Journal articles: 'African poetry'

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Gohar, Saddik M. "The dialectics of homeland and identity: Reconstructing Africa in the poetry of Langston Hughes and Mohamed Al-Fayturi." Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 45, no. 1 (February 15, 2018): 42–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.45i1.4460.

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The article investigates the dialectics between homeland and identity in the poetry of the Sudanese poet, Mohamed Al-Fayturi and his literary master, Langston Hughes in order to underline their attitudes toward crucial issues integral to the African and African-American experience such as identity, racism, enslavement and colonisation. The article argues that – in Hughes’s early poetry –Africa is depicted as the land of ancient civilisations in order to strengthen African-American feelings of ethnic pride during the Harlem Renaissance. This idealistic image of a pre-slavery, a pre-colonial Africa, argues the paper, disappears from the poetry of Hughes, after the Harlem Renaissance, to be replaced with a more realistic image of Africa under colonisation. The article also demonstrates that unlike Hughes, who attempts to romanticize Africa, Al-Fayturi rejects a romantic confrontation with the roots. Interrogating western colonial narratives about Africa, Al-Fayturi reconstructs pre-colonial African history in order to reveal the tragic consequences of colonisation and slavery upon the psyche of the African people. The article also points out that in their attempts to confront the oppressive powers which aim to erase the identity of their peoples, Hughes and Al-Fayturi explore areas of overlap drama between the turbulent experience of African-Americans and the catastrophic history of black Africans dismantling colonial narratives and erecting their own cultural mythology.

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Awuzie, Solomon. "Mirroring the society, mirroring its hospitals: Hyginus Ekwazi's poetry and the challenge of nation-building." English Studies at NBU 5, no. 1 (June 1, 2019): 77–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.19.1.4.

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Anglophone African poetry has become a significant medium through which African society from the year 2000 to date is mirrored. The younger Anglophone African poets, widely referred to as the poets of the third-generation, have always used their poetry as means to respond to both historical and current socio-political circumstances that tend to distinguish Africa from the rest of the world. Their poetry now constitutes counter-hegemonic discourse against bad leadership in Africa and against corrupt African social and medical institutions. Using Hyginus Ekwuazi’s The Monkey’s Eyes as a representative poetry of the younger Anglophone African poets, emphasis is made on how the poet depicts the African society and its hospitals. The paper analyzes the collection as a sequel to all other collections of poetry produced by the younger poets at this period. It reveals the condition in which the poetry is produced and how it has responded to the decay in African society and its hospitals. The paper points out that though the older generation of the Anglophone African poets responded to similar socio-political situation, the younger generation of the Anglophone African poets has become the prominent voice in this period and that their poetry provides a clear picture of what is happening in Africa within this time space. Being a new set of voices on the terrain of the Anglophone African poetry, a study of this poetry opens up a new platform upon which this so-called “aesthetic of rage” is appreciated. Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at Birkbeck University of London in an International Conference captioned “Mirror, Mirror: Perceptions, Deceptions, Reflections in Time” organized by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (LCIR) on 10th March, 2018 in London, UK.

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Dawes, Kwame, and Tanure Ojaide. "Poetic Imagination in Black Africa: Essays on African Poetry." World Literature Today 71, no. 3 (1997): 633. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40152975.

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BOOTH, JAMES. "West African Poetry." African Affairs 87, no. 347 (April 1988): 293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098029.

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Kanaganayakam, Chelva. "African Poetry Reconsidered." World Literature Written in English 31, no. 2 (March 1991): 131–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449859108589171.

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Obiora, Anichebe, Ibuot Emmanuel, and Nwankwo Nnamdi. "Imagination, reason and traditional African poetry." IKENGA International Journal of Institute of African Studies 23, no. 1 (July 9, 2022): 1–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2022/23/1/008.

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One phantasm of the colonial experience in Africa is the spirited search for an African identity, which Eurocentrism tried to blot out through different ways, ranging from the denial of its existence to an outright replacement of it with accounts that revert to the occidental for validation. As a contribution to this identity-crisis management project, Afrocentric scholarship, from ethnophilosophy to present-day decolonial discourses, has tried to challenge that dominant narrative based on suppressed facts and logical reasoning. Studies of these kinds generally swing between oppositional scholarship and equalization schemes, without investigating Africa per se from a non-oppositional stance. Thus, this study, which is qualitatively descriptive and logically analytical, in addition to being deductive and synthetical in design, investigates the imaginative in a typical African poem. Aided by Derridean deconstructive strategy, the study reconstitutes an image of the African as more than rational, thereby implicating the imaginative functioning as a possible condition for cultural re-engineering and engagement of reality beyond reason.

