Afro-Asian Literature — Part 1: History & Background of African Literature

Introduction to Afro-Asian Literature

• Afro-Asian literature mirrors customs, traditions, and life philosophies of African and Asian peoples.

• Described as a reflection of the “storm and stress” of developing nations seeking “a place under the sun.”

• Definition: literary output (oral → contemporary written/published prose & poetry) of countries across Africa and Asia.

• Video Part $1$ focuses exclusively on African literature (history & background); Part $2$ will cover Asian literature.

Africa: Geographic & Historical Context

• Africa = $2^{nd}$ largest continent; widely recognized as the birthplace of humankind.

• Earliest recorded African history: Ancient Egypt → Nubia → Sahel → Maghrib (North-West Africa) → Horn of Africa (Somali Peninsula).

• Language diversity: Africans likely speak more languages than any other continent’s peoples.

• Pre-historic note: “billions of years ago” first Africans learned hunting, tool-making, fire-making; migrated to Europe & Asia.

• Climate shifts shaped culture:

  • Sahara once fertile, turned arid.

  • Africans adapted to each new climatic challenge.

• Writing invented in Northeast Africa during Bronze Age (specifically Egypt).

• Bronze Age prosperity: bronze tools & weapons.

• Climate change expanded deserts → isolation from outside world; deserts also hampered sea transport.

• Arab expansion (Middle Ages): spread of Islam rapidly through Egypt & all of North Africa.

• The continent now contains $15$ nations (instructor’s figure) each with unique history, culture, tribes, traditions, yet sharing pan-African literary traits.

Defining African Literature

• Ongoing debate:

  • Some scholars: must be written in African languages.

  • Others: any language acceptable if writer is African.

• Lesson narrows to broad history + general characteristics.

Notable African Figures Mentioned

• Nelson Mandela: first Black President of South Africa; “Father of the Nation”; independence leader; writer & peace advocate.

• Desmond Tutu: first Black Anglican Bishop of Cape Town; anti-apartheid crusader; Nobel Peace Prize & Gandhi Peace Prize laureate.

• Charlize Theron: South-African-born actress; first South African to win an Academy Award (Best Actress for “Monster”).

Origins of Writing & Early Texts

• Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: pictorial script.

• Funerary texts used hieroglyphs.

• Memphite Declaration of Deities / Memphite Theology: earliest written creation account → humans created via Creator’s heart & speech.

• Papyrus: first form of “paper,” Egyptian invention → spread of written culture.

• $7^{th}$-century Arab conquest spread Arabic poetry to Egypt; by $9^{th}$ century CE, through West Africa.

Broad Periodization of African Literature

1. Oral Literature (Pre-literate & Continuous)

2. Pre-Colonial Written Literatures (indigenous scripts & languages)

3. Colonial-Era Literatures (European languages dominate)

4. Post-Colonial / Contemporary Literatures (hybrid languages, global circulation)

1 – Oral Literature: Genres & Features

• Flourished for centuries; scholarly consensus: impossible to date precise beginnings.

• Genres & examples:

  • Folk tales & myths (explain cosmic/social order; confer cultural identity).

  • Epics → e.g.
    • Mundo Oti Epic (Congo): prince with magic powers escapes tyrant father, returns to overthrow him.
    • Epic of Sundiata: chronicles Sundiata Keita’s struggle & founding of Mali Empire.

  • Funeral dirges / lamentations: chanted at burials; honor dead & seek protection.

  • Praise poems: epithets extolling persons, towns, animals; recited by designated performers.

  • Proverbs: concise metaphorical wisdom; establish speaker’s authority.
    • Example: “The eye never forgets what the heart has seen.”

• Storytelling aesthetics:

  • Collapses time; audience becomes “present in history.”

  • Interplay of narrator’s voice & communal participation.

2 – Transition: Oral → Written

• Scribes (Ancient Egypt), Hausa & Swahili copyists, modern novella writers = transitional agents.

• Linkage evident in pulp literature:

  • Cheap wood-pulp booklets (e.g., Onitsha Market literature – Nigeria, Accra popular fiction – Ghana, Nairobi love/detective stories, Cape Town comic strips).

3 – Written Literature: General Characteristics

• Mixes real & fantasy; “alchemy of the literary experience.”

• Fragmented, transformative narrative structures.

• Mythic / fantastic elements fused with history & contemporary events.

• Frequent thematic tensions:

  • Traditional vs. modern; rural vs. urban; gender & generational clashes.

• Imported religious frameworks (Christianity & Islam) often structure plots & imagery.

Characteristic Motifs Highlighted

• Slave narratives.

• Protest against colonization.

• Calls for independence.

• African pride & hope for future.

• Desert landscapes symbolizing hardship/resilience.

4 – African Languages & Literary Waves

Scholars identify three major literacy waves:

1. Ethiopia: earliest African written works (predate Celtic/Germanic texts of Europe).

2. Islamic Expansion (post-$7^{th}$ century): Arabic script & learning across North & West Africa.

3. Later Islamic jihads ($11^{th}$–$12^{th}$ centuries onward): continued eastward spread to $19^{th}$ century.

Pre-Colonial Literature in Selected Languages

a) Ethiopian (Geʽez & Amharic)

• Languages: Geʽez (classical/liturgical), Amharic (widely spoken), plus Tigrinya, Tigre, Oromo, Harari.

• Key works:

  • “Kebra Nagast” (Glory of Kings) ($1314–1322$): story of Menelik, son of Solomon & Queen of Sheba, becoming King of Ethiopia.

  • “Taʽām Maryām” (Miracles of Mary) ($15^{th}$ century): major Marian devotion text.

