A History of Twentieth-Century African Literatures

African literatures, says volume editor Oyekan Owomoyela, "testify to the great and continuing impact of the colonizing project on the African universe." African writers must struggle constantly to define for themselves and other just what "Africa" is and who they are in a continent constructed as a geographic and cultural entity largely by Europeans.
 
This study reflects the legacy of colonialism by devoting nine of its thirteen chapters to literature in "Europhone" languages—English,…