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Western Humanism and African Usage: A Critical Survey of Non-African Responses to African Literature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2017
Extract
A general survey of non-African reactions to African literature reveals some characteristic features. First, there are the inexcusable generalizations that fail to take account of the continuity of modern African literature with traditional African modes of expression, and the fact that the study of the multiplicity of cultural groups in the continent, even if the cultures are homologous, must necessarily be of a comparative nature. Second, and this is closely related to the above, non-African scholars with glaring gaps in their knowledge of the continent and its peoples evince a reluctance to acknowledge such gaps—with the result that such scholars often make reprehensibly erroneous assertions.
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1974
References
* The word "European" is used throughout this essay to characterize the white world, as it is generally used in Africa.
1 Nancy J. Schmidt, “Selective Introductions to African Literature,” The Conch Review of Books,Vol. 1, No. 1 (March 1973), p. 8.
3 Gerald Moore, Wole Soyinka(New York: Africana Publishing Corporation, 1971), pp. 12-13.
4 Anne Tibbie (ed.), African English Literature(New York: October House Inc., 1969), p. 98.
5 Vladimir Klima, Modern Nigerian Novels(Prague: Academia, 1969), p. 18.
6 See E. A. Ayandele, The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria, 1842-1914: A Political and Social Analysis(London: Longmans,1966), Chapter 6 and passim.
7 7 Gerald Moore,Seven African Writers (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 46.
8 Tibbie, p. 32.
9 Charles R. Larson, “Wole Soyinka: Nigeria's Leading Social Critic,” The New York Times Review of Books(December 24, 1972).
10 0 Thomas Cassirer, “Politics and Mystique—The Predicament of the African Writer,” African Forum,Vol. 3, No. 1(Summer 1967), pp. 27-28. dollars to political campaigns in the hope of gaining ambassadorships. And in England, prospective contractors still lavishly wine and dine prospective clients to help them make congenial decisions. My intention is not to hold brief for African politicians. The points made in the preceding paragraphs are simply meant to illustrate one particular failing in the assesment of Africanwriting by European critics—especially when the writing is critical of a certain class within the society. If, for any reason, the writers fail to be objective in seeing the social, cultural, historical and philosophical roots of the Africanness of the African, the critics’ role should be to encourage the writers to be more circumspect. As things stand, it seems that the critics have adopted the writers for better or for worse, because the writers have been so adept at swallowing European values wholesale and in castigating the less enterprising Africans. Africans have always had values to be proud of, and no African needs to try to convince people that he is intelligent. Much of what I have touched upon in this paper is designed to make some people pause and think, and thus to make the study of African letters more businesslike and honest. No less important, much of the foregoing material is to encourage some scholars to make an effort to be more polite and less offensive to a whole people in their books and articles. We will all profit by that move.
11 1 Harold R. Collins, Amos Tutuola(New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1969), p. 67.
12 2 Ibid., p. 20.
13 3 Adrian A. Roscoe, Mother is Gold: A Study in West African Literature(London: Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 112.
14 4 Newton P. Staliknecht, “Foreword,” in Charles R. Larson, The Emergence of African Fiction(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972), p. x.
15 Klima, p. 20.
16 6 Moore, Soyinka,p. 96.
17 7 Larson, “Soyinka,” op.cit.
18 8 Conor Cruise O'Brien, “Literature and Indignation,” World,Vol.2, No. 4 (February 13, 1973), pp. 46 and 48.
19 9 Schmidt, p. 10.
20 Paul Theroux, “Christopher Okigbo,” in Bruce King (ed.). Introduction to Nigerian Literature(New York: Africana Publishing Corporation, University of Lagos, 1972), pp. 135-136.
21 Edgar Wright, “African Literature I: Problems of Criticism,” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature,No. 2 (December 1966), p. 107.