African Literature

African literature has been an important part of all written and oral arts since long time ago. It consists of amazing and legendary proverbs as well as many stories about all the problems and situations that all people living in the country have been facing throughout the years.

The first african written work was found in the year 2300 b.C., just after the Egyptians started using papyrus and texts when the members of their town died. With this, the people from the sub-Saharan Africa, started using oral literature such as: proverbs, riddles, epic narratives, songs, chant, folktales and all those things that made their culture rich in rituals and traditions. In the year 1920 African literature was enormously influenced by the Islams. People started using an Arabic style to write such as the first African history written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi.

Colonization came to destroy the primitive and peaceful culture that Africans had. Europeans forced them to do harsh work. They were not just treated as objects, they were kidnapped and sent far away from home. This made all slaves to start writing about their situation and feelings. Soon, all newspapers were full of African poems and stories.

The Negritude movement, started between 1920 and 1930, which was all about valuing everyone’s life, since Africans were treated so badly, they had lost all hopes in everything.

Many books and writings were published to make this people understand they were real human beings, and to make conscience that they were still a country and that they had to keep fighting to move forward. 

Reference:

Unc.edu (1930) African Literature. [online] Available at: http://www.unc.edu/~hhalpin/ThingsFallApart/literature.html [Accessed: 29 Jan 2013].

Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian writer, poet, professor and critic who was born in November 16, 1930. Since he was a kid, he was very attracted with everything that had to do with traditions and religion. He studied in the University of Ibada and in 1958 his first and most recognized novel, was published: “Things Fall Apart” which was inspired in a poem by W. B. Yeats called "The Second Coming”.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, he wrote many books using his admirable creativity about the traditional ways of life coming into conflict from different points of view.

Two years after the Nigerian war of 1970, he went to the United States to give several lectures at different universities.

During these years he also married Christie Chinwe Okoli with who she had four kids.

He has won several prices throughout his life such as the Booker McConnell Prize in 1987, the Man Booker International Prize in 2007 and the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize in 2010. He has received great recognition and more than 30 honorary degrees in different universities around the World.

Unfortunately, in the beginning of 1990’s Chinua suffered from a fatal car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down and forced him to be seated on a wheelchair. But surprisingly this didn’t stopped this man, a little time after, he moved to the united states to teach in Bard College, New York City, where he stayed for fifteen years. In 2009 he left New York to start teaching in Brown University in Rhode Island.

Today we still keep recognizing his great talent and writing, his amazing novel “Things Fall Apart” has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Reference List:

BBC News (2012) Achebe publishes Biafran memoir. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/19742303 [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

BIO (1980) Chinua Achebe Biography. [online] Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665?page=2 [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

Google.com (n.d.) Google Image Result for http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780385474542_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg. [online] Available at: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&rls=en&biw=1219&bih=591&tbm=isch&tbnid=LdzBJdlMA3U3wM:&imgrefurl=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe/1100271578&docid=-n1D_fs_4tihZM&imgurl=http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780385474542_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg&w=260&h=401&ei=re0BUeumBKemygG-gIEY&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=184&vpy=216&dur=386&hovh=279&hovw=181&tx=99&ty=209&sig=103641770851650167356&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=80&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0,i:184 [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

Jiffynotes.com (1999) JiffyNotes: Things Fall Apart: Summary: Points to Ponder. [online] Available at: http://www.jiffynotes.com/ThingsFallApart/PointstoPonder.html [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

Importance of Literature in Education

Through our whole lives, literature has always been involved in our schools and education, since its not only important for it, it is a part of it. Many may take it as a friend, other few don´t like it. There is a lot more to literature than books, it is defined as any written or spoken material; the art of written work.

Literature helps us in many ways, it makes us analyze things and lets us see the world through someone else's eyes. It develops our minds and makes them work efficiently. It is important to know and be informed of literature so we can figure out and understand the world we are living in.

Books and written documents, are the ones that provide all the information we need in school, every time we have to research something we can count on a book as a trustworthy source, since most of the information appearing there is verified and real. Without the existence of literature in our daily education, we wouldn't be able to read and write, which are both essential things, not just in our schools, in our daily life. Written expression is one of the main ways of communication now a days.

Many authors have the ability of changing our way of thinking, this is important in education since it is the way that literature will help us find and learn the things that are correct and the ones that aren't. Throughout all the things we read in school we create our own criteria and become the people we are. We get to know other cultures and learn how to accept different ways of thinking.

As wise man called C.S Lewis once said: “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”

Reference:
The Argumentative Old Git (2011) Why teach literature in schools?. [online] Available at: http://argumentativeoldgit.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-teach-literature-in-schools/ [Accessed: 29 Jan 2013].