ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a general introduction to the issues, themes and perspectives reflected in the literature and to comment on some major figures in the colonial and post-colonial debate. It outlines the perspectives they offer on the subject of the writer in Africa and on the relationship between the writer and the society in which he or she lives and works. From a wide range of perspectives it has been the relationship between Africa and the West that has determined the issues addressed in the writing of resistance. The chapter draws attention to some of the important literary figures in the resistance movement and to the themes and issues they address. The development of Negritude among French-speaking writers and intellectuals marked another twentieth-century literary phenomenon centred around versions of Africa. The colonial-inheritance theme has been central to African writing through the twentieth century and takes on particular significance in the largely French-African poetry the movement produced.