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African Literature
African literature is literature from Africa, either oral ("orature") or written in African and Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of pre-colonial African literature can be traced back to at least the fourth century AD. The best-known is the ''Kebra Negast'', or "Book of Kings." A common theme during the colonial period is the slave narrative, often written in English or French for western audiences. Among the first pieces of African literature to receive significant worldwide critical acclaim was ''Things Fall Apart'', by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958. African literature in the late colonial period increasingly feature themes of liberation and independence. Post-colonial literature has become increasingly diverse, with some writers returning to their native languages. Common themes include the clash between past and present, tradition and modernity, self and community, as well as politics and development. On the whole, female writers are today far better represented in Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cameron Duodu
Martin Cameron Duodu (born 24 May 1937)''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, pp. 349–50. is a United Kingdom-based Ghanaian novelist, journalist, editor and broadcaster. After publishing a novel, ''The Gab Boys'', in 1967, Duodu went on to a career as a journalist and editorialist.Anderson Brown"Duodu's Gab Boys" ''Anderson Brown's Literary Blog'', 8 July 2008. Biography Education Duodu was born in Asiakwa in eastern Ghana and educated at Kyebi Government Senior School and the Rapid Results College, London, through which he took his O-Level and A-Level examinations by correspondence course.G. D. Killam, Alicia L. Kerfoot''Student Encyclopedia of African Literature'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 119–20. He began writing while still at school, the first story he ever wrote ("Tough Guy In Town") being broadcast on the radio programme ''The Singing Net'' and subsequently included in '' Voices of Ghana'', a 1958 anthology edited by Hen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orature
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature. A broad conceptualization refers to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form. It includes the stories, legends, and history passed through generations in a spoken form. Background Pre-literate societies, by definition, have no written literature, but may possess rich and varied oral traditions—such as folk epics, folk narratives (including fairy tales and fables), folk drama, proverbs and folksongs—that effectively constitute an oral literature. Even when these are collected and published by scholars such as folklorists and paremiographers, the result is still often referred to as "oral literature". The different genres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pio Zirimu
Pio Zirimu (died 1977) was a Ugandan linguist, scholar and literary theorist. He is credited with coining the word "orature" as an alternative to the self-contradictory term, "oral literature""Notes towards a Performance Theory of Orature" ohio.edu, 3 September 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2014. used to refer to the non-written expressive African traditions. Zirimu was also central in reforming the literature syllabus at to focus on African literature and culture instead of the English canon.Simon Gikwandi, Evan Mwangi (2013). ''The Columbia Guide to East African Literatu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okot P'Bitek
Okot p'Bitek (7 June 1931 – 19 July 1982) was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for '' Song of Lawino'', a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised. ''Song of Lawino'' was originally written in the Acholi dialect of Southern Luo, translated by the author into English, and published in 1966. It was a breakthrough work, creating an audience among anglophone Africans for direct, topical poetry in English; and incorporating traditional attitudes and thinking in an accessible yet faithful literary vehicle. It was followed by the ''Song of Ocol'' (1970), the husband's reply. The "East African Song School" or "Okot School poetry" is now an academic identification of the work following his direction, also popularly called "comic singing": a forceful type of dramatic verse monologue rooted in traditional song and phraseology. Early life Okot p'Bitek was bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transition Magazine
''Transition Magazine'' was established in 1961 by Rajat Neogy as ''Transition Magazine: An International Review''. It was published from 1961 to 1976 in various countries on the African continent, and since 1991 in the United States. In recent years it has been published between twice and four times per year by Indiana University Press, since 2013 on behalf of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. History Upon his 1961 return to Kampala, Uganda, from studies in London, 22-year-old Rajat Neogy established ''Transition Magazine: An International Review''.Julius Sigei and Ciugu Mwagiru"Humble magazine that nurtured Africa’s thinkers" '' Daily Nation'', 1 December 2012. Unbeknownst and much to the dismay of Neogy, the magazine was partially funded by the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an anti-communist advocacy group tied to the Central Intelligence Agency. ''Transition'' served as a major literary platform of East African writers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rajat Neogy
