"I was emailed this essay today and I thought it well written even if I don't agree with some of his views.
A quick point: Sometimes, being on the short list is enough and of all the novels published that year this "trivial thriller" with its "uneven
linguistic and literary quality" made it."
A quick point: Sometimes, being on the short list is enough and of all the novels published that year this "trivial thriller" with its "uneven
linguistic and literary quality" made it."
- Toni Kan
I agree that it was a well-written and engaging piece, Professor Bello-Kano did a great job. I agree 100 percent with his views of Anthills of the Savannah, but there is plenty to have a robust debate about, everybody knows what I think about There was a Country, I respect his views but I don't agree there. Finally, I find some of his views about the founding fathers disconcerting because he ignores the founding mothers When he says for instance,
"Chiefly because of his first novel, and his pioneering role as the editor of the African Writers Series, many have considered Achebe as the "father of African fiction" (or the founding father, even the grandfather, of modern African literature), a dubious claim that Achebe himself could not accept, since, as he knew in his lifetime, there were many African writers of fiction and non-fiction that wrote compelling accounts of African cultural and social life well before he was born. Claims for Achebe as being the "father of African fiction or literature" are based on a partial and reductive view of Africa's literary history, or a diminution of African writing to a minor position within the Western literary tradition.
Yet there had been indigenous African writing in native languages. Consider, for example, the case of the Basotho (Lesotho) writer and novelist, Thomas Mopoku Mafolo (1876-1948), the celebrated author of Chaka the Zulu (1912-15?), which many literary historians have called a masterpiece, an epic tragedy, and, in the words of a reviewer, "the earliest major contribution of black Africa to the corpus of modern world literature". One could cite the example of the celebrated Yoruba writer, D. O. Fagunwa, author of Odo Ninu Igbo Irunmale (1936), or the works of the Arab writer, Naguib Mahfouz, and countless other writers who wrote in Hausa, Tamashek, Amharic, Wolof, and so on. Indeed, no one author or person could have begun what we call today "African writing". The African literary tradition is far older, more enduring, and more complex than the alleged effort of a single author, however gifted. In any case, the idea of Achebe being the "father of African fiction" is not a scholarly argument but a romantic and naïve one because it ignores the major contributions of pre-colonial African authors and a huge corpus of African writing in Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish."
They are good points., but as I shared on Facebook, I find it interesting however that in all of this well-written piece, Professor Bello-Kano not once mentions a single female writer as contributing to what African literature is today. This literary house was built by MEN only *beats chest* Patriarchy is like a cockroach, it shows up each time, in the unlikeliest of places.
Yet there had been indigenous African writing in native languages. Consider, for example, the case of the Basotho (Lesotho) writer and novelist, Thomas Mopoku Mafolo (1876-1948), the celebrated author of Chaka the Zulu (1912-15?), which many literary historians have called a masterpiece, an epic tragedy, and, in the words of a reviewer, "the earliest major contribution of black Africa to the corpus of modern world literature". One could cite the example of the celebrated Yoruba writer, D. O. Fagunwa, author of Odo Ninu Igbo Irunmale (1936), or the works of the Arab writer, Naguib Mahfouz, and countless other writers who wrote in Hausa, Tamashek, Amharic, Wolof, and so on. Indeed, no one author or person could have begun what we call today "African writing". The African literary tradition is far older, more enduring, and more complex than the alleged effort of a single author, however gifted. In any case, the idea of Achebe being the "father of African fiction" is not a scholarly argument but a romantic and naïve one because it ignores the major contributions of pre-colonial African authors and a huge corpus of African writing in Arabic, French, Portuguese, and Spanish."
They are good points., but as I shared on Facebook, I find it interesting however that in all of this well-written piece, Professor Bello-Kano not once mentions a single female writer as contributing to what African literature is today. This literary house was built by MEN only *beats chest* Patriarchy is like a cockroach, it shows up each time, in the unlikeliest of places.
Good piece, nonetheless. I must say I have been impressed and moved by the depth of feeling and intellect in most of the tributes I have read. This one ranks up there with the best of them.
How bodi, tko?
- Ikhide
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