Université Félix Houphouet Boigny de Cocody - Département …



MASTER 1UFHB-UFRLLC/ANGLAISAFRICAN POETRY?LOUIS OBOUProf. Des UniversitésObjectives of the course- To point out the practicalities of African poetry- To gain a surer grasp of the different types of variation (in African poetry).INTRODUCTIONChapter 1?: MODERN AFRICAN POETRYTHE POETRY OF OBSCURANTISM Such a type of poems for the most part demands craft ( technique or style of writing) before message .Before the advent of Okot p’Bitek and Anyidoho, African Poetry was obscure and private (Chinweizu, Jemie & Madubuike, Toward the Decolonization of African Literature (Chinweizu & Madabuike 1980.p208). Two poets that exemplify this tradition of poetry are Wole Soyinka and the late Christopher Okigbo. Much of Soyinka’s poetry to date, and most of Okigbo’s early poetry lacked any definite social commitment. Besides, their poems were opaque and expressed a private vision that did not carry the masses along A poem is seen as a cumulative verbal entity through which the poet expresses a vision of life hiddenSubtle and sophisticated; its suggestive use of language amplifies its scope and meaningThe use of Call-and-answer formula borrowed from the performance of African oratures: the call-and answer structure takes various forms in one form, the chorus repeats exactly what the cantor sings. In another form, the chorus sings a type of refrain to what the cantor sings. Call-chorus refrain). In a third form, the response to the call is different any time there is a call. In the final type, the cantor starts a song and the chorus continues the song to the end. ( cf Labyrinths “ Lament of the Silent Sister” by OkigboDrum poetics: Okigbo put it as follows: “Well, I really don’t think I can claim to have written it (“ Lament of the Drums”). All I did was to create the drums, and the drums said what they liked. Personally, I don’t believe that I am capable of saying what the drums have said in that first part: it’s only the long funeral drums that are capable of saying it and they are capable of saying it only at that moment when they talk; then they have said it. They are not capable now or in the future of saying that. So, I don’t think that I can claim to have written the poem; all I did was to cover the drums, and to create the situation in which the drums spoke what they spoke” ( Duerden D, and Pieterse C (Eds), African Writers Talking, London, Heinemann, 1972, p.143)A poet can doctor a language as it pleases him. This act of using language without taking into cognisance to the rule governing the language is called poetic license, create new word, and disobey the rule of grammar, spelling and punctuation and use of archaic language. The influential poets are Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, Kofi Awoonor, John Pepper Clark, Kwesi Brew, Dennis Brutus (innovations and experiment of the modernists)CHAPITRE 2: INVENTING A TRADITION African poetic form and unlike in the West), content is more important than form and images do not aim to reflect the senses. Content is not perceived by poet and audience as extra-literary. The mere fact that foreign languages are used could occasionally create discord in discourse but modern African poetry attempts to reflect indigenous rhythms. In fact, an authentic African world forms the backdrop of modern African poetry” (Ojaide 1996: 30).Repetition- One of the most fundamental features of oral literature; the aesthetic value of repetition is realized in oral performance. The basic stylistic functions of repetition:It gives a certain amount of emphasis to a point that needs to be stressed.It employed to enact a feeling of excitement in the sense of utmost delight.it produces a sense of urgency, of vividnessIt is used to sustain and maintain the reader’s attention and interestIt is used to help maintain the rhythmic beat, to ensure the regularity of the rhythm-Piling and association, two related mechanisms of repetitionThe parallel structures the device brings together in a balanced relationship ideas and images that may seem independent of one anotherProverbs- the use of proverbs was one of the main ways of handing down the wisdom of generations as a Sierra Leone proverb has it “proverbs are the daughters of experience”. There is also a connection between proverbs and poetry, as Knappert points out: “ Among the Swahili, the proverb-maker has to be a poet”; his new proverb must have a rhythm and ideally a rhyme too. Thus many proverbs are fixed into one or two lines of very fine verse. Example, among the Akan of Ghana almost every proverb can also be reproduced on drums. ( cf Asher & Martin Hoyles, Moving Voices. Black Performance Poetry, London,Hansib Publications, 2012, pp.14-16).African ideophonic linguistic system. Okpewho calls this ideophonic process a phonaesthetic resource (Myth ,97)- Drum poetry- it is widespread in the tropical forests of Africa. Because most African languages depend on the tone of the voice for meaning, these tones can be reproduced on a two- or three-tones drums, as can the rhythmic patterns of the language. West African drum poetry is performed at funerals, to praise rulers, to record history and to express proverbs. Among the Yoruba of Nigeria each of their many types of poetry can be recited on drum, and the oriki, or praise poems, are drummed as often as they are sung. Drumming itself is a form of verbalization. The peom derives tremendous impact from its escalating cadences. Most of its phraseology is stereotyped phrases that are repeated several times. In Ghana, the famous Akan talking drums are used to salute the chief and usher him to his seat:Chief, you are about to sit downSit down, great one.Sit down, gracious oneChief, you have plenty of seating space.The influential