PAPERBACK ISBN: 0-88258-123-6   $34.95

336 pages; 5.5 x 8.5 inches

(Volume I)

by Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie, Ihechukwu Madubuike

Toward the Decolonization of African Literature by Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie, and Ihechukwu Madubuike, scrutinizes and then attacks the Eurocentric canons that have lorded over African literature for decades. The authors declare that African literature has its own traditions to build on and its own models to imitate. They confront Eurocentric critics for constraining the vitality of African literature by imposing alien standards. Those African writers who have infused their writing with Eurocentric ideas and conventions are challenged to draw on the wealth of African experience and literary tradition.  In five chapters—“The African Novel and Its Critics,” “Transition: An Asymmetry in the Criticism of African Poetry and of the African Novel,” “African Poetry and Its Critics,” “Issues and Tasks in the Decolonization of African Literature,” and the “Conclusion”—Toward the Decolonization of African Literature proclaims the historical, political and literary significance of its task.  This book is indeed a call to arms to free African literature of foreign domination.

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