African Literary Giants

16 Questions

Match the African writers with their nationalities:

Chinua Achebe = Nigerian Wole Soyinka = Ghanian Kofi Awoonor = Kenyan Ngungi wa Thiong'o = Ugandan

Match the African writers with their notable works:

Chinua Achebe = Things Fall Apart Wole Soyinka = A Dance of the Forests Kofi Awoonor = Weep Not, Child Ngungi wa Thiong'o = This Earth, My Brother

Match the African writers with their awards/recognitions:

Chinua Achebe = Grand Prix de la Memoir Wole Soyinka = Nobel Prize for Literature Kofi Awoonor = None Ngungi wa Thiong'o = None

Match the African writers with their literary styles:

Chinua Achebe = Novel Wole Soyinka = Play Kofi Awoonor = Poem-Novel hybrid Ngungi wa Thiong'o = Novel

Match the African writers with the themes of their works:

Chinua Achebe = Traditional Igbo life and colonialism Wole Soyinka = Emerging nation and romantic legend Kofi Awoonor = Ghana's independence and nation-building Ngungi wa Thiong'o = Mau-Mau Uprising and British Kenya Colony

Match the African writers with their occupations:

Chinua Achebe = Professor Wole Soyinka = Poet Kofi Awoonor = Attorney Ngungi wa Thiong'o = Novelist

Match the African writers with the languages they wrote in:

Chinua Achebe = English Wole Soyinka = English Kofi Awoonor = English Ngungi wa Thiong'o = English

Match the African writers with their notable poetry collections:

Chinua Achebe = None Wole Soyinka = None Kofi Awoonor = None Okot p' Bitek = Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, and Two Songs

Match the following authors with their notable works:

Okot p'Bitek = Song of Lawino Nadine Gordimer = The Conservationist Jacques Rabemananjara = Les dieux malgaches Es'kia Mphahlele = Down Second Avenue

Match the following authors with their nationalities:

Nadine Gordimer = South African Jacques Rabemananjara = Malagasy Es'kia Mphahlele = South African Thomas Mofolo = Sotho

Match the following authors with their literary genres:

Okot p'Bitek = Poetry Es'kia Mphahlele = Autobiography Thomas Mofolo = Novel Jacques Rabemananjara = Play

Match the following authors with their awards:

Nadine Gordimer = Nobel Prize in Literature Okot p'Bitek = None mentioned Es'kia Mphahlele = None mentioned Thomas Mofolo = None mentioned

Match the following authors with their works that critique social conditions:

Es'kia Mphahlele = Down Second Avenue Nadine Gordimer = The Conservationist Okot p'Bitek = Song of Lawino Thomas Mofolo = None mentioned

Match the following authors with their languages of composition:

Thomas Mofolo = Basotho Okot p'Bitek = None mentioned Es'kia Mphahlele = English Jacques Rabemananjara = French

Match the following authors with their notable works in the 21st century:

Naomi Johnson = My Black is Beautiful Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie = A Private Experience Yaa Gyasi = Inscape Zaynab Quadri = War for God

Match the following authors with their historical subjects:

Thomas Mofolo = Shaka Jacques Rabemananjara = King Radama II Okot p'Bitek = None mentioned Es'kia Mphahlele = None mentioned

Study Notes

Prominent African Writers

Chinua Achebe: a Nigerian novelist, poet, critic, and professor, honored with the Grand Prix de la Memoir of the 2019 edition of the Grand Prix of Literary Associations.
Achebe's first novel, "Things Fall Apart", is the most widely read book in modern African literature, exploring traditional Igbo life at the time of colonialism and missionary arrival.

Wole Soyinka

First black African to be awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Soyinka's play "A Dance of the Forests" was written for Nigerian independence celebrations, parodying the emerging nation by stripping it of romantic legend.

Kofi Awoonor

Ghanian novelist and poet who wrote "This Earth, My Brother", a novel-poem hybrid.
The novel explores the new nation of Ghana through a dual narrative, representing a day in the life of an attorney and a symbol-laden mystical journey.

Ngungi wa Thiong'o

East Africa's leading novelist, author of "Weep Not, Child", the first major novel in English by an East African.
"Weep Not, Child" deals with the Mau-Mau Uprising, a war in the British Kenya Colony.

Okot p' