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The Concept of an African Prose Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
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Prose is simply defined in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary as “… the ordinary form of written or spoken language without metrical structure” and certainly for a majority of native English speakers this definition serves well enough, though in English, prose is more usually understood to be written rather than spoken. Most people have a more or less clear idea of what they mean by prose, if only because there is a large body of accepted verse with which to contrast it, a contrast not materially affected by the problems posed by modern verse techniques. There is also a pretty wide measure of agreement as to what constitutes literature, again because there is a corpus of material, accumulated over the centuries, which is regarded as such by common consent. This material provides a basis for judgments of value on more recent work, so that one can make some sort of contrast between “Gibbon's History and to-night's evening paper” but there is bound to be futile argument over certain cases, and one can be sure that there will be divergence from the current view with the passage of time. All in all, however, there is likely to be a large area over which one may obtain a fair measure of agreement as to what may be termed the prose literature of English.
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- Copyright © 1962 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 For a popular account of African history see B. Davidson, Old Africa Rediscovered, 1959; less popular is D. Westermann, Geschichte Afrikas, Köln, 1952. For more detailed studies of specific areas see J. D. Fage, Ghana: A Histori cal Interpretation, University of Wisconsin Press, 1959; Thomas Hodgkin, Nige rian Perspectives, Oxford University Press, 1960.
2 For a general bibliography the standard anthropological text-books should be consulted, but a useful short bibliography is appended to E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Social Anthropology, Cohen and West, 1951. For more detailed studies see M. Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard, African Political Systems, Oxford University Press, 1940, and Tribes without Rulers, ed. by John Middleton and David Tait, Routledge and Kegan, 1958.
3 From such a generalization one must of course, exclude regions such as Northern Nigeria, where Arabic was used over large areas and for many centuries, and also the East African coast, where Swahili was written in the Arabic script. For all practical purposes one can discount the scripts which have been recorded from parts of West Africa, i.e. Vai.
4 See also the Introduction to M. J. and F. S. Herskovits's Dahomean Nar rative, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958, and the discussion in J. Berry's Spoken Art in West Africa, Oxford University Press, 1961.
5 "… In the history of literature and the history of individual nations, the development of prose is nearly always slower and more uncertain than that of poetry. When we go back to obscure beginnings of any national literature, what we usually come upon is some kind of poetry; but we may have to wait several centuries before we get prose, and an even longer time before we find it fully articulate, and perhaps longer still before we meet with prose that is a pleasure to read…
… When prose begins to make its first tentative appearance, it is usually in the form of charters, deeds, proclamations, and practical discourses of one sort or another; and though from the first it may be well or badly written it is hardly likely to be thought of as literature." (p. 3) "…Until a nation has acquired an alphabet, it must depend upon oral transmission; and it is obvious that if what, for want of another word, we must call ‘literature,' depends for its continuing existence on human memories, the outlook for prose is bleak indeed." (p. 4) James R. Sutherland, On English Prose, University of Toronto Press, Oxford University Press, 1957.
6 See, for example, passim, H. M. and N. K. Chadwick's monumental The Growth of Literature, Cambridge, 1932 (3 volumes).
7 Divergent views on the status of oral material have been made, explicitly or implicitly, from time to time. The Chadwicks (op. cit.) so far as I can see, never question the literary status of such material, though I have nowhere found any explicit definition of literature. This general view is supported by R. Wellek and A. Warren in their Theory of Literature, London, 1949, "… for clearly, any coherent conception (of literature, WHW) must include ‘oral literature'." (p. 11). On the other hand the 6th edition (1951) of Notes and Queries on Anthropology makes the point that "… the repetition of stories, proverbs and traditional sayings may be an integral element of culture, corresponding among illiterate peoples to literature among the literate" (p. 206), and G. Pfeffer in his "Prose and Poetry of the Ful'be," Africa, 1939, maintains that there is literature "… only if there is a script, an author to provide material, the possibility of multiplication and distribution and the presence of a public willing to make some sort of reward to the author."
