Modern African Literature and The European Influence

African literature is literature made by Africans and for Africans. That’s it. Simple. Moving on…

African literature spans oral traditions like poetry and folktales, and written literature which includes prose, plays and nonfiction, but in this website whenever I mention African literature I am referring specifically to African fiction. Think novels like Half of a Yellow Sun and Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad.

In time past, Africa had chants, proverbs, stories told under the moonlight, riddles, and even poetry and plays involving whole communities. We had rich literature. With colonialism, however, African literature lost its name. The colonialists claimed Africans were backward people who had no identity, no education, and consequently, no literature. Don’t believe me? Ask Joseph Conrad.

Because of this, there was a gradual decline in Africa’s oral literature and instead a growing inclination towards the written literature. Thus, it can be said that modern African literature stemmed from the impact of colonialism on Africa.

Don’t fret though. It isn’t nearly as bad as it seems. Yvonne Vera, author of Under the Tongue (1996), soothes us with these words, ‘to write is to banish silence’. This was a reluctant acceptance of the shift from orality in precolonial African literature to writing in post-colonial African literature.

If we are not allowed to speak, then we would write, but either way we will not be silent.

Even now, when we write we write in English, and not in our language. But we can take heart from Chinua Achebe who asked that the writer should ‘aim at fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience’. In other words, write in English because the language is universal, but mold the language so it becomes, without any doubt, yours.

Modern African literature might’ve stemmed from the impact of colonialism on Africa, but we do not have to be defined by the fact.

African literature has evolved from oral literature and ‘protest’ literature to what we see today in works like Damilare Kuku’s Only Big BumBum Matters Tomorrow and Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Butter Honey Pig Bread, showing the reality of the present-day African with themes that do not include slavery or the impact of colonialism on Africa. These works from awesome young authors excise African literature from the European influence.

This is not to deride works that focus on colonialism and post-colonialism by our greats as these works are what hefted African literature to where it is today and prepared the stage for emerging voices. I am only appreciating our growth and ability to write about Africa without needing to reference anyone else—no pre-colonial, no colonial, and certainly no post-colonial. Just Africa.

Speaking of these works by the greats, though, I’d like to leave you today with a few. Some you may know, and others you may not. I am talking about the African literature that rode on the heels of colonisation and independence and dared to tell African stories from the perspective of the African. These stories are called ‘protest’ literature, but we will discuss that some other time.

For now, even while celebrating the modern African literature, you can check out these works and maybe add them to your TBR pile.

• Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe, a novel believed to be in response to the unpalatable portrayal of Africans in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and having themes such as colonisation, tradition, masculinity and family.

• A Grain of Wheat (1967) by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o which explores the themes ‘independence’, ‘impact of colonialism’ and ‘the individual versus the community’ amongst others.

• The Slave Girl (1977) by Buchi Emecheta, a novel about domestic slavery and colonialism in Africa.

• So Long a Letter (1979) by Mariama Bâ which explores the life and challenges experienced by women in post-colonial Senegal.

See you next time!