2 Flashcards
which means literally ‘blackness,’ is the literary movement of the
1930s – 1950s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers
living in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and the policy of assimilation.
Its leading figure was Leopold Sedar Senghor (1st president of the Republic of Senegal
in 1960) , who along with Aime Cesaire from Martinique and Leo Damas from French
Guina, began to examine Western values critically and to reassess African culture.
Negretide
more eloquent in its expression of Negritude since it is the
poets who first articulated their thoughts and feelings about the inhumanity suffered by
their own people.
African poetry
swings between assimilation of French, European culture or
negritude, intensified by the poet’s catholic piety.
Paris in the snow
shows the eternal linkage of the living with the dead
Totem by leopold senghor
the poet’s most famous collection that
speaks of the humiliation, the despondency, the indignity of prison life.
Letters to martha by dennis brutus
reflects the poet’s social commitment, as he
reacts to the poverty around him amidst material progress especially and acutely felt
by the innocent victims, the children
Train journey by dennis brutus
the poet’s most anthologized poem
that reflects Negritude. It is a satirical poem between a Black man seeking the
landlady’s permission to accommodate him in her lodging house. The poetic
dialogue reveals the landlady’s deep-rooted prejudice against the colored people as
the caller plays up on it.
Telephone conversation by wole soyinka
is a poem that achieves its impact by a series of climactic
sentences and rhetorical questions
Africa by david diop
is a sequence of poems about the clash between
African and Western values and is regarded as the first important poem in “English
to emerge from Eastern Africa. Lawino’s song is a plea for the Ugandans to look
back to traditional village life and recapture African values.
Song of lawino by okot p’bitek
points out the disillusionment of Toundi, a
boy who leaves his parents maltreatment to enlist his services as an acolyte to a
foreign missionary. After the priest’s death, he becomes a helper of a white
plantation owner, discovers the liaison of his master’s wife, and gets murdered later
in the woods as they catch up with him. Toundi symbolizes the disenchantment, the
coming of age, and utter despondency of the Camerooninans over the corruption
and immortality of the whites. The novel is developed in the form of a recit, the
French style of a diary-like confessional work
The houseboy by ferdinand oyono
depict a vivid picture of Africa before the
colonization by the British. The title is an epigraph from Yeats’ The Second
Coming: ‘things fall apart/ the center cannot hold/ mere anarchy is loosed upon the
world.’ The novel laments over the disintegration of Nigerian society, represented
in the story by Okwonko, once a respected chieftain who looses his leadership and
falls from grace after the coming of the whites. Cultural values are woven around
the plot to mark its authenticity: polygamy since the character is Muslim; tribal law
is held supreme by the gwugwu, respected elders in the community; a man’s social
status is determined by the people’s esteem and by possession of fields of yams and
physical prowess; community life is shown in drinking sprees, funeral wakes, and
sports festivals
The things fall apart by chinua achebe
a sequel to Things Fall Apart and the
title of which is alluded to Eliot’s The Journey of the Magi: ‘We returned to our
places, these kingdoms,/ But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation.’ The
returning hero fails to cope with disgrace and social pressure. Okwonko’s son has
to live up to the expectations of the Umuofians, after winning a scholarship in
London, where he reads literature, not law as is expected of him, he has to dress up,
he must have a car, he has to maintain his social standing, and he should not marry
an Ozu, an outcast. In the end, the tragic hero succumgs to temptation, he, too
receives bribes, and therefore is ‘no longer at ease
No longer at ease by chinua achebe
begins en medias res and exposes the
inhumanity of colonialism. The novel tells of Fr. Drumont’s disillusionment after
the discovery of the degradation of the native women, betrothed, but forced to work
like slaves in the sixa. The government steps into the picture as syphilis spreads out
in the priest’s compound. It turns out that the native whose weakness is wine,
women, and song has been made overseer of the sixa when the Belgian priest goes
out to attend to his other mission work. Developed through recite or diary entries,
the novel is a satire on the failure of religion to integrate to national psychology
without first understanding the natives’ culture.
The poor christ of bombay by mongo beti
show the clash of traditional values and
contemporary ethics and mores. The Honia River is symbolically taken as a
metaphor of tribal and Christian unity – the Makuyu tribe conducts Christian rites
while the Kamenos hold circumcision rituals. Muthoni, the heroine, although a
new-born Christian, desires the pagan ritual. She dies in the end but Waiyaki, the
teacher, does not teach vengeance against Joshua, the leader of the Kamenos, but
unity with them. Ngugi poses co-existence of religion with people’s lifestyle at the
same time stressing the influence of education to enlighten people about their socio-
political responsibilities.
The river between by james ngugi
deals withracial prejudice.
In the novel originally written in French, a Cameroonian scholar studying in France
is torn between the love of a Swedish girl and a Parisienne show father owns a
business establishment in Africa. The father rules out the possibility of marriage.
Therese, their daughter commits suicide and Doumbe, the Camerronian, thinks only
of the future of Bibi, the Swedish who is expecting his child. Doumbe’s remark
that the African is like a turtle which carries it home wherever it goes implies the
racial pride and love for the native grounds.
A Few Days and Few Nights by Mbella Sonne Dipoko
is an allegorical, parable-like novel. After 16
years of absence, the anti-hero Driss Ferdi returns to Morocco for his father’s
funeral. The Signeur leaves his legacy via a tape recorder in which he tells the
family members his last will and testament. Each chapter in the novel reveals his
relationship with them, and at the same time lays bare the psychology of these
people. His older brother Jaad who was ‘born once and had ided several times’
because of his childishness and irresponsibility. His idiotic brother, Nagib, has
become a total burden to the family. His mother feels betrayed, after doin her roles
as wife and mother for 30 years, as she yearns for her freedom. Driss flies back to
Europe completely alienated fro his people, religion, and civilization.
Heirs to the past by driss chraili
about a group of young intellectuals who
function as artists in their talks with one another as they try to place themselves in
the context of the world about them.
The interpreters by wole soyinka
