Literatures in African languages

In a story from the Yoruba oral tradition, a boy moves farther and farther away from home. With the assistance of a fantasy character, a fox, the boy is able to meet the challenges set by ominous oba (kings) in three kingdoms, each a greater distance from the boy’s home. The fox becomes the storyteller’s means of revealing the developing wisdom of the boy, who steadily loses his innocence and moves to manhood. This oral tale is the framework for the best-known work in Yoruba and the most significant contribution of the Yoruba language to fiction: D.O. Fagunwa’s Ogboju ode ninu igbo irunmale (1938; The Forest of a Thousand Daemons), which contains fantasy and realistic images along with religious didacticism and Bunyanesque allegory, all placed within a frame story that echoes that of The Thousand and One Nights. The novel very effectively combines the literary and oral forces at work among Yoruba artists of the time. Its central character is Akara-ogun. He moves into a forest three times, each time confronting fantasy characters and each time involved in a difficult task. In the end, he and his followers go to a wise man who reveals to them the accumulated wisdom of their adventures. The work was successful and was followed by others, all written in a similar way: Igbo olodumare (1949; “The Jungle of the Almighty”), Ireke-Onibudo (1949), and Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje (1954; “Irinkerindo the Hunter in the Town of Igbo Elegbeje”; Eng. trans. Expedition to the Mount of Thought), all rich combinations of Yoruba and Western images and influences. Fagunwa’s final novel, Adiitu olodumare (1961; “God’s Mystery-Knot”), placed a more contemporary story into the familiar fantasy framework: so as to help his poverty-stricken parents, the central character, Adiitu, journeys into a forest, struggles with creatures of the forest, and finds his parents dead when he returns home. He moves into heaven in a dream, where he encounters his parents. He falls in love with Iyunade, and they are marooned on an island, where he saves her. When they get to their home, a friend of Adiitu attempts to destroy the relationship, but in the end they are married. Realism is faced with fantasy in the structure of the story, in the characters, and in the events. This combination of a folktale with a realistic frame revealed new possibilities to Yoruba writers.

There are two competing strands in Yoruba literature, one influenced by the rich Yoruba oral tradition, the other receiving its impetus from the West. The history of Yoruba literature moves between these forces. The earliest literary works were translations of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, published as Ilosiwaju ero-mimo in 1866, and of the Bible, published as Bibeli mimo in 1900. There was an early series of Yoruba school readers, Iwe kika Yoruba (1909–15), containing prose and poetry. The first written poetry, by such poets as J. Sobowale Sowande and A. Kolawole Ajisafe, dealt with personal and historical experiences. These poems combined traditional poetic structures and contemporary events as well as religious influences. At about the same time, Denrele Adetimkan Obasa published, in 1927, a volume of materials from the Yoruba oral tradition (other volumes followed in 1934 and 1945).

A realistic treatment of the Yoruba past was attempted by Adekanmi Oyedele, whose novel Aiye re! (1947; “What People Do!”) deals with traditional Yoruba life. Isaac Oluwole Delano’s Aiye d’aiye oyinbo (1955; “Changing Times: The White Man Among Us”) is another novel in this realistic vein; it deals with the coming of the Europeans. His second novel, Lojo ojo un (1963; “In Olden Times”), is also a historical novel. Joseph Folahan Odunjo also wrote two novels, Omo oku orun (1964; “The Deceased Woman’s Daughter”) and Kuye (1964), the latter about a Cinderella-type boy who moves from misery to happiness.

Other works, perhaps influenced by Fagunwa, melded fantasy and realism: Olorun esan (1952; “God’s Vengeance”), by Gabriel Ibitoye Ojo, and Ogun Kiriji (1961; “The Kiriji War”), by Olaiya Fagbamigbe, also have oral roots. J. Ogunsina Ogundele wrote novels, including Ibu-Olokun (1956; “The Deeps of Olokun”) and Ejigbede lona isalu-orun (1956; “Ejigbede Going to Heaven”), that move characters into realms of fantasy. D.J. Fatanmi wrote K’orimale ninu igbo Adimula (1967; “Korimale in the Forest of Adimula”), which also shows the influence of Fagunwa. Femi Jeboda wrote Olowolaiyemo (1964), a realistic novel having to do with life in a Yoruba city. Adebayo Faleti’s works, such as the short novel Ogun awitele (1965; “A War Foreseen”) and the narrative poem Eda ko l’aropin (1956; “Don’t Underrate”), display fantasy roots. Faleti also published a historical novel, Omo olokun-esin (1970; “Son of the Horse’s Master”). Afolabi Olabimtan wrote a realistic novel, Kekere ekun (1967; “Leopard Boy”), a heavily Christian work. Akinwunmi Isola wrote O le ku (1974; “Fearful Incidents”), a realistic novel.

