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African Writers: Voices of Change
These pages began in February 1996 as small project for a display in the lobby of
Library West, UF's Humanities and Social Sciences library. Because the original file has
become one of our more popular pages, we have expanded it significantly. I hope that this
page sparks interest in African literature generally, and more specifically, in our
sizable collection here at UF.
Newly added in March and April of 1997 are short biographical pieces on Chinua Achebe,
Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayi Kwei Armah, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Alex La Guma, Dambudzo
Marechera, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Alan Paton, Okot P'Bitek, and Amos Tutuola. A substantial
page for Francophone African
poets in English translation is also now available, including brief biographical
sketches as well as short excerpts from each author's work.
We would be happy to review submissions from others in a similar vein. Thumbnail
reviews of African novels would be especially welcomed, as would biographical sketches
such as those found here already. We reserve for ourselves all editorial decisions for
this site.
Enjoy!
Links to other pages
There are a few Web sites that concern African literature or writers. You may find the
following related sites of interest:
- The Voice of the Shuttle provides a good place
to start researching humanities sources on the Web, with a section on African literature in
English and another on non-English language
African literature.
- Hans Zell has been involved with the publishing business in and out of Africa for many
years. See The
African Publishing Companion: A resource guide. "The most complete and up-to-date documentation and
information resource on African publishing and the book trade currently
available."
- The H-Africa site (Humanities and Social
Sciences Online) provides links to several discussion groups and mailing lists that may be
of interest, such as African Literature and
Cinema. Some of these are archived for perusal on the Web. It is supported by the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
- Karen Fung, Deputy Curator of the Hoover Library's Africa Collection at Stanford
University, has collected some 35 or more links to Web pages related to African literature.
Probably the best collection of its type.
- The Southern African Review of
Books includes new and archived older issues, with reviews and links to
purchase the titles considered (broken link--trying to find current URL--May
26, 2004).
- The Flora Nwapa page is
an exemplary page of the type devoted to individual writers. Nicely done, it includes a
biography, list of publications, and suggests related readings. It is located on the
Postcolonial Studies web site, a project
in progress at the English Department of Emory University.
- A site developed by the French Department at the University of Western Australia in
Perth has a number of useful pages. Their home page is provided in both and French and English.
- The Celebration
of Women Writers page has links to several writers in this document.
- Heinemann's Studies in African
Literature series can be searched from this page. Blurbs, bibliographic
data, and ordering information are available for books in this series.
- Several study guides are available, intended for Paul Brians' university course in
Anglophone literatures of India, Africa, and the Caribbean at the Washington State
University. These include such writers as Achebe, Emecheta, Soyinka,
and Gordimer.
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