African Languages and Societies Commons^™

Les Pouvoirs Du Récit : Un Remède Au Chaos Du Monde? En Attentant Le Vote Des Bêtes Sauvages, Madeleine Borgomano

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Right from his first novel, Les Soleils des Indépendances (1970), Kourouma introduced the theme of the reversed world, a baroque metaphor for the state of Africa after Independence. In Monnè (1990), telling the history of this reversal, he insisted on its linguistic roots. Consequently, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (1998) shows how this reversal in the context of Cold War, favoured the genesis and development of dictatorial powers leading to an actual apocalypse. This victory of Chaos is told as a donsomana, traditional song of expiation among the Malinke hunters. The forms and magic virtues of this song …

Good Words - December 2004, Vol. 6, No. 2, Brethren In Christ Church In Africa

Good Words / Amazwi Amahle

Busani Nkomo, editor of Good Words / Amazwi Amahle

La Vie Et Demie Ou Les Corps Chaotiques Des Mots Et Des Êtres, Caroline Giguère

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Due to its polysemy, corporality has several functions in the works of Sony Labou Tansi. More than descriptive or thematic elements, the novelistic bodies in La vie et demie are at the same time meeting points for multiple meanings, objects and producers of discourse. This study aims to demonstrate how the writing of the body is symbolic of a disorder that characterizes the forms and contents of Sony Labou Tansi’s novels and invites the reader to reflect on language and its power.

Trop De Soleil Tue L'Amour : Une Expression De L'Écriture Du Mal-Être De Mongo Beti, Rodolphine Sylvie Wamba

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The classical and dissident African writer Mongo Beti perpetually uses the theme of man’s quest for freedom in everything he does. In fact, the philosophy of “Rubénism” is found in each of his works. Given that man must survive in the “ocean of shit” he lives in, the writer, using a popular language, freely chooses to add some humour to everyday life. Thus, the text we studied appeared as a genuine thriller, complete with comedy and tragedy, which presents a deviation from more formal writing. This is the main idea of this analysis, which consists of showing Trop de soleil …

Chaos Temporel Et Chaos Romanesque Dans Allah N'Est Pas Obligé D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Nathalie Roy

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper proposes an analysis of time representation in Allah n’est pas obligé with concepts taken from Temps et récit. It aims to show that in relation to Kourouma’s novel, one of Ricoeur’s hypothesis is revealingly insufficient. This hypothesis actually questions representation modes occuring in the text, exposing one of the sources of fictional chaos.

Transcrire L'Horreur Sur L'Espace De La Page, Bernadette Ginestet-Levine

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Rachid Boudjedra’s Timimoun uses the theatrical convention of a minibus taking tourists to the desert. In this mini-bus, news from the outside world is brought through the radio, which plays the part of a messenger. The narration moves forward by a progression of press releases that report bombings committed by terrorists. The barbarian nature of the acts is transcribed on the page by means of typography. The spatial/visual convention itself is set in concentric lexical fields – liquid, then desertic – erected as fences in an attempt to confine the unbearable.

Folie Et Écriture Dans Calomnies De Linda Lê, Ching Selao

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article proposes to explore the many faces of madness through a reading of Linda Lê’s Calomnies, in which two narrative voices are presented. The following shall demonstrate how this novel reproduces a “romantic” perception of madness as encountered in Michel Foucault’s work. Although this narrative text introduces a mad narrator speaking in the “I” persona, it nonetheless points out the difficulties of letting madness speak for itself. These difficulties are also examined in this study.

Face À La Meute – Narration Et Folie Dans Les Romans De Boubacar Boris Diop, Susanne Gehrmann

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The article analyses the narrative techniques and the theme of madness in three novels by the Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop, caracterised by narrative polyphony and metatextual reflexion on the production of a story. The speech of protagonists affected by “intellectual madness” plays a strategic role in the structure of the novel which, as a hybrid genre, draws on oral and literary traditions in a still splintered aesthetic. The image of the pack represents an unreasonnable society condemning a so-called mad individual whose madness consists in bringing a counter-memory of the foundation myths.

Parties Annexes

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

No abstract provided.

African And African American Studies Newsletter, Winter Quarter 2004, African And African American Studies

African and African American Studies Newsletter

This eight page newsletter created by the Wright State University African and African American Studies Program documenting faculty reflections, course offerings, a logo design contest, events on campus and more.

