Lokangaka Losambe

Tanure Ojaide

The Routledge Handbook of the New African Diasporic Literature introduces world literature readers to the transnational, multivocal writings of immigrant African authors. Covering works produced in Europe, North America, and elsewhere in the world, this book investigates three major aesthetic paradigms in African diasporic literature: the Sankofan wave (late 1960s–early 1990s); the Janusian wave (1990s–2020s); and the Offshoots of the New Arrivants (those born and growing up outside Africa). Written by well-established and emerging scholars of African and diasporic literatures from across the world, the chapters in the book cover the works of well-known and not-so-well-known Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone writers from different theoretical positionalities and critical approaches, pointing out the unique innovative artistic qualities of this major subgenre of African literature. The focus on the “diasporic consciousness” of the writers and their works sets this handbook apart from others that solely emphasize migration, which is more of a process than the community of settled African people involved in the dynamic acts of living reflected in diasporic writings. This book will appeal to researchers and students from across the fields of Literature, Diaspora Studies, African Studies, Migration Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.

The Routledge Handbook of the New African Diasporic Literature

Engaging and interrogating the idea of a ‘Global Africa’, this book examines how African literary and cultural productions have changed over the years due to the social and political influences brought about by increased globalisation. Tanure Ojaide takes a variety of European theoretical concepts and applies these to African literature, oral traditions, culture, sexuality, political leadership, environmentalism, and advocacy, demonstrating the universality of the African experience. Challenging African literary artists and scholars to think creatively about the future of the culture and literature, this new collection of literary and cultural criticism from scholar-writer Tanure Ojaide is an essential read for students and scholars of African literature and culture.

Literature and Culture in Global Africa

Bruce Smith

Bianca Stone

Bruce Bond

Carolyn Finney

Colum McCann

Philip Metres

Kazim Ali

Diana Whitney

Ru Freeman

Jerome Rothenberg

Fred D'Aguiar

Jeff Talarigo

Sheryl St. Germain

William Heyen

Cynthia Hogue

Arthur Sze

Nin Andrews

Dominique Christina

Kristina Marie Darling

Remica Bingham-Risher

Shara McCallum

Shin Yu Pai

Mihaela Moscaliuc

Carol Moldaw

Michael Waters

Angelique Palmer

Rita Banerjee

Tim Seibles

Haleh Liza Gafori

Morowa Yejide

Christal Brown

Dante DiStefano

Claire Bateman

Nell-Lynn Perera

D. M. Aderibigbe

Christine Gelineau

H.L. Hix

Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees

Felice Belle

Alycia D. Jenkins

Diane Raptosh

Lynn Kozak

Steven Reese

Jeff Diteman

Damon Honeycutt

Rashidah Ismaili Abu-Baker

Sign & Breath is a new critical anthology that takes a different approach to exploring these questions: What is poetry? What defines voice? Featuring a range of contemporary artists, many of whom work across different mediums and genres, Sign & Breath introduces the reader to one page that sings in any genre – prose, fiction, poetry, spoken word, hybrid forms, and song – across diverse traditions. Rather than define poetry as a genre with conventions, traditions, codes, and modalities, this book features poetry as a faculty that thrums in all written and spoken art. Readers are introduced to a text followed by a discussion with the author about creating the piece, ties to creative lineage, and the definition of voice through their practice. This anthology contributes to the dialogue among genres which will reframe understanding of poetry as an aesthetic experience of language. With one page that sings in any genre, Sign & Breath presents a new, inclusive perspective on poetry while two questions remain: Do we have a clearer understanding of what defines poetry? Do we have a clearer understanding of voice?

Sign & Breath

A Trilogy of Poems, 1995-2000

In the Kingdom of Songs

Rose O. Aziza

This is a pioneering work on Urhobo language, and since language is not the restricted domain of only scholars of linguistics, other aspects of the language or issues that impinge on language use are also discussed in this collection of essays by a eleven experts drawn from research institutes and universities. Since literature is a vehicle of language, the proverbs and axioms of the language as well as the oratorical and performance traditions in Urhobo are also covered competently. Other cultural aspects, especially music, are also seen as enhancers of the language. To underscore the significance of religion and language, some contributors here examine the relationship between the Urhobo language and Christian evangelisation and between the language and the people's belief systems. Another also explores the place of language in what has come to be known as Urhobo "disco" music. The essays reinforce each other and some points are repeated for emphasis because of their cultural significance. The closeness of several topics, especially the challenges of the language and culture and on evangelisation in Urhobo as well as Gospel music in Urhobo, is intended to exhaustively open up the Urhobo language debate." Tanure Ojaide is Professor of African-American and African Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches African/Pan-African literature and art. Rose Aziza is the Head of Department of Languages and Linguistics and Director of the Urhobo Studies Programme at the Delta State University in Nigeria.

