Survey of Philippine Literature in English
(Eng. 306 /12:30-2:00)
First Semester
SY: 2023-2024
Prepared by:
JOCELYN S. UNGANG
Instructor
Hello! I’m...
Mam JOY
1. African Literature
01 02 03
Characteristics of African African Writers and Poets African Poems and Short
Literature. Stories
04 05 06
African Literature African by David Diop Oce Upon A Time by Nadine
Anticipation by Mabel Dove- Godimer
Danquiah
Table of contents.
🍂 We will talk about this first.
🍂 We will talk about this second.
🍂 After that we will talk about this.
🍂 We will talk about this too.
🍂 And we will talk about this last.
Background Information: General Concepts & Theories, Techniques &
Conventions
What is Literature? As the man started to walk the earth, he developed a system of
recording down things around him and interpreting them according to his own perception.
This act of documenting may have been the start of the medium; not all written material
may be considered literature. But, only those that closely emulate the human experience,
emotion and thought are regarded as literature. Afro-Asian Literature is a term for writing;
written by people from mixed African-Arab ethnicity, or African-Asian ethnicity as
described by Estroga (2012).
Did you know?
Afro-Asian Literature mirrors not only the customs and traditions of African and Asian countries but
also their philosophy of life which on the whole are deeply and predominantly contemplative and
hauntingly sweet.
Afro-Asian Literature is the reflection of the storm and the stress of developing nations seeking a
place under the sun, which every student must understand so that she/he may know how this
literature affects the history and culture of a nation.
Many of the literary works are handed down by oral tradition.
* In Africa, the lack of literacy did not make it possible to write literature down.
Histories, myths, legends, including stories, dramas, riddles, songs, proverbs and other
literary works were handed by mouth from generation to generation to entertain, educate
and remind the people about their past, heroic deeds of their people, ancestry and culture.
*The other importance is that this writing is able to teach people and allow them to learn
about different experiences and cultures from all over the world.
*The importance comes from the fact that Afro-Asian literature is a sign of new and
modern times.
*History Of Afro-Asian Literature -Told of the unique struggles and successes of Afro-
Asian people.
African literature isn't just the voices of African people during colonialism and the slave
trade. It is much more than that. It covers the stories of African people before
colonialism, during colonialism, and after colonialism (this is known as post-colonial
literature).
African literature reflects the stories of people from hundreds of years ago and the
people who live now. It is a hugely important part of the literary world as it brings
underrepresented voices to the fore and allows them to re-tell their experiences of the
world.
― Irene M. Pepperberg
Did you know?
Did you know?
Countries under Afro-Asian
Literature include:
• South Korea, North Korea,
Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand,
Philippines, Saudi Arabia, China,
India, Egypt, and Israel.
This is where you section ends. Duplicate this set of slides as many times you need to go over all your sections.
Characteristics OF African Literature
Language The widespread
Before colonialism, Africans
would tell their stories orally
African literature African oral and through performance,
comprises the oral and sometimes using music as
tradition is rich in well.
written works of the
continent composed in folktales, myths,
either African languages riddles, and After colonialism, the African
(more than a thousand writers started to write in European
languages and dialects) proverbs that not languages such as English,
or foreign ones. only convey an Portuguese, and French. Their
stories would share similar themes
imaginative view such as denouncing European
of the world, but colonisation of the African
countries, the greatness of their
also serve as African past before the European
religious, social, countries invaded, and hope for
and educational independence in the future of Africa.
function.
Characteristics OF African Literature
Historical influences In the period between • The Atlantic slave trade involved
1881 and 1914, known as the movement of more than
the ‘Scramble for twelve million African people
to America to work as slaves.
Another Africa’, numerous
characteristic of European powers took • Some of these slaves eventually
control of most of Africa. gained their freedom and those
African literature is The only three countries who were literate started writing
the writers’ focus on untouched by the stories to fight against slavery by
recounting their horrifying
themes of Europeans were the
experiences as slaves.
Dervish State, Liberia,
*freedom and and Ethiopia.
• The first generation of these
independence, narrators was Ottobah
The slave trade that lasted
*questions of approximately four Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano,
and Ignatius Sancho.
identity and hundred years is also
liberation. another key historical
influence on African
literature.
