West African Poetry

West African Poetry PDF

Author: Robert Fraser

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1986-09-04

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780521312233

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Previous studies of African poetry have tended to concentrate either on its political content or on its relationship to various European schools. This book examines West African poetry in English and French against the background of oral poetry in the vernacular. Do the roots of such poetry lie in Africa or in Europe? In committing their work to writing, do poets lose more than they gain? Can the immediacy of oral performance ever be recovered? Robert Fraser's account of two centuries of West African verse examines its subjugation to a succession of international styles: from the heroic couplet to the austerity of experimental Modernism. Successive chapters take us through the Négritude movement and the emergence of anglophone free verse in the 1950s to the rediscovery in recent years of the neglected springs of orality, which is the subject of the concluding chapter.

New Poets of West Africa

New Poets of West Africa PDF

Author: Tijan M. Sallah

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13:

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One of Gambia's leading young poets and writers is the editor of this collection of new voices of poetry from West Africa. The countries covered are Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. A brief biographical note is included on each poet, and a selection of their poems. The poets were selected as the most representative of the new and variegated scene of contemporary West African poetic creativity and life.

Francophone African Poetry and Drama

Francophone African Poetry and Drama PDF

Author: Richard J. Gray II

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-09-23

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0786475587

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Scholars examining literature from former French colonies sometimes view it wrongly as simply an outgrowth of colonial literature. By suggesting new ways to understand the multiple voices present, this book explores how Francophone African poetry and theatre in particular, since the 1960s, constitute both an organic cultural product and a reflection of the diverse African cultures in which they originate. Themes explored in five chapters include the many kinds of African identity formation, the resistance to former notions of literary composition as art, a remapping of social responsibility, and the impact of globalization on Francophone Africa's participation in world economics, politics and culture. This study highlights the inner workings of Francophone African literature and suggests a canonization of modern Francophone works from a world perspective.

Oral Literature in Africa

Oral Literature in Africa PDF

Author: Ruth Finnegan

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2012-09

Total Pages: 614

ISBN-13: 1906924708

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Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. This book is the first volume in the World Oral Literature Series, an ongoing collaboration between OBP and World Oral Literature Project. A free online archive of recordings and photographs that Finnegan made during her fieldwork in the late 1960s is hosted by the World Oral Literature Project (http: //www.oralliterature.org/collections/rfinnegan001.html) and can also be accessed from publisher's website.

Poems from East Africa

Poems from East Africa PDF

Author: David Cook

Publisher: East African Publishers

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9789966460196

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The spirit of the poetic flowering of the 1960s is encapsulated in this comprehensive anthology. The collection gives voice to some fifty poets from Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, writing in English. The diversity of the interests and styles of the individual poets is illustrated: a blend of the gentle lyricism that is a feature of East African writing. All the major poets are included, and many not so well known. Amongst the best known are Jared Angira, Jonathan Kariara, Joseph Kariuki, Taban Lo Liyong, Okot p'Bitek, and David Rubadiri - one of the editors.

Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection

Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection PDF

Author: Oludamini Ogunnaike

Publisher:

Published: 2020-01-28

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781911141464

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The vibrant tradition of West African Arabic poetry is dominated by the genre of madih, that is, poetry in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. This genre of poetry has been mostly ignored in Western scholarship and dismissed as mere 'pious praise' lacking any significant intellectual content. In Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection, Dr Oludamimi Ogunnaike challenges the misconceptions around West African madih poetry and addresses the scope and depth of this genre; he not only explores its rich lyrical nature and its foundations in the Qur'an, Hadith, pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry, but also its inextricable link to Sufism and Sufi doctrines of cosmology, ontology and epistemology. Drawing on Sufi traditions and practices, the author expounds on the various ways in which West African madih poetry both describes and facilitates the ultimate fulfilment of the human potential, the Perfect Human (al-Insan al-Kamil) or the attainment of the Praiseworthy Station (al-Maqam al-Mahmud) of which the Prophet Muhammad is the highest example. Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection includes translations of numerous extracts from madih poetry (accompanied by the original Arabic); while the Appendix presents a selection of complete poems--the most popular and influential poems of this tradition. Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection is an opportunity for readers to gain access and appreciation of a unique genre of spiritual Islamic poetry, and, given that it includes the original Arabic, also enables the recitation of the poetry for devotional purposes.

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