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Masthead Logo The Iowa Review Volume 7 Issue 2 Spring-Summer: Special Double Issue: Article 101 International Writing Program Anthology

1976 The oS cial Responsibility of the East African Writer Peter Nazareth

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Recommended Citation Nazareth, Peter. "The ocS ial Responsibility of the East African Writer." The Iowa Review 7.2 (1976): 249-263. Web. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0021-065X.2090

This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in The oI wa Review by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PETER NAZARETH / UGANDA

The Social Responsibility of the East African Writer

on Speaking the development of writing in East Africa at the University of en He, Nigeria, in 1968, David Rubadiri said that the colonial experience at veloped everything and almost stifled any indigenous attempt expression one a through the newly acquired language. If passed through secondary in one came was an to school East Africa, he said, the best out with ability write a or a in composition letter the best basic English and the best gram mar. Rubadiri noted that when the East African writer started to write

poems, his whole literary tradition had molded him to try to emulate the come only literature he had into contact with. "So people wrote like Keats and Wordsworth?on roses and sunsets and moonshine, and this sort of sub all on a sort ject, very personal and individual of basis," he said, adding, even non-ex "They received encouragement from expatriate teachers, and was patriate teachers, because this the only kind of literary tradition with which all the people had been brought up." However, there was a tradition which contradicted this colonial cultural wa oppression. Ngugi Thiongo (James Ngugi) says that in African society,

was was as art functional; it not, it is in modern Europe, severed from the physical, social and religious needs of the community. Song, dance were an a en and music integral part of community's wrestling with its vironment, part and parcel of the needs and aspirations of the ordinary man. There was never, in any African society, the cult of the artist with or its bohemian priests along the banks of Seine Thames. Today the sees as an in a artist in Europe himself outsider, living kind of individ . . . ual culture, and obeying only the laws of his imagination African we can Art, generally say, used to be oriented to the community. And as as nar because of its public nature, culture, in its broad well in the row sense, helped to weld society together.

two Rubadiri and Ngugi have pinned down elements that help explain the form and nature of modern East African literature. Ngugi himself was one to of the earliest East African writers struggle against the cultural-mental was colonialism identified by Rubadiri. His first major work The Black & an cast for in Hermit, play produced with international student Uganda's in is an dependence celebrations 1962. Remi, the protagonist, educated Afri can a to return to from small tribe who refuses the village from the city. 249

University of Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Iowa Review ® www.jstor.org of the to The people village need him back fight their battles, especially to against domination from the bigger tribes. The village elders go the city to a fetch him back, after saying prayer to the gods. The pastor is also per to suaded fetch Remi back by his mother. Remi does not agree at first to be persuaded by either kind of tradition, religion and value system. Besides, he has an lover in He English the city. suddenly tells her that he is married; he has been married by tribal law to Thoni, his brother's widow. He used to love to so was Thoni but she seemed love his brother; his marriage not to his a liking. Eventually, he does return, with friend from another tribe, to bring the message of cooperative, non-tribalist living. In the process of mak runs ing his public speech, he insults Thoni, who away and commits sui Too cide. late, Remi realizes that Thoni had always loved him. It is easy to fault The Black Hermit. There is a touch of melodrama in the a ending: love affair that goes wrong because the lovers do not talk to each a too other, suicide, letter which explains everything late. Ngugi himself has said that he at the time of thought the first performance that the biggest new problem besetting the East African countries was tribalism, but now he realizes that is the problem really monopoly capitalism, which took the form of first now imperialism and neocolonialism. Ngugi attempts to inject his later into the version understanding published of the play by getting one of the to talk unions characters about the muzzling of trade by the new to African government and question whether the land, the banks and the oil will be nationalized. are not companies These ideas fully developed in the has merits. play. Still, the play considerable Through it, Ngugi has the onto the on which brought village stage previously only European plays to to used be performed, giving validity precisely that portion of the East African writers experience that the had been almost forced to forget. The a play presents "total" picture of modern East Africa at the point of de colonization. to in Ngugi gives validity life the city and the village by using with verse scenes. prose jazzy rhythms for the city, and for the village The verse a sense of the "rooted" in gives ritualistic, quality of life the village, contrasted with the rootlessness of the The use city. villagers earthy imag ery, such as,

Remi left a young wife. a in a And she, like sapling drought-stricken land, in Will also dry up the heat of desolation.

