الفصل الدراسي الأول

Lecture one 
Introduction to the course 
1- Aims 
-Introduce African literature as a modern literary trend tracing its origins in the indigenous African tradition composed of oral tales,folklore stories,sayings,songs and fables.
•⁠  ⁠Trace the beginning of modern African literature in the Negritude movement 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Discussion of the aims,themes and major writers of the Negritude literary works 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Discussion of the social,historical,political and cultural context of the emergence of African literature related to the colonisation of the African continent by European colonial powers 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Discussion of the major authors,literary works and the themes of African literature as an anti colonial weapon to the colonisation of African peoples 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Discuss and analyse an African literary novel that typically represents African literature to show how the colonial context of the emergence of modern African literature has shaped the form and content of African literature 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Discuss the allegations of European literary critics that African literature is a form of socio-historical,cultural and political propaganda that doesn’t qualify as literature.

-This course focuses on African literature produced in the context of the colonial period,known as colonial literature.Post-colonial literature is produced in the period following African countries independence from colonial rule and is known as contemporary literature 
-Colonial African literature is a modern form of literary texts that has its roots in the Negritude movement of the 1930s.

Lecture 2
What is African literature?
African literature is a corpus of literary texts whether in the form of poetry,drama or fiction written by African authors in English,French or other languages or in indigenous African language 
What are the 4 types of African literature?
•⁠  ⁠Types of African literature 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Oral African literature 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Pre-colonial African literature 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Colonial African literature 
•⁠  ⁠⁠Post-colonial African literature 
What is the origin of African literature?
African literature developed from the early African oral traditions such as myths,folktales and other forms of storytelling such as fables and parables transmitted orally through story tellers

What are the three main forms of the African oral tradition?
The oral tradition is categorised in three major categories of myths,folktales and legends told orally and passed down to people from generation to generation at a time when illiteracy was widespread in Africa

Add source 
The origin of African literature in the Oral Tradition

What are the factors that led to the emergence of modern African literature?
African literature emerged the historical context of European colonisation of Africa in the aftermath of the First World War and the subsequent building of empires by superpowers such as Britain,France and Belgium. The race for building colonies in the African continent known for being rich in resources such as raw materials and minerals was to feed the gigantic machinery of the Factories and Industries of the Industrial Revolution.To build colonies in Africa European colonialists brainwashed its people into believing that they were in need of the civilisation of the white man who was to bring light to the dark continent.African history,they claimed,is a blank sheet of civilisation in which the European invaders were to write the first words of civilisation.The African was a noble savage who needed the white man to bring him the religion of a loving God,culture ,education and modernity. The first colonialists arrived in Africa under the guise of missionaries who were to build churches and schools to teach and spread Christianity among the ignorant and primitive Africans.Gradually,that was followed by the arrival of large numbers of European settlers,the building of large colonies and the replacement of the indigenous tribal socioeconomic and cultural systems by colonial governmental institutions and economic structures leading to the collapse of the indigenous ones.

The role of African intellectuals in fighting colonialism:
.African elites who graduated from colonial educational institutions gradually became aware of the reality of colonialism.As the European imperialists continued to drain the resources of the colonies under their rule,oppress and exploit African workers as slaves in what became known as slave trade,many educated Africans felt the need to expose the destructive exploitation of their lands by the invading colonial forces. The false claims of the colonialists that Africa had neither past nor culture had to be refuted.Africans were not noble savages who needed the civilising mission of the white man.
The pioneers of that anti colonial movement were Francophone intellectuals who founded the literary movement of Negritude

Lecture 3 

The Negritude Movement 
Modern African literature has its roots in the Negritude movement.Negritude is a term coined in the 11930s by Afro-Martiniquan French poet and politician Aimé Fernand Cesaire,Senegalese poet and politician Leopold Senghor,andLeon Damas of French Guiana. The movement was a reaction the European colonisation of Africa and its legacy of cultural racism.

What are the themes of Negritude literature?
•⁠  ⁠Negritude is a term meaning black. The main theme of the black intellectual writers who pioneered this literature was a call for acceptance of and having pride in being black. The major three themes recurring in one of their writers’ poetry are criticism of western civilisation and its attendant colonialism,its racism,nostalgia for and glorification of Africa and its cultural heritage, the lamentation of and celebration of the peace,serenity and purity of African past and a belief in a future Africa which is prosperous,united and strong.

The movement faded away in the early 1960s after achieving its goals in most of the African countries.Nevertheless,its success in fighting colonialism was limited due to its authors’ passively focusing on the celebration of African past rather than the problems of the present.Nevertheless, its writers literary works laid the foundation for modern African literature and inspired other black intellectuals to explore and develop anti colonial literature that promoted the struggle of African people against colonial rule leading ultimately to independence.Prominent among them is the Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe who is known as the father of modern African literature.