West African Fiction

Reflecting on the proceedings of the Conference of African Writers of English Expression, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o notes that participants dwelled on a number of controversial questions:

What is African Literature?... Was it literature about Africa or about the African Experience? Was it literature written by Africans? What about a non-African who wrote about Africa?: did his work qualify as African literature? What if an African set his work in Greenland: did that qualify as African literature? Or were African languages the criteria? OK: what about Arabic, was it not foreign to Africa? What about French and English, which had become African languages? What if a European wrote about Europe in an African language?(6)

Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. London: James Currey, 1991.

Chinweizu, Madubuike and Jemie grapple with two key issues in their controversial book Toward the Decolonization of African Literature, Vol. 1:

What is African Literature?-- that is, what works, and for what reasons, fall within the body of African literature? [...] What is the proper relationship between this body of works and other national or regional literatures in the world? (10)

The foregoing will provide staples for the class lecture and our class discussion of the following issues and controversies on the development of the novel in Africa:

Genre- Is there a distinct African novelistic tradition, or is the African novel a hybrid of African and western aesthetic traditions?
Content and Ideology - Must the African novel reflect a distinctly African experience and debunk western stereotypes of the African experience?
Language - Should the African writer use a non-African language? How should the African writer use a non-African language to communicate an African experience?
Relevance - Is the African novel relevant to western readers?

I will follow this lecture with a brief overview of the major trends in the development of the novel in West Africa.

January 21 - Major Genres of African Folklore and Feedthroughs into the African Novel

Spelling out the role of the African writer in society, Chinua Achebe urged writers to prove that "their societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity."

Bernth Lindfors argues in a later essay that to understand Achebe's novels (much as African novels in general), one needs to understand the tokens of traditional African verbal art that are woven into the structure and dialogue of those novels.

Read against the background of Achebe's famous statement that "proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten," there is a great need to discuss the major genres and their structural and performance features. For this class and the class on January 23, we will discuss the following genres and how they have been used in the African novel.

What is African folklore? - brief history and definition
The performer and the performance
The Oral Narrative - features, themes and social value
The Proverb - features, themes and social value
Songs - features, themes and social value
The African Novel and the Oral Tradition - how and why tokens of folklore are used in the African novel.

I will distribute copies of some of these genres discussed and I will request two people to lead Thursday's class discussions by preparing a presentation and generating debate on the features, themes and supposed social value of any one of those texts.

I will also ask for volunteers to make seminar presentations on Amos Tutuola.

Jan 23 - African Writers and African Folklore

Kerri Watford and Jamie Duff will lead the class in a discussion of two sets of African folktales. We will discuss the major formal features, stylistic elements and possible social value of those folktales.

We will then discuss the Achebe and Lindfors proposition raised in our last class that in order to understand Amos Tutuola's work and the works of later African writers, we must pay very close attention to the tokens of traditional African folklore woven into the texture of those works and also be very mindful of the depth, value and beauty of the African philosophy that those genres of African folklore communicate. After this discussion of the dialogue between African folklore and the African novel, I will introduce Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard.

I will distribute two sets of handouts - one covering the early reviews of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard, and the other, an overview of later criticism of his work. I will ask for volunteers to do seminar presentations on Tueday, January 28 on each of those two handouts.

Early Reviews - Paraphrase the key arguments/issues/objections raised in the early reviews of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard.
Later Reviews - Paraphrase the key arguments/issues/objections raised in the later reviews of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard.

Jan 28 - Amos Tutuola - The Palmwine Drinkard.

A Tribute to Amos Tutuola - Sola Adeyemi
Amos Tutuola: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas
Interesting Publication on the Controversial Issues of Orality and the Literary in Amos Tutuola's works - David Whittaker, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK.
Newspaper Report on a Theatrical Rendition of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard -- Okiemute Agbodo

Oyekan Owomoyela, in his book Amos Tutuola Revisited, has observed that "Amos Tutuola is undoubtedly one of the most controversial of African writers; indeed, many would assert that he is indisputably, and by far, the most controversial" (1). He further suggests that "in the exploration of "[Tutuola's texts], "controversy could lead to unusual and profound insights that in the end deepen understanding and broaden perspectives" (1). In light of the foregoing, the following individuals will lead seminars on critical reviews of the Amos Tutuola's works and The Palmwine Drinkard.

