Within the framework of literature, the immediate advantage that
writing offered to the African was the means to participate in the
development of the prevailing literary genre. However, because of the
impossibility or difficulty for some African writers to write in their
mother tongues, there arose the need for these writers to write in the
languages of the colonizers. Because, historically, Africans found
themselves placed in this linguistic situation, the early African writers
started to write in the languages of the colonizers without considering all
the implications involved in the use of such languages. In their zeal to
destroy the stereotypical images of Africa and to project their African
world view, these writers may have considered the colonial languages as
mere tools or means to achieve their objectives.
Language issue apart, these early writers were concerned about the
changing society they found themselves. There are new values and
attitudes that came from the colonial milieu. They tend to concerned
with the change of this attitude and value and express fears about the
adverse effects. They wrote about the city and the rural setting in the
colonial society. The educated ones were worried about the way Africa
and Africans are being portrayed. They believed that writing in English
or other colonial languages would enable them reach a wider audience.
Express the reasons why the early African prose fiction writers wrote in
the colonial language instead of their local languages
The early African writers were living in search of true identity. The
identity that was vandalized by colonial and imperialistic history. They
believed that through literature they would form the catharsis for
redemption of African lives if they have enough courage and suaveness
to live them authentically. There is no need for lofty theories or forms.
All that is needed is finding true African identity that is not necessarily
derived from other forms and live by it. In 1938, Daniel O. Fagunwa
wrote his Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale, after entering a literary
contest of the Nigerian education ministry, the novel was widely
considered the first novel written in the Yorùbá language and one of the
first to be written in any African language; Wole Soyinka translated the
book into English in 1968 as The Forest of A Thousand Demons.
Fagunwa's later works include Igbo Olodumare (The Forest of God,
1949), Ireke Onibudo (1949), Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje
(Expedition to the Mount of Thought, 1954), and Adiitu Olodumare
(1961). Fagunwa's novels draw heavily on folktale traditions and
idioms, including many supernatural elements. His heroes are usually
Yoruba hunters, who interact with kings, sages, and even gods in their
quests. Thematically, his novels also explore the divide between the
Christian beliefs of Africa's colonizers and the continent's traditional
religions. Fagunwa remains the most widely-read Yorùbá-language
author, and a major influence on such contemporary writers as Amos
Tutuola. The novel though in local dialect marked a smooth transition
from orature to literature.
Amos Tutuola was a Nigerian writer famous for his books based in part
on Yoruba folk-tales. His most famous novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard
was written in 1946, published in 1952 in London by Faber and Faber.
The noted poet Dylan Thomas brought it to wide attention, calling it
"brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching". The Palm-Wine Drinkard was
followed up by My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1954 and then several
other books in which Tutuola continued to explore Yoruba traditions
and folklore. Amos Tutuola’s Palmwine Drinkard was described as a
conscious attempt at serious fiction in English from Africa. Amos
Tutuola was barely literate; hence his use of English in the novel was
full of aberrations, although the language of the novel was loaded with
fantastic realisms like a folktale while the language was full of
repetitions and emphasis. One fascinating thing about these early novels
is the inclusion of the folktale traditions in them. The works of Fagunwa
and Tutuola are written African tales that express African belief systems
about their culture, the spiritual essence and affinity with divine powers
and the general worldview of their culture. These works marked a
transition from orature to literature. The novels are written folktal
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