It is the purpose of this article to provide the general reader with a
comprehensive picture of world's greatest civilization originating in
Africa, a continent leading modern scholars today refer to it as the
'the cradle of civilization'. This chronology seeks to address
sophisticated and intelligent readers who had never previously read
anything serious about Africa, from the earliest times to the most
recent. Most black people have lost their confidence, their true
identity, because their history has been neglected, falsified and
sometimes concealed. Diana Crawford Carson has been instrumental in the
compilation of the chronology as she spent many hours synchronizing
facts from many sources and verifying the language usage. Note: the
century headings generally refer to the first date mentioned. Example:
an entry covering the 14th to the 18th century will be found under '14th
Century, 1300s'. The numbers in the left hand column are arbitrary, to
help those using the indexes. All information has been resourced;
resources are listed after the main text, just before the index.
The 20th century, 1900s, (1902-1950)
128 1902 Benin, on the west coast of near-equatorial Africa, and formerly known as Dahomey, was controlled at this time by the French.
129 late 19th - early 20th century Interest
in Africa and African culture was rising, and an American University,
Emory University, acquired a widely comprehensive collection, known as
the Carlos Museum's collection, of late19th century and very early 20th
century art objects, in many forms. This collection, largely from West
Africa (Benin [see 64], Nigeria, and the Grasslands of the
Cameroons) with additional artefacts from the central parts of
equatorial Africa, now mostly Zaire, offers an extraordinary opportunity
to gain valuable insights into the various cultures, and their artistic
development.
130 1913 Oral tradition
preserved much of the literature of many parts of Africa, with an
accuracy little known or appreciated in 'white' countries. The story of
Liyongo, a contender for the throne of Shagga (or Shaka Zulu) was
transcribed by Muhammad bin Abubakaro. His work is titled (in English) 'The 'Epic of Liyongo Fumo', translated from the original 'Utendi wa Liyongo Fumo'..
131 early 1900s The
prolific South African Xhosa writer, Samuel E K Mqhayi, established his
native tongue as a suitable language for literature. Xhosa (also known
as Khosa), sometimes disparagingly referred to as 'the click language',
had not previously been viewed by English speakers as fit for literary
purposes. This writer clearly proved the error of that view. Other
novelists of that time cogently portrayed black Africans as fully human,
moral people, sophisticated in their own cultures; these novelists
included Thomas Mofolo and Solomon Tshekisho Plattje. These writers, and
others, were part of the rising protest against the European racial
stereotyping of Africans. Writers of the early 1900s and long since that
period helped to lead the protest against the indignities put upon
indigenous African by the attitudes of, and oppression by, white South
Africans.
132 1903 DuBois, the prolific
black American (with more than 2000 publications to his name) was seen
as a strong support of the 'Pan-African' ideals, including the
importance of recognising common roots among the descendants of the
Diaspora, the dispersed black Africans, 'children' of those millions of
Africans sold into slavery throughout the world, over a period of many
centuries.
133 W E B DuBois' 1913 publication, and perhaps the best-known of all his works, was 'The Souls of Black Folks',
which encouraged awareness of the need for a sense of identity and
unity among black Americans. DuBois (1868-1963), whose autobiography is
also profoundly notable, and a fellow writer, Jamaican Marcus Garvey
(1896-1973) were both literary and social leaders, unifying black
people, and helping concerned white people better to understand the
issues being raised. These writers, and many more black writers and
other black activists, supported the black pride movement. (In French,
this was later called 'Negritude', a term little used after the middle
1940s.)
134 1914 At this time, the only
African countries free of European colonial control were Ethiopia in the
east and Liberia in the west. The rest of Africa remained under
European dominance.
135 1914-1918 By
the beginning of the 'First World War' in Europe, all African nations
(except Liberia and Ethiopia) were victim to claims by the colonial
European powers. This war, WWI, with the defeat of militant Germany and
Germany's subsequent loss of its African territories, proved the
invalidity of the beliefs in European invincibility and white
superiority. Despite the fact that France and Britain took control of
the former German colonies for a time, no longer did African peoples (or
the rest of the non-white world) accept the white nations' claim to
have the right to rule the world. France and Britain fully expected that
the post-war League of Nations would help the colonies achieve
independence.