Good Words - August 2004, Vol. 6, No. 1, Brethren In Christ Church In Africa

Good Words / Amazwi Amahle

Busani Nkomo, editor of Good Words / Amazwi Amahle

"Across The Colour Wall:" Gullah Linguistic And Literary Representations In Dubose Heyward's Porgy, Charlene Eberly

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine a classic text - DuBose Heyward's Porgy (1925) - associated with Southern Literature in relation to its connections to the Gullah culture and language. Close critical scrutiny was made of the 1925 text, two early manuscripts, manuscript fragments, revisions, research notes, and other personal papers from Heyward's estate. Access to these papers helped establish his influences and motivations in writing Porgy.

Employing both linguistic and literary analyses, the findings establish the verisimilitude of Heyward's representation of the Gullah language, rhetorical patterns, culture, beliefs, and practices, linking Porgy to a Gullah literary …

Werewere Liking Et La Poétique Du Jeu Pour Libérer L'Imaginaire Postcolonial Africain, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This essay addresses the issue of poetics and political stakes in Werewere Liking's novel, Elle sera de jaspe et de corail. While this novel has been presented as illustrative of the Negro-African aesthetics rooted in orality, the present article argues that Liking's poetics of hybridity is a postcolonial strategy whose aim is the liberation of African imagination and creativity. The essay ends by suggesting some similarities between Liking's project and that of the Congolese philosopher, especially in his philosophical essay, L'Afrique va-t-elle mourir? Bouscu/er l'imaginaire africain. Through their works, Ka Mana and Werewere Liking are examining the conditions for a …

Patrice Emery Lumumba : Entre Metaphore Et Metonymie, Justin K. Bisanswa

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The purpose of this text is to analyze the historiography devoted to Patrice Lumumba and the use of rhetoric that launched him into legend. The metaphor characterizes Lumumba in his journey towards death and the alienation of identity, rendering concrete a kind of degradation, of the animated and the unanimated. Further, the metaphor breaks down into a string of fragments, or of metonymical qualities. Lumumba's struggle for justice, equality, purity, truth, and the ideal translates the drama of which he is a victim into an extreme search for the ideal. This drama expresses itself by a notable use of the …

Lectures Mythophores Des Recits De L'Origine Dans N'Zid De Malika Mokeddem, Mireille Rosello

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In 1957, Barthes critiqued the omnipresence of imperialist myths. Is his study of the collusion between myths and colonialism still relevant today? Rather than looking for a new canon of postcolonial myths, Rosello proposes to distinguish between two critical stances: demystification and demythification. Rosello suggests that literature can afford to take the risk of mythification through a reading of a "mythoforic" novel: Malika Mokeddem's N'zid, a text that remythifies and demystifies the opposition between nomads and sedentaries.

Gommage Et Résistance Dans Le Processus De Mythification Postcoloniale, Robert Fotsing Mangoua

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Using the central figures of Um Nyobe and Patrice Lumumba, this paper aims to show that postcolonial mythology is a confrontation of two tendencies: on one hand, the colonial and postcolonial States, whose efforts tend to rub out history and its great faces, and on the other, artists and thinkers from Africa or abroad who want to establish the memory and the deeds of the missing as a source of inspiration for the present and next generation.

Mango Beti Et Les Mythologies Postcoloniales : Héritier Et Inspirateur, Nathalie Etoke

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Mango Beti belongs to a nationalist tradition embodied by Ruben Um Nyobe, the Cameroonian revolutionary. This paper analyzes how the writer manages to rebuild the aborted Rubenist ideal through fictional devices. Charismatic leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, who have been able to bring about social change and improve the living conditions of their people, also nurture Beti's political commitment. What is the link between the writer and these inspiring men? Is Mongo Beti himself a similar inspiration for other African writers?

Mythologie Postcoloniale Française Ou La Quête Permanente Du Livre Rose De La Colonisation, Armelle Cressent

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article touches on four books about colonization, which were recently published in France and which are intended for wide readership. This article underlines how the authors maintain the myth of a "rather beautiful" French Colonization or/and how they tend to avoid a too brutal questioning of the French colonial past in their writings.

L'Image Des Réfugiés Et Des Personnes Déplacées Dans La Fiction Africaine Francophone, Augustin H. Asaah

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In their capacity as moralists and committed intellectuals, African Francophone writers such as C.C. Sow, N.N. Ndjekery, M.S. Keita, F. Couao-Zotti, Ahmadou Kourouma, Nimrod and E. Dongala portray various images of refugees and internally displaced persons in their works. This depiction is driven by the perceived need to humanize these displaced members of society by establishing moral/affective bridges between unfortunate members of society and readers. It is also sustained by the desire to reduce the damage caused by wars and natural disasters, as well as the need to reveal the plural identities of humans to the world.

