3 Flashcards
is a poet and statesman who was cofounder of the
Negritude movement in African art and literature. He went to Paris on a scholarship
and later taught in the French school system. During these years Senghor
discovered the unmistakable imprint of African art on modern painting, sculpture,
and music, which confirmed his belief in Africa’s contribution to modern culture.
Drafted during WWII, he was captured and spent two years in Nazi concentration
camp where he wrote some of his finest poems. He became president of Senegal in
1960. His works include: Songs of Shadow, Black Offerings, Major Elegies,
Poetical Work. He became Negritude’s foremost spokesman and edited an
anthology of French-language poetry by black African that became a seminal text of
the Negritude movement.
Leopold Sedar Senghor
was born in Uganda during the British domination and
was embodied in a contrast of cultures. He attended English-speaking schools but
never lost touch with traditional African values and used his wide array of talents to
pursue his interests in both African and Western cultures
Okot p’bitek
a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelis, and critic who was
the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He
wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style and with a tragic sense of the
obstacles to human progress. He taught literature and drama and headed theater
groups at various Nigerian universities. Among his works are: plays – A Dance of
the Forests, The Lion and the Jewel, The Trials of Brother Jero; novels – The
Interpreters, Season of Anomy; poems – Idanre and Other Poems, Poems from
Prison, A Shuttle in the Crypt, Mandela’s Earth and Other Poems.
Wole soyinka
is a prominent Igbo novelist acclaimed for his
unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation
accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional
African society. His particular concern was with emergent Africa at its moments of
crisis. His works include, Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, A
Man of the People, Anthills of Savanah
Chinua achebe
is a South African novelist and short story writer whose
major theme was exile and alienation. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1991. Gordimer was writing by age 9 and published her first story in a magazine
at 15. Her works exhibit a clear, controlled, and unsentimental technique that
became her hallmark. She examines how public events affect individual lives, how
the dreams of on’s youth are corrupted, and how innocence is lost. Among her
works are: The Soft Voice of the Serpent, Burger’s Daughter, July’s People, A
Sport of Nature, My Son’s Story.
Nadine gordemer
described the contradictions and shortcomings of pre-
and postcolonial African society in morally didactic novels and stories. She
suffered rejection and alienation from an early age being born of an illegal union
between her white mother and black father. Among her works are: When Rain
Clouds Gather, A Question of Power, The Collector of Treasures, Serowe.
Bessie head
wrote twelve books on children’s stories known as the
Moses series which are now a standard reading fare for African school children.
She also worked for many years for His Highness the Kabaka of Uganda, in the
Ministry of Education and later served as Kabaka’s librarian. She was a journalist
of The Uganda Nation and later a columnist for a Nairobi newspaper. Among her
works are: KalasandaRevisited, The Smugglers, The Money Game.
Barbara kimenye
is a writer and filmmaker from Senegal. His works
reveal an intense commitment to political and social change. In the words of one of
his characters: “You will never be a good writer so long as you don’t defend a
cause.” Sembene tells his stories from out of Africa’s past and relates their
relevance and meaning for contemporary society. His works include, O My
Country, My Beautiful People, God’s Bits of Wood, The Storm.
Ousmane sembene
