Moradewun Adejunmobi

Routes: language and the identity of African literature

The debate over the language of African literature has continued to generate significant interest ever since the emergence of African literary writing in European languages. Discussions of this debate have in the past often highlighted the inherently normative character of the idea of an African literature in African languages. By tracing the history of the debate, this paper seeks to distinguish between the actual role played by African languages in the emergence of a literature identified as African by its practitioners, and the ideological function of the debate for Africans who write in European languages. From this perspective, appeals for a literature in indigenous languages appear to serve the purpose of ethnic signification on behalf of a tradition of writing that continues to rely on European languages at the levels of both creative practice and theoretical formulation.

Translation and Postcolonial Identity

AbstractCritics and authors of the corpus of texts designated as African literature often consider problematic the role of European languages in this literature. A discourse based on the practice of translation represents one strategy among others for resolving the crisis of identity of African writing in European languages. Three kinds of translation found in African literature are discussed in this paper. Both compositional and authorized translations seek to confirm the African identity of the European-language text: the former by reference to imaginary and the latter by reference to original versions in indigenous African languages. Complex translations, on the other hand, embrace mobility between languages and identities as inescapable in postcolonial Africa. While these varieties of translation appear to reconcile the desire for authenticity with the exigency of writing in a foreign language, the relationship between the various versions indirectly confirms the continuing hegemony of European langua...

Nollywood, Globalization, and Regional Media Corporations in Africa

This article makes three arguments with respect to the interface between contemporary African and global media. The first is that regional media corporations represent a greater threat to local media production than global media corporations. Second, the threat often consists in seeking to co-opt rather than to suppress local media production, since these regional corporations do not actually stand to benefit from suppressing local production. Third, the likelihood of being co-opted, accompanied by a gradual loss of autonomy, is greatest where local media have achieved a high level of success at attracting relatively large audiences, independently of both regional and global media networks. This discussion is based on analysis of the interaction between Nollywood and regional media corporations active in Africa.

Polyglots, Vernaculars and Global Markets: Variable Trends in West Africa

Using a framework from cultural studies and focusing on theories put forward by Pierre Bourdieu, the goal in this paper is to consider how some West Africans interact with foreign languages and cultures in an era of global capital, especially when it comes to the activities of migrants venturing into overseas labour markets and to the production of cultural commodities at home. Looking at the language practices of members of Senegalese religious brotherhoods who migrate to various locations in theWestern world, and the language practices of Nigerian and Ghanaian urban musicians, involved in the production of Hip Hop, I will argue that citizens of poor countries who operate in markets impacted by global capital have reason to learn new languages, but also to retain distinct and localised identities.

The infrapolitics of subordination in Patrice Nganang's Dog Days

Patrice Nganangs award winning novel Dog Days illustrates a recent trend in African literature in French from the mid-1990s, namely a move away from narratives about rulers to narratives about the ruled, a move away from studying the socially dominant to analyzing the socially subordinate. This paper aims to foreground some of the thinking on social subordination in recent African literature by examining Patrice Nganangs Dog Days in the light of James Scotts work on power relations and resistance in his book, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, as well as Achille Mbembes reflections on power relations in his book, On the Postcolony. Unlike earlier works of African literature that either underscore the process of victimisation of social subordinates and/or the place of resistance in their everyday acts, these more recent works exude pessimism about the willingness of subordinate subjects to engage in resistance, while affirming the necessity for, and efficacy of direct resistance as the primary antidote for social disorder. In the theory of social subordination elaborated upon in this novel which accords with, but also contradicts, Scotts analysis of the nature and process of resistance at particular points, acts of deference on the part of social subordinates do not necessarily conceal hidden transcripts. Furthermore, and to the extent that we occasionally encounter hidden transcripts, such transcripts are noteworthy mainly in so far as they instigate direct resistance against those who exercise power unjustly.

Reading BJ's Nollywood

ABSTRACT This paper undertakes an interpretation of Biodun Jeyifos writings on Nollywood in the light of his earlier work on Yoruba Traveling Theater. It approaches Jeyifos reflections on Nollywood and Yoruba Traveling Theater as a basis for examining how scholars might address concerns about quality in assessments of African popular culture. In Jeyifos more recent work on Nollywood, there is a tension between acknowledging that dissimilar forms of culture answer to unlike rubrics of quality, and a desire for Nollywood to aspire to the quality of African literary fiction and art cinema. This article suggests that Jeyifos earlier work on Yoruba Traveling Theater offers a more dynamic template for discussing how scholars might deploy concerns about quality with respect to popular culture and as a lens for engaging popular culture forms on their own terms.