Reading Contemporary African Literature: Critical Perspectives

427 Pages·2013·6.85 MB·English

by  Reuben Makayiko Chirambo (editor), J. K. S. Makokha (editor)

Reading Contemporary
African Literature
163 Internationale Forschungen zur
Allgemeinen und
Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft
Begründet von Alberto Martino und in Verbindung mit
Francis Claudon (Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne) – Rüdiger Görner
(Queen Mary, University of London) – Achim Hölter (Universität Wien) –
Klaus Ley (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) – John A. McCarthy
(Vanderbilt University) – Alfred Noe (Universität Wien) – Manfred Pfister
(Freie Universität Berlin) – Sven H. Rossel (Universität Wien)
herausgegeben von
Norbert Bachleitner
(Universität Wien)
Redaktion: Paul Ferstl und Rudolf Pölzer
Anschrift der Redaktion:
Institut für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Sensengasse 3A , A-1090 Wien
Reading Contemporary
African Literature
Critical Perspectives
Edited by
Reuben Makayiko Chirambo and J. K. S. Makokha
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2013
Cover image: www.dreamstime.com
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de “ISO 9706:1994, Information et documentation - Papier pour documents -
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The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ ISO
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Die Reihe “Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden
Literaturwissenschaft” wird ab dem Jahr 2005 gemeinsam von Editions
Rodopi, Amsterdam – New York und dem Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin
herausgegeben. Die Veröffentlichungen in deutscher Sprache erscheinen im
Weidler Buchverlag, alle anderen bei Editions Rodopi.
From 2005 onward, the series “Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen
und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft” will appear as a joint publication
by Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam – New York and Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin.
The German editions will be published by Weidler Buchverlag, all other
publications by Editions Rodopi.
ISBN: 978-90-420-3675-8
E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-0937-3
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2013
Printed in The Netherlands
Contents

Foreword
Moradewun Adejunmobi 11

Introduction
Reuben Makayiko Chirambo & J. K. S. Makokha 15

Section I: General Perspectives
1. ‘English Does Not Kill’: Writing Lives in the Language of the ‘Other’
Stella Borg Barthet 27

Section II: Fiction
2. A Stylistic Analysis of the Story Element in Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat
Sarala Krishnamurthy 49

3. Mahilet: A Laboratory of Stylistic Experimentation
Tewodros Gebre 69

4. Through the Male Eyes: Gendered Styles in
Contemporary Zambian Fiction
Cheela Chilala 91
5. Politics and Stylistics of Female (Re)Presentation in
James Ng’ombe’s Sugarcane with Salt
Nick Mdika Tembo 109
6. Telling Lives: Myth, Metaphor and Metafiction in Zakes Mda’s Cion
Marita Wenzel 127
7. Politics and Poetics of Characterization in
M. G. Vassanji’s The Book of Secrets
J. K. S. Makokha 139
8. The Invisible Twin: Visibility and Identity in
Marie-Thérèse Humbert’s À l’autre bout de moi
Stephanie Cox 159
9. Thematic Design and Stylistic Patterns in
Cameron Duodu’s The Gab Boys
Kofi Owusu 181
6 Contents
10. ‘We Can Redream this World and Make the Dream Real’:
The Utopian Quest in Ben Okri’s Primary Myths
Abiodun Adeniji 197
11. Orality and the Emergence of Disrupted Narrative Voices
in Charles Samupindi’s Pawns
Maurice Taonezvi Vambe 213
12. ‘Zimbolicious’: Shona-English Stylistics in Lyrics and Literature
Flora Veit-Wild 237

Section III: Poetry and Orature

13. Repression and Beyond: Ideological Commitment and Style in
Jack Mapanje’s and Steve Chimombo’s Poetry
Reuben Makayiko Chirambo 263

14. Oguaa Aban and Cape Coast Castle: Same Edifice, Different
Metaphors in the Poetry of Gaddiel Acquaah and
Kwadwo Opuku-Agyemang
Leonard Acquah 293

15. Self and Nature: The Cean Dialogues
Gloria M. T. Emezue 309
16. Transitions in South African Urban Poetry: The City of
Johannesburg in Three Poems of the Apartheid Period
Sonja Altnöder 335
17. Verbal Fluidities and Masculine Anxieties of the
Glocal Urban Imaginary in Kenyan Genge Rap
Chris Wasike 355

Section IV: Drama and Theatre

18. Language Use and Identity Negotiation in Cameroonian Drama
Kizitus Mpoche 375
Contents 7
19. Afrikaans and Afrikaner Nationalism in Deon Opperman’s
Donkerland
Marisa Keuris 403
20. ‘Neither Peace nor War’: The Role of Theatre in Re-Imagining
the New Eritrea
Richard Boon 421

