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Rebel (novel)
''Rebel'' is a 1969 novel by Ghanaian writer Bediako Asare about the conflict between tradition and modernity in Africa. The novel was published as part of the influential Heinemann African Writers Series. Plot Set on an imaginary island off the African coast, it tells the story of the remote village of Pachanga, still unknown to the rest of the island, and the inhabitants who still live a traditional lifestyle, untouched by modern innovations. According to Asare, their existence is far from idyllic. They are governed by a Mzee Matata, a fetish priest, who refuses to allow any innovations to undermine his authority, but after many years of cultivating the same land and fishing the same stream, the soil is overworked, the fish are being rapidly depleted, and the villagers are facing starvation. Only one villager, Ngurumo, dares to challenge the fetish priest by suggesting that the villagers relocate to a fertile valley on the other side of the jungle. Mzee Matata rejects this ...
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Rebel (novel)
''Rebel'' is a 1969 novel by Ghanaian writer Bediako Asare about the conflict between tradition and modernity in Africa. The novel was published as part of the influential Heinemann African Writers Series. Plot Set on an imaginary island off the African coast, it tells the story of the remote village of Pachanga, still unknown to the rest of the island, and the inhabitants who still live a traditional lifestyle, untouched by modern innovations. According to Asare, their existence is far from idyllic. They are governed by a Mzee Matata, a fetish priest, who refuses to allow any innovations to undermine his authority, but after many years of cultivating the same land and fishing the same stream, the soil is overworked, the fish are being rapidly depleted, and the villagers are facing starvation. Only one villager, Ngurumo, dares to challenge the fetish priest by suggesting that the villagers relocate to a fertile valley on the other side of the jungle. Mzee Matata rejects this ...
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1969 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1969. Events *February 8 – After 147 years, the last issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in its original form appears in the United States. *March 23 – German-born writer Assia Wevill, a mistress of the English poet Ted Hughes and ex-wife of the Canadian poet David Wevill, gasses herself and their daughter at her London home. *August – "Penelope Ashe", purported author of a bestselling novel, ''Naked Came the Stranger'', is revealed as a group of ''Newsday'' journalists. *''unknown dates'' **The first Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction is awarded to P. H. Newby for ''Something to Answer For''. **''The Times Literary Supplement'' begins using the abbreviation "TLS" on its title page. New books Fiction * Eva Alexanderson – ''Kontradans'' (Counter-dance) *Jorge Amado – '' Tenda dos Milagres'' (Tent of Miracles) *Kingsley Amis – '' The Green Man'' * William H. Armstrong – '' Sounder'' ...
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Bediako Asare
Bediako Asare (born 1930) is a Ghanaian journalist and author, initially from Ghana. He began his career working on local newspapers, then relocated to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1963, to help launch ''The Nationalist'' newspaper. In 1969 he published his novel ''Rebel'', about the conflict between traditional ways and modernity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Albert S. Gérard, ''European-Language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa'', Vol. 2, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1986, pp. 829ff. Writing in ''Africa Report'', Sheila Wilson said of ''The Rebel'': "The story is simple and the language unpretentious, and the impact of change and hope gives strength and quality to the novel.""Asare, Bediako", in Hans M. Zell, Carol Bundy & Virginia Coulon (eds), ''A New Reader's Guide to African Literature'', Heinemann Educational Books, 1983, p. 130. Asare's novel ''The Stubborn'' was published in Nairobi in 1976. Stephen H. Arnold, reviewing it in the ''African Book Publishing Record'', noted that it ...
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Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Afr ...
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Heinemann African Writers Series
The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an international audience for many African writers, including Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, Buchi Emecheta, and Okot p'Bitek. History 1958 – Heinemann (publisher), William Heinemann publishes Chinua Achebe's ''Things Fall Apart''. 2,000 hardcover copies were printed and sold at a price of 15 shillings. The book receives widespread acclaim. 1959 – Alan Hill, head of Heinemann’s educational department, visits West Africa. He finds that Achebe remains largely unknown in his home country of Nigeria due to the small print run and high price of his first novel. 1960 – Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) is set up as a separate company and begins to publicise Achebe in Africa. They start to rec ...
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Fetishism
A fetish (derived from the French , which comes from the Portuguese , and this in turn from Latin , 'artificial' and , 'to make') is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent value, or powers, to an object. Historiography The term ''fetish'' has evolved from an idiom used to describe a type of object created in the interaction between European travelers and Africans in the early modern period to an analytical term that played a central role in the perception and study of non-Western art in general and African art in particular to increase the evil in the world. William Pietz, who, in 1994, conducted an extensive ethno-historical study of the fetish, argues that the term originated in the coast of West Africa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Pietz distinguishes between, on the one hand, actual African objects that may be called fetishes i ...
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Human Sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the Iron Age with the associated developments in religion (the Axial Age), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, and came to be looked down upon as barbaric during classical antiquity. In the Americas, however, human sacrifice continued to be practiced, by some, to varying degrees until the European colonization of the Americas. Today, human sacrifice has become extremely rare. Modern secular laws treat human sacrifices ...
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Pythonidae
The Pythonidae, commonly known as pythons, are a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia. Among its members are some of the largest snakes in the world. Ten genera and 42 species are currently recognized. Distribution and habitat Pythons are found in sub-Saharan Africa, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, southeastern Pakistan, southern China, the Philippines and Australia. In the United States, an introduced population of Burmese pythons, ''Python bivittatus'', has existed as an invasive species in the Everglades National Park since the late 1990s. Common names * Sinhala - පිඹුරා (''Pimbura'') *Telugu - కొండచిలువ (Kondachiluva) * Odia - ଅଜଗର (Ajagara) *Malayalam - പെരുമ്പാമ്പ് (perumpāmp) *Hindi - अजगर ('Ajgar') Conservation Many species have been hunted aggressively, which has greatly reduced the population of some, such as the Indian python, ''Python molu ...
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Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the ''Jungle Book'' duology ('' The Jungle Book'', 1894; '' The Second Jungle Book'', 1895), ''Kim'' (1901), the '' Just So Stories'' (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include " Mandalay" (1890), " Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), " The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.Rutherford, Andrew (1987). General Preface to the Editions of Rudyard Kipling, in "Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".Rutherford, Andrew ( ...
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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 ...
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1969 Novels
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to London's Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants. * January 14 – An explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS ''Enterprise'' near Hawaii kills 27 and injures 314. * January 19 – End of the siege of the University of Tokyo, marking the beginning of the end for the 1968–69 Japanese university protests. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States. * January 22 – An assassination attempt is carried out on Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev by deserter Viktor Ilyin. One person is killed, several are injured. Brezhnev escaped unharmed. * January 27 ** Fourteen men, 9 of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel. ** Revere ...
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Ghanaian Novels
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Togo in the east.Jackson, John G. (2001) ''Introduction to African Civilizations'', Citadel Press, p. 201, . Ghana covers an area of , spanning diverse biomes that range from coastal savannas to tropical rainforests. With nearly 31 million inhabitants (according to 2021 census), Ghana is the second-most populous country in West Africa, after Nigeria. The capital and largest city is Accra; other major cities are Kumasi, Tamale, and Sekondi-Takoradi. The first permanent state in present-day Ghana was the Bono state of the 11th century. Numerous kingdoms and empires emerged over the centuries, of which the most powerful were the Kingdom of Dagbon in the north and the Ashanti Empire in the south. Beginning in the 15th century, the Portugue ...
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