US President Barack Obama meets with ebola
survivor, Dr. Kent Brantly at the oval office on
September 16, 2014 (pix Pete Souza/White House)
By Emma Fox
The
African continent – which is so often unjustifiably spoken of collectively and
dismissively throughout the globe as a one entity – can truly claim a unity
through its diverse and eye-opening library of great literature and language.
Whether
it is in the dreamlike magical realism of Ben Okri, the
underlying critiques so carefully yet organically articulated by Nadine Gordimer,
or the poignant and profound work of Assia Djebar, Africa’s
many shapes and sounds have been delivered in a perpetual life poem which has
courageously addressed various social challenges and defined the continent as a
rich and creative Diaspora of contemporary literature.
While
these works detail issues and triumphs which are focused on a particular
region, they also encompass the bigger picture – just take Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,
for example – which has accumulated some truly remarkable responses to the
heavy footprint of colonialism and the rest of the world’s inability to look at
Africa and African countries separately through an unclouded lens. It is
through language and literature where reclamation, liberation and life
transform, a vital tool through which lies the potential for change, and is
especially crucial in combating the recent challenges which certain parts of
western Africa are facing.
