African
Literature
An introduction
Africa: Ancient Kingdoms
The
cradle of life
Egypt
Eastern Africa
Western Africa
Literary Development and Devices
In the Beginning……


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.)
 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
 Conquered
and ruled
Egypt around
1000 B.C.
 Royal families
traced lineage
through
female line

More women
ruled here
than any
other ancient
civilization
 Other
smaller civilizations
popped up around Sahara

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





Oral epics
Praise poems
Fables
Proverbs
Dramas
Eastern African Empire: Aksum





Third century A.D.,
modern-day Ethiopia
Well-developed oral
traditions
First great civilizations
that created full and
dominant cultural
footholds in northern
Africa
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
 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
 Parallelism
 Griot
 Epithet
 Refrain
 Apostrophe
 Folk
 Polytheism
vs.
Monotheism
 Omniscient pointof-view
 Legend
 Oral epic
tale
 Trickster
 Personification
 Proverb
 Metaphor
 Alliteration
 Rhyme
Oral Tradition
 Dilemma


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
tale or Cumulative tale
Formulaic story
 Every
incident that came before is repeated
 The 12 days of Christmas

A single extended joke
Proverbs
a
short, traditional saying that
expresses some obvious truth or
familiar experience


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.