grade 8 unit 1: african literature

Grade 8 Unit 1: African Literature

Table of Contents

Introduction 2

Unit Objectives 2

Lesson 1: African History and Literature 3 Warm-up! 3 Learn About It! 4 Check Your Understanding 9 Let’s Step Up! 10

Lesson 2: African Proverbs and Poetry 11 Warm-up! 11 Learn About It! 12 Check Your Understanding 15 Let’s Step Up! 16

Lesson 3: African Folktales and Short Stories 17 Warm-up! 17 Learn About It! 18 Check Your Understanding 22 Let’s Step Up! 23

Performance Task 24

Self-Check: How Well Did I Learn? 27

Wrap Up 28

Bibliography 29

GRADE 8 |English

UNIT 1

African Literature Africa is a land considered to be the cradle of human civilization; this continent contributed much to the development of culture, knowledge, and human consciousness. While a part of Africa’s history may be described as a past filled with prejudice and misconceptions, recent studies on African history reveal the richness of its culture embodied in its literary tradition. A looking glass into the past and a mirror to the future, African literature embodies the spirit and ideals of the diverse groups of people who live there.

Unit Objectives

In this unit, you should be able to: ● describe the notable literary genres contributed by African writers; ● identify the distinguishing features of notable African poetry, folktales, and short

stories; and ● explain how the elements specific to a genre contribute to the theme of a particular

literary lesson.

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Lesson 1: African History and Literature

Africa is a land blessed to have a rich and vibrant culture present through its art and most especially its literature. As discussed in previous lessons on this matter, literature is a means for a group (or groups) of people to share the story of their origins, existence, and even their hopes and aspirations. Powerful and deeply moving, African literature chronicles the life and the struggles of the continent’s inhabitants. Given Africa’s role in shaping human history and civilization as we know it today, studying its literature is surely a wonderful and meaningful journey to take as it also relates, in a parallel sense, to our own hardships and victories as Filipinos.

Warm-up!

Tell me your thoughts On a sheet of paper, write everything that comes to your mind when you think of African literature. After five minutes, find a partner and share each other’s work. Your teacher may call selected students to share their thoughts in class.


Learn About It!

Africa at a Glance Africa is considered the world’s second largest and second most populated continent, divided into subregions: North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. It is home to 54 countries, 10 small dependent territories still controlled by former colonial powers, and two disputed territories.

Ancient Africa

Dated about 5 to 2.5 million BCE, fossils and skeletal remains were discovered in the Rift Valley and surrounding areas. This led to the theory that humans originated from Africa. Also, in 600,000 to 200,000 BCE, human species, originated from Africa, spread throughout the continent, Asia, and Europe. This human species, called Homo sapiens, are hunter-gatherers capable of making crude stone tools.

In 6,000 to 4,000 BCE, river people emerged along Nile, Niger, and Congo Rivers. It is also within this period that the first written documents were made. Ancient Egyptians began using burial texts to accompany the dead.

In 2,300 to 2,100 BCE, the earliest written creation stories on papyrus are the Heliopolis Creation Narrative of the Kemetic Priests of On (“Kemet” is the ancient name of Egypt) and the Memphite Declaration of the Deities. Creation narratives are passed on through oral tradition. Ancient Egyptian literature includes poems, plays and narratives, and religious texts.


Africans have mostly oral literature. Like in other ancient cultures, African orature is created and transmitted orally as part of dance and music. African oral arts genres include proverbs and riddles, epics, oration and personal testimony, praise poetry, songs, chants and rituals, legends, and folktales. All these have religious, artistic, and social functions.

African Empires The expansion of the Roman Empire from 300 to 700 AD marked the rise of Axum (Ethiopia) and the African conversion to Christianity. However, in 610 AD, Africa witnessed the advent of Islam. In 639 to 641 AD, Khalif Omar conquered Egypt with Islamic troops and established Islamic presence there through the promotion of written literature. Since the 700 AD, roughly 14 million Africans were sold through the Arab Slave Trade.

The rise of Islamic empire in Africa influenced the early written literature of sub-Saharan West Africa. More so, East African literature emerged during the 14th to 15th century. Written in Arabic dated 1520, an anonymous history of the city-state of Kilwa Kisiwani was discovered. “Message” poems, containing religious viewpoints, also existed.

