#african literature

[metamorphesque]

My will is a whisper, your moan a method I, your sin, Committed between two holy mountains And a valley of carnal angels

Niyi Osundare, Words Catch Fire

#bending the bow #niyi osundare #poems #poetry #literature #quotes #translated literature #african literature #african poetry

[cherrybreakfast]

‘What do you do if you’re not allowed to be angry at God?’

Akwaeke Emezi

The Death of Vivek Oji (2020)

#african literature #literature quotes #literary #literature #black literature #lit #nonbinary #non-binary literature #book quotes #god #ethel cain #quotes #ex christian #christian quotes #booklr

[sivavakkiyar]

from Toni Morrison’s introduction to Camara Laye’s The Radiance Of The King

#Toni Morrison #camara laye #African literature

[transethereal1ty]

Bone, Yrsa Daley-Ward

#literature #fragments #my edit #mine #favourites #words #typo #typography #spilled words #poetry #african writers #black writers #black poetry #* #lit #african literature #black literature #jamaican literature #african lit #faves #f: words #edit #yrsa daley ward #bone #yrsa daley-ward

[lionofchaeronea]

Current reading is The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye. First published in French in 1954, it's a fascinating novel that deconstructs African colonialism (Laye was from what is now Guinea) through complex layers of allegory, symbolism, and magical realism. There are points of contact with other great 20th century novels--Kafka's The Trial, most notably--but at the same time, it's something uniquely African and uniquely itself. Definitely worth a read.

(Incidentally: Laye was all of 26 when he published this novel. ...And now I'm going to go huddle in the corner and weep over what I've failed to accomplish in my life.)

#personal #current reading #20th century literature #African literature #modernist literature #Camara Laye

[gennsoup]

"The truth is we don't know what we don't know. We don't even know the questions we need to ask in order to find out, but when we learn one tiny little thing, a dim light comes on in a dark hallway, and suddenly a new question appears. We spend decades, centuries, millennia, trying to answer that one question so that another dim light will come on. That's science, but that's also everything else, isn't it?"

Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom

#Yaa Gyasi #Transcendent Kingdom #questions #science #exploration #curiosity #discovery #Ghanaian literature #African literature #African American literature #quotes #quotes blog #literary quotes #literature quotes #literature #book quotes

[dvzie]

3/29/2023 / Washington, D.C.

#Metro #black literature #african literature #books #things fall apart #chinua achebe #nigeria #Igbo #ibo #washington dc #dc

[whilereadingandwalking]

I've gathered 11 excellent books in translation from East Africa—featuring reads by Scholastique Mukasonga, Ananda Devi, and more. I read books from Mauritius, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, and more to write this latest piece in my series for Book Riot about books in translation from across the globe. Check out the list!

#books in translation #translated literature #african literature #book recommendations #book recs

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

#novella #novellas #the silence of the wilting skin #tlotlo tsamaase #botswana literature #african literature #black literature #21st century literature #have you read this short fiction? #book polls #completed polls

[dailyhistoryposts]

World Literature Series: Things Fall Apart

TITLE: Things Fall Apart AUTHOR: Chinua Achebe DATE: 1958 COUNTRY, REGION, OR PEOPLE: Nigeria TYPE: novel

BACKGROUND: Things Fall Apart is an excellent example of the modern African novel, and has received worldwide recognition. If you are looking for a good entrance into books from places you don’t usually read from, Things Fall Apart is perhaps the best book on my list for you.

Things Fall Aparts depicts pre-colonial and early colonial life in Umuofia, southeastern Nigeria. It’s known for its inclusion of Igbo proverbs and oral culture into the written novel--it is a point of contention that the novel is originally written in English due to Achebe’s view that the Igbo language has “become wooden” when Christian missionaries attempted to unify it and reduce dialects.

SYNOPSIS: The book follows Okonkwo, a wrestling champion who struggles to seem strong after his own father was weak and cowardly. This results in benefits and problems--he is respected and looked to as a leader, but he is unkind to his wives, children, and neighbors, and he is obsessed with being masculine and unemotional.

Okonkwo is chosen to take in an adopted son from a neighboring clan, but then must kill the boy. Okonkwo sinks into grief and regret, and things begin to wrong for his family until he is exiled to another village, Mbanta.

In Mbanta, Okonkwo learns that Christian missionaries have entered Umuofia, spreading their religion and gaining power. Some people of the Igbo village convert, including Okonkwo’s son who has been hurt by his father’s adherence to strict tradition and masculinity. However, the colonial influence becomes too great, and they begin to exert control and humiliation over the Igbo. Okonkwo, dedicated to tradition and strength, wants to go to war--but have the changes of society left such an action in the past?

THEMES: Power, colonization, religion, masculinity, tradition

Main post for the World Literature series.

#history #world history #africa #nigeria #literature #african literature #bookblr

[metamorphesque]

— Niyi Osundare, You Are

#niyi osundare #you are #poetry #poems #quotes #literature #translated literature #african poetry #african literature

[cherrybreakfast]

“She was the sort of woman to make a man crawl as though he had never walked on his own two legs. She liked to see a man fall on his knees.”

Yvonne Vera, from Butterfly Burning (1998)

#feminism #feminine #african literature #book quotes #feminist quotes #literature #feminist literature #quotes #femcel #divine feminine #female manipulator #femme fatale #slay queen

[bones-ivy-breath]

Music is playing the chessboard with no table and still it kills. The boys on the wall of the girls’ school have been here before. As if I’m smoke toying with a knife, as if I’m a finger not sewing a fleeting song.

They always kill me by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi

#poetry #they always kill me #Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi #literature #aesthetic #dark academia #light academia #arabic poetry #sudanese poetry #arabic literature #african literature #african poetry #sudanese literature #death #dark things

[transethereal1ty]

excerpts from My Daddy's Daughter by Noni Selma

#enlarge the image for better quality #fragments #typography #typo #lgbt #lgbtqia #african literature #queer literature #non-fiction #transgender #transgirl #transgender women #transfemme #transfem #trans woman #noni selma #nigerian literature #african non-fiction #queer #*edits #* #*mine #african writers #african women #queer women #queer writers #lgbtqia+ #trans literature #my edit #mine

[lionofchaeronea]

"I Anoint My Flesh (Tenth Day of Fast)" -- Wole Soyinka (b. 1934)

I anoint my flesh Thought is hallowed in the lean Oil of solitude I call you forth, all, upon Terraces of light. Let the dark Withdraw I anoint my voice And let it sound hereafter Or dissolve upon its lonely passage In your void. Voices new Shall rouse the echoes when Evil shall again arise I anoint my heart Within its flame I lay Spent ashes of your hate -- Let evil die.

#personal #poem #poetry #Wole Soyinka #African literature #African poetry #Nigerian literature #Nigerian poetry #20th century literature #20th century poetry #inspirational

[gennsoup]

It came slowly. The rain became lighter and lighter until it fell in slanting showers. Sometimes the sun shone through the rain and a light breeze blew. It was a gay and airy kind of rain. The rainbow began to appear, and sometimes two rainbows, like a mother and her daughter, the one young and beautiful, and the other an old and faint shadow.

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

#Chinua Achebe #Things Fall Apart #rain #summer rain #rainbow #thunderstorm #African literature #Nigerian literature #quotes #quotes blog #literary quotes #literature quotes #literature #book quotes