African Literature Essay

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AFRICAN LITERATURE (rai) LITERATI - intellectuals or those who read and comment on literature. Scholar-bureaucrats. ACHEBE - changed the face of world literature by bringing African writing to global attention. Called the most widely read African writer of his time, he chronicled Nigeria’s transition from colonial outpost to post-colonial African nation. Father of modern African Literature. PAPYRUS - is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, a wetland sedge, that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. POIGNANT - Evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret NEWSPAPER - served as vehicles for expressing nascent nationalist feelings. Despite the ignorance of most so called "literati" to the domain of African literature, African literature in fact is one of the main currents of world literature, stretching continuously and directly back to ancient history. Achebe did not "invent" African Literature, because he himself was inundated with it as an African. He simply made more people aware of it. THE BEGINNING OF THE AFRICAN LITERATURE (RL & Ronnel) The first African literature is circa 2300-2100, when ancient Egyptians begin using burial texts to accompany their dead. These include the first written accounts of creation - the Memphite Declaration of Deities. Not only that, but 'papyrus', from which we originate our word for paper, was invented by the Egyptians, and writing flourished. In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa features a vibrant and varied oral culture. African literature was mainly oral until the 20th century and oral traditions of proverbs, mythological narratives, and poetry persist and influence contemporary writing. To take into account written literary culture without considering literary culture is definitely a mistake, because they two interplay heavily with each other. African oral arts are "art's for
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