The Dark Edge of African literature proposes arguments and theories for interpretation or exposition of Africa's modern fictions irrespective of the language of narrative. It attempts to discern how such interpretation of contemporary history may be received from an African perspective and what the implications are for African cultures and literatures abound by such experience. Starting with a writers profile of twentieth century African dictatorships and the African writer critical approaches on Somali, Nigerian, Kenyan, Angolan, Sudanese literatures present many different, if often not recognised, materials on uprising and resistance to readers of African literature. The physical and psychological dislocation by war, the controversy about the relational quality and dependent nature of text on context, and the exigency that informs the deliberate distortions of certain figures and images by contemporary African writers are some of the issues covered in this volume.

In 1965 Dudley F. Randall founded the Broadside Press, a company devoted to publishing, distributing and promoting the works of black poets and writers. In so doing, he became a major player in the civil rights movement. Hundreds of black writers were given an outlet for their work and for their calls for equality and black identity. Though Broadside was established on a minimal budget, Randall's unique skills made the press successful. He was trained as a librarian and had spent decades studying and writing poetry; most importantly, Randall was totally committed to the advancement of black literature. The famous and relatively unknown sought out Broadside, including such writers as Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Mae Jackson, Lance Jeffers, Etheridge Knight, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde and Sterling D. Plumpp. His story is one of battling to promote black identity and equality through literature, and thus lifting the cultural lives of all Americans.

Explores intellectual currents in African prose and verse from sung or chanted lines to modern writings

Originally published in 1980, this book introduces the student to twelve of the most exciting and significant African authors of the 20th Century, whose work represents Anglophone and Francophone writing (with translation) drawn from West, East and Southern Africa. Twelve African Writers was a revised, updated and extended edition of the pioneering Seven African Writers which did so much to make students aware of African literature. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of the works not just of the selected writers, but other important African authors and recommendations of further critical works.