Monday, March 31, 2014

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Quote of the Day


“Most true happiness comes from one's inner life, from the disposition of the mind and soul. Admittedly, a good inner life is hard to achieve, especially in these trying times. It takes reflection and contemplation and self-discipline.”


William L. Shirer (1904-1993)


Love & Best Wishes, always; positively:


http://optimaledge.net/#/the-secret/4574222007


http://optimaledge101.blogspot.com.au/


www.optimaledge.net


www.strategicbookpublishing.com/OptimalEdge.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cut-Your-Own-Firewood-Ultimate/dp/1419654233/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332231731&sr=1-1

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How Achebe Ruined African Literature

Let us move one post of the goalposts fyrtger. I have read most Africans who wrote in English but Ayi Kwe Armah I hope I get the spelling of his name right as I read his The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born almost 40 years ago.  It was the pun on the spelling of beautiful substituting a "y" for an "I" that did it for me!

He wrote another biok but ub 40 years I have only finished the first chapter but I swear on my grandmother's grave I must read it all before I die!

Cheers.

IBK

On 1 Apr 2014 02:17, "Akurang-Parry, Kwabena" <KAParr@ship.edu> wrote:

Then again, who is an expert? Those who offer opinions? Well my favorite writers are Laye and Ngugi! My reason is very simple indeed. As a boy coming into my own, I enjoyed African Child and Weep Not Child. Now you realize that I shifted the goalposts from Achebe and Soyinka to Laye and Ngugi!

 

Kwabena 


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Funmi Tofowomo Okelola [cafeafricana1@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 10:50 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How Achebe Ruined African Literature

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I detest the so-called experts not versed in African Literature and are shunning out ideas on the issue.  African lit encompasses Oral literature, writers from all over the CONTINENT, etc. 

African Literature is not ONLY about Teju Cole, Taiye Selasi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Chimamanda Adichie, etc, African literature includes Helen Oyeyemi, Aminatta Forna, Dinah Mengestu, Alain Mabackou, Assia Djebar, Mariama Ba, Oyono, Ngugi Wa Thiong''o, and more from all over the CONTINENT. 

We should avoid living in a bowl. 



Funmi Tofowomo Okelola

-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives. 

http://www.cafeafricana.com

http://www.indigokafe.com




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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - "How Achebe ruined African literature"

Toyin,

My point is that scholarly industry can only grow if you have a concomitant economic growth.  Your economic growth is a function of your political economy. With the level of capital flight and brain drain from Africa and the rapacious rape of Africa's natural resources with the connivance of local despots and a mentally and morally bankrupt elite we can only build an industry of hopeless economic refugees who are ready to die to gain entry into Europe!

Cheers.

IBK

On 31 Mar 2014 22:56, "Oluwatoyin Adepoju" <toyinifa@gmail.com> wrote:
"If one African country can rise to the level of mental independence and refuse to seek validity from these western critics and armchair idiots, this silly half a dime a week hack will not dare exhibit this temerity that has aggravated us here."
 Ibukunolu A Babajide

To active this, you need your own scholarly industry.

African primary creativity exists.

We need at the very least, an equal level secondary creativity in African scholarship.

thanks

toyin 


On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 12:49 PM, Ibukunolu A Babajide <ibk2005@gmail.com> wrote:
Ken and Ikhide,
 
I remember giving a talk at a German University in Oldenbug many years ago.  It was a motley of groups ranging from asylum seekers and their German wives, po-democracy activists (I was invited from London on that platform), and some doo-gooders and academics.  It was at the height of June 12.
 
A middle aged German woman was unintentionally condescending and asked how I could be so brilliant while most Nigerians she knew especially those married to German women were not so bright.  I quietly told her that I was not bright but less than average, and that there were very many brighter than I am back home in Nigeria.  She then replied, "But if you are so bright at home why is your country so bad?"
 
