Literatures in African languages

Hikmad Soomaali (“Somali Wisdom”), a collection of traditional stories in the Somali language recorded by Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal, was published in 1956. Shire Jaamac Axmed published materials from the Somali oral tradition as Gabayo, maahmaah, iyo sheekooyin yaryar (1965; “Poems, Proverbs, and Short Stories”). He also edited a literary journal, Iftiinka aqoonta (“Light of Education”), and published two short novels in 1973: Halgankiii nolosha (“Life Struggle”), dealing with the traditional past in negative terms, and Rooxaan (“The Spirits”). Further stories from the oral tradition were written down and published in Cabdulqaadir F. Bootaan’s Murti iyo sheekooyin (1973; “Traditional Wisdom and Stories”) and Muuse Cumar Islaam’s Sheekooyin Soomaaliyeed (1973; “Somali Stories”).

Poetry is a major form of expression in the Somali oral tradition. Its different types include the gabay, usually chanted, the jiifto, also chanted and usually moody, the geeraar, short and dealing with war, the buraambur, composed by women, the heello, or balwo, made up of short love poems and popular on the radio, and the hees, popular poetry. Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan) created poetry as a weapon, mainly in the oral tradition. Farah Nuur, Qamaan Bulhan, and Salaan Arrabey were also well-known poets. Abdillahi Muuse created didactic poems; Ismaaʿiil Mire and Sheikh Aqib Abdullah Jama composed religious poetry. Ilmi Bowndheri wrote love poetry.

Drama has also flourished in the Somali language, and here, as in the language’s other written forms, the oral tradition continues to have a dynamic influence. In 1968 Hassan Shekh Mumin wrote the play Shabeelnaagood (Leopard Among the Women), which has to do with marriage and the relations between men and women in contemporary contexts. Verse influenced by Somali oral tradition plays a major role in this drama. Ali Sugule, another playwright, wrote Kalahaab iyo kalahaad (1966; “Wide Apart and Flown Asunder”), a play concerning traditional and modern ideas about marriage and relations between the generations.

A story by Axmed Cartan Xaange “Qawdhan iyo Qoran” published in 1967 in the journal Horseed examined the situation of women in traditional society. He wrote the first play in Somali, Samawada (1968), depicting women’s role in the independence struggle after World War II. Somalia’s daily newspaper serialized stories as well, including works by Axmed Faarax Cali “Idaajaa” and Yuusuf Axmed “Hero.”

In his novel Aqoondarro waa u nacab jacayl (1974; Ignorance Is the Enemy of Love)—the first novel published in Somali—Faarax Maxamed Jaamac Cawl criticized the traditional past. He made use of documentary sources having to do with the struggle against colonialism in the early 20th century, when forces under the leadership of Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan fought, among others, the British colonial powers. The two central characters in the novel, Cali Maxamed Xasan and Cawrala Barre, were based on historical characters. The author also brings the oral poetry tradition into the novel, its characters speaking in poetic language. The novel launches an assault on ignorance, as the title suggests, born of, among other things, illiteracy. And it takes a positive view of Somali women. Customs having to do with marriage play an important role in the novel, especially the subverting of such customs for one’s own ends. Cawrala and Calimaax meet onboard a ship that has sailed from Aden, and they fall in love. But Cawrala has been promised by her father to another man. Because of a rough sea, the ship founders, and Calimaax rescues Cawrala from the water. Cawrala’s love for Calimaax intensifies, and her relations with her father are therefore strained. She sends a letter to Calimaax, who, because he cannot read, has Sugulle, his new father-in-law, read it to him, and this leads to difficulties with his wife’s family. When Cawrala learns of this, she is distressed. Then she learns that Calimaax died while at war. When Cawrala laments his death, her mother forces her to leave home. Then, at night, a voice comes to Cawrala, telling her that “a hero does not die.” And in fact, Calimaax did not die; he was wounded, but he survived. Alone and wounded, he must fight a leopard, and the words of Cawrala’s letter sustain him. In the meantime, Cawrala is miserable, and she debates with her parents and members of her community whether she should marry the man her father has selected for her. She is forced to marry the man, Geelbadane. But she becomes so ill that he sends her back to her family. Calimaax, learning of this, sends a message to her family, asking that she be allowed to marry him. Her family agrees, but she dies before the marriage can take place. Two years after that, still suffering from his wounds and his love for Cawrala, Calimaax dies. A later novel by Cawl, Garbaduubkii gumeysiga (1978; “The Shackles of Colonialism”), has to do with contemporary history.

