Course outline
Module 1
Module 1: Foundations: Oral Traditions and Early Written Voices
Foundations: Oral Traditions and Early Written Voices
Knowledge check
Q1. Which term describes the body of knowledge, history, and literature transmitted by spoken word across generations in African societies?
- A. Written canon
- B. Oral tradition ✓
- C. Colonial archive
- D. Print literacy
Why: Oral tradition refers to knowledge and literary forms such as epics, praise poetry, proverbs, and folktales passed down orally, forming a foundation of African literary heritage before and alongside writing.
Q2. What role do griots (or jeli) traditionally play in West African societies?
- A. They serve as colonial administrators
- B. They preserve genealogies, history, and epic performance through memory and song ✓
- C. They write official royal decrees
- D. They translate European texts into local languages
Why: Griots are hereditary oral historians and performers who preserve lineages, historical events, and epics such as the Sundiata epic, often accompanying their recitations with music.
Q3. The Sundiata epic is most closely associated with which West African empire?
- A. The Songhai Empire
- B. The Mali Empire ✓
- C. The Kanem-Bornu Empire
- D. The Ashanti Empire
Why: The Sundiata epic recounts the founding of the Mali Empire by Sundiata Keita in the thirteenth century and is one of the most famous examples of African oral epic tradition.
Q4. Which early African writer is often cited as an example of an early written voice, having published an autobiographical narrative in 1789?
- A. Olaudah Equiano ✓
- B. Chinua Achebe
- C. Ngugi wa Thiong'o
- D. Wole Soyinka
Why: Olaudah Equiano published 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano' in 1789, an influential early account by an African writer that helped shape the abolitionist movement.
Q5. Why is the distinction between oral and written literature considered important in studying African literary history?
- A. Oral literature has no artistic value
- B. Oral and written forms have often coexisted and influenced each other, challenging narrow definitions of literature ✓
- C. Written literature always replaced oral forms completely
- D. Oral literature only exists in colonial contexts
Why: Scholars recognize that oral and written traditions interact and overlap in African contexts; oral forms shaped written works, and writing often recorded and transformed oral material, so rigid divisions can obscure this dynamic.
Module 2
Module 2: Colonial Encounters and the Rise of the African Novel
Colonial Encounters and the Rise of the African Novel
Knowledge check
Q1. Which novel, published in 1958 by Chinua Achebe, is widely regarded as a landmark of the modern African novel in English?
- A. Things Fall Apart ✓
- B. Weep Not, Child
- C. The Interpreters
- D. Half of a Yellow Sun
Why: Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe is considered a foundational work of the modern African novel. It portrays Igbo society in Nigeria before and during the arrival of British colonial rule.
Q2. What is the central theme of Things Fall Apart's response to colonial narratives?
- A. It celebrates European missionary work in Africa
- B. It presents African societies as complex and rich, countering stereotypes of Africa as primitive ✓
- C. It argues that colonialism brought uniform prosperity
- D. It focuses exclusively on urban life in colonial capitals
Why: Achebe deliberately wrote to challenge Western depictions, such as those in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, by showing Igbo culture with its own social systems, values, and internal logic.
Q3. What does the term 'colonial encounter' most commonly refer to in African literary studies?
- A. Sporting competitions between colonial and African teams
- B. The meeting and often violent interaction between European colonizers and African peoples and cultures ✓
- C. Trade agreements signed between African kingdoms
- D. Migration of Africans to Europe after independence
Why: The colonial encounter describes the cultural, political, economic, and personal contact between colonizers and colonized peoples, which became a central subject of early African novels.
Q4. Which language did many early African novelists, including Achebe, primarily use to write their novels?
- A. French
- B. Portuguese
- C. English ✓
- D. Arabic
Why: Many of the earliest influential African novels were written in English, reflecting the colonial education systems that shaped the writers, though other European and African languages were also used.
Q5. Which Cameroonian writer published Ferdinand Oyono's 'Houseboy' (Une vie de boy) in 1956, a novel critical of colonial rule?