These condescending oft repeated nonsense about "African Literature" is an aspect of a wider post-slavery and post-colonial psyche and mindset in the minds of Caucasians and their west, who see the Black as conquered and stupid, and the brainwashed Blacks who are trapped in the political economy of the west and sell us short down the river!  If one African country can rise to the level of mental independence and refuse to seek validity from these western critics and armchair idiots, this silly half a dime a week hack will not dare exhibit this temerity that has aggravated us here.
 
Look at the capital flight to the west, look at the brain drain to the west and look at the disaster that African states are as we share these exchanges.  It is not their fault, as my elders would say, if the wall refuses to yawn permanently and crack, the lizard will not lay eggs within its cracks!
 
That is our problem, and we must start the hard work of changing minds and stop the craze for validation by those who are mentally inferior to us.
 
Cheers.
 
IBK  



_________________________
Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)


On 31 March 2014 14:22, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Ken,

Many thanks for yours, I have a few additional thoughts, some directly related to your responses, some culled from what I've said elsewhere that you and/or someone else might find interesting:

1. Sadly, the world of literature, certainly its politics hardly reflects your own reasoned world view. The prejudices are deep and ingrained. That is why we are having this conversation. The gatekeepers of literature have assigned us to the dung heap of "world literature" at best and turned the term "African literature" into a pejorative that should be avoided like the plague and used only when it is time to wheedle for grants and conferences. By the way, I did not read Teju Cole as asking to be assigned a place in "world literature." I thought he was avoiding all that.

2. I was responding to my close reading of Helen Rittelmeyer's piece. It was riddled with sweeping generalizations and untruths, dangerous because they were told with such confident finality. Here are a couple:

"The state of the Anglophone African novel is not entirely the fault of Chinua Achebe and his multiculturalist enablers. Some of the blame must lie with those conscientious Western critics and readers who should have paid more attention when African writers tried to move beyond the limits Achebe set."
 
"But there is no getting around the sad truth that Achebe was an artist with a narrow gift and a political agenda, that he imposed these limitations on African literature, and that the Western Left used their cultural influence to enforce these limits."

She blames Chinua Achebe for what she imagines is the sorry state of contemporary African literature; yet it is clear she has not read a whole lot of African literature, not to talk of contemporary writers.

3. Someone rifles through her drawers, finds an 80's manuscript of an essay, dusts it up a bit and proudly showcases it as the truth. I am getting tired of constantly reacting to these things but you know, life is about reacting to stuff most times, it is what it is. Chielozona Eze, if you want to know is a pioneer leader in work in the digital space. Amatoritsero Ede is another world renowned leader, go to his journal MTLS. Afam Afam Akeh has done ground breaking work also in this area, google him. It is frustrating that some third rate Western hack has said something that ordinarily will not light a candle to our work, because you know what, the world will believe her first before any of us. It is what it is.

4. Elsewhere, someone complained that African writers are always complaining and reacting to these kinds of aggravations, rather than being proactive. Well, here is the thing; In addition to books, awesome literature that is bring produced on the Internet daily, stuff that makes Ms. Rittelmeyer look very old. That's what I am talking about. And yes, many of us have spent a lifetime talking about these things, that is being proactive. We will not sit around and grin when someone insults our heritage, we  will react robustly. Each time.  Again, it is not correct that African academics have merely been reacting to narratives from the West rather than being proactive. It is a cliche I imagine; if the West doesn't write it, was it written? You would have to immerse yourself in the works of Abiola Irele, Harry Garuba, Chielozona Eze, Pius Adesanmi, etc., etc., to come to such a damning conclusion that we are reactionary. Many of us were writing reams proactively before this lady came along. Is she more of an authority because she is from the West? 

5. Our people say that if you don't speak up when it is your turn, a child will use the microwave oven before you, yes. Out of sheer necessity, writers of African descent have been innovators in the use of leading edge technology tools, the Internet and social media in propagating stories. Many of these writers are on this listserv. Teju Cole has made a name for himself with his many experiments using Twitter. You don't hear any of that, we keep hearing about ancient spats between ancient greats. What else do these people want African writers to do?