Characteristics OF African Literature
.
Types of African literature
Oral African Pre-colonial African Colonial African Post-colonial
literature literature literature literature
Pre-colonial African literature is the Colonial African Literature was
African oral literature literature written between the fifteenth produced between the end of World Writers in this period wrote in
was performative. Its and nineteenth centuries and includes War I and African independence (the both western languages and
themes were usually the Atlantic slave trade. date of which depends on the African languages. The main
mythological and These stories were based on the different countries, such as Ghana's themes that African authors
historical. folklore of different regions in African 1957 independence from British
explore in post-colonial
countries. control and Algeria's independence
in 1962 from France). It contained
African Literature are the
themes of independence, liberation relationship between
For example, Sungura is a hare in folklore and négritude.
Performance, tone, modernity and tradition, the
in East Africa and Central Africa. Often,
riddles, and relationship between Africa’s
these stories included mischievous animal Traditionally, Africans combine
proverbs were key past and Africa’s present,
characters such as Anansi, a spider found in teaching in their art forms. For
components of oral individuality and
the folklore of the Ashanti tribe in Ghana. example, rather than writing or
African literature. These singing about beauty, African people collectivism, the notion of
It is important to understand that before
elements were use elements of beauty to portray
colonial rule, African literature existed. foreignness and indigenous,
manipulated by the crucial facts and information about
Africans wrote in Africa as well as in the capitalism and socialism, and
orator to produce certain African society.
west and they also wrote in their native what it means to be African.
effects on their audience
languages.
Famous Africa Authors
Chinua Achebe
One of the world’s most widely recognized and praised writers,
Chinua Achebe wrote some of the most
extraordinary works of the 20th century. His most famous novel,
Things Fall Apart (1958), is a devastating
depiction of the clash between traditional tribal values and the effects
of colonial rule, as well as the tension
between masculinity and femininity in highly patriarchal societies.
Achebe is also a noted literary critic, particularly known for his
passionate critique of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness (1899), in which he accuses the popular novel of rampant
racism through its othering of the African
continent and its people.
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka was born in Nigeria and educated in
England. In 1986, the playwright and political activist
became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
He dedicated his Nobel acceptance speech to
Nelson Mandela. Soyinka has published hundreds of
works, including drama, novels, essays and poetry, and
colleges all over the world seek him out as a visiting
professor.
David Diop (novelist)
· He was one of the most talented of the younger French West African poets of
the 1950s. Diop’s works in Coups de pilon (1956; “Pounding”), his only
surviving collection, are angry poems of protest against European cultural
values, enumerating the sufferings of his people first under the slave trade
and then under the domination of colonial rule and calling for revolution to
lead to a glorious future for Africa.
· That he was the most extreme of the Negritude writers (who were reacting
against the assumption underlying the French policy of “assimilation” that
Africa was a deprived land possessing neither culture nor history) can be
seen in his rejection of the idea that any good could have come to Africa
through the colonial experience and in his belief that political freedom must
precede a cultural and economic revival
Nadine Gordimer
(20 November 1923 – 13 July 2014) was a South African writer and
political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991,
recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing
has ... been of very great benefit to humanity". [1]
Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly
apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as
Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in
the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress
during the days when the organization was banned, and gave
Nelson Mandela advice on his famous 1964 defence speech at the
trial which led to his conviction for life. She was also active in
HIV/AIDS causes.
Mabel Dove Danquah
Mabel Dove Danquah 1905–1984 was a Gold Coast-born journalist,
political activist, and creative writer, one of the earliest women in
West Africa to work in these fields.
As Francis Elsbend Kofigah notes in relation to Ghana's literary
pioneers, "before the emergence of such strong exponents of literary
feminism as Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, there was Mabel
Dove Danquah, the trail-blazing feminist."
She used various pseudonyms in her writing for newspapers from the
1930s: "Marjorie Mensah" in The Times of West Africa; "Dama
Dumas" in the African Morning Post; "Ebun Alakija" in the Nigerian
Daily Times; and "Akosua Dzatsui" in the Accra Evening News.
Suggested Literary Pieces:
- Africa by David Diop
- Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer
- Anticipation by Mabel Dove- Danquah
Thank you!
