Description
Book SynopsisInterrogates and explores African literature in African languages today, and the continuing interfaces between works in indigenous languages and those written in European languages or languages of colonizers. Sixty years after the Conference of African Writers of English Expression at Makerere University, the dominance in the global canon of African literatures written in European languages over those in indigenous languages continues to be an issue. This volume of ALT re-examines this central question of African literatures to ask, 'What is the state of African literatures in African languages today?' Contributors discuss the translation of Gurnah's novel Paradise to Swahili, and Osemwegie's Ọrọ Epic to English, and Wolof wrestlers' panegyrics. They analyse Edo eco-critical poetry, and the poetics of Igbo mask poetry, and morality in early prose fiction in indigenous Nigerian languages. Other essays contribute a semiotic analysis of Duruaku's A Matter of Identity, and the decolonization of trauma in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them. Overall, the volume paints a complex image of African cultural production in indigenous languages, especially in the ways Africa's oral performance traditions remain resilient in the face of a seemingly undiminished presence of non-African language literary traditions.
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION African Literature in African Languages: Orality and the Burden of Modernity CHIJI AKỌMA & NDUKA OTIONO ARTICLES Pictures of Materialism in the Benin Ecological Worldview: Eco-Critical Poems of Osemwengie Ero KOLA EKE AND EDAFE MUKORO The Swahili Mtapta: Exploring Translation in Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise IDA HADJIVAYANIS Ikponmwosa Osemwegie's Ọrọ Epic and Translation: The Past and Prospects of Edo Literature UYILAWA USUANLELE The Panegyric of the Champion: How Wolof Wrestlers Borrowed from Female Oral Genres to Win in and Outside the Arena MARAME GUEYE "A People's Firewood Cooks for them": The Contextual Prosody of Igbo Mask Poetry and Mbem Poetics CHIKE OKOYE and JULIET IFUNANYA OKEYIKA Reclaiming the Muted Voices of Xhosa Literature: A Personal Testament JEFF OPLAND LITERARY SUPPLEMENT Five Poems 'Monologue Written After Watching a Robin Lift from a Tree Branch' 'I Am on a Road and My Mouth is Full of Questions' 'What the Lord Said' 'Uriah in the Bardo' 'Witness as a Foot Mat' Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto Three Poems 'Lockdown in Biafra' 'The Prison Door' 'Kyphosis' Amaka Blossom Chime Four Poems 'Ambitious' 'Shake It Off' 'Academia' 'Ahoa, 2022' Blessing Ezinne Okah 'Pulse on Martin Niemöller' (Poem) Alexander Opicho Two Poems 'Eons Before' 'What?!' Stephen Oladele Solanke 'Wild Grief' (Poem) Aisha Umar 'Ties that Gag' (Short Story) Felicia Moh FEATURED ARTICLES Costume as Mystico--Metaphoric Communication in Toni Duruaku's A Matter of Identity: A Semiotic Analysis UKACHI WACHUKU Decolonizing Trauma Studies: The Recognition-Solidarity Nexus in Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Them CHIJIOKE ONAH TRIBUTES Remembering Gerald Moore JAMES GIBBS REVIEWS Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Do Not Burn My Bones & Other Stories KUFRE USANGA Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Broken Bodies, Damaged Souls KUFRE USANGA Al-Bishak, BLACK PAPYRUS: Global Origins of Writing and Written Literature Traced to Black Africa INIOBONG I. UKO Olu Obafemi, Ajon! (The Legend Who Made a King/Dom) KUFRE USANGA