5. Finally, it bears repeating Ken, this is the 21st century, the vast majority of good African literature is not in analog books. People should wean themselves of the world of Achebe and Soyinka and read what is out there, in addition to books. Until then, folks are merely engaging in stale academic exercises.

6. Rant over. Good morning!
 
- Ikhide
 
Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide


On Sunday, March 30, 2014 12:17 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
hi ikhide
i share your enthusiasm for on-line publications.
as for adichie, she has made an enormous splash, esp w americanah.
she is very good indeed. i don't really get into the game of who is better than whom. it's a question of taste, in the end. i listed oyeyemi and forna, and then cole, because i loved their works. i liked everything adichie has written since Purple Hibiscus, which seems to me as a text that addresses late adolescents, or young people (like college students); the novel's dark vision under the abusive father is harder for me to connect with.

thanks for the interview w cole. i don't really care a lot what people call themselves (except on a personal level). what makes an african writer "african" is something i've been grappling with for a while. frieda ekotto and i had a conference on that topic 4 years ago, and a book will appear shortly with indiana u press.
my interest in the issue is not tied to "identity," not the identity of the authors, but rather the field of african literature and culture. i am interested in asking the question, how do we think about african literature/culture, how do we imagine its practitioners are shaping the field today, what are the cultural milieux in which they live, what traditions or contexts are shaping their work, and also--to your point--how is the mediation shaping the field. that includes how they are marketed, where their works can be sold and read. etc.  how are the works received, in other words.

all of that is part of the question, what is african literature today.
the answers get complicated. just look at moretti and the idea of distance in the readers' relation to the text, and we can see that notions of insider and outsider are no longer what they once were.
i can understand how cole would see himself as part of "World Literature." but that is a very vexed category, along with World CInema, and i hope to disrupt that categories in my  work for the next few years, disrupt them by trying to figure out how their exclusions work with (against) african literature and cinema.
best
ken

On 3/30/14 6:55 AM, Ikhide wrote:
Ken,

Teju Cole demurs when referred to as an "African writer", preferring the label, "internationalist" a la Salman Rushdie, whatever that means. I agree with him and respect his choice of identity. Not sure the West cares, they are bent on making him and writers of African descent, the other. Because even though they protest too much, many of these writers have spent a lifetime making money and fame from hawking themselves as "the other." Here is a NYT interview of Teju Cole on the re-release of his debut book Every Day is for the Thief  in which he clarifies his identity -  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/books/teju-coles-every-day-is-for-the-thief-comes-to-the-us.html

I will only add that "African literature" in the 21st century to the extent that it is only judged through analog books by "critics" schooled in the 20th century Achebean era will always distort our history and stories. The vast proportion of our stories is being written on the Internet by young folks who do not have the resources that the West availed Achebe et al in the 60's. Why are we judging African literature only through books? Why?

There may be some truth to the notion that many African writers who write fiction are yet to wean themselves of Achebe's influence. The critics who make these charges should look in the mirror - and then get off their lazy butts and go read new African writers. They are out there on the Internet, and in literary magazines doing us proud. And how you can do a literary critique of contemporary African writing without once mentioning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie beats me. 



- Ikhide

On Mar 29, 2014, at 10:21 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

i can't help adding that i just taught teju cole's Open City for the second time, meaning i've read it 4 times now, and i can state with complete assurance that it is one brilliant book. very very smart, beautifully, incredibly beautifully written, smart, different, ... but "african literature"? i don't know about that, when it is so much set in new york, in milieux that have very little to do with africa or africans.
ken

On 3/29/14 6:24 PM, kenneth harrow wrote:
nice answer!
i chose oyeyemi
and in close second, forna

On 3/29/14 1:44 PM, Emma Onyeozili wrote:
Between Achebe and Soyinka, I will choose Chimamanda; case closed, abi?

Emma Onyeozili

 Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:

Truth is that the Achebe and Soyinka schools would continue to sponsor this type of discussion, hoping that the unnecessary question of who is better between Achebe and Soyinka would be resolved some day, positioning the winning school as the gate keeper of African Literature.