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Ogunnaike, Oludamini. "The Presence of Poetry, the Poetry of Presence." Journal of Sufi Studies 5, no. 1 (May 23, 2016): 58–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22105956-12341283.

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The composition and performance of Arabic Sufi poetry is the most characteristic artistic tradition of West African Sufi communities, and yet this tradition has yet to receive the scholarly attention it deserves. In this article, I sketch an outline of a theory of Sufi poetics, and then apply this theory to interpret a performance of a popular Arabic poem of the Senegalese Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975), founder of the most popular branch of the Tijāniyya in West Africa.

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Frolova, Natal'ya S. "Devices of comic in the work of the 20th century English-speaking Ugandan poets." Vestnik of Kostroma State University, no. 4 (2019): 140–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2019-25-4-140-144.

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Poetry of the Ugandans are analysed in an article in the context of the use of devices of comic in the East African English-language poetry. The critical-realistic and enlightener tendencies that were eagerly apprehended by most East African authors in the 1960s have not allowed them going beyond the direct criticism of damning poetry to this day as well, although point-by-point attempts to use humour and satire when contemplating socio-political issues, do occur throughout the sixty-year existence of East Africa English-language poetry. The dilogy by Okot p’Bitek, Timothy Wangusa and Taban Lo Liyong are clear examples of such attempts made in Uganda literature. At the same time, the three authors use fundamentally different techniques of comic, when portraying modern reality, both purely African and universal human.

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Kharitonova, Elena. "Value-Semantic Blocks in Images of African Poetry (in the Context of Historical and Social Changes)." Uchenie zapiski Instituta Afriki RAN 66, no. 1 (March 20, 2024): 127–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2024-66-1-127-144.

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The article presents an interdisciplinary study at the intersection of culturology and African studies. The author suggests that the formation and transformation of values and meanings in Africa were influenced by specific facts of the history of sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, a colossal cultural layer is associated with the colonial past of African countries, with the influence of Western culture and Western values. Colonization of the continent, the struggle for freedom and independence, racial problems have determined the identity of Africans, the specifics of their identification, the need to restore their dignity. On the other hand, there exists a powerful foundation of traditional culture. The paper analyzes specific African value-semantic blocks associated with the facts of African history. It raises the question about the mission of Africa and the “Black man”, expressed in the value-semantic block “the black man is the savior of faith, the guardian of spirituality and honor” and the question of the unique “cosmogonic” system of representations of the African man, embodied in the value of connection with ancestors, with nature, with the earth and with heaven. Examples of the reflection of a number of value-semantic blocks in the images of African poetry are given.

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épouse Coulibaly, Cissoko Saran, and Aboubakar Goynougo. "Syntaxe et signifiance de la parole conative dans la poésie Africaine Francophone." Traduction et Langues 22, no. 2 (December 31, 2023): 186–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.52919/translang.v22i2.957.

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Syntax and Meaning of Conative Speech in Francophone African Poetry For those with an interest in African poetry, particularly Francophone poetry, several distinctive features underlie its originality and authenticity. These encompass rhythm, symbolism, and poetic imagery, serving as fundamental markers of the dominant poetic function within poetic discourse. These elements are inevitable considerations in any analysis, be it poetic or stylistic, of literary texts. Poetry in Africa, and conceivably beyond, undoubtedly serves a pragmatic, or more precisely, pragma-enunciative function, often obscured and overshadowed by the omnipotent poetic function—the quintessential literary function. In practical terms, the pragma-enunciative function of a poetic text is revealed through its conative nature. Essentially, poetry is a form of discourse inherently directed towards otherness, intended for an audience. Even when masquerading as an introspective work originating from the soul, ostensibly focused inward to express emotions in a context of heightened lyricism, poetry is fundamentally a conative expression. This characteristic is intrinsic to African poetry, with conative speech representing an indispensable aspect that may even be considered the ultimate purpose of the unavoidable poetic function of language. It is undeniable that elements such as rhythm, symbol, and poetic imagery, along with other aesthetic devices in verbal creation, serve as means of captivating and elevating the discourse, enabling the poet to construct a message aimed at captivating and stirring the reader. Nearly every aspect of the poem contributes to transforming it into a communication from self to other, essentially constituting second-person poetry. Conative speech, in the context of poetry, also assumes an incantatory function, a concept championed by Roman Jakobson, involving the conversion of an absent or inanimate "third person" into the recipient of a conative message. In the realm of French-speaking African poetry, conative speech holds literary, pragmatic, communicative, psychological, and cultural significance, among other dimensions. It is an indispensable component of African poetry, enhancing its illocutionary or even perlocutionary nature. Consequently, a nuanced examination of the syntax of this speech, especially its unconventional or unexpected elements

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Suhr-Sytsma, Nathan. "Theories of African Poetry." New Literary History 50, no. 4 (2019): 581–607. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2019.0058.

