Nature is Life in Itself

African Literature
2oth Century Historical Events
● (1907) Gandhi organizes Indian civil disobedience against racism and
injustice in South Africa
● (1914-1918) World War I; entirety of Africa divided amongst Europe,
African colonies are prepared for independence at wars end
● (1933) First mass political party formed in Africa, The Nigerian Youth
Movement (NYM)
● (1935) Italy invades Ethiopia
● (1939-1945) World War II
● (1947) African's push for decolonization
● (1956) Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia all receive independence; oil
discovered in Nigeria
● (1961) Zaire receives independence from Belgium
● (1962) Algeria receives independence from France
Historical Events
● (mid-1960s) European colonial era of Africa ends, most African nations
gain independence
● (1963) Organization of African Unity forms
● (1964) Nelson Mandela imprisoned in South African prison for 25 years
● (1967-1970) Nigerian civil war
● (1973) Ethiopian famine kills hundreds of thousands
● (1976) Ebola virus emerges in Sudan and Zaire
● (1981) HIV epidemic begins
● (1990) Nelson Mandela freed; violence erupts between South African black
majority groups and white Nationalist groups
● (1994) Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa; Hutus massacre
millions in Rwanda, millions more flee
● (1996) Rwanda refugees migrate back to escape fighting in Zaire
Negritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological philosophy, developed by
francophone African intellectuals, writers, and politicians in
France during the 1930s. Its initiators included Martinican poet
Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor (a future President of Senegal),
and Léon Damas of French Guiana.

Négritude intellectuals disapproved of French colonialism and

claimed that the best strategy to oppose it was to encourage a
common racial identity for black Africans worldwide.
Totem by Léopold Sédar Senghor
I must hide him in my innermost veins

The Ancestor whose stormy is hot with lightning and

thunder

My animal protector, I must hide him

That I may not break the barriers of scandal:

He is my faithful blood that demands fidelity

Protecting my naked pride against

Myself and the scorn of the luckier races.

West Africa
● They are very known for their
fulfillments and achievements.
● Most of the prolific writers like
Wole Soyinka, the first African
awardee of the Nobel Prize, came
from here.
● Blaise Daigne is the one who
proposed equality in the West
Africa but recruited Africans for
World War II.
West Africa
● 500 African ethnic groups here
alone.
● Nigeria has 200 ethnic groups
● 90% Muslims
● Northern part - Muslim that came
from slave trade
● Southern part - Christians
● Small portions - animism
● Griots - praise singer or poet
● Youruba religion - where they
believe that we planned our lives
with God
West Africa - Nsukka Group
● They are writers, painters, and
artists that came from the
University of Nigeria.
● Their goal is to revive the Uli
art of the Igbo tribe.
● They are bordering in realism to
surrealism art.
● It was a good wake up call to all
people who were affected by the
colonialism.
South Africa
The African National Congress (ANC)
is the Republic of South Africa's
governing social democratic
political party. It has been the
ruling party of post-apartheid South
Africa on the national level,
beginning with the election of
Nelson Mandela in the 1994 election,
the first election after the end of
apartheid.
Fin