8 The Truest Poetry, London, 1960. An interesting discussion on this subject also occurs in an article of P. Alexandre, "Littératures négro-africaines", Encyclo pédie Clartés, vol. 15, Fasc. 15350, Paris, 1959.
9 Quoted by Lerner, Op. cit., p. 54-55.
10 Pfeffer, Op. cit.
11 In this connection T. S. Eliot's essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent" is illuminating. The essay is reprinted in T. S. Eliot, Selected Prose, Penguin Books, 1953. Reference might also be made to J. Middleton Murray's The Problem of Style, Oxford University Press (Paperback), 1960: "…At a certain level of general culture, with certain combinations of economic and social conditions (which it would be well worth while to explore), certain artistic and literary forms impose themselves. These forms the writer is almost impelled to accept, either because he relies on his writing for his living, or because he feels instinctively that he must embrace the means necessary to reaching the largest possible audience." (pp. 43-44).
12 Notice the injunction to field workers in the 5th ed. (1929) of Notes and Queries on Anthropology, to observe "… whether there is any body of men whose duty is to transmit traditions uncorrupted—though even this does not preclude deliberate alteration of them from motives of piety, vanity or self-interest…"
13 For further discussion of this point see J. Berry, Op. cit. It seems that students of oral literature in other parts of the world may have paid greater attention to the role of the individual than has been the case in Africa. See, for example, Margaret Schlauch, "Folklore in the Soviet Union", Science and Society, vol. VIII/3, 1944, and the extremely interesting analysis of Yugoslav oral literature in Albert B. Lord's The Singer of Tales, Harvard University Press, 1960.
14 See, for example, Alice Werner's study of African mythology in "The Mythology of All Races," Africa, vol. VII, Archaeological Institute of America, 1925. Individual collections of texts commonly included comparative notes. See, for example, Rev. Canon Callaway, Nursery Tales of the Zulus, Trübner & Co., 1868; W. H. I. Bleek, Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or Hottentot Fables and Tales, Trübner & Co., 1864; G. Lindblom, Kamba Folk-lore II: Tales of Super natural Beings and Adventures, Upsala, 1935.
15 C. M. Doke, "Lamba Literature," Africa, 1934.
16 For example: "A Lunda Love Story and Its Consequences": Selected texts from traditions collected by Henrique Dias de Carvalho at the court of Mwat ianvwa in 1887. Translated and annotated by V. W. Turner, Rhodes-Livingstone Journal, XIX, Manchester, 1955; I. Cunnison, "Kazembe's Charter": (Extract from Ifikolwe Fyandi na Bantu bandi, Mwata Kazembe XIV, Macmillan, 1951), Northern Rhodesia Journal, vol. III/3, 1957.
17 A good example of this is furnished by some recent American work, thus "While in West African on a Fulbright award, I recorded among the Yoruba approximately a thousand folktales, three thousand songs, between seven and eight hundred riddles, numerous philosophical sayings, and some other varieties of their folklore." From L. Turner, "The Role of Folklore in the Life of the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria," Report of the Ninth Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Study (1958), Georgetown, 1960.
18 There have been few general studies of written African prose, though articles have appeared, from time to time, in the French periodical Présence Afri caine, which deal with literature within the general framework of négritude. Articles and detailed reviews of books by African authors also appear in the periodical Black Orpheus. See also Approaches to African Literature, by J. Jahn and J. Ramsaran. Jahn's contribution is expanded somewhat in his Muntu, Faber (English version), 1961.
19 Even to-day in some African territories "suitability for schools" is still one of the most potent means of securing publication.