In 1441, the European Slave Trade in Africa began. African slaves were exported from Africa to Portugal. Even before the European invasion, slavery in Africa already existed. However, ancient Africa's concept of slavery was based only on servitude under the kinship system. The coming of the Arabs and the Europeans introduced the concept of race and created large-scale human trade.

African Slave Trade and European Imperialism

After Portugal, Spain joined the slave trade in 1479, followed by Britain in 1562, North America


in 1619, Holland in 1625, France in 1642, Sweden in 1647, and Denmark in 1697. The 18th century marked the height of Atlantic Slave Trade and was considered the “Black Holocaust” with the slaughter of 28 million Africans.

With African diaspora, Africans carry with them their oral arts. African folktales, featuring the tortoise, hare, and spider, were widespread on the African continent and were carried to the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States.

One of the first slave narratives in English, written in 1789, was The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa. Slaved from Nigeria to the United States, Olaudah Equiano wrote an autobiography under the pseudonym Gustavus Vassa. This fueled the Abolitionist Movement in Europe and the United States.

Anti-Colonialism and Reconstruction

The 19th century sought the emancipation of slaves from foreign colonial powers. From 1850s, Black journalism and secular writings were published. Most writers were educated in Europe or in European government schools of the sub-Saharan colonies. Works of literature were written in European and African languages.

In the1880s, writers justified the concept of “Africanness,” which then led to the rejection of European culture in literature. South African Olive Schreiner wrote the novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), which is considered as a pioneering work about race and gender.

In 1913, Muhammad Abubakar wrote Utendi wa Liyongo Fumo or the Epic of Liyongo Fumo, an epic poem on Southeastern African oral tradition of Liyongo.

During the 20th century, Samuel E.K. Mqhayi wrote in the native language, Xhosa. Novelists Thomas Mofolo and Solomon Tshekisho Plattje protested injustices suffered by black South Africans.

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African-American writer W.E.B. Du Bois reinforced Pan-Africanist ideas of unity and shared identity and roots among Africans in diaspora in his work The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

Around 1920 to 1930s, African writings reflected ideas from black nationalism and anti-colonial politics movements. At the same time, European missionary-influenced writings integrated traditional oral forms and were translated into African languages. The 1930s gave rise to the Negritude movement. It asserted African identity and culture and denounced the colonization of Africa. Senegalese poet, and later president, Leopold Sedar Senghor founded the movement and incorporated this in his writings, together with Martinique poet Aime Cesaire, Leon-Gontran Damas, Birago Diop, and

David Diop. A journal promoting Negritude, Presence Africaine was published in 1847. Published in 1948, the Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poesre Negre et Malgache de Langue Francaise or the Anthology of New Negro and Malagasy Poetry in French contains works of French-speaking black African and Caribbean poets.

In 1950, more South African writers emerged: Xhosa writer A.C. Jordan, Zulu poet Rolfus R.R. Dhlomo, playwright and critic Lewis Nkosi, and prose writers Alex La Guma and Bloke Modisane.

Shaaban Robert of Tanzania was East Africa’s leading Swahili poet and essayist. He wrote Kusadikika or To Be Believed (1951) which is an allegory patterned after Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

In 1952, Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola was published in London through his work The Palm-Wine Drunkard, an adventurous tale from Yoruban oral traditions. Tutuola’s work was written in African English.

In 1953, Camara Laye of Guinea wrote an autobiographical novel The Dark Child. Meanwhile, Mongo Beti and Ferdinand Oyono wrote satires. Peter Abrahams recounted his experience of racial oppression as a child in Johannesburg in Tell Freedom (1954).

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Generally at the end of the 20th century, African writers have started integrating oral traditions into their work.

Post-Independence Africa Written in African English, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) examines Western values as a threat to African tradition, in the context of a small tribe. This book is considered as a milestone in African literature for being the first one to receive global critics’ acclamation.

In the late 1950s, Anti-Apartheid literature existed through the works of white South African writers in English: Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, and Athol Fugard.

In 1967, Martinique writer Frantz Fanon examined racism and the evils of colonialism during World War II in Peau Noire, Masques Blancs or Black Skin, White Marks.

Black South African poet Dennis Brutus portrayed the effects of racial discrimination in Sirens, Knuckles and Boots (1963), Letters to Martha (1969), and Stubborn Hope (1978).

The turn of the 20th century gave rise to publishing African oratures. For one, Kofi Awoonor of Ghana collected and translated into English traditional African oratures. With the hopes of recovering or reinventing precolonial African culture to affirm the continuity of African creative forms, he then incorporated them in his poetry and fiction such as in This Earth, My Brother (1971) and Night of My Blood (1985).