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LaPrade, Candis A. "Assesing African American Poetry." Southern Literary Journal 34, no. 1 (2001): 136–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/slj.2001.0023.

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Visser, Marianna W., and Phillip Hayab John. "African Oral Poetry and Performance: a study of the spoken verse." Southern African Journal for Folklore Studies 27, no. 2 (February 8, 2018): 28–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1016-8427/2475.

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The article defines poetry and situates the genre within an African context, with justifications on why it relies on a performative enactment for the realisation of its full import. The focus is on the fact that much of what is characteristically categorised as “poetry” in African oral literature is intended to be performed in a musical setting, where the melodic and vocal components are mutually dependent on representation. The leading concern, therefore, is the observation that poetry in a traditional African society derives its classification from the perception of the society for which it is performed, and need not be limited to the Western construal or perspective. The article employs poetic verses from the Ham and Hausa of Nigeria, the Ewe and Akan of Ghana, the Ocoli of Uganda, and the Zulu of Southern Africa to exemplify the position that an enactment reveals the core of the communicative act in an orally-recited poetry.

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Sanyal, Sovon. "Trailing the Growth from Nativism to Africanity in Lusophone African Poetry." Lingua Cultura 4, no. 2 (November 30, 2010): 117. http://dx.doi.org/10.21512/lc.v4i2.357.

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Article explored the development of African poetry, that is from nativism to be Africanity, in Lusophone African poetries. The study used library research by analysing the impact of printing press, public education, and freedom of expression emergences toward literary activities in Portuguese colonies in Africa. In this regard ethnological and historical studies on the colonies had an important role to play for the later development of nationalism among the colonised African peoples. Article’s discussion concerned with describing proper literary activities in Portuguese began in the Lusophone countries of Africa, poetry characterization by the “black” and “white” presentations, added by some example of poetries. It can be concluded the problematic of colour is present in African poems in Portuguese right from its inception, The common purpose of the nineteenth century Lusophone African poets was to discover the regional cultural history and identity, which was denied to them for centuries by the foreign rulers.

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Onyumbe Wenyi, Jacob. "“The Hills will Flow with Milk”." Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts 14, no. 2 (December 15, 2023): 229–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/post.23981.

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Concern for how scriptures can inform our understanding of issues of land tenure, care, and use and the related food, water, and shelter insecurity in African rural communities led me to read Joel’s poetry in Joel 4:9–21 against the background of the expanding phenomenon of land grabbing in postcolonial Africa. Despite their reliance on community-owned lands for survival, African rural communities are constantly being stripped of those lands by powerful governments, corporations, and individuals. Writing within a context similar to that of contemporary African communities, Joel, in vivid poetry, imagines the restoration of Judah by YHWH in the aftermath of its destruction by international imperial trading and land grabbing. This article thus hypothesizes that the poetry of Joel can evoke in contemporary African consciousness the current land crisis that destroys many rural communities and yet is often ignored because of numbness and denial nurtured by the powers that be.

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Ofoego, Obioma. "Toward the Decolonization of African Literature, « that now-classic manifesto of African cultural nationalism »." Études littéraires africaines, no. 29 (November 26, 2014): 28–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1027493ar.

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Ce texte se propose d’analyser la problématique de la construction d’un sujet collectif (noir, africain, pan-africain), qui est au centre du manifeste littéraire Toward the Decolonization of African Literature : African Fiction and Poetry and Their Critics (1980), de la troïka igbo Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie et Ihechukwu Madubuike. Il s’agira de réfléchir sur la compatibilité entre l’ambition de ce projet et les stratégies prescriptives du manifeste, dont découle une esthétique « africaine ».

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Lewis, Simon. "“This Land South Africa”: Rewriting Time and Space in Postapartheid Poetry and Property." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 33, no. 12 (December 2001): 2095–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a33186.

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The widespread concern in recent South African poetry with landscape and the question of what place the poet occupies in that landscape arises less as a response to the turn of the millennium than to the historical end of formal apartheid, but nonetheless marks an epochal shift in sensibility. Whereas much poetry of the 1980s evoked a sense of extreme dislocation in recent time and local space (marked by references to a precarious present of forced removal and migrancy, and unspecified, unsettled futures), some significant recent work has been marked by a desire to relocate the human presence in South Africa in terms of geological time and continental space. This generalization needs to be qualified by reference to racial and political positioning within South Africa, and in this paper I distinguish between the work of committed white writers such as ex-political-prisoner Jeremy Cronin (now Secretary of the South African Communist Party) and Barry Feinberg (now curator of the Mayibuye Centre), and the work of black writers such as Don Mattera, Seitlhamo Motsapi, Lesego Rampolokeng, and Daniel P Kunene. The regrounding of the human presence in South Africa by white writers such as Cronin and Feinberg attempts a radical remapping of South African cultural identity in utopianly unraced terms, while the reclamation of continental African and local South African place names by black writers such as Mattera, Motsapi, Rampolokeng, and Kunene draws attention to the material reality of a postapartheid heterotopia in which South Africa's postmodern landscape is being divided up and sold off in ways that combine a very old-fashioned rhetoric of class and space with a new/old racial coding.

