INTRODUCTION
In this unit, you will learn about literature in a second language situation. Language is the vehicle through which literature is learnt and taught and as such, language and literature are intertwined. You will learn in this unit the characteristics of Literature in general and African literature in particular.
3.1 Definition and Characteristics of Literature
The term literature has been defined in many ways:
Literature has been defined as “a form of imaginative writing, in prose or verse”. At another level, literature has been defined as a written documentation or a body of writing of a people. Bennison Gray, in his voluminous book – Phenomenon of Literature offers a suggestion on the definition and many people have subscribed to his definition. He said “all literary works are fictitious”. This implied that before a piece of writing can be qualified as literature, it must be fictitious. You need to know that the word fiction is derived from a Latin word ‘fictio’ which means “to make up” or “feign” or “invent” something. The term fiction has therefore distinguished literature from other activities.
Literature is conducted in language and the language of literature is rendered in such a way as to have connective assertion. Event is an important factor in literature; it is an occurrence which can be situated in time and place. At another level, literature is told \using “moment-by- moment” narration. With the above description and some of the characteristic features highlighted, literature can be safely described as a moment-by moment of events that are not verifiable. Literature and History are similar in the wayboth are told but unlike literature, history is verifiable and it uses summary method but literature cannot be verified and it can be in form of prose, poetry or drama.
Self-Assessment Exercise
1. Have you read any literature book before? If yes, can you tell us some important events that take place in that book?
2. In terms of language use and the arrangement of events, can you now compare literature with other written texts that you have read?
3.2 Definition and Features of African Literature
You will recall that in some of the definitions proffered, literature is associated with writing. However, it has been noted that to say that literature exists only when writing exists is a wrong assumption. Writing developed in Africa lately when compared with the continent of the whites. Does it then mean that literature began in Africa only of recent? The answer is ‘no’. Literature has been existing in Africa right from the beginning of man. Even contrary to European history, writing is not unknown in Africa before the coming of the whites. In East Africa, there was a long tradition of writing in Swahili which was a hybrid orthography of Arabic and Bantu.
Let us now examine African literature. Literature can be oral or written but in Africa, about 90% of literary activity is conducted in oral medium. Therefore, Africa has more literature than we are aware of. However, if we take literature to be a curious expression of fictional event, then what is African literature? Is it any novel written by an African or any literature written in an African language? What we should note is that African literature should be a literature by Africans in whatever language. This is because such literature will always be informed by African consciousness and awareness. In Africa today, we can talk of many literary artists like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Niyi Osundare, T.M. Aluko, Sembene Ousmane, Ayi Kwei Armah and others from West Africa. In East Africa, we can remember Okot p’Bitek, Ngugi wa Thiongo, and many others. Also in South Africa, we can name writers like Alex la Guma, Lewis Nkosi and others. Most of the writings of African literary artists are informed by the culture of the blacks and the use of language also reflects their identity. Many writers today write in the colonial language but one can ask if this language will be adequate to capture the essence of African experience. Nurudeen Farah, a Somalian writer advocates that a writer should write in whatever language but it should be written in such a way that will allow translation other their languages. However, the final position is for Africans to evolve an African lingua franca side by side with other respective ethnic languages of the people. Whichever way we look at it, African literature is basically written by Africans and the characteristics of African ways of life, culture and other traits are present in them.
Self-Assessment Exercise
1. Take a literary text written by an African and bring out some
of the features that are African in such a text
2. In terms of language use, how do you see Soyinka’s Work in
the
Interpreters and Forest of a Thousand Demons?
3.3 Language Problems and African Literature
Language is the storehouse of the culture of a people. It is the vehicle through which society moves. In Africa, one of the major problems is the multiplicity of our languages and nobody will see his language as inferior to the other. We have earlier said that language is the vehicle of literature and from whatever ethnic group one comes from, there is literature embedded there. Because of this multiplicity of languages, literature texts have been produced in many languages. Among the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Tiv, Efik etc. in Nigeria, many literary works have been produced. The same is true in other parts of Africa. These have limited the elasticity of many of such literary texts. If a text is written in Swahili or Acol: (East African Language), people from other ethnic groups will not be able to read such and this cuts across. This is the major problem in Africa. That is why a writer like Wole Soyinka has been an advocate of evolving an African lingua franca side by side with other ethnic language. He said if we adopt a language like Swahili, we could still use our different ethnic languages as subordinates to the superordinate language. The problem with this is the difficulty of such a move in amulti-ethnic and multilingual continent like Africa.
Some literary works written in indigenous languages have been translated into English – Soyinka’s Forest of a thousand Demons is a translation of Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmole by Fagunwa. Again Okot p’Biteh’s Song of Lawino is translated from Acoli language to English. The problem with such is that the original meaning might be lost when an indigenous language is translated into a second language like English. At present, the language problem is still persisting and if we do not think that a solution is in the sight.
Self-Assessment Exercise
1. Compare Soyinka’s Forest of a thousand Demons With Fagunwa’s Ogboju Ode in terms of language use;
2. Read any of Amos Tutuola’s texts and examine the meanings
of some of his sentences.
4.0 CONCLUSION
From what we have learnt in this unit, we will discover that African literature exists but that the problem of language constitutes an impediment to the spread of many of the works. In every culture or ethnic group,there is abundance of both oral and written literary works.
5.0 SUMMARY
African literature and other literary works can be placed side-by-side in the world today. The work is being written in local languages as well as in English, our second language. We have learnt that language is our major problem and we have not been able to reach a consensus about what language will be a unifying one in Africa.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Soyinka’s Forest of a Thousand Demons and Okot p’ Bitek’s Song of Lawino are two African literary works translated into
English from indigenous languages. Bring out some concepts of Africanism in the two texts;
What do you think should be the characteristics of African literature that will make it different from foreign ones?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Ogude, S.E (1983) Genius in Bondage Ile-Ife: University Press
Moody, H.L.B (1972) The Study of Literature
London: George Allen and Unwin
Soyinka, W. (1976) Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge.
Leave a comment behind