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The Literature of Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

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Africa has been concentrated on far too long in isolation; both by exploiters and by sentimentalists. It is only recently that African history has begun to be seen as a part of world history and that attempts are being made to correlate archaeological findings in Africa, Asia and Europe. A new series which is being published from the Oxford University Press at last makes it possible to study African literary forms as an essential part of world literature.

The first four volumes of the series have now appeared. The most important of these is Somali Poetry, by W. B. Andrzejewski and I. M. Lewis, both specialists of recognized distinction. The first sixty pages deal lucidly and surely definitively with the social and cultural setting of Somali poetry, the Somali language and the characteristics of Somali verse. Biographical notes on the poets are provided. The next ninety pages consist of Somali poems with the original on one side and the English translation opposite.

Somali verse has been transmitted orally; it is a great tradition and still a living one. The editors write of one class of lyric: ‘While the origins of other types of poem go far back into the past the heelo is an innovation which was first introduced in 1945. Its creator Abdi Deeqsi, nicknamed “Cinema”, was the owner and driver of a trading lorry and composed the first heelo when his lorry broke down near Zeila. In a desolate place he sang his love song, beating the rhythm on an empty petrol tin.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

The Oxford Library of African Literature. General Editors: EEvans‐Pritchard, . E., Lienhardt, G., Whiteley, W. H. (Clarendon Press.)Google Scholar A Selection of African Prose. by W. H. Whiteley: I. Traditional Oral Texts, 21s: II. Written Prose, 21s: III. The Heroic Secitations of the Rahima of Ankole, by H. F. Morris, 30s; IV. Somali Poetry, by B. W. Andrzejewski and I. M. Lewis, 30s.