Afro-Asian Literature

INDIA

1.      Literary Periods.  The Indus Valley civilization flourished in northern India between 2500 and 1500 B.C.   The Aryans,
a group of nomadic warriors and herders, were the earliest known migrants into India.   They brought with them a well-
developed language and literature and a set of religious beliefs.

a)      Vedic Period (1500 B.C. –500 B.C.).  This period is named for the Vedas, a set of hymns that formed the cornerstone
of Aryan culture.  Hindus consider the Vedas, which were transmitted orally by priests, to be the most sacred of all
literature for they believe these to have been revealed to humans directly by the gods.

·         The Rigveda which has come to mean “hymns of supreme sacred knowledge,” is the foremost collection
or Samhita made up of 1,028 hymns.  The oldest of the Vedas, it contains strong, energetic, non-speculative hymns,
often comparable to the psalms in the Old Testament.  The Hindus regard these hymns as divinely inspired or ‘heard’
directly from the gods. 

b)      Epic and Buddhist Age (500 B.C. – A.D.).  The period of composition of the two great epics, Mahabharata and
the Ramayana.  This time was also the growth of later Vedic literature, new Sanskrit literature, and Buddhist literature in
Pali.  The Dhammapada was also probably composed during this period.  The Maurya Empire (322-230 B.C.) ruled by
Ashoka promoted Buddhism and preached goodness, nonviolence, and ‘righteousness’ although this period was known
for warfare and iron-fisted rule.  The Gupta Dynasty (320-467 B.C.) was the next great political power.  During this time,
Hinduism reached a full flowering and was evident in culture and the arts.

·         The Mahabharata, traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, consists of a mass of legendary and didactic material
that tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas set sometime
3102 BC.  The poem is made up of almost 100,000 couplets divided into 18 parvans or sections.  It is an exposition
on dharma (codes of conduct), including the proper conduct of a king, of a warrior, of a man living in times of calamity,
and of a person seeking to attain emancipation from rebirth.

·         The Bhagavad Gita (The Blessed Lord’s Song) is one of the greatest and most beautiful of the Hindu scriptures.  It is
regarded by the Hindus in somewhat the same way as the Gospels are by Christians.  It forms part of Book IV and is
written in the form of a dialogue between the warrior Prince Arjuna and his friend and charioteer, Krishna, who is also
an earthly incarnation of the god Vishnu. 

·        The Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 BC, by the poet Valmiki and consists of some
24,000 couplets divided into seven books.  It reflects the Hindu values and forms of social organization, the theory of
karma, the ideals of wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor and promises.

The poem describes the royal birth of Rama, his tutelage under the sage Visvamitra, and his success in bending Siva’s
mighty bow, thus winning Sita, the daughter of King Janaka, for his wife.  After Rama is banished from his position as heir
by an intrigue, he retreats to the forest with his wife and his half brother, Laksmana.  There Ravana, the demon-king of
Lanka, carries off Sita, who resolutely rejects his attentions.  After numerous adventures Rama slays Ravana and rescues
Sita.  When they return to his kingdom, however, Rama learns that the people question the queen’s chastity, and he
banishes her to the forest where she gives birth to Rama’s two sons.  The family is reunited when the sons come of age,
but Sita, after again protesting her innocence, asks to be received by the earth, which swallows her up.

·         The Panchatantra is a collection of Indian beast fables originally written in Sanskrit.  In Europe, the work was
known under the title The Fables of Bidpai after the narrator, and Indian sage named Bidpai, (called Vidyapati in
Sanskrit).  It is intended as a textbook of artha (worldly wisdom); the aphorisms tend to glorify shrewdness and
cleverness more than helping of others.  The original text is a mixture of Sanskrit prose and stanzas of verse, with the
stories contained within one of five frame stories.  The introduction, which acts as an enclosing frame for the entire
work, attributes the stories to a learned Brahman named Vishnusarman, who used the form of animal fables to instruct
the three dull-witted sons of a king.

·      The Dhammapada (Way of Truth) is an anthology of basic Buddhist teaching in a simple aphoristic style.   One of the
best known books of the Pali Buddhist canon, it contains 423 stanzas arranged in 26 chapters.  These verses are
compared with the Letters of St. Paul in the Bible or that of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. 

