/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15872338]

Has anyone here read this? Somebody told me about it today and I didn't know there was african literature which is considered good.

[Anonymous No.15872346]

never heard of it

[Anonymous No.15872377]

>>15872338
It’s common in high school English curriculums

[Anonymous No.15872398]

>>15872338
it's more of a novelty than good. tho if you want to learn about nigeria it's pretty comfy

[Anonymous No.15872419]

It’s a complicated text, as it’s an attempt from Achebe to tell the story of the culture he came from while not attempting to cover up the issues it has. Okonkwo (the main character) is a tragic figure, yet his tragic flaw of being masculine to the point of being abusive makes him hard to sympathize with.

[Anonymous No.15872424]

>>15872338
I have read it.
gotta get them yams son

[Anonymous No.15872499]

>>15872419
What this anon said. Achebe does a really good job of showing both his own and colonial culture as complicated in their interactions. It's well-written, but it also is a complex narrative that one has to think about. It's not the best postcolonial African novel but its contribution to the genre is what makes it so influential.

[Anonymous No.15872520]

>>15872338
I've read it, it's very good. Achebe avoids romanticizing precolonial Africa which is refreshing (esp compared to his contemporaries), while also showing how insidious of a presence Europeans have had in Africa from the outset. I preferred Achebe's Man of the People more though. Like all literature, African lit has good works and bad woks. I can recommend some if you'd like.

[Anonymous No.15872537]

>>15872338
I remember enjoying it in High School.

>>15872520
I'd love to hear your recommendations.

[Anonymous No.15872546]

>>15872338
It's interesting and sad in the sense that it shows a culture that's completely foreign to most of the West; for generations upon generations before the slave trade and colonizing of Africa, this was the culture and way of life for many Africans (at least Achebe's ancestors). It's sad that their ancestral way of life, the way their father and grandfather lived, was simply wiped out, savage and brutal as it may have been. I feel for Achebe even if I disagree about his other ideas (like on Conrad).

[Anonymous No.15872548]

>>15872338
Felt boring, but might reread it since I was forced to read it back in the day

[Anonymous No.15872556]

>>15872520
Yes!

[Anonymous No.15872579]

>>15872546
That said I don't think it's written particularly well, especially when there are alternative writers that write under the same circumstances (ie dissolution/destruction of culture) like Faulkner and the postwar Japanese among others, and they typically write much better.

[Anonymous No.15872596]

>>15872520
very insidious of Europeans to build countries and give them to the savages

[Anonymous No.15872623]

>>15872520
He does avoid mentioning the slavery and indentured servitude that hsi people employed but other than that yeah

[Anonymous No.15872656]

>>15872537
Kintu- Jennifer Makumbi: It is considered to be the "great Ugandan novel" as it is the first novel of substance to come from the country. I really enjoyed the first hundred pages, the rest is ok.

A Man of the People- Chinua Achebe: His best novel imo. Reads like a Dostoevsky.

Burning Grass- Cyprian Ekwensi: A novel set in Nigeria where a man is cursed to wander indefinitely. It's quite compelling and fast paced.

Nervous Conditions- Tsitsi Dangarembga: A Zimbabwean novel of a young girl, who like many young girls in Africa are pressured to work rather than go to school. It's been some years since I read it but I remember it being beautifully written.

I want to get these titles out quickly. I will add another list of novels pulled from books on my shelf

[Anonymous No.15872697]

>>15872623
Well not all African societies had slavery (although it was quite widespread, don't get me wrong), I think the nature of that particular community (which I also remember) was very small, so it wouldn't have the trappings of slave bearing African societies, which were more industrious and advanced than Okonkwo's people. It would be quite interesting to think of a story like TFA where European missionaries encounter an African society with slaves.

[Anonymous No.15872722]

someone should make a chart of african lit

[Anonymous No.15872730]

>>15872623
>all of the world’s second largest continent has exactly the same type of society and culture
pretty ethnocentric way of looking at things my friend

[Anonymous No.15872751]

>>15872656
Pic related is an anthology of African writers of note, I would suggest looking them up and seeing if any of their novels/ poetry would be of interest to you. I'll post the other half shortly.