In The Black we see sense of social Hermit, Ngugi's deep responsibility as a to East Africa and Africa whole. The play asks fundamental questions: our we our What do we expect of leaders? Can ignore past and cut our when come out selves off from it? What happens leaders with large solu their own individual What when tions but forget failings? happens they ig 250 nore is to so human relationships? What the relationship of the individual ciety in modern Africa? was to in more in his Ngugi deal with these questions depth novels. The was was first of these originally entitled The Black Messiah and subsequent in as River Between. In ly published 1965 The this novel, Ngugi deals with critic what the Nigerian Omalara Leslie calls the soft paw of colonialism: the division brought about by Christianity acting sometimes unconsciously in with but usually consciously tandem colonialism. European Christianity so softened the people that the imperial powers could rule with minimal resistance. so colonized were It did by persuading the people that they cul tural and religious savages before the coming of the white colonizer and by to status as making the people feel that they had accept the quo God's will man. was for Christianity also linked up with education, for which there de a in an veloped hunger Africa. Waiyaki tries to acquire education which he can use to his help people, but the division brought by colonialism proves too him to The novel has a In great for bridge. the quality of moral fable. Not which was in ex Weep Child, published earlier, Ngugi goes further move ploring the colonial history of Kenya by dealing with the Mau Mau a movement that not a in or ment, guerrilla did have parallel Uganda Tan ganyika. Robert Ruark had characterized the Mau Mau movement in his as reverses novel Something of Value savage and atavistic. Ngugi this char acterization us and shows the historical rationality behind the movement. us man He shows that the white stole the land from the Gikuyu, who had not an a only economic but also spiritual attachment to the land going back to of time. see the beginning We all the peaceful attempts to get back the and then no land, failure, alternative but guerrilla fighting. Although us a Ngugi makes sympathetic to the Mau Mau movement, he also presents fair of the white settlers were ex picture whose interests threatened. For us an even ample, he gives insight into Mr. Howlands, when the settler tor tures owner Ngotho, the real of the land. Ngugi writes essentially from the of a The suits a viewpoint Njoroge, young boy. style the subject, having for Biblical simplicity which Ngugi has been noted. This style has the limi tation it us that cannot show the ideology of the Mau Mau movement or the ahead for but it has point way Kenya, the advantage of illustrating that one to to or to has be taught exploit accept exploitation. A as Ngugi's third novel, Grain of Wheat, has received recognition one of the best novels to from Africa. wrote it was emerge Ngugi while he in Eng he see land, while could the mother country from close quarters and acquire the to perspective crystallize his understanding of colonialism. This novel on eve moves begins the of independence and backwards and forwards in time because is with Ngugi dealing very complex questions. Not only does he want to show how Kenya gained its independence; also he wants to find out to what happened the souls of the people and to suggest that real inde 251 pendence will be attained through another process in which the scarred souls their wholeness. Thus has not a set regain the novel only historical but also a sub-text. has a ting psychological Ngugi been noted for being messianic and all in writer, nearly the characters this novel, including the are colonial officer, motivated by idealism of some kind or other. This idealism to of men leads betrayal. One the betrayed is the executed leader Kihika Kihika. explains the ideology of Mau Mau to Mugo: "We do not kill . . We. are not are not just anybody murderers. We hangmen?like Robson men and women cause or . . . ?killing without purpose We only hit back. are on You struck the left cheek. You turn the right cheek. One, two, three Then it is I am not ?sixty years. suddenly, always sudden, you say: turning ... a the other cheek any more few shall die that the many may live." are new But the people betrayed by what Frantz Fanon calls the under middle to serve the outside masters as as developed class, willing long they as get dividends. A Grain of Wheat, the title suggests, implies that the way a a out is peasant revolution, continuation of the aborted Mau Mau move no ment. Thus character in the novel is more important than the others and is no no or is masses are there hero, hermit messiah. It the who important, a and in his radio play This Time Tomorrow, Ngugi gives picture of the victims of neocolonialism. The play is about slum clearance in Nairobi. The as people, including those who had fought for independence Mau Mau, are out are kicked of their homes, which then destroyed. As the neocolonial re has time seems to ality deepened and itself stand still, Ngugi's style has evolved away from Biblical simplicity. A recent story, A Mercedes Funeral, in resembles the fiction of Gabriel Garcia Marquez its "marvellous" reality, its gigantic exaggeration, and its black humor. to a was At independence, there appeared be convergence between what said by the political leaders, the people and the writers. The writers have ideals to on behalf the a used these early express, of people, feeling of be over have In trayal what should happened. doing this, all East African some concerns writers face problems. The first language. There are several in East but most of are languages Africa, these languages spoken and under a within the nation?a in stood by only small group least, Kenya and Uganda ?and not the nation as a whole. So the writer may discover that he has no to use choice but the language imposed by the colonizer, English. His next is how he is to transmute his in to it problem experience order make rele vant to nation as a whole. The the imperial powers had arbitrarily drawn on and thus borders the map lumped diverse groups of people together; or race how is the writer to deal with the ethnic group of his origin and yet to nation as a And in a be relevant the whole? foreign language which seems to be restrictive? Okot p'Bitek took the form of the Acholi song and developed it into a to to a tool he used simultaneously describe Acholi life and provide per 252 for the In spective criticizing post-independence period. Song of Lawino, which wrote in Lwo and in uses a he first then English, he the device of woman her "simple" village railing against politician husband for blindly western embracing the artifacts of modern life while denying his spiritual and cultural roots:

