About African Literature

When you start to think about the most famous writers in history, you usually find out that most are either European or American, because its what general history literature has taught us, but this doesnt mean that the best writers are always from the same locations.
During my literature course this year I have been discovering more writers because we have had a certain focus on internationality and variety. We see writers from Albert Camus to Charles Dickens, from Miguel de Cervantes and Edgar Allan Poe to Jose Vasconcellos and Carlos Fuentes. This time ive had the fortune of diving a little into african literature, specifically into the life and works of Chinua Achebe.

As some might know, I wrote a biography of his life on the blog. Currently we are reading his most famous work: "Things Fall Apart". This has given me the opportunity to discover how important african culture and history is to their literature (obviously), and how it can even come to define a whole genre.

A few days ago I made a presentation about the Tuareg Tribe, an african nomad tribe that lives in the Sahara desert. I did not only learn how important traditions, rituals, magic and proverbs still are for their culture, but I also learned that its a major aspect of the common african people's lives, since my other classmates presented other african tribes, such as the Pygmies, the Bushmen, the Massai and the Igbos.

Chinua Achebe came from an Igbo tribe, and its easily noticeable how that part of him has remained and influenced his life and works. He writes about proverbs and traditional rituals in a way that is not only easily understandable, but also interesting, making you want to learn more.

We must also take into consideration that in Paris in the 1920's -1930's there was the negritude movement, where african artists such as Alan Paton, Franz Fanon and the same Chinua Achebe wanted to express that Africa had culture and that the people and culture had value. The beginner of the movement was Leopold Sedar Senghar. Today, more and more african artists emerge from different parts of the continent, proving their worth.

It is my belief that african literature is based around the ancient beliefs, traditional rituals, ceremonies and cultural aspects that are part of every african-born child that has lived and grown in that enviroment. We have southafrican authors such as Andries Gerhardus Visser or Herman Charles Bosman that have implemented Afrikaans in their works as well as english, also mixing the historical parts of their culture with their life, making works with topics ranging from Nelson Mandela to traditional african short stories about animals and magical men. We have the different varieties of these everywhere around the continent, with different versions in the north, south, east and west. The northern people are more heavily influenced by Berber/Arabic culture, while the people in the south might be more affected by the Dutch, French and the many other colonies that played an important role in african history. Even though they are all african, they have tribal tendencies, they remain grasped to their traditions, and some have very similar historical  backgrounds, all of the african cultures are different and special in their own way, as is their literature.

It comes down to identifying the context of the written material and knowing a little about the author to understand and appreciate a little more of what you have in your hands. I am really enjoying "Things Fall Apart", and I think that this has motivated me to have another look into african literature because of all it has to offer. I might do it in the near future, but I always end up asking myself... why not today?

Matias Reyes Guilmant