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Neupane, Khagendra. "The Intersection of Blues and Gospel in Langston Hughes's Poetry." Cognition 5, no. 1 (June 12, 2023): 63–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/cognition.v5i1.55409.

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This article delves into Langston Hughes's use of blues and gospel music in his poetry. It explores how his poetry has helped challenge traditional views of African-American art. Hughes promotes African-American identity and culture, and advocates for principles such as freedom, democracy, and brotherhood. Hughes's poetry celebrates both spirituals and the blues, recognizing their power to evoke emotions and capture the essence of the human spirit. Despite the differences between the two genres, Hughes sees a greater bond that unifies them as part of the broader African-American culture. Hughes believes that his poetry should be performed and recited with musical accompaniment to enhance and strengthen communication. In this sense, music serves as a strong and unifying force that can inspire participation, dialogue, and engagement with African-American culture. This article examines how Hughes's poetry reflects the blues and gospel traditions and how his art is not isolating but ultimately unifying. By analyzing specific poems, such as "The Weary Blues" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," this article demonstrates how Hughes's use of blues and gospel music speaks to a broader cultural context and how it is an integral part of African-American identity. Furthermore, the article highlights how Hughes's work has been influential in promoting African-American culture and identity. Through his poetry, Hughes seeks to challenge traditional views of art and African-Americans by asserting that African-American culture is worthy of artistic representation. His use of music in his poetry helps to underscore the importance of music as a part of African-American culture, and to foster a sense of community and unity among African-Americans. This article illustrates how Hughes's poetry is not only a reflection of the blues and gospel traditions but also a representation of African-American identity and culture. Hughes's use of music in his poetry helps to break down cultural barriers and promote unity and engagement within the African-American community.

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Opoku-Agyemang, Kwabena. "“Coat and Uncoat!”: Satire and socio-political commentary in My Book of #GHCoats." Legon Journal of the Humanities 34, no. 2 (December 11, 2023): 1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v34i2.1.

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Research related to creative expression has examined the form and nature of satire in both oral and print poetry in West Africa but is yet to adequately consider digital poetry. This essay examines Nana Awere Damoah’s My Book of #GHCoats, arguably the first example of African conceptual poetry. A collation of humorous fictional quotes by Ghanaian Facebook users, #GHCoats allows for analysis the context of socio-political satire. In exploring the presence and utility of satire in #GHCoats, this essay analyzes the features of conceptual poetry as used via social media to present digital poetry as a developing force of creative expression.

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D’Abdon, R. "RESISTANCE POETRY IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE POETIC WORKS AND CULTURAL ACTIVISM OF VANONI BILA." Southern African Journal for Folklore Studies 24, no. 1 (September 30, 2016): 98–121. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1016-8427/1675.

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The article explores selected works of Vonani Bila, one of the most influential wordsmiths of post-apartheid South Africa. It outlines the difference between “protest poetry” and “resistance poetry”, and contextualises the contemporary expression(s) of the latter within today’s South Africa’s poetry scene. Focusing on Bila’s “politically engaged” poems and cultural activism, this article maintains that resistance poetry has re-invented itself in the post-94 cultural scenario, and still represents a valid tool in the hands of poets to creatively expose and criticize the enduring contradictions of South African society

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Odueme, Edoama Frances. "Orality, Memory and the New African Diaspora Poetry: Examining Tanure Ojaide’s Poetics." Afrika Focus 32, no. 1 (February 27, 2019): 149–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2031356x-03201010.

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The influence of traditional oral poetic forms on modern African poetry has been significant. Fascinated by oral forms which their respective communities relied on (to inform, teach, and correct erring members) before the advent of literacy, modern African writers borrow from these oral traditions and blend them with the features of the written Western literary forms. This appropriation of the oral poetic techniques by modern African poets continues today, as is clearly evident in the writings of many contemporary African poets, whose scripted works are seen to have drawn much in terms of content and form from the African oral poetic tradition. Following in this trend, the new African diaspora poets have also maintained the practice of skillfully blending the rich African verbal art and the modern (written) poetic forms to articulate the experiences of their African homeland as well as those of the diaspora, in order to construct and project their identities and visions of a new life in their lived world. In order to explore how through recourse to memory, “new African diasporas” (African-descended people who migrated out of Africa, during the postcolonial era and who live and practice their art outside the African homeland) utilize African oral art techniques in their writings, this essay analyses the poetry of Tanure Ojaide.