If you stay In my husband's house long, men The ghosts of the dead That people this dark forest, men The ghosts of the many white And white women That scream whenever you touch any book, The deadly vengeance ghosts Of the writers Will capture your head, And like my husband You will become A ... walking corpse For all our young men Were finished in the forest, Their manhood was finished In the classrooms, Their testicles Were smashed With large books!

is not a Lawino calling here for physical return to the past. Neither is Lawino's voice identical with Okot's, though much of what she says has the endorsement of the author. Lawino recognizes the validity of cultural rela but her husband has a tivism, self-hatred induced by colonialism. She knows that if a does not have he cannot person roots, have anything else of value. Her criticism of her husband is that of the betrayed African peasantry:

Someone said Independence falls like a buffalo And the hunters Rush to it with drawn knives, Sharp, shining knives, For carving the carcass. And if your chest Is small, bony and weak They push you off 253 And if your knife is blunt on You get the dung your elbow come But home empty-handed And the dogs bark at you.

more ex But Okot is doing than just dealing with colonial/neocolonial on ploitation the level of ideas. He also tackles the chains of language, Lawino Christianity and time imposed by the colonizers. says,

Ocol tells me

Things I cannot understand, He talks About a certain man, Jesus. He says The man was born Long ago In the country of white men. He says was When Jesus born men White began To count years: From one, then it became ten, Then one hundred Then one thousand And now it is One thousand Nine hundred And sixty-six.

My husband says Before this man was born White men counted years backwards Then it became One thousand Then one hundred Then ten, And when it became one Then Jesus was born.

I cannot understand all this I do not understand it at all! 254 a woman By using the form of the Acholi song and the device of "simple" a of using "village" imagery, Okot makes complete mockery the colonizer's a concepts of time and religion. He has created non-English way of using is not English to break the cultural chains of colonialism. It surprising that a in Song of Lawino struck chord the hearts of many East Africans, and peo even in ple could be heard discussing Lawino bars. Okello Oculi said that was he inspired by Okot to write his Orphan and Prostitute, both of which own draw from his Langi traditions. Oculi often invents English phrases own more and word-clusters by translating from his language, while being is a political than Okot: it is clear that Oculi calling through his works for is complete peasant revolution. This the challenge that faces his orphan and are at the prostitute, both of whom the crossroads. we are still haunted Much of new Despite Okot, by ghosts. the writing is still written under invis emerging from East Africa the influence of the cannot ible colonial teachers. When the writers forget these teachers, their as For in prose emerges explanatory, non-dramatic, static, dead. example, man is Mike Mwaura's novel, The Renegade, when the old Ruhara explain case his son to the he ing his against village court, says,

not be is Family problems should exposed; exposing them like exposing a man a one nakedness. But when finds himself neglected by son, and he has toiled to raise at that, you can take it from me that there seems no But if there are other souls to care refuge other than death. then, for, so one on one cannot resort to the rope readily. Instead lies prostrate the a as it more horns of dilemma and, were, the impaling points prick him turn. in if he tries to The prevalent question his mind becomes: should on I remain passive and leave everything the unpredictable hands of destiny?