Early Reviews - Rikki Huff and Lisa Morris
Later Reviews - Suzanna Hutin, Tracie Hunt and Alexis Paschedag

After the seminar presentations, I will briefly discuss the following areas:

Eurocentric Criticism of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard.
Africanist Responses
Tutuola's presentation of a Unique African World View in The Palmwine Drinkard.
The Oral tradition in The Palmwine Drinkard
Humor in The Palmwine Drinkard
The Presentation of Women in The Palmwine Drinkard

Jan 30 - Amos Tutuola - The Palmwine Drinkard.

A Tribute to Amos Tutuola - Sola Adeyemi
Amos Tutuola: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas
Interesting Publication on the Controversial Issues of Orality and the Literary in Amos Tutuola's works - David Whittaker, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK.
Newspaper Report on a Theatrical Rendition of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard -- Okiemute Agbodo

We will discuss the text and I will lead class discussions on the following issues:

Eurocentric Criticism of Amos Tutuola's The Palmwine Drinkard.
Africanist Responses
Tutuola's presentation of a Unique African World View in The Palmwine Drinkard.
The Oral tradition in The Palmwine Drinkard
Humor in The Palmwine Drinkard
The Presentation of Women in The Palmwine Drinkard

Feb 4 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart.

Chinua Achebe currently teaches at Bard College in New York where he is the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Professor of Languages & Literature. This Nigerian-born novelist and poet's works include Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), Beware Soul Brother (1972), The Trouble with Nigeria (1984), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), Another Africa, with R. Lyons (1998), Africa Is People (1998), Home and Exile (2000). Awards and prizes include Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1974), Lotus Award for Afro-Asian Writers (1975), Campion Medal (1996). Fellow, Royal Society of Literature, London (1981); honorary foreign fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983). Honorary doctorates from more than 30 colleges and universities. McMillan-Stewart Lecturer, Harvard University (1998), Presidential Fellow Lecturer, World Bank (1998). Bard College (1990— ).

Achebe himself has often been cited in criticism of his works on a number of key issues.

1. Although he indicates in Home and Exile that he could have written Things Fall Apart even if he had not read Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which he has criticized elsewhere rather fiercely, his novel reads like a response to those two texts. Essentially, most critics of Things Fall Apart have seen the text as a response to the stereotypical representations of Africa in those two works by the perceived imperialist other.

2. On the language question, Achebe submits in Morning Yet on Creation Day that he sees an unique idiom emerging from Africa to speak about the African experience. He presented this same argument in his earlier "The Role of the Writer in a New Nation" in which he notes that African writers can "do the work of extending the frontiers of English so as to accommodate African thought-patterns... through their mastery of English." Achebe therefore thoughtfully weaves into his use of language all aspects of Ibo oral lore and tradition. In addition, Achebe uses basic stylistic elements of western novels - plot, point of view, characterization, setting, symbols - in order to communicate the novel's several themes.

3. In reading Things Fall Apart, readers should steer away from the view that Achebe creates a romanticized Ibo society in pristine purity that is destroyed by the advent of colonialism and Christianity. Achebe portrays the society in all its complexity.

4. Achebe derives the title of his novel from W.B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming." In the poem, Yeats presents a cyclical view of history - where a two-thousand year old European civilization is succumbing to a new inexplicable nameless but frightening force. But reflecting on the question raised in point #3 above, is Achebe's society a ceremony of innocence? Or must we rely on the gyre concept to explain the forces at play in the novel? After Yeats, is Achebe arguing that civilizations can collapse from within and may be replaced by their very antithesis?

5. Kerri Watford and Monica Mason will lead the class in highlighting and discussing a key thematic strand that lies at the heart of the novel itself.

With these in mind, we will follow up with discussions of the text - Chapters 1-9 -noting the various elements of language and style, theme, characterization and plot.

Feb 6 - Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart.

Chinua Achebe currently teaches at Bard College in New York where he is the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Professor of Languages & Literature. This Nigerian-born novelist and poet's works include Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), Beware Soul Brother (1972), The Trouble with Nigeria (1984), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), Another Africa, with R. Lyons (1998), Africa Is People (1998), Home and Exile (2000). Awards and prizes include Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1974), Lotus Award for Afro-Asian Writers (1975), Campion Medal (1996). Fellow, Royal Society of Literature, London (1981); honorary foreign fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983). Honorary doctorates from more than 30 colleges and universities. McMillan-Stewart Lecturer, Harvard University (1998), Presidential Fellow Lecturer, World Bank (1998). Bard College (1990— ).
Scroll to the bottom of the page for the latest update

Achebe himself has often been cited in criticism of his works on a number of key issues.

5. Kerri Watford and Monica Mason will lead the class in highlighting and discussing a key thematic strand that lies at the heart of the novel itself.

For Thursday, February 6, we will discuss Part 1, Chapters 1-13 of Things Fall Apart. I will raise discussion points and request input at random - even the unwilling, unfortunately... so be ready.

