What is colonial African literature?
Literature in colonial Africa is synonymous with writing about life shaped by the colonial experience of direct rule and domination by imperialist powers. From most definitions of ‘postcolonial literature’, literature in colonial Africa is postcolonial.
What was the colonial period in Africa?
The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or the Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, occupation, division, and colonization of most of Africa by seven Western European powers during a short period known to historians as the New Imperialism (between 1881 and 1914).
What are the characteristics of colonial African literature?
Characteristics of African literature include slave narratives, protests against colonization, calls for independence, African pride, hope for the future, and dissent.
What are the colonial impacts on African literature?
Colonialism also resulted in cultural displacement, africans were forced to adopt westerns traditions and it affected their belief system and they began to see them self in a eurocentric view and they became pseudo africans , they did nolonger value african tradition or heritage e.g. in the poem ‘the renegade’ the poet …
How did colonization contribute to African literature?
Modern African literature was produced in the crucible of colonialism. From the eighteenth century onwards, the colonial situation shaped what it meant to be an African writer, shaped the language of African writing, and overdetermined the culture of letters in Africa.
What is colonial literature?
“Colonial literature” is most easily defined as literature written during a time of colonization, usually from the point of view of colonizers. “Postcolonial literature,” then, refers to literature written in a “postcolonial” period, generally by members of the colonized community.
Why was Africa so easily colonized?
Africa was politically divided between warring tribes, underdeveloped, and often isolated. This made it relatively easy to conquer.
What makes African literature African?
African literature consists of a body of work in different languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to literature written in colonial languages (French, Portuguese, and English). As Africans became literate in their own languages, they often reacted against colonial repression in their writings.
What is meant by post colonial literature?
Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries. It addresses the role of literature in perpetuating and challenging what postcolonial critic Edward Said refers to as cultural imperialism.
What are some examples of African literature from the colonial period?
Colonial African literature. The African works best known in the West from the periods of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789). In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues.
What is the relationship between African literature and the slave trade?
The African works best known in the West from the period of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789). In the colonial period, Africans exposed to Western languages began to write in those tongues.
Is Africa written by the Africans or the colonialists?
This could be written by the Africans or the colonialists. When it is written by the colonialists, it focuses more on placing the African in the position of the “inferior other” and projects justification for the West’s colonial enterprise.
What was the first African novel written in English?
In 1911, Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford (also known as Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) published what is probably the first African novel written in English, Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation [citation needed].