Journal article
Perspectives : new challenges for African culture : Internet : one way to a brighter future for Africa
Présence africaine, Vol.175/177, pp.616-618
01 Jan 2007
Abstract
Two reasons incited me to do this presentation. And they are both connected with writing and publishing. The first was the need for a voice to be heard, a voice that has been around for a while, but which has not been heard as it should. And that is that of my friend Olympe Bhêly-Quenum, originally from Benin, who started publishing in the forties, and whose works, I think, deserve to be known better than they are. The second is based on the writing of a Nigerian, Obinkam Echewa, who published a novel in the eighties, and it was a bestseller, at least in African circles. But when it came time for the second edition, Echewa was told by the publishers W. B. Doughton that they could not publish his work unless he guaranteed that 75,000 copies could be sold. At any level, guaranteeing 75,000 copies is a tall order. So, what I decided to look at then was: are there other ways in which African writers need their voices to be heard? Are there other ways in which we can build upon what was a strategy in 1956? Because the things that connect us with the participants of the 1956 conference are still here. But they have also been multiplied by other factors. In 1956, perhaps the assumption was that considering that burgeoning African literature from which we have icons such as Soyinka, Beti, Achebe and others, there were prospects for these writers to do something better. So some attention was being paid to what African writing was all about. But if you take a cold, hard look at what is going on now, it seems as if, whether you’re in Europe, in North America or in Africa itself, the role of the African writer has become a very precarious one…
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Details
- Title
- Perspectives : new challenges for African culture : Internet : one way to a brighter future for Africa
- Creators
- Abioseh Porter
- Publication Details
- Présence africaine, Vol.175/177, pp.616-618
- Publisher
- Présence Africaine
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- English and Philosophy; Africana Studies
- Identifiers
- 991021862775504721