Feb 11- Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart.

Chinua Achebe currently teaches at Bard College in New York where he is the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Professor of Languages & Literature. This Nigerian-born novelist and poet's works include Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), Beware Soul Brother (1972), The Trouble with Nigeria (1984), Anthills of the Savannah (1987), Another Africa, with R. Lyons (1998), Africa Is People (1998), Home and Exile (2000). Awards and prizes include Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1974), Lotus Award for Afro-Asian Writers (1975), Campion Medal (1996). Fellow, Royal Society of Literature, London (1981); honorary foreign fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983). Honorary doctorates from more than 30 colleges and universities. McMillan-Stewart Lecturer, Harvard University (1998), Presidential Fellow Lecturer, World Bank (1998). Bard College (1990— ).

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the latest update

Achebe himself has often been cited in criticism of his works on a number of key issues.

5. Kerri Watford and Monica Mason will lead the class in highlighting and discussing a key thematic strand that lies at the heart of the novel itself.

For Tuesday, February 11, we will continue our discussion on Things Fall Apart. I will raise discussion points and request input at random - even the unwilling, unfortunately... so be ready.

Feb 13- Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart and an Introduction to the Fiction of Ayi Kwei Armah.

Check the assignment and grades sections for updates.

For biographical/bibliographical information about Ayi Kwei Armah, read your course handout on the authors and also click on Ayi Kwei Armah's image below.

Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born has been read as a stinging rebuke of post-independence African politics and society. Eustace Palmer refers to the text as a symbolic moral fable in which the central character, the man (who is almost an everyman), drifts from episode to episode of moral as well as physical effluvium. Eldred Jones concludes his review of Armah's novel in African Literature Today 3(1969) by asserting that "Armah has taken the predicament of Africa in general, and Ghana in particular, and distilled its despair and its hopelessness in a powerful, harsh, deliberately unbeautyful novel"(57).

I need two volunteers to read and paraphrase for us Frantz Fanon's "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" in his The Wretched of the Earth. The most important part of your task is to help us understand Fanon's view of the African bourgeoisie that emerged in most post-independence African states - (a view that heavily influenced Ayi Kwei Armah in writing The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born). The presentation is for Tuesday, February 18.

Feb 18- Ayi Kwei Armah - The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.

Kimberley Bowers and Jarah Bauman will start our seminar with a presentation on Frantz Fanon's "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" in his The Wretched of the Earth.
I will talk briefly about the nature of dystopian fiction and talk especially about how some postcolonial West African writers have adapted this form to comment on the collective experience and the postcolonial condition. I will refer briefly to Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah and then talk about Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.
Building our discussion on the handout (Ama Ata Aidoo's discussion of Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born), I will give a brief historical background to Ghana under Nkrumah's rule.
We will then discuss key elements of The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.
Lisa Morris will then lead us in a close textual analysis of the first Bus Scene of the text.

We will focus on Frantz Fanon's "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness" in his The Wretched of the Earth because it will help us understand Fanon's view of the African bourgeoisie that emerged in most post-independence African states - (a view that heavily influenced Ayi Kwei Armah in writing The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born).

Feb 20- Ayi Kwei Armah - The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.

We will continue our discussions.

Characters - In our introductory lecture, we established that the characters are symbolic types- The Man and his wife (representative of the ordinary citizenry wrestling with the allure of corruption and strenuously avoiding it), Joe and Estella Koomson (Dock worker-turned-politician - represents the ruling elite and the moral decadence/bankruptcy/degeneration, social affectation and criminal contempt for the ordinary citizenry associated with that class), The Teacher, Maanan and other minor characters
In discussing imagery, we will focus on how Armah explores central images of ordure, putrefaction and filth in stating his revulsion at the pervasive corruption he sees everywhere.
Other important aspects of the text we will focus on will be images of driving, sullied/dying/entrapped flowers.

Feb 25 - Ayi Kwei Armah - The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter.

We will continue our discussions.

