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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | African cultural rebirth: a literary approach |
Author: | Ayeleru, Babatunde |
Year: | 2011 |
Periodical: | Journal of African Cultural Studies (ISSN 1369-6815) |
Volume: | 23 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 165-175 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | African culture Negritude literature |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696815.2012.637971 |
Abstract: | African culture has suffered a serious neglect since the attainment of independence in the 1960s by many of the countries of Africa. This situation has been caused mainly by the imposition of the colonial master's foreign language. These foreign cultures have ruptured the autochthonous African traditions, thereby making some Africans alien to their own cultures. This paper first discusses the relationship between the humanities and the pure sciences. It then examines, as part of humanistic studies, the literary creation of the pre-independence period of Africa as presented by the Negritude movement. While making a case for the renaissance of the fading African cultures through some of the Negritude postulations, it re-evaluates the Negritude concept and position vis-à-vis other cultures of the world and advocates a fruitful symbiosis where one culture does not inferiorize the other. Some Negritude works, especially the poems of Léopold Sédar Senghor, Birago Diop, David Diop, and Camara Laye are analysed with a view to advocating a regeneration of African traditions. The paper concludes that while cultural symbiosis needs to be encouraged, African cultural values must be protected from total domination by foreign influences. Bibliogr., note, sum. [Journal abstract] |