The Urhobo Language Today

Labyrinths of the Delta

The beauty I have seen -- Doors of the forest & other poems -- Flow & other poems.

A Trilogy

The Beauty I Have Seen

Literature remains one of the few disciplines that reflect the experiences, sensibility, worldview, and living realities of its people. Contemporary African literature captures the African experience in history and politics in a multiplicity of ways. Politics itself has come to intersect and impact on most, if not all, aspects of the African reality. This relationship of literature with African people’s lives and condition forms the setting of this study. Tanure Ojaide’s Indigeneity, Globalization, and African Literature: Personally Speaking belongs with a well-established tradition of personal reflections on literature by African creative writer-critics. Ojaide’s contribution brings to the table the perspective of what is now recognized as a “second generation” writer, a poet, and a concerned citizen of Nigeria’s Niger Delta area.

Personally Speaking

Indigeneity, Globalization, and African Literature

The Nobel Laureate's reputation as a dramatist tends to cloud his poetic achievement, and in modern African literature, poetry lives in the shadow of fiction. The criticism of Soyinka's poetry has so far centred on his themes of individuality and death, his imagery, and on the controversy over his authenticity, obscurity and difficulty. Here, in a new approach, an academic himself and one of the leading younger generation of African poets, discusses critically the voice and viewpoint of the poet with the object of establishing Soyinka's persona. The book covers the personality and world view of the man, as revealed in his poetry.

The Poetry of Wole Soyinka

The celebrated Nigerian writer Tanure Ojaide relates here his experience of living in the United States where he has been based teaching and writing since 1996. Drawing the Map of Heaven picks up where his earlier memoir, Great Boys. An African Childhood which charted his upbringing in Nigeria by his Grandmother, left off. Less a purely personal tale and more a story of the many other African immigrants in the United States Ojaide in the text uses "we" to speak collectively for a traditionally communal society now residing in an individualistic setting. As much a reflection of an African background as an American experience Drawing the Map of Heaven is a unique portrait of the African in the United States

An African Writer in America

Drawing the Map of Heaven

Engaging and interrogating the idea of a 'Global Africa', this book examines how African literary and cultural productions have changed over the years due to the social and political influences brought about by increased globalisation. Tanure Ojaide takes a variety of European theoretical concepts and applies these to African literature, oral traditions, culture, sexuality, political leadership, environmentalism, and advocacy, demonstrating the universality of the African experience. Challenging African literary artists and scholars to think creatively about the future of the culture and literature, this new collection of literary and cultural criticism from scholar-writer Tanure Ojaide is an essential read for students and scholars of African literature and culture.

Set in the Niger Delta this novel tells the tale of a women's struggle for equality in a traditional patriachal society. Set against the once-in-a-generation festival at which the one chosen by the gods performs the dance of "the mother mask", Ojaide weaves a tale of suspense while displaying the traditions and religious beliefs that define the Niger Delta.

Stars of the Long Night

Set in the Niger Delta this novel tells the tale of a women's struggle for equality in a traditional patriachal society. Against the backdrop of a once-in-a-generation festival at which the one chosen by the gods performs the dance of "the mother mask," Ojaide weaves a tale of suspense while at the same time displaying the traditions and religious beliefs that define the Niger Delta.

A Novel

Poetry, Performance, and Art is the first transcribed and translated collection and study of the udje poetry of Nigeria's Urhobo people. Udje is and integrative performance of song and dance by specially costumed performers at annual festivals. Udje dance songs were used to establish and maintain social norms. In addition to being an important compilation and study of African indigenous poetry, this book profiles three of the greatest udje poets and performers. Ojaide also explores the history of udje, including its development and the modern factors threatening its survival.Poetry, Performance, and Art will be of great interest not only to students and scholars of African oral traditions, African literature, and African studies, but also to poets in general and scholars of comparative anthropology, cultural studies, folklore, literature, performance arts, and sociology.

