African Authors Quiz: Adichie & Forna

Objectives

• Identify representatives of African text and authors.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Grew up in Nigeria.
• Born September 15, 1977.
• Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.
• Published in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Financial Times.
• Purple Hibiscus is her debut novel, published in 2003.
• Won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.
• Half of a Yellow Sun was published in 2006.
• Tells the story of the Biafran War.
• The story is told from the perspective of Olanna, Ugwu, and Richard.
• Won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book.

Aminatta Forna

• Scottish, born in Glasgow but raised in Sierra Leone.
• Author of a memoir, The Devil That Danced on the Water.
• A Daughter's Quest.
• Four novels (Ancestor Stones, etc).
• The Devil That Danced on the Water, 2002 book.
• Covers childhood and investigation into her father's execution.
• An account of her family's experiences living in war-torn Sierra Leone.
• The Memory of Love, 2010 novel.
• About personal stories of love and loss within the context of Sierra Leone civil war.
• Nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Nadine Gordimer

• South African writer and political activist.
• Received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
• Her works explore powerfully social, moral, and racial issues in South Africa under apartheid rule.
• Burger's Daughter, published in 1979.
• Follows the struggles of a group of anti-apartheid activists.
• Read in secret by Nelson Mandela on Robben Island.

Alain Mabanckou

• Novelist, journalist, poet, and academic, a French citizen.
• Born in 1966 in Congo-Brazzaville.
• Professor of Literature at UCLA.
• Known for novels and non-fiction writing depicting the experience of contemporary Africa and the African diaspora in France.
• Blue-White-Red, first novel, published in 1998.
• Received the Sub-Saharan Africa Literary Prize in 1999.

Ben Okri

• Nigerian-British poet and novelist.
• Born in 1959 in Minna, Northern Nigeria.
• Grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968.
• The Famished Road, 1991.
• Won the Booker Prize for Fiction.
• First book in a trilogy.

Questions

• What are the most common topics in African literature?
• Which author do you think has had the most significant impact on African literature, and why?

Application

• Create an acrostic poem using the letters from the word "AFRICA" to demonstrate your perspective on African literature.

Project/Performance Task

• Research and present on additional authors from Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Africa, not covered in the class discussion. At least one from each region.