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African Literature (Francophone), Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

The term "Francophone African literature" is widely used to designate sub-Saharan African literature written in French by authors living in Africa or abroad. It derives from Francophonie, the nineteenth-century neologism coined by the French geographer Onesine Redus (1837-1916). In the African context, the concept gained relevance in the 1960s under the aegis of Leopold Senghor and Habib Bourguiba, two African presidents who advocated the creation of an organization linking all the nations sharing the French language and culture.