam Zagajewski, Poland and South Africa

A conversation with two South African literary scholars who have engaged in comparative research on Polish and South African literature, addressing historical parallels between the two regions. The conversation was conducted through an email exchange.

Roundtable review of Shola Adenekan's African Literature in the Digital Age (2021)African Digital Literature by Invite Only

Roundtable review of Shola Adenekan's African Literature in the Digital Age (2021)African Digital Literature by Invite Only

Roundtable review of Shola Adenekan's African Literature in the Digital Age (2021)Directions in Digital Africas

Roundtable review of Shola Adenekan's African Literature in the Digital Age (2021)Directions in Digital Africas

Understanding gender identities in an African communitarian world view

In African philosophical literature, and especially in Afro-communitarianism, there are discussions about the value of the relationship an individual has with her respective community. By community, reference is made to the metaphysical holistic view of community which includes all beings in nature. But since the article deals with gender, which is a social construction, most of the arguments appeal to a narrower version of community, that of human beings. Therefore, discussions about “value” refer to the value that is given to the relationship that surpasses any individual value, and it applies or appeals to human beings. One implication of this understanding and the prioritisation of the relationship is that identity is something that is conferred by this sort of relationship. In this article, we argue that this way of understanding “identity” from an Afro-communitarian world view has something to offer in understanding or conceptualising gender(ed) identity(ies). The assumption is that gender identity will be understood as socially conferred and most importantly, one that takes community as essential.

‘Good’ South African Literature: The Booker Prize, its Infatuation with the Postcolonial and Damon Galgut’s The Promise

‘Good’ South African Literature: The Booker Prize, its Infatuation with the Postcolonial and Damon Galgut’s The Promise

Seven Falls from Olumirin’s Pot: African Eco-Spirituality and Myths of Erin-Ijesha Waterfalls in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Contemporary critics of ecocriticism have explored ecologies dynamically across different genres in postcolonial African literature, especially in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. However, they overlook African Eco-spirituality underpinned by indigenous African religion and conservative practices to address impending global ecological crises. The primary data were thirty (30) simple random interviews conducted with local entertainers, paramount rulers, residents, pedestrians, market women, commercial drivers, cyclists, and skilled labourers at Erin-Ijesha, Olumirin waterfall site in Oriade LGA in Osun State and Aba-Oke Efon Alaaye LGA Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study modelled Ikechukwu Kanu’s (2021) sources of African eco-spirituality, namely proverbs, gods and deities of nature, mythologies, totems and taboos, to explore indigenous practices and mythologies among indigenes of Aba-Oke/Erin-Ijesha. The study concludes that Aba-Oke and Erin-Ijesha communities promote attitudes of gratitude, reverence and stewardship for various life forms, which could catalyse change to mediate the damaged ecosystems and slow down the impending climate crisis.

Stimulating the Law through Ubuntu and Nagomi in Three Japanese Short Stories

Abstract Critical engagement with and intersections of Japanese and African literatures are burgeoning. In pre-colonial African society, a lawful action was that action that took into consideration the common good expressed in the spirit of Ubuntu. Interestingly, Japanese literature and African literature share this universal character in common. Ubuntu intersects with the Japanese philosophy of Nagomi which emphasises harmony and balance thereby creating a nexus of transcultural hybridity. This paper examines Ubuntu and Nagomi as transcultural motifs in stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Nagai Kafu, and Uno Koji in Akutagawa and Others: Three Japanese Short Stories to highlight ideological and law-oriented similarities. Carl Jung’s Persona-Archetype is privileged in this study because it accounts for the recurring images of Ubuntu and Nagomi in the public life of the characters. These cultural images help them to mitigate defiant conducts which violate the fundamental human rights and life purpose of other characters. In Nagai Kafu’s “Behind the Prison”, the motif of physical and psychological imprisonment is eye-catching as the narrator writes His Excellency expressing his frustration at the awful state of things in his Japanese society. Uno Koji’s “Closet LLB” interrogates the imperatives of choice and identity while Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s “General Kim” is a story based on the history of Japan and its neighbour, Korea. In the stories, the protagonists and other characters act heroically in ways that evince the tenets of Ubuntu and Nagomi. Their heroic actions allay the fears of their vulnerable compatriots and protect their fundamental human rights.

The Treatment of Women in Selected Works by Bessie Head

The role of women in Africa is one of the most notable issues in modern African literature. African novelists focus on roles held by women in the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods, alongside the effect of colonization on African women. This study is a serious attempt at providing a comprehensive analytical investigation of the role of women in Bessie Head’s selected works: When Rain Clouds Gather (1969), The Collector of Treasures, and Other Botswana Village Tales (1977). It demonstrates how traditional societies and colonizers treat African women and the influence of Head’s personal life and background on her literary works. Various studies focus on the issue of women using the feminist approach. This study, however, concentrates on women's issues using feminist and post-colonial theories.