Truth again is that the question can never be resolved either way.

CAO.

On Saturday, 29 March 2014 03:08:54 UTC+1, Kenneth Harrow wrote:
i might hazard two comments, without joining in the fruitless debate,
who's better. one, better by whose standards?
more importantly, better known= better writer? historically that's
nonsense; anyone who studied british 19th c lit could tell you that. i
once knew the name of the most famous irish writer of the 19th c, but
lost since forgot it...as has everyone else.
but worse, better= more $. ??
wow, that's really interesting. almost every famous writer you can think
of, nowadays, would fail by that standard. not to mention painters,
musicians, etc. bach was largely forgotten in the 19th c till mendelsohn
resurrected him; ditto for shakespeare in 19th c, till folks like goethe
came along. melville wasn't even noticed when he died, el greco, etc.
for a long time djibril diop was in eclipse; even senghor had faded in
his last years, or should i say last decades.
so what's really at stake in this achebe vs soyinka argument? at the
time of chinweizu i knew the answer. nowadays it must be something
different from those old tired arguments, esp when it is an outsider
posing it.
ken


On 3/28/14 9:05 PM, Ikhide wrote:
> "Such pointed dissents from multiculturalist orthodoxy may explain the strange fact that although Soyinka is, by most accounts, a better and more interesting writer than Achebe, he is not nearly so well known. His marvelous plays are rarely assigned in Western classrooms. In commercial terms, Soyinka has never been a huge success, whereas sales of Achebe's books accounted for as much as a third of the revenue coming in from the African Writers Series even in the 1980s, decades after they had first been published. When Soyinka won the Nobel Prize in 1986, he was cornered at a reception by one particularly effusive admirer who proceeded to praise his work in the most gushing terms. When Soyinka asked, "What have you read by me?" the admirer answered, "Things Fall

>   Apart." -
>
> - Helen Rittelmeyer
>
> "... Soyinka is, by most accounts, a better and more interesting writer than Achebe" ???!! Okay, I hear! What do I think? Awful essay blighted by Rittelmeyer's ideological bias. Simplistic, patronizing and dated. She needs to read more contemporary writing by Africans.
>
> http://www.claremontinstitute. org/index.php?act=crbArticle& id=114#sthash.sr9bATJ5. 5p7MYiZP.dpuf
>
> - Ikhide
>

--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839517 803 8839
har...@msu.edu

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How Achebe Ruined African Literature

Mr. Kwabena:

Personally, an expert on African Lit must have the knowledge to discuss Coetzee, N'diaye, Marechera, Waberi, Aidoo, Farrah, Mahfouz, Owuor, Gordimer, Armah, Nkosi, Sembene, Aboulela, Forna, Oyeyemi, Mengiste, etcetera, etcetera.

It is very disheartening to listen to Bolekaja critics (come down and fight) that are babbling about African Lit all over the Internet. 


Funmi Tofowomo Okelola

-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives. 

http://www.cafeafricana.com

http://www.indigokafe.com




Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How Achebe Ruined African Literature

