[Nick McRae]

A few weeks ago I stumbled on a book titled Oral Literature in Africa by Ruth Finnegan, which was originally published in 1970, and later revised. It's considered a classic in the field, and has since been made available as a free e-book here. I've been able to commit some time to it, and can vouch for the chapter on poetry (as well as the rest) being well worth checking out.

I thought I'd share as I figured there'd be at least a few people interested in taking a look. And if you're aware of any other titles on the subject (ideally pre-modern), I'd be interested in hearing about them. I'm mainly wanting to get at the literature itself.

[Nick McRae]

Finnegan's book has got me on the hunt for anthologies of African poetry. It looks like what's available is scarce but a few I've found so far:

Literature (not poetry)

Timbuktu & the Songhay Empire - John Hunwick
The Epic of Mwindo
The Kebra Nagast
Epic of Sundiata
West African Folk-Tales - William Barker
South African Folk-Tales - James Honey
Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa - Elphinstone Dayrell
Zanzibar Tales - Natives of the East Coast - Bateman and Bobbett

More along the lines of poetry

Anthologie De La Litterature Orale de Cote d'Ivoire
A Book of African Verse - John Reed (early 20th century poets)

In Progress
Early African Literature Anthology

This one looks like one to buy, but it's not been published yet.

[Julie Steiner]

Thanks for this, Nick. I am profoundly ignorant in this area. I enjoyed this snipped from the in-progress Early African Literature Anthology you cited above:

Various archival projects in West and East Africa are bringing to light even more African manuscripts dating from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Unfortunately, a tendency to see Arabic as a language foreign to the African continent, despite being in use there for over a thousand years, leads to dismissing Arabic African literature as not indigenous. This would be tantamount to dismissing British literature as Italian because of the Roman invasion 2000 years ago. Misconceptions of Africa as a savage, untouched paradise do not square with the reality of Africa’s millennia of trading relationships with non-Africans and its long traditions of Islam and Christianity.

[Nick McRae]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

Thanks for this, Nick. I am profoundly ignorant in this area.

It's a subject that doesn't fall on too many people's radar. I've been reading about the continent for some time, but this is my first search for it's literature.

It turns out that academia didn't really take Africa seriously until the 60s or so, which is likely why I'm hitting a brick wall. There's plenty of anthropology out there, compilations of literature.. not as much.