Suzannah Hutin will begin our class discussion with close textual analysis of Koomson's escape. Koomson escapes by forcing his bloated paunch through the latrine hatch that he had disdained using. Note also that as Koomson and the man escape, they avoid the main road and use the path used by one of the lowliest men in society - the night soilsman. The holding house before the escape is a converted latrine. Koomson's escape is by boat and the gleam of the caprice is behind him. Pay close attention to the man's return to shore - is the swim a symbolic ritual cleansing after his collusion? Even after his long sleep, he wakes up only to find a lone, deranged woman who stoops to scoop sand, lets it run through her fingers and then mutters repeatedly, "They have mized it together! Everything! They have mixed everything. And how can I find it when they have mixed it all with so many things?" Taken within the matrix of the man's isolation, the teacher's wilful withdrawal from society, Maanan's madness and Kofi Billy's suicide, is there something significant about this episode? What is the deranged woman looking for? Who is "they?" What is "it?"
Jamie Duff will take us through the final scene of the novel. Does the final scene offer parenthetical closure to the text? The novel, you recall, begins at dusk on a rusty bus; the novel ends in the morning next to a brand new bus. The novel begins with the man on the bus; the novel ends with the man off the bus. In the first bus scene, the bribe is offered to an unfamiliar other; at the end of the novel,a non-verbal conspiratorial culture is clearly in practice. Again, the guilt associated with the act in the first scene is replaced by a sense of complacency, even indifference as the policeman gives the all clear and the passengers lean back to fall asleep. Remember the imagery of the road, vehicles and driving? The man remains standing as "the silent watcher by the roadside." Is there any significance to the green paint and floral inscription on the bus? Note also that after a while, the image of the flower is replaced by the lone but melodious tone of the chichidodo bird perched on the roof of the school latrine? In light of our discussion of the chichidodo image on Thursday, is there any significance to the this? Reflect on the rhetorical implication of the title/inscription on the bus - "The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born." Is this a message of hope, skepticism, or optimism? As throughout the novel, the novel ends with the man walking slowly, "going home." Any signficance?

Mariama Ba - So Long a Letter

As always, I will be handing out additional critical reading material on Mariama Ba. As promised, in addition to the photocopies of book chapters and documents I will be handing out in class, the following are articles in electronic format you may find interesting.

To read the article, you may click on the link. To download the article using a PC, point the cursor on the hypertext link, right-click on the mouse and select "save target as." For Mac, click on the link and select "download" If you have a dial-up connection, it will take you forever to download any of these pdf files. Please download or read these document when you are on campus. Normally, if you download the document on to a diskette, you may easily read the document on your home computer if you have Acrobat Reader installed on that computer.

The Female Condition in Africa: A Literary Exploration by Mariama Ba. Mbye Baboucar Cham

Mariama Ba's Une si Longue Lettre and Subverting a Mythology of Sex-based Oppression. Barbara Klaw

Women's Search for Voice and the Problem of Knowing in the Novels of Mariama Ba. Glenn Fetzer

Lessons in Solidarity: Buchi Emecheta and Mariama Ba on Female Victim(izer)s. Laura Dudek

Feb 27 - Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter.

We will give a background to the status of the contemporary African woman and provide an insight into the urbanized but still patriarchal Islamicized culture about which Mariama Ba writes in So Long a Letter.

We will discuss some of the main features of So Long a Letter and illustrate the complex social relationships depicted in the novel.

I will distribute additional reading material from Ngambika, (pronounced /nam-bi-ka/), a volume on the writing of African women. There are a number of books in the library on this and Research in African Literature and the other journals on African literature as well as databases in the library hold excellent reading material. If there is any title you cannot find in the library, please let me know and I will provide it for you from my personal library.

I will hand back Essay# 1 scripts and discuss some of the general areas of improvement. I do encourage people very strongly to ask me questions about my comments and markups on their essay scripts.

The Female Condition in Africa: A Literary Exploration by Mariama Ba. Mbye Baboucar Cham

Mariama Ba's Une si Longue Lettre and Subverting a Mythology of Sex-based Oppression. Barbara Klaw

Women's Search for Voice and the Problem of Knowing in the Novels of Mariama Ba. Glenn Fetzer

Lessons in Solidarity: Buchi Emecheta and Mariama Ba on Female Victim(izer)s. Laura Dudek

Mar. 4 - Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter.

Measurement Services will be in class to discuss career and professional development goals.
Cate Black and Katherine Harrison will start us off with a presentation on Carol Boyce-Davies' article on self-assertion and independence in African women's writing.
Cate Black will then follow with a discussion of the features of the epistolary as a narrative technique and indicate in the process how effective it is as used by Mariama Ba in So Long a Letter. Cate, you may want to take a look at an old but useful book in the library - The Epistolary Novel; Its Origin, Development, Decline, and Residuary Influence by Godfrey Singer, PN3448.E6 S5 1963 - and perhaps another brief skim through Epistolary Bodies: Gender and Genre in the Eighteenth-Century Republic of Letters by Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook, PR858.E65 C66 1996. You may also want to look at criticism on Alice Walker's use of the technique in The Color Purple.
Katherine Harrison will also discuss the nature of the complex social relationships among the various characters in the text. What are the various relationships? How are they defined? What defines each of those relationships?

