Paper short abstract:

Through the case of Pulaar literature produced in Europe and Africa, this paper will explore some of theoretical consequences of a transnational and cosmopolite approach for literatures in African languages.

Paper long abstract:

According to Paul Jay, "Contemporary globalization is characterized, not by withering away of the nation-state in the face of homogenizing, westernizing, or cosmopolitan tendencies, but by the simultaneous acceleration of globalization and nationalism" (2010: 118). Through the case of a transnational literature in an african language (Pulaar/Fulfulde) produced and circulating in Europe and Africa, this paper will explore some of theoretical consequences of a "multisited ethnography" (Appaduraï 1996) and cosmopolite approach for the study of literatures in african languages. I argue that what is generally considered by literary critics as minority, ethnic or regionalist literatures arise contemporary questions about "glocalization" and show the limits of an institutional approach of literature and a territorial definition of "Nation". Fulfulde language is spoken by roughly 20 millions people across the Sahel from western Senegal to eastern Sudan. Nowhere is it an official language. However, a creative writing in Pulaar - one of the major dialect of Fulfulde spoken in Mali, Senegal and Mauritania - emerged since the 60's because of a transnational associative network. From an institutional point of view, the creative writing in Pulaar is almost invisible. Most of books are hard to find. This situation is in clear contrast with a form of intensity which characterizes this literature. Hence the importance of the notion of "network" to appreciate this intense connection of readers to books and the social and political function of the literature in Pulaar in a linguistic community disseminated all over the world.

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to tower over the assumption that Literatures in African Languages are too provincialised. The aim is to show how some Swahili works of narrative fiction genuinely tackle the connection between national, regional and global matters.

Paper long abstract:

'Literatures in African Languages or what postcolonial theories have so far neglected '. In this thoughtful paper published in Neohelicon 35/2, Xavier Garnier (2008) draws attention to the fact that Literatures in African Languages urgently deserve being looked at beyond customary epithets such as 'local', 'popular' and essentially 'didacticʼ. A current development in Swahili literature features works that are complex and global in essence, which brings about a twofold interpretation. On the one hand, a social role that can be attributed to selected Swahili works is that of standing as cultural bridges to local readers who are invited to travel mentally. On the other hand, these works put forward the idea that nowadays discourses on the nation cannot be detached from parameters akin to the world. Three Swahili works of narrative fiction authored by culture professionals who are aware of world intricacies will serve as the corpus for attesting to the working premise: Babu Alipofufuka [When Grandfather Came to Life Again; 2001] by Said. A. Mohamed, Bina-Adamu! [God's Wretched Sons; 2002] by Kyallo Wamitila and Makuadi wa Soko Huria [Pimps of the Free Market Economy; 2002] by Seithy Chachage.

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the intra-national encounter in Nigeria from the perspective of the Yoruba-speaking national traveller in two Yoruba novels: J. Akin Omoyajowo’s thriller Adegbesan (1957) and Debo Awe’s Kopa (2009), a story about the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers the nation from the perspective of the Yoruba-speaking national traveller in two Yoruba novels: J. Akin Omoyajowo's Adegbesan (1957), a thriller centred on the chase for a murderer fleeing to northern Nigeria, published just before Nigeria became independent, and Debo Awe's Kopa (2009), a story of youths serving the nation as part of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. I read these novels against the context of my broader research on Yoruba-language travel writing throughout the twentieth century.

Adégbẹ̀san is intensely interested in intra-national encounter. Its characters travel across Nigeria, meet Hausa-speakers and emirs, and revel in the exoticism or strangeness of what they find there. By contrast, there is strikingly little interaction in Kopa between the Yoruba-speakers and the other Nigerians in the novel, despite the novel's setting in the intra-national framework of NYSC. Though Awe idealises students and youth as a united national community, this ideal is undermined by the minimal presence of non-Yoruba Nigerians, who appear only as metonyms for their part of the nation.

The picaresque adventure novel, as epitomised by Fagunwa's novels, dominates critical readings of the journey in the Yoruba novel. These novels are often read through the paradigm of transformation, both personal and communal, as a kind of Bildungsroman. But national travel in the Yoruba novel also traces an alternative ethic: that of translation, making strangeness comprehensible but without radical alteration. I discuss the strategies of literal and metaphorical translation these novels employ in their encounters with non-Yoruba speaking Nigerians.

