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Grade 8 English

The European slave trade began in 1441 when African slaves were exported to Portugal. Over subsequent centuries, many European powers, as well as North America, joined the slave trade. The 18th century marked the height of the Atlantic slave trade, which resulted in the deaths of over 28 million Africans. In the 19th century, abolitionist and anti-colonial movements sought to emancipate slaves and reject European cultural influence. Various literary and intellectual movements emerged that asserted African identity, culture, and rejection of colonialism. Many important African writers gained recognition over the 20th century.

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261 views

Grade 8 English

The European slave trade began in 1441 when African slaves were exported to Portugal. Over subsequent centuries, many European powers, as well as North America, joined the slave trade. The 18th century marked the height of the Atlantic slave trade, which resulted in the deaths of over 28 million Africans. In the 19th century, abolitionist and anti-colonial movements sought to emancipate slaves and reject European cultural influence. Various literary and intellectual movements emerged that asserted African identity, culture, and rejection of colonialism. Many important African writers gained recognition over the 20th century.

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jg.mariane102
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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GRADE 8

ENGLISH
In 1441, the ​European Slave Trade ​in Africa began. African
slaves were exported from Africa to Portugal. Even before
the European invasion, slavery in Africa already existed.
However, ancient Africa's concept of slavery was based only
on servitude under the kinship system. The coming of the
Arabs and the Europeans introduced the concept of race and created large-scale human
trade.

After Portugal, Spain joined the slave trade in 1479, followed by Britain in 1562, North
America
in 1619, Holland in 1625, France in 1642, Sweden in 1647, and Denmark in 1697. The 18th
century marked the height of Atlantic Slave Trade and was considered the ​“Black Holocaust”
with the slaughter of 28 million Africans.
Anti-Colonialism and Reconstruction
The 19th century sought the emancipation of slaves from foreign
colonial powers. From 1850s, ​Black journalism ​and ​secular
writings ​were published. Most writers were educated in Europe or
in European government schools of the sub-Saharan colonies.
Works of literature were written in European and African
languages.
In the1880s, writers justified the concept of “Africanness,” which
then led to the rejection of European culture in literature. South
African ​Olive Schreiner ​wrote the novel ​The Story of an African
Farm ​(1883), which is considered as a pioneering work about
race and gender.
In 1913, ​Muhammad Abubakar ​wrote ​Utendi wa Liyongo Fumo ​or the ​Epic of Liyongo
Fumo, ​an
epic poem on Southeastern African oral tradition of Liyongo.
African-American writer ​W.E.B. Du Bois ​reinforced ​Pan-Africanist ideas
of unity and shared identity and roots among Africans in diaspora in his
work ​The Souls of Black Folk ​(1903).
Around 1920 to 1930s, African writings reflected ideas from ​black
nationalism ​and ​anti-colonial politics movements. ​At the same time,
European missionary-influenced writings integrated traditional oral
forms and were translated into African languages.
The 1930s gave rise to the ​Negritude movement. ​It asserted African
identity and culture and denounced the colonization of Africa.
Senegalese poet, and later president, ​Leopold Sedar Senghor ​founded
the movement and incorporated this in his writings, together with
Martinique poet Aime Cesaire, Leon-Gontran Damas, Birago Diop, and
David Diop​.
Shaaban Robert ​of Tanzania was East Africa’s leading Swahili poet and
essayist. He wrote
Kusadikika ​or ​To Be Believed ​(1951) which is an allegory patterned after
Jonathan Swift’s
Gulliver’s Travels.
In 1952, Nigerian writer ​Amos Tutuola ​was published in London through
his work ​The
Palm-Wine Drunkard, ​an adventurous tale from Yoruban oral traditions.
Tutuola’s work was
written in African English.
The first novel published by a black African woman writer from
Nigeria, ​Flora Nwapa’s ​Efuru
(1966) made history by exposing the life of African females. Then,
other African women
writers emerged: Mariama Ba, Aidoo, Awa Keita, Eno Obong, Aminata
Sow Fall, and Khady
Sylla.
At the University of Nairobi, Kenya, ​Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Henry
Owuor-Anyumba, and Taban Lo
Liyong called for the abolition of the English department to be
replaced by a Department of
African Literature and Languages to study African oral traditions.
Several African writers were awarded with the Nobel Prize in
Literature: Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in 1986; Egyptian writer
Naguib Mahfouz ​in 1988 (the first prize-winning writer with Arabic as
his native tongue), and South African writer ​Nadine Gordimer​in 1991.
A long-time political prisoner, ​Nelson Mandela ​was awarded the ​Nobel
Peace Prize ​in 1993 for his leadership toward a democratic South Africa.
Then in South Africa’s first multiracial elections in 1994, Mandela was
elected president

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