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Ebede, Stanley Somtochukwu. "Discourse techniques in African poetry." OGIRISI: a New Journal of African Studies 13, no. 1 (September 15, 2017): 277. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/og.v13i1.14.

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Vambe, Maurice Taonezvi, and Rangarirai Alfred Musvoto. "Introduction: African and Diasporan Poetry." Journal of Literary Studies 33, no. 2 (April 3, 2017): 78–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02564718.2017.1334865.

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Olugbemi-Gabriel, Olumide. "Orality, Literacy, Modernity and Modern African Poetry." Àgídìgbo: ABUAD Journal of the Humanities 1, no. 1 (2013): 43–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.53982/agidigbo.2013.0101.05-j.

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This paper attempts to locate and situate how Modem African Poetry turned the corner from a beginning encapsulated in poetic lines which are influenced and modeled after Western style and poets, to embracing forms of African oral traditions. The game changer for modern African poetry is p'Bitek's Song of Lawino which privileges his people's oral tradition forms as manifested in songs, proverbs and oral poetry oyer conventional western poetic forms. Osundare's Villages Voicesequally concretises the achievement of the modern African poet in using the hands of literacy to drag orality to the podium of modern poetic manifestations, The efforts of p'Bitek and Osundare are singled out for praise for their abilities to locate the critical interface between orality and literacy in a better understanding of the consequence of the fatal collision between African oral tradition and ",'estern education which births modern African poetry

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Nwakanma, Obi. "Okigbo Agonistes: Postcolonial Subjectivity in "Limits" and "Distances"." Matatu 33, no. 1 (June 1, 2006): 327–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757421-033001037.

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Among Africa's leading twentieth-century poets, Christopher Okigbo occupies a most interesting space. Born to Igbo Roman Catholic parents in Eastern Nigeria, Okigbo studied the Classics and began to write poetry as a means of re-identification with his primal world. Yet both his life and his poetry staked a claim to a universalist impulse, and, as a colonial subject interpreting the postcolonial moment, Okigbo rejected a narrow, essentialist categorization of either himself or his poetry. He rejected the Africa Prize in 1966, claiming that "there is no such thing as African poetry, there is only good poetry or bad poetry." Okigbo appropriated signs and tropes from a vast range of sources, emphasizing the cosmopolitan, hybrid, transborder nature of signs and language in the postcolonial text. Yet Okigbo's poetry exhibits the recursive fantasy, displacement, and disorientation of a problematic imaginative cosmos. I argue in this essay that Okigbo, especially in the poems "Limits" and "Distances," was expressing his attempt to engage in an agonistic search, a quest for some stable identity. In interpreting the chaotic space of postcolonial experience, the poet Okigbo reflects what Homi Bhabha describes as a "mixed and split text of hybridity" – the double-toned voice of postcolonial anxiety.

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Urama, Evelyn Nwachukwwu, and Ebuka Elias Igwebuike. "Spiritual Journey and Primordial Self: Requisite Actions for Individual and National Identity in Christopher Okigbo’s Poetry." Journal of Language and Cultural Education 6, no. 3 (September 1, 2018): 122–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/jolace-2018-0028.

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Abstract European nations colonized most of the African societies and as a result had political and economic power and control over these nations. With the western domination, the colonists ruled the African nations and every other person was to obey their command. The colonizers introduced hegemonic educational system to Africans in which they were taught the European ethos without their studying African culture. Due to this hegemony, the European colonial masters imposed their culture on Africans and it succeeded in reshaping the cultural and political lives of Africans. Many Africans abandoned African customs and beliefs when they gained western education. Therefore due to this hegemony Africans lost their authentic/real selves and became adulterated. Their main concern becomes to create and recreate themselves through going back to their culture and origin. Through poststructuralist analysis of ‘Heavensgate’ and ‘Path Thunder’ in Labyrinths (1971), this paper explores how Christopher Okigbo, an African poet, embarked on a spiritual journey in quest of his primordial self and became an asserted poet. The paper aims at imploring Africans all over the world to follow the footprints of Okigbo in identifying their true selves for them to have meaningful lives.

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Afolayan, Kayode, and INYANG Utitofon Ebong. "Of Divination Tray and the Search for Utopia: A Postcolonial Reading of Okinba Launko’s Selected Poems." KENTE - Cape Coast Journal of Literature and the Arts 3, no. 1 (May 28, 2022): 59–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.47963/jla.v3i1.222.

