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Scholar and author of ‘When Maasaiphobia Became Policy’, Leiyo Singo, believes Maasaiphobia (prejudice held against the Maasai) in Tanzania has some roots in the country’s educational system: ‘The education system in Tanzania, and Africa in that matter, offers the African child the opportunity to embrace Western form of education but teaches him or her to abandon, despise or even hate that which is called traditional knowledge, customs, and traditions.’
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About the Author
is a writer based in Tanzania and Germany. His writing has featured in Africa Is a Country, Udadisi, and The Chanzo.
Nigerian novelist, poet and author of Graceland, Chris Abani, does not believe ‘Nigerian literature’ exists as a category: ‘It is a common misconception that there is a fixed category that can be read as essentially “Nigerian literature”. Nigeria has 500 nations, 500 languages and about 2,000 dialects. While culture and language can overlap, the level of diversity is such that Nigerian literature cannot be easily narrowed down.’
For the co-founder and publishing director, of Cassava Republic Press, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, it is telling that African literature is often pronounced dead in recent years, when more women and queer voices are becoming more prominent: ‘The loudest obituary writers about African literature tend to be men. These elegies seem to come from a tacit sense of personal or generational displacement rather than from the actual state of the field.’
Nigerian poet, novelist and author of Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Ben Okri, argues that Nigerian literature doesn’t always have to be about Nigeria: ‘Nigerian literature limits itself to Nigeria and then limits even the ways in which the country can be written about. What we want is a vast literature, a great literature…that speaks to all humanity.’
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