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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Erasure and the centrality of literatures in African languages |
| Author: | Kezilahabi, E. |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Periodical: | Kiswahili (ISSN 0856-048X) |
| Volume: | 75 |
| Pages: | 104-117 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Africa |
| Subjects: | African languages literature postcolonialism identity |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the author discusses the reasons why he writes his work in his native tongue, Swahili, and advocates the use of African languages in literature. As a result of chance encounters at a symposium, the author analyses the nature of the complex problem Africa is facing today in the area of literary production and consumption.The author explains the meaning of erasure in the context of this article. Literature in African languages is instrumental in charting out the route to new possibilities by overcoming ethnic and national boundaries, religious affiliations and to some extent gender differences. Moreover, it is to be seen as counter-hegemonic discourse which seeks to open up creative potential, long and greatly suppressed by colonial domination; and therefore stands for self-pride and dignity as well as a kind of resistance to imperial discourse and has protected Africans as human beings from erasure: i.e. existing in non-existence. As a result, post-coloniality is a major topic for discussion, as it deals with questions of knowledge, power and value as well as the notions of identity, individuality and a structural transformation in history and ethics. Post-coloniality peripherizes literature written in African languages as the colonists never taught the African peoples' languages. The author emphasizes that the main aim of literature created in African languages is to create a dialogue with the people, through intertextuality, so that they have a voice. Creative writing in African languages is a major tool in learning interethnic and transnational cultural development and be a way for the African people to break free of imperial culture. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