Rajat Neogy (December 17, 1939 – December 3, 1995),Paul Theroux ''The Independent'', 15 January 1996, a Ugandan of Indian Bengali ancestry, was a writer, poet and publisher. In Kampala in 1961, at the age of 22, he founded ''Transition Magazine'', which went on to become widely influential throughout Africa. In the words of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "he (Neogy) believed in the multi-cultural and multifaceted character of ideas, and he wanted to provide a space where different ideas could meet, clash, and mutually illuminate. ''Transition'' became the intellectual forum of the New East Africa, and indeed Africa, the first publisher of some of the leading intellectuals in the continent, including Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazrui and Peter Nazareth."Ngugi wa Thiong'o"Asia in My Life" ''Chimurenga'', 15 May 2012. Biography Neogy was born and grew up in Kampala, Uganda. He studied at university in London and after returning to Uganda in 1961 founded ''Transition'', which soon came to be considered the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Serumaga
Robert Bellarmino Serumaga (1939 – September 1980) was a Ugandan playwright. He was also an important political figure in Uganda during the late 1970s, being the leader and co-founder of the Uganda Nationalist Organization militant group and Minister of Commerce in the government of President Yusuf Lule. Life Born to a Roman Catholic family in Buganda, Serumaga was raised by his mother, Geraldine Namotovu. He won scholarships to study at St Mary's College, Kisubi and St Henry's College, Kitovu. He studied economics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he encountered Irish theatre and the Theatre of the Absurd. He returned to Uganda in 1966"Robert Serumaga", ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance''Reprinted onlineat answers.com. or 1967. Initially employed as a government economist, he soon moved towards the theatre. He founded the National Theatre Company in 1967, writing ''A Play'' (1967), ''The Elephants'' (1970) and ''Majangwa'' (1971) for them. These plays were all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5 January 1938) is a Literature of Kenya, Kenyan author and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu language, Gikuyu and who formerly wrote in English language, English. He has been described as having been "considered East Africa’s leading novelist". His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story ''The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright'', is translated into 100 languages from around the world. In 1977, Ngũgĩ embarked upon a novel form of theatre in his native Kenya that sought to liberate the theatrical process from what he held to be "the general bourgeois education system", by encouraging spontaneity and audience participation in the performances.Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, ''Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature'', 1994, pp. 57†... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Maimane
John Arthur Mogale Maimane (5 October 1932 – 28 June 2005), better known as Arthur Maimane, was a South African journalist and novelist. Biography Maimane was born in Pretoria, South Africa, growing up in the black township of Lady Selborne.Denis Herbstein"Arthur Maimane" (obituary) ''The Guardian'', 15 July 2005. He was educated at St Peter's College, Johannesburg, also known as the "Black Eton" of South Africa (Oliver Tambo was his mathematics teacher before becoming a lawyer and president of the African National Congress)."Arthur Maimane" South African History Online. Maimane was originally intending to study medicine, when a young priest, (who was involved in the |
Dennis Brutus
Dennis Vincent Brutus (28 November 1924 – 26 December 2009) was a South African activist, educator, journalist and poet best known for his campaign to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games due to its racial policy of apartheid. Life and work Born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1924 to South African parents, Brutus was of indigenous Khoi, Dutch, French, English, German and Malaysian ancestry. His parents moved back home to Port Elizabeth when he was aged four, and young Brutus was classified under South Africa's apartheid racial code as "coloured"."The Dennis Brutus Tapes: Essays at Autobiography" ''The Dennis Brutus Tapes: Essays at Autobiography'' Brutus was a graduate of the |
Lewis Nkosi
Lewis Nkosi (5 December 1936 – 5 September 2010) was a South African people, South African writer, who spent 30 years in exile as a consequence of restrictions placed on him and his writing by the Suppression of Communism Act and the Publications and Entertainment Act passed in the 1950s and 1960s. A multifaceted personality, he attempted multiple genre for his writing, including literary criticism, poetry, drama, novels, short stories, essays, as well as journalism. Early life Nkosi was born in a traditional Zulu people, Zulu family in a place called Embo in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He attended local schools, before enrolling at M. L. Sultan Technical College in Durban."Lewis Nkosi" South African History Online. Later life Nkosi in his early twenties began working as a journalist, first in Durban, joini ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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