CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO

     

       

Christopher Okigbo (1930–1967) was an early Nigerian poet, now widely acknowledged as the outstanding post-colonial English-language African poet; and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth

century. He died prematurely during the Nigerian Civil war. As a youth Okigbo felt a special affinity to his maternal grandfather, a priest of Idoto, an Igbo deity personified in the river of the same name that flowed through his village. Later in life, Okigbo came to believe that his grandfather's soul was reincarnated in him, and the "water goddess" figures prominently in his fecund poetry . Okigbo studied at the famous University College in Ibadan, graduating ultimately in Classics. He later helped to found the African Authors Association. He was also West African Representative of Cambridge University Press at Ibadan. . His published books (some posthumously) are  Heavensgate (1962)  Limits (1964) Labyrinths (1971), 

Collected poems (1986), and Crossroads (2008).

Studies:

The trial of Christopher Okigbo by Ali AlʼAmin Mazrui 

Christopher Okigbo: creative rhetoric by Sunday Ogbonna Anozie 

Critical perspectives on Christopher Okigbo 

Critical essays on Christopher Okigbo 

Christopher Okigbo, 1930-67 : thirsting for sunlight by Obi Nwakanma 

Kamau Brathwaite and Christopher Okigbo : art, politics, and the music of ritual by Curwen Best 

Hybridity and Christopher Okigbo's poetry by Christopher W. N Kirunda 

Nationalism in Okigbo's poetry by Dubem Okafor 

Two African Prodigals : Senghor and Okigbo by Jonathan Ngate 

Folk tradition in Okigbo's poetry by Emma Ngumoha 

FRANCIS BEBEY

How many great African musicians were also great writers? Francis Bebey (1929 - 2001) of Cameroon certainly bestrode both genres. He attended the Sorbonne (France), and was further educated in the United States. His most popular novel was Agatha Moudio's Son (Translated from the French)

His published books include: Le fils d'Agatha Moudio (1967) -  La poupée Ashanti (1973) ie The Ashanti doll; Musique de l'Afrique (1969), Embarras & cie,  Le ministre et le griot,  Le roi Albert d'Effidi, and Nouvelle saison des fruits (1980)

Studies:

Francis Bebey by David Ndachi Tagne

Francis Bebey : l'homme-orchestre : un dossier 

Africa at the crossroads : the fiction of Francis Bebey by Wilbert
Curtis Schade

Francis Bebey : écrivain camerounais [1929-2001) by Romuald-Blaise
Fonkoua 

YAMBO OUOLOGUEM

Yambo Ouologuem (born 1940) is a renowned Malian writer. His first novel, Le Devoir de Violence (English: Bound to Violence, 1968), won the Prix Renaudot. He later published Lettre à la France nègre (1969), and Les mille et une bibles du sexe (1969) under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph. Despite raucous accusations of “plagiarism” Ouologuem’s writing is still highly respected. As a young man he learned several African languages and gained fluency in French, English, and Spanish. He studied sociology, philosophy and English at Lycée Henry IV in France.

After the plagiarism controversy over Le Devoir de violence, Ouloguem returned to Mali in the late seventies. His major work, Le Devoir de violence initially met with wide critical acclaim. He has also published striking poetry and essays. 

Studies:

 In search of Yambo Ouologuem by Christopher Wise 

Breaking the silence : the narratives of Sahelian politics in the literature of Yambo Ouologuem and Norbert Zongo by Jamie Ann Tyo 

Yambo Ouologuem, ou le silence des canons by Claude Bouygues 

...intertextuality in Yambo Ouloguem's Le Devoir de violence by Jonathan

MBELLA SONNE DIPOKO

Mbella Sonne Dipoko (1936 – 2009) was a Cameroonian novelist, poet and painter. He is widely considered to be one of the foremost writers of Anglophone Cameroonian literature. To many readers and critics he will be mainly remembered for the erotic content of his most famous works.

His major works are A Few Nights and Days, Because of Women, and Black and White in Love.

Studies:

Themes of authenticity in the poetry of Mbella Sonne Dipoko by Jerry
Glenn Holt

AHMADOU KOUROUMA

Ahmadou Kourouma (1927 – 2003) was a remarkable, award-winning Ivorian novelist. As a young man when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France for further studies. He was to spend several years in exile, living in a number of countries. His first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970) contains an imaginative, yet critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa.

Later on he published works like Le diseur de vérité (drama) Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), Allah n'est pas oblige (translated as Allah is Not Obliged). Prizes he has won include the Prix Renaudot (2000) and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. 


Studies:

La langue d'Ahmadou Kourouma, ou, Le français sous le soleil d'Afrique
by Makhily Gassama

Ahmadou Kourouma : le "guerrier" griot by Madeleine Borgomano

Ahmadou Kourouma by Jean-Michel Djian

L'imaginaire d'Ahmadou Kourouma : contours et enjeux d'une esthétique

La créativité langagière dans la prose romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma
by Gérard Marie Noumssi

Le politicien, le marabout-féticheur et le griot dans les romans
d'Ahmadou Kourouma by Joseph Ndinda

Histoire et fiction dans la production romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma
by Bi Kacou Parfait Diandué

Un donsomana pour Kourouma

Le réel et sa représentation dans l'oeuvre romanesque d'Ahmadou
Kourouma by Mesmin Nicaise Yaussah

SHIMMER CHINODYA

Shimmer Chinodya is an award winning Zimbabwean writer, essentially recognized as a powerful novelist.  He studied English and education at the University of Zimbabwe, and from the University of Iowa, with an MA in Creative Writing. He garnered acclaim whilst winning the 1990 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Africa region.  His first novel, Dew in the Morning was published in 1982. His work, Strife landed him the 2008 Noma award for literature.

Chinodya has also written children’s books, educational texts, training manuals and radio and film scripts, including the script for the award-winning feature film, Everyone’s Child. His published works include: Dew in the Morning (1982), Farai’s Girls (1984), Child of War (1986), Harvest of Thorns (1989), Can we talk and other Stories (1998), Tale of Tamari (2004), Chairman of Fools (2005), Strife, and Tindo's Quest.

OUSMANE SEMBENE

 

Ousmane Sembène (1923 – 2007) from Senegal was one of the greatest authors in African history. His early novel was Le Docker Noir (The Black Docker, 1956. His second novel was  O Pays, mon beau peuple! (Oh country, my beautiful people!, 1957), Sembène's masterpiece is Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God’s bits of Wood) although the later Xala was also acclaimed. His last novel was Le Dernier de l’empire (The Last of the Empire, 1981) which depicted corruption and an eventual military coup in a newly independent African nation.

Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu in particular cemented Sembène as one of the most outstanding African writers. Sembene was to state that alas, he realized that his written works would only be read by a relatively small elite and he decided to become a film maker; which he did with extraordinary success.

Published works:

Le Docker noir (novel) translated as The Black Docker

O Pays, mon beau peuple! (novel) - 1957

Les bouts de bois de Dieu (novel) - 1960; translated as God's Bits of

Wood.

Voltaïque (short stories) translated as Tribal Scars 1975.

L’Harmattan (novel)

Le mandat, précédé de Vehi-Ciosane translated as The Money-Order with White Genesis

Xala

Le dernier de l'Empire- L'Harmattan, 1981; translated as The Last of the Empire

Niiwam translated as Niiwam and Taaw:

Studies:

Ousmane Sembène écrivain populaire by Hilaire Sikounmo 

Ousmane Sembène the making of a militant artist by Samba Gadjigo 

A new kind of man the representation and significance of women in the
works of Ousmane Sembene by Dwayne Marshall Baker