As always, I will then lead the class discussion with a close analysis of the text.

Toward the end of the class, I will introduce OKot P'Bitek's The Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol and Flora Nwapa's Efuru - just in case someone may be having great ideas for the final research paper on the main thematic strands that run through So Long a Letter.

The following are articles in electronic format you may find interesting.

The Female Condition in Africa: A Literary Exploration by Mariama Ba. Mbye Baboucar Cham

Mariama Ba's Une si Longue Lettre and Subverting a Mythology of Sex-based Oppression. Barbara Klaw

Women's Search for Voice and the Problem of Knowing in the Novels of Mariama Ba. Glenn Fetzer

Lessons in Solidarity: Buchi Emecheta and Mariama Ba on Female Victim(izer)s. Laura Dudek

Mar. 6- Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter.

See the assignments section of the course web site for an update - examination # 2. The absolute deadline for this assignment is Tuesday, March 25 - no requests for extensions will be considered/granted.
Start thinking about a possible topic. Your topic should involve comparative study(ies) of at least three texts we have studied or one/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied. Topics are due March 25.
Cate Black will begin the session with a quick background to Senegal's cultural landscape (10 minutes).
Katherine Harrison will follow up with a discussion on the nature of the complex social relationships among the various characters in the text. What are the various relationships? How are they defined? What defines each of those relationships? (10 minutes)
I will discuss the history and features of the epistolary as a fictional narrative technique. I will stir discussions by raising questions about its effectiveness as used by Mariama Ba. Two useful books you may want to look at for this are The Epistolary Novel; Its Origin, Development, Decline, and Residuary Influence by Godfrey Singer, PN3448.E6 S5 1963 and Epistolary Bodies: Gender and Genre in the Eighteenth-Century Republic of Letters by Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook, PR858.E65 C66 1996.(20 minutes)
Kimberly Hanna takes on the core controversial issue in the text - if one argues that women are victimized, then is it reasonable to assume (as one would in traditional feminist studies) that men are the sole victimizers? In discussing the roles of Lady Mother-in-Law and SeyNabou, she will be arguing that women are perhaps the worst victimizers of women in the story.(10 minutes)
Monica Mason will balance out the discussion with an in-depth analysis of the presentation of the key male characters in the text - Mawdo Ba, Modou Fall and Samba Diack.(10 minutes)
Suzannah Hutin will focus our attention on the adversarial relationship between Ramatoulaye and her husband's extended family members. How does she perceive them? What are the sources and nature of conflict? (10 minutes)
Thanks to Cate Black and Katherine Harrison, we will then focus on some key thematic concerns in the text - definitions of self, motherhood (contestations of roles), vagaries of polygamous marriages and the fickleness of husbands, economic independence and support systems in traditional African cultures, mother-daughter and mother-son relationships (20 minutes)

OKot P'Bitek's The Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol and Flora Nwapa's Efuru are still available in case someone may be having great ideas for the final research paper on the main thematic strands that run through So Long a Letter.

The following are articles in electronic format you may find interesting.

The Female Condition in Africa: A Literary Exploration by Mariama Ba. Mbye Baboucar Cham

Mariama Ba's Une si Longue Lettre and Subverting a Mythology of Sex-based Oppression. Barbara Klaw

Women's Search for Voice and the Problem of Knowing in the Novels of Mariama Ba. Glenn Fetzer

Lessons in Solidarity: Buchi Emecheta and Mariama Ba on Female Victim(izer)s. Laura Dudek

Spring Break - March 10-14

See the assignments section of the course web site for an update - examination # 2. The absolute deadline for this assignment is Tuesday, March 25 - no requests for extensions will be considered/granted.
Start thinking about a possible topic. Your topic should involve comparative study(ies) of at least three texts we have studied or one/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.Topics are due March 25.

If you'd like to hear Chinua Achebe's views on the African writer's choice of language, here is a clip from a 1998 BBC Interview with Fiona Ledger.

If you do not have RealPlayer, download a free player from

Please read Ben Okri's The Famished Road over the Spring break. It can be quite challenging.

I will be adding articles in electronic format very soon.

March 18 & 20

Spring Break & Research Week

See the assignments section of the course web site for an update - examination # 2. The absolute deadline for this assignment is Tuesday, March 25 - no requests for extensions will be considered/granted.
Start thinking about a possible topic so that we can start talking about your final research paper by March 25. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:
- Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
- One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

If you'd like to hear Chinua Achebe's views on the African writer's choice of language, here is a clip from a 1998 BBC Interview with Fiona Ledger.

