Paper - 14, The African Literature

To evaluate my assignment

Name: Brijal Oza

Course: M.A. English (Sem-4)

Paper no.: Paper – 14, the African Literature

Topic: Comparison between Indian Literature and African Literature

Roll no.: 23

Year: 2015 – 2017

Email ID: brijaloza1994@gmail.com

Submitted to: S.B. Gardi, Department of English

                                    M.K. Bhavnagar University

              Comparison between Indian Literature                        and African Literature

What is Indian Literature and African Literature:

                                 

            Indian Literature:               The term Indian literature is used here to refer to literature produced across the Indian subcontinent prior to the creation of the Republic of India in 1947 and within the Republic of India after 1947.

                                         

   African Literature:             African literature is literature of or from Africa and includes oral literature. "Literature" can be the part of Asian also implies 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.

Similarities between Africa and India:
- Both have tropical climates
- Both had ancient civilizations before the rest of the world.
- Both were colonized by Europeans (British, French, Portuguese) where they couldn't outnumber the natives and therefore.
- Both have light skinned people in the north and dark skinned people in the south.
- Both have a sizeable Muslim population.
- Both have tropical rainforests and deserts.
- Both have a diverse population.
- Both have the most well-known elephants.
- Both have poverties.
- Both have conflicts.
- They are some of the most populated places in the world (Since Africa includes all African countries). India is technically the second most populated country in the world.

- Very multicultural in many ways, ranging from cuisine to architecture to clothing and religion.

- Mostly have dark skin.

- Both have deserts and forests.

- Both are home to native elephants and tigers.

- Both have camels.

- Religion plays an important role in both places.

- Both are peninsular
- Both were ruled by British.
- Both had ancient civilizations (Egypt & India)
- Both have  tropical climates.
- India is considered to be a sub-continent and Africa a dark continent
- Both people have similar skin colour

Differences between India and Africa:

- India is a country; Africa is a continent (With many counties inside).

- Curry is widely consumed around India, but not in Africa.

- India has president, while different African countries have different leadership (Some are ruled by dictators).

- Majority of Indians are Hindu. As for Africa, I think its Islam (But im not so sure about this.).

Comparison between Indian Literature and African Literature:

                        Indian literature is generally believed to be the oldest in the world. With vast cultural diversities, there are around two dozen officially recognized languages in India. Over thousands of years, huge literature has been produced in various languages in India. It is to be noted that a large part of Indian literature revolves around devotion, drama, poetry and songs. Sanskrit language dominated the early Indian literary scene whereas languages like Prakrit and Pali too had fair share as they were the languages of the common people. It is interesting to note that the Hindu literary traditions have dominated a large part of Indian culture. These traditions are well reflected in great works like Vedas and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata.                              Treatises like Vaastu Shastra (architecture), Arthashastra (political science) and Kamsutra are true reflection of the Indian literary excellence. Early Hindi literature, in dialects like Avadhi and Brai, began around religious and philosophical poetry in medieval period. Sant Kabir and Tulsidas were the greatest exponents of the Hindi literature during this period. With the passage of time, the Khadi boli (dialect) became more prominent and saw a great upsurge, which continues to this day. During the medieval period, Muslim literary traditions dominated a large part of Indian literature and saw flourishing of Muslim literature. Muslim rule during the medieval times saw rapid growth and development of Persian and Urdu literature in India. A huge variety of literature spanning across history, culture and politics was written in this period.

                         With the coming of the British in India, works started to be written in English language. As more and more Indians became well versed with the English language, the number of works in English literature began to grow. During the contemporary times, numerous Indian authors have made their mark on the world English literature scene. Some of the most noted Indian born or Indian writers are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Khushwant Singh, Anita Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri.

                        Indian literature, through its umpteen legends and folklores in prehistoric times, is today unanimously recognized and acknowledged as one of the oldest in the world. India possesses twenty-two officially accredited languages and a colossal variety of literature has been produced and reproduced in these languages over the graduating years. It, thus, becomes evident that the history of Indian literature assimilates within itself an endless variety of untold stories and facts from ancient, medieval and comparatively modern times, which can be personified as a living entity. 

                         History of literature in India can be smoothly divided into three periods, comprising of the ancient, the medieval and modern or contemporary. The period of the ancient Indian literature can be delineated by those very first orally transmitted (shruti) valuable treatises in the guru-shishya mode, which gradually were replaced and revived in the Vedic Period, denoting just the commencement of Golden Age in India, through Sanskrit literature. Second in line was to arrive the era of Medieval Indian literature, which witnessed a shift towards much more religious zealousness in regional divisions, although Sanskrit still was retained as the essential penmanship language. Among the best known works re-delineating history of Indian literature and its inherent involvement with present Indian scenario, Kalidasa and Tulsidas (legendary for his epic Hindi poem based on the Ramayana, named the Ramcharitmanas) top the ancient and medieval times.

                        The history of Indian literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry, which aim at providing education, entertainment and enlightenment to its readers, as well the development of the literary techniques employed in the communication of these pieces.

                        The study of the development of African literature leads to various reflections on the future of the continent and its population. Self-knowledge and consciousness of one’s cultural identity are two major factors in the process of affirmation of one’s personality. To share these values with the other continents of the globe is essential for the Africans whose culture and civilization have been denied or rejected during many centuries. 

                        African literature is highly diversified, even though it shows some similarities. In fact, the common denominator of the cultures of the African continent is undoubtedly the oral tradition. Writing on black Africa started in the middle Ages with the introduction of the Arabic language and later, in the nineteenth century with introduction of the Latin alphabet. Since 1934, with the birth of the "Negritude," African authors began to write in French or in English. Since the 1960’s quantitative and qualitative changes could be observed in the field of publication in both Francophone and Anglophone states.

                         African literature consists of a body of work in different languages and various genres, ranging from oral literature to literature written in colonial languages (French, Portuguese, and English). Oral literature, including stories, dramas, riddles, histories, myths, songs, proverbs, and other expressions, is frequently employed to educate and entertain children. Oral histories, myths, and proverbs additionally serve to remind whole communities of their ancestors' heroic deeds, their past, and the precedents for their customs and traditions. Essential to oral literature is a concern for presentation and oratory. Folktale tellers use call-response techniques. A griot (praise singer) will accompany a narrative with music.

                        Since the early 19th cent. Writers from western Africa have used newspapers to air their views. Several founded newspapers that served as vehicles for expressing nascent nationalist feelings. French-speaking Africans in France, led by Léopold Senghor, were active in the négritude movement from the 1930s, along with Léon Damas and Amie Césaire, French speakers from French Guiana and Martinique. Their poetry not only denounced colonialism, it proudly asserted the validity of the cultures that the colonials had tried to crush.

                        After World War II, as Africans began demanding their independence, more African writers were published. Such writers as, in western Africa, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Osman Sembene, Kofi Awooner, Agostinho Neto, and Tchicaya u tam'si, Camera Laye, Mongo Beti, Ben Okra, and Ferdinand Oyono and, in eastern Africa, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Okot p'Bitek, and Jacques Rabémananjara produced poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays. All were writing in European languages, and often they shared the same themes: the clash between indigenous and colonial cultures, condemnation of European subjugation, pride in the African past, and hope for the continent's independent future. In South Africa, the horrors of apartheid have, until the present, dominated the literature. Esaki Mphahlele, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Dennis Brutus, J. M. Coetzee, and Miriam Tlali all reflect in varying degrees in their writings the experience of living in a racially segregated society.