Udje Dance Songs of the Urhobo People

Poetry, Performance, and Art

Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega

This book examines the depiction of the Delta region of Nigeria through literature and other cultural art forms. The Niger Delta has been thrust into the global limelight due to resource extraction and conflict, but it is also a region with a rich culture, environment, and heritage. The creative imagination of the area’s artists has been fuelled by the area’s pressing concerns of indigenous peoples, minority discourse, environmental degradation, climate change, multinational corporations' greed, dictatorship, and people’s struggle for control of their resources. Taking a holistic approach to the Niger Delta experience, this book showcases artistic responses from literature, visual arts, and performances (such as masquerades, dances, and festivals). Chapters cover authors, artists, and performers such as Ben Okri, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isidore Okpewho, J.P. Clark, and Bruce Onobrakpeya, as well as topics like the famous Benin bronze figures and Urhobo Udje dance. Affirming the wealth and diversity of the region which continues to inspire creative artistic productions, The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta will be of interest to researchers of African literature, arts, and other cultural productions.

The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta

The Old Man in a State House and Other Stories is a literary canvas which captures the restless matrix that is today's Africa: the corruptive influence of a corrosive oil economy, environmental degradation, wealth and hubris, love and more. Tanure Ojaide has published sixteen collections of poetry, a memoir, three novels, two short story collections and scholarly works. He has numerous literary prizes and is currently the Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The Old Man in a State House & Other Stories

Joyce Ashuntantang

This handbook provides a critical overview of literature dealing with groups of people or regions that suffer marginalization within Africa. The contributors examine a multiplicity of minority discourses expressed in African literature, including those who are culturally, socially, politically, religiously, economically, and sexually marginalized in literary and artistic creations. Chapters and sections of the book are structured to identify major areas of minority articulation of their condition and strategies deployed against the repression, persecution, oppression, suppression, domination, and tyranny of the majority or dominant group. Bringing together diverse perspectives to give a holistic representation of the African reality, this handbook is an important read for scholars and students of comparative and postcolonial literature and African studies.

Routledge Handbook of Minority Discourses in African Literature

John Picton

McCabe Elsie

Michael Y. Nabofa

Bruce Onobrakpeya

The Urhobo peoples occupy the western fringe of the Niger River delta in southern Nigeria, an area rich with oil reserves. Since the 1970s, the petroleum industry has brought worldwide wealth and attention to Nigeria, but tragically has also detracted from broad-based economic progress as flow stations, flare-offs, drilling platforms and pipelines have proliferated. As rural economies suffered an inevitable decline, the custom of maintaining traditional Urhobo art has experienced a parallel atrophy. The resultant decline in Urhobo culture has prompted a response among many Urhobo who want to celebrate and preserve their traditions for future generations. The Museum for African Art in New York makes a major contribution to this effort through the presentation of "Where Gods and Mortals meet," the first exhibition to showcase Urhobo arts. The exhibition introduces never-before-seen Urhobo art and footage of cultural performances, from yesterday and today. This accompanying catalogue includes approximately 80 works of art: traditional art from the historical period 1850 to 1975, including monumental wood figures, metal and clay sculpture, and masks and costumes with accompanying poetry and song; a small selection of contemporary work by Bruce Onobrakpeya, an Urhobo by birth and one of Africa's foremost artists; plus photos and video footage of extraordinary multimedia masquerades.

Continuity and Renewal in Urhobo Art

Where Gods and Mortals Meet

Love Gifts is a love sequence: the poetic rendering of the relationship between the minstrel and his muse over a long period. The poet uses the relationship of the two personages to investigate the human condition; hence the poems deal with dreams, desires, frustrations, hopes, contentment, and seeking meaning in life. The poetic canvas links the two figures to other relationships and happenings of their time in an all-embracing manner. In a way, minstrel and muse, lovers, are in these "songs" sharing a unique relationship with readers as they affirm their humanity and tell the complicated passage they navigate hourly and daily as members of a particular society. The relationship develops from the inexperience of neophytes, unsteady in their ways, to the stage of adepts who are sure of themselves and their "rites." The poems are thus a sort of courtship sequence.

Love Gifts

The Fate of Vultures & Other Poems

Tanure Ojaide

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