Drama was also being developed in the middle of the 20th century. Olanipekun Esan’s plays based on Greek tragedies were produced in 1965 and 1966. Other significant playwrights include Faleti, Olabimtan, Hubert Ogunde, and Duro Ladipo.

Zulu

Like most other African literatures, Zulu literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries falls into two distinct categories, one concerned with traditional (Zulu) life and customs, the other with Christianity. These two broad areas of early literary activity combined in the 1930s in an imaginative literature that focused on a conflict that profoundly preoccupied southern African writers for decades—the conflict between the urban, Christian, Westernized milieu and the traditional, largely rural African past.

There were early translations of the Christian scriptures in the mid-19th century. Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was also translated and published in two parts (1868 and 1895). Magema kaMagwaza Fuze’s Abantu abamnyama lapha bavela ngakhona (“Where the Black People Came From”) was published in 1922. Written works on Zulu customs also appeared, including Petros Lamula’s Isabelo sikaZulu (1936; “Zulu Heritage”) and T.Z. Masondo’s Amasiko esiZulu (1940; “Zulu Customs”). R.H. Thembu’s story uMamazane (1947) includes references to Zulu tradition. Cyril Lincoln Sibusiso Nyembezi and Otty Ezrom Howard Mandlakayise Nxumalo compiled Zulu customs, as did Leonhard L.J. Mncwango, Moses John Ngcobo, and M.A. Xaba. Violet Dube’s Woza nazo (1935; “Come with Stories”), Alan Hamilton S. Mbata and Garland Clement S. Mdhladhla’s uChakijana bogcololo umphephethi wezinduku zabafo (1927; “Chakijana the Clever One, the Medicator of the Men’s Fighting Sticks”), and F.L.A. Ntuli’s Izinganekwane nezindaba ezindala (1939; “Oral Narratives and Ancient Traditions”) are compilations of oral stories. Nyembezi gathered and annotated Zulu and Swati heroic poems in Izibongo zamakhosi (1958; “Heroic Poems of the Chiefs”), and E.I.S. Mdhladhla’s uMgcogcoma (1947; “Here and There”) contains Zulu narratives.

These early Zulu writers were amassing the raw materials with which the modern Zulu novel would be built. Christian influence from abroad would combine with the techniques of traditional Zulu oral traditions to create this new form. There would also be one additional ingredient: the events that constituted Zulu history. Two outstanding early writers dealt with historical figures and events. One, John Langalibalele Dube, became the first Zulu to write a novel in his native language with Insila kaShaka (1933; “Shaka’s Servant”; Eng. trans. Jeqe, the Bodyservant of King Shaka). The second, R.R.R. Dhlomo, published a popular series of five novels on Zulu kings: uDingane (1936), uShaka (1937), uMpande (1938), uCetshwayo (1952), and uDinuzulu (1968). Other historical novels include Lamula’s uZulu kaMalandela (1924). S.B.L. Mbatha’s Nawe Mbopha kaSithayi (1971; “You Too, Mbopha, Son of Sithayi”) is built on the drama of Shaka’s assassination, as is Elliot Zondi’s drama Ukufa kukaShaka (1966; “The Death of Shaka”); and Benedict Wallet Vilakazi’s uDingiswayo kaJobe (1939; “Dingiswayo, Son of Jobe”) is a study of Shaka’s mentor, the Mtetwa leader Dingiswayo. Among other written works based on Zulu history are Muntu ’s uSimpofu (1969); L.S. Luthango’s uMohlomi (1938), a biography of Mohlomi, the adviser of the Sotho chief Moshoeshoe; and Imithi ephundliwe (1968; “Barked Trees”), an imaginative work by Moses Hlela and Christopher Nkosi based on the Zulu War. The historical trickster Chakijana, who became famous during the Bambatha Rebellion, is depicted in A.Z. Zungu’s uSukabekhuluma (1933), and Bethuel Blose Ndelu composed a drama, Mageba lazihlonza (1962; “I Swear by Mageba, the Dream Has Materialized”), set during the reign of the Zulu king Cetshwayo.