3.      Major Writers.

a)          Kalidasa a Sanskrit poet and dramatist is probably the greatest Indian writer of all time.   As with most classical
Indian authors, little is known about Kalidasa’s person or his historical relationships.  His poems suggest that he was a
Brahman (priest).  Many works are traditionally ascribed to the poet, but scholars have identified only six as genuine.

b)        Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).  The son of a Great Sage, Tagore is a Bengali poet and mystic who won the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.  Tagore managed his father's estates and lived in close contact with the villagers.  His
sympathy for their poverty and backwardness was later reflected in his works.  The death of his wife and two children
brought him years of sadness but this also inspired some of his best poety.   Tagore is also a gifted composer and a
painter.

c)         Prem Chand pseudonym of  Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (1880-1936).  Indian author of numerous  novels and short

stories in Hindi and Urdu who pioneered in adapting Indian themes to Western literary styles.  He worked as a teacher
before joining Mahatma Gandhi’s anticolonial Noncooperation Movement.

CHINA

1.         Historical Background.  Chinese literature reflects the political and social history of China and the impact of
powerful religions that came from within and outside the country.  Its tradition goes back thousand of years and has
often been inspired by philosophical questions about the meaning of life, how to live ethically in society, and how to live
in spiritual harmony with the natural order of the universe.

The Book of Songs, (Shih Ching) first compiled in the 6th century B.C., is the oldest collection of Chinese poetry and is
considered a model of poetic expression and moral insight.  The poems include court songs that entertained the
aristocracy, story songs that recounted Chou dynasty legends, hymns that were sung in the temples accompanied by
dance and brief folk songs and ballads.  Although these poems were originally meant to be sung, their melodies have
long been lost.

T’ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-960).  Fine arts and literature flourished during this era which is viewed as the Golden Age of
Chinese civilization.  Among the technological advances of this time were the invention of gunpowder and the block
printing.

The T’ang Poets.   Chinese lyrical poetry reached its height during the T’ang Dynasty.  Inspired by scenes of natural
beauty, T’ang poets wrote about the fragile blossoms in spring, the falling of leaves in autumn, or the changing shape of
the moon.
Conversation in the Mountains by Li Po

If you were to ask me why I dwell among green mountains,

I should laugh silently; my soul is serene.

  The peach blossom follows the moving water;

            There is another heaven and earth beyond the world of men.

           

            A Meeting by Tu Fu

            We were often separated                                 How long does youth last?

            Like the Dipper and the morning star.            Now we are all gray-haired.

            What night is tonight?                                     Half of our friends are dead,

            We are together in the candlelight.                  And both of us were surprised when we met.

2.         Philosophy and Religion.  Chinese literature and all of Chinese culture has been profoundly influenced by three
great schools of thought: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.  Unlike Western religions, Chinese religions are based on
the perception of life as a process of continual change in which opposing forces, such as heaven and earth or light and
dark, balance one another.  These opposites are symbolized by the Yin and Yang.  Yin, the passive and feminine force,
counterbalances yang, the active and masculine force, each contains a ‘seed’ of the other, as represented in the
traditional yin-yang symbol.

a)   Confucianism provides the Chinese with both a moral order and an order for the universe.  It is not a religion but it
makes individuals aware of their place in the world and the behavior appropriate to it.  It also provides a political and
social philosophy.

Confucius was China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, whose ideas have influenced all
civilizations of East Asia.  According to tradition, Confucius came from an impoverished family of the lower nobility.  He
became a minor government bureaucrat but was never give a position of high office.  He criticized government policies
and spent the greater part of his life educating a group of disciples.   Confucius was not a religious leader in the ordinary
sense, for his teaching was essentially a social ethic.  Confucian politics is hierarchical but not absolute and the political
system is described by analogy with the family.  There are five key Confucian relationships: emperor and subject, father
and son, husband and wife, older brother and younger brother, friend and friend.

      The Analects (Lun Yu) is one of the four Confucian texts.  The sayings range from brief statements to more extended
dialogues between Confucius and his students.  Confucius believes that people should cultivate the inherent goodness
within themselves –unselfishness, courage, and honor – as an ideal of universal moral and social
harmony.  The Analects instructs on moderation in all things through moral education, the building of a harmonious
family life, and the development of virtues such as loyalty, obedience, and a sense of justice.  It also emphasizes filial
piety and concern with social and religious rituals.  To Confucius, a person’s inner virtues can be fully realized only
through concrete acts of ‘ritual propriety’ or proper behavior toward other human beings.

From The Analects (II.1)

The Master said, “He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which
keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.”
The Book of Changes (I Ching) is one of the Five Classics of Confucian philosophy and has been primarily used for
divination.  This book is based on the concept of change – the one constant of the universe.  Although change is never-
ending, it too proceeds according to certain universal and observable patterns.

      The Tao-Te Ching (Classic of the Way of Power) is believed to have been written between the 8th and 3rd centuries
B.C.  The basic concept of the dao is wu-wei or “non-action” which means no unnatural action, rather than complete
passivity.  It implies spontaneity, non-interference, letting things take their natural course i.e., “Do nothing and
everything else is done.”  Chaos ceases, quarrels end, and self-righteous feuding disappears because the dao is allowed
to flow unchallenged.

