ABSTRACT
Post-colonial African literature has in common with medieval French literature that both are at their base oral literatures. Lauren Yoder focused on the promotion of francophone African literature through translating works by African and Afro Cuban writers into English. A liberal arts college teacher, Yoder incorporated a range of late colonial and emerging post-colonial African authors into his course materials, especially the poetry of Congolese Kama Kamanda. The Yoders—Lauren and Suzanne—began their African journey in the MCC Teachers Abroad Program in a secondary school in Kikwit, Zaire as part of an international teaching staff. In the mid-1990s, they volunteered again with MCC for a two-year term in the Great Lakes region—Burundi, Rwanda, eastern Congo—with a focus on relief work among displaced persons and refugees, development, and peacebuilding. This involvement in the Great Lakes crisis enhanced his insights into contemporary African literature.
