Works Of African Writers Research Articles

A Literary Analysis of Oral Tradition in Ogba Cosmology

The whole world in Ogba cosmology exists for man’s sake and the universe is divided into two: the visible and invisible parts (the heaven or sky and the earth). The sky is the invisible as well as the underworld that is below the earth, while the earth is visible part. Ogba people believe in the link between earth and heaven which they reflect in their oral traditions. This paper analyses the oral tradition of the Ogba people; their origin, religion, belief system and their functions and relevance to human experience. And to achieve this, a brief analysis of Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Devil on the Cross and Chinua Achebe’s Thing Fall Apart are used as oral traditional novels. The paper comprises the introduction, themes and languages of the oral tradition, the oral tradition of Ogba people, an overview of the oral tradition and finally conclusion. The paper discovers that oral tradition features prominently in the works of African writers; explaining in details the culture milieu as perceived in festivals, dances, funerals and songs. The paper focuses on the aesthetic values of the Ogba cosmology using ethnopoetics and historicism as a theoretical framework. The paper finds out that the oral tradition of Ogba people is a unifying force that brings the people together to live in peace, unity and love.

The writer as social thinker

Social theory in, and social theorising about, Africa has largely ignored African literature. Yet, the works of African writers constitute potential sources for the analysis of social thought and for constructing social theory in the continent. Indeed, African writers offer the kinds of abstractions, comparisons, frameworks and critical reflections on the African lifeworld – and the place of the African in the global context in the longue durée – without which it will be impossible to fully account for the nature of being, existence and reality and the nature and scope of knowledge in the African context. This introduction to the special issue on ‘Writers and Social Thought in Africa’ attempts to bring the social sciences back into conversation with literature (and vice versa) in re-articulating the philosophical dimensions of literature and the social sciences. It re-emphasises the role of African creative writers, not merely as intellectuals whose works mirror or can be used to mirror social thought, but as social thinkers themselves who engage with the nature of existence and questions of knowledge in the continent – and beyond.

The politics of ‘translation’ in African postcolonial literature: Olaudah Equiano, Ayi Kwei Armah, Toni Morrison, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tayeb Salih and Leila Aboulela

The essay examines the discourse of African self-rehabilitation and African self-translation by focusing on the politics of translation within African postcolonial literature. It begins by expounding on different aspects of the concept of translation within cultural studies. It then proceeds to elucidate its argument with selected examples from the work of African writers Olaudah Equiano, Ayi Kwei Armah, Toni Morrison, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tayeb Salih and Leila Aboulela. It argues that each of these writers has taken up the ideological responsibility of African reclamation and self-representation by producing narratives and characters that affirm an ongoing desire for African self-reconstruction. It concludes by arguing that the project of African self-translation which is discussed in the work of the selected writers is part of a general discourse of African cultural and political re-presentation, which has been articulated forcibly particularly from the historical moment of African independence.

Narrating the African city from the diaspora: Lagos as a trope in Ben Okri and Chika Unigwe's short stories

In this paper, an attempt is made to examine the ways in which an African city (Lagos) is written about in the works of African writers in Europe. The paper relies on the templates provided by selected short stories of the London‐based Nigerian writer (Ben Okri) and Chika Unigwe, the Nigerian writer who lives with her Flemish husband in Turnhout, Belgium. In the main, the paper critically elucidates how the two migrant writers appropriate the city of Lagos in their respective texts. The analysis of the selected stories has revealed that Lagos has been used as a topos, a theme, a trope, a metaphor and a symbol by the writers. The city has been used in the stories as a pervading metaphor for insecurity, neglect, anonymity and perversion of the ideal. Thus, in the texts, the reader witnesses a tacit critique of urban regulatory mechanisms and all forms of neocolonial decadence in modern African states. It is also revealed that the stories appeal to readers due to the writers' adroit blend of matter and manner, that is, there is a skilful interface between literary aesthetics and social realities.

