In recent times, the phrase "African Literature" has come to be synonymous with significant issues, especially those pertaining to deep-seated societal prejudices.
Women affairs, in general have dominated most of the headlines, with several works by contemporary authors driving home the need to take a stand in the fight against various forms of patriarchal oppression.
The popularity of such similarly-themed books in the market is primarily due to their authentic and serious subject matter, as well as consumer demand. However, this leaves gaps elsewhere, with vast swathes of the African storytelling niche in danger of being under-told.
What other stories are unique to the African continent? And, what are these underpromoted narratives, themes that need to be written as vigorously as the one currently dominating the reading scene?
African Literature deals with real-world issues experienced by members of the black race, within and outside of the continent.
The above description doesn't quite do justice to the definition of African Literature, don't you think? That's because it's a pretty big umbrella into which to lump what's supposed to be an entire genre.
From Achebe's soon-to-be adapted evergreen Things Fall Apart to the deep societal questions posed by contemporary Nigerian authors like Chimamanda, Ayobami and Aiwanosen and works by authors of African/black descent across the diaspora, there's quite a lot that makes up African Literature.
Modern issues of social prejudice, especially in families, are some of the most important narratives. But they're far from being the only crucial ones that need talking about.
Everywhere you look within the black continent, there are stories waiting to be told. They lie in histories, heritage, traditions, and even the gradations of skin pigment.
By examining these sources, we can better understand the full scope of the holistic approach needed to author, as well as enjoy compelling African stories.
African Literature is, by default, diverse. Its array of experiences, cultures, realities, inspiration and several distinct attributes are the web that interconnect to constitute the genre of African Literature.
African Literature includes works ranging from mytho-fantasy, like Deborah Falaye's Blood Scion, memoirs like Second Class Citizen, classics like So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ to contemporary stories like A Spell of Good Things or Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson.
Then, there are several non-fiction subgenres sourced from personal essays, journals, war accounts and religious texts.
In all, African Literature should not be narrowed down to a handful of themes but rather a celebration of all the unique and conflicting realities of the black race and the black continent.
It's no fault of the world's most populous black nation that its local bestsellers are often globally seen as the whole rather than a fraction of what African Literature comprises.
This assumption is mostly a myth.
While books like Chimamanda's Americanah, Purple Hibiscus, and Ayobami's Stay With Me are undisputed international market successes, Ya'a Gyasi's Homegoing, For You, I'd Steal a Goat by Niq Mhlongo and Trevor Noah's Born A Crime show that writers in Ghana, South Africa, Kenya among others are well in the running.
African Literature isn't limited to books by Nigerian writers. Thus, African stories are tales from the horn, the cape, the slave and the Mediterranean coasts. They're stories from the deep rainforests and the dunes.
They're also the stories of descendants and immigrants of these peoples now in various regions around the world.
The African narrative is also about rapid social changes in African communities in the diaspora and how their experiences differ from those of mainland Africans.
A quick observation of the African Literature scene reveals the dominance of female authors. With their male counterparts focused on slightly differing themes, women-authored Literature has gained prominence.
Here, once again, one sees that African Literature is a tool to create awareness and educate all age groups within the society on why we should all be feminists. As such, from the male-authored perspective, it's easy to identify the diversity and differences compared to books written by women.
Suyi Davies' upcoming The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda stands in thematic contrast to Aiwanose Odafen's Tomorrow I Become a Woman. Another one of the author's fantasy worlds, The Nameless Republic, is obviously a different subgenre from Ayesha Harruna Attah's Harmattan Rain or even Akwaeke's Freshwater.
Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen's darker, horror feel is the black to the white of the lighthearted Nearly All the Men In Lagos Are Mad.
Ultimately, the subgenres and diversity in African Literature can be determined by the evolution of the dominance of female narratives over their male counterparts over time or vice versa.
Language, any language, has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture… To starve or kill a language is to starve and kill a people’s memory bank.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, one of the most vocal advocates for writing in African languages, argued that using local languages was a way to reclaim African culture and resist colonial domination.
Famously switching from writing in English to his native Gikuyu in the 1970s, Ngũgĩ's opinions echo among book readers and an often erroneous assumption to dismiss non-English-written works as alien from the African Literature discussion.
Much of the continent does not have a lengthy history of writing. This, more than anything, is why preference must be given to the culture of oral tradition, where African Literature is preserved in its most authentic voice.
Diversity in African Literature is an obligation to all authors, publishers and readers. For authors and publishers, it's the creation of more uniquely inspired genre literature that touches different aspects of the African narrative.
As for the readership. Well, the market is already there. You only need to consider the promise of rip-roaring successes of the incoming movie adaptations of stories by African authors to recognize that.
There are different sources of story inspiration for African storytellers. Our cuisine, intra-racism, oral history, sciences, philosophies, stolen artifacts, corruption, wars, contemporary politics and many languages are more than enough themes to go along with the predominant stories from exclusively feminist points of view.
Only then can the complete African stories be told, and the world sees African Literature as a mirror reflection of its many peoples and cultures.