If you do not have RealPlayer, download a free player from

Please read Ben Okri's The Famished Road over the Spring break. It can be quite challenging. Click on Ben Okri's photograph for a link to his biography and a brief discussion of his works.

Scholarly Articles on Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Edna Aizenberg - The Famished Road: Magical Realism and the Search for Social Equity

Maggi Phillips - Madame Koto: Grotesque Creatrix or the Paradox of Psychic Health

Derek Wright - Interpreting the Interspace: Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Maggi Phillips - Ben Okri's Narratives: The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment

Olatubosun Ogunsawo - Intertextuality and Postcolonial Literature in Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Margaret Cezair-Thompson - Beyond the Postcolonial Novel: Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Its Abiku Traveller

John Hawley - Ben Okri's Spirit Child: Abiku Migration and Postmodernity

March 27 - The Famished Road

We will start our class discussions on The Famished Road with a number of short seminar presentations.
Alisa Aranda and Jessica Hernandez will define and discuss magical realism
Jamie Duff and Kimberley Hanna will describe the Abiku myth for us.
Kimberley Bowers will take a close look at the portrayal of Azaro, the novel's central character.
Tracie Hunt will talk about Madame Koto.

I will follow these presentations and discussions with an analysis of the text.

Do not forget your final research paper. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:
- Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
- One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

If you'd like to hear Chinua Achebe's views on the African writer's choice of language, here is a clip from a 1998 BBC Interview with Fiona Ledger.

If you do not have RealPlayer, download a free player from

Click on Ben Okri's photograph for a link to his biography and a brief discussion of his works.

Scholarly Articles on Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Edna Aizenberg - The Famished Road: Magical Realism and the Search for Social Equity

Maggi Phillips - Madame Koto: Grotesque Creatrix or the Paradox of Psychic Health

Derek Wright - Interpreting the Interspace: Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Maggi Phillips - Ben Okri's Narratives: The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment

Olatubosun Ogunsawo - Intertextuality and Postcolonial Literature in Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Margaret Cezair-Thompson - Beyond the Postcolonial Novel: Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Its Abiku Traveller

John Hawley - Ben Okri's Spirit Child: Abiku Migration and Postmodernity

April 1 - The Famished Road

Important - check your grades and please volunteer for one of the discussion and presentation topics. 1 person is missing a presentation; 6 people are missing both discussions; 13 people are missing discussion # 2. Remember that you can ideally work with people to do these presentations/discussions. I will offer additional topics on Tuesday.

We will continue our class discussions on The Famished Road. I will focus on the following areas:

Innovation and Experimentation in African Fiction - from the Novel of Realism (Achebe) to Magical Realism (Ben Okri).
The Mythic Road - Mythic transformation and Change.
Azaro, the Abiku myth and the Challenges of Discussing the Character
Madame Koto as Character and Metaphor- the Grotesque and the Sublime?
The Famished Road as Political Allegory

Do not forget your final research paper. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:

Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

Click on Ben Okri's photograph for a link to his biography and a brief discussion of his works.

Scholarly Articles on Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Edna Aizenberg - The Famished Road: Magical Realism and the Search for Social Equity

Maggi Phillips - Madame Koto: Grotesque Creatrix or the Paradox of Psychic Health

Derek Wright - Interpreting the Interspace: Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Maggi Phillips - Ben Okri's Narratives: The Famished Road and Songs of Enchantment

Olatubosun Ogunsawo - Intertextuality and Postcolonial Literature in Ben Okri's The Famished Road

Margaret Cezair-Thompson - Beyond the Postcolonial Novel: Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Its Abiku Traveller

John Hawley - Ben Okri's Spirit Child: Abiku Migration and Postmodernity

Additional Web Links to Interesting Articles on The Famished Road. These should make for interesting reading but they do not constitute what I would remotely consider peer-reviewed scholarly articles.

Mme. -dolph and the Question of (Postcolonial) Art - Cam

Realms of Liminality:The Mythic Topography of Amos Tutuola's Bush of Ghosts - David Whittaker.

April 3 - The Famished Road & Introduction to Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

We will continue our discussion on The Famished Road today. I will focus on the following areas:

Social Criticism in The Famished Road -- Madame Koto as Character and Metaphor- the Grotesque and the Acquisitive Class?
The Famished Road as Political Allegory
The Artist as Revolutionary
The Famished Road and the Oral Tradition - Debts and Aesthetic Innovation.

Do not forget your final research paper. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:

Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

Click on Amma Darko's photograph for a link to a very brief biography. Your class handout will provide a detailed account.