3.   Major Chinese Writers.

·      Chuang Tzu  (4th century B.C.) was the most important early interpreter  of the philosophy of Taoism.  Very little is
known about his life except that he served as a minor court official.  In his stories, he appears as a quirky character who
cares little for either public approval or material possessions.

·      Lieh Tzu (4th century B.C.) was a Taoist teacher who had many philosophical differences with his forebears Lao-Tzu
and Chuan Tzu.   He argued that a sequence of causes predetermines everything that happens, including one’s choice of
action.

·      Lui An (172 – 122 B.C.) was not only a Taoist scholar but the grandson of the founder of the founder of the Han
dynasty.  His royal title was the Prince of Haui-nan.  Together with philosophers and under his patronage, he produced a
collection of essays on metaphysics, cosmology, politics, and conduct.

·      Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145 – 90 B.C.) was the greatest of China’s ‘Grand Historians’ who dedicated himself to completing
the first history of China the Records of the Historian.  His work covers almost three thousand years of Chinese history in
more than half a million written characters etched onto bamboo tablets.

     The T’ang Poets:

Li Po (701 –762) was Wang Wei’s contemporary and he spent a short time in courts, but seems to have bee too much of
a romantic and too give to drink to carry out responsibilities.  He was a Taoist, drawing sustenance from nature and his
poetry was often other-wordly and ecstatic.  He had no great regard for his poems himself.  He is said to have mad
thousands of them into paper boats which he sailed along streams.

Tu Fu (712 –770) is the Confucian moralist, realist, and humanitarian.  He was public-spirited, and his poetry helped
chronicle the history of the age: the deterioration

Wang Wei (796? – 761?) was an 8th century government official who spent the later years of his life in the country,
reading and discussing Buddhism with scholars and monks.  He is known for the pictorial quality of his poetry and for its
economy.  His word-pictures parallel Chinese brush artistry in which a few strokes are all suggestive of authority, the
disasters of war, and official extravagance.

JAPAN

1.   Historical Background.  Early Japan borrowed much from Chinese culture but evolved its own character over
time.  Early Japan’s political structure was based on clan, or family.  Each clan developed a hierarchy of classes with
aristocrats, warriors, and priests at the top and peasants and workers at the bottom.  During the 4th century A.D. the
Yamato grew to be most powerful and imposed the Chinese imperial system on Japan creating an emperor, an imperial
bureaucracy, and a grand capital city.

The Feudal Era was dominated by the samurai class which included the militaristic lords, the daimyo and the band of
warriors, the samurai who adhered to a strict code of conduct the emphasized bravery, loyalty, and honor.  In 1192
Yorimoto became the shogun or chief general one of a series of shoguns who ruled Japan for over 500 years. 
The Tokugawa Shogonate in the late 1500s crushed the warring feudal lords and controlled all of Japan from a new
capital at Edo, now Tokyo.  By 1630 and for two centuries, Japan was a closed society: all foreigners were expelled,
Japanese Christians were persecuted, and foreign travel was forbidden under penalty of death.  The shogonate was
ended in 1868 when Japan began to trade with the Western powers.  Under a more powerful emperor, Japan rapidly
acquired the latest technological knowledge, introduced universal education, and created an impressive industrial
economy.

4.   Poetry is one of the oldest and most popular means of expression and communication in the Japanese culture.  It
was an integral part of daily life in ancient Japanese society, serving as a means through which anyone could chronicle
experiences and express emotions

a)   The Manyoshu or ‘Book of Ten Thousand Leaves is an anthology by poets from a wide range of social classes,
including the peasantry, the clergy, and the ruling class.

b)   There are different poems according to set forms or structures:

·   choka  are poems that consist of alternate lines of five and seven syllables with an additional seven-syllable line at the
end.  There is no limit to the number of lines which end with envoys, or pithy summations.  These envoys consist of 5-7-
5-7-7 syllables that elaborate on or summarize the theme or central idea of the main poem.

·   tanka is the most prevalent verse form in traditional Japanese literature.  It consists of five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables
including at least one caesura, or pause.  Used as a means of communication in ancient Japanese society,
the tanka often tell a brief story or express a single thought or insight and the common subjects are love and nature.

·   renga is a chain of interlocking tanka.  Each tanka within a renga was divided into verses of 17 and 14 syllables
composed by different poets as it was fashionable for groups of poets to work together during the age of Japanese
feudalism.

·   hokku was the opening verse of a renga which developed into a distinct literary form known as the haiku.  The haiku
consist of 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllable characterized by precision, simplicity, and suggestiveness.   Almost all haiku include
a kigo or seasonal words such as snow or cherry blossoms that indicates the time of year being described.

