The just-ended year was not the best of all years for Africa. The year 2024 will go down as a year of multiple challenges for the world in general and for Africa in particular. Africa has two types of stories. On the one hand we have the stories of military coups, conflicts and economic disasters caused by rising inflation rates and sanctions and debt distress. On the other hand there are the stories of hope, resilience, and survival.
There is no denying the fact that Africa is facing tremendous challenges. She is also encountering boundless opportunities both real and potentials. Its culture, its arts, and its creativity are amazing. There is light in the midst of darkness. The light shine brighter and is more powerful than the darkness which is progressively overcome.
Africa continues to vibrate with its music and songs and dances and untold tales and much more creativity. Africa is tapping into its rich literary traditions, both oral and written, to produce amazing works although she has not yet produced or reproduced something remotely resembling Chinua Achebe’s classic “Things Fall Apart”, the Cairo stories of Egyptian Mahfouz, or Ghanaian author Ayi Kwe Armah’s “The Beautiful Ones are not yet Born “. Classics are not born every year. The good news is that Africans are still producing beautiful culture and writing beautiful books that capture of the attention of the global reading public and sell well in European and American bookshops.
African Jazz from Ethiopia is telling Africa’s story in sounds and vibrations. Younger musicians from Nigeria, are producing albums that sell like hot cakes within and outside the continent. Artists from South Africa, Egypt, Senegal and the Francophone Africaing growing recognition in Paris and beyond. Africa is singing in English, French, Portuguese or any other European language but she is singing from the depth of her heart or from her soul. Africa is also writing whether in its own languages or in foreign ones. It is writing prose, poetry, drama, novels and short stories. Young and upcoming African writers are read in Europe and America as far as Asia and other parts of Africa. Africa has new ideas, philosophies and and still-untapped spiritual wealth. Whether at home or in the Diaspora, African intellectuals are producing books, articles and non-fiction works in general; although they seldom connect with their roots and are not yet addressing African problems in their own practical ways.
Nigerian movie makers are shining in the streets of Lagos and the studios of Nollywood. They are conquering the world although they are not so much known within their continent. They are fighting for honorable space and for their deserved niches in the global film industry. The good and bad, the beautiful and the ugly are bound to continue into the New Year. This is always true about life in general. Good years follow bad years and vice versa. On balance, Africa continues to inspire, aspire and respire in the arts and literature.
The year 2023 was also a glorious year for African writing. This is what African Report (AR) the leading publishing in Africa is telling us. “A mixture of poetry, plays, memoirs and novels await the reader, showcasing the best of Africa and the Diaspora this year. A much-anticipated translation from Portuguese and a second effort by, multitalented Ghanaian writer Nii Ayikwel Parkes are part of our selection.”
Another interesting feature of African writers is that they have started to write about their major challenges in their own ways. They seem to have stopped and seek foreign perspectives to highlight their grievance. In 2023, a collection of essays entitled “Strange and Difficult Times: Notes on a Global Pandemic” by Nanja Nyabola is lauded as, “an important body of work that highlights unforgivable injustices and the courageous systems and voices trying to counter them.”
New African poets are also emerging. One of them is called Kweku Abimbola and published a collection of poems entitled, Saltwater Demands a Psalm” and was appreciated by the Poetry Foundation as “a powerful and stirring debut from one of the most unique voices, a nuanced description of life in the Diaspora as an African immigrant.”
Portuguese writers are hardly known in the rest of Africa where English and French are the main languages used by them. But a Portuguese-language writer, has shined, perhaps for the first time through a biographical work entitled, “Whites Can Dance too” which is a “fascinating narrative about “ a musical genre born in the intersection of house, techno and kizomba in the late 1980s.” the story of Kalaf, the protagonist who is a culture agitator and ambassador of the genre who was arrested en route to Europe’s most iconic music festival in Oslo on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.”
Another female writer from neighboring Sudan called Leila Aboulela, has written another work called, “River Spirit” , a historical novel about siblings orphaned and enslaved as their country rebels against Ottoman rule. “Abulela’s story has been praised by the New York Times as, “a swift, galloping over momentous events, stating profound changes with unsettling directness.”
African writers were not only writing about their home countries or from their own experiences of Afirca. They were also writing about Diaspora Africans and their many lives. One of these books is called, “Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices” and edited by Nana Brew Hammond, which is “a mélange of African and Diaspora writing into a poly-phonic chorus of poetry and prose contemplating shared humanity.”
New African talents have also come up with new African poetry. African writers are known to be multitalented as they always wrote in multiple genres and attained global recognition. Wole Soyinka, the doyen of African letters is of course the leading poet, dramatist, essayist and novelist on the continent. But now, others are following him in the poetry genre and gained appreciation in 2023. “Tisa: New Generation of African Poets,” is a book edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani and published by the African Poetry Fund” which, in the last twelve years, has been into the service of promoting African poets at home and abroad to discover and elevate new talents.”
African writers have also dealt in the travel genre Sara Cheik proved it in her latest book with a rather long title. It is called, “tomorrow, Tomorrow, Insha Allah: How the Journey Back to My roots Became an Adventure Escape” A prominent publication called, Ms Magazine described the book as, “evocative and harrowing, Cheikh’s debut work beams the spotlight on the plight and perils of the Saharawi people.”
African writers also dealt with memories as Ika Anya, who is an author and physician, did in the work entitled, “Small by Small”, “his memoir of his experience of medical school in Nigeria which ironically also serves as a communal memoir of a specific tumultuous period in Nigeria’s history and the twilight of military dictatorship”
There are also many books that achieved prominence in 2023 and were written by African male and female writers. Autobiography, memoirs and poetry have witnessed a kind of renewal in the process. On balance writers from Western and Northern Africa have been prominent in producing remarkable works while those from the south and east have been absent in this year’s African festival of writing and publishing.
Writers from Neighboring Kenya that had so far produced prominent writers like Ngugi wa Tiongo and others have been absent from the festival while Somalia which is still in political turmoil has spent long years in literary abstinence. Somalia achieved international literary fame thanks to Nuredin Farah, the most prominent author who is half British and published top books like “Maps” about the chaos and suffering of Somalia.
Ethiopian writers are, as always, notable absentees from the gala festival of African writing. The problem with Ethiopian writers is that they do not write much on any of the foreign languages without which it is difficult to gain recognition in the international arena. For that matter, Ethiopian writers have not produced notable works in their own language too. It is a dry season for literature in Ethiopia although some America-based authors have been publishing some remarkable works in the past.
For Ethiopia to put its mark on African literature, the new generation of authors should read first works by African writers and try to read a lot of works in English to master the language in such a way as to use it in writing to express their ideas. There are many youngsters who have an amazing mastery of English but the trouble is that a few of them have so far shown an appetite for writing. This is bound to change in the coming years so that new Ethiopian writers would put their country on the literary map of Africa.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 10 JANUARY 2024