- A. Mongo Beti
- B. Ferdinand Oyono ✓
- C. Camara Laye
- D. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Why: Ferdinand Oyono, a Cameroonian writer, wrote Houseboy (1956), a satirical novel exposing the hypocrisy and brutality of French colonial administrators, showing the rise of critical African fiction in French.
Module 3
Module 3: Negritude, Pan-Africanism, and Literary Politics
Negritude, Pan-Africanism, and Literary Politics
Knowledge check
Q1. Which movement, co-founded in Paris in the 1930s by Léopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, and Léon-Gontran Damas, celebrated Black African and diasporic cultural identity in response to colonial assimilation?
- A. Pan-Africanism
- B. Negritude ✓
- C. Harlem Renaissance
- D. Afrofuturism
Why: Negritude was founded by Senghor, Césaire, and Damas in Paris in the 1930s. It asserted the value of Black identity and African culture against the cultural assimilation promoted by French colonial rule.
Q2. Aimé Césaire's long poem Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land) was first published in which year?
- A. 1939 ✓
- B. 1955
- C. 1968
- D. 1961
Why: The first version of Cahier d'un retour au pays natal appeared in 1939 in the journal Volontés. It became a foundational text of Negritude, and later expanded editions were published in the 1940s and 1950s.
Q3. Which Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester in 1945, is widely regarded as a turning point that brought together future African nationalist leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah?
- A. The first Pan-African Congress, London 1900
- B. The fifth Pan-African Congress, Manchester 1945 ✓
- C. The Bandung Conference, 1955
- D. The Berlin Conference, 1884
Why: The fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945, organized in part by W.E.B. Du Bois and George Padmore, gathered many figures who later led independence movements, including Kwame Nkrumah.
Q4. Léopold Sédar Senghor later became the first president of which country after its independence from France?
- A. Senegal ✓
- B. Ghana
- C. Guinea
- D. Côte d'Ivoire
Why: Senghor, a poet and theorist of Negritude, served as the first president of Senegal from 1960 until 1980, combining literary achievement with political leadership.
Q5. Which phrase, associated with Negritude thinkers, expresses the idea of embracing one's African heritage and identity as a source of pride?
- A. Ubuntu
- B. Assimilation
- C. Cultural hybridity
- D. Black is beautiful ✓
Why: 'Black is beautiful' captures the affirmative stance of Negritude and later Black cultural movements, rejecting colonial and racist valorization of whiteness. While closely tied to later movements, it expresses the core Negritude impulse to reclaim Black identity with dignity.
Module 4
Module 4: Post-Independence Disillusion and Satire
Post-Independence Disillusion and Satire
Knowledge check
Q1. Which Nigerian novelist's 1966 work A Man of the People is a satirical depiction of corruption and political opportunism in post-independence Africa?
- A. Chinua Achebe ✓
- B. Wole Soyinka
- C. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- D. Ayi Kwei Armah
Why: Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People (1966) satirizes the corruption and self-serving politics of the newly independent Nigerian state, shortly before the country's descent into civil conflict.
Q2. Ayi Kwei Armah's 1968 novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is set in which country?
- A. Kenya
- B. Ghana ✓
- C. Senegal
- D. Uganda
Why: The novel is set in Ghana, following an unnamed railway clerk who observes the moral decay and disillusionment that followed the optimism of independence under Kwame Nkrumah.
Q3. What is the term for the sense of bitterness and loss of hope that many African writers expressed after independence failed to deliver promised social and economic change?
- A. Négritude
- B. Afropessimism
- C. Post-independence disillusionment ✓
- D. Pan-Africanism
Why: Post-independence disillusionment describes the widespread disappointment with corrupt elites, authoritarian rule, and economic stagnation that characterized much African literature from the 1960s onward.
Q4. Which Kenyan writer's novel Petals of Blood (1977) critiques neocolonial economic exploitation and the betrayal of revolutionary ideals?
- A. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ✓
- B. Meja Mwangi
- C. Grace Ogot
- D. Okot p'Bitek
Why: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood examines how a new Kenyan elite profits from neocolonial structures while ordinary people remain impoverished, linking this betrayal to the unfulfilled promises of independence.