hi kwabena
first, although we call read literature and have our favorites, we are not all experts in literature, or any other area, unless we can claim to have established some credentials to the claim. i know a good deal about african history or politics, but i really know enough to know i am not an expert.
i am an expert in african literature, but that doesn't mean that my preference for one author implies anything about the superiority of that or any other author. it is one thing to know a text very very well, to write about it and publish about it; but that doesn't mean your favorites are "better" than those of another, and to tell the truth, it would astound me to have anyone who is an expert in african literature make such a claim.
on the other hand, i would strenuously argue that we can make such claims about the criticism itself. aside from preferences for this or that critical approach, we have to come to some agreement that this critical essay or book is stronger than that; that there are critical voices who have shaped the field, are major figures, have determined how much of the critical or theoretical approaches have been recognized in the field as important.
those critical voices don't usually maintain that position, though some might last a long time. invariably new critical voices come up.
so when you cite  your favorite authors, laye and ngugi, my first thought was, well yes, in the 1970s and part of the 80s, we ALL had to teach them. they were required in all our courses. then we began to see changes, began to have radically different voices. one was sony labou tansi, a genius stolen from us by AIDS. we had the incredible early works of soyinka morphing radically, ultimately taking the form of something like Ake that was radically different from the kind of drama he had previously raised to such heights.
it makes good sense to me to look at the body of african literature in generations. there was a time when we all taught the same dozen books, and to our shock, 15 years later, they were going out of print... including camara laye's Dark Child, and Kourouma's SUns of Independence. what a shock it was.
the same for the critical voices: they too are generational. so, after the mid-80s you couldn't speak with authority about african literature unless you included mudimbe. in the 2000s, the same was true for mbembe.
and now? for myself, it is gikandi who, along with mbembe, i setting the stage for what matters most.
not everyone would agree with that, but in a few more years there will be no question. when the preponderance of dissertations or new critical books come out, let's see whose work they comment upon. there is no secret here.
lastly, the pleasure of this list is that we are all free to speak out, expert or not, on any matter. sometimes we might regret what we had said when we learn more: i certainly got my comeupance with respect to abani!!
but in the end, i was grateful to have learned about how the community of scholars and thinkers regarded him, and why, and it was really impressive.
ken

On 3/31/14 6:37 PM, Akurang-Parry, Kwabena wrote:

Then again, who is an expert? Those who offer opinions? Well my favorite writers are Laye and Ngugi! My reason is very simple indeed. As a boy coming into my own, I enjoyed African Child and Weep Not Child. Now you realize that I shifted the goalposts from Achebe and Soyinka to Laye and Ngugi!

 

Kwabena 


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Funmi Tofowomo Okelola [cafeafricana1@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 10:50 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: How Achebe Ruined African Literature

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I detest the so-called experts not versed in African Literature and are shunning out ideas on the issue.  African lit encompasses Oral literature, writers from all over the CONTINENT, etc. 

African Literature is not ONLY about Teju Cole, Taiye Selasi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Chimamanda Adichie, etc, African literature includes Helen Oyeyemi, Aminatta Forna, Dinah Mengestu, Alain Mabackou, Assia Djebar, Mariama Ba, Oyono, Ngugi Wa Thiong''o, and more from all over the CONTINENT. 

We should avoid living in a bowl. 



Funmi Tofowomo Okelola

-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives. 

http://www.cafeafricana.com

http://www.indigokafe.com




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--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Transit: A Novel (Global African Voices): by Abdourahman A. Waberi (Author), David Ball (Translator), Nicole Ball (Translator)

http://www.amazon.com/Transit-Novel-Global-African-Voices/dp/0253006899/ref=la_B001JRZ3AK_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396317398&sr=1-1

Transit: A Novel (Global African Voices): by Abdourahman A. Waberi  (Author), David Ball (Translator), Nicole Ball (Translator)


Waiting at the Paris airport, two immigrants from Djibouti reveal parallel stories of war, child soldiers, arms trafficking, drugs, and hunger. Bashir is recently discharged from the army and wounded, finding himself inside the French Embassy. Harbi, whose wife, Alice, has been killed by the police, is there too—arrested earlier as a political suspect. An embassy official mistakes Bashir for Harbi's son, and as Harbi does not deny it, both will be exiled to France, Alice's home country. This brilliantly shrewd and cynical universal chronicle of war and exile, translated into English for the first time, amounts to a lyrical and reflective history of Djibouti and its tortuous politics, crippled economy, and devastated moral landscape.