Contributors 439
Acknowledgements

There are a number of scholars we would like to thank for their intellectual
support in the course of compiling this collective book: Moradewun Ade-
junmobi, Ayobami Kehinde, Geoffrey V. Davis, Mpalive-Hangson Msiska,
Heather Snell, Vincent Odamtten, J. B. A. Afful, Christine Kwame Awuyah,
Gilbert Doho, Divine Che Neba, Naomi Nkealah, Linda Kwatsha, Giacomo
Macola, Felix Mnthali, Syned Mthatiwa, Bright Molande, Shawkat Toorawa,
Felicity Hand Cranham, Francoise Verges, Jane Plastow, Ghirmai Negash,
Fekade Azeze, Mercy Ntangaare, Austin Bukenya, Eckhard Breitinger, Va-
chaspati Dwivedi, Augustine Nwagbara, Kitche Magak, Pauline Dodgson-
Katiyo, Ewald Mengel, Íde Corley, Miriam Chitiga, Zoe Norridge, Temple
Hauptfleisch, Stephanie Jones, Tony Simoes da Silva, Johan L. Coetser,
Hein Willemse, Dan Ojwang’, Garnette Oluoch-Olunya, Michael Echeruo,
Bernth Lindfors, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Jennifer Wawrzinek, Evan Mwangi
and Irene Marques.
Special thanks to contributors of chapters in this book. Their commit-
ment and hard work is very commendable. Also special thanks to Professor
Russell West-Pavlov for his consistent support, encouragement and patron-
age of the project from the moment it was conceived. A note of gratitude is
extended once more to Geoffrey V. Davis for his editorial tips and to
Katharina Reinartz and Lenka Filipova for their help with formatting.
We are also grateful for the generous support of the Centre for Interna-
tional Cooperation at the Free University of Berlin that enabled J. K. S.
Makokha to visit the University of Cape Town in South Africa where the
co-editors met and mooted this book project. We also appreciate the gener-
ous support and encouragement of colleagues in the Department of English
at the University of Cape Town and at the Institute for English Studies, Free
University of Berlin and for the German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD) for funding the research stay of one of the editors in Germany.
All the chapters in this book were subjected to a blind peer review pro-
cess. Readers of this book are kindly requested to observe a minute of si-
lence in recognition of the contribution and academic leadership of the late
Dr. Reuben Makayiko Chirambo (1963-2011), one of the co-editors. Reuben
was until the time of his demise (6th October, 2011) a member of the aca-
demic staff, Department of English, University of Cape Town, Republic of
South Africa. This book is devoted to his memory and scholarship.
Foreword

Language, words, and texts serve as one among several other means of
communication. Which language is used and how language is used in the
production of texts therefore speaks to the larger problematic of communi-
cation within a given setting or society. In considering the particularities of
style and language in any type of text, we are in addition addressing the
question of communication in different forms, for different purposes, by
different kinds of authors, for different publics and audiences. A discussion
of style and language with respect to African literature matters in several
ways: for the indications that might be gleaned about the operation of liter-
ariness and creativity in African societies, about the interaction between
spoken and written or mediated language in African societies, and about the
identities endorsed and promoted by individual artists and intellectuals in
contemporary Africa. This list is far from exhaustive, but highlights consid-
erations which should, in my opinion, feature prominently in studies of
African literature that are especially focused on style and language.
In my own work, I have been particularly interested in what the language
of the creative text suggests about the author or composer’s position on
what constitutes a politically useful identity, in the aftermath of colonialism.
As we advance further in the twenty-first century, other types of questions
need to be asked about the language choices made by African authors and
the concerns that inform those language choices. One author may make
choices based on the desire to convene a certain kind of audience, imagined
along national, ethnic, religious, and ideological lines. Another author’s lan-
guage choices may be motivated by a desire to be appropriately representa-
tive of the cultural past. Yet other authors’ language choices may gesture
towards a yet unrealized future, whose goal is to move readers towards defi-
nition of a new identity, or a redefinition of an old identity. Current studies
of language in African literature could elucidate what an author’s language
choices might signify at this point in time, against the background of chang-
ing language practices motivated by evolving political considerations and
new demographic pressures.
Interactions between multiple languages in a creative text embody chang-
ing orientations towards identity within a society and represent perhaps the
most fertile terrain for an examination of language use in African texts,
whether such interactions involve translation, code-switching, or ‘relexifica-
tion’ (Zabus 1991), among many possibilities. More so than other elements
of style, language selections point to communicative priorities in an overt
way. If we concede that many authors on the African continent who write in
European languages today are more interested in addressing their educated