Introduction à la littérature de l’Afrique noire francophone

PREFACE

Literature is life: life with all its beautiful and intricate complexities. While life is not always fully understood because it encompasses mystery, man’s experiences emanating from his daily interactions with his environment has preoccupied many ‘people of talent’ (orators, linguists, poets, singers, painters, sculptors and writers) who use symbols and coded language to represent their understanding of life. The richness of language and other artistic forms with which they narrate their stories creates aesthetic pleasure and this in fact is what literature is about. To the African writer, literature is about portraying social and cultural values that are embodiment of our history and our traditions.

The writing of this book stems from a desire to give to young university students a background to appreciating African literature in its fullness. Like other literatures, Francophone African Literature also originated from an oral history seen in songs, chants, poetry, drum language, folktales, legends and epics among others. The Francophone African Literature course poses some challenge to Anglophone students who throughout their pre-tertiary education have not had any real encounter with francophone history or literature. Indeed, the privileged few who started studying literature at the Senior High School level only learnt about literature in English; others also were lucky to be introduced to Ghanaian literary texts written either in English or local Ghanaian languages. Be that as it may, the fact still remains that majority of students admitted to pursue French in Ghanaian universities have very little or no knowledge at all of francophone literature. This phenomenon poses nightmares and daydreams to many a student leading to a certain phobia especially for the course.

Our aim therefore is to eliminate this initial fear for literature among students by providing them with an easy to read material which also provides room for self-practice. This is to ensure that students learn at their own pace and keep abreast of the weekly face-to-face lecture room interactions. The fact is, no university student can succeed by limiting himself/herself to only what happens during lectures. A reading material that is carefully produced in line with the course structure is not only a welcome relief to students but also an essential tool for cultivating one’s mind. This book therefore introduces students to the concept of literature, forms of literature as well as functions of literature. It traces the origin of African literature and discusses some of the oral literary forms that exist. 

It is our hope therefore that through their reading of this book, (first in the series) our students develop the requisite skills for appreciating a literary text as well as acquire a deeper understanding of the rich African literature and culture especially in the francophone world. Happy reading !!!