African writers and their contributions to the development of African literature: Some thoughts

The African is a complex human being. Far too often, not much has been said about his or her literature. The literature of the African runs deep into centuries and tells stories of the past, the culture, ways of life, farming, marriage, tribes, behaviour, education, health, technological advancement, industries,
and commerce.

These fields of human endeavour by the African have been written and talked about by great writers like Cheik Anta Diop, Camara Laye, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Nadine Gordimer, Aminatta Forna, Ayi Kwei Armah, Mariama Bâ, Amílcar Cabral, Ama Ata Aidoo, Kofi Awoonor, Tendai Huchu, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Okri, Yaa Gyasi, etc. However, in order not to make this a very long piece, I will talk about the first five writers mentioned above.

A critical look at the works of these writers describes the sentiments and living conditions of the African people.

For example, Cheik Anta Diop tells the history of the African in a very unique way by exploring the origins of African civilizations and their impact on global culture through his work “African Roots of Civilization: Myth or Reality.” In this regard, “Diop’s work is considered foundational to the theory of Afrocentricity…..The questions he posed about cultural bias in critical and scientific research contributed greatly to the postcolonial turn in the study of African civilizations.” Thus, his study on “the origins of the human race and pre-colonial African culture”, was a pacesetter in the understanding of the anthropology of African culture, its uniqueness and the different forms of development taking place in many African societies. Hence, the mindset, attitudes, and conceptions about the African people are challenged.

For Camara Laye, his story is about his childhood, which depicts the life of a Malinke Child: the Mende speaking people of Guinea. Born in the town of Kouroussa to a family of Blacksmiths and goldsmiths, was supposed to follow in the tradition of his forefathers, but rather chose school to become a technician and gains a scholarship to study engineering in France. Camara Laye’s work and “autobiographical novel, L’Enfant noir (The African Child, also published as The Dark Child), was first published in 1953″ is also a depiction of the heroism of African tradition and how it interacts with modernity and the aspirations a young man to behold the opportunities of exploring a world beyond his imaginations. An experience to which many Africans in the diaspora share.

Chinua Achebe’s story is about brilliance, intrigue, and a deep conviction and knowledge of culture, politics, environment, society, and the lives of his people. The author of so many articles and books speaks to the conscience of the African. In his most famous book, ” Things Fall Apart”, he writes: “A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to redeem them from starving. They all have food in their own houses. When we gather in the moonlight at the village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so. Therefore, let us continue with the team spirit and enjoy the power of togetherness. Let’s smile not because we don’t have problems but because we are stronger than the problems.”

Apart from “Things Fall Apart,” some of his great works were “No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964)… Later novels include “A Man of the People” (1966) and “Anthills of the Savannah” (1987). “In the West, Achebe is often referred to as the “father of African literature, “although he vigorously rejected the characterization.”

Perhaps it is true to say that, “Achebe sought to escape the colonial perspective that framed African literature at the time, and drew from the traditions of the Igbo people, Christian influences, and the clash of Western and African values to create a uniquely African voice.”

Another important writer of the modern African era is none other than Wole Soyinka.

Wole Soyinka is a playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist of Nigerian origin and also a Nobel laureate in literature. And perhaps the only African sub of the Sahara thus far to achieve this feat. He was born in 1934 in Abeokuta in Ogun State. He is a descendant of the rulers of Isara and the second of seven children and his heritage links to the King of Isara-Remo Samuel Akinsanya: a founding father of Nigeria. His early life was influenced by his mother: Grace Eniola Soyinka, a trader, and local activist. He was also influenced by the Anglican church and Yuroba traditions. These influences are seen in his writings like “Ake: The Years of Childhood” (1981).

In adult life, he was imprisoned by the Nigerian government of General Gowan and has been a great critic of the various Nigerian governments who have misused the country’s resources to their own benefit and to the detriment of the Nigerian people, the working class and the poor.

Some of his major works, among others, include the following:

Plays:

Keffi’s Birthday Treat (1954), The Invention (1957), The Swamp Dwellers (1958), A Quality of Violence (1959), The Lion and the Jewel (1959), The Trials of Brother Jero (1960), A Dance of the Forests (1960), My Father’s Burden (1960), The Strong Breed (1964), Before the Blackout (1964), Kongi’s Harvest (1964), etc.

Novels:

The Interpreters (1965), Season of Anomy (1973), Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth (Bookcraft, Nigeria; Bloomsbury, UK; Pantheon, US, 2021), etc.

Throughout the years and “in Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Yale and was also a distinguished scholar in residence at Duke University in 2008.”

Another critically acclaimed African scholar and writer is Ngugi wa Thiong’o. He is a “Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.” He was “born in Kenya, in 1938, into a large peasant family. He was educated at Kamandura, Manguu and Kinyogori primary schools; Alliance High School, Makerere University College (then a campus of London University), Kampala, Uganda; and the University of Leeds, Britain”.

It is said that “he is recipient of seven Honorary Doctorates viz D Litt (Albright); PhD (Roskilde); D Litt (Leeds); D Litt &Ph D (Walter Sisulu University); PhD (Carlstate); D Litt (Dillard) and D Litt (Auckland University). He is also an honorary member of the American Academy of Letters.” He is described as a great intellectual… novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic, and social activist.”

As an adolescent and a growing youngman, “he lived through the Mau Mau War of Independence (1952-1962), the central historical episode in the making of modern Kenya and a major theme in his early works”.

Ngugi “burst onto the literary scene in East Africa with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit, at the National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962, as part of the celebration of Uganda’s Independence. “Ngugi Speaks for the Continent,” headlined The Makererian, the Student newspaper, in a review of the performance by Trevor Whittock, one of the professors. In a highly productive literary period, Ngugi wrote additionally eight short stories, two one act plays, two novels, and a regular column for the Sunday Nation under the title, As I See It. One of his novels, Weep Not Child, was published to critical acclaim in 1964; followed by the second novel, The River Between (1965). His third, A Grain of Wheat (1967), was a turning point in the formal and ideological direction of his works. Multi-narrative lines and multi-viewpoints unfolding at different times and spaces replace the linear temporal unfolding of the plot from a single viewpoint. The collective replaces the individual as the centre of history.”