Southern Sotho

The first writer in the Southern Sotho language was Azariele M. Sekese, who gathered Sotho oral traditions and published them in Mekhoa ea Basotho le maele le litsomo (1893; “Customs and Stories of the Sotho”). He also wrote a popular animal story, Bukana ea tsomo tsa pitso ea linonyana, le tseko ea Sefofu le Seritsa (1928; “The Book of Stories of the Meeting of the Birds, and the Lawsuit between Sefofu and Seritsa”). Historical events, a central focus in much early Sotho literature, are depicted, for example, in J.J. Machobane’s Mahaheng a matšo (1946; “In the Dark Caves”) and Senate, shoeshoe ’a Moshoeshoe (1954; “Senate, the Pride of Moshoeshoe”), both of which treat events during the reign of the Sotho chief Moshoeshoe. M. Damane wrote the historical novel Moorosi, morena oa Baphuthi (1948; “Moorosi, the King of the Baphuthi”), the story of Moorosi and his dealings with the British. S.M. Guma wrote historical novels about King Mohlomi (1960) and Queen Mmanthathisis (1962). The prolific B. Makalo Khaketla published a play in 1947, Moshoeshoe le baruti (“Moshoeshoe and the Missionaries”), and historical themes can be found in plays by E.A.S. Lesoro and B. Malefane, both of whom wrote dramas about the Zulu chief Shaka. Much of Sotho poetry is derived from the oral tradition; Zakea D. Mangoaela’s collection Lithoko tsa marena a Basotho (1921; Praise of the Sotho Kings) is the most outstanding example.

The giant figure in Southern Sotho literature is Thomas Mokopu Mofolo. His three novels were Moeti oa bochabela (1907; The Traveller of the East), Pitseng (1910; “In the Pot”; Eng. trans. Pitseng), and Chaka (1925; Eng. trans. Chaka: An Historical Romance). The Traveller of the East is clearly influenced by Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (which had been translated into Southern Sotho in 1872): it is an allegorical work that views Christianity as light and Africa as darkness. Pitseng has to do with conflicting views of marriage, Christian and traditional. Chaka is a novel about Shaka; it is an effective blending of Sotho oral tradition and contemporary historical reality and, from the point of view of storytelling, a yoking of oral and literary forms. Mofolo depends on the oral tradition—more specifically, the traditional heroic cycle—for the formal structure of his work. But, like Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart (1958), Chaka uses a stark element of realism to break with the romanticism and the circular ordering of oral tradition. By moving the novel’s central character, Chaka, out of the purely oral realm and into a more psychologically realistic mode, Mofolo is able to present his interpretation of the Zulu chief. Mofolo’s work is significant not only as a fictionalized historical biography but as a crucial work positioned confidently on the boundaries of—and revealing the clear connection between—the oral and the written. Mofolo effectively brings the historical Shaka into the context of a psychological Shaka, and it is the oral tradition that makes this complex layering process possible. In Mofolo’s novel the mythic being Isanusi, who serves as both an actor in the narrative and a commentator on it, enables Mofolo to generate this layering. The importance of Chaka, then, is not that it is history; it is not. It is a comment on history. Mofolo’s technique is derived from oral historians in Southern Africa, who interlaced history with commentary. Mofolo’s inclusion of a character such as Isanusi keeps the novel from becoming overly didactic and also sustains its status as a work of art.

Sotho tradition is a central concern of B.M. Khaketla in his novel Meokho ea thabo (1951; “Tears of Joy”). In it a young man, Moeketsi, falls in love, but his beloved’s parents want her to marry someone else. He meets another young woman, but she is engaged to a man she does not know, and by now Moeketsi’s parents have chosen a bride for him. It turns out that he is the man selected for the young woman, and she is the woman selected as his bride. Ramasoabi le Potso (1937; “Ramasoabi and Potso”), by M.L. Maile, and Sek’hona sa joala (“A Mug of Beer”), by T.M. Mofokeng—both didactic, moralizing stories—were among the earliest dramatic works in Southern Sotho.

The conflict between Sotho tradition and the West, including Christianity, can be found in a number of Sotho works. Everitt Lechesa Segoete wrote the novel Monono ke moholi ke mouoane (1910; “Riches Are Like Mist and Fog”), which in a heavily moralizing way treats the conflict between Sotho tradition and the world of the whites: Khitšane falls in with a criminal, Malebaleba, goes to jail, and then is converted to Christianity by Malebaleba, who has become an evangelist. Albert Nqheku’s novel Arola naheng ea Maburu (1942; “Arola Among the Boers”) deals with the conflicts between Blacks and whites, between the rural and the urban, and between tradition and modernism. Playwrights such as Maile and Khaketla wrote of polygamy; others examined marriage (J.G. Mocoancoeng), love relationships (J.J. Moiloa, J.D. Koote, P.S. Motsieloa, V.G.L. Leutsoa, and J.S. Monare), and Christianity and tradition (Mofokeng).