5.   Prose appeared in the early part of the 8th century focusing on Japanese history.  During the Heian Age, the
members of the Imperial court, having few administrative or political duties, kept lengthy diaries and experimented with
writing fiction.

·      The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, a work of tremendous length and complexity, is considered to be the
world’s first true novel.  It traces the life of a gifted and charming prince.  Lady Murasaki was an extraordinary woman
far more educated than most upper-class men of her generation.  She was appointed to serve in the royal court of the
emperor.

·      The Tale of Haike written by an anonymous author during the 13th century was the most famous early Japanese
novel.  It presents a striking portrait of war-torn Japan during the early stages of the age of feudalism.

·      Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko was written during the age of feudalism.  It is a loosely organized collection of
insights, reflections, and observations, written during the 14th century.  Kenko was born into a high-ranking Shinto
family and became a Buddhist priest.

·      In the Grove by Ryunusuke Akutagawa is the author’s most famous story made into the film Rashomon.  The story
asks these questions: What is the truth?  Who tells the truth?  How is the truth falsified?  Six narrators tell their own
testimonies about the death of a husband and the violation of his wife in the woods.   The narrators include a
woodcutter, a monk, an old woman, the mother-in-law of the slain man, the wife, and finally, the dead man whose story
is spoken through the mouth of a shamaness.  Akutagawa’s ability to blend a feudal setting with deep psychological
insights gives this story an ageless quality.

6.      Drama.

a)      Nō plays emerged during the 14th century as the earliest form of Japanese drama.  The plays are performed on an
almost bare stage by a small but elaborately costumed cast of actors wearing masks.   The actors are accompanied by a
chorus and the plays are written either in verse or in highly poetic prose.  The dramas reflect many Shinto and Buddhist
beliefs, along with a number of dominant Japanese artistic preferences.  The Nō performers’ subtle expressions of inner
strength, along with the beauty of the costumes, the eloquence of the dancing, the mesmerizing quality of the singing,
and the mystical, almost supernatural, atmosphere of the performances, has enabled the Nō theater to retain its
popularity.

Atsumori by Seami Motokiyo is drawn from an episode of The Tale of the Heike, a medieval Japanese epic based on
historical fact that tells the story of the rise and fall of the Taira family, otherwise known as the Heike.  The play takes
place by the sea of Ichi no tani.  A priest named Rensei, who was once a warrior with the Genji clan, has decided to
return to the scene of the battle to pray for a sixteen-year-old named Atsumori, whom he killed on the beach during the
battle.  Rensei had taken pity on Atsumori and had almost refrained from killing him.  He realized though that if he did
not kill the boy, his fellow warriors would.  He explained to Atsumori that he must kill him, and promised to pray for his
soul.  On his return, he meets two peasants who are returning home from their fields and Rensai makes an astonishing
discovery about one of them.

b)      Kabuki involves lively, melodramatic acting and is staged using elaborate and colorful costumes and sets.  It is
performed with the accompaniment of an orchestra and generally focus on the lives of common people rather than
aristocrats.

c)      Jorori (now called  Bunraku) is staged using puppets and was a great influence on the development of the Kabuki.

d)     Kyogen is a farce traditionally performed between the Nō tragedies.

8.      Major Writers.

·   Seami Motokiyo had acting in his blood for his father Kanami, a priest, was one of the finest performers of his day.   At
age 20 not long after his father’s death, he took over his father’s acting school and began to write plays.  Some say he
became a Zen priest late in life; others say he had two sons, both of them actors.  According to legend, he died alone at
the age of 81 in a Buddhist temple near Kyoto.

·   The Haiku Poets

-       Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 1694) is regarded as the greatest haiku poet.  He was born into a samurai family and began
writing poetry at an early age.  After becoming a Zen Buddhist, he moved into an isolated hut on the outskirts of Edo
(Tokyo) where he lived the life of a hermit, supporting himself by teaching and judging poetry.   Bashō means ‘banana
plant,’ a gift given him to which he became deeply attached.  Over time his hut became known as the Bashō  Hut until he
assumed the name.

-       Yosa Buson (1716 – 1783) is regarded as the second-greatest haiku poet.  He lived in Kyoto throughout most of his
life and was one of the finest painters of his time.  Buson presents a romantic view of the Japanese landscape, vividly
capturing the wonder and mystery of nature.

