KShs 100
Description
Anyone would wonder why Lilyan Kestellot opted for “black African literature” in her 1967 black African anthology, when we are not talking about white or yellow literature? Isn’t the expression “negro literature” or “African literature” sufficient as long as one or the other is used to designate the same reality? Why are we specifying the “negro” race? The answer to all these questions is clear. The expression “African Negro” literature has been adopted to designate all literary works, both oral and written, which express the vision of the world, the apprehensions, the experiences and the problems specific to black men of African origin. . In addition, the “black African” determinants brings a geographical nuance which is also an important cultural reference. By “black African”, we avoid the ambiguity that the only African determinant would entail. Thus, it is not about the Blacks of Malaysia or New Guinea, but those of Africa who, over the centuries, have developed a very particular civilization that we recognize with its letters of nobility. Negro-African literature constitutes, after all, a manifestation and an integral part of African civilization. Even though it occurs in a culturally different space, it deserves in many respects to be attached to original Africa. The area of Negro-African literature covers not only Africa south of the Sahara, but also all the corners of the world where black communities have been established who, through a turbulent history, have been torn from their continent, to be deported across the ocean, as slaves in the sugar cane and cotton plantations. From the South of the United States to Brazil, via the West Indies, Cuba, Haiti and the Guianas, the echo of these black voices rebounded in sheaves that returned to Africa its tribute of culture: songs and dances, prose and poems, masks and plays. Works grosso modo marked by the “Negro-African” genius have on the one hand translated martyred Africa into all modes of human expression, and on the other hand, testified to the depth of its roots as much as the vigor of its claws.