Examines some of the varied African literary responses to politics and social justice and injustice under colonialism/neocolonialism.
In 1965, Chinua Achebe, in his classic essay "The Novelist as Teacher", declared that the "African past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the early Europeans acting on God's behalf, delivered them." That assertion included a still reverberating sentiment shared by many of the first generation of African writers that it is possible to reclaim that distorted past creatively in order to show and understand "where andwhen the rain started beating Africa". Many genres and forms of literary and cultural production have recalled and recorded and reconfigured that past - many projecting a new confident African future defined by self-determination. The spectrum of that complex engagement, which encompasses critical issues in politics and social justice, provides the basis of this volume, which concludes with tributes to the life and works of Kofi Awoonor.
Articles on: Binyavanga Wainaina + Ben Okri & Nationhood + J.M. Coetzee & the Philosophy of Justice + Isidore Okpewho & "Manhood" + Ngugi's Matigari & the Postcolonial Nation + Politics & Women in Irene Salami's MoreThan Dancing + Ayi Kwei Armah's The Resolutionaries
Ernest Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA; the editorial board is composed of scholars from US, UK and African universities
Nigeria: HEBN
| Dedication to James Gibbs |
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| Notes on Contributors |
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Fiction & Socio-Political Realities in Africa: What Else Can Literature Do? |
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1 | (6) |
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The Novel as an Oral Narrative Performance: The Delegitimization of the Postcolonial Nation in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Matigari Ma Njiruungi |
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7 | (13) |
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Abiku in Ben Okri's Imagination of Nationhood: A Metaphorical Interpretation of Colonial-Postcolonial Politics |
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20 | (13) |
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Refracting the Political: Binyavanga Wainaina's One Day I Will Write About This Place |
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33 | (14) |
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Ayi Kwei Armah's The Resolutionaries: Exoteric Fiction, the Common People & Social Change in Post-Colonial Africa -- A Critical Review |
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47 | (11) |
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In Quest of Social Justice: Politics & Women's Participation in Irene Isoken Salami's More Than Dancing |
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58 | (19) |
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Breaking the Laws in J. M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus Philosophy & the Notion of Justice |
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77 | (14) |
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The Rhetoric & Caricature of Social Justice in Post-1960 Africa: A Logical Positivist Reading of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Matigari |
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91 | (13) |
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'Manhood' in Isidore Okpewho's The Last Duty: Authenticity or Accountability? |
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104 | (16) |
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REMEMBERING KOFI AWOONOR (13 MARCH 1935--21 SEPTEMBER 2013) |
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120 | (54) |
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Kofi Awoonor: In Retrospect |
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121 | (4) |
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Kofi Awoonor: Poem for a Mentor & Friend |
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125 | (12) |
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Looking Death in the Eye: The Human Condition, Morbidity & Mortality in Kofi Awoonor's Poetry |
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137 | (14) |
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Eulogy for an Artist, a Statesman, a Teacher & Friend: Kofi Awoonor |
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151 | (7) |
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Postcolonial Trauma & the Poetics of Remembering the Novels of Kofi Awoonor |
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158 | (15) |
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173 | (1) |
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Chima Anyadike and Kehinde A. Ayoola, eds, Blazing the Path: Fifty Years of Things Fall Apart |
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174 | (4) |
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Nana Ayebia Clarke and James Currey eds, Chinua Achebe: Tributes & Reflections |
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178 | (2) |
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Francois Guiyoba et Pierre Halen, eds. L'Impact des missions cretonnes sur la constitution des champs litteraires locaux en Afrique |
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180 | (2) |
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Astrid Van Weyenberg. The Politics of Adaptation -- Contemporary African Drama and Creek Tragedy |
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182 | (3) |
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Taona D. Chiveneko, The Hangman's Replacement Book 1: Sprout of Disruption |
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185 | (3) |
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Fagunwa, Daniel O. Forest of a Thousand Daemons, translated by Wole Soyinka, illustrated by Bruce Onabrakpeya |
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188 | (2) |
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Caroline Davies. Creating Postcolonial Literature: African Writers & British Publishers |
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190 | (4) |
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Wumi Raji. Contemporary Literature of Africa: Tijan M. Sallah & Literary Works of The Gambia |
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194 | |
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ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012). H. Obiageli Okolocha is a Professor of African Literature, Theory and Gender Studies in the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, Nigeria. Laura Wright is a Reader in English Language at the University of Cambridge, where she works on the history of English.