Subversion D'Un Mythe Colonial : Le« Grand Blanc De Lambaréné » Dans Le Roman Francophone D'Afrique, Sylvère Mbondobari

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Among its goals, this study aims to throw new light on the representation of the West in African Francophone literature. In this respect, it will examine some characteristic aspects of the image of the "Grand Blanc de Lambarene" - Albert Schweitzer - produced by the African imagination. For the first time, this paper shows which discursive and structural strategies are used by Sylvain Bemba and Seraphin Ndaot to represent Albert Schweitzer, to express their convictions, and how they confer a thematic or aesthetic aspect to their text. To be fully heuristic, the representation of Schweitzer requires that we reconstitute the …

Pidgin! Make We Hear Your Speak, Make We Know Why Chaw Students Dey Luv You, Desiree Pipkins

African Diaspora ISPs

Historical evidence contends that as a country, Ghana (formally the Gold Coast) had not need for a pidgin. Additionally, the colonial administration made deliberate attempts to acknowledge and teach Standard English, exclusively, in school, as a result of these factors, there is a minimal need to speak Pidgin in Ghana, as compared to Standard English; further, it is not socially considered an attractive option for interpersonal communication as it is in other West African countries, particularly, Nigeria. Nevertheless, a new phenomenon of non-standard English has developed among students n senior secondary schools in Ghana. This rapidly progressing variety of English …

African And African American Studies, Spring Quarter 2004, African And African American Studies

African and African American Studies Newsletter

This eight page newsletter created by the Wright State University African and African American Studies Program documenting course offerings, faculty and student reflections, and more.

Quad Angles

Syracuse University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Rulers, Scholars, And Invaders: A Select Bibliography Of The Songhay Empire, Brent D. Singleton

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

African Bibliophiles: Books And Libraries In Medieval Timbuktu, Brent D. Singleton

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

The West African city of Timbuktu flourished as a center for Islamic scholarship from the 14th through the 16th century. The social structure of the city was based on wealth, with further stratification by degree of literacy, and expertise in interpreting Islamic legal texts. As a consequence, books and libraries evolved into blessed symbols of scholarship, wealth, and power. This study explores the history of books and libraries during the Golden Age of Timbuktu (1493--1591), followed by a discussion of the divergence of library practices in Timbuktu from those in the greater Islamic world of the time.

The Atlantic And Mande Groups Of Niger-Congo: A Study In Contrasts, A Study In Interaction, George Tucker Childs

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents the effects of long-lasting and pervasive contact between two major language groups of Niger-Congo, both of which diverged relatively early from the parent stock. The influence has been asymmetrical: Mande has more deeply influenced Atlantic than vice versa. The details come from two profoundly influenced languages, Kisi, now completely surrounded by Mande, and Mmani, a closely related language, from which all speakers have switched to the Mande language Soussou.

Le contact entre les locuteurs des langues atlantiques et les locuteurs des langues mande est de longue durée et profond. Les deux ensembles sont très différents typologiquement. À …

Time To Make History, Time To Educate Women: A Narrative Of The Life And Work Of Christiana Thorpe Of Sierra Leone, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An examination of the life of Christiana Thorpe, a former nun from Sierra Leone who worked to improve education for girls and served as the only woman in a cabinet of nineteen members (as Minister of Education), then worked with the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO amidst war and rebellion in her country.

Black, Mulatto And Light Skin: Reinterpreting Race, Ethnicity And Class In Caribbean Diasporic Communities, Marc E. Prou

Marc E. Prou

In recent years, Caribbeanists of different academic specialization and intellectual orientation have demonstrated a renewed interest in the unholy trinity of race, class and ethnic matters. the renewed interest has reflected a continued, but rather an unsystematic attempt to account for the social characteristics of race, ethnicity, gender and class among Caribbean people, both at home and abroad. The current ethnic power relationships manisfested by the unequal distribution of wealth in Caribbean diasporic communities is the direct result of colonialist influence on race through exploitative practices of the plantocracy and selective immigration to create a Caribbean middle class.

Tekstuele Elemente In Omvattend-Verklarende Woordeboeke : 'N Vergelyking Tussen Die Wat En Die Wnt, Michele Van Der Merwe

Michele Van Der Merwe

Textual elements in comprehensive explanatory dictionaries : a comparison between the WAT and the WNT In this article a comparison is made between Afrikaans and Dutch Lexicography with the focus on comprehensive dictionaries. The research forms part of the increasing cooperation that exists at present between Afrikaans and Dutch Lexicography. Therefore the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) is compared to the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal (WNT). A typological classification of a comprehensive explanatory dictionary will be made. In the comparison between the WAT and the WNT the structure of the dictionary as well as the articles in the dictionary …