It would be great to see a video about Hausa or Yoruba or Amharic or Xhosa or Kikuyu or Zulu of Shona or Fang or Swahili or Lingala or Igbo or Sotho or Tswana or Kikongo of Wolof or Promo or Somali or Tshiluba or Venda or Luganda literature. When we use the colonizer's language we are empowering the colonizer's language at the expense of our own.
After some comparison , and reflections , I realized something about african literature and the choice of the language: it's mainly an export product , aim to reach a foreign audience ; it's all about selling as much as possible. When reading an argument about the literature in European languages (french or English) , it's always about reaching the biggest audience . It's always about reaching an Audience of people in Paris , London or New York ; about lure them and making them read your book . It's never about talking to the local and only to tge local about their problems and issues of their society . It seems like writing in a language only understood by locals , having a domestic audience like an average Vietnamese or japanese author is a kind of humiliation. And also another thing about the african literature in comparison with the ones of other continents of the old world it's that : the African literature exist . In reality there's no european literature , no Asian , there are the *Many* literatureS of Europe and the *Many* literatureS of Asia . I refer not to the body of written and oral texts produced by storytellers on and from each continent-but rather, to the category. European or Asian Literature is an empty designation, as is Asian Literature, European Literature, Latin American Literature, South American Literature, North American Literature, and so forth. My very basic assertion is that the practice of categorizing literature by the continent from which its creators come is past its prime at best. Our dogged insistence upon doing so, in the case of the African continent foremost, betrays a disregard both for the complexities of African languages, peoples , cultures and the creativity of African authors. When talking about the literatures of europe , it never about a consistent thing , but rather a lot of literatures in languages , the gender , and the subjects they talk about. We talk about Portuguese , french , German literature , even languages not widely spoken in the world have their Literature like Catalonian , slovene , Lithuanian , Norwegian literature , etc. All depending on the language and having different genres . This is to a pretty diversity both linguistic and cultural in European in terms of literature , while the designation of the African literature and the will of its existence (instead of the many literatures in the many languages of africa) make just lead to the uniformization (and getting replaceable) of the works , the "literature" becomes monolithic and monotonous both linguistically and thematically. The authors of the African literature want to be famous , and for that , their fate is between the hands of the readers and literary institutions of the cities above . The fact they become famous or good and studied in the schools and colleges in africa depends on the decision of the audience and institutions of Paris, London or New York . This lead them to write in 2 particular ways: • Either they write in a way of copying the European way if writing. • Either they write in a very ridiculous , stereotypical and embarassing way more than disconnected but insulting , describing a continent , 54 countries , 1 billion people stupid , alcoholic and lazy People , girls suffering from genital mutilation , starving children and helped by European NGO camps consequences of war, and using the words Africa , darkness , Safari on the title of the book , using the picture of someone in massai , dogon , zulu clothes or a pygmy on tge cover of the book. Making that this kind of book that become famous , that will be taught in many schools in africa , wilk be just the western idea of africa than Africa itself. For the second point, I talk about the people , not the governments. The people (the country) and tge government (the leaders) are 2 completely different things . Criticizing the government , its abusive actions , its ineffectiveness , its bribery , its corruption is the only way to move forward , having a better future , and to make the society transform itself (even if bribery is a fact of life or a common practice , that doesn't mean it's a good thing and we must fight that kind of thing) . But most of the case of the second point don't criticize the governments , but rather the people and saying how great the western readers are ,and how dumb the local people are , but never taking care about the problem of the local people or thinking a way to resolve them. The second case ignore the real problems for focusing on humiliating the local people in order to lure wester readers. You can't also say :" most of people must speak English for to have at the same time both a foreign and domestic audience at the first hit" . That wouldn't resolve the problem because it'd go from peoples who can't read each other to peoples who ignore eachother. The book would be drowned in an ocean of English books and they'd distance mentally the readers from the writers and their environment . Peoples would have reasons to read local books , because they'd think they're low quality books and the western ones as hight quality books . If you noticed by the Western audience , it's this audience which would lead the local audience to you (by the local people caring about what the western audience like and if it likes you , the local audience too) . How many authors are both criticizing the corruption in the education system , the police , the government , the Dept trap diplomacy of china and read only by a domestic audience? How many authors talk about domestic problems , only for a domestic audience? How many authors in the 54 countries of africa are both famous in and make like an average Latvian , Czech author? Very few , and they are kept in the shadow. It's a very big potential wasted potential . With Europe having only 49 countries , Asia having 44 and Africa having 54 countries , with multiple languages ; it's africa that's supposed to have the biggest number of literatures and the most linguistic diverse . A little country like guinea should have more than 4 literatures . It could have a strong Zulu , Yoruba , Xhosa , fulfulde , mandinka , wolof . There could be more literatures in Nigeria itself than in all Europe ; they could each become very strong , autonomous , independent and interact each other by translation but unfortunately it's the opposite which happens .
Nice video....I've read Purple Hibiscus before..its a good book
Great African authors
Well presented, interesting.
Chinua Achebe.
Good video! All of them are great authors. They have a lot to say in their stories.
So good video
Nice piece! First here.....
Very good.