20 There are a number of articles dealing with South African literature: A. C. Jordan, "Towards an African Literature," Africa South, vols. 1/4, 1957- IV/3, 1960; A. A. Jacques, "A Survey of Shangana-Tsonga, Ronga and Tswa Literature," Bantu Studies, XIV, 1940; G. H. Franz, "The Literature of Le Sotho," Bantu Studies, IV, 1930; G. L. Letele, "Some Recent Literary Publications in Languages of the Sotho Group," African Studies, III, 1944; D. Mc.K. Malcolm, "Zulu Literature," Africa, 1949. Many examples from the early period can be found in the Xhosa Anthology Zemk' Inkomo Magwalandini (Preserve your heritage), Collected and edited by W. B. Rubusana, 1906; as well as in a second collection Imibengo (Titbits), by W. G. Bennie, Lovedale Press, 1936.
21 The main works of these authors to date are as follows: A. Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Faber, 1952; My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Faber, 1954; Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle, Faber, 1955; The Brave African Huntress, Faber, 1958; D. O. Fagunwa, Ogboju-ode-ninu igbo Irunmale, Nelson, 1939; Igbo Oludumare, Nelson, 1946 (?); C. O. D. Ekwensi, People of the City, Dakers, 1954; Jagua Nana, Hutchinson, 1961; C. Achebe, Things Pall Apart, Heinemann, 1958; No Longer at Ease, 1960.
22 James Kirkup's translations of Laye's two main works are The African Child, Collins, 1954; and The Radiance of the King, Collins, 1956. The main works of the other writers listed are as follows: B. B. Dadié, Le Pagne Noir, Présence Africaine, 1955; Climbié, Paris, 1956; Jean Malonga, La légende de M'Pfoumou Ma Mazono, Présence Africaine, 1955; Birago Diop, Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba, Présence Africaine, 1956; Les nouveaux contes d'Amadou Koumba, Présence Africaine, 1958; Ferdinand Oyono, Une vie de boy, Julliard, Paris, 1956; Le vieux nègre et la médaille, Julliard, Paris, 1956; Alexan dre Biyidi (Pseud. Mongo Beti, Eza Boto), Ville Cruelle, Présence Africaine, 1955; La Pauvre Christ de Bomba, R. Laffont, Paris, 1955; Mission terminée, Paris, 1957 (Tr. into English as Mission to Kala, Peter Green, Muller, London, 1958); Le roi miraculé, Paris, 1958.
23 For a general survey of the situation in the Congo see J. M. Jadot, Les écrivains africains du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi, Bruxelles, 1959. Note also J. Saverio Naigiziki, Escapade Ruandaise, Bruxelles, 1950, and P. Lomami-Tshibamba, Ngando (Le Crocodile), Bruxelles, 1949. From Angola see, for ex ample, Ecos da Minha Terra, O. Ribas Luanda, 1952 and also Contos d'Africa, Publicaçoes Imbondeiro, Sá da Bandeira, Angola, 1961.
24 In Tanganyika alone there are two Swahili dailies and a large number of weekly, bi-weekly and monthly periodicals and broadsheets.
25 There are a number of works which antedate this, but these belong really to the oral tradition: for example, the history of the founding of the Shambaa by Mbega was published in 1905 under the title Habari za Wakilindi, and Part I of this was reprinted in the Journal of the E. A. Swahili Committee, No. 27, 1957. Similarly, the autobiography of Hamed bin Muhammed el Murjebi (Tippu Tip), published in the Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Spra chen, by H. Brode in 1902-3 and reprinted with an English translation as a Supplement to the Journal of the E. A. Swahili Committee, Nos. 28/2 and 29/1, July 1958 and January 1959.
26 Shaaban Robert's contribution to East African Literature has recently been recognized by the award of the Margaret Wrong Memorial Medal for 1960. The work of the Margaret Wrong Memorial Fund in encouraging African writers should here be recognized.
27 For further details on Ganda see R. A. Snoxall, "Ganda Literature," African Studies, I, 1942. For further details of the situation in the Central African Feder ation see G. Fortune, The Bantu Languages of the Federation, Rhodes-Livingstone Communication, No. 14, Lusaka, 1959.
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