1. African Literature An introduction

2. Africa: Ancient Kingdoms ○ The cradle of life ○ Egypt ○ Eastern Africa ○ Western Africa ○ Literary Development and Devices

3. In the Beginning…… ○ Anthropologists believe that the first modern humans (homo sapiens) began in the northern regions of the African continent ○ Cradle of life (Neolithic, “new stone”) ○ Birthplace of human civilization (roughly 100,000 years ago) ○ Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, etc. (Fertile Crescent) ○ Brought together through use of writing (technology) ○African climate is varied in several regions: Desert, coastline, tropical rain forest, plains, and mountains.

4. Egypt (3000 B.C.-343 B.C.) ○ First great civilization ○ Had a vibrant and strong empire that centered on a polytheistic society ○ Pantheon of gods and influence on the middle eastern religious perspective: Greek, Roman ○ Written language: Hieroglyphics

7. Kushite Kingdom ○ Conquered and ruled Egypt around 1000 B.C. ○ Royal families traced lineage through female line ○ More women ruled here than any other ancient civilization ○ Other smaller civilizations popped up around Sahara ○ Fasa of southern Sudan

8. The Golden Age ○ A.D. 300-1600 ○ Sculpture, music, metal work and textiles ○ Literature plays a huge role in the creation and success of the empires ○ Oral epics ○ Praise poems ○ Fables ○ Proverbs ○ Dramas

9. Eastern African Empire: Aksum ○ Third century A.D., modern-day Ethiopia ○ Hierarchical; one of the four greatest at the time ○ Well-developed oral traditions ○ First great civilizations that created full and dominant cultural footholds in northern Africa ○ Link between Mediterranean and Asiatic trade routes; center of trade routes from Rome all the way to India ○ Key to success was development of a specific and complex writing system …Migration south and west due to drought

10. West African empires ○ Old Ghana: (A.D. 300-400) A strong and prosperous kingdom: Mainly traders of salt and gold ○ Old Mali: (A.D. 1235) Overtook Old Ghana for supremacy ○ Songhai: The last of the great kingdoms ○ Timbuktu: The marriage of Songhai and Old Mali empires: Hugely successful kingdom

12. Religious and cultural influences ○ Tribal origins are founded in a polytheistic and nature-based belief system ○ 4 th century A.D. Roman empire introduces Christianity ○ 700 A.D. Islam introduced into the African continent ○ Islam becomes the recognized state religion of Mali in 1235

14. Literary Terms to Know in this Unit ○ Parallelism ○ Epithet ○ Apostrophe ○ Polytheism vs. Monotheism ○ Omniscient point-of-view ○ Legend ○ Oral epic ○ Griot ○ Refrain ○ Folk tale ○ Trickster ○ Personification ○ Proverb ○ Metaphor ○ Alliteration ○ Rhyme

15. Proverbs ○ a short, traditional saying that expresses some obvious truth or familiar experience ○ Used to convey accumulated cultural wisdom ○ Often use literary elements (metaphors, alliteration, parallelism, rhyme) ○ Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.

16. Oral Tradition ○ Dilemma tale ○ Form of moral tale, ends with a question, invites audience to share judgment. ○ One tale deals with a man who died while hunting an ox to feed his three wives. The first wife learns through a dream what has happened to him, the second leads her fellow wives to the place where he died, and the third restores him to life. Which of the three most deserves his praise? ○ Chain tale or Cumulative tale ○ Formulaic story ○ Every incident that came before is repeated ○ The 12 days of Christmas ○ A single extended joke