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Primordial oral literary forms have always been very central to the evolution of modern African literature. Arguably, these forms have impacted on modern African poetry, not only on account of their recurrence in the works of poets, but also as important indices in current poetry studies and criticism. Contemporary African poets have since stretched the limits and aesthetics of these forms to emphasize their relevance in the postcolonial space, following after the Negritude poets who set the antecedent in the use of Africa’s primordial forms,. This paper, using selected poems from Okinba Launko’s Dream-Seeker on Divining Chain (1993), Commemorations (2007) Seven Stations Up the Trays Way (2013), discusses the different tropes and manifestations of oral forms in modern African poetry. The writers isolate the poet’s use of Ifa, the Yoruba divinity muse, to comment on the dilemmas of the postcolonial space. The paper concludes that the dialectic prism of Okinba Launko’s poetry exteriorizes a neo-negritude template that sustains the relevance of primordial forms in African poetry.

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Kočan, Kristina. "Problems in Translating Musical Elements in African American Poetry after 1950." ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries 6, no. 1-2 (June 15, 2009): 45–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/elope.6.1-2.45-60.

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In most cases, African American poetry eschews traditional literary norms. Contemporary African American poets tend to ignore grammatical rules, use unusual typography on many occasions, include much of their cultural heritage in their poetry, and interweave musical elements into literary genres. The influence of such musical genres as jazz, blues, soul, and gospel, together with the dilemmas that occur for the translator, will be shown to great extent, since music, like black speech, is a major part of African American culture and literature. The translator will have to maintain the specific African American rhythm, blues adaptations and the improvisational language under the jazz impact. The paper presents the problems in translating post-1950 African American poetry into Slovene, and asks to what extent can one successfully transfer the musical elements within this poetry for the target culture? Inevitably, it will identify a share of elements that are lost in translation.

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Kočan Šalamon, Kristina. "Translating Culture: Contemporary African American Poetry." ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries 12, no. 2 (December 29, 2015): 211–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/elope.12.2.211-224.

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The paper interrogates cultural specifics of contemporary African American poetry and exhibits translation problems when translating this poetic work. African American writers have always included much of their cultural heritage in their writing and this is immediately noticed by a translator. The cultural elements, such as African American cuisine, attire and style in general, as well as spiritual and religious practices, often play a significant role for African American poets who are proclaiming their identity. Moreover, the paper presents the translation problems that emerge when attempting to transfer such a specific, even exotic, source culture into a target culture, like Slovene. The goal is to show to what extent contemporary African American poetry can successfully be translated into the Slovene language and to highlight the parts that inevitably remain lost in the translation process.

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Kotlerman, Ber. "SOUTH AFRICAN WRITINGS OF MORRIS HOFFMAN: BETWEEN YIDDISH AND HEBREW." Journal for Semitics 23, no. 2 (November 21, 2017): 569–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/3506.

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Morris Hoffman (1885-1940), who was born in a Latvian township and emigrated to South Africa in 1906, was a brilliant example of the Eastern European Jewish maskil writing with equal fluency in both Yiddish and Hebrew. He published poetry and prose in South African Yiddish and Hebrew periodicals. His long Yiddish poem under the title Afrikaner epopeyen (African epics) was considered to be the best Yiddish poetry written in South Africa. In 1939, a selection of his Yiddish stories under the title Unter afrikaner zun (Under the African sun) was prepared for publishing in De Aar, Cape Province (which is now in the Northern Cape Province), and published after his death in 1951 in Johannesburg. The Hebrew version of the stories was published in Israel in 1949 under the title Taá¸¥at shmey afrikah (Under the skies of Africa). The article deals with certain differences between the versions using the example of one of the bilingual stories. The comparison between the versions illuminates Hoffmanâ€™s reflections on the relations between Jews and Afrikaners with a rather new perspective which underlines their religious background

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Joffe, Sharon L. "African American and South African Poetry of the Oppressed." Peace Review 13, no. 2 (June 2001): 201–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402650120060382.

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Tsekpoe, Christian. "Changing Metaphors in African Theologies: Influences from Digital Cultures." Studies in World Christianity 28, no. 1 (March 2022): 71–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2022.0371.

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The incursion of globalisation presents both opportunities and challenges for mission in Africa. This is especially visible among the younger generation whose cultural perspectives have been influenced by global digital cultures. Although the youth in Africa are very much aware of their indigenous identities, they also participate actively with their peers elsewhere around the globe. As a result of these global interactions, many of the pre-colonial theological metaphors which have been accepted as authentic grassroots African theologies seem to have become less meaningful to emerging generations. Analysing contemporary oral sources such as music, prayers, poetry and everyday conversation among young Africans, this paper argues that there is a seismic shift in theological metaphors that speak meaningfully to the contexts of emerging Africans. The paper argues that many young people in contemporary Ghana, for example, do not see mmoatia (dwarfs) and sasabonsam (forest monster) as symbols of threat: they have new threats. A theology that describes Jesus as a hunter could be so impotent in the face of contemporary realities of some young people in Ghana, as Western theologies made a corresponding adjustment in Majority World countries a few decades ago. The paper concludes that these changing metaphors have implications for local theologies in Africa and must be engaged by theologians, missionaries and all who are interested in African theologies for the purpose of meaningful contextualisation in contemporary African Christianity.

