ALT 41
African Literature in African Languages
James Currey (Publisher)
Published on 19. December 2023
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-1-84701-346-0 (ISBN)
Description
Interrogates and explores African literature in African languages today, and the continuing interfaces between works in indigenous languages and those written in European languages or languages of colonizers.
Sixty years after the Conference of African Writers of English Expression at Makerere University, the dominance in the global canon of African literatures written in European languages over those in indigenous languages continues to be an issue. This volume of ALT re-examines this central question of African literatures to ask, 'What is the state of African literatures in African languages today?' Contributors discuss the translation of Gurnah's novel Paradise to Swahili, and Osemwegie's ?r? Epic to English, and Wolof wrestlers' panegyrics. They analyse Edo eco-critical poetry, and the poetics of Igbo mask poetry, and morality in early prose fiction in indigenous Nigerian languages. Other essays contribute a semiotic analysis of Duruaku's A Matter of Identity, and the decolonization of trauma in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them. Overall, the volume paints a complex image of African cultural production in indigenous languages, especially in the ways Africa's oral performance traditions remain resilient in the face of a seemingly undiminished presence of non-African language literary traditions.
Funded by the Knowledge Unlatched Select 2024 collection, this title is available as an Open Access ebook under the Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND.
Sixty years after the Conference of African Writers of English Expression at Makerere University, the dominance in the global canon of African literatures written in European languages over those in indigenous languages continues to be an issue. This volume of ALT re-examines this central question of African literatures to ask, 'What is the state of African literatures in African languages today?' Contributors discuss the translation of Gurnah's novel Paradise to Swahili, and Osemwegie's ?r? Epic to English, and Wolof wrestlers' panegyrics. They analyse Edo eco-critical poetry, and the poetics of Igbo mask poetry, and morality in early prose fiction in indigenous Nigerian languages. Other essays contribute a semiotic analysis of Duruaku's A Matter of Identity, and the decolonization of trauma in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them. Overall, the volume paints a complex image of African cultural production in indigenous languages, especially in the ways Africa's oral performance traditions remain resilient in the face of a seemingly undiminished presence of non-African language literary traditions.
Funded by the Knowledge Unlatched Select 2024 collection, this title is available as an Open Access ebook under the Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84701-346-0 (9781847013460)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University. He is the author and co-editor of eight books of creative writing and academic research, including His works include (co-ed with Chiji Akoma) Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021). Chiji Ak?ma is Professor of English and Chair of Global Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Villanova University. His works include (co-ed with Nduka Otiono), Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021). JEFF OPLAND held appointments at the University of Cape Town, University of Durban-Westville and Rhodes University and taught at the Universities of Toronto, Yale, and Leipzig as well as Vassar College before his retirement.
Content
INTRODUCTION
African Literature in African Languages: Orality and the Burden of Modernity
CHIJI AK?MA & NDUKA OTIONO
ARTICLES
Pictures of Materialism in the Benin Ecological Worldview: Eco-Critical Poems of Osemwengie Ero
KOLA EKE AND EDAFE MUKORO
The Swahili Mtapta: Exploring Translation in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise
IDA HADJIVAYANIS
Ikponmwosa Osemwegie's ?r? Epic and Translation: The Past and Prospects of Edo Literature
UYILAWA USUANLELE
The Panegyric of the Champion: How Wolof Wrestlers Borrowed from Female Oral Genres to Win in and Outside the Arena
MARAME GUEYE
"A People's Firewood Cooks for them": The Contextual Prosody of Igbo Mask Poetry and Mbem Poetics
CHIKE OKOYE and JULIET IFUNANYA OKEYIKA
Reclaiming the Muted Voices of Xhosa Literature: A Personal Testament
JEFF OPLAND
LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Five Poems
'Monologue Written After Watching a Robin Lift from a Tree Branch'
'I Am on a Road and My Mouth is Full of Questions'
'What the Lord Said'
'Uriah in the Bardo'
'Witness as a Foot Mat'
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
Three Poems
'Lockdown in Biafra'
'The Prison Door'
'Kyphosis'
Amaka Blossom Chime
Four Poems
'Ambitious'
'Shake It Off'
'Academia'
'Ahoa, 2022'
Blessing Ezinne Okah
'Pulse on Martin Niemoeller' (Poem)
Alexander Opicho
Two Poems
'Eons Before'
'What?!'
