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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:African poetry: the modern writer and the oral tradition
Author:Okpewho, Isidore
Year:1988
Periodical:African Literature Today
Issue:16
Pages:3-25
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:oral poetry
poetry
Abstract:Starting from the assumption that the study of orality and literacy contributes to an understanding of the mentality of culture, this paper surveys the movement of the African poetic expression from an oral to a literate culture and explores some of the circumstances of this shift. The first part takes a look at the nature of African oral poetry. The second part runs through the development of modern African poetry, distinguishing the following periods: the period of slavery (16th to 18th century); the period from the establishment of European colonial rule in the later years of the 19th century; and the postindependence period. The process in which African poets were effectively removed from their own cultural and poetic traditions, as happened in the beginning of the colonial period, came to an end when Africans began to leave their countries to study in Europe and the United States. This brought about a new attitude in the literate poet toward his heritage (the négritude movement in Francophone Africa for instance). After independence, the return to oral traditions has become something of an intellectual duty. The present author argues that, while there are numerous elements of the oral tradition available for use by modern African writers, literacy is there to stay and has a discrete character of its own. Bibliogr.
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