African Literature

The first Works from African Literature are dated from 2300-2100 B.C in North Africa, and Egypt, with the founding of burial texts and papyrus.  In the Saharan and Africa the forms of literature were found in proverbs and riddles, epic narrative, oration and personal testimony, praise, poems and songs, legends, rituals, stories, folk tales etc. This forms part of the oral culture that most tribes had.

The first African history is “History of the Sudan” written by Abd al-rahman.

During and after the period of Colonization oral traditions and written works were threatened due to Christian beliefs and the colonizers destructed the primitive culture.  The first slave narrative work was published in 1789 and the Europeans helped the development of the cultures through education.

The Negritude Movement began between the 19^th and 20^th century in Paris with Leopold Sedar-Senghor as the thinker of this movement.  The objective of the movement was to show the world the value black people have.

After the Negritude Movement works like “Black Skin, White Masks” from Frantz Fanon, “The Beloved Country” Alan Patron and one of the most popular, “Things Fall Apart” from Chinua Achebe. 

Chinua Achebe "The Father of Modern African Literature"

Chinua Achebe was borned in 1930 in Ogidi as a member of the Ibo Tribe. The influence of his christian and african indigenous roots created a great impact in his life.  His interest in African Tribes grew when he was in university and he changed his christian name and adopted his indigenous name. Chinua studied English, history and theology.

His debut as an author came in 1950 when he wrote "Polar Undergraduate". Chinua Achebe continued writing philosophical essays that were published in a lcal magazine. While being in university he wrote his first short story called "In a Village Church"where he writes about the influence of the christian traditions and his tribe culture.

He continued writing showing an evident interest in his origins and his mixed culture. Chinua's most popular work came in 1958 which received the global critical acclaim.

Now a days he continues writing and creating literary art institutions for the develop of the creative and intellectual community. he is known all over the world not just for the role he has played in literature, but also as a critical thinker.

"The most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I observe the world, I don't expect to see it just like I was seeing the fellow who lives in the next room."

-Chinua Achebe

Brown.edu (1904) Africana Studies | Brown University. [online] Available at: http://brown.edu/Departments/Africana_Studies/people/achebe_chinua.html [Accessed: 21 Jan 2013].

Biografiasyvidas.com (1930) Biografia de Chinua Achebe. [online] Available at: http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/a/achebe.htm [Accessed: 21 Jan 2013].

What is Literature and What is the Importance in Education and Personal Development?

Literature is every form of written or spoken material that transmits emotions, information, stories etc. It began with pictographic works thousands of years ago and has changed since then, it represents culture and tradition. Literature is a very important way in which we can learn from our past, present and future and a way to store information through years.

It is considered literature all types of works, from creative to technical or scientific works. It is divided in formal literature (written) with works such as sign, pictures, words etc. and informal literature (oral) fiction or non fiction.  

Literature is one of the most important things created by humans and is a fundamental method of expressing ideas, feelings, emotions, stories, historical events etc. Literature is very important for the education, basically all schools work with some type of literature and we can find books that contain almost every type of information. You can learn whatever you want with literature and is an excellent tool for the independent learning process and not just for an educational system.

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." - C.S. Lewis

As said in C.S Lewis quote, literature enriches our lives, our mind, souls and bodies, is really important for personal development because as said before, it is the best tool to describe feelings or to tell a story, you can express whatever you want or you can learn from the ideas of other people by reading their texts. 

“Literature transmits incontrovertible condensed experience… from generation to generation, in this way literature becomes the living memory of a nation.” 

–Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn