AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Nationalism and the East African Writer: The Position of Nuruddin Farah |
| Author: | Ntalindwa, Raymond |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | Ufahamu |
| Volume: | 25 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 67-85 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Somalia |
| Subjects: | nationalism literature Literature, Mass Media and the Press |
| About person: | Nuruddin Farah (1945-) |
| Abstract: | Nuruddin Farah's artistic complexity and ideological ambivalence make it almost impossible to categorize him. His own guarded acceptance that he can be classified as a nationalist calls for further study. Nationalism is a 19th-century European phenomenon. As the source of artistic creativity in Africa, nationalist writing found expression first in Negritude poetry and later, in prose forms whose authors championed cultural nationalism. Léopold Sédar Senghor from Senegal and Aimé Césaire from Martinique are prominent examples. In the 1950s and 1960s, nationalist movements provided the raw material for artistic creativity to African writers, such as Camara Laye, William Conton, Chinua Achebe, Peter Abrahams, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Nuruddin Farah cannot be included in any of these streams. Nuruddin Farah deals, principally, with issues in postindependence Somalia. He is bitter and speaks out against all forms of injustice, abuse of power, and mismanagement of national issues. In this respect, Nuruddin Farah can be categorized with other postnationalist African writers who have expressed disenchantment with postcolonial leadership in Africa, such as Ayi Kwei Armah and Ngugi wa Thiong'o in his later publications. Notes, ref. |