-       Kobayashi Issa (1763 –1827) is ranked with Bashō and Buson although his talent was not widely recognized until
after his death.  Issa’s poems capture the essence of daily life in Japan and convey his compassion for the less fortunate.
Yasunari Kawabata (1899 – 1972) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968.  The sense of loneliness and preoccupation
with death that permeates much of his mature writing possibly derives from the loneliness of his childhood having been
orphaned early. Three of his best novels are: Snow Country, Thousand Cranes,  and Sound of the Mountains.  He
committed suicide shortly after the suicide of his friend Mishima.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892 – 1927) is a prolific writer of stories, plays, and poetry, noted for his stylistic virtuosity.   He
is one of the most widely translated of all Japanese writers, and a number of his stories have been made into
films.  Many of his short stories are Japanese tales retold in the light of modern psychology in a highly individual style of
feverish intensity that is well-suited to their macabre themes.  Among his works are Rashomon, and Kappa. He also
committed suicide. 

AFRICA

1.      The Rise of Africa’s Great Civilization.   Between 751 and 664 B.C. the kingdom of Kush at the southern end of the
Nile River gained strength and prominence succeeding the New Kingdom of Egyptian civilization.  Smaller civilizations
around the edges of the Sahara also existed among them the Fasa of the northern Sudan, whose deeds are recalled by
the Soninka oral epic, The Daust.

2.      Literary Forms:

a)      Orature is the tradition of African oral literature which includes praise poems, love poems, tales, ritual dramas, and
moral instructions in the form of proverbs and fables.   It also includes epics and poems and narratives.

b)      Griots, the keepers of oral literature in West Africa, may be a professional storyteller, singer, or entertainer and
were skilled at creating and transmitting the many forms of African oral literature.  Bards, storytellers, town criers, and
oral historians also preserved and continued the oral tradition.

c)      Hymns of Praise Songs were offered to the sun god Aten.  The Great Hymn to Aten is the longest of several New
Kingdom hymns.  This hymn was found on the wall of a tomb built for a royal scribe named Ay and his wife.   In was
intended to assure their safety in the afterlife.

d)       African Proverbs are much more than quaint old sayings.  Instead, they represent a poetic form that uses few
words but achieves great depth of meaning and they function as the essence of people’s values and knowledge. 

·      They are used to settle legal disputes, resolve ethical problems, and teach children the philosophy of their people.

·      Often contain puns, rhymes, and clever allusions, they also provide entertainment.

·      Mark power and eloquence of speakers in the community who know and use them.   Their ability to apply the
proverbs to appropriate situations demonstrates an understanding of social and political realities.

e)      Dilemma or Enigma Tale is an important kind of African moral tale intended for listeners to discuss and debate.   It
is an open-ended story that concludes with a question the asks the audience to choose form among several
alternatives.  By encouraging animated discussion, a dilemma tale invites its audience to think about right and wrong
behavior and how to best live within society.

f)      Ashanti Tale comes from Ashanti, whose traditional homeland is the dense and hilly forest beyond the city of
Kumasi in south-central Ghana which was colonized by the British in the mid-19th century.  But the Ashanti, protected in
their geographical stronghold, were able to maintain their ancient culture.  The tale exemplifies common occupations of
the Ashanti such as farming, fishing, and weaving.  It combines such realistic elements with fantasy elements like talking
objects and animals.

g)        Folk Tales have been handed down in the oral tradition from ancient times.  The stories represent a wide and
colorful variety that embodies the African people’s most cherished religious and social beliefs.  The tales are used to
entertain, to teach, and to explain.  Nature and the close bond that Africans share with the natural world are
emphasized.  The mystical importance of the forest, sometimes called the bush, is often featured.

h)        Origin stories include creation stories and stories explaining the origin of death.

i)      Trickster Tale is an enormously popular type.  The best known African trickster figure is Anansi the Spider, both the
hero and villain from the West African origin to the Caribbean and other parts of the Western Hemisphere as a result of
the slave trade.

j)      Epics of vanished heroes – partly human, partly superhuman, who embody the highest values of a society – carry
with them a culture’s history, values, and traditions.  The African literary traditions boasts of several oral epics.

·      The Dausi from the Soninke

·      Monzon and the King of Kore from the Bambara of western Africa

·      The epic of Askia the Great, medieval ruler of the Songhai empire in western Africa

·      The epic of the Zulu Empire of southern Africa

3.   Negritude, which means literally ‘blackness,’ is the literary movement of the 1930s – 1950s that began among
French-speaking African and Caribbean writers living in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and the policy of
assimilation.  Its leading figure was Leopold Sedar Senghor (1st president of the Republic of Senegal in 1960) , who along
with Aime Cesaire from Martinique and Leo Damas from French Guina, began to examine Western values critically and
to reassess African culture.  The movement largely faded in the early 1960s when its political and cultural objectives had
been achieved in most African countries.  The basic ideas behind Negritude include:

·      Africans must look to their own cultural heritage to determine the values and traditions that are most useful in the
modern world.

·      Committed writers should use African subject matter and poetic traditions and should excite a desire for political
freedom.