[Anonymous No.15872757]

>>15872751
Sorry about the angle, it was flipped properly when I initially took the photo

[Anonymous No.15872791]

>>15872730
The igbo held slaves my friend

[Anonymous No.15872823]

>>15872520
>>15872656
>>15872751
>>15872757
Ok last post sorry lads. Here's the rest of the novels written by African writers on my bookshelf. They all happen to be from a collection that Chinua Achebe produced called the African Writers Series:

The African- William Conton (Gambia)
The Black Hermit- James Ngugi (Kenya)
The Identity Card- Jean-Marie Adiaffi (Ivory Coast)
Two Thousand Seasons- Ayi kewi Armah (Ghana)
The Seven Solitudes of Lorsa Lopez- Sony Labou Tansi (Congo)
The Concubine- Elechi Amadi (Nigeria)

[Anonymous No.15872832]

>Has anyone here read this? Somebody told me about it today and I didn't know there was african literature which is considered good.

why does every thread here sound like it's been made by a complete retard?

[Anonymous No.15872875]

>>15872823
Thanks anon, that's a great list. Could even be the beginnings of a chart.

[Anonymous No.15872890]

>>15872823
thx anon

[Anonymous No.15872988]

>>15872338
yams

[Anonymous No.15874072]

>>15872656
Thank you!

[Anonymous No.15874236]

>>15872875
>>15872890
>>15874072
Cheers, maybe I'll brush up on my indesign skills and put together that chart. Soon come!

Also forgot to mention the epic of Sundiata, there's quite a few university press books that have up to date translations + decent commentary. Ok now I think I'm tapped of titles to rec.

[Anonymous No.15874260]

>>15872596
It's exhausting that this is what's taught in the west. Anything to avoid critical introspection I suppose.

[Anonymous No.15874679]

>>15874260
>taught in the west
source?

[Anonymous No.15874719]

One of the greatest novels written since WWII. It’s thoughtful, nuanced, and tragic. Probably better than anything by Pynchon or Delillo.

[Anonymous No.15874756]

>>15874236
Don't know if this is your post but I saved it from a while ago

[Anonymous No.15874787]

I read it for a book club. I felt bad for the tribal nigger guy

[Anonymous No.15874798]

>>15874787
All the dude wanted was to collect the yams his dad squandered.

[Anonymous No.15874874]

>>15874260
What west? In the US they teach that Africa was a paradise before the white man showed up. The noble savage and all that.

[Anonymous No.15874879]

>>15872546
>I feel for Achebe even if I disagree about his other ideas (like on Conrad).
I think it’s a very good book to read directly after HoD. Some ideas in HoD hinge on the notion that people in Africa are less restrained by civilization and culture, while Things Fall Apart shows that they aren’t. This doesn’t make HoD less good in my opinion, but it’s an interesting counterpoint.

[Anonymous No.15874898]

>>15874874
Idk which part of the US you're from(probably the Fantasy Larper belt), but that isn't reflective of any Public School Curriculum I'm familiar with. AP World History spends one literal page on Africa. Normal Civics classes only discuss Africa as it pertains to the TAST. At most you'll get some waxing about the Scramble for Africa and the Free Congo State(because Belgium isn't a particularly important ally, and Leopold did all that of his own accord anyhow). I can guarantee that despite accusations to the contrary, none of you can name more than three things about Pre Colonial black Africa that's true.

[Anonymous No.15874920]

>>15874798
Same desu

[Anonymous No.15874928]

>>15874879
That's was we did I'm my community college class, it was cool.

[Anonymous No.15874945]

>>15874898
Ah, I never said we went into some great depth on Africa, that was literally about all we learned, Africa was great then white man showed up. You have rather poor reading comprehension.

[Anonymous No.15874968]

>>15874945
And I'm disputing that claim. I don't think you learned anything about Pre Colonial Africa, other than Colonialism having a negative effect on it. You probably inferred that due to the above being taught and because you have a victim mindset and feel like your tribe is always under attack.

[Anonymous No.15875002]

>>15874879
The problem with Achebe's view on HoD is that he inflates a minor part of the book into some racist discrimination on the part of Conrad. Hell, it wasn't even directly related to Africa, it could have easily worked well in some other savage part of the world as shown by Apocalypse Now.

[Anonymous No.15875063]

>>15874968
What exactly am I supposedly seeing myself a victim of? I was just curious as to what part of the very large and diverse west another anon was refering too and relating my experiences in US public education system.

[Anonymous No.15875082]

>>15875002
I haven’t seen Apocalypse Now, but I think the idea that the setting could have been moved to some other supposedly savage people just points to more widespread racism. Although racism might be the wrong word as it’s more about discrimination of culture than skin color.
Though I guess it’s hard to determine if Conrad really did think of the people of Congo as savage monkies or if he exaggerated such ideas to work with his themes.