Editorial Reviews

Review

"... the rebellious Abdourahman Waberi." —J. M. G. Le Clézio, Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature

(J. M. G. Le Clézio, Winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature)

"Steeped in borth historical lore and the socio-political realities of the small ex-French colony of Djibouti before and during its 1990s civil war, Waberi's new collection tells the alternatively inspiring and somewhat laborious tale of Bashir 'Binladen'." —Publishers Weekly

(Publishers Weekly)

"These five voices offer distinct views of Djibouti, at times similar, at other times seemingly irreconcilable, and are by turns lyrical, nostalgic, idealizing, satirizing, and blisteringly critical of the country's history, politics, culture, and traditions." —Tess Lewis, Hudson Review

(Tess Lewis Hudson Review)

"[S]een as a whole, this is a very important book with an unusual structural approach that is well suited to bring out the complexity of the subject matter. It should be of interest to anybody interested in the political realities of African’s many border and power conflicts, and the Horn of Africa region and Djibouti in particular. The translators’ Introduction is essential and very valuable to assist the reader’s understanding." —Africa Book Club

(Africa Book Club)

"Transit is an impressive text, and a very good introduction to Djibouti." —Complete Review

(Complete Review)

"In this thought-provoking and often enigmatic novel, Abdourahman Waberi reflects on the series of horrors—political, economic, religious, and environmental—which have dominated his country in recent years..." —Mary Whipple Reviews

(Mary Whipple Reviews)

"Transit is an essential volume for readers and researchers of post-colonial literature and history." —ForeWord Reviews

(ForeWord Reviews)

About the Author

Abdourahman A. Waberi is a novelist, essayist, poet, teacher, and short-story writer. Born in Djibouti, he now lives and writes in France. He is author of The Land without Shadows, In the United States of Africa, and Passage des larmes. Winner of the Stefan-Georg-Preis, the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire, and the Prix biennal "Mandat pour la liberté," he was chosen one of the "50 Writers of the Future" by the French literary magazine Lire.

David Ball and Nicole Ball have previously translated Waberi’s novel In the United States of Africa.


Funmi Tofowomo Okelola

-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives. 

http://www.cafeafricana.com

http://www.indigokafe.com




USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade: Assia Djebar (Author), Dorothy S. Blair (Translator)

http://www.amazon.com/Fantasia-Algerian-Cavalcade-Assia-Djebar/dp/0435086219/ref=la_B000APS5Z2_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396316546&sr=1-1

Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade: Assia Djebar (Author), Dorothy S. Blair (Translator)



In this stunning novel, Assia Djebar intertwines the history of her native Algeria with episodes from the life of a young girl in a story stretching from the French conquest in 1830 to the War of Liberation of the 1950s. The girl, growing up in the old Roman coastal town of Cherchel, sees her life in contrast to that of a neighboring French family, and yearns for more than law and tradition allow her to experience. Headstrong and passionate, she escapes from the cloistered life of her family to join her brother in the maquis' fight against French domination.

Djebar's exceptional descriptive powers bring to life the experiences of girls and women caught up in the dual struggle for independence - both their own and Algeria's.


Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author



Assia Djebar is considered as a major woman writer in Maghreb. By the time she was thirty, she had written four novels in French. In 1962, she abandoned fiction writing in French and devoted herself the teaching history at the University of Algiers. During the ensuing twelve years, she tried to tackle the problem of the transition from writing in French to writing in Arabic. She found a partial solution to this problem in the cinema with her film La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, which was awarded the Critic's Prize at the Venice Biennal 1979. In 1980 Assia published a volume of short stories dealing with the lives of contemporary urban Algerian women: Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartemen. Assia Djebar's work has been known to the English reader primarily through the translation of her first novel La Soif (1957) under the title of The Mischief. L'amour, la fantasia, translated as Fantasia: an Algerian Cavalcade was published in 1985.

Funmi Tofowomo Okelola

-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives. 

http://www.cafeafricana.com

http://www.indigokafe.com




USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Fortunes of Wangrin: Amadou Hampaté Bâ (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fortunes-Wangrin-Amadou-Hampaté/dp/025321226X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364779268&sr=8-1&keywords=the+fortunes+of+wangrins


The Fortunes of Wangrin

Amadou Hampaté Bâ [note special accents on the "e" in Hampate and "a" Ba not correctly reproduced here—see ms.]

