AFRICAN LITERATURE IN THE PHILOSOPHER TOOL KITS

AFRICAN LITERATURE IN THE PHILOSOPHER TOOL KITS

                                                                                    TOLU' ELUSIYAN

1.0 INTRODUCTION

There is evidence, in contemporary times, of the need to develop the intial structuring nodes of the African literature. It is therefore imperative for contemporary African philosophers to question, thematise, structure and share with each other their experiences of the problems of writing and mannerism of presentation of the African experiences, and in this way, to define the modalities of acess to the totality of the discipline in the continent. This is the only means of constituting the history of African literature in contemporary times. However, our concern in this work is to examine African literature in the philosopher tot kits, and this discourse shall be run open under the following thematic outlines to set on fire the rational minds and to wake them from their slumber.

*Understanding African Literature

*Features of African Literature

*Philosophers tool kits: Logic and Language

*Logic and African Literature

*Language and African Literature

*Evaluation/Conclusion

1.1 UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN LITERATURE: THE PARADOXES, THE COMPLEXITIES AND THE PERPLEXITIES

Harold Scheub explicitly stated in his article on African literature that:

African literature is the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages.[1]

So one could simply say that an African literature is literature of or from Africa and includes oral literature. Echoing on the understanding of African literature, Joseph George notes in his chapter on African literature in understanding contemporary Africa, whereas European views of literature often stressed a separation of art and content, African awareness is inclusive:

Literature can be the parts of Asian also imply an artistic use of words for the sake of art alone. Traditionally, Africans do not radically separate art from teaching, rather than write or sing for beauty in itself, African writers, taking their cue from oral literature, use beauty to help communicate important truths and information to society. Indeed, an object is considered beautiful because of the truths it reveals and the communities it helps to build.[2]

Moreover, in Africa, there seems to be various kinds of literature which include oral literature, pre-colonial literature, colonial literature, and post-colonial literature. When we talk of oral literature, it could be in prose or verse. The prose is often mythological or historical and can include tales of the trickster character. Storytellers in African sometimes use call and response techniques to tell their stories. Poetry, often sung, includes: narrative epic, occupational verse, ritual verse, praise poems rulers and other prominent people. Praise singers, bards sometimes known as griots, tell their stories with music.[3] as a follow up to the above, as rightly stated, we also have pre-colonial literature, for they are even numerous; so oral literature of west Africa includes the epic of sundiata composed in medieval Mali, and the older epic of Dinga from the old Ghana empire. In Ethiopia, there is a substantial literature written in geez going back at least to the fourth century AD; the best known work in this tradition is the kebra Negast, or Book of kings. One popular form of traditional African folktale is the trickster story, in which a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger creatures. Examples of animal tricksters include anansi, a spider in the folklore of ashanti people of Ghana; ijapa, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and sungara, a here found in central and east African folklore.[4] furthermore, we also made mention of colonial African literature; the colonial African works best known in the west from the period of colonization and the slave trade are primarily slave narratives, such as olaudah equiano’s the interesting narrative of the life of olaudah equiano (1789). In the colonial period, Africans exposed to western languages began to write in those tongues. In 19911, Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford of the Gold Coast now Ghana punlished what is probably the first African novel written in English, euthopia unbound: studies in Race Emancipation[5] although the work moves between fiction and political advocacy, its publication and positive reviews in the western press mark a watershed moment in African literature. Postcolonial African literature: with liberation and increased literacy since most African nations gained their independent in the 1950s and 1960s, African literature has grown dramatically in quantity and in recognition, with numerous African works appearing in western academic curricula and on best of lists compiled at the end of the 19^th century. African writers in this period wrote both in western languages, notably English, French, and Portuguese and in traditional African languages such as Hausa. Ali A. Mazrui and others mention seven conflicts as themes: the clash between Africa’s past and present, between tradition and modernity, between indigenous and foreign, between socialism and capitalism, between development and self-reliance and between Africanity and humanity.[6]

1.2 PHILOSOPERS TOOL KITS: LOGIC AND LANGUAGE           

Logic and language seems to be the most crucial parts among the tools that is used in philosophizing by the philosophers; the formal patterns of correct reasoning can all be conveyed through ordinary language, but then so can a lot of other things. In fact, we use language in many different ways, some of which are irrelevant to any attempt to provide reasons for what we believe. But then logic also helps us to identify bad reasoning from good ones. Dwelling on language now, the informative use of language in the real sense of it is set to involve an effort to communicate some content. When I tell a child, “the 5^th of May is seminary’s holiday,” or write to you that “Logic is the study of correct reasoning”, or jot a note to myself, “Jennifer- 566-456,” I am using language informatively. This kind of use presumes that the content of what is being communicated is actually true, so it will be our central focus in the study of logic. An expressive use of language, on the other hand, intends only to vent some feeling, or perhaps to evoke some feeling from other people. When I say, “Friday afternoons are dreary,” I am using language expressively. Although such uses don’t convey any information, they do serve an important function in everyday life, since how we feel sometimes matters as much as, or more than what we hold to be true. Lastly, directive usage of language aim to cause or to prevent some overt action by a human agent. When I say “shut the door”, or write “read the textbook,” or memo myself, “don’t rely so heavily on the passive voice,” I am using language directively. The point in each of these cases is to make someone perfume a particular action. This is a significant linguistic function, too, but like the expressive use, it doesn’t always relate logically to the truth of our beliefs. Having explicated briefly on the two basic tools of philosophizing for the philosophers, that is logic and language; we shall now see the relationship between logic and African literature and language and African literature respectively to serve the interest of this discourse.