After African colonies gained independence from European colonial powers, African literature reflected Africans’ battle against the effects of neocolonialism. Both Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters

(1965) and Achebe’s A Man of the People (1966) satirically represented the modern predicaments of African countries under corrupted political systems.


The first novel published by a black African woman writer from Nigeria, Flora Nwapa’s Efuru (1966) made history by exposing the life of African females. Then, other African women writers emerged: Mariama Ba, Aidoo, Awa Keita, Eno Obong, Aminata Sow Fall, and Khady Sylla.

At the University of Nairobi, Kenya, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Henry Owuor-Anyumba, and Taban Lo Liyong called for the abolition of the English department to be replaced by a Department of African Literature and Languages to study African oral traditions. Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who wrote Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967), and Petals of Blood (1977), was forced into exile from Kenya in 1982 after the imprisonment of many Kenyan students and teachers.

Several African writers were awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature: Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in 1986; Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz in 1988 (the first prize-winning writer with Arabic as his native tongue), and South African writer Nadine Gordimer in 1991.

A long-time political prisoner, Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his leadership toward a democratic South Africa. Then in South Africa’s first multiracial elections in 1994, Mandela was elected president.

Check Your Understanding Answer the guide questions below:

1) When did Africans start writing their literature? How did they share their literary works before that period?

2) What is the Negritude movement? What did it stand for? 3) Who were the African literary scholars who called for the abolition of the

University of Nairobi’s English department? What was their purpose?


Let’s Step Up!


Lesson 2: African Proverbs and Poetry

African literature is a body of literature of or from Africa, including oral and written literature. While African literature has been present mainly in oral forms, written literature of some forms emerged during the 600s.

Most known African literature, however, are written in European languages due to Africa’s colonization from the 11th to the 20th century. African oral literature, called orature (coined by Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu), are in the form of prose, verse, and proverb.

Among African verse forms are praise songs and epics. Epics are not famous in African literature although there are published texts for this such as the Epic of Liyongo Fumo. On the other hand, proverbs and riddles are prevalent in many African societies.

Proverbs contain wisdom and provide authority and credibility in discussions, whereas riddles present challenges in analyzing their meaning. These simple yet thought-provoking forms of early African poetry gave rise to more complicated forms, providing more insights into African society in general.

Warm-up!

What are proverbs? What are riddles? Find a partner in class and share some riddles and proverbs that you know!


Learn About It!

Proverbs and Riddles Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe wrote in Things Fall Apart: “Among the Igbo… Proverbs are the palm-oil in which words are eaten.” Palm oil is an essential ingredient in African food and is used and given as presents on special occasions. Referring to proverbs as palm oil means words for them also sustain life, just like food does. Proverbs or words are essential to the community. They are used and given in conversation to maintain good relationships. This proverb implies the value that Africans, particularly the Igbo community, put in good conversation.

Here are some African proverbs explained:

Atika mutosi ndaaluhega mwana. The parent who corrects his or her child with a rod does not sin. - Bangubangu proverb

This proverb comes from the Bangubangu group of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Correcting the child with a rod implies discipline. Discipline tells the child the appropriate behavior— what is and what is not to be done. Hence, the proverb suggests that disciplining a child is necessary for the child’s welfare.

Chumba chidide chinaidima kuphenya atu mirongo kumi. A small house will hold a hundred friends. - Duruma proverb

Originating from an ethnic group in Kenya, this proverb is often used as a riddle. It is often stated this way:


Speaker A: I have a riddle. Speaker B: Let it come. A: A small house with many people. B: Pawpaw.

Pawpaw (in the Philippines, a papaya fruit) is a small fruit with a lot of seeds inside. This proverb and riddle reflects the hospitality of Africans toward other people in the community. This reminds the Duruma people the value of sharing what one has with others. There is always a room for everyone who is in need. Poetry One of the most famous contemporary poems is “Africa” (1957) by David Diop. Born in Bordeaux, France, David Diop (1927-1960) was a French West African writer. He was one of the anti-colonial writers who opposed the French policy of assimilation. He wrote during Africa’s struggle for independence. His opposition to European imperialism was strengthened through his visits to Africa and teaching in Senegal and Guinea. He was also influenced by Negritude founders Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor. Read David Diop’s poem, Africa. In analyzing the poem, make sure to use the elements of poetry such as persona, form, sound patterns, figurative language, tone, and theme. Provide a sound interpretation by identifying lines from the poem that echoes the interpretation you are giving.