136 1920s Anti-colonial
tensions, and growing African striving for independence, led to more
than one Pan-African Congress, meeting in Paris. Missionary-educated
Africans, and a small elite of Africans who achieved European or
American higher education, were among the elite of the African leaders.
These talks at the Paris Congresses were given even greater urgency by
strikes in the Gold Coast (not yet restored to its historic name,
Ghana), Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, all located on the coast in British
West Africa.
137 1920s-1930s Literature
again revealed a great deal about the growing anti-colonial and black
nationalist attitudes in Africa. Many missionaries had helped to
integrate traditional praise songs, poems and prayer forms, adapted into
Christian teachings, along with the introduction of missionary-familiar
hymns, all translated into the indigenous vernaculars. Missionaries
encouraged writing, as well as censoring and controlling numerous
avenues of publication and distribution of the writings of black
Africans. The overall effect was encouraging to young (and older) black
writers in Africa. The first African to earn a PhD was Ali Mostafa
Mosharafa of Egypt, who received his PhD (1923) and Doctorate also in
Mathematics (1924) from the University of London. Also in this decade
(1926), the first eight indigenous Kenyans were ordained into the
Presbyterian ministry.
138 1925 A classic novel, Thomas Mofolo's third, written in his vernacular, Sotho, was a challenging tale of 'Chaka (or Shaka) the Zulu'. Chaka was a 19th century Zulu leader, militant as necessary at times.
139 1930 Mofolo's
book was followed soon after by a book on a related topic, this time a
historical romance about Chaka's lieutenant, Mzilikazi. Written by
Tshekishu Plantje, this fine work includes some Bantu praise songs.
140 1930s The
growing number of independence-seeking francophone African writers led
to the birth of the so-called 'Negritude' and Pan-African movements in
Paris. ('Negritude', a French word, was used before and perhaps up to
1945, to refer to the developing and increasingly proud recognition by
black people - in Europe and the United States - of their history, and
their cultural and social heritage. This movement is now more frequently
referred to as 'the black pride movement'.) There were many eloquent
writers, poets, and speakers, spreading their message of freedom of
government and of spirit, in France, throughout Europe, and even to
America.The worldwide depression increased worker dissatisfaction in
Africa (as well as other parts of the world). It affected the colonies,
leading to restlessness with the colonial powers, and both strikes and
uprisings, even revolts, in those areas. All this encouraged African
nationalists to redouble their organizational efforts.
141 1930s, continued The 'Negritude' movement originated (see 137)
in the Parisian bohemian period of jazz and other aspects of cultural
openness, where French colonial Africans found freedom to create, to
paint, and write. Many of this movement were students, completing their
education in Paris. These intellectuals from many parts of Africa and
the Caribbean already had much in common, even as together they began to
explore their shared roots, and their shared experience of destructive
victimization and loss of identity under the divisive and oppressive
European colonization rules, practices and imposed foreign education.
This awareness of shared losses strengthened the intellectuals'
determination to speak out strongly against the evils of colonization,
and seek their special African identity and traditional culture, or
cultures.
