ALT 27 New Novels in African Literature Today

This issue of African Literature Today focuses on new novels by emerging as well as established African novelists.

This issue of African Literature Today focuses on new novels by emerging as well as established African novelists.

This is a seminal work that discusses the validity of the perception that the new generation of African novelists is remarkably different in vision, style, and worldview from the older generation. The contention is that the oldergeneration novelists who were too close to the colonial period in Africa had invariably made culture-conflict and little else their dominant thematic concern while the younger generation novelists are more versatile in their thematic preoccupations, and are more global in their vision and style. Do the facts in the novels justify and validate these claims? The 13 papers in this volume have been carefully selected to consider these issues.
Brenda Cooper a renowned literary scholar from Cape Town writes on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie'sPurple Hibiscus, while Charles Nnolim writes about Adichie's more recent novelHalf of a Yellow Sun; Omar Sougou of Universite GastonBerger, Senegal discusses 'ambivalent inscriptions' in Buchi Emecheta's later novels; Clement Okafor of the University of Maryland, addresses the theme of 'racial memory' in Isidore Okpewho'sCall Me By My Rightful Name, juxtaposed between the world of the old and the realities of the present. Joseph McLaren, Hofstra University, New York, discusses Ngugi's latest novelWizard of the Crow, while Machiko Oike, Hiroshima University, Japan looksat a new theme in African adolescent literature, 'youth in an era of HIV/AIDS'. There is abundant evidence of the contrasts and diversities which characterize the African novel not only geographically, but also ideologically andgenerationally.

ERNEST EMENYONU is Professor of the Department of Africana Studies University of Michigan-Flint.

Nigeria: HEBN

Editorial article: The African novel in the 21st century: sustaining the gains of the 20th century - Ernest N. Emenyonu
Resurgent spirits, Catholic echoes of Igbo & petals of purple: the syncretised world of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie'sPurple Hibiscus - Brenda Cooper
Ambivalent inscriptions: women, youth & diasporic identity in Buchi Emecheta's later fiction - Omar Sougou
The interrupted dance: racial memory in Isidore Okpewho'sCall Me By My Rightful Name - Clement Okafor
The Ivorian crisis & Ahmadou Kourouma's posthumous political novelQuand on refuse, on dit non - Sery Bailly
Women as the 'voice of the people'& the western audience: Ngugi'sWizard of the Crow - Joseph McLaren
Theankh &maat: symbols of successful revolution in Ayi Kwei Armah'sOsiris Rising - Sophie Akhuemokhan
A new African youth novel in the era of HIV/AIDS: an analysis of Unity Dow'sFar & beyon' - Machiko Oike
The prison of Nigerian woman: female complicity in Sefi Atta'sEverything Good Will Come - Florence Orabueze
Manufacturing skin for Somalia's history: Nuruddin Farah's deep hurt inLinks - Tej N. Dhar
A Zimbabwean ethic of humanity: Tsitsi Dangarembga'sThe Book of Not & theunhu philosophy of personhood: - Ada U. Azodo
Coming to America: Ike Oguine'sA Squatter's Tale & the Nigerian/African immigrant's narrative - Christopher Okonkwo
War discourse as fictional narrative: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie'sHalf of a Yellow Sun - Charles Nnolim
Reviews - James Gibbs