Africa

Africa my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs

Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of the distant river


I have never known you But your blood flows in my veins

Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields The blood of your sweat The sweat of your work The work of your slavery

Africa, tell me Africa Is this your back that is unbent

This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation This back trembling with red scars

And saying no to the whip under the midday sun But a grave voice answers me

Impetuous child that tree, young and strong That tree over there

Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers That is your Africa springing up anew

springing up patiently, obstinately Whose fruit bit by bit acquires

The bitter taste of liberty.

The poem begins with the speaker or persona directly addressing “Africa” as if it were a human being. Here, the poet effectively uses apostrophe, a figure of speech, to commend and interrogate “Africa.” The use of personal pronoun in the phrase “Africa, my Africa” that is slightly repeated in “Africa, tell me Africa” suggests ownership and belongingness of the persona.

The speaker, who may be the poet himself or any African in diaspora, seems to be distant from the land. The lines “distant river” and “I have never known you” imply that the persona speaks from afar. At first, the speaker praises the land for its “proud warriors in ancestral savannahs,” which recognizes the precolonial culture of Africa.


Also, the poem recognizes the existence of oratures in the precolonial times through the line, “Africa of whom my grandmother sings.”

Then, the speaker shifts to enumerating the struggles of Africa. The parallelism in the lines “The blood of your sweat/ The sweat of your work/ The work of your slavery” add weight to this struggle. Furthermore, the persona interrogates it by saying, “Is this your back that is unbent/ This back that never breaks under the weight of humiliation.”

Next, a voice answers and calls the speaker “impetuous” or impulsive because of his accusations that it surrendered to slavery and to colonization without a fight. The voice likened Africa to a blossoming tree “Whose fruit bit by bit acquires/ The bitter taste of liberty.” This voice seems to be speaking of redemption from being an enslaved continent. Aside from apostrophe, repetition, and parallelism, this free verse poem uses alliteration in “Your beautiful black blood . . .” and “This back that never breaks . . .” creating a strong rhythm and additional weight to the speaker’s assumptions about Africa.

The final line “bitter taste of liberty” is a paradox, suggesting how nasty yet rewarding the attainment of independence is for Africa.

Check Your Understanding

What are the poetic devices used in the given poem?


Let’s Step Up!


Lesson 3: African Folktales and Short Stories

Among African prose forms are myths, legends, and folktales. Like in other cultures, myths talk about the world’s creation, activities of the gods, and nature. African legends, on the other hand, deal with human heroism and other laudable deeds, like those portrayed in epics. Folktales involve stories about humans and animals meant to reinforce social norms in the community, as well as to provide a source of moral guidance among the youth.

Warm-up! Does the picture look like it is from a story familiar to you? If so, identify the similarities and differences found in this picture with that story.


Learn About It!

The Beginnings of African Prose Like other early forms of African literature, prose started as an oral tradition, i.e., an orature, best appreciated through storytelling, which is an art itself. African performers who play in these storytelling performances are called griots. The written literature of Africa was heavily influenced by Islam and Christianity. In terms of language, the Arabic influence extends to Central and East Africa with the use of the Swahili language. Christianity, through colonialism, influenced African literature in English, French, and Portuguese. African Prose Today

Since the 20th century, African languages have gained attention from writers. These African languages are Yoruba and Hausa in West Africa; Sotho, Xhosa, and Zuni in Southern Africa, and Somali and Swahili in East Africa. Modern African narratives emerged during the period of European colonization of Africa, most of which are slave narratives such as the autobiographical novel The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa.

Writings during this time, such as the most widely read and acclaimed novel Things Fall Apart, were influenced by the effects of colonization. Negritude and Anti-Apartheid movements are also reflected in modern African texts.


Since the independence of African nations from the 1950s onward, literature reflects modern societies or postcolonial problems. Analyzing African Prose Forms In analyzing prose forms, use the elements of fiction such as characters, setting, mood, conflict, plot, and theme. 1. Character – a person or animal who does the actions in the literary work. The following terms are useful for describing characters:

a. A protagonist is the main character in a story. b. An antagonist is a character who struggles against the main character. c. A major character is one who plays an important role in a literary work. d. A minor character is one who plays a lesser role.

