"The darkest thing about Africa, has always been our ignorance to it" - George Kimble

When it comes to literature, we must think that there is much more to it than some paper pages inside a hard cover. All forms of literature are a projection and representation of either someone’s life, culture, ideas, feelings, thoughts, imagination, but most importantly, every story (whether mentioned or not), gives us clues about the author’s past or where he comes from perhaps. Therefore, in literature, where you are born does matters, wherever you spend your childhood, whatever traditions you’re taught will determine your personality. Since Africa is one of the biggest continents, I’d like to tell you some facts about its literature, for you to understand its diversity in writing more deeply.

The first forms of African literature belong to the years 2300 to 2100 BC. In the beginning, Africa was divided in regions, (South, North and Sub-Saharan area). Each region had different influences from other countries and different knowledge degrees. It is in Egypt where we find the first written account (Memphite Declaration), and the first text in papyrus (burial texts found in tombs), while in the Sub-Saharan Africa they had more of an oral culture (made use of proverbs, riddles, poetry, rituals, legends, folktales, epic narratives). The earliest Sub-Saharan literature was written in 1520, Kilwa Kiswani, which shows heavy Islamic influences.

Traveling performers, known as griots, were also present during the beginnings. The first African history was called “History of the Sudan”, while the earliest Swahili work talks about Muslim traditions. During colonization period, European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Portugal and Britain), established in what was for them a completely different world. Therefore, colonizers threatened African traditions with their Christian ethics and beliefs. This led to slavery, having the first slave narrative in 1789 by Gustava Vassa. Ironically, as European influence begins to grow stronger, Swahili starts loosing Islamic influence, returning to their Bantu traditions.

Once Europeans were part of Africa’s countries, they helped development through education. Oliver Scheiner in 1883 is the first European writing and analysing Africa’s situation (“Story of an African Farm”). Then, during the 1920’s and 30’s, the “Negritude Movement” is born in Paris. It consisted of French-speaking Africans in search of their black identity, their history and culture (mainly due to inferiority they’d suffered). Senegal’s president, Leopold Sedal Senghor was leader of this movement.

African literature becomes world known when Alan Paton writes “Cry of the Beloved Country”  (a portrayal of Africa). Since then, African literature continued to develop and increase as well as become more constant. Among famous African books we can find “Black Skin, White Masks” (1967) by Franz Fanon, “The Dark Chira” by Camara Laye, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, and many others. The first African female who wrote was Flora Nwapa and the first Africans to obtain a Nobel Prize were Wole Soyinka and Naguib Manfouz.

Bibliography:

Holtz, E. (2013), African Literature Presentation, Edo. de México.