A presentation regarding African Literature Sources: 1. https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/African+literature 2. https://www.britannica.com/art/African-literature/Oral-traditions-and-the-written-word 3. https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/world-lit/misc/african-literature 4. https://www.studysmarter.us/explanations/english-literature/literary-devices/african-literature/

1. Characteristics of
African Literature
by Dhara Joy M. Monreal
BSED ENG 2-A

2. African literature consists of a body of work in different
languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to
literature written not only in African but in European languages
such as French, Portuguese, and English.
Works written in European languages date primarily from the
20th century onward. African authors use European languages
in order to portray their experiences in a language that the
oppressors could understand.
Introduction

3. African literature reflects the stories of people from hundreds of
years ago and the people who live now. Most of the pieces in
shed light on literary issues such as racial discrimination,
political conflicts, gender sensitivities and human right issues.
African literature is a hugely important part of the literary world
as it brings underrepresented voices to the front and allows
them to re-tell their life siturations of the world.
Introduction

4. Oral literature
often mythological or historical
includes tales of the trickster character
.Oral literature may be in prose or verse.
Sometimes, storytellers in Africa use call-and-response
techniques to tell their stories.

5. Performance
Tone
Riddles
Proverbs
Key components of oral African literature:
These elements were manipulated by the orator to produce
certain effects on their audience.

6. narrative epic
occupational verse
ritual verse
praise poems of rulers and other prominent people
Poetry, being a narrative poem based upon a short and a ribald anecdote and
it's often sung, through:

7. love songs
work songs
children's songs
epigrams
proverbs
riddles
Praise singers, bards sometimes known as "griots", tell their stories with
music.
Also recited, often sung, are:
These oral traditions exist in many languages including Fula, Swahili,
Hausa, and Wolof.

8. Oral histories, myths, and proverbs additionally serve to remind whole
communities of their ancestors' heroic deeds, their past, and the
precedents for their customs and traditions. Essential to oral literature is
a concern for presentation and oratory.

9. Pre-Colonial Literature
Pre-colonial African literature is the literature written
between the 15th -19th centuries and includes the
Atlantic slave trade.
Example:
Sungura is a hare in folklore in East Africa and Central
Africa. Often, these stories included mischievous
animal characters such as Anansi, a spider found in the
folklore of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana.

10. Colonial African Literature
independence
liberation
négritude
Colonial African Literature was produced
between the end of World War I and African
independence.
The themes include :

11. Négritude was an anti-colonial cultural and
political movement founded by a group of
African and Caribbean students in Paris in the
1930s who sought to reclaim the value of
blackness and African culture.
Aimé Césaire was the first to use the word
'Négritude' in his poem 'Cahier d’un retour au
pays natal' (1939).
Colonial African Literature

12. Aimé Césaire was the first to use the word
'Négritude' in his poem 'Cahier d’un retour au
pays natal' (1939).
Colonial African Literature
Négritude is the sum of the cultural values of the
black world as they are expressed in the life, the
institutions, and the works of black men.

13. Postcolonial African literature
modernity and tradition
relationship of Africa’s past and present
individuality and collectivism
the notion of foreignness and indigenous
capitalism and socialism
Writers in this period wrote in both western languages and
African languages.
Main themes that authors used are :

14. Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. Rather than write
or sing for beauty in itself, African writers use beauty to help
communicate important truths and information to society.
An object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and
the communities it helps to build.

15. Thank you.