2. Setting – the time and place in which a written work of prose happens. In fiction, setting is often revealed through the description of the landscape, scenery, buildings, furniture, seasons, or weather. 3. Mood or atmosphere – the emotion created in the reader by a piece of writing. Mood is created through descriptions of the setting, characters, and events. 4. Conflict – a struggle between two or more people, things, or concepts in a literary work. One side of the central conflict in a work of fiction is usually taken by the protagonist. The protagonist might struggle against the antagonist (man vs. man), against the forces of nature (man vs. nature), against a larger group of people (man vs. society), or against a part of himself or herself (man vs. self). 5. Plot – a series of events related to a central conflict or struggle. A typical plot involves the following elements:

a. The exposition tells about the setting and introduces the characters. b. The rising action is the event that introduces the central conflict or struggle. c. The climax is the point of highest interest and suspense. d. The falling action is the part in which the story’s loose ends are tied. e. The resolution and denouement (de-noh-mah) is the point at which the central


conflict, or struggle, is ended, or in some cases, causes another inciting incident, which leads to another story. The plot is usually illustrated by the Freytag Pyramid, named after the literary scholar Gustav Freytag:

6. Theme – a central idea in a literary work. Study the text, Tortoise and the King by M.I. Ogumefu (Yoruban Legends, 1929), and answer the guide questions that follow:

The Tortoise and The King M.I. Ogumefu One year the Elephant had done a great deal of damage, breaking down the trees, drinking up the water in a time of scarcity, and eating the first tender crops from the fields. The King’s hunters tried in vain to destroy him, for Elephant knew many charms, and


always escaped from their traps. At last, the King offered the hand of his daughter in marriage to anyone who would rid the country of the pest. Tortoise went to the palace and offered to catch Elephant, and then made his preparations. Outside the town a large pit was dug, and on the top of it was laid a thin platform covered with velvet cloths and leopard-skins, like a throne. Then Tortoise set off into the forest, accompanied by slaves and drummers. Elephant was very much surprised to see his little friend Tortoise riding in such state, and suspected a trap; but Tortoise said that the old King was dead and the people all wished Elephant to rule over them, because he was the greatest of all animals. When he heard this, Elephant was flattered, and agreed to accompany Tortoise to the town. But when he went up on to the platform to be crowned King, the wood gave way beneath him, and he crashed down into the pit and was speedily slain by the King’s hunters. All the people rejoiced, and praised the cunning of Tortoise, who went to the palace to receive his bride. But the King refused to give his daughter to such an insignificant creature, and Tortoise determined to take his revenge. When the new crops were just ripening, he called together all the field mice and elves, and asked them to eat up and carry away the corn. They were only too pleased with the idea, and the farmers in distress found the fields quite bare. Now there was prospect of a famine in the land, and the King offered the same reward as before to anyone who would rid the country of the pests. The King was thus forced to consent to the marriage, and when it had taken place, Tortoise, true to his word, called together all the mice and elves and showed them a platform loaded with dainty morsels of food.


He then addressed them as follows: “The people are so distressed at the damage you have done, that they have prepared this feast for you, and they promise to do the same twice every year, before the harvesting of the first and second crops, if you will agree not to touch the corn in the fields.” The little creatures all consented, and marched in a great crowd to the platform, which they soon cleared. The King and his people were not very pleased to hear of this arrangement, but they were so afraid of Tortoise that they could not complain, and after that the mice and elves never troubled the country again.

Check Your Understanding

Answer the following guide questions: 1) Identify the characters in the story. 2) What was the King’s problem in the beginning of the story? 3) Who offered a solution to the King’s problem, and how did he do it? 4) Why did the King break his promise? What happened to the land after the King

broke his word? 5) How did the story end?


Let’s Step Up!


Performance Task

Cafe Africa

Goal: Your task is to showcase the best examples of African literary work (poetry and prose) through a literary cafe where the visitors can enjoy listening to the skillful delivery of these African masterpieces while enjoying light snacks. Role: As poets or griots, students will search for literary masterpieces to be performed in front of an audience of literature aficionados. Audience: Cafe Africa plans to cater to all students and faculty of the school. Situation: As Cafe Africa is having its launch inside the school campus, the event will surely be a big one. Students and teachers alike are very excited to witness the opening of a unique literary cafe inside the campus that not only serves light yet sumptuous snacks but also gives the audience a taste of Africa through the recitation of masterpieces of African literary writers. Product/Performance and Purpose: The class will be divided into five (5) groups representing the five regions of Africa (Northern, Eastern, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa). The poets and griots of the groups will then look for literary works from these regions. These literary works will then be presented by the groups in a skillful manner. Standards and Criteria for Success: You will be graded based on your skillful delivery of the literary masterpieces from Africa.