At the heart of Zulu literature of the 20th century is oral tradition. The magical aura of the oral is present but disguised in the written tradition of the Zulu people. The movement from the oral to the written was achieved without difficulty: in the beginning, some Zulu authors utilized written forms as venues for sermonizing; others simply reproduced the oral in writing. But more adventurous and creative writers quickly saw the connections between the two and fashioned written works using the looms of the oral. Zulu literature owes something to influences from the West, but the indigenous oral tradition is dominant. Stories of the contemporary world are constructed over the old oral stories; the space of the eternal, an aspect of the ancient tradition, gives way to the space of the immediate, and the values expressed in the oral stories continue to influence the written ones.

In a number of novels, Zulu writers contend with the conflict between tradition and Christianity. In James N. Gumbi’s Baba ngixolele (1966; “Father, Forgive Me”), a girl, Fikile, struggles with what she perceives as a gap between those two worlds. S.V.H. Mdluli explores the same theme in uBhekizwe namadodana akhe (1966; “Bhekizwe and His Young Sons”): a good son retains his ties with his parents (i.e., tradition) and becomes a successful teacher. A bad son goes wrong and is on the edge of destruction until he recovers his roots. J.M. Zama’s novel Nigabe ngani? (1948; “On What Do You Pride Yourself?”) is similarly constructed around positive and negative characters. A stepmother, Mamathunjwa, spoils her own children, Simangaliso and Nomacala, but despises her two stepchildren, Msweli and Hluphekile. Christianity is not the villain; instead it is the relaxation of Zulu values that is the problem. Msweli and Hluphekile succeed, while the pampered children die in shame. This insistence on retaining a connection with the African past produced a literature interwoven with Negritude, or black consciousness, a theme that would become a dominant one in South African politics in the 1960s and ’70s.

Dhlomo’s novel Indlela yababi (1946; “The Bad Path”) investigates the polarity between urbanized life and traditional practices and concludes that the former is unstable. A similar theme is developed in a novel by Jordan Kush Ngubane, Uvalo lwezinhlonzi (1956; “Fear of Authority”). Gumbi’s novel Wayesezofika ekhaya (1966; “He Was About to Go Home”) shows a country boy turning to crime as a result of urbanization. There is much of the Zulu oral tradition and of Pilgrim’s Progress in such novels, both in content and in form. The influence of Jordan’s The Wrath of the Ancestors can be seen in Kenneth Bhengu’s Umbuso weZembe nenkinga kaBhekifa (1959; “The Government of Zembe and Bhekifa’s Problem”): a chief and his wife, both educated in schools influenced by the West, come into conflict with Zulu tradition. A city trickster cons country people out of their savings in Nyembezi’s Inkinsela yaseMgungundlovu (1961; “The Man from Mgungundlovu”). That theme persists in Nyembezi’s most successful novel, Mntanami! Mntanami! (1950; “My Child! My Child!”; Eng. trans. Mntanami! Mntanami!): the character Jabulani loves the city, but, unprepared to deal with it, he becomes a criminal. In Nxumalo’s Ngisinga empumalanga (1969; “I Look to the East”), a man loses his children when Zulu tradition is compromised. In Ikusasa alaziwa (1961; “Tomorrow Is Not Known”), Nxumalo shows that the urban environment need not be fatal and that Christianity and Zulu values can together act as guides.

Zulu poetry varies widely, from imitating ancient Zulu poetic forms to analyzing the system of apartheid that dominated life in South Africa during the 20th century. Some of the finest Zulu poetry can be found in two collections by Nxumalo, Ikhwezi (1965; “The Morning Star”) and Umzwangedwa (1968; Self-Consciousness). In Hayani maZulu (1969; “Sing, Zulu People”), P. Myeni sought to adapt ancient forms to modern literary Zulu. Other Zulu poets who wrote during the second half of the 20th century include Deuteronomy Bhekinkosi Z. Ntuli (Amangwevu [1969; “Uppercuts”]), J.C. Dlamini (Inzululwane [1957; “Giddiness”; Eng. trans. Inzululwane]), N.J. Makhaye (Isoka lakwaZulu [1972; “The Young Man of kwaZulu”]), M.T. Mazibuko (Ithongwane [1969; “Snuffbox”]), and Elliot Alphas Nsizwane kaTimothy Mkize (Kuyokoma Amathe [1970; “Until the Mouth Dries Up”]).