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Azuonye, Chukwuma. "African Poetry of the Living Dead: Igbo Masquerade Poetry (review)." Research in African Literatures 31, no. 1 (2000): 205–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ral.2000.0003.

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Thulla, Philip Foday Yamba, and Ibrahim Mustapha Fofanah. "Ideology in Thompson’s, Kailey’s, and Robin-Coker’s collections of poems: A psychoanalytical exploration." Journal of Research on English and Language Learning (J-REaLL) 5, no. 1 (December 30, 2023): 24–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v5i1.20586.

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This study employed psychoanalytic theory to delve into the ways Sierra Leonean poets Celia Eva Beatrice Thompson, Princess Mildred Kailey, and Kayode Adesimi Robin-Coker explored themes of despair, lust, and loss in their poetry. Addressing a notable gap in literary criticism, especially regarding Sierra Leonean authors, the research sought to raise the international stature of African writers and support students facing challenges with poetry in West African public exams. Employing psychoanalytic principles, the study uncovered deeper meanings behind the unconscious drives and emotions in these poets' works. It involved analyzing the occurrence of themes, detecting psychoanalytically significant lines and phrases, and identifying central themes and literary techniques used to express complex emotions. The analysis, which combined thematic and literary analysis, focused on the language, themes, and use of figurative language, diction, and other poetic devices in Thompson's 23, Kailey's 41, and Robin-Coker's 20 poems. This approach highlighted their distinct ways of depicting despair, lust, and loss. By integrating thematic analysis, the study offered a more profound comprehension of each poet's style. Ultimately, this psychoanalytic exploration aimed to enhance critical interpretation skills and helped in understanding the deeper psychological aspects of Sierra Leonean and other African poetry.

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Egya, Sule E. "The Minstrel as Social Critic: A Reading of Ezenwa–Ohaeto's." Matatu 33, no. 1 (June 1, 2006): 179–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757421-033001028.

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Ezenwa–Ohaeto is one of the modern Nigerian poets who, in their creative endeavours, have continued to tap the rich sources of orature in their culture, in what is now known as 'the minstrelsy tradition'. The maturity of his explorations of the minstrelsy tradition comes through in the last volume of poetry he published before his death, (2003). In a close reading of some selected poems from this volume, this contribution not only looks at the minstrelsy tradition so central to Ezenwa–Ohaeto's poetry, but, more broadly, explores the social vision of Ezenwa–Ohaeto as an African poet. Unlike his earlier volumes of poetry, takes a critical swipe at the inadequacies of advanced countries in Europe and America in what we may call the poet's transnational imagination. In his chants across the world (the volume is an outcome of his many travels), Ezenwa–Ohaeto examines the issues of racism, equity in international relationships and, as is characteristic of his oeuvre, the moral and ethical failures of leaders in Africa.

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Chris Ajibade, Adetuyi,, and Adeniran, Adeola Adetomi. "African Poetry as an Expression of Agony." World Journal of English Language 8, no. 1 (March 27, 2018): 21. http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v8n1p21.

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This study focuses on sociological study of selected African poems as an expression of agony which seeks to addressthe issues of oppression, psychological torture, injustice, apartheid, racism oppression and man’s inhumanity to manin the society. Since series of poems of culture, love, nature and animalistic voices are mostly presented by the critics,this study has as focus poetry as an expression of agony and pain in Africa.The study therefore adopted an analytic approach in its examination of the poems. The natures of agony as well assuggested resolution to this agony in the poems are pointed out with close reference to the selected poems. Poeticdevices of the two (2) poems (Nightfall in Soweto and Peasant) are also analysed in attempt to discuss the themes ofthe poems. In conclusion, it was discovered that the poems exposed the terrible state of affairs in Africa through thepoet’s effective use of symbols and images.

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Frolova, Natal’ya S. "Expatriate Kenyan poetry: Marjorie Phyllis Oludhe Macgoye and Stephen Derwent Partington." Vestnik of Kostroma State University 26, no. 4 (January 28, 2021): 172–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2020-26-4-172-178.

