African literature
, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. Traditional written literature, which is limited to a smaller geographic area than is oral literature, is most characteristic of those sub-Saharan cultures that have participated in the cultures of the Mediterranean. In particular, there are written literatures in both Hausa and Arabic, created by the scholars of what is now northern Nigeria, and the Somali people have produced a traditional written literature. There are also works written in GeĘżez (Ethiopic) and Amharic, two of the languages of Ethiopia, which is the one part of Africa where Christianity has been practiced long enough to be considered traditional. Works written in European languages date primarily from the 20th century onward. The literature of South Africa in English and Afrikaans is also covered in a separate article, South African literature. See also African theatre.
The relationship between oral and written traditions and in particular between oral and modern written literatures is one of great complexity and not a matter of simple evolution. Modern African literatures were born in the educational systems imposed by colonialism, with models drawn from Europe rather than existing African traditions. But the African oral traditions exerted their own influence on these literatures.
The article is divided into the following sections:
* Oral traditions
* The nature of storytelling
* The riddle
* The lyric
* The proverb
* The tale
* Heroic poetry
* The epic
* Oral traditions and the written word
* History and myth
* The influence of oral traditions on modern writers
* Literatures in African languages
* Ethiopian
* Hausa
* Shona
* Somali
* Southern Sotho
* Swahili
* Xhosa
*...