Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2017 Beyond OralDigital: Ghanaian Electronic Literature as a Paradigm for African Digital Textuality Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Opoku-Agyemang, Kwabena, "Beyond OralDigital: Ghanaian Electronic Literature as a Paradigm for African Digital Textuality" (2017). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 6355. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6355 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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Beyond Oral/Digital: Ghanaian Electronic Literature as a Paradigm for African Digital Textuality Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang Dissertation submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Brian Ballentine, Ph.D., Chair Sandy Baldwin, Ph.D. John Jones, Ph.D. Dorothy Odartey-Wellington, Ph.D. Janice Spleth, Ph.D. Department of English Morgantown, West Virginia 2017 Keywords: African Electronic Literature, Ghana, Concrete Poetry, Conceptual Poetry, Mobile Video Games, African Literature Copyright 2017: Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang ABSTRACT Beyond Oral/Digital: Ghanaian Electronic Literature as a Paradigm for African Digital Textuality Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang This dissertation speaks to a massive dearth of research in African electronic literature (African e-lit), a discipline that boasts a growing number of works but little scholarship. With African literature incorporating digital technology into its creative process, and with electronic literary criticism focusing on areas outside its predominantly western cannon, African e-lit positions itself as an important area of scholarly endeavor. After considering the implications of placing African e-lit as the direction in which both African literature and electronic literature take, this dissertation looks at three different genres of African e- lit in the context of oral literature. There are analyses of examples of concrete poetry, conceptual poetry, and mobile video games, all from Ghana. Ultimately, the aim of this project is to ascertain the ways in which oral tradition influences the nature, form, and shape of African electronic literature. iii Dedication I dedicate this work to anyone I consider family. iv Acknowledgements I am grateful to a vibrant community of scholars including my committee for invaluable critique, as well as to my family for the support. Table of Contents Abstract _______________________________________________________________ ii Dedication ____________________________________________________________ iii Acknowledgements ______________________________________________________ iv Table of Contents _______________________________________________________ v Chapter 1 – Definitions ___________________________________________________ 1 Introduction: The “Africa” Narrative and Digital Advancement _______________________ 1 Background: The Space Between African Lit and E-Lit _____________________________ 2 Justification: Why African E-lit? _______________________________________________ 5 African Literature: A Brief Look _______________________________________________ 7 Electronic Literature: A Brief Look _____________________________________________ 9 A Preliminary Look at Scholarship ____________________________________________ 11 Limitations _______________________________________________________________ 15 Structure _________________________________________________________________ 17 Conclusion _______________________________________________________________ 21 Chapter 2 – Literature Review and Theoretical Frameworks __________________ 22 Introduction: Ghana as a Metonym for Africa ____________________________________ 22 African Literary Scholarship: A Technological Affair _____________________________ 25 Electronic Literary Scholarship: Technological Relationships in Western Contexts ______ 34 African E-Lit Scholarship: Beginnings _________________________________________ 41 Logistics, Orality, and the Digital _____________________________________________ 42 Conclusion _______________________________________________________________ 48 Chapter 3 – Looking Back while Moving Forward: The Case of Concrete Poetry and Sankofa _______________________________________________________________ 50 Introduction ______________________________________________________________ 50 Conceptual Poetry, Shape, and Context _________________________________________ 51 Adinkra and Sankofa: A Brief History __________________________________________ 57 Sankofa, Concrete Poetry (and Visual Poetry) ____________________________________ 61 Sankofa as an International Signifier ___________________________________________ 70 Conclusion _______________________________________________________________ 72 Appendix ________________________________________________________________ 74 Chapter 4 – Magpie Poetry: My Book of #GHCoats and African Conceptual Poetry 76 Introduction ______________________________________________________________ 76 Concrete Poetry and Africa __________________________________________________ 77 Definitions _______________________________________________________________ 79 My Book of #GHCoats and the Evolution of a Project _____________________________ 83 Categorizations ____________________________________________________________ 87 Fictional Quotes Misattributed to Famous People _________________________________ 87 Real/Modified Quotes Misattributed to a Well-Known Person _______________________ 88 Proverbs Misattributed to a Famous Person ______________________________________ 88 Common Ghanaian Parlance Misattributed to Famous Names _______________________ 89 Modified Quotes from Actual Authors _________________________________________ 89 Analyzing My Book of #GHCoats _____________________________________________ 90 Socio-Political Satire and #GHCoats ___________________________________________ 95 vi Relationship with Traditional and Modern Poetry ________________________________ 103 Conclusion: The Political, the Contextual, Place, and Ownership ___________________ 106 Epilogue ________________________________________________________________ 108 Chapter 5 – Lost/Gained in Translation: Oware 3D and Ananse: the Origin _____ 109 Introduction: The Ghanaian Video Game Space _________________________________ 109 New Global South Frontiers in Video Gaming __________________________________ 110 Oware 3D and Ananse: The Origin ___________________________________________ 113 The Heresy of Paraphrasing and Translating Video Games ________________________ 115 The paraphrase of Oware 3D ________________________________________________ 116 The Translation of Ananse: The Origin ________________________________________ 120 Conclusion: The Implications of “Translation” __________________________________ 124 Appendix _______________________________________________________________ 126 Chapter 6 – Conclusions and Further Directions ___________________________ 127 Why, What, and How: A Summation _________________________________________ 127 Moving Forward and Outward: Further Research ________________________________ 131 Connections with Digital Humanities _________________________________________ 134 Works Cited __________________________________________________________ 141 1 Chapter 1 – Definitions Introduction: The “Africa” Narrative and Digital Advancement The March 12, 2005, edition of The Economist ran a front cover under the title “The Real Digital Divide” with an accompanying image of a young Black African boy in worn- out clothes and ashy skin holding a clay-like object to his ear. This object was molded into the shape of a mobile phone, and with a smile on his face, the boy appeared to be engaging in play-conversation. The conversation in the article itself concerned factors that could help bridge the so-called “digital divide,” with the author touting the mobile phone as having the most potent impact on digital development, especially in the “developing world.” Even though the article admitted that “the world's poorest people are already rushing to embrace mobile phones,” the irony of having an African child hold an imitation of a mobile phone was visual rhetoric that reinforced stereotypes of Africans lagging behind standards related to “development,” which, like “developing world” or even “third world” is itself a contested term.1 The conflation of negative stereotypes including poverty, happiness, and faux-technology has signified Africa for centuries.2 Unfortunately, the images borne out of this conflation (The Economist example is just one of many) are still commonplace even in the twenty-first century, a time when digital technology is not only familiar but also widespread across the continent. The opportunities afforded