It would be great to see a video about Hausa or Yoruba or Amharic or Xhosa or Kikuyu or Zulu of Shona or Fang or Swahili or Lingala or Igbo or Sotho or Tswana or Kikongo of Wolof or Promo or Somali or Tshiluba or Venda or Luganda literature. When we use the colonizer's language we are empowering the colonizer's language at the expense of our own.
Nigeria 🇳🇬 always on top
Achebe
Disappointed for not seeing Wole Soyinka in this list. Bring out video for the top ten best books writing by Africans.
Where is nobel price winner wole Soyinka
Literature
After some comparison , and reflections , I realized something about african literature and the choice of the language: it's mainly an export product , aim to reach a foreign audience ; it's all about selling as much as possible.
When reading an argument about the literature in European languages (french or English) , it's always about reaching the biggest audience . It's always about reaching an Audience of people in Paris , London or New York ; about lure them and making them read your book .
It's never about talking to the local and only to tge local about their problems and issues of their society .
It seems like writing in a language only understood by locals , having a domestic audience like an average Vietnamese or japanese author is a kind of humiliation.
And also another thing about the african literature in comparison with the ones of other continents of the old world it's that : the African literature exist .
In reality there's no european literature , no Asian , there are the *Many* literatureS of Europe and the *Many* literatureS of Asia .
I refer not to the body of written and oral texts produced by storytellers on and from each continent-but rather, to the category.
European or Asian Literature is an empty designation, as is Asian Literature, European Literature, Latin American Literature, South American Literature, North American Literature, and so forth. My very basic assertion is that the practice of categorizing literature by the continent from which its creators come is past its prime at best. Our dogged insistence upon doing so, in the case of the African continent foremost, betrays a disregard both for the complexities of African languages, peoples , cultures and the creativity of African authors.
When talking about the literatures of europe , it never about a consistent thing , but rather a lot of literatures in languages , the gender , and the subjects they talk about.
We talk about Portuguese , french , German literature , even languages not widely spoken in the world have their Literature like Catalonian , slovene , Lithuanian , Norwegian literature , etc. All depending on the language and having different genres .
This is to a pretty diversity both linguistic and cultural in European in terms of literature , while the designation of the African literature and the will of its existence (instead of the many literatures in the many languages of africa) make just lead to the uniformization (and getting replaceable) of the works , the "literature" becomes monolithic and monotonous both linguistically and thematically.
The authors of the African literature want to be famous , and for that , their fate is between the hands of the readers and literary institutions of the cities above . The fact they become famous or good and studied in the schools and colleges in africa depends on the decision of the audience and institutions of Paris, London or New York .
This lead them to write in 2 particular ways:
• Either they write in a way of copying the European way if writing.
• Either they write in a very ridiculous , stereotypical and embarassing way more than disconnected but insulting , describing a continent , 54 countries , 1 billion people stupid , alcoholic and lazy People , girls suffering from genital mutilation , starving children and helped by European NGO camps consequences of war, and using the words Africa , darkness , Safari on the title of the book , using the picture of someone in massai , dogon , zulu clothes or a pygmy on tge cover of the book.
Making that this kind of book that become famous , that will be taught in many schools in africa , wilk be just the western idea of africa than Africa itself.
For the second point, I talk about the people , not the governments. The people (the country) and tge government (the leaders) are 2 completely different things .
Criticizing the government , its abusive actions , its ineffectiveness , its bribery , its corruption is the only way to move forward , having a better future , and to make the society transform itself (even if bribery is a fact of life or a common practice , that doesn't mean it's a good thing and we must fight that kind of thing) .
But most of the case of the second point don't criticize the governments , but rather the people and saying how great the western readers are ,and how dumb the local people are , but never taking care about the problem of the local people or thinking a way to resolve them.
The second case ignore the real problems for focusing on humiliating the local people in order to lure wester readers.
You can't also say :" most of people must speak English for to have at the same time both a foreign and domestic audience at the first hit" .
That wouldn't resolve the problem because it'd go from peoples who can't read each other to peoples who ignore eachother.
The book would be drowned in an ocean of English books and they'd distance mentally the readers from the writers and their environment . Peoples would have reasons to read local books , because they'd think they're low quality books and the western ones as hight quality books .
If you noticed by the Western audience , it's this audience which would lead the local audience to you (by the local people caring about what the western audience like and if it likes you , the local audience too) .
How many authors are both criticizing the corruption in the education system , the police , the government , the Dept trap diplomacy of china and read only by a domestic audience?
How many authors talk about domestic problems , only for a domestic audience?
How many authors in the 54 countries of africa are both famous in and make like an average Latvian , Czech author?
Very few , and they are kept in the shadow.
It's a very big potential wasted potential .
With Europe having only 49 countries , Asia having 44 and Africa having 54 countries , with multiple languages ; it's africa that's supposed to have the biggest number of literatures and the most linguistic diverse . A little country like guinea should have more than 4 literatures .
It could have a strong Zulu , Yoruba , Xhosa , fulfulde , mandinka , wolof .
There could be more literatures in Nigeria itself than in all Europe ; they could each become very strong , autonomous , independent and interact each other by translation but unfortunately it's the opposite which happens .
This list is key
Purple hibiscus is not about civil war
Really ? Where is the the Great Cheik Anta Diop ?