sentiments One cannot take issue here with the expressed by the old man, but one can say that the speech is long-winded and full of "correct" "at "You can take it from English expressions like that," me," "the horns of a it and is dilemma," "as were," "the prevalent question." Mwaura writing almost perfect English for that invisible English teacher and the effect is to slow the action to look at decorative images. But Mwaura's strong social concern this barrier. The novel deals a breaks through with the hopes of sacrifices to send his son to school in peasant who makes the hope that the son will then help uplift himself and the whole family. After all, the colonial out as bait. un authorities always held education Unfortunately, Kunjuga is in able to make headway because the reality Africa today is that school cannot leavers have great expectations but usually find employment. When a low in the he falls into he eventually gets very job city, "bad company" 255 is because it inevitable that somebody with high expectations should try to live the life. is is good Kunjuga betrayed by almost everybody and unable to help his family, all of whom end up in trouble. His father decides to a case bring against him, which ends in humiliation for all concerned. The a use ending of the novel reflects powerful of language in contrast with the earlier example:

as Now, Ruhara continued massaging his swollen leg, tingles of pain creeping up his body every time he pressed it, he wondered why life so had cheated him so, why he had tendered much and reaped noth not never ing, why life had rewarded him for shirking any of the many challenges that had confronted him, why ...? answer a came As if to him, wind sweeping downhill, dust and withered leaves rising in its wake, its mad rush spelling nothing but famine. And up above, the sun continued its relentless march across the on sky, its red-hot lips emitting nothing but fire the panting earth.

nature emo In this passage, the description of reflects the physical and a tional state of Ruhara, peasant; the wind, withered leaves and scorching sun us a a for of a give picture of wasteland waiting rain, people waiting not reason for nourishment. Mike Mwaura may clearly understand the why but he the role of the African novelist things have gone wrong performs "Now if the writer were ac described by Cyprian Ekwensi. Ekwensi says, cepted in African society he would be rather like the bird in the folk-tale on and a tune. When hear that always appears the wall pipes particular you someone or that tune you know that there is tragedy somewhere; has died serious is within a mo something quite happening. The bird disappears and is ment you get the illumination of the bird's visit." Mike Mwaura this kind of bird. So is Meja Mwangi, who, like Mwaura, deals with the dispossessed in a modern African city in his novel Kill Me Quick. falls victim to the invisible in some of his John Ruganda also teachers but in Burdens he overcomes the burden of colonial plays, The linguistic is it has four characters and is in a ism. The play tightly constructed: only very spare and taut language. In this play, post-independence society has which at the has now infected begun to disintegrate; corruption, began top, the whole society:

at bus Tinka: The other day the park. Kaija: Yes? a a Tinka: Two of them snatched suitcase from girl in high heels and Do what found in it? sunglasses. you know they Kaija: Her shopping? Tinka: The cold corpse of an infant. 256 a Katja: In suitcase? to A salesman in some oil com Tinka: She was taking it the father. on pany, she said. The crowd killed the two kondos the spot. Kaija: Served them right.