[Anonymous No.15875809]

>>15875082
You should watch it. It's easily one of the better films out there.

[Anonymous No.15876400]

>>15875082
No no, the savageness in HoD and Apocalypse Now isn't in the people, it's in the environment around them. It's the utter brutality of the world to the 'enlightened' man pampered by his civilised society that serves as the way in which the protagonist's humanity is explored. The people who are immersed in this savage world have themselves become savage, like Kurtz and the natives that surround him; and while there is some small amount of racism in the depiction of the people living in this lawless place, it is far away from the point that Conrad was trying to make.

[Anonymous No.15876412]

>>15872338
its like a gothic horror
but theres no return to status quo
and it takes place in colonial africa, not some rich guy whos trying to marry his daugter's castle

[Anonymous No.15876448]

>>15872338
it's pretty good
read it

[Anonymous No.15876495]

>>15872338
Was forced to read it in high school. Don't read it, it is complete shit.
Essentially it's about african savages coming to terms with changing times which stand for modernity and western civilization.
Chinua Achebe and most other african writers is a PROVEN manufactured psyop by the CIA. It's not organic in any way. See links below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG3nKy1oSwM
https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2015/02/african-literature-and-the-cia/

[Anonymous No.15876723]

>>15872338
fuck achebe https://herandrews.com/2013/12/30/up-from-colonialism/

[Anonymous No.15876946]

>>15876400
>The people who are immersed in this savage world have themselves become savage
So does this not imply that the people of Africa are savage, without culture, and less restrained than the people of England? Which again is one of the points of Things Fall Apart - they are not. I agree that this is not the point Conrad is trying to get across, but it is implied.
Unless I misunderstand what you mean by ”savage world”.

[Anonymous No.15877024]

>>15872338
I wrote an essay about this book that won me a 1,000 dollar scholarship so I guess it’s okay

[Anonymous No.15877211]

>>15872520
I picked it up for like 2 euro in a second hand book store ages ago and had no intention of ever actually reading it until I saw this post. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.15877284]

Where should I start with Wole Basedinka? Also are there any African poets worthy of note?

[Anonymous No.15877323]

I didn't see anyone talking about Marachera. The guy is the most based of the postcolonial writers and I think is a strong candidate for /ourguy/.

>Grew up poor, in Rhodesia
>Got a scholarship to Oxford from Rhodesia
>then got expelled from Oxford for threatening to burn down his college and threatening to murder various staff members and students
>read nothing on the syllabus, only read what he wanted and deemed suitable
>chronic alcoholic and smoker
>ended up in a welsh jail for possession of weed
>released pic related after all this
>maybe the true successor to Dostoyevsky's style
>the guardian gave him an awards dinner for the book as their precious black pet writer
>he got kicked out of his own award dinner for throwing plates at the guests
>returned to what was now Zimbabwe
>became homeless and died from Aids

[Anonymous No.15877334]

>>15877323
sounds like a typical n word. What is remarkable about him?

[Anonymous No.15878797]

>>15872338
king nig nog hangs himself

[Anonymous No.15878860]

>>15877323
wew lad

>There was however an excitement of the spirit which made us all wander about in search of that unattainable elixir which our restlessness presaged. But the search was doomed from the start because the elixir seemed to be right under our noses and yet not really there. The freedom we craved for – as one craves for dagga or beer or cigarettes or the after-life – this was so alive in our breath and in our fingers that one became intoxicated by it even before one had actually found it. It was like the way a man licks his lips in his dream of a feast; the way a woman dances in her dream of a carnival; the way the old man ran like a gazelle in his yearning for the funeral games of his youth. Yet the feast, the carnival and the games were not there at all. This was the paradox whose discovery left us uneasy, sly and at best with the ache of knowing that one would never feel that way again. There were no conscious farewells to adolescence for the emptiness was deep-seated in the gut. We knew that before us lay another vast emptiness whose appetite for things living was at best wolfish. Life stretched out like a series of hunger-scoured hovels stretching endlessly towards the horizon. One’s mind became the grimy rooms, the dusty cobwebs in which the minute skeletons of one’s childhood were forever in the spidery grip that stretched out to include not only the very stones upon which one walked but also the stars which glittered vaguely upon the stench of our lives. Gut-rot, that was what one steadily became. And whatever insects of thought buzzed about inside the tin can of one’s head as one squatted astride the pit-latrine of it, the sun still climbed as swiftly as ever and darkness fell upon the land as quickly as in the years that had gone.