Aesthetic of africanism in camara laye’s the african child and the radiance of the king

Title page i

Dedication iii

Acknowledgement iv

Abstract vi

Table of Contents vii

CHAPTER ONE

1. 
   Introduction 1
   
2. 
   Purpose of the study 6
   
3. 
   Scope and limitation of the study 7
   
4. 
   Justification of the study 7
   
5. 
   Methodology of the study 7
   
6. 
   Structure of thesis 8
   

1. 
   Literary critic’s view about the author 9
   

1. 
   Introduction 20
   
2. 
   Ritual of passage in The African Child 20
   
3. 
   Tom-Tom and Rice Harvesting in The African Child 24
   
4. 
   African Totemism in The African Child 25
   
5. 
   Traditional music and dance in The African Child 30
   
6. 
   Respect in The African Child 30
   
7. 
   Traditional Occupation in The African Child 31
   
8. 
   Religion and rituals in The African Child 32
   
9. 
   Traditional occupation in The African Child 33
   

1. 
   Cultural Rainbow in The Radiance of the King 35
   

1. 
   Introduction 45
   
2. 
   Summary 45
   
3. 
   Findings 45
   
4. 
   Conclusion 47
   

1. 
   INTRODUCTION
   

Literature, like all other art forms, draws on human experience and tries to reflect the same and communicate it to man in an order and artistic form. It can also imply an artistic use of word for the sake of art alone. Omotayo Oloruntoba Oju (1999) observes that

The term literature may be used to refer to any material in written form or any other material whose features tend themselves to literary appreciation or appraisal… The term in a specialized sense refers to work of art in any of the established literary genres, prose, poetry and drama.
Any good definition of literature therefore, cannot do without the oral composition of a community from which the written and established genres and still emanates according to society changes.

Also, Akande and Ibrahim define Literature as

Literature is a liberating force, freeing us from inherent shackles placed upon us by the society. Literary criticism is therefore born out of the struggle against a loss of culture and its feature becomes defined as a struggle against the foreseen bourgeois state and it has no predetermined future.

Africaness refers to elements in works of art that express themes, ideas or notions, aesthetic features and objects relating to Africa. Africaness is predominant in the literature of the diaspora in foreign languages. Africaness include the deliberate infusion of African linguistic and non-linguistic elements into literature to give a natural touch. At a moderate level, such Africaness is seen as representing the African aesthetic matrix. At the extreme, such Africaness may be an expression of cultural nationalism. In Literature of Africans in Diaspora, Africaness takes the form of the theme of the black beauty and of the African homeland. It is often a romanticization of the African heritage.

According to Oloruntoba-Oju (1999:213) similarities between African and Caribbean aesthetics have been demonstrated at various levels because of the numerous African elements preserved in several sectors of the diaspora. One thing stands out when one reads a novel by an African on Africa. It’s the fact that it is dominated by element that reveal not only the cultural realities of its people but also the peculiarities of the region the novelists dwells in furthermore, a particular ethnic community’s belief and practice reflects in its actions and reactions to issues and life generally.

Therefore, African Aesthetic seldom appears in literature instead such words such as ‘Negritude’. The African personality, the African outlook and more recently, the black aesthetic. The African world views are more common. A large body of literature has grown up around most of these terms, particularly ‘Negritude’

From the above definition, it is clearly seen that literature and aesthetics has a relationship, since aesthetics also has it impact on African literature, therefore, these refers to element in works of art that express theme, and ideas or notions relating to Africa. In order to examine and know what exactly African literature is, there are certain things one has to guide against and these according to Achebe are known as common fallacies which we must avoid. Achebe goes further to say: (Achebe:13)

The first is to see African literature as so different and special and so removed from the realm of other literatures that it can share no common approaches with them.
In as much as one would not see African literature as different and special, it is therefore logical to accept the fact that literature, being a product of human culture, cannot develop in a vacuum, rather it has to develop in a tradition or traditions.

So the emergence of the writing culture in Africa and the foreign traditions on the African literature, no doubt gave birth to the literature of colonial experience, which eventually turned the Africa literature to a protest against colonialism and its effects. These were literary works purely concerned with cultural rehabilitation and thus grew in response to the cultural values of Africa.

Example of such works include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), Amos Tutuola’s Palm Wine Drinkard (1952), Peter Abraham Mine boy (1946), Bayo Adebowale’s The Virgin (1986), Camara Laye’s African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954). These are the books written to show case the rich cultural traditions of the Africans. According to Dada, they were historical or ethnographical designed to explain African culture to the foreign reader.

With these, it has become very difficult to separate African literature from its root because day in day out, the tradition of the past still continues to wield much influence on African literature. No doubt then that Ngugi Wa Thiongo asserted in article on “The African Writer and his Past” that:

The African in spite of his modernity, has never been wholly severed from the cradle of a continuous culture from folklore, tales, proverbs, riddles and all oral components that made him what he is today.
Camara Laye’s The African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954) for example, can be conveniently classified into the volume of contemporary African writings of the prose traditions, which is fully loaded with the traditional value of the past.

It is clearly seen that different scholars have tried to look at what African aesthetics is and some uses fictional works to show this aesthetics value in his works. Among this numerous authors, Camara Laye uses virtually all his novels to portray this concept especially his African Child (1953) and The Radiance of the King (1954).

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