African
Literature
An introduction
Africa: Ancient Kingdoms
○ The
cradle of life
○ Egypt
○ Eastern Africa
○ Western Africa
○ Literary Development and Devices
In the Beginning……
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Anthropologists believe that
the first modern humans
(homo sapiens) began in the
northern regions of the African
continent
Cradle of life (Neolithic, “new
stone”)
○ Birthplace of human
civilization (roughly 100,000
years ago)
○ Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia
Minor, etc. (Fertile Crescent)
○ Brought together through
use of writing (technology)
○African climate is varied in
several regions: Desert,
coastline, tropical rain
forest, plains, and
mountains.
Egypt (3000 B.C.-343 B.C.)
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First great civilization
Had a vibrant and strong empire that
centered on a polytheistic society
Pantheon of gods and influence on the
middle eastern religious perspective: Greek,
Roman
Written language: Hieroglyphics
Kushite Kingdom
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Conquered and
ruled Egypt
around 1000
B.C.
Royal families
traced lineage
through female
line
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More women
ruled here than
any other ancient
civilization
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Other smaller civilizations
popped up around Sahara
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Fasa of southern Sudan
The Golden Age
○ A.D.
300-1600
○ Sculpture, music, metal work and textiles
○ Literature plays a huge role in the creation and
success of the empires
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Oral epics
Praise poems
Fables
Proverbs
Dramas
Eastern African Empire: Aksum
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Third century A.D., modern-day
Ethiopia
Hierarchical; one of the four
greatest at the time
Well-developed oral traditions
First great civilizations that created
full and dominant cultural footholds
in northern Africa
Link between Mediterranean and
Asiatic trade routes; center of trade
routes from Rome all the way to
India
Key to success was development of
a specific and complex writing
system
…Migration south and west due
to drought
West African empires
○ Old
Ghana: (A.D. 300-400) A strong and
prosperous kingdom: Mainly traders of salt
and gold
○ Old Mali: (A.D. 1235) Overtook Old Ghana
for supremacy
○ Songhai: The last of the great kingdoms
○ Timbuktu: The marriage of Songhai and Old
Mali empires: Hugely successful kingdom
Religious and cultural influences
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Tribal origins are founded in a polytheistic
and nature-based belief system
4th century A.D. Roman empire introduces
Christianity
700 A.D. Islam introduced into the African
continent
Islam becomes the recognized state religion
of Mali in 1235
Literary Terms to Know
in this Unit
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Parallelism
Epithet
Apostrophe
Polytheism vs.
Monotheism
Omniscient point-of-view
Legend
Oral epic
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Griot
Refrain
Folk tale
Trickster
Personification
Proverb
Metaphor
Alliteration
Rhyme
Proverbs
○a
short, traditional saying that expresses
some obvious truth or familiar
experience
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Used to convey accumulated cultural wisdom
Often use literary elements (metaphors,
alliteration, parallelism, rhyme)
Give a man a fish, and he eats for a
day. Teach him how to fish, and he
eats for a lifetime.
Oral Tradition
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Dilemma tale
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Form of moral tale, ends with a question, invites audience to share
judgment.
One tale deals with a man who died while hunting an ox to feed
his three wives. The first wife learns through a dream what has
happened to him, the second leads her fellow wives to the place
where he died, and the third restores him to life. Which of the
three most deserves his praise?
Chain tale or Cumulative tale
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Formulaic story
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Every incident that came before is repeated
The 12 days of Christmas
A single extended joke