Scholarly Article on Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Maria Frias - Women On Top: Prostitution and Pornography in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Final Round of Class Presentations and Class Discussions

Tuesday, April 8

Presentation - Writing their Lives into their Texts: Amma Darko and Buchi Emecheta - Veronica
Discussion - Review and Discussion of Maria Frias' Article - Jarah, Alisa and Jessica
Discussion - Characterization: Mara -Katherine and Cate

Thursday, April 10

Discussion - Plot of Beyond the Horizon - Monica and Alexis
Discussion - Narrative Point of View - Kimberly and Kimberly
Discussion - Minor Characters in Beyond the Horizon - Kerri, Rikki and Tracie
Discussion - Theorize - Patterns of migration of the African into the Diaspora - Lisa, Veronica and Rikki

Tuesday, April 15

Discussion - Plot, themes, characterization in The Joys of Motherhood - Jarah, Alisa, Jessica, Alexis

People with general topics on Buchi Emecheta and some other postcolonial African women writers may want to look at the Emory University Web link on Postcolonial Writers and Writing

April 8 - Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Tuesday, April 8

Presentation - Writing their Lives into their Texts: Amma Darko and Buchi Emecheta - Veronica
Discussion - Review and Discussion of Maria Frias' Article - Jarah, Alisa and Jessica
Discussion - Characterization: Mara -Katherine and Cate

Do not forget your final research paper. See the assignments section for updates. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:

Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

Click on Amma Darko's photograph for a link to a very brief biography. Your class handout will provide a detailed account.

Scholarly Article on Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Maria Frias - Women On Top: Prostitution and Pornography in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Final Round of Class Presentations and Class Discussions

Thursday, April 10

Discussion - Plot of Beyond the Horizon - Monica and Alexis
Discussion - Narrative Point of View - Kimberly and Kimberly
Discussion - Minor Characters in Beyond the Horizon - Kerri, Rikki and Tracie
Discussion - Theorize - Patterns of migration of the African into the Diaspora - Lisa, Veronica and Rikki

Tuesday, April 15

Discussion - Plot, themes, characterization in The Joys of Motherhood - Jarah, Alisa, Jessica, Alexis

People with general topics on Buchi Emecheta and some other postcolonial African women writers may want to look at the Emory University Web link on Postcolonial Writers and Writing

April 10 - Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Thursday, April 10

Discussion - Plot of Beyond the Horizon - Monica and Alexis
Discussion - Narrative Point of View - Kimberley and Kimberly
Discussion - Minor Characters in Beyond the Horizon - Kerri, Rikki and Tracie
Discussion - Theorize - Patterns of migration of the African into the Diaspora - Lisa, Veronica and Rikki

The extra credit assignment is online. You do not have to do this assignment.
Guidelines for writing the annotated bibliography are also online.
Do not forget your final research paper. See the assignments section for updates. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:

Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

Click on Amma Darko's photograph for a link to a very brief biography. Your class handout will provide a detailed account.

Scholarly Article on Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Maria Frias - Women On Top: Prostitution and Pornography in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Final Round of Class Presentations and Class Discussions

Tuesday, April 15

Discussion - Plot, themes, characterization in The Joys of Motherhood - Jarah, Alisa, Jessica, Alexis

People with general topics on Buchi Emecheta and some other postcolonial African women writers may want to look at the Emory University Web link on Postcolonial Writers and Writing

April 15 - Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

For people writing on Beyond the Horizon as one of the texts for their research paper, Louise Allen Zak, has generously provided the E-mail address of the author, Amma Darko, <mmafoko@yahoo.com>, who lives in Ghana. Louise Zak , who is the only authoritative critical coice on Amma Darko's texts and whose Ph.D research involved extensive interviews and interactions with Amma Darko, has offered to communicate with members of my class who may have questions. Are we not lucky?

Tuesday, April 15

Discussion - Plot, themes, characterization in The Joys of Motherhood - Jarah, Alisa, Jessica, Alexis
Discussion - Theorize - Patterns of migration of the African into the Diaspora - Lisa, Veronica and Rikki
Discussion - compare Amma Darko and Mariama Ba -- in re their techniques, content and agenda - Veronica

The extra credit assignment is online. You do not have to do this assignment.
Guidelines for writing the annotated bibliography are also online.
Do not forget your final research paper. See the assignments section for updates. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:

Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

Click on Amma Darko's photograph for a link to a very brief biography. Your class handout will provide a detailed account.