Q5. Wole Soyinka's play Kongi's Harvest is a satire primarily aimed at which kind of figure?
- A. A colonial missionary
- B. A traditional village chief
- C. An authoritarian post-independence ruler ✓
- D. A returning exile writer
Why: Kongi's Harvest satirizes the cult of personality and authoritarian tendencies of African postcolonial rulers, with the title character Kongi modeled on dictatorial leaders of the era.
Module 5
Module 5: Women Writers and Feminist Voices
Women Writers and Feminist Voices
Knowledge check
Q1. Which Nigerian author wrote 'Things Fall Apart' and is often cited as a foundational figure in modern African literature, though she is not the focus of this module's feminist canon?
- A. Chinua Achebe ✓
- B. Buchi Emecheta
- C. Flora Nwapa
- D. Ama Ata Aidoo
Why: Chinua Achebe wrote 'Things Fall Apart' (1958), a landmark novel of African literature. It is a male-authored work, which makes it a useful contrast when studying the women writers who later challenged the male-dominated literary landscape.
Q2. Which novel by Mariama Bâ, written as a letter from a widow to her friend, is a classic of African women's writing addressing polygamy and women's rights?
- A. Nervous Conditions
- B. So Long a Letter ✓
- C. Purple Hibiscus
- D. Half of a Yellow Sun
Why: So Long a Letter (Une si longue lettre, 1979) by Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ is an epistolary novel in which Ramatoulaye reflects on widowhood, polygamy, and women's autonomy. It is a foundational text of African feminist literature.
Q3. Which Zimbabwean author wrote 'Nervous Conditions' (1988), a novel about a young girl's struggle for education under colonial and patriarchal constraints?
- A. Tsitsi Dangarembga ✓
- B. Yvonne Vera
- C. Doris Lessing
- D. NoViolet Bulawayo
Why: Tsitsi Dangarembga wrote 'Nervous Conditions' (1988), which follows Tambudzai as she seeks education and independence in colonial Rhodesia. It is widely studied for its treatment of gender, class, and colonialism.
Q4. Which Ghanaian writer, known for plays and short fiction such as 'Anowa,' is a prominent early voice in African women's literature?
- A. Ama Ata Aidoo ✓
- B. Bessie Head
- C. Efua Sutherland
- D. Tsitsi Dangarembga
Why: Ama Ata Aidoo (1942–2023) was a Ghanaian writer whose works, including the play 'Anowa' and the novel 'Our Sister Killjoy' (1977), explore women's roles, marriage, and identity in postcolonial Africa.
Q5. What is a central theme shared by many African women writers in this module, such as Bâ, Dangarembga, and Aidoo?
- A. Celebrating only urban commercial life
- B. Examining how gender, tradition, and colonialism shape women's lives and voices ✓
- C. Rejecting all African cultural traditions entirely
- D. Focusing exclusively on European settler perspectives
Why: African women writers frequently interrogate how patriarchal traditions, colonial structures, and social expectations constrain women, while also portraying their resistance, agency, and self-definition.
Module 6
Module 6: Diaspora, Migration, and Global African Writing
Diaspora, Migration, and Global African Writing
Knowledge check
Q1. Which term describes the dispersal of African peoples across the world, most often through the slave trade and later voluntary migration?
- A. Negritude
- B. Diaspora ✓
- C. Pan-Africanism
- D. Postcolonialism
Why: Diaspora refers to the scattering of a people from their homeland. For African peoples this includes the transatlantic slave trade, colonial labor migrations, and more recent voluntary emigration, all of which shaped global African writing.
Q2. Which movement, founded in Paris in the 1930s by Léopold Senghor, Aimé Césaire, and Léon Damas, celebrated Black identity and African cultural values?
- A. Harlem Renaissance
- B. Négritude ✓
- C. Black Consciousness Movement
- D. Afrofuturism
Why: Négritude was a literary and ideological movement among French-speaking Black writers in Paris. It asserted pride in African heritage in response to colonial assimilation policies and influenced many later diaspora writers.
