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African Literature

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Title: African Literature


1
African Literature
  • An introduction

2
Africa Ancient Kingdoms
  • The cradle of life
  • Egypt
  • Eastern Africa
  • Western Africa
  • Literary Development and Devices

3
In the Beginning
  • Anthropologists believe that the first modern
    humans (homo sapiens) began in the northern
    regions of the African continent
  • Cradle of life (Neolithic, new stone)
  • Birthplace of human civilization (roughly 100,000
    years ago)
  • Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, etc. (Fertile
    Crescent)
  • Brought together through use of writing
    (technology)
  • African climate is varied in several regions
    Desert, coastline, tropical rain forest, plains,
    and mountains.

4
Egypt (3000 B.C.-343 B.C.)
  • First great civilization
  • Had a vibrant and strong empire that centered on
    a polytheistic society
  • Pantheon of gods and influence on the middle
    eastern religious perspective Greek, Roman
  • Written language Hieroglyphics

5
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7
Kushite Kingdom
  • Conquered and ruled Egypt around 1000 B.C.
  • Royal families traced lineage through female line
  • More women ruled here than any other ancient
    civilization
  • Other smaller civilizations popped up around
    Sahara
  • Fasa of southern Sudan

8
The Golden Age
  • A.D. 300-1600
  • Sculpture, music, metal work and textiles
  • Literature plays a huge role in the creation and
    success of the empires
  • Oral epics
  • Praise poems
  • Fables
  • Proverbs
  • Dramas

9
Eastern African Empire Aksum
  • Third century A.D., modern-day Ethiopia
  • Well-developed oral traditions
  • First great civilizations that created full and
    dominant cultural footholds in northern Africa
  • Center of trade routes from Rome all the way to
    India
  • Key to success was development of a specific and
    complex writing system

Migration south and west due to drought
10
West African empires
  • Old Ghana (A.D. 300-400) A strong and prosperous
    kingdom Mainly traders of salt and gold
  • Old Mali (A.D. 1235) Overtook Old Ghana for
    supremacy
  • Songhai The last of the great kingdoms
  • Timbuktu The marriage of Songhai and Old Mali
    empires Hugely successful kingdom

11
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12
Religious and cultural influences
  • Tribal origins are founded in a polytheistic and
    nature-based belief system
  • 4th century A.D. Roman empire introduces
    Christianity
  • 700 A.D. Islam introduced into the African
    continent
  • Islam becomes the recognized state religion of
    Mali in 1235

13
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14
Literary Terms to Know in this Unit
  • Parallelism
  • Epithet
  • Apostrophe
  • Polytheism vs. Monotheism
  • Omniscient point-of-view
  • Legend
  • Oral epic
  • Griot
  • Refrain
  • Folk tale
  • Trickster
  • Personification
  • Proverb
  • Metaphor
  • Alliteration
  • Rhyme

15
Oral Tradition
  • Dilemma tale
  • Form of moral tale, ends with a question, invites
    audience to share judgment.
  • One tale deals with a man who died while hunting
    an ox to feed his three wives. The first wife
    learns through a dream what has happened to him,
    the second leads her fellow wives to the place
    where he died, and the third restores him to
    life. Which of the three most deserves his
    praise?
  • Chain tale or Cumulative tale
  • Formulaic story
  • Every incident that came before is repeated
  • The 12 days of Christmas
  • A single extended joke

16
Proverbs
  • a short, traditional saying that expresses some
    obvious truth or familiar experience
  • Used to convey accumulated cultural wisdom
  • Often use literary elements (metaphors,
    alliteration, parallelism, rhyme)
  • Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach
    him how to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.
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