West African Literatures: Ways of Reading (Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literature)

286 Pages·2006·1.93 MB·English

by  Stephanie Newell

OXFORD STUDIES IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURES IN ENGLISH
GeneralEditor:EllekeBoehmer
Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures
TheOxfordStudiesinPostcolonialLiteraturesaimtooVerstimulating
and accessible introductions to deWnitive topics and key genres and
regions within the rapidly diversifying Weld of postcolonial literary
studiesinEnglish.
Under the general editorship of Professor Elleke Boehmer, the
Studies in each case elucidate and explicate the informing contexts
ofpostcolonialtexts,andplotthehistoricalandculturalco-ordinates
of writers and of the leading movements, institutions and cultural
debatessituatedwithinthosecontexts.IndividualvolumesreXectin
particular on the shaping eVect both of international theory and of
local politics on postcolonial traditions often viewed as uniformly
cross-cultural, and also on the inXuence of postcolonial writing on
the protocols of international theory. Throughout the focus is on
how texts formally engage with the legacies of imperial and anti-
imperialhistory.OthertitlesintheSeriesincludeTheIndianNovelin
English,PostcolonialPoetryinEnglish,andPacificIslandsWriting.
OXFORD STUDIES IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURES
IN ENGLISH
GeneralEditor:EllekeBoehmer
WEST AFRICAN
LITERATURES
Ways of Reading
Stephanie Newell
1
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IamindebtedtoAnnaKerrforherencouragementandadvicewhen
a case of ‘cold feet’ brought this project to a halt. Elleke Boehmer’s
meticulous, astute comments on the Wrst draft contributed enor-
mously to the Wnal shape of the book, and discussions with MA
studentsinthe‘RepresentingAfrica’classof2003–4attheUniversity
of Sussex helped to clarify many of the topics selected for coverage.
Thanks also to Bethan Benwell for her support, and to Jack and
CharlieScotford-Smithfortheirsensitivity.PhilipCornwallpatiently
assistedwiththeindex.
A research fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust in 2004–5 pro-
videdavaluableperiodforreadingandwriting.Iamgratefultothe
editoroftheJournalofReligioninAfricaforpermissiontorepublisha
portion of my article, ‘Devotion and Domesticity: the ReconWgura-
tion of Gender in Popular Christian Pamphlets from Ghana and
Nigeria’, in Chapter 7. A small part of the Wrst section of Chapter 7
alsoappearedinmyarticle,‘FromtheBrinkofOblivion’,Researchin
African Literatures 27 (3): 50–67, 1996, for which the permission of
IndianaUniversityPressisacknowledged.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements v
Listofmaps x
WestAfricanTimeline xi
1 Introduction:Whereis‘WestAfrica’? 1
1.1 DeWningtheterms:‘post-colonial’,
‘postcolonial(ism)’and‘neocolonial’ 3
1.2 WestAfrican‘-scapes’ 10
1.3 Fromslave-scapetoAfricanpresence:WestAfrica
intheworld 13
1.4 Thecolonial-scape 16
1.5 PostcolonialWestAfrica:anglophoneand
francophonezonesofculture 20
1.6 Anoteonterminology 22
2 Ne´gritude 24
2.1 Ne´gritude:anewhumanism? 34
2.2 Thefeministcritiqueofne´gritude 38
3 FacingEast:IslamandIdentityinWestAfricanLiterature 45
3.1 TheArabiclanguage 47
3.2 SamuelAjayiCrowther’sIslamicencounters 50
3.3 TheIslamic-scape 53
3.4 Ambiguity,experimentandfaithinIslamicWction 55
4 OralLiteratures 59
4.1 Griots 60
4.2 Thesongofabuse 62
4.3 Oralliteratureandtheproblemoftruth 65
4.4 Thebiasofprint 69
viii (cid:1) Contents
5 LostandFoundinTranslation 74
5.1 Oraltexts:transcriptionortranslation? 77
5.2 WestAfricantranslatorsandmistranslators 80
6 ThingsFallApart:PresenceandPalimpsestin
theColonial-scape 85
6.1 Theconceptof‘presence’inAchebe’swriting 86
6.2 Frompresencetopalimpsest 92
6.3 The‘anthropologicalexotic’ 95
6.4 WhatifThingsFallAparthadneverbeenpublished? 97
7 PopularLiterature 101
7.1 Popularliteratureinthe1950sand1960s:
‘Onitshamarketliterature’ 101
7.2 ThereadersofOnitshamarketliterature 110
7.3 Contemporarypopularliterature:pentecostaland
‘born-again’publications 112
7.4 Genderandpopularliterature 119
8 GriotswithPensintheirHands:LiteraryExperiments
withOralGenres,1960s–1990s 124
8.1 Oralityandtheearlywriters 124
8.2 The‘AlterNative’poetsofthe1980sand1990s:
NiyiOsundareandKoWAnyidoho 129
9 FeminismandtheComplexSpaceofWomen’sWriting 136
9.1 TheorizingAfricanwomen’swriting 138
9.2 WomenwritersfromIslamicWestAfrica 140
9.3 Feminism 148
9.4 Beyondfeminism 152
9.5 TheotherFloraNwapa:OneisEnough 153
9.6 TheBiafranWar(1967–70) 157
10 MarxismandWestAfricanLiterature 159
10.1 SoyinkaandtheNigerianLeft 159
10.2 Socialistcreativewriters:OusmaneSembeneand
FemiOsoWsan 165
10.3 AreWestAfricanreaders‘natural’Marxists? 167
Contents (cid:1) ix
11 TheThree‘Posts’:Postmodernism,Poststructuralism,
Postcolonialism 172
11.1 Humanismandpoststructuralism 172
11.2 Therejectionof‘postcolonialism’ 178
12 ExperimentalWritingbythe‘ThirdGeneration’ 182
13 ‘Queering’WestAfricanLiteratures:Calixthe
Beyala,WerewereLiking,andVe´roniqueTadjo 192
14 Conclusion:WestAfricainPostcolonialTheory 201
14.1 Theoriesofplanetarityandcomplementarity 205
14.2 Ne´gritude:areturnandareassessment 209
Notes 214
Bibliography 225
Primarytexts 225
Secondarymaterial 230
Index 251