·      Negritude itself encompasses the whole of African cultural, economic, social, and political values.

·      The value and dignity of African traditions and peoples must be asserted.

4.   African Poetry is more eloquent in its expression of Negritude since it is the poets who first articulated their thoughts
and feelings about the inhumanity suffered by their own people.

·      Train Journey by Dennis Brutus reflects the poet’s social commitment, as he reacts to the poverty around him amidst
material progress especially and acutely felt by the innocent victims, the children

·      Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka is the poet’s most anthologized poem that reflects Negritude.  It is a
satirical poem between a Black man seeking the landlady’s permission to accommodate him in her lodging house.   The
poetic dialogue reveals the landlady’s deep-rooted prejudice against the colored people as the caller plays up on it.

·      Africa by David Diop is a poem that achieves its impact by a series of climactic sentences and rhetorical
questions                                                        

5.   Novels.
·      Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe depict a vivid picture of Africa before the colonization by the British.  The title is
an epigraph from Yeats’ The Second Coming: ‘things fall apart/ the center cannot hold/ mere anarchy is loosed upon the
world.’  The novel laments over the disintegration of Nigerian society, represented in the story by Okwonko, once a
respected chieftain who looses his leadership and falls from grace after the coming of the whites.  Cultural values are
woven around the plot to mark its authenticity: polygamy since the character is Muslim; tribal law is held supreme by
the gwugwu, respected elders in the community; a man’s social status is determined by the people’s esteem and by
possession of fields of yams and physical prowess; community life is shown in drinking sprees, funeral wakes, and sports
festivals.

·      No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe is a sequel to Things Fall Apart and the title of which is alluded to Eliot’s The
Journey of the Magi: ‘We returned to our places, these kingdoms,/ But no longer at ease here, in the old
dispensation.’  The returning hero fails to cope with disgrace and social pressure.  Okwonko’s son has to live up to the
expectations of the Umuofians, after winning a scholarship in London, where he reads literature, not law as is expected
of him, he has to dress up, he must have a car, he has to maintain his social standing, and he should not marry an  Ozu,
an outcast.  In the end, the tragic hero succumgs to temptation, he, too receives bribes, and therefore is ‘no longer at
ease.’

·      The Poor Christ of Bombay by Mongo Beti begins en medias res and exposes the inhumanity of colonialism.  The
novel tells of Fr. Drumont’s disillusionment after the discovery of the degradation of the native women, betrothed, but
forced to work like slaves in the sixa.  The government steps into the picture as syphilis spreads out in the priest’s
compound.  It turns out that the native whose weakness is wine, women, and song has been made overseer of
the sixa when the Belgian priest goes out to attend to his other mission work.  Developed through recite or diary entries,
the novel is a satire on the failure of religion to integrate to national psychology without first understanding the natives’
culture.

6.   Major Writers.

·      Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906) is a poet and statesman who was cofounder of the Negritude movement in African art
and literature. He went to Paris on a scholarship and later taught in the French school system.  During these years
Senghor discovered the unmistakable imprint of African art on modern painting, sculpture, and music, which confirmed
his belief in Africa’s contribution to modern culture.  Drafted during WWII, he was captured and spent two years in Nazi
concentration camp where he wrote some of his finest poems.  He became president of Senegal in 1960.  His works
include: Songs of Shadow, Black Offerings, Major Elegies, Poetical Work.  He became Negritude’s foremost spokesman
and edited an anthology of French-language poetry by black African that became a seminal text of the Negritude
movement.

·      Wole Soyinka (1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelis, and critic who was the first black African to be awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.  He wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style and with a tragic sense of the
obstacles to human progress.  He taught literature and drama and headed theater groups at various Nigerian
universities.  Among his works are: plays – A Dance of the Forests, The Lion and the Jewel, The Trials of Brother Jero;
novels – The Interpreters, Season of Anomy; poems – Idanre and Other Poems, Poems from Prison, A Shuttle in the
Crypt, Mandela’s Earth and Other Poems. 

·      Chinua Achebe (1930) is a prominent Igbo novelist acclaimed for his unsentimental depictions of the social and
psychological disorientation accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon traditional African
society.  His particular concern was with emergent Africa at its moments of crisis.  His works include, Things Fall Apart,
Arrow of God, No Longer at Ease, A Man of the People, Anthills of Savanah.
 The Story of the Aged Mother
A Japanese Folktale
by Matsuo Basho
Long, long ago there lived at the foot of the mountain a poor farmer and his aged, widowed mother. They owned a bit of
land which supplied them with food, and their humble were peaceful and happy.

