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Negritude: Some Dissident Voices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2017

Extract

Only eight years ago Janheinz Jahn stated in Neo-African Literature that the critics of nigritude were all writing in English—not in French. Jahn was referring to writers like Ezekiel Mphahlele, Gerald Moore and Wole Soyinka, whose criticism he regarded as “based on an inadequate translation.” 2 The most important movement in the literary evolution in French-speaking Africa had, according to Jahn, only been criticized out of ignorance and misunderstanding. Today, criticism of Negritude has become a major issue in those French-speaking countries which were among its strongest supporters originally. It should be mentioned, however, that certain French African writers—among them Ferdinand Oyono and Ousmane Sembene—have opposed Negritude since the 1950s.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1974 

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References

1 1 Janheinz Jahn, Neo-African Literature, A History of Black Writing,(New York, 1969), p. 265. German original, Geschichte der neoafrikanischen Literatur,(Dusseldorf, 1966).

2 Jahn, Neo-African Literature,p. 265.

3 Lilyan Kesteloot, Les ecrivains noirs de langue franchise- naissance d'une litterature,3ieme ed., (Bruxelles, 1965), p. 298.

4 Stanislas Adotevi, Negritude et negrologues,(Paris: Union Generale d'Editions, 1972).

5 Ibid., p. 103.

6 Ibid., p. 209.

7 Leopold Sedar Senghor, “Ce que l'homme noir apporte,” Liberte I, Negritude et Humanisme,(Paris, 1964), p. 24.

8 Adotevi, Negritude et negrologues,p. 113.

9 Marcien Towa, Liopold Sedar Senghor: Negritude ou Servitude,(Yaounde: Editions CLE, 1971).

10 Senghor, “L'Afrique Noire, La Civilisation Negro-Africaine,” Liberte I,op.cit., p. 75.

11 Senghor, “Ce que l'homme noir apporte,” p. 70.

12 Marcien Towa, Negritude ou servitude,p. 39.

13 Senghor, Poe“mes,(Paris, 1964), p. 95.

14 Marcien Towa, op.cit., p. 102.

15 Jean-Marie Abanda Ndengue, De la Negritude au Negrisme,(Yaounde: Editions CLE, 1970).

16 ibid., p. 138.

17 ibid.

18 ibid, p. 94.