Stephen Oladele Solanke
'Wild Grief' (Poem)
Aisha Umar
'Ties that Gag' (Short Story)
Felicia Moh
FEATURED ARTICLES
Costume as Mystico--Metaphoric Communication in Toni Duruaku's A Matter of Identity: A Semiotic Analysis
UKACHI WACHUKU
Decolonizing Trauma Studies: The Recognition-Solidarity Nexus in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them
CHIJIOKE ONAH
TRIBUTES
Remembering Gerald Moore
JAMES GIBBS
REVIEWS
Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Do Not Burn My Bones & Other Stories
KUFRE USANGA
Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Broken Bodies, Damaged Souls
KUFRE USANGA
Al-Bishak, BLACK PAPYRUS: Global Origins of Writing and Written Literature Traced to Black Africa
INIOBONG I. UKO
Olu Obafemi, Ajon! (The Legend Who Made a King/Dom)
KUFRE USANGA
African Literature in African Languages: Orality and the Burden of Modernity
CHIJI AK?MA & NDUKA OTIONO
ARTICLES
Pictures of Materialism in the Benin Ecological Worldview: Eco-Critical Poems of Osemwengie Ero
KOLA EKE AND EDAFE MUKORO
The Swahili Mtapta: Exploring Translation in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise
IDA HADJIVAYANIS
Ikponmwosa Osemwegie's ?r? Epic and Translation: The Past and Prospects of Edo Literature
UYILAWA USUANLELE
The Panegyric of the Champion: How Wolof Wrestlers Borrowed from Female Oral Genres to Win in and Outside the Arena
MARAME GUEYE
"A People's Firewood Cooks for them": The Contextual Prosody of Igbo Mask Poetry and Mbem Poetics
CHIKE OKOYE and JULIET IFUNANYA OKEYIKA
Reclaiming the Muted Voices of Xhosa Literature: A Personal Testament
JEFF OPLAND
LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Five Poems
'Monologue Written After Watching a Robin Lift from a Tree Branch'
'I Am on a Road and My Mouth is Full of Questions'
'What the Lord Said'
'Uriah in the Bardo'
'Witness as a Foot Mat'
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
Three Poems
'Lockdown in Biafra'
'The Prison Door'
'Kyphosis'
Amaka Blossom Chime
Four Poems
'Ambitious'
'Shake It Off'
'Academia'
'Ahoa, 2022'
Blessing Ezinne Okah
'Pulse on Martin Niemoeller' (Poem)
Alexander Opicho
Two Poems
'Eons Before'
'What?!'
Stephen Oladele Solanke
'Wild Grief' (Poem)
Aisha Umar
'Ties that Gag' (Short Story)
Felicia Moh
FEATURED ARTICLES
Costume as Mystico--Metaphoric Communication in Toni Duruaku's A Matter of Identity: A Semiotic Analysis
UKACHI WACHUKU
Decolonizing Trauma Studies: The Recognition-Solidarity Nexus in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them
CHIJIOKE ONAH
TRIBUTES
Remembering Gerald Moore
JAMES GIBBS
REVIEWS
Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Do Not Burn My Bones & Other Stories
KUFRE USANGA
Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Broken Bodies, Damaged Souls
KUFRE USANGA
Al-Bishak, BLACK PAPYRUS: Global Origins of Writing and Written Literature Traced to Black Africa
INIOBONG I. UKO
Olu Obafemi, Ajon! (The Legend Who Made a King/Dom)
KUFRE USANGA