see Here we can see a microcosm of the whole society. We that the peo no that will receive from the of ple longer believe they justice machinery into their own hands to mete out as the law, and they take the law justice see see of new the detail of they fit. We the "embourgeoisement" the elite; is for this class is a middleman be the oil company significant, middle only tween the and the The of an infant in people external corporations. corpse a an a a suitcase suggests image of stillborn nation?or, rather, nation that at has such a that has been strangled birth?in which cynicism reached point one can is greet murder with "Served them right." Ruganda using language to us we are not to draw attention to the language but give the illusion that at looking directly the grim reality. are to in East Africans best able write short plays which the language must One most is of necessity have punch. of the prolific of these Kuldip an is a Mau Mau Sondhi, engineer by training. Encounter play about the a case movement which presents for the guerrillas by showing the necessity a movement In for such in the freedom fight. With Strings, Sondhi explores in the implications of the Asian, i.e., Indian, presence East Africa. The play an to an deals with the problems raised when Indian decides marry African. are are Both parties upset. Mohan's father says, "With this kind of union you never are an breaking the laws of society. You will be happy. You Indian and an . . . you must marry Indian The multi-racialism you talk of exists only in are clubs. In real life the Indians, the Africans and Europeans three differ . . . at ent races Inter-racial marriages may be things of the future, but the in moment people have hardly succeeded breaking the simplest communal on and religious barriers." The play ends with Mohan and Cynthia all alone the stage, with the suggestion that they will get married and be all alone for some a reverses re time. In radio play, Sunil's Dilemma, Sondhi the sexual a an lationship: he attacks the sexual taboo by suggesting liaison between man a a African and an Indian woman. Sunil, mechanic, is Kenyan citizen who loves the country and does not want to leave, while his wife, Devi, one wants to leave because it is not safe for Asians in Kenya. Into their lives come two and claim to night Africans, Kamau Rashid, who be policemen their car has chasing thieves; they say that broken down and they need Sunil's help. While Sunil is repairing the car, Rashid plants doubts in his as a is mind to whether Kamau, womanizer, having sexual intercourse with his wife back in the house. On Sunil's return to the house, he feels that his no to The is wife is longer anxious leave the country. play ambiguous right is to sexual to the very end. Sondhi's purpose attack the taboo imposed by 257 sexual relations between men of colonialism prohibiting the the "lower" (i.e.. race women of race. Since this taboo was im conquered) and the "higher" attacks a whole series of colonial rela posed by colonialism, the play really tionships. Asian in East Two other radio plays also deal with the presence Africa. Line. a min The first is Laban Erapu's Beyond the Will Dr. Baasa, cabinet a ister, be willing to let his daughter Jenny marry Silva, Goan? No, he is not, to not. but, he says, is Suva's sister Brenda willing marry his son? She is Within this framework, Erapu discusses other "Asian" problems. Dr. Baasa says that Brenda's father remained a British citizen until a year earlier; Brenda says that this was because he refused to bribe the officials. She also as criticizes the government authorities for classing her "Asian by race" in her answer is cause citizenship papers. Dr. Baasa's that there will always be for is Dr. Baasa is discrimination. Although he well-meaning, clearly bankrupt or even as of any ideals ideas to how the system inherited from the colonial can rulers be changed. Sweet Scum a comes In Jagjit Singh's of Freedom, Keval, young Indian, a is to see Anna, prostitute, for the last time, because he leaving for Eng Anna after Keval's is a citizen. land for higher studies. Why, asks; all, father his father is a citizen. Keval laughs bitterly. Yes, he says, third-class Keval for three times but his have not himself has applied citizenship applications while the minister been approved, keeps making public pronouncements that Asians must become citizens. Furthermore, first preference for admis sion into the medical school at the university is given to Africans. So he is to to because his father wants him to going England study medicine, study But he to a something that will help the family. would like be writer. When he will write in his asked by Anna what stories, he says,

. .. an About you and about the wretchedness of being Indian in Africa man today. Always being the brown out, the odd man, the foreigner, the . . . Wahindi Little frightened fishes, swimming frantically in water our commerce and made dirty by trade; always afraid the big black us out us minister will pull of the fishing pond and throw away, far, far commerce away to die without our dear and trade. Yes, I'll write about we are . . . us how wretched and frightened today The British brought here to trade and build railways because Africans couldn't do it. Dirt carriers we were of the British.

it is the same for In reply, Anna says that people like herself. Jagjit Singh a are is drawing link between the prostitute and the Asian. Both regarded as are the for the real exploiters, but actually they scapegoats exploiters an excuse who want to find for the lack of egalitarian development in the country. 258 David Rubadiri has dealt with these ideas in his novel No Bride Price. Rubadiri's novel deals with the inevitable consequences of phony decoloni zation. new a The corruption of the greedy bourgeoisie leads to coup, sig nalled by European martial music. Like Singh, Rubadiri writes about pros to to titutes draw attention the real exploiters. Rubadiri is an internation most ally renowned poet, famous for his much anthologized poem about the of colonialism to Meets coming Uganda, "Stanley Mutesa." Although his novel has a surface it is a realism, actually poetic puzzle full of symbols, and that the reader must work out. is metaphors questions What the image of twins the novel? What is the running through phoenix everyone keeps to? is of scene referring What the significance the early in which Miria tears off the new clothes Lombe has been so wearing proudly? One of the the novel is that Africans and Indians can things suggests pool together their similar communal and experience history of colonial exploitation to build for the future. I have taken up this theme in my novel, In a Brown which deals Asian Mantle, with the and, specifically, the Goan presence in East Africa and asks how the history of exploitation is to be ended. Like Rubadiri's In a Brown Mantle has a surface realism novel, but actually presents the reader with a series of riddles to be solved. As the neocolonial has become reality grimmer under military dictator ship, so has Rubadiri's writing:

