I
“Human beings have always have stories to tell and as our species evolve, so is our means of self-expression … and our need to and our need to preserve what we understood to be our past” (Kirszer. 141)
Story telling has been a crucial part of humanity right from time immemorial, and it cannot be narrowed down to just one group of people. However, the history of story-telling may be vague in our insight, we are certain that writing came at a much latter time. Without complexities, writing due to its versatility was used from earlier period to document human philosophies, beliefs, traditions, stories (which the youngest of all is novel), discoveries etc.
Writing begins with the cautious effort of the Neanderthal men attempt to represent their well developed speech traditions through the use of symbols and picture which eventually lead to the unavoidable transition from the dark ages of primitivism to that of literary (Yule 1996). As a matter of fact, history has it that writing began in Africa (Egypt, the cradle of world civilization) and the various groups of people in the world do not develop at the same pace. The Western countries, for example, have gone ahead of the rest of the world in technology, science, literature, commerce, etc. Their languages such as Greek, Latin, and English are considered the languages of scholarship, government, religion etc.
When the Western countries are aggressively progressing in civilization and literacy, many African communities have no written literature but possess rich and varied traditions __such as folklores, folk songs, proverbs, moonlight stories, riddles etc. In this rich form of literature which the Ugandan Scholar, Pio Zimuru, coined as “orature” (oral literature) consists the African philosophy and ideology of life, of humanity, of divinity, of government, and of belief. We cannot explain African peculiarity without deliberate reference to their oral traditions.
II
Not withstanding, we must understand that though Africans prided this wonderful form of literature in their cranial repositories and preserve its uniqueness of history in their capacious memories, there is a need to transliterate it for posterity. As Erily rightly observed that “it is chiefly through books that we have intercourse with superior ancient minds”, the fact is that the faintest ink is better than the sharpest memory.
Although there have been substantial intriguing historical facts about the long tradition of writing in Africa, some enough to arouse our studious minds of curiosity, we should at first agree with Edgar Wright who establishes that “real African literature in English occur in the fifties” (Wright. 1973). However, history has it that books have been in Africa before the Whites came.
Historically, myriad of incunabula books have been brewing in Africa especially in the Northern countries. About 300,000 manuscripts are tucked away in various libraries in Ethiopia (Timbuktu) which is dated back to around 4th century AD. Among these several extant literature of this ancient time include the “Epic of Sundiata” composed in medieval Mali, “Kebra Nagast” (Book of Kings) written in Ge’ez etc.
Overtly, the history of writing is not our main concern but the peculiarity of the Novel literary genre as African. This consequentially leads to the ineluctable question, what is a Novel? In his book, “The Development of the English Novel”, Cross L. Wilbur provided a general explanation for the Novel thus:
“The Novel gives a familiar revelation of such things that pass every day before our eyes such as may happen to our friends or to us; and the perfection of it is to represent every scene in so easy natural manner and to make them appear so probable as to deceive into persuasion (at least while reading) that all is real until we are affected by the joys or distresses of the persons in the story as if they are our own”
This definition seems to be an ordinary explanation, yet it has revealed precisely the pivotal facets of the Novel. Another great definition of great fascination is contained in contained in the Encyclopedia Britannica thus:
“The Novel is an invented prose narrative of considerable length and certain complexities that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting”
This has shown explicitly that the novel is usually of certain length, prosaic, fictional, and realistic. These elements make it different from other forms of literature such as plays, allegories, fables, epic, short stories, and poetry. Having said that, at this juncture, we must consider the argument before us which states that is the Novel African to not?
III
To be certain that our standpoint is justifiable, we must know what we are arguing for or against. Are we saying that the literary genre of the Novel is strictly African or the Novel has an African variant? To say strictly that the Novel is African is an academic aberration devoid of historical fact but positing that the Novel has an African variant is justifiable.
Novel most times is defined by its geographical locations; therefore, we have the English Novel, American Novel, Italian Novel, African Novel etc. The hilarity of saying the Novel is an African “thing” is quickly exposed when some historical fact is considered. The first English novel for example is written by Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) in 1719, while the first African novel written by Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford was in 1911 _a difference of nearly 200years. It is therefore an unequivocal implausibility and improbability to propose that the Novel is African characteristically. Considering the works of Defoe, Richardson, Bronte, Sontag, etc which include novels like “Moll Flanders” “Pamela” “Emma” “Death Kit” which are already published earlier before any modern African novel, we cannot but assert that the novel is not born in Africa. Or do we affirm that those numerous books written in Europe, America and Asia are not novels?
Moreover, I have avowed earlier that the novel is identified by its geographical locations; hence, we have America Novel, English Novel, and Italian Novel etc. However, it is most appropriate to say instead that we have African Novel. The question is, “what makes the African Novel African?” Since not all novels are African, what therefore are the peculiarities of the African Novel differentiating it from other forms of novels in the world?
In the first premise, the African Novel is controversially established as the novel whose authorship is by Africans, for Africans and about Africans. In other words, the African Novel is a novel written about Africa, and African people, their culture, religion, history, socio-political experiences, daily challenges etc. There has been an hot argument about who an African writer should be and what an African writer should write. We have non-Africans who have written extensively and interestingly about Africa and its people, and we have Africans who have written books but not about Africans. It is generally agreed that as African Novel must be about Africans.
These novels usually consist of themes such as: the clash between Africa’s past and present, between tradition and modernity, between indigenous and foreign, between individualism and community, between socialism and capitalism, between development and self-reliance and between Africanity and humanity.
George Joseph notes this in his chapter on “Africa Literature and Understanding Contemporary Africa” that:
“… traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. Rather than write or sing for beauty itself, African writers help in communicating some important messages about the community” (emphasis added)
Similarly, the language of the African Novel must be in such a way that it conveys the beauty of African culture. Though, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Obi Wali and Francis Irele Abiola anong others have argued that African novels should written in indigenous languages, and scholars like Ache has defended his use of English in writing novels, African novels must be written in such a way that it communicate the beauty of African culture.
Its thematic preoccupation is also centered on African past, present and possible future such as its colonial experience, post-colonial occurrence, etc.
Surmising it all, it is obvious that all African novels are novels but not all novels are African. So we have other novels defined by their geographical locations such as English Novels, American Novel etc
REFERENCES
Kirzer, Mandell. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing
Yule, George. The Study of Language(1992)
Wright, Egdar. The Critical Evaluation of African Literature
Epic of Sundiata
Kebra Nagast (Book of Kings)
Wilbur, Coss. Development of the English Novel (1906)
Encyclopedia Britannica
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders (1729)
Sontag, Susan. Death Kit
Joseph, George. African literature and Understanding the Contemporary Africa
Irele, Abiola. The Criticism of Modern African Literature
Thiong’o Ngugi. Decolonizing the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature (1986)
Achebe, Chinua. The Politics and Politicians of Language in African Literature (1989)
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. (1958)
Oloyede, Olatuja. The English Novel: its History and Characteristics
Encyclopedia of African Literature, London: Routledge, (2003)
George, Joseph “African Literature” in Gordon, Understanding Contemporary Africa (1996)
Ali, Mazrui. The Development of Modern African Literature since 1935.
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