African Literature Today 39 ed. by Louisa Uchum Egbunike and Chimalum Nwankwo (review)

African Literature Today 39 ed. by Louisa Uchum Egbunike and Chimalum Nwankwo (review)

ANALYZING RACIAL PROPAGANDA AGAINST SOCIO-CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE IN SELECTED POEMS OF COUNTEE CULLEN AND LANGSTON HUGHES

The social purpose of art expands its value and significance to problematize many social and political situations of day rather than limiting it to idea of aesthetic pleasure alone. African American philosophers, poets, and authors also attempt to project the issues of race and culture country is facing. They made an effort to create a strong literary framework despite various attempts at discrediting the significance of art and artists on global scale. Considering Alain Lock's idea of ‘Real art or Propaganda’ this paper examines true values of African American literature and takes it a step further to recognize the attempts made via literature to project their rights and preserve their culture and history. This influence never strays from true purpose of art and results in meaningful poems that appeal to human emotion and feelings on a universal level. They have historically given more weight to universal purpose of art, which is to arouse pleasure, and have utilized this as a platform to expose the systematic goal that disadvantages and presents negative picture of African American community.

Representing Dissent through Poetry: A Study of Select Poems of Maya Angelou

Literature in general and protest poetry in particular have been vocal about human condition and problems. This article examines Maya Angelou’s representation of dissent in selected poems, using the historical and socio-political context of her life as a lens. It analyses how Angelou’s work, including “Still I Rise,” “Caged Bird,” “Phenomenal Woman,” and some others, articulates resistance against racial, gender, and social inequalities. Through her powerful metaphors, repetitive phrases, and vivid imagery, Angelou defied societal norms and called for change. The study concludes by emphasizing Angelou’s enduring impact and legacy, not just in literature, but also in shaping civil rights discourse and inspiring social change. Her poetry exemplifies how art can be a potent instrument of protest. The article employs language for ‘writing back’, questioning norms, resisting atrocities and creating scope for change. Protest poetry, which is deeply embedded in American history, remains a prominent part of English literary corpus, contributing greatly to African American literature. The category of African American protest poetry is large owing to the huge expanse of time during which it has been written and also because of the great number of poets who have contributed to this form of writing. As a result, African American protest poetry is divided into three sub-categories– the first deals with protest during slavery, the second during segregation and Jim Crow Laws and the third after political obstacles to equality were presumably removed. This paper aims to deliberate on the following questions— what are the prominent themes of African American protest poetry? How have the African American poets used this genre of literature variously during different historical epochs? How are the concerns of female poets different from their male counterparts? What role has protest poetry played in political movements against inequality, social injustice, oppression, segregation etc.? The present paper aims to engage with this seemingly broad area of literature from the feminist and racial perspectives. The paper intends to deal with few important African American protest poets from foundational poets to the contemporary ones.

Representation of Women and Sexuality in Buchi Emecheta’s The Slave Girl and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: A Study

Women have typically had less legal privileges and career opportunities throughout history than men. The most important occupations for women historically have been those of wife and mother, and they have long been seen as being inherently weaker than men. Their existence and rights are assumed by patriarchal society. Women often view silence as a virtue, but with education, the silence is broken.Many cultural traditions in Africa discriminate women. Husbands frequently beat their wives and place the blame for infertility squarely on their shoulders. Even if it is not proven that they are to blame for the marital issues, they still endure those sufferings. Because culture encourages men to marry multiple women, married women are susceptible to being replaced at any time by their husbands.Female characters in African literature typically experience discrimination as an afterthought to male protagonists. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to examine how women were treated in the chosen text – Buchi Emecheta’s “The Slave Girl” and J.M. Coetzee’s “Disgrace”.

Manifestations of the African Renaissance in Contemporary South African Literature and Art

Manifestations of the African Renaissance in Contemporary South African Literature and Art

Xenophobia in Niq Mhlongo’s Dog Eat Dog and Kopano Matlwa’s Period Pain

Xenophobia has been thematized in South African literature by post-apartheid novelists, and they addressed it in different manners. Two post-apartheid authors who dealt with the issue of xenophobia are Niq Mhlongo and Kopano Matlwa in their novels Dog Eat Dog and Period Pain, respectively. This paper aims to examine how Mhlongo and Matlwa portray xenophobia in their novels and explore the ways they employ to neutralize xenophobia. The paper also discusses the causes of xenophobia pointed out in the novels. Therefore, a critical analysis of the novels has been made by the writer using detailed reading and textual evidence. The analysis indicates that South Africans view black foreigners as job stealers, criminals, drug dealers, witches, and bringers of disease. The writers infused the view of black foreign characters on xenophobia to debunk the negative stereotype and attempted to neutralize it by featuring non-xenophobic protagonists. The article also concludes that Mhlongo and Matlwa reveal the role of the media and the scapegoating hypothesis as the causes of xenophobia.

