Someone once said, open quote: Footsteps are the wonders of staying alive to move forward end quote.
This is my entry point on how African literature should be viewed. Is there anyone out here who sounds like he/she is tired of being heard? Being heard talking what naysayers say about African literature that we have copy-paste ideologies’ , that we have no form of originality, that we have not sought to talk about our uniqueness and that we have decided to have an easy way out kind of an ‘excuse’ to get glued on the colonial mindset ! Let me further provoke your thinking…how many times have you ever read a literature material and felt some freshness of thoughts and ideas without touching on colonialism? Albeit, it is easily countable…Right?
Okay. Before I commence , a friend did ask me what I mean by the term ‘African’ . Therefore, let me begin by bringing into context the term African. Yes, the term ‘African’ is predisposed as a Eurocentric notion that operates on the premises that the continent ‘Africa’ is homogenous. And the argument is that there are so many diverse cultures, people, experiences and realities in the vast continent, and that literature in itself is uniquely peculiar from one country to the other taking note of the form and content from different corners either East african, West african or south african literature, name it all. And yes, there are 54 nations which make up Africa, yes, each of them has its own history, culture, tribes and traditions; that being said, there are also commonalities shared by literature which comes from the continent as a whole. The bottomline is that the term ‘African’ is an identity! An identity that I think we need to outgrow by not looking at it as a set limit clouding us but as a possession of who we are and what we have to offer, though individually unique but collectively tied together on the parameters of our rich traditions, of our experiences , our nationhood and many others! However, to make the terms ‘African and African literature’ more definite, please revisit my episode one on the preamble of the podcast!
On matters ‘Tracing our Footsteps in African Literature; allow me to quickly paraphrase by putting a bit of flesh on some of the literary periods in Africa. The first footstep is the pre-colonial period, long before any cultural contact with Europe where cultural elements and artistic expressions best exemplified Africa, The core roots of African traditions were the integral part of what described early Africa and what was known to us was-Oral literature such as: myths, legends, rites, rituals, folk celebrations ; externalized the beliefs, passions and interrelated activities that preoccupied any given group. This literature incorporated past happenings hidden in proverbs, riddles, tales, taboos and superstitions. To further enlighten you on this period, if majorly interested in precolonial Africa, grab a copy of the text, ‘Pre Colonial Black Africa’ by Cheikh Anta Diop.