• $19^{th}$-century missionaries introduced printing press → Amharic publications (e.g., “Mystery of the Trinity”).

• $1924–1925$: Amharic newspapers; translations (e.g., “Pilgrim’s Progress” into Amharic by Gabrielle Georges Tiffer).

• Foundational Amharic novelists:

  • Afäwarq Gäbrä-Iyäsus → “Libb Wälläd Tarik” (heart-born history): girl disguised as boy, love intrigues, king’s conversion.

  • Hirut Wäldä-Sellasé → “Haddis ’Ālam” (New World): Western-educated youth returns home, tension tradition/modernity.

• Drama & Poetry:

  • Playwrights Takla Hawaryat, Yuftahé Nguse, Mäñgəštu Lämma, Gabra-Ezya Abihar (acerbic, ironic verse).

• Post-WWII themes: human-divine relations, hardships, humility. Noted works: “Araya” by Gäbrä-Haywät & Christian-themed dramas by Käbbädä Mika’el.

b) Hausa (Northern Nigeria)

• Written initially in Arabic script Ajami; $1933$ Translation Bureau competition sparked prose fiction.

• Trailblazers:

  • Muhammadu Bello → “Gandoki” (struggle vs. British colonial rule).

  • Uthman Dan Fodio → “Wallahi Wallahi” (war song; critiquing religious/political conflict).

  • Haji Omaru → Poem “Wakar Tala’usi, Dawadatta” (Song of Poverty & Wealth).

• Prize-winning novels:

  • Robert East & J. Tofida Wusasa → “Jeeki Magaini” (love tale, realism → fantasy; “You will pay for the injustice you cause”).

  • Jabiru Abdullahi → “Nagari Na Kowa” (Good to Everyone): Salihi embodies endangered Islamic virtues.

c) Swahili

• Two periods: Classical vs. Contemporary.

• Chronicles:

  • “Tārikh ya Pate” (Pate Chronicle) compiled by Fumu Omar al-Nabhani ($19^{th}$ century scholar).

  • “Khabar i Lamu” (Lamu Chronicle) → $18^{th}$–$19^{th}$ centuries.

• Luminary Sha’aban Robert: versatile poet/novelist/proverb-collector; e.g., “Almasi ya Afrika” (African Diamonds).

• Swahili verse (religious & secular) shows Muslim-Arabic influence; became central written medium of East Africa.

(Note: Other language spheres—Shona, Somali, Yoruba, Xhosa, Zulu, Southern Sotho—also host robust literatures but were only named, not detailed, in the lecture.)

Colonial-Era African Literature

• Africans exposed to Western tongues began to publish in them.

• $1911$: J. E. K. Hayford (Ekra Agyeman), Gold Coast (Ghana) → first English-language African novel “Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation.”

• Slave narratives gained prominence:

  • Olaudah Equiano → “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.”

• First English-language African play: Herbert I. E. Dhlomo (South Africa) → “The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongqawuse the Liberator” ($1935$).

• First East-African drama: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o → “The Black Hermit” (anti-tribalism).

• French-language poetry milestone: Léopold Sédar Senghor’s edited “Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française” ($1948$) ushered Négritude verse to global stage.

Post-Colonial & Contemporary Literature

• Independence wave ($1950s–1960s$) → explosion of literary production & international recognition.

• Writers compose in Western (English, French, Portuguese) & indigenous tongues (e.g., Hausa).

• Seven dominant thematic tensions (Ali Mazrui et al.):
  $\bullet$ Africa’s past vs. present $\bullet$ Tradition vs. modernity $\bullet$ Indigenous vs. foreign $\bullet$ Individualism vs. community $\bullet$ Socialism vs. capitalism $\bullet$ Development vs. self-reliance $\bullet$ Africanity vs. humanity.

Canonical & Contemporary Authors

• Chinua Achebe (“Things Fall Apart”): deemed “Father of African Literature”; explored psychological disorientation under colonialism.

• Nadine Gordimer (South Africa): Nobel Prize $1991$; tackled moral issues of apartheid. Works: “Burger’s Daughter,” “July’s People,” short story “Loot.”

• Wole Soyinka (Nigeria): Nobel Prize $1986$; playwright/poet; political prisoner during civil war; piece “Civilian & Soldier.”

• Other noted modern writers (mentioned for future study): Ayi Kwei Armah, Aminatta Forna, Alain Mabanckou, Ben Okri.

Key Characteristics & Themes Recap

• Blend of myth & history; heroes embody communal identity.

• Continued influence of oral aesthetics (call-and-response, proverb density, performative rhythm).

• Literature as vehicle of resistance: anti-colonial protest, slave emancipation, anti-apartheid advocacy.

• Probing identity fractures wrought by urbanization, Western education, and religious hybridity.

• Persistent hope and pride, envisioning transformed futures.

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

• Literature preserves collective memory, counters erasure under colonization & slavery.

• Proverbs & epics maintain ethical codes, instruct next generations.

• Contemporary works interrogate governance, social justice, economic inequality.

• Missionary impact: both literacy facilitation & cultural disruption.

• Climate & geography (e.g., desertification) serve as metaphors for endurance and cautionary ecological tales.

Conclusion & Forward Look

• African literature’s story = trajectory from ancient hieroglyphs through oral epics to globally celebrated novels and Nobel laureates.

• Next video segment (Part $2$): history/background of Asian literature across South-East, South, and Middle-East Asia.

• Students will later analyze texts such as “Things Fall Apart,” “Pilgrim’s Progress” translation, and other African/Asian masterpieces.