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English-language poetry in Kenya emerges and begins to develop in the 1970s, a decade later than the Ugandan one. It was at this time that the first truly brilliant examples of poetic work appeared – these are poems of Jared Angira and Micere Githae Mugo, who later became classics of Kenyan literature, whose work characterises the two main directions of Kenyan English-language poetry of the second half of the 20th century – critical-realistic and philosophical-mystical [Frolova: 75–90]. Studying the English-language poetry of Kenya draws attention to such an interesting phenomenon as the Kenyan poetry of expatriate writers. These are the creative work of Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye and the Stephen Partington, whose creative work cannot be called typical for East African literature. Both Macgoye and Partington are ethnic British, who had moved, each at own time, to Kenya and devoted themselves to literature, and, what is most important, called Kenya their homeland and themselves, Kenyans. In their poems, one can feel sincere love for the land, which has become their home, sympathy for Africans who suffer social injustice, and huge efforts to understand African reality through the eyes of a European.

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Mabunda, Magezi, and Cindy Ramhurry. "An analysis of the effects of history in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission poetry." South African Journal of Education 43, no. 4 (November 30, 2023): 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.15700/saje.v43n4a2236.

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Scholars raise 2 salient questions regarding poetry in post-apartheid South Africa. One is whether new poetry emerged in the post-apartheid South Africa, and the other is whether poetry produced during and after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is capable of capturing the imagination of the reading public without resorting to the bigotry of Black versus White. Literature highlights the need for South African poets to move away from using historical facts as the basis for making literary representation. We acknowledge that the use of historical facts as the basis for literary representation of societies may be seen as insensitive to the victims of the injustices of the past practices in highly politically polarised communities. At the same time, we argue that historical narratives with positive ideological intent can heal wounds and unite a nation. To justify this position, we adopted a 2-fold perspective: firstly, we investigated the effects of using history as the basis for literary representation and, secondly, we examined the extent to which post-apartheid South African poets may use history as a necessary tool to enforce unity and a sense of forgiveness.

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Dorsey, David, and John Haynes. "African Poetry and the English Language." World Literature Today 62, no. 3 (1988): 497. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40144449.

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Goddard, Horace I., and John Haynes. "African Poetry and the English Language." Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines 24, no. 1 (1990): 117. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/485608.

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Waters, Harold A., and Robert Fraser. "West African Poetry. A Critical History." Modern Language Studies 18, no. 3 (1988): 86. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3194972.

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Echeruo, Michael J. C. "Anglo-African Nigerian Poetry, 1863-1865." Présence Africaine 153, no. 1 (1996): 167. http://dx.doi.org/10.3917/presa.153.0167.

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John Taylor. "Poetry Today: Discovering New African Poets." Antioch Review 73, no. 2 (2015): 372. http://dx.doi.org/10.7723/antiochreview.73.2.0372.

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Waters, Chris, Tanure Ojaide, and Tijan M. Sallah. "The New African Poetry: An Anthology." World Literature Today 74, no. 1 (2000): 220. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40155505.

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OKUNOYE, OYENIYI. "Postcoloniality, African Poetry, and Counter-Discourse." Matatu 35, no. 1 (2007): 111–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789401205641_008.

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Levey, David. "South African poetry - the inward gaze." Scrutiny2 6, no. 1 (January 2001): 75–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18125440108565987.

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Conn, Stewart. "South African poetry: a personal view." Scrutiny2 3, no. 1 (January 1998): 58–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18125441.1998.10877335.

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HARESNAPE, GEOFFREY. "SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH POETRY AND JERUSALEM." English Studies in Africa 46, no. 2 (January 2003): 13–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00138390308691008.

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King, Bruce, and Robert Fraser. "West African Poetry: A Critical History." World Literature Today 61, no. 3 (1987): 480. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40143481.

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Lam, Joshua. "A Poetics of Thingification: Dawn Lundy Martin and the Black Took Collective." boundary 2 49, no. 4 (November 1, 2022): 67–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/01903659-10045160.

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Abstract In the last two decades, African American poets working in innovative and avant-garde forms have produced poetry focused upon the theme of racial objectification. Individual and collaborative projects by Dawn Lundy Martin, Duriel E. Harris, and Ronaldo V. Wilson, who write and perform together as the Black Took Collective, practice what this article calls a poetics of thingification: a poetry that draws attention to language's capacity for reification in general and for racial objectification in particular. Drawing upon thing theory and recent scholarship on race and avant-garde poetry, this article focuses on Dawn Lundy Martin's poetics in order to demonstrate how poets combine innovative techniques with racial stereotypes to scrutinize hegemonic expectations at the level of poetic form, especially within the tradition of African American poetry. Rather than adopting the humanizing rhetoric and lyrical modes of conventional African American poetry, these poets use the trope of the objectified Black body to deconstruct linguistic processes of racial reification from within.

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Journal articles on the topic 'African poetry'

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