1.3 LOGIC AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

But it seems to me that modern philosophy is not so happy to converse with literature any more. I think this is partly due to the general specialization that occurs in modern university disciplines. I think the rest of the explanation comes largely down to a particular kind of philosophy, analysis, being the dominant paradigm at the moment. And analysis is based upon the propositional analysis of language as discrete yet systematic logical statements.
Not that I have a problem with any of this kind of logical analysis per se. If you are doing certain kinds of philosophy, such as epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language and so on, the truth condition of logic is perfect for structuring questions and evaluating answers. I do have an issue, however, when these truth conditions are imposed on other areas, even in philosophy itself.  I was a voracious reader of fiction as a kid, and still I am. What I love about literature is its ability to open up worlds to us. Or, expressed philosophically, the ability to illuminate the irreducibly subjective quality of perception. Characterization, voice and tone in literature remind us that there is always an “I” perceiving the world. Literature, on the other hand, is a more subtle genre for explicating the complexities of human action. It can render emotion and intuition realistically while integrating large themes that may contain logical impasses or big philosophical questions. In this way literature certainly does analyze human behaviour, by showing us human choices and their consequences and hypothesizing about whether this or that philosophy can be the basis for a life. It's just not logical, functional analysis.

If we take the view that philosophy is purely functional analysis, and literature is incapable of analysis at all, then yes. You could be mistaken into thinking there is a necessary division.

1.4 LANGUAGE AND AFRICAN LITERATURE

Language becomes a problem for just one reason which audiences are you writing to, the foreign audience or the inhabitants of Africa? If we agree that Africans know Africa, then the answer to the above question will be the foreign audience. The best of the best of African writers started out by debunking the erroneous views of Europeans/Americans about Africa. How else could the message be passed across if the intending receiver could hardly understand the language of the message? Chinua Achebe said he had to write in English, rather than in his native Igbo, because that's the only way his message will be understood by his targeted audience. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o decided not to have anything to do with the oppressor's language, English, and started writing in his native Gikuyu. He has a point in it, but how many people are interested in taking that effort in reading his writings now that he has taken that journey?

Language has been an issue in African literature, but I think we should write in the language majority of the other world will understand. At the end, we write to correct erroneous views about us and our culture.

There are numerous reasons:

1.      Africa is not some monolithic cultural unit and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of different languages, cultures, and historical experiences in Africa. We don’t really use terms like “European literature” or “Asian literature” for those exact same reasons.

2.      The languages of the colonizers became the languages of many people in Africa (especially as lingua francas between innumerable different groups, and as languages of education and therefore prestige). So many would-be authors, most likely educated (at least in higher education) in English or French (most likely), would most likely write in those languages because they would have a better mastery over them and understanding of the literature, etc. of those languages as opposed to the most-likely non-existent literature of the vernacular language (or former language) of their respective countries. As in most African countries, a vast many people are not only illiterate but have very basic grasp of the languages of higher education such as English and French. This is why the most well-known literature to come out of Africa was made famous outside of Africa and not from within it.

3.      Publishing houses are almost non-existent in Africa for the aforementioned reasons. Also, to make a large generalization, cultures of the African continent largely relied on oral transmission of stories/etc. until only recently and even now this is still the case for so many people living in villages with little education.

There are many more complex reasons and many have written about the struggle of literature in African countries.

1.5 EVALUATION/CONCLUSION

            From all indications one would see that the discourse on the problem of African literature is very controversial, for there has been debates and arguments among scholars has to what should be regarded as African literature, and this has created land-mark of discussion in the historical trajectory of African literature and as such by way of conclusion but we have been able to examine it by making allusion to the proper understanding of the meaning of African literature, conceptually and historically. We then proceeded to the philosopher’s tool kits which we referred to as Logic and language which was explicated summarily to serve the interest of the discourse and finally we were able to examine. the relationship, as well as the influence of those tool kits that is logic and language on African literature and with that we believe we have serve the purpose of this discourse.

BIOGRAPHY/REFRENCES

Harold Scheub, African Literature, unpublished Material,pdf, global.britanniaca.com/art/African-Literature, retrieved 25/01/2017

Joseph George, African Literature, in Gordon and Gordon, Understanding Contemporary Africa (England: warlock publication, 1996)

African Literature, www.wikipedia.com/retreived 24/01/2017, 2:30PM

Stephaine Newell, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: How to play the game of life, (Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University press, 2002),

Ali A.Mazrui, The development of modern literature since 1935,in UNESCO’s General History of Africa, Vol. VII,P. 564F,PDF

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[1] Harold Scheub, African Literature, unpublished Material,pdf, global.britanniaca.com/art/African-Literature, retrieved 25/01/2017

[2] Joseph George, African Literature, in Gordon and Gordon, Understanding Contemporary Africa (England: warlock publication,1996),p.304

[3] African Literature, www.wikipedia.com/retreived 24/01/2017

[4] Ibid

[5] Stephaine Newell, Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: How to play the game of life,(Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University press, 2002), p.135

[6] Ali A.Mazrui, The development of modern literature since 1935,in UNESCO’s General History of Africa, Vol. VII,P. 564F,PDF.