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African literature generally refers to the novels, short stories, and poetry written by African writers during the 20th century. Most of this output belongs to the broader class of postcolonial literature. The term "African literature" may also include the oral literary traditions of precolonial Africa.

Contents 1 Precolonial African literature 2 Colonial African literature 3 Postcolonial African literature 4 Major African novels 5 Major African poets 6 Secondary literature 7 See also 8 External links

Because literacy did not become widespread in Africa until the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 1800s, much of the precolonial African literary canon is oral. Oral literature (or orature) - including songs, poems, and folk tales - was used to entertain children and to pass on histories through the generations. Storytellers in Africa sometimes used call-and-response techniques to tell their stories, while praise singers called "griots" would tell their stories with music. [1] African orature also includes myths and legends.

Examples of pre-colonial african liturature include the Epic of Sundiata composed in medieval Mali, The older Epic of Dinga from the old Ghana Empire, and the Kebra Negast or book of kings from Ethiopia. One popular form of traditional African folktale is the "trickster" story, where a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the Ashanti people of Ghana; Àjàpá, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central and East African folklore. [2]

The African works best known in the West from the period of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano, also called Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789).

In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues. In 1911, Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford (also known as Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) published what is probably the first African novel written in English, Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation [3]. Although the work moves between fiction and political advocacy, its publication and positive reviews in the Western press mark a watershed moment in African literature.

During this period, African plays began to emerge. Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo of South Africa published the first English-language African play , The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongquase the Liberator in 1935. In 1962, Ngugi wa Thiong'o of Kenya wrote the first East African drama, The Black Hermit, a cautionary tale about "tribalism" (racism between African tribes).

African literature in the late colonial period (between the end of World War I and independence) increasingly showed themes of liberation, independence, and (among Africans in French-controlled territories) négritude. One of the leaders of the négritude movement, the poet and eventual President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor, published the first anthology of French-language poetry written by Africans in 1948, Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French Language), featuring a preface by the French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre. [4]

With liberation and increased literacy since most African nations gained their independence in the 1950s and 1960s, African literature has grown dramatically in quantity and in recognition, with numerous African works appearing in Western academic curricula and on "best of" lists compiled at the end of the 20th century. African writers in this period wrote both in Western languages (notably English, French, and Portuguese) and in traditional African languages. Literary themes in this period include the clash between traditional and Western cultures, social problems such as corruption, the economic disparities in newly independent countries, and the rights and roles of women. Female writers are today far better represented in published African literature than they were prior to independence.

In 1986, Wole Soyinka became the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)
• Gracy Ukala, Dizzy Angel (Nigeria)
• Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, The Forest of a Thousand Demons (Nigeria)
• Mariama Bâ, Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter) (Senegal)
• Ousmane Sembène, Xala (Senegal)
• Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat (Kenya)
• Benjamin Sehene, Le Feu sous la Soutane (Fire under the Cassock) (Rwanda)
• Thomas Mofolo, Chaka (South Africa/Lesotho)
• Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe)
• Dambudzo Marechera, The House of Hunger (Zimbabwe/Rhodesia)
• Yvonne Vera, Butterfly Burning (Zimbabwe)
• Mia Couto, Terra Sonâmbula (A Sleepwalking Land) (Mozambique)
• Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Ghana)
• Ben Okri, The Famished Road (Nigeria)

• Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
• Gracy Ukala (Nigeria)
• Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)
• Christopher Okigbo (Nigeria)
• Lenrie Peters (Gambia)
• Kofi Anyidoho (Ghana)
• Dennis Brutus (South Africa)

• Encyclopedia of African Literature, ed Simon Gikandi, London: Routledge, 2003.
• The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, ed Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi, 2 vls, Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Table of contents
• Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writing by Women of African Descent", ed Margaret Busby (Random House, 1992).

• List of African writers
• African cinema
• Nigerian literature

• African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• African Literature Association
• The 100 best African books of the 20th century
• Research in African literature and Culture