Paper short abstract:

This paper demonstrates the different features of transformation of Batswana and Western cultural norms. L.D. Raditladi blends themes and forms influenced by indigenous African and Western forms to portray the common and shared ethos, beliefs and practices of the Batswana

Paper long abstract:

This paper depicts artistic and edifying aspects of Raditladi and his people's culture in a remarkable style. In addition Raditladi employs modern devices of poetry to good effect. There is an inter-textual connection between his predecessors and his successors. Influence of precursors and his creative oeuvre are significant to Africans who for so long have negotiated and navigated a world of contrasting social norms and values. Many modern Batswana continue to attempt the harmonization of their cultural values and norms with what they feel to be useful and relevant from so-called modern norms and values. It is a journey beset by fearful odds. This poetry speaks to this everyday struggle we call life in the post-colonial and post-apartheid setting. This work is intended to convey a new paradigm in which Setswana poetry can be analysed and interpreted.

Paper short abstract:

This paper probes the production of Beyene Haile's play "Weg'i Libi" ("Heart-to-Heart Talk") to contextualize the seemingly eminent provincial contemporary concerns that in fact are the concerns of the continent Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Written in one of the Eritrean languages Tigrinya, Beyene Haile's play "Weg'i Libi" ("Heart-to-Heart Talk"), 2008, comes with a fresh form cock-tailing myriad national and continental contemporary concerns such as migration, power consolidation, aesthetics, oral tradition... which hinder it from immediate production.

Though written by a prominent novelist, unlike all the government-sponsored productions with professional actors, this play was staged by amateur university students after it got rejected from production by professional directors and actors. This is dealt with to lay ground to the concerns of the play which are also examined from the ideals of post-colonialism.

The form which includes various elements from western classical to other various modern theatrical performances and African traditional performances is examined from the point-of-view of modernism.

Paper short abstract:

Mngadi's 1996 Zulu novel Asikho ndawo bakithi illustrates the potential of SA African language novels to narrate social histories from within. As such, they constitute authentic texts in an education system still reflecting a European worldview.

Paper long abstract:

SA African language literature has won political freedom. The heavy-handed censorship by apartheid language boards which dictated on books through controling the school market belongs to the past. No more political or social no-go areas. Indeed authors do not shy away from the dark side of recent history or the social problems of the day, to the extent that some novels may look like a catalogue of social problems. This view fails to do justice to their potential as counter texts in an education system where manuals still tend to reflect a European worldview. African language novels, emanating from writers who share the socio-cultural background of the readers, are framed from within.

In his 1996 Asikho ndawo bakithi -Nowhere for us to go, guys- Mngadi gives his own reading of recent history. Having firmly placed apartheid forced removals, constraints on residence and housing combined with limited state investment in townships as the root of the suffering of black people, he illustrates how this created space for internecine conflicts in the 1980ies Durban, which in turn allowed for greed, lust and despondency to sprout. The narrative is overall pessimistic. A candid family in desperate need of accommodation is wiped out, after suffering a harrowing sequence of abuse. Even would-be good Samaritans, with decent conditions, get swallowed. The only solution stems from uprooting the problem, which requires the realisation, among all across the colour spectrum, of the societal catastrophe that lays ahead, and therefore of the need for the building of an inclusive nation.

Paper short abstract:

This paper confronts the arrogance of Eurocentrism and asserts the importance of Afrocentrism because to be an african means a source of pride. Many Africans were not schooled using textbooks reflecting their particular and cultural situations; had Western instructors who ignored their cultures

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores Mafata's self-conscious in his attempt to promote the reclaiming of African culture as part of the African Renaissance and a move for Africans to redefine and reaffirm their identities. To achieve this objective, Afrocentrism is important in honing our analysis as it provides a theory-based structure for the textual analysis of the novel. Afrocentricity is an instrument for confronting Eurocentrism with Africanness, and it is predicated on the uniqueness of Africans. It will be argued that in his effort to articulate the reclaiming of African culture as a weapon to restore nationhood, the author has employed young characters as a tool for portraying his artistic message. The paper demonstrates the author's characterization technique that entails creating two different sets of characters - characters endowed with attributes of indigenous African culture and characters dominated by European culture.Theko is a symbol of the Basotho and Mohlakeng community and their resistance to Western life. When Theko goes to the Basotho initiation school, he is reclaiming Basotho identity for the Mohlakeng community; he symbolises the youth of Mohlakeng. His cousin Kgama on the other hand, symbolises Western sympathies because he goes to missionary school. Since Kgama and Sentebaleng who attend the Western-oriented school, are young people, their lives are easily disrupted and overtaken by new self-identities. They are easy to deceive and once their fragile identities are erased, they have nothing to fall back on.