Scholarly Article on Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Maria Frias - Women On Top: Prostitution and Pornography in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Final Round of Class Presentations and Class Discussions

People with general topics on Buchi Emecheta and some other postcolonial African women writers may want to look at the Emory University Web link on Postcolonial Writers and Writing

April 17 - Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Thursday, April 17

Discussion - compare Amma Darko and Mariama Ba -- in re their techniques, content and agenda - Veronica
Submit research proposals followed by either one-on-one discussions or peer discussions of the thrusts of one another's research proposal in order to see whether /how people can collaborate or share resources/ideas.
Discuss annotated bibliography assignment.

For people writing on Beyond the Horizon as one of the texts for their research paper, Louise Allen Zak, has generously provided the E-mail address of the author, Amma Darko, <mmafoko@yahoo.com>, who lives in Ghana. Louise Zak, who is the only authoritative critical voice on Amma Darko's texts and whose Ph.D research involved extensive interviews and interactions with Amma Darko, has offered to communicate with members of my class who may have questions. Are we not lucky?

The extra credit assignment is online. You do not have to do this assignment.
Guidelines for writing the annotated bibliography are also online.
Do not forget your final research paper. See the assignments section for updates. The challenge is that your final research paper must be publishable in a scholarly journal on African or comparative literature. Your options:

Comparative study of at least three texts we have studied/are studying
One/two text(s) we have studied and another work of African or African-American fiction/poetry/drama that we have not studied.

Click on Amma Darko's photograph for a link to a very brief biography. Your class handout will provide a detailed account.

Scholarly Article on Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Maria Frias - Women On Top: Prostitution and Pornography in Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

April 22 - Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Tuesday, April 22

Introduce the guidelines for the oral presentation.
Introduce the guidelines for the final research paper.(Both links are word documents. Let me know if you have problems openin or downloading any of them from the campus computers.)
Discussion - research proposals (revisions, suggestions and questions)
Either one-on-one discussions or peer discussions of the thrusts of one another's research proposal in order to see whether /how people can collaborate or share resources/ideas.
General questions.

For people writing on Beyond the Horizon as one of the texts for their research paper, Louise Allen Zak, has generously provided the E-mail address of the author, Amma Darko, <mmafoko@yahoo.com>, who lives in Ghana. Louise Zak, who is the only authoritative critical voice on Amma Darko's texts and whose Ph.D research involved extensive interviews and interactions with Amma Darko, has offered to communicate with members of my class who may have questions. Are we not lucky?

From my recent participation at the Annual African Literature Association convention in Alexandria, Egypt, click on the links below to see some pictures of some critics/writers of African literature and yours truly.

With Dennis Brutus - South African poet, anti-apartheid campaigner, literary critic and activist. You may read a short biography.

With Carol Boyce-Davies - Women's studies, African, African-American and Caribbean literaure. She is Director, African New World Studies and Professor of English and African-New World, Florida International University.

With Eustace Palmer - A wonderful teacher, critic and mentor; obviously one of the best critics on the African novel.

With Kenyan poet and Playwright, Micere Githare Mugo - Outstanding in her original and creative works, teaches at Syracuse University.

With Leila Ahmed - she has written extensively on women and gender in Islam. She is a.professor at Harvard University.

I will post more sights and sounds from Egypt soon.

April 24 - Amma Darko's Beyond the Horizon

Tuesday, April 24

Discuss research paper proposals, the annotated bibliography, the oral presentation and the final paper.
If necessary, review the guidelines for the oral presentation and the guidelines for the final research paper.(Both links are word documents. Let me know if you have problems opening or downloading any of them from the campus computers.)
Peer discussions of developments in one another's research paper including exchaning views and sharing resources.
General questions.

For people writing on Beyond the Horizon as one of the texts for their research paper, Louise Allen Zak, has generously provided the E-mail address of the author, Amma Darko, <mmafoko@yahoo.com>, who lives in Ghana. Louise Zak, who is the only authoritative critical voice on Amma Darko's texts and whose Ph.D research involved extensive interviews and interactions with Amma Darko, has offered to communicate with members of my class who may have questions. Are we not lucky?

With Dennis Brutus - South African poet, anti-apartheid campaigner, literary critic and activist. You may read a short biography.

With Carol Boyce-Davies - Women's studies, African, African-American and Caribbean literature. She is Director, African New World Studies and Professor of English and African-New World, Florida International University.

With Eustace Palmer - A wonderful teacher, critic and mentor; obviously one of the best critics on the African novel.

With Kenyan poet and Playwright, Micere Githare Mugo - Outstanding in her original and creative works, teaches at Syracuse University.

With Leila Ahmed - she has written extensively on women and gender in Islam. She is a.professor at Harvard University.

I will post more sights and sounds from Egypt soon.

Copies of Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born are not available at the bookstore. You may purchase a used copy from this Online Store.