Tear it down said the Messiah Tear it down it is an eye sore tear it down And plan it properly.

The reference here is to the decision to tear up the main street and broaden it for tanks to the celebrate anniversary of the coup. The poet goes on to make a bitter comment on the general significance of sxkch military leaders:

It stood disgustingly ugly this unsightly mound of earth called AFRICA. Like a sore thumb they said for everyone to see as they circled around moon rocks. 259 The demolition squad arrived, lifted the old smelly hut, and neatly dumped it again into the Atlantic sure now making it was not across dumped it, it might rise again a cancerous like growth.

his from a Rubadiri took the title of novel poem by Henry Barlow, "My as Newest Bride," which talks about the fight for independence like that a a must ro for bride for whom great bride price be paid. Barlow does not he was a in manticize independence. While high official the government a was an and the slogan "building nation" being used, he wrote ironic poem a In a called "Building Nation." this poem, permanent secretary and his as a chauffeur feel stomach pains, the former result of eating too much and as a the latter result of eating too little:

So two nation builders Arrived home this evening With terrible stomach pains The result of building the nation Different ways.

is same in a There the wry irony poem, "The Pauper," by another Ugan dan poet, Richard Ntiru:

in Pauper, pauper, crouching beautiful verandas Of beautiful cities and beautiful people, Tourists and I will take your snapshots a And your M.P. with shining bald and triple chin mourn a Will your fate in supplementary question at Question Time.

has become a no censor Because the social reality nightmare but literary Ntiru does not have inclination to ship has been imposed, the write poems with echoes of Blake. Instead, we read,

are a Identification parades tricky affair where all the upturned faces smell of guilt. a Built around each profile is halo of anonymous innocence intense but slowly dissolving into the smell of violent death.

Death: our last ritual blanket that some offer as casual presents 260 resents abuse and denial by her agents. Silent rage, on Rwenzori age and wisdom convulse this face like ridges the Range a ?Sage, what violence in withered arm? Why the hell on smell of death your cotton head then? Or maybe Father fathered the Giant that ordered the blood flood?

Blood is cheaper than water. The Nile smells of guilt source to ?guilt of knowledge of this proverb from mouth.

The Nile has been revered as the source of life but here it is seen as the

accomplice of death. is not to in One way of escaping the stranglehold of English write English at is to one can in all. This option only open Tanzania, where write Swahili at and still speak to the nation large. Ebrahim Hussein has chosen the path a of Swahili dramatist, probably following the example of President Nyer ere, who has translated Shakespeare's Julius Caesar into Swahili. Hussein has published two Swahili plays, both of which are political, Kinjeketile and Mashetani. Kinjeketile deals with the famous Maji Maji uprising at against the German colonialists the beginning of the century. Kinjeketile is a seer who told the people that they would be protected by the water he was going to "baptize" them with. He really knows that the water does not are once have protective powers but believes that the people all-powerful are out come to they united. However, things get of hand. People believe water that the will really protect them from German bullets. Kinjeketile wants to wait until are them they ready, but he fails. The uprising takes A to seer to place and the Africans lose. German officer tries persuade the "recant," but he refuses; he becomes a true seer and says that a word has on been born which will be passed for generations until the word will be a made reality. Mashetani is set between the Zanzibar revolution of 1964 and the socialist Arusha Declaration on the mainland of 1967. Juma and Kitaru are friends. now One comes from the overthrown and impoverished elite of Zanzibar nouveaux and the other from the up-and-coming riche of the mainland. cannot Their friendship be maintained because of political tension, which works its way through the medium of traditional Swahili beliefs in witch so craft and evil eye blended with modern psychology and the theories of versus is a cialism capitalism. While there tradition of political and patriotic is a in is Swahili epic verse, this play breakthrough that it examines large sues in the personal lives and feelings of real individuals. Tanzania a on a The socialist aspirations of have had literary influence for well-known Ghanian novelist who has lived there several years, Ayi Two Kwei Armah. He has published his fourth novel, Thousand Seasons, in a East Africa. It is story told in the collective voice, not "I" but "We": 261 are not a sea We people of yesterday. Do they ask how many single sons we our have flowed from beginnings till now? We shall point them a to the proper beginning of their counting. On clear night when the moon woman seven light of the has blighted the ancient and her chil on a to dren, such night tell them go alone into the world. There, have them count first the one, then the seven, and after the seven all the other stars visible to their eyes alone.

