FEATURES
How representative are anthologies of African literature
and why does it matter, asks Georgina Collins
A
nthologies can be seen as a
wonderful way of sampling a
culture, country or creative group
of people, and we usually trust anthologies
to fulfil the title of the collection, so in a
'Moroccan poetry anthology' we expect
to read a fair representation of Moroccan
cultures, themes, views and styles. But
what we don't always consider is that the
people who have created the text often
have an agenda of their own, and that
representation in anthologies has to be
selective by its very nature. Hence, the
reader ends up perusing a construction of
what the compiler or compilers want their
book to be.
As a researcher and translator of
Senegalese works, I am particularly interested
in African anthologies of poetry and prose,
and the extent to which they represent or
'translate' a diversity of African cultures.
African anthologies can be of particular
interest to readers because we don't have
huge numbers of written texts about African
history from an African perspective, and often
collate poetry or prose texts in order to fill
that gap. Note, for example, Léopold Sédar
Senghor's famous poetry collection
Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et
malgache, which is referred to by many in
academic circles and used as a base for
teaching colonial history through literature.
On a recent trip to Senegal, I spoke to a
number of writers and publishers about their
views on anthologies and cultural
representation. The renowned academic,
writer and publisher Felwine Sarr told me
about the immense impact of Senghor's
anthology in that it announced to the world a
whole poetic movement and the work of a
black generation (within a particular context).
Anthologies, then, play an important role in
cultural communication. Unfortunately,
however, as time has progressed, we see the
same well-known Francophone African writers
(Senghor, Césaire, Damas) appearing in many
other collections, leading us to question
whether anthologies are really representing
Representing Africa
GAINING A VOICE
Senegalese writer Sokhna Benga speaking at
an event in Dakar. Benga has refused to work
with a publisher that has preconceived ideas
of what an African text should be
SOKHNA
BENGA,
GOETHE
DAKAR,
27/11/13
VIA
FLICKR
(CC
BY
2.0)