Translated by Aina Pavolini Taylor with an Introduction by F. Abiola Irele


Winner of the Grand Prix Litteraire de l’Afrique Noire

"I think this is perhaps the best African novel on colonialism and it draws very richly on various modes of oral literature." —Ralph Austen, University of Chicago

"It is a wonderful introduction to colonial rule as experienced by Africans, and in particular, to the rule of African middlemen." —Martin A. Klein, University of Toronto

"The Fortunes of Wangrin is not only a wonderful novel by one of Africa’s most renowned intellectuals, it is also literally filled with information about French colonization and its impact on traditional African societies, African resistance and collaboration to colonization, the impact of French education in Africa, and a host of other subjects of interest." —Francois Manchuelle, New York University

Wangrin is a rogue and an operator, hustling both the colonial French and his own people. He is funny, outrageous, corrupt, traditional, and memorable. Bâ’s book bridges the chasm between oral and written literature. The stories about Wangrin are drawn from oral sources, but in the hands of this gifted writer these materials become transformed through the power of artistic imagination and license.

The Fortunes of Wangrin is a classic in Franchophone African literature.


Amadou Hampaté Bâ was a distinguished Malian poet and scholar of African oral tradition and precolonial history.


Translator:

Aina Pavolini Taylor is an independent translator with wide experience of Africa, now living and working in Italy.


F. Abiola Irele is a professor in the Department of Black Studies at Ohio State University.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A searing fictional indictment of colonialism and its corruption of both its French citizens and African subjects, this novel written by the late Malian scholar presents the life of Wangrin, a child of great intellect and promise, who veers from the traditional customs of his West African society to embrace the worst characteristics of his foreign benefactors. Determined to exploit his education, he gains employment as a primary school teacher through an assist from the district officer, but he has his eye on life's better things. The wily and resourceful Wangrin seizes every opportunity to advance himself, running several ingenious scams on both his French employers and his own people. His jealous rivals and outmaneuvered European foes repeatedly try to get the elusive rogue arrested and humiliated, but the African finds ways to beat back their assaults, overcoming every attack from the relentless Count de Villermoz and his ally, Remo. Skillful in his detailed characterizations of the Africans and French, Hampat? B? uses each of Wangrin's skirmishes with the law as a chance to explore harsh bigotry and blind nationalism, which served as the pillars of colonial rule. His best work surfaces in his depiction of Wangrin, whose cunning and clever tongue are only a part of the man's complex personality. Ultimately, the continual struggle to keep his enemies at bay while acquiring more wealth takes a fateful toll on Wangrin, and his fall is as sensational as his rise. Though the plot's momentum is occasionally slowed by the narrator's asides, this award-winning novel, first published in French in the '70s, is memorable for its trenchant political and cultural commentary on the effects of colonialism in Africa. (Nov.) 
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In French Africa at the beginning of the 1900s, a young African man determines to work his way up in the civil service maintained by the conquerors. The chaos of France's colonies is reflected by the chaos of Wangrin's life and the lives of those around him. Ba's 1976 novel, an acknowledged African classic, shows how Wangrin is forced to adapt to the social and political changes the French impose upon his culture and also shows the fates of those not as able or willing to adapt as Wangrin. As interpreter for a French officer, Wangrin is uniquely placed to see both sides of colonialism, and his ability to function in the conqueror's realm allows him to secure himself and his family in a time of economic and political uncertainty. Always looking out for his own interests yet always willing to help out a less fortunate friend, Wangrin is a fascinating character. Greedy but compassionate, he is often just a step ahead of his French superiors and of compatriots jealous of his relative wealth. Bonnie Johnston --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

The Fortunes of Wangrin is not a novel in the Western tradition. It is a remarkable work of fiction "rescued" from a dying oral tradition.... -- The New York Times Book Review, Caryl Phillips

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author


    Amadou Hampaté BÂ was a distinguished Malian poet and scholar of African oral tradition and precolonial history.


Funmi Tofowomo Okelola

-In the absence of greatness, mediocrity thrives. 

http://www.cafeafricana.com

http://www.indigokafe.com




 
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