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MIDDLE EASTERN AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

AFRICAN LITERATURE
1. African literature, the body of traditional oral and
written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African 1. Spider tales are found
languages together with works written by Africans in extensively throughout
European languages (BRITANNICA). West Africa (Lee, 1930).
2. LITERARY WORKS IN THE AFRICAN CONTINENT. 2. The Anansi tales
3. The language used in the African literature is any of originating from Ghana
the languages and dialects spoken in Africa as well as are among the best-
other European language spoken in Africa. known, as Anansi's name
comes from the word in
Subsequently, the peoples of this the Akan language for
region used the Coptic script to "spider" (Haase, 2008).
write religious and legal texts in the 3. Anansi (spider)
Old Nubian language, which is of - Animal Trickster from the Asante People of
the Nilo-Saharan family and unlike Ghana.
Meroitic was the language of the - Has a MORAL STORY
common people. Nubians also 1. Prose - Trickster Characters (character with high
wrote in Greek and then Arabic in degree of intellect and secret knowledge that they
the ancient period (Belcher, n.d.). use to play TRICKS to disobey normal rules and
conventional behaviors.
The earliest surviving Nubian texts - Mostly animal characters
were written in Egyptian
hieroglyphs in the ancient Egyptian Kebra Nagast (book of Kings) by Is’haq
language. They date to 800 BCE Nebura Id
(Belcher, n.d.).  A collection of legends that
relate to the birth of Manilek I.
 Judeo-Christian tradition
 Queen Sheba/ Queen of Sheba
- bore a child (Manilek) to
PRE -COLONIAL LITERATURE Solomon.
1. Oral literature or orature (folktales) maybe in prose  Ge’ez - Ethiopian Semitic language
and verse.
2. African poetry are often sung and includes: Who is the Queen of Sheba? In the Bible we are introduced to an unnamed
- Narrative Epics queen from the land of Sheba who travels to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon
(see 1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9). Accompanied by many attendants and
- Praise poems for rulers and prominent people
camels, the Queen of Sheba brings a large quantity of spices, gold and
called PANEGYRIC. precious stones with her. She is drawn to Jerusalem because of Solomon’s
- Ritual Verse fame, and she tests the king with hard questions. Solomon is able to answer
- Occupational Verse them all (Sauter, 2023).

1. Oral traditions exists in many languages: Fula,

Swahili, Hausa and Wolof. COLONIAL LITERATURE
2. Africa Literature has been largely invisible for the last
millennia. 1. Works has not been translated into any
EU language 2. Most work are not transferred as
printed books and written in obscure places.
3. One of the challenges of the 21st century is
translating most African literature in English.
4. Griots - West African historians, praise singers, poets
or musicians.
- Keepers of the African Tradition
- Seen as leaders and given high positions in
society. THINGS FALL APART
● Helped create the Nigerian literary Renaissance of
the 1960s.
● TOPICS: white missionaries, and colonial
government.
● The story revolves around the Iqbo tribe
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MIDDLE EASTERN AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

● It tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of responsibility for our lives, enjoying the goodness
which center around Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an and beauty around us, and creating our own
Ibo village in Nigeria. meaning in an objectively meaningless world.
● It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of
Nigeria and the invasion by Europeans during the MIDDLE EASTERN LITERATURE
late 19th century. HAKAWATI: THE ANCIENT ARAB ART OF STORYTELLING
INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO For centuries the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East
● A narrative of a former slave who worked for slave region have been the sources of legends, fables and tales of
ship captains and the British Royal Navy. the adventures of kings and warriors. For generations, the
● Slave trade: young children can be sold. tradition of oral storytelling was a powerful medium for
● His final master, an English merchant in Montserrat, narrating the drama inherent in these tales and breathing life
let him buy his freedom for £40 – almost a year’s into them.
salary for a teacher, but Equiano made it in three
years of trading on the side. The storyteller who represented the collective genius and
● Equiano worked as an explorer and merchant for 20 fantasies of his people would, with his way with words, spin
years, and eventually settled in England yarns and breathe life into the heroes of history, fables from
the Quran and legends and myths about warriors - bringing a
ETHIOPIA UNBOUND BY JOSEPH EPHRAIM CASELY HAYFORD piece of the past to life for his avid listeners.
● First African novel written in English
● TOPIC: Emancipation and exploration of African Ahmad Yousuf... “When I discovered the storyteller in me, I
Identity. immediately began doing small projects like reading out
● A DIDACTIC STORY THAT LEAD TO THE DISCUSSION stories to children in malls.”
OF A UNIFIED AFRICAN NATION.
ABBASID PERIOD (750-1258)
POST COLONIAL LITERATURE - Poetry is dominant in this period.
❖ High number of educated people - Many heroic or adventure narratives are made,
❖ Independence in 1950s and 80’s particularly the ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS.
❖ Literature increase in quantity and recognition.