142 1930s, continued As these
mature students and others among them were finding ways to communicate
their understandings, feelings, history and hopes, they sometimes spoke
of Africa as a woman and Africa before the European colonizing invasion
as a Garden-of-Eden-like Utopia. An extraordinary Senegalese poet,
Leopold Sedar Senghor (born in 1906), later to become the first
president of his homeland in 1960, was an especially skilful
communicator and leader, even a militant communicator, who strongly
supported the 'Negritude' adherents, in their protests against
colonization; they were especially resistant to French attempts at
assimilation. These attempts were very strongly put down by the
francophone Africans who, though fluent, always strongly preferred to
speak their own vernacular, reaffirming their identity as
not-French. This literary intellectual group attracted other highly able
writers, including three outstanding poets: Leon-Gontran Dama, and the
brothers Biragao Diop and David Diop. A fourth significant poet in this
group was Aime Cesaire, from the island of Martinique, an overseas
department (one of the 26 'regions') of France. Cesaire stated, in an
interview in 1967: 'We lived in an atmosphere of rejection, and we
developed an inferiority complex.' The desire to establish an identity
begins with 'a concrete consciousness of what we are -... that we are
black...and have a history...[that] there have been beautiful and
important black civilizations...that its values were values that could
still make an important contribution to the world.' It is interesting to
note that most of the present population, which is close to half a
million people, are descended from African slaves; slavery was banned
there in 1869. All Martiniques have full French citizenship.
143 1936 Zanzibar,
a Swahili city, celebrated the 25th anniversary ('Silver Jubilee') of
the noted poet Sultan Kalif bin Harub, by printing a postage stamp,
honouring him and his work.
144 1939-1945 During
the 2nd World War, some of the main theatres of war, other than on the
European continent, were in North Africa, Southeast Asia, and Pacific
Islands, the latter particularly involving the USA against Japan. Many
other important non-European war sites, however, were in European
colonies. With the end of the war, there were many power-problems faced
by the smaller nations even though now free from war, and from the
German invasion. Freedom was 'in the air' for those nations, both
European and African, and the spread of freedom ('decolonization') for
at least some of the former colonies became inevitable. The next decade
saw many changes in some nations colonized by European states (including
those nations colonized by Britain).
145 1947 An innovative magazine, 'Presence Africaine',
was published in France under the editorship of Alioune Diap. This
journal, celebrating many aspects of the non-white, then-called-Negro
people, was among the first in this field. 'Ebony', in the USA,
was also beginning at about the same time but, because of the language
difference, these magazines appealed to different readerships.
146 1947 India
and Pakistan, British colonies for some decades, achieved their
independence from Britain. Mahatma Gandhi, a qualified Indian lawyer, at
one time in South Africa, was among many instrumental in leading these
nations to freedom. Gandhi became India's first president. When the
British granted independence to India and Pakistan, this greatly
increased the pressure for decolonization (freedom and independence) in
other colonies. In this same year, 1947, the records show that a second
African received his PhD in Mathematics. This was A M Taylor, a
Ghanaian, at Oxford University.
147 1948
Once the publishing world realized the economic potential, as well as
the social benefits, of publications in this field, other publications
came on the market, as well. One notable addition was the 'Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de langue francaise',
again a French publication, perhaps partly because France was deeply
involved in some African nations, and also because black immigration
into France was already strong. This 'Anthology of New Negro and Malagasy Poetry in French', edited by Senghor, presented many writings of French-speaking black African and Caribbean poets.
148 1950s
Jomo Kenyatta, a name the mission-school educated Mr Johnstone Kamau
Ngengi assumed as he worked towards freeing his nation from the English,
led a lengthy campaign for Kenyan freedom. Kenyatta was imprisoned by
the British in 1952, and held until 1961.
149 1950 and beyond ln
literary matters, perhaps the USA led the way, with autobiographies,
histories, poems, novels, short stories and thrillers by black authors,
helping to establish a strong market in the USA and internationally, for
their works. Elmore, DuBois, and Baldwin are among the many American
black notables whose works were significantly to the fore during this
period, in the USA, and far beyond. In Africa, Xhosa writers included
South African A C Jordan and, in other African languages and English,
Alex La Guma and Bloke Modisane; the poet Rolfus R R Dhlomo, and Lewis
Nkosi, playwright and literary (and other) critic. A third African,
Chike Obi, earned a PhD in mathematics in 1950.
150 1951
In Tanganyika (present day Tanzania), Shaaban Robert was being
recognized as the leading poet and essayist of Kiswahili, in East
Africa. 'Kusadikika' ('To Be Believed'), his
best-known work, is a profound analysis of the current political
situation and movements in his land. An allegorical work, it owes much
to Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels', an 18th-century British serious fantasy.