Q3. Which Nigerian novelist, living in the United States, wrote Americanah (2013), a novel about a Nigerian woman who migrates to America?
- A. Chinua Achebe
- B. Ben Okri
- C. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ✓
- D. Wole Soyinka
Why: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah follows Ifemelu, who moves from Nigeria to the United States, and explores race, identity, and belonging across the African diaspora and migration experience.
Q4. Which novel by Ghanaian-born writer Taiye Selasi, published in 2013, follows a family whose members are scattered across continents?
- A. Things Fall Apart
- B. Half of a Yellow Sun
- C. Ghana Must Go ✓
- D. Nervous Conditions
Why: Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi traces a Ghanaian-Nigerian family after the death of its patriarch, depicting how members dispersed across Europe and America grapple with divided loyalties and identities.
Q5. What does the term 'transnational' most helpfully describe in the study of global African writing?
- A. Writing produced only in African languages
- B. Writing that crosses national borders and connects multiple places and identities ✓
- C. Writing published exclusively by African publishers
- D. Writing focused solely on precolonial history
Why: Transnational writing crosses national boundaries, reflecting lives lived between countries and cultures. In African literature it highlights how migrant and diaspora authors connect home and host societies rather than belonging to a single nation.
Module 7
Module 7: Contemporary Africa: New Genres and Digital Futures
Contemporary Africa: New Genres and Digital Futures
Knowledge check
Q1. Which term describes a genre of African fiction that blends science fiction, fantasy, and African cultural traditions, often imagining futures shaped by African histories and perspectives?
- A. Magical realism only
- B. Afrofuturism ✓
- C. Griot narrative
- D. Epistolary romance
Why: Afrofuturism combines speculative fiction with African diasporic and African cultural experiences, reimagining technology, history, and the future from African perspectives. Magical realism is a related but distinct mode, and griot narrative refers to oral historical tradition.
Q2. Which Nigerian writer's 2019 novel 'Stay Woke' and digital projects reflect the growth of online platforms for African storytelling?
- A. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing only print essays
- B. Nnedi Okorafor, known for speculative works such as 'Who Fears Death' and 'Lagoon' ✓
- C. Wole Soyinka writing exclusively plays
- D. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o writing only in English
Why: Nnedi Okorafor is a leading figure in African speculative fiction, whose works like 'Who Fears Death' and 'Lagoon' explore futuristic and fantastical African settings. The other options misattribute works or describe writers outside the contemporary digital-genre focus.
Q3. What is a key characteristic of 'Afropolitan' writing in contemporary African literature?
- A. It rejects all connection to African places and identities
- B. It depicts the experiences of cosmopolitan Africans and diaspora figures moving between African and global cities ✓
- C. It is written exclusively in indigenous languages
- D. It consists only of historical novels set before colonization
Why: Afropolitanism, popularized by Taiye Selasi, describes the lives of mobile, cosmopolitan Africans who move between African and Western urban centers, often engaging with questions of identity, belonging, and global connection.
Q4. How have social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram affected the distribution of African literature?
- A. They have eliminated all readership of African writers
- B. They allow writers to publish serialized fiction, poetry, and flash fiction directly to global audiences, bypassing some traditional gatekeepers ✓
- C. They have made African publishing houses obsolete overnight
- D. They restrict writing to a maximum of 280 characters by law
Why: Social media has enabled African writers to share poetry, serialized stories, and short fiction directly with readers worldwide, creating new communities and reducing reliance on traditional publishing gatekeepers, though it coexists with rather than fully replacing print culture.
Q5. Which genre has gained popularity in contemporary Africa as a form of short, mobile-friendly storytelling that can be read on phones?
- A. Epic poetry in ancient verse
- B. Flash fiction and micro-fiction ✓
- C. Multi-volume encyclopedic novels
- D. Court transcripts
Why: Flash fiction and micro-fiction suit mobile reading and social media sharing, and have grown in popularity among contemporary African writers, with platforms and competitions encouraging concise storytelling.