African Literature and the Future 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 1 30/05/2015 07:36:39 This book is a product of the CODESRIA 13th General Assembly, 2011 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 2 30/05/2015 07:36:39 Africa and the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century African Literature and the Future Edited by Gbemisola Adeoti Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa DAKAR 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 3 30/05/2015 07:36:39 © CODESRIA 2015 Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop, Angle Canal IV BP 3304 Dakar, 18524, Senegal Website : www.codesria.org ISBN : 978-2-86978-633-2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from CODESRIA. Typesetting: Alpha Ousmane Dia Cover Design: Ibrahima Fofana Distributed in Africa by CODESRIA Distributed elsewhere by African Books Collective, Oxford, UK Website: www.africanbookscollective.com The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, promote research-based publishing and create multiple forums geared towards the exchange of views and information among African researchers. All these are aimed at reducing the fragmentation of research in the continent through the creation of thematic research networks that cut across linguistic and regional boundaries. CODESRIA publishes Africa Development, the longest standing Africa based social science journal; Afrika Zamani, a journal of history; the African Sociological Review; the African Journal of International Affairs; Africa Review of Books and the Journal of Higher Education in Africa. The Council also co-publishes the Africa Media Review; Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue; The African Anthropologist and the Afro-Arab Selections for Social Sciences. The results of its research and other activities are also disseminated through its Working Paper Series, Green Book Series, Monograph Series, Book Series, Policy Briefs and the CODESRIA Bulletin. Select CODESRIA publications are also accessible online at www.codesria.org. CODESRIA would like to express its gratitude to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA), the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Open Society Foundations (OSFs), Trust Africa, UNESCO, UN Women, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the Government of Senegal for supporting its research, training and publication programmes. 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 4 30/05/2015 07:36:39 Content About the Contributors vii .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Introduction: Present Tension in Future Tenses – Re-Writing Africa into the Twenty-first Century Gbemisola Adeoti 1 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1. Orality, Modernity and African Development: Myth as Dialogue of Civilisations Inyani Simala 15 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 2. Requiem for Absolutism: Soyinka and the Re-Visioning of Governance in Twenty-first Century Africa Gbemisola Adeoti 33 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3. A Critical Discourse Evaluation of Decolonisation and Democratisation: Issues in Africa as Exemplified in Soyinka’s Non-Fictional Texts Henry Hunjo 49 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4. Power, Artistic Agency and Poetic Discourse: Poetry as Cultural Critique in Africa Sule E. Egya 59 ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5. African Literature and the Anxiety of Being in the Twenty-first Century Stephen Ogundipe 77 .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6. A Critical Analysis of Prophetic Myths in the Selected Fiction of Ben Okri Olusola Ogunbayo 89 ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 5 30/05/2015 07:36:39 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 6 30/05/2015 07:36:39 About the Contributors Gbemisola Adeoti, Professor and Director, Institute of Cultural Studies, English Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. Henry Hunjo, Lecturer, Department of English, Lagos State University, Ojoo, Nigeria. Olusola Ogunbayo, Lecturer, English Department of Redeemer’s University, Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria. Stephen Ogundipe, Lecturer of poetry and African oral literature, English Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. Inyani Simala, Lecturer, Department of Language and Literature Education, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega, Kenya. Sule E. Egya, Senior Lecturer, English Department, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria. 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 7 30/05/2015 07:36:39 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 8 30/05/2015 07:36:39 Introduction Present Tension in Future Tenses: Re-writing Africa into the Twenty-first Century Gbemisola Adeoti The tale of Africa’s march through the labyrinth of history is long and multilayered. If can, however be aptly summarised through the framework of paradox and irony. From ancient times to the period of slavery and colonialism to the present era of neo-colonialism, the continent and its people are defined by simultaneous visibility and absence, excitement and neglect, power and powerlessness. Did the African monarchs not wield so much power over their people? But were those powers not appropriated by the colonialists in a way that made the native rulers mere spectators in the arena of their own dance? The post-independence states are supposed to be sovereign, but the levers of economic and political control reside in the donor states (USA, Britain, France, Netherlands, Germany and so on), thus, creating a situation of freedom cut short by debilitating dependence. It is within these interstices of irony and paradox that we can probe the harsh reality of mass poverty amidst opulence of the few; joblessness amidst apparent growth in services and other neglected sectors; and unending violence in spite of huge investment in security. Not in many fora is this complex reality that defines Africa more trenchantly articulated than in imaginative literature produced about and on the continent. This is the crux of the six essays collected in this book. In the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, many African countries attained what was described as ‘independence’ from colonial rule. The wave of independence that swept through a substantial part of Africa was salutary, imbuing the people with great expectations. Independence struggles created much hope for freedom from domination by foreign rulers who seized the continent and turned the 0- PRELIM et intro -African Literature and the Future.indd 1 30/05/2015 07:36:39