African Literature

Beginnings

The first work of African Literature appeared approximately during the years 2300 - 2100 B.C in Egypt and these were burial texts written in papyrus using jerogliphics language.

"Memphite Declaration of Deites" was the first written account of creation.

In the Sub-Saharan, the Literature was by oral form and some types of lit were:

Proverbs, riddles, epic narratives, oration, songs, chants, stories, legends and folktales. 

These were usually told by Griots and traveling performers.

The first written piece of lit in this part of Africa was in 1520 and it had Islamic influence, its name was "Anonymous history of Kilwa Kisiwani."

First African History "History of Sudan" written by Abd-Al-Rahman al-Sadi (written in Arab.)

Colonization times

• Christian beliefs threatened African Literature.
• Attempts to destroy the pagan and primitive culture for easier slavery.
• Islam lost influence in Swahili poetry and returned to Bentu forms.
• Europeans helped in the development through journalism and education.
• Oliver Scheiner was a European writer that wrote about Africa in his book “Story of an African Farm"(1883).
• negritude movement in Paris in the 1920 and 1930's

1.     French speak Afrikaans in search for identity

2.     create a conscience of black identity, history, culture and civilization

• African writers became political figures for a change.
• African lit was world known thanks to "Cry of the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton in 1948.

Chinua Achebe's Biography

He was born in 1930 in south Nigeria in an Igbo town raised by his parents, Isaiah Okafo(father) and Janet Anaenechi(mother). He is a famous novelist, poet between other things. Author of the most read book in African modern literature named as "Things That Fall Apart"
Due to his high performance at school he won a scholarship for his undergraduate studies which he accepted. At univeristy he dedicated some of his time to to write stories and as soon as he graduated he began to workat the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. He met a girl amd after a while he got marroed to Christie Okoli.
Theyhad a daughter which was gigen the name of Chinelo and two more sons after her; Ikechukwu and Chidi. He supported the Biafran Independence nad helped the people serving the, as an ambassador. Later on he tried to involve himself into politics but due to what he saw and heard of corruption and more there, he decided to quit... He was in a car accident around the 90's that left him wounded and he has also been teaching in some schools such as Brown University in Providence... All of what he has written up till now has been based on the influence Christianity brought to the Igbo towns.

Importance of Literature in Education and Development

Literature is important in endless ways but before we can understand some of them, we have to go back to the definition of Literature. We can refer Literature as a form of expression which can be either written or oral form. In this entry I will only speak of the importance of Literature in education and development, these two correspond to my personal opinion.

The oral form of Literature is all that can be as it name says, spoken, for example; plays, poetry and the lyrics of a song. This is referred as informal Literature which can be modified overtime

By the other hand the written type of Literature is everything written. This is referred as formal Literature because it will not change or be modified overtime within the text it was originally made.

Education in my personal opinion cannot work with without literature, mainly because sooner or later you will have to read a book concerning a subject, or make a play to understand better your class notes.  Sometimes you will have to write an essay, literature makes part of most of the educational system learning method and without this, it would be insanely hard to teach or learn.

In the case of development Literature as well is not only important but essential, you can’t develop anything without knowing some background and history, and where can you find things like that. Exactly, in books, stories, research papers, essays. Without previous knowledge you can’t develop anything.

This explains how Literature is important in my subjective point of view and literature also is important to many, many other things.