151 1952 The London publication of 'The Palm-Wine Drinker' (by
Amos Tutuola, of Nigeria) introduced an exciting hero-tale from
Tutuola's own Yoruba oral tradition. Possibly this was the first, or one
of the first, published books written in African English, more casual
than formal English, but a most effective medium.
152 1953 Among
the proliferating writers of this decade, the Guinea-born Camara Laye
became one of the most famous, especially for his masterpiece, an
autobiographical novel 'The Dark Child'). Laye was noted for his powerful psychological insights.
In
this same period, there were two outstanding novelists from Cameroon,
Mongo Beti and Ferdinand Oyono. Both were very observant and skilful
satirists, whose books are both penetrating and powerful.
153 1954 Peter Abraham's autobiography, 'Tell Freedom',
recounts the severe colonialist racial prejudice he experienced when
yet a child, in his Johannesburg, South Africa, homeland. At that time,
many South African writers and journalists first found an outlet through
'Drum', one of several popular magazines to publish their work.
154 1954-1962 The
indigenous people of the French-controlled 'francophone' colonies
continued to struggle for independence from France. This was complicated
by the wish of some Africans to keep the economic and cultural ties for
their own (African) benefit. The indigenous Algerians, surrounded by a
million white settlers, did not share this wish; they wanted freedom.
155 1955 Many
potential film makers went to Europe for their training, resulting in
many interesting short films of European life, seen through African
eyes. Credited with being the start of African film making, 'Afrique sur le Seine' showed
a fresh view of student life. This film, which has been referred to as
presenting 'a pioneering view', was the work of Paulin Soumanou Vieryra.
156 1956 This
was a year celebrated by two nations, in their new freedom. Tunisia was
granted freedom in March, 1956; Morocco was granted her freedom at the
end of this same year. (Note: Ethiopia had never been colonized; it had
always been free.)
157 1957 Among the
earliest black African states to achieve independence was Ghana. Ghana
had been an ancient nation by that name, though for some decades
renamed Gold Coast. On gaining freedom, it also regained its historic
name. The newly independent Ghana was led by the notable Kwame Nkrumah,
freedom fighter, ex-prisoner of the British, and free Ghana's first
president. The British transfer of power followed Gandhi-type strikes,
rallies and boycotts of British goods.
158 1957-1958 In
his nation's new freedom, in Ghana, the much-respected poet and critic,
Kofi Awoonor, began a significant collection of African oral
traditions (which he translated into English). This collection included
Ewe (pronounced as EH veh) dirges, and many other elements of oral
traditional history, which otherwise might have been lost to future
generations. (see 195)
Being a gifted poet, Awoonor wove
these materials into his writings, both poetry and prose, the latter
including novels such as 'The Night of My Blood' (1958) and 'This Earth My Brother' (1971).
Throughout his life's work, Awoonor worked to recover and preserve the
important pre-colonial African culture and oral traditions. He believed
that it was imperative to reconnect his people with their past
creations, if they were to survive as a people.
159 1958 'Things FallApart',
by the Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, attracted many readers,
locally and internationally, to his study of the threat to indigenous
values from western culture, not only the impact of both past and
present colonial structures, education, culture and attitudes, but also
the pervasive present influence of many things 'western'. Achebe's
works, written in 'African English', were very popular, drawing, as they
were, on the rich oral traditions of his people.
160 In this same period, African film makersalso relied heavily on the indigenous oral traditions, in both story and poem.
161 1958 Britain officially granted independence to the (Dutch descent) South African Afrikaners.
162 The
government of South African exiled many black writers, Mphahlele and
Abrahams among them; other writers simply emigrated. (see 175)
163 late 50s - early 60s The
impact of South Africa's racism, and the impact on many lives, affected
the English language writings, and English audiences of such South
Africans as Doris Lessing (and her 'Children of Violence' books),
Nadine Gordimer (novelist and short story writer), and Athol Fugard
(playwright). These three writers, and many others, wrote of these and
related issues in their many works.
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