poets are Jack Mapange, Barolong Seboni, Atukwei Okai, Niyi Osundare, Kofi Anyidoho ( the sense of community and identity, concern with national as well as personal identity)- Appellation poetry-its major stylistic aspects are: the frequent reference to praise names, parallelism of structure, and the formation of compound words ( it entails agglutinating the words in the phrase or clause, deleting the subject and attaching a nominal prefix to the new word whenever necessary-CHAPTER 3. CATEGORIZATION ACCORDING TO SUBJECT MATTERThe harsh effects of making vain ancestral wisdomThe consequence of Africans neglect of their heritageThe environment: nature and man-madePhilosophical, religious and artistic reflectionDeath, loss and regenerationCHAPTER 3: THE ISSUE OF LANGUAGEThere are two divergent schools of the African language question. The“Eurocentric apologetics ” and “ Afrocentric apologetics”, the Eurocentric apologetics are of the notion that?poetry should be written in European languages. They posit that African language has shifted from the traditional to the modern since the European language is the language of education and of wider interaction it should be nativised so as to capture the realities of the African experience. Achebe (1964) posits that: I feel that the English language will be able to carry the weight of?my African experience but it will have to be new English, still in full communion with its ancestral home but altered to suit new African surroundings. According to Gabriel Okara another apologetic of European language explains that: As a writer who believes in the utilization of African ideas, African philosophy and African folklore and imagery to the fullest extent possible, I am of the opinion the only way to use them effectively is to translate them almost literally from the African language native to the writer in whatever European language he is using as a medium of expression. Thus, the European apologetics advocates the nativation of colonial languages. Thus, today we talk of Nigerian English; South African English is quite different from the British English. These“ Englishes” validate the reality of African experience that is used in writing poetry. Ngugi argues in his essay “Language of African Literature” that:It is an ever continuing struggle to seize back their creative initiative in history through a real control of all means of communal self-definition in time and space. The choice of language and the use to which language is put is central to a?people’s definition of themselves in relation to their natural and social environment. Indeed in relation to the entire universe. (1986).The authors of The Empires Writes Black argue that “ the crucial function of language as power demands that post-colonial writing define itself by seizing the language of the centre and replacing it in a discourse fully adapted to the colonized place “ ( Ashcroft et al,1989:38).It is English and African at the same time (ibid., 311). Brathwaite calls this a “submerged/ emerging culture” which uses oral tradition, calypso, and different sound and rhyme patterns ( Edward Brathwaite, 1984). It is a kind of resistance to the dominant culture through the manipulation of its language. Language is both product and producer of experience: all cultures develop and also develop from their own language or dialect.Self-apprehension of African realties; Wole Soyinka’s “double writing” or simultaneous production of texts from Western and African sources ( Neo-Tarzanism)ASSIGNMENT“Rediscovery”When our tears are dry on the shoreand the fishermen carry their nets homeand the seagulls return to bird islandand the laughter of the children recedes at night,there shall still linger the communion we forgedthe feast of oneness whose ritual we partook of.There shall still be the eternl gatemanwho will close the cemetery doorsand send the late mourners away.It cannot be the music we heard that nightAnd still lingers in the chambers of memory.it is the new chorus of our forgotten comradesand the halleluyahs of our second selves.KOFFI Awoonor, in MessagesWhat is the theme of this poem. How does an examination of the imagery support your conclusion?Is the mood of the poet consistent? Exanine the mood or moods and state how the poet conveys it or them How does the poet convey the idea of the passing of time?How is the idea of the title expressed in the contents of the poem?? READ the two poems : “ABIKU”Poem by John Pepper CLARK , “ Abiku”Discuss the poet’s style and technique in this poemHow does the poet present a vivid picture of the household?Poem by SOYINKADiscuss any four images or symbols that associate abiku with death.BIBLIOGRAPHYAbrams M. H., A Glossary of Literary Terms, Boston, Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.Achebe, Chinua, The Novelist as a Teacher. African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and?Theory. Eds. Tejumola Olaniyan & Ato Quayson. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 1965, pp.103-106.Bénac Henri, Guide des idées littéraires, Paris, Hachette, 1974.Blamires Harry, A guide to Twentieth Century Literature, London, Methuen, 1983.Cuddon J. A., A Dictionary of literary Terms, London, Penguin Books, 1979.Dathorne O.R., African Literature in the Twentieth Century, London, Heinemann,. Newton K. M., Interpreting the text, Hertfordshire, 1975.Emezue, GMT, New Voices-A Collection of Recent Nigerian Poetry . London, Heinemann,2008Ojaide,Tanure. Poetic Imagination in Black Africa. Durban: NC Academic Press, 1996.Wa Thiong’O, N .1986. Language of African Literature?African Literature: An Anthology of?Criticism and Theory Eds. Tejumola Olaniyan & Ato Quayson. Massachusetts:Blackwell Publishing. ................
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