Criteria Beginning

(0-12 points)

Developing

(13-16 points)

Accomplished (17-20 points)

Score

Content

The content is lacking so many details and some

The content is substantial but lacking in some

The content is comprehensive and with enough


pieces of information are not related to the topic.

details. The details are related to the topic.

details. All the details are related to the topic.

Organization

The ideas are not logically presented. The connections between ideas are unclear.

There are some ideas that are not organized well. The transitions between ideas are unclear at times.

Ideas are logically organized and presented. The connections between ideas are clear.

Language (spelling, mechanics, grammar and usage)

There are 10 or more mistakes in spelling, mechanics, grammar, and usage.

There are six to nine mistakes in spelling, mechanics, grammar, and usage.

There are only one to five mistakes in spelling, mechanics, grammar, and usage.

Introduction of the Author

Missing title and author, or the introduction was not memorized, and/or the presentation of the introduction was weak

Missing either title or the author, or the memorization was shaky or the presentation of the introduction was not delivered with poise and confidence

Introduction included title of selection, author, theme, and/or synopsis. The introduction was well memorized and delivered with confidence and poise

Confidence/preparation

The piece was not displayed neatly. Mistakes were made via stumbles and mispronunciations too often. Definitely needed more practice.

The piece was not displayed neatly. Mistakes were made via stumbles and mispronunciations only once or twice. It seems that more practice is needed.

The piece was in a folder/binder, on a tablet, or displayed neatly. Practice was evident through a confident performance with no mistakes.


Voice Two to three elements of voice were missing.

One to two elements of voice were missing.

The performance was sufficiently loud, and the audience could very clearly understand every word. No fillers were used, and varied pitch, rate, and volume were used well for vocal emphasis. Character voices (if used) were distinct from one another.

Eye Contact Glancing at the audience happened occasionally. The performer was too dependent on the script and looked only at certain areas of the audience.

Looking down was done a bit too often, and the performer was slightly too dependent on your script. Overall, eye contact was established with the entire audience.

Eye contact was established with the entire audience during points of narration. Focal points were used effectively with characters.

Gestures Too few gestures were used.

The performer occasionally held the script with two hands but mostly gestured.

Gestures were common and added value to the performance.

Body Movement Switching weight from side to side, dancing, and leaning were fairly common.

There was a bit of swaying and leaning, but overall the performer was very poised.

The performer’s poise and posture were exceptional and he/she was not


swaying or leaning at all

TOTAL SCORE:

Self-Check: How Well Did I Learn?

Do a self-check on how well you learned the lessons in this unit. Place a checkmark in the appropriate box.

Skills I think I need more

practice and assistance

I am familiar and can perform well

with minimal assistance

I am confident that I can perform this on

my own

I can describe the notable literary genres contributed by African writers.

I can identify the distinguishing features of notable African poetry, folktales, and short stories.

I can explain how the elements specific to a genre contribute to the theme of a particular literary lesson.


Wrap Up

● Much of Africa’s literary tradition comes from its rich history. It has transformed from

a very delicate oral tradition to a stronger written tradition through a history of growth by countries and entities who, in one way or another, influenced it.

● African literature exists as poetry, developing from proverbs and riddles, to more complicated poetic forms. These poetic forms helped in establishing and maintaining social norms.

● African literature also exists as prose, that, like an art form of its own, tells the story of the African people.


Bibliography

“African Proverbs.” Accessed June 17, 2017. http://www.afriprov.org/ Agatucci, Cora. African Timelines. Central Oregon Community College. Accessed May 29,

2017. http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/ timelines/ htimelinetoc.htm

Dikson. “50 African proverbs to get you thinking.” Accessed June 17, 2017. https://matadornetwork.com/bnt/50-african-proverbs-to-get-you-thinking/

Encarta. “African Literature.” Accessed June 2, 2017. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555353/African_Literature.html

Encyclopedia Britannica. “David Diop.” Accessed June 18, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Diop

Ogumefu, M.I. Yoruban Legends. London: The Sheldon Press, 1929. Accessed June 2, 2017. http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/yl/yl00.htm


grade 8 unit 1: african literature

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