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Literature and Ideology in Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2019
Extract
Time and again students of contemporary Africa have stressed the impact of ideologies on the literary works of contemporary African writers. Authors have also insisted on the imperative need to link closely the study of the new written literature from Africa with the study of the general cultural and political renaissance of the past two or three decades in Africa.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1972
References
1 Wauthier, Claude (London, Pall Mall Press, 1966). Translated from the French original, L'Atrique des Africans (Paris, Seuil, 1964).Google Scholar
2 Op. cit. p.23.
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12 L. V. Thomas, op, cit. p.8, quoting F. Dumont, op. cit. p. 49.
13 Ibid. p. 8.
14 Cf. L.V. Thomas, op. cit., p.8.
15 The terms mythomanie, ideologie mystifiante. etc., when referring to Negritude and other contemporary Negro-African ideologies appear in many writings and interviews by Ousmane Sembene. As for d'Arboussier he wrote in 1949 an article entitled: “La Negritude, une ideologie mystificatrice” La Nouvelle Critique, (Paris, June 1949).
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17 Cf. Le Soleil Dakar, 8 May, 1971 , No 305, pp 49-52 This special issue of the Dakar daily paper is entirely devoted to the publication of the papers read at the Dakar Colloquium on Negritude (April, 1971) by high ranking Senegalese government officials and scholars from Senegal and from other African countries The mere list of titles shows clearly the desperate desire of the organizers of the colloquium to illustrate the viability of the concept of Negritude by linking it closely to almost all human activities. Thus L.S. Senghor's opening presentation on “The Problematics of Negritude” was followed by “Negritude and Humanism” by Thomas Melone from the University of Cameroun: “Negritude and Literature” by Mohamadou Kane, Faculty of Letters: “Negritude and the Contemporary Plastic Arts” by Papa Ibra Tall, director of the National Tapestry Workshop at Thies: “Negritude and Development” by Prime Minister Abdou Diouf: “Negritude and Politics“ by Alioune Sene, Minister of Culture: “Negritude and Modern Law” by Seydou Madani Sy, dean of the Faculty of Law and of the Economic Sciences; “Negritude and Mathematics” by Souleymane Niang, dean of the Faculty of Sciences.
18 “Negritude and African Personality” See Le Soleil, Dakar, May, 1971.
19 E.W. Blyden used the expression first in a lecture given in Freetown in 1893.
20 The international cultural festivals and colloquia mark the various episodes of this dispute: Premier Festival Mondial cles Arts Negres, Dakar, April, 1966; Premier Festival Culturel Pan-African, Algiers, July, 1969; Colloque sur la Negritude. Dakar, April, 1971; So far the Second World Festival of Negro Arts is scheduled for 1974 in Nigeria, but Senghor has already announced that Dakar would be the scene of a major cultural festival in 1973.
21 In Opening Address, Colloquium on The Teaching of African Literature in African Universities, Dakar, April, 1963 cf. C Moore, ed. African Literature and the Universities (Ibadan University Press, 1965), p 15.
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29 Things Fall Apart, p. 188. My italics.
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31 Arrow of God p. 287. My italics.
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33 One remarkable exception is Wole Soyinka's The Interpreters.
34 In fact Ousmane Sembene has produced over the last few years several prize winninq films.
35 Cf Cheik Amidou Kane's L'aventure ambigue (1961).
36 Les bouts de bors de Dreu (Paris, Le Livre Contemporain 1960) pp 375-6.
37 Ibid, p. 106 My italics.
38 Buchet-Chastel, 1958, p. 127 English Translation King Lazarus, (London, Muller, 1961).
39 The African Image (London, Faber, 1962) pp. 20-23.
40 The All-African People's Conference, organized by Dr Kwame Nkrumah in Accra, December 1958, a year after his country's independence.
41 The Mind of Africa, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson). pp 38-39.