Author: Msomi Bora

THE LION AND THE JEWEL By Wole Soyinka The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959. It chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The transcript of the play was first published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasises the theme of the corrupted African culture through the play, as well…

THE BLACK HERMIT By Ngugi wa Thiong’o About the Author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, originally James Thiong’o Ngugi born 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 90 languages from around the world. Ngugi wa Thiong’o The Black Hermit was the first play by the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, and the first published East African play in English. The traveling…

THIS TIME TOMORROW By NGUGI WA THIONG’O About the Author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, originally James Thiong’o Ngugi born 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 90 languages from around the world. Ngugi wa Thiong’o T H I S T I M E T O M O R R O W SETTING: KENYA AFTER…

THREE SUITORS ONE HUSBAND By Oyono Mbia About the Author Guillaume Oyono-Mbia, (born 1939, Mvoutessi, Cameroon), African dramatist and short-story writer, one of bilingual Cameroon’s few writers to achieve success both in French and in English. Oyono-Mbia attended the Collège Évangélique at Limbamba and then went to England, graduating from the University of Keele in 1968. With skills often compared to those of Molière, Oyono-Mbia exercised an unusual ability to create comedies that play well both on stage and on radio. Among them are Trois prétendants . . . un mari (1962; Three Suitors . . . One Husband), Until Further…

ANALYSIS OF UNCLE TOM’S CHILDREN By Richard WrightAbout the AuthorRichard Nathaniel Wright (1908 – 1960) was an American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, who suffered discrimination and violence in the South and the North. Literary critics believe his work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century.Richard WrightBackground of the NovelUncle Tom’s Children is a novel written by African-American author Richard Wright that was first published in 1938 and republished in 1940. As the reader may recognize, Wright…

SUNDIATA: AN EPIC OF OLD MALIByDjibril Tamsir Niane About the Author Djibril Tamsir Niane (born 9 January 1932) is a historian, playwright, and short story writer, born in Conakry, Guinea. His secondary education was in Senegal and his degree from the University of Bordeaux. He is an honorary professor of Howard University and the University of Tokyo. He is noted for introducing the Epic of Sundiata, about Sundiata Keita (ca 1217-1255), founder of the Mali Empire, to the Western world in 1960 by translating the story told to him by Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate, a griot or traditional oral historian. Djibril Tamsir Niane Plot SummaryThe epic of Sundiata is…

A WALK IN THE NIGHT By Alex La Guma The story A Walk in the Night by Alex La Guma is based on the happenings in and around a squalid part of Cape Town, in South Africa, called District Six. The story begins with a stressed Michael Adonis, the central character of the story, loitering about the streets of the district. He has lost his job at the metal sheet factory because of an altercation he had with his white supervisor. Alex La Guma A WALK IN THE NIGHT By Alex La Guma Setting: South Africa PLOT SUMMARY One The…

THE OLD MAN AND THE MEDAL By Ferdinand Oyono The Old Man and the Medal is a 1956 post colonial novel by Cameroonian diplomat and writer Ferdinand Oyono. The novel was translated into English and republished in 1967 in the influential Heinemann African Writers Series. When reflecting on the novel, in Oyono’s obituary, The Guardian writer Shola Adenekan described the novel as “evoking the deep sense of disillusionment felt by those Africans who were committed to the west, yet rejected by their colonial masters.” Ferdinand Oyono THE OLD MAN AND THE MEDAL By Ferdinand Oyono Setting: Cameroon PLOT SUMMARY PART…

GIRLS AT WAR By Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe’s short story “Girls at War” is a commentary on gender roles, reflecting the interpersonal struggles that arise when someone does and doesn’t meet the expectations placed on them by society. Girls at War takes place during the Nigerian War and the main character, Reginald, appears to be a kind of deliveryman, making sure supplies get to where they’re needed. Chinua Achebe GIRLS AT WAR Author: Chinua Achebe Setting: Nigeria PLOT – Straightforward narration. The story is told in a straightforward narration in which the author narrates the events occurring in the story…

THE CONCUBINE By Elechi Amadi The Concubine is the debut novel by Nigerian writer Elechi Amadi originally published in 1966 as part of the Heinemann African Writers Series. Set in a remote village in Eastern Nigeria, an area yet to be affected by European values and where society is orderly and predictable. The story concerns a woman “of great beauty and dignity” who inadvertently brings suffering and death to all her lovers. Elechi Amadi THE CONCUBINE By Elechi Amadi Setting: Nigeria THE TITLE OF THE NOVEL The Concubine by definition: is a woman who, in some societies, lives and has…