A Feminist study of Female Bildungsroman in Toni Cade Bambara’s “The lesson”

Every literary text can be considered as effective cultural and historical evidence to show human experiences in different ages. Likewise, African American Literature becomes a major tool to portray racial segregation and marginalizing women of colour. African American novelists have allowed women of colour to have their voices heard and their identities found.
 Toni Cade Bambara is among the best Afro-American authors who has displayed the difficulties that women of colour such as racism, sexism, racial discrimination, ethnic segregation, gender inequality and loss of identity. This study principally analyzes Bambara’s “The Lesson” by considering a Feminist Bildungsroman approach to deal with gender roles and gender inequality of the female characters.
 This paper investigates some questions such as: how does “The Lesson” ascribe to the beliefs of the Black Power Movement? What types of dialects have been used in the text to picture the life and culture of African American women? How is Female Bildungsroman employed by Bambara to build and reconstruct a new image for the characters to enable them to fulfil their dreams? The current study delineates the oppression and segregation of African American people under a white-dominated society. However, the author attempts to deconstruct the life of the characters again so that they can have a better and healthy life.

Postmodern Aesthetics in African Literature

This article examines contemporary critical positions in African literature that mark off perceptible shifts in focus from issues of primal postcolonialism to a more self-reflexive treatment of postmodernism in contemporary African literature. Contemporary African literary works, novels, and plays have become markedly self-reflexive in the way they rewrite one another and draw attention to their own functionality and fictionality. These works present stylistic and thematic departures that challenge the nationalist and realist trend of earlier writing. Creative works further depart from the tradition of “writing back” to the European colonial center by focusing their gaze on local forms of oppression that are seen to parallel classical colonialism. Yet, while critics have separately studied postmodernism and self-reflexivity in African texts, the intersection of the two has not been given sufficient attention. The purpose of this analytical paper then is to decipher postmodernist aesthetics in African literary works, novels and plays, as developed to a higher level of self-consciousness. The specific question I address is to what extent postmodernism expresses itself as an outgrowth of modernism and postcolonialism?
 Keywords: Modernity, postmodernism, postcolonialism, African literary theories and criticisms.

Feminism: Critical Analysis of Barclays Ayakoroma's a Matter of Honour

Over the years, feminism has grown to be a crucial subject of debate and study in African literature. A Matter of Honour by Barclays Ayakoroma is one of several plays and criticisms on many facets of feminism in Africa. However, the weight of African feminist ideology and the many ways it manifests itself in African feminist dramatic texts (the various facets of feminism) have not received the necessary critical attention. The present research was interested in this. The core play text selected for the research was critically assessed using feminism as the guiding principle. The study used literary, qualitative, and analytical methods. The research comes to the conclusion that the play used for the study is a feminist text since it addresses the responsibilities of being a woman. Beyond this representation, the play addresses the many strands of feminism by addressing the position of women and their reactions.

Environment, Climate Change, Insecurity and World Peace: A Critical Examination of Selected African Literary Texts

The interest in African literary texts has increased significantly in recent times within the academic community. However, crucial issues such as climate change, environment, insecurity, and world peace have not received adequate attention from scholars, despite their relevance. This study aims to explore these topics in African literary texts of various genres by employing the ecocriticism of selected African texts as a theoretical framework and using content analysis as the primary methodology. The corpus of this study focuses on the works of Ramonu Sanusi (novel Un Nègre a violé une Blonde à Dallas), Niyi Osundare (poem “They Too Are the Earth”), David Rubadiri (poem “African Thundersorm”), and Ahmed Yerima (play Ipomu), all of whom have been selected for sharing the primary objective of this work - to shed light on the environmental realities of modern society by describing the rates of environmental and climate change and their adverse effects on humanity. Moreover, the authors emphasize the need for world peace to ensure global sustainable development. By critically analyzing the African literary texts, this research seeks to contribute to the academic understanding of these significant global issues and the critical role that literature can play in addressing them.
 Keywords: African literature, climate change, Environment, Insecurity, World Peace.