Shinano was governed by a despotic leader who though a warrior, had a great and cowardly shrinking from anything
suggestive of failing health and strength. This caused him to send out a cruel proclamation. The entire province was
given strict orders to immediately put to death all aged people. Those were barbarous days, and the custom of
abandoning old people to die was not common. The poor farmer loved his aged mother with tender reverence, and the
order filled his heart with sorrow. But no one ever thought a second time about obeying the mandate of the governor,
so with many deep hopeless sighs, the youth prepared for what at that time was considered the kindest mode of death.

Just at sundown, when his day‘s work was ended, he took a quantity of unwhitened rice which is principal food for poor,
cooked and dried it, and tying it in a square cloth, swung and bundle around his neck along with a gourd filled with cool,
sweet water. Then he lifted his helpless old mother to his back and stated on his painful journey up the mountain. The
road was long and steep; the narrowed road was crossed and recrossed by many paths made by the hunters and
woodcutters. In some place, they mingled in a confused puzzled, but he gave no heed. One path or another, it mattered
not. On he went, climbing blindly upward – ever upward towards the high bare summit of what is known as
Obatsuyama, the mountain of the ―abandoning of aged‖.

The eyes of the old mother were not so dim but that they noted the reckless hastening from one path to another, and
her loving heart grew anxious. Her son did not know the mountain‘s many paths and his return might be one of danger,
so she stretched forth her hand and snapping the twigs from brushes as they passed, she quietly dropped a handful
every few steps of the way so that they climbed, the narrow path behind them was dotted at frequent intervals with tiny
piles of twigs. At last the summit was reached. Weary and heart sick, the youth gently released his burden and silently
prepared a place of comfort as his last duty to the loved one. Gathering fallen pine needle, he made a soft cushion and
tenderly lifting his old mother therein, he wrapped her padded coat more closely about the stooping shoulders and with
tearful eyes and an aching heart said farewell.

The trembling mother‘s voice was full of unselfish love as she gave her last injunction. ―Let not thine eyes be blinded,
my son.‖ She said. ―The mountain road is full of dangers. Look carefully and follow the path which holds the piles of
twigs. They will guide you to the familiar way farther down‖.

The son‘s surprised eyes looked back over the path, then at the poor old, shrivelled hands all scratched and soiled by
their work of love. His heart smote him and bowing to the grounds, he cried aloud: ―Oh, honorable mother, thy
kindness thrusts my heart! I will not leave thee. Together we will follow the path of twigs, and together we will die!‖

Once more he shouldered his burden (how light it seemed no) and hastened down the path, through the shadows and
the moonlight, to the little hut in the valley. Beneath the kitchen floor was a walled closet for food, which was covered
and hidden from view. There the son hid his mother, supplying her with everything needful and continually watching
and fearing. Time passed, and he was beginning to feel safe when again the governor sent forth heralds bearing an
unreasonable order, seemingly as a boast of his power. His demand was that his subject should present him with a rope
of ashes. The entire province trembled with dread. The order must be obeyed yet who in all Shinano could make a rope
of ashes?

One night, in great distress, the son whispered the news to his hidden mother. ―Wait!‖ she said. ―I will think. I will
think‖ On the second day she told him what to do. ―Make rope twisted straw,‖ she said. ―Then stretch it upon a row of
flat stones and burn it there on the windless night.‖ He called the people together and did as she said and when the
blaze had died, behold upon the stones with every twist and fiber showing perfectly. Lay a rope of whitehead ashes.

The governor was pleased at the wit of the youth and praised greatly, but he demanded to know where he had obtained
his wisdom. ―Alas! Alas!‖ cried the farmer, ―the truth must be told!‖ and with deep bows he related his story. The
governor listened and then meditated in silence. Finally he lifted his head. ―Shinano needs more than strength of
youth,‖ he said gravely. ―Ah, that I should have forgotten the well-known saying, ―with the crown of snow, there
cometh a wisdom!‖. That very hour the cruel law was abolished, and the custom drifted into as far a past that only
legends remain.

The Arabian Nights

(Prologue)
The main frame story concerns a Persian king and his new bride. He is shocked to discover that his brother's wife is
unfaithful; discovering his own wife's infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her executed: but in his bitterness
and grief decides that all women are the same. The king, Shahryar, begins to marry a succession of virgins only to
execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonor him. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to
provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her
father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it.
The king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion.
The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the
conclusion, postpones her execution once again. So it goes on for 1,001 nights.

ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES

Ali Baba and his elder brother Cassim are the sons of a merchant. After the death of their father, the greedy Cassim
marries a wealthy woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father's business—but Ali Baba marries a poor
woman and settles into the trade of a woodcutter.

