African
Folktales
African
Literature for Children and Young Adults
African
Novels for the High School Curriculum
A
Selection of Resources on the World Wide Web
African
Folktales
|TOP|
Aardema,
Verna. Anansi Does the Impossible! An Ashanti Tale. Ill. by
Lisa Desimini. NY: Atheneum, 1997. Verna Aardema is from New Era,
Michigan. According to Something About the Author (vol. 107),
Aardema has ìnever been closer to the shores of Africa than Florida
(5). Aardema's earlier published works were collections rather than
single stories, and these include bibliographies showing that translations
by missionaries and ethnologists from Europe were one of her main
sources.
-----.Bimwili
and the Zimwi: A Tale From Zanzibar.
----.How
the Ostrich got its Long Neck: A Tale from the Akamba of Kenya.
Ill. by Marcia Brown. NY: Scholastic, 1995. Told to a NY school teacher
traveling in Kenya.
----.Koi and the Kola Nuts: A Tale from Liberia. Ill. by Joe Cepeda.
NY: Atheneum, 1999. The original source is Koi and His Heritage
in a booklet, Nemo and Other Stories published by the National
Fundamental Education Centre, Klay, Liberia, 1954, as part of the
Each One Teach One program.
Diakite,
Baba Wague. The Hatseller and the Monkeys. Scholastic, 1999.
Diakite, the author and illustrator, is from Mali, in West Africa.
The tale has variants in many parts of the world, perhaps the best
known here in the U.S. being Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.
Gatti,
Anne. Tales from the African Plains. Paintings by Gregory Alexander.
NY: Dutton, 1994. Paintings by Gregory Alexander is the statement
that gets the larger print on the title page. Retold by Anne Gatti
is in minute print. The back-of-book information tells us that Anne
Gatti writes a nature column in England. Gregory Alexander has traveled
extensively in Kenya, and his artwork, inspired by African tales and
art, appears to be the main motivation for this book.
Kurtz,
Jane. Fire on the Mountain. Ill. by E. B. Lewis. NY: Simon
and Schuster, 1994. Authorís note in back of book: "As a child
growing up in Ethiopia, I heard the story ìFire on the Mountainî a
number of times." Kurtz goes on to explain that the sister in
this retelling is her own introduction, but that there is a tradition
of strong women in Ethiopian stories. Jane Kurtz, the daughter of
American missionaries, grew up in the village of Maji in southwestern
Ethiopia.
Mollel,
Tololwa M. The Orphan Boy. Ill. by Paul Moran. Oxford U. P.,
1990. Mollel is from Tanzania, and lives in Canada. This story is
a retelling of one that was told to him by his grandfather. After
Mollel left Tanzania to study in Canada, he "got enough distance
from his Maasai roots to recognize the depth of experience related
in the fables and myths his grandfather told him as a child"
(Something About the Author, vol. 88, 141).
Nevin,
Tom. Zamani: African Tales from Long Ago. Nairobi, Kenya: Jacaranda
Designs, 1995. Illustrated by various African artists. The author,
a white South African, has worked as a journalist in many parts of
Africa. He has collected folktales himself and he has also built up
a large collection of published folktales. There is an introduction
before each story, setting the scene in terms of place and tradition.
Onyefule,
Obi. Chinye: A West African Folk Tale. Ill. by Evie Safarowiez.
NY: Viking, 1994. Compare with the African-American tale, The Talking
Eggs Onyefule is a member of the Igbo people of Nigeria. He has
been collecting folktales of the Igbo for many years.
Paye,
Won-Ldy and Lippert, Margaret H. Why Leopard Has Spots: Dan Stories
from Liberia. Ill. by Ashley Bryan. Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 1998.
African Studies Association award winning book. Won-Ldy Paye is a
member of the Dan ethnic group in northeastern Liberia. He belongs
to a storytelling family, and so became trained in storytelling when
he was growing up. In addition to the stories, this book includes
explanations of the storytelling tradition in the Dan culture, with
notes on each story and the circumstances when they were usually told.