1. Discussed the impact on the

continent of three distinct
influences: African Culture,
Islam and Christianity
2. You cannot identify Authentic
African way of doing things.

1. Alibaba and the 40 thieves and Aladdin’s Magic Lamp

2. Influenced by Persian people/ politicians.
1. A well known work that won
3. King Shahryar and Queen Scheherazade are the main
the prestigious Nobel Prize
characters.
in 1957.
4. Constructed as a “frame story” to which all the other
2. Tells the story of a possible
tales are subsequently added. The tales themselves
bubonic plague in Oran, a
come in a very wide variety of genres, including
French - Algerian town.
fables, adventures, mysteries, love-stories, dramas,
3. The main character of the
comedies, tragedies, horror stories, poems,
story isthe atheist Dr.
burlesque, and erotica.
Bernard Rieux, who is
5. The tales themselves contain elements from Persia,
disappointed by the slow
India, Greece, Turkey, Central Asia, in addition to
response of the
references to the Mongol invasions, the Crusades,
government.
among others. The tales were then Arabized and
4. The plague described in the
adapted for a Middle Eastern and Islamic audience.
novel affected not only the physical conditions of the
people but their mental health as well.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE’S INVASION OF EGYPT IN 1798
5. Camus believed that we should revolt against
absurdity—not by cowardly committing suicide or - Novels became a primary literature.
fleeing into religious faith—but by taking - AKA beginning of a MODERN ERA.
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MIDDLE EASTERN AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

- Emergence of short stories based on the traditional

HAKAWATI (story telling).
- Brought European influences in M.E. Lit.

1. almost all critics consider Zaynab (1913) by

Muhammad Husayn Haykal to be the first fairly
accomplished novel that departed from the
traditional form of maqama1 , and the first novel
which was inspired by regional Egyptian nationalism
(Jad, 1983, p.11).
2. The leading character is Zaynab, who had to deal
with the complexity of an arranged marriage and
overall her role as woman in her time.
3. This novel opened the discussion for the role of
women in the Middle Eastern Society.

ZAYNAB by MUHAMMAD
HUSSEIN HEYKAL is regarded as
the first middle eastern novel and
published in 1913. Described the
idyllic (ideal, picturesque,
peaceful and calm) Egyptian
Countryside. It also calls for the
need of women’s education.

EARLY AND MID 20TH CENTURY

- Full of memoirs and biography/ autobiography lit.
- SIRA and TARJUMA

1. Kahlil Gibran is said to be

one of the world's
bestselling poets, and his
life has inspired a play
touring the UK and the
Middle East.
2. Composed of 26 prose
poetry.
3. Translated more than 100
languages, sold over 9
million and more world
wide.
4. Al Mustafa is the main
character.
5. "It serves various occasions or big moments in one's
life so it tends to be a book that is often gifted to a
lover, or for a birth, or death. That is why it has
spread so widely, and by word of mouth," says Dr
Mohamed Salah Omri, lecturer in Modern Arabic
literature at Oxford University.
6. The topics discussed are love, marriage, beauty,
reason and passion, and death, among other topics.