Litteratures africaines francophones des annees 1980 et 1990 (review)

Reviewed by: Littératures africaines francophones des années 1980 et 1990 Thomas A. Hale Lydie Moudileno . Littératures africaines francophones des années 1980 et 1990. Dakar: Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique (CODESRIA), 2003. Document de travail no. 2 ( B. P. 3304, Dakar, Sénégal). 94 pp. Despite its modest 94-page paperbound format, this volume offers an extraordinary range of benefits for both the scholar who has long experience with African literature of French expression and the newcomer seeking an understanding of the shape of the discipline today. I can say this from recent personal experience because in Spring 2003 I was preparing a reading list for a graduate seminar on the African novel in French scheduled for Fall 2003. Although I've been teaching African literature in both French and Comparative Literature since 1973, the addition of oral literature to my research agenda in the 1980s and 1990s [End Page 136]cut into the amount of time I could devote to keeping up with the rising tide of novels and other forms by African writers appearing not only in Paris, but also in Dakar, Abidjan, Brussels, and Montréal. Access to a book of this type at the time I was preparing the reading list would have made my task much easier. Moudileno provides not simply information about authors and works, but in a broader sense she addresses the challenges facing those who want to learn more about the field: the great diversity of works (location and size of publishers), countries represented, backgrounds of the writers, many of whom were born after the "soleils des indépendances," and, finally, the many different literary forms adopted. She seeks to give readers "une vision globale de l'évolution des problématiques et des tendances contemporains de l'écriture." Avoiding summaries, she chooses instead to make a "coupe franche" across genres in order to focus on four major concerns: "l'évolution des circuits de production de cette littérature, les auteurs ou producteurs des textes contemporaines, les mutations thématiques et formelles les plus notoires; l'apparition de nouveaux genres depuis 1980" (6). She selects 1980 as the starting point because that date represents a significant break with the past and also because works appearing in the last few decades have not appeared in anthologies or other kinds of overviews. Although Moudileno refers to her book as a "court document de travail," in fact it is far more than that because she opens up many "pistes de recherche" for her readers. These include the literature that has emerged from the waves of immigration to Europe, the appearance of women writers on the literary scene, the creation of national literatures, and new relationships between the writer and the notions of history, space, the body, and language. She also alerts readers to the appearance of many new branches of African literature such as detective fiction, books for children, and romance novels. A ten-page bibliography serves as a useful guide to 300 works of literature and criticism that have appeared since 1980. Throughout Littératures africaines, I found myself nearly always in agreement with the author's numerous judgements on the issues that concern scholars today as well as on the works of African writers and the critical responses to them. Moudileno's sensitivity and awareness reveal both a considerable knowledge of the field and an extremely fair-minded critical consciousness. One of the most striking features of [End Page 137]the study is that it was published in Dakar by CODESRIA, an agency better known for research in the social sciences. The fact that this non-governmental organization has seen fit to publish an analysis of recent literary history suggests that culture, at least in the form of literature, is now part of the larger picture of development in Africa. The other side of the coin, unfortunately, is that a volume of such great value will have difficulty finding its way to bookstores outside of Dakar. For anyone traveling to Paris, the book will most likely be available at L'Harmattan, a bookstore and publisher on the rue des Ecoles that maintains...

The Use of Orality in the Short Stories of A. C. Jordan, Mtutuzeli Matshoba, Njabulo Ndebele and Bessie Head

The deployment of oral forms in the written work of African writers is a more complex process than would perhaps appear at first sight. Frequently theorised about but seldom achieved, the effective transposition of the oral into the written involves successfully negotiating the ontological gap between oral and written modes. This entails a shift from the spoken to the written word, from live audience to absent reader, from reciprocity and interaction to a process of private interpretation removed (sometimes distantly) in time and place. This article examines attempts by four South African writers to deploy elements of orality in their written stories. It argues that the stories of Jordan and Matshoba are the most conspicuously oral-derived, and yet are the least satisfactory as (written) literary works. Ndebele thematises orality in his stories without, however, allowing this to become an integral part of the narrative style of his work, while Head is the most successful 'oral stylist' of the four in bridging the gap between oral and literary modes.