an This is the story of the whole black race, told with African concept of time and communalism and bearing out the research of Chancellor Williams are sur in The Destruction of Black Civilization. The people determined to as a vive their betrayal by their leaders and the various imperialisms people.

not want I do to suggest that the social responsibility felt by nearly all to or East African writers leads uniformity of style grimness. Here is Maria Ssentamu of the village of Kalasanda, written about by Barbara Kimenye in two interlinked volumes of short stories:

is [The Happy Bar] the tin-roofed dwelling where Maria Ssentamu's curves as serves warm in sumptuous shake she beer thick, greasy glasses to over the thirsty locals. Maria must surely weigh fourteen stone. Nev woman ertheless, she is by far the most seductive in the village, and she has a number of children to prove it.

Then there is Charles Mangua, whose rebellion took the following form:

me. am a a am Son of woman, that's I louse, blinking louse and I the toe. am a jigger in your I hungry jigger and I like to bite. I like to bite women?beautiful women. Women with tits that bounce. If you do not are am like the idea you the type I least interested in.

in This is Dodge Kiunyu telling his erotic story Son of Woman in the a kind of "American slang" that would give those English teachers fit! No was one wonder this work of fiction of the best-selling East African books. to no sense Although it appears have of social responsibility, in fact Son of is a man not Woman the story of who will play by the rules of "respect able," i.e., bourgeois society because it is selfish and inhuman. we cannot out one And, of course, leave Taban lo Liyong, of the most East writers. Taban East African prolific of African entered the literary scene a from the U.S. decade ago, just before coming to The University of to an wrote a Iowa do M.F.A. He humorous, playful but serious lament of East Africa's literary barrenness: 262 Ezekiel, Ezekiel, you saw the wheel: in the middle of the air. Will to resurrect our to see you help, Ezekiel, manly spirits the wheel of thought and imagination? Ezekiel Mphahlele (it sounds poetic: Mpha us our we hlele Ezekiel) teach to write. Open mouths. Else choke with we in to lumps of thought. Else go migrating search of inspiration Mbari. we Else cut Ulli Beier into two and leave Nigeria with the legs. even We want more. But we do not have any yet. Could we find an to a alchemist? An alchemist change Moore, Gerald Moore, into tribes man us us com to give another Mbari? Moore, will you teach only to ment?

can or East Africa in No longer Taban anyone else call barren literature. The driving force behind the birth of its literature has been identified by are two Ngugi. He says, "Now there only tribes left in Africa: the 'haves' in is a and the 'have-nots.' What goes for tribalism Africa really form of civil war among the Tiaves,' struggling for crumbs from the masters' tables. The masters in sit New York, London, Brussels, Paris, Bonn and Copenhagen; are owners they the of the oil companies, the mines, the banks, the brewer ies, the insurance institutions?all the moving levers of the economy. It is us this situation that has given A Man of the People, Song of Lawino, in Dark. It is this that is Voices the behind the critical self-appraisal and in current con the despair much of the African literature." The struggle tinues in life as in East African literature.

JOUNG HYUN-JONG / KOREA

Poetry as a Possibility of Life

Contemporary poetry has introduced freedom in the very body of the a as a language. As result, poetry appears phenomenon of freedom. ?Gaston Bachelard

Many Korean poets and critics agree that the traditional and remarkable is we in quality of Korean poetry what call Korean han. The meaning of is so can one the word han complex that it hardly be translated into 263