One day Ali Baba is at work collecting and cutting firewood in the forest, and he happens to overhear a group of forty
thieves visiting their treasure store. The treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the
words "iftah ya simsim" (commonly written as "Open Sesame" in English), and seals itself on the words "Close, Simsim"
("Close Sesame"). When the thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself, and takes some of the treasure home.

Ali Baba and his wife borrow his sister-in-law's scales to weigh this new wealth of gold coins. Unbeknownst to them, she
puts a blob of wax in the scales to find out what Ali Baba is using them for, as she is curious to know what kind of grain
her impoverished brother-in-law needs to measure. To her shock, she finds a gold coin sticking to the scales and tells her
husband, Ali Baba's rich and greedy brother, Cassim. Under pressure from his brother, Ali Baba is forced to reveal the
secret of the cave. Cassim goes to the cave and enters with the magic words, but in his greed and excitement over the
treasures, he forgets the magic words to get back out again. The Thieves find him there, and kill him. When his brother
does not come back, Ali Baba goes to the cave to look for him, and finds the body, quartered and with each piece
displayed just inside the entrance of the cave as a warning to anyone else who might try to enter.
Ali Baba brings the body home, where he entrusts Morgiana, a clever slave-girl in Cassim's household, with the task of
making others believe that Cassim has died a natural death. First, Morgiana purchases medicines from an apothecary,
telling him that Cassim is gravely ill. Then, she finds an old Tailor known as Baba Mustafa whom she pays, blindfolds, and
leads to Cassim's house. There, overnight, the Tailor stitches the pieces of Cassim's body back together, so that no one
will be suspicious. Ali Baba and his family are able to give Cassim a proper burial without anyone asking awkward
questions.

The Thieves, finding the body gone, realize that yet another person must know their secret, and set out to track him
down. One of the Thieves goes down to the town and comes across Baba Mustafa, who mentions that he has just sewn
a dead man's body back together. Realizing that the dead man must have been the Thieves' victim, the Thief asks Baba
Mustafa to lead the way to the house where the deed was performed. The Tailor is blindfolded again, and in this state
he is able to retrace his steps and find the house. The Thief marks the door with a symbol. The plan is for the other
thieves to come back that night and kill everyone in the house. However, the Thief has been seen by Morgiana and she,
loyal to her master, foils his plan by marking all the houses in the neighborhood with a similar marking. When the forty
Thieves return that night, they cannot identify the correct house and their leader in a furious rage, kills the unsuccessful
Thief. The next day, another Thief revisits Baba Mustafa and tries again, only this time, a chunk is chipped out of the
stone step at Ali Baba's front door. Again Morgiana foils the plan by making similar chips in all the other doorsteps. The
second Thief is killed for his failure as well. At last, the leader of the Thieves goes and looks for himself. This time, he
memorizes every detail he can of the exterior of Ali Baba's house.

The Chief of the Thieves pretends to be an oil merchant in need of Ali Baba's hospitality, bringing with him mules loaded
with thirty-eight oil jars, one filled with oil, the other thirty-seven hiding the other remaining thieves. Once Ali Baba is
asleep, the Thieves plan to kill him. Again, Morgiana discovers and foils the plan, killing the thirty-seven Thieves in their
oil jars by pouring boiling oil on them. When their leader comes to rouse his men, he discovers that they are all dead,
and escapes. The next morning Morgiana tells Ali Baba about the thieves in the jars, they bury them and Ali Baba shows
his gratitude by giving Morgiana her freedom.

To exact revenge, after some time the Chief of Thieves establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali Baba's son (who
is now in charge of the late Cassim's business), and is invited to dinner at Ali Baba's house. However the Thief is
recognized by Morgiana, who performs a dance with a dagger for the diners and plunges it into his heart when he is off
his guard. Ali Baba is at first angry with Morgiana, but when he finds out the Thief tried to kill him, he is extremely
grateful and rewards Morgiana by marrying her to his son. Ali Baba is then left as the only one knowing the secret of the
treasure in the cave and how to access it. Thus, the story ends happily for everyone except Cassim and the forty Thieves.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam

Translated by Edward Fitzgerald
Wake!
For the Sun, who scattered into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n and strikes
The Sultán's Turret with a Shaft of Light.
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly -- and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
The Worldly Hope men set their
Hearts upon Turns Ashes -- or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty
Face Lighting a little Hour or two -- is gone.
Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultan after Sultan with his
Pomp Abode his Hour or two and went his way.
Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
TO-DAY of past Regrets and future Fears: To-morrow!
Why, To-morrow I may be Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years.
For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his Vintage rolling Time has prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!
Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain--This Life flies:
One thing is certain and the rest is lies;
The Flower that once is blown for ever dies

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

(excerpts)

Then a ploughman said, "Speak to us of Work."

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto
the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your
work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels,
and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.