Steptoe,
John. Mufaroís Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. Lothrop,
1987. John Steptoe (1950-1989) was an American illustrator and writer,
who saw a need for "books that black children could honestly
relate to." This book won the Coretta Scott King Award, and is
available on a Reading Rainbow video.
African
Literature for Children and Young Adults |TOP|
Bibliographies
Khorana,
Meena. Africa in Literature for Children and Young Adults: An Annotated
Bibliography of English-Language Books. Westport, CT: Greenwod
Press, 1994. African and Western authors are represented. The annotations
are substantial.
Miller-Lachmann,
Lyn. Our Family, Our Friends, Our World: An Annotated Guide to
Significant Multicultural Books for Children and Teenagers. New
Providence, NJ: Bowker, 1992. The second half of this bibliography
deals with the world outside the U.S. There are three chapters on
Africa, one for North African and the Middle East, one for Sub-Saharan
Africa, and one devoted to South Africa. The bibliography is a very
good source for teachers seeking age-appropriate books that can easily
be found in U.S. libraries.
Rochman,
Hazel. Against Borders: Promoting Books for a Multicultural World.
Chicago: ALA Books/Booklist Publications, 1993. Multiculturalî bibliography.
The section on Africa consists of a small selection of books considered
suitable for high school.
Reference
Hunt,
Peter. International Companion Encyclopedia of Childrenís Literature.
Edited by Peter Hunt, Associate Editor, Sheila Ray. NY: Routledge,
1996. English-Speaking Africa by Jay Heale, pp. 795-801.
A survey writing and publishing for children in Africa. Notice that
the body of literature published in Africa for Africans is not the
same as the body of African literature that is available in the United
States.
Maddy,
Yulisa Amadu and Donnarae MacCann. African Images in Juvenile Literature:
Commentaries on Neocolonialist Fiction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
1996. Criticism of the portrayal of Africa and of Africans that is
found in literature by non-African people and by white South Africans.
Bookbird
World of Children's Books- Quarterly journal of IBBY, the International
Board on Books for Youth. Most issues are on a theme, e.g. postcolonial
children's books. The Spring 1998 issue (vol. 36, no. 1) is a special
issue on African children's literature.
African
Novels for the High School Curriculum |TOP|
Chinua
Achebe¹s novels Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease, A Man of
the People, Arrow of God, and Anthills of the Savannah trace the
history of Nigeria from colonialism to the present. All are approachable
classics appropriate to the classroom.
Mariama
Ba's epistolary novella So Long A Letter examines polygamy
from a woman¹s perspective.
Ayi
Kwei Armah's The Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born is a challenging
radical novel from Ghana.
Tsitsi
Dangerembga's Nervous Conditions is an engaging and disturbing
coming of age novel from Zimbabwe.
Buchi
Emecheta's Joys of Motherhood is an ironic novel about moving
from the village to the city in colonial Nigeria-a great work
for exploring the role of women in modern Africa, tribal vs. modern
customs, the Third World urban crisis, etc.Second Class Citizen
and In the Ditch address challenges that face Nigerians living
in London.
Nadine
Gordimer won the Noble prize for her brilliant writing on the theme
of Apartheid in South Africa. Her best known novel is Burger's
Daughter; her short stories may be more approachable.
Cheikh
Hamidou Kane's Ambiguous Adventure is justly one of the most
canonical works in the francophone (French) African tradition. Works
well in the classroom as it examines European civilization from the
point of view of an African from Senegal who travels to Paris to study
philosophy.
Camara
Laye's Dark Child, another francophone classic, describes the
tribal youth and the distance that a young boy moves from his home
community when he enters a colonial school.
Rene
Maran's Batouala is one of the early francophone texts written
by a black Martiniquian administrator in French West Africa in 1921;
the novella portrays the vitality of African culture.
Mark
Mathabane's Kafir Boy reveals the nature of South African Apartheid
from the point of view of a teenage African boy who falls in love
with the sport of tennis. In the next volume of this autobiography
Mathabane tells the story of his immigration to the United States.
His story was made into a film.
Ngugi
wa Thiong'o, one of the best known East African authors, writes novels
that are challenging and politically engaged. One might begin with
Weep Not, Child.
Flora
Nwapa's Efuru tells the life of a precontact Ibo tribe (modern
day Nigeria) from the point of view of female villagers. Considered
one of the most important works by an African women, the novel makes
a very interesting comparison with Things Fall Apart.
Alan
Patan's Cry the Beloved Country is the chestnut of South African
literature. Written in 1949 at the start of Apartheid, it chronicles
the separations of race and economics that still mark not only South
Africa, but the world.
Tayeb
Salih's Season of Migration to the North is a compelling Sudanese
work about the lasting and disturbing effects of receiving a European
education.
Ousmane
Sembene, a francophone writer from Senegal, is regarded as one of
the founding fathers of African literature. His radical novel God¹s
Bits of Wood works well in the classroom. Xala is a short but
powerful novella that has become an allegory of contemporary Africa.
There are fine short stories in Tribal Scars and Other Stories.
Aminata
Sowfall's The Beggar¹s Strike is a short, ironic novel. What
might happen if the beggars in a modern African city went on strike?
Definitely
not written from an African perspective, nonetheless Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness is a powerful critique of Belgian colonialism.
See Achebe¹s famous essay, "Racism in Heart of Darkness"
and read along with African titles such as Things Fall Apart, Efuru,
Ambiguous Adventure, etc. Other problematic literary depictions
of Africa include Tarzan by Burroughs and King Soloman¹s
Mines by Haggard.
Watch
for authentic African films and the video series Africa The Triple
Heritage by Ali Mazuri.
Help
students critique stereotyped versions of Africa, such as Disney's
The Lion King or Tarzan.
Works
such as Decolonizing the Mind and Writers and Politics
by Ngugi, Manichean Aesthetics by JanMohmad, Resistance
and African Fiction by Lazarus, and In My Father's House
by Appiah are all valuable works addressing African literature. Wretched
of the Earth by Fanon and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
by Rodney provide importantbackground on colonialism.
African
Literature A Selection of Resources on the World Wide Web
African
Literature: Starting Points on the World Wide Web |TOP|
The
Electronic African Bookworm: A Web Navigator This guide is to
general web resources on Africa, with special attention to web sites
on African books and publishing.
Femmes Ecrivains et Litterature
Africain Francophone This site provides an attractive compilation
of information on Francophone women writers of Africa. Entries include
biographical information, bibliographies, and some poems and short
stories. The web site is in French, with a briefer English version
available.
Africa South of
the Sahara. Topics: Literature Stanford University Libraries'
guide to information on African literature on the Web.
University of Florida
Librariesí Africana Collection Page A section of the librariesí
web site that serves as a compendium of information on African topics.
Under "Literature" there are pages for individual poets and for childrenís
authors, including biographic information, and in some cases, excerpts
from their writings.
Children's
Literature
African Children's Literature.
This is an excellent starting point. A brief article by Lillian Temu
Osaki seeks to define African childrenís literature. There are information
pages on a selection of childrenís authors, and a good web links and
bibliography section.
Africa Access Review Database
An online journal compiled and edited by Brenda Randolph, which contains
reviews and annotations of materials on Africa, mainly books for children
and adolescents. In addition to reviews, books are given ratings and
the grade level is indicated. Reviewers are all knowledgeable about
Africa.
General
Information on Africa: Background, Current Affairs, etc.
Africa
Today This journal is available online by subscription through
Project Muse. This means that it may be available through your university
libraryís web site.
Africa
News on the World Wide Web
Worldview Magazine Online
Daily Nation on the
Web Kenya's main newspaper. The website also has access to The
East African, a weekly newspaper.
Publishers on the Web African Books
Collective The African Books Collective distribute books for a
number of African publishing houses. The web site has links to some
interesting publishers' sites.
African
World Press, Inc. / Red Sea Press, Inc. New Jersey-based publishers
that specialize in books on issues related to Africa. The catalog
lists reference books and many works on African literature.
Baobab Publishers of Zimbabwe
One of the attractions of this web site is a list of award winning
books, indicating winners of such awards as the Noma Award, which
is given to books published in Africa each year.
Jacaranda Designs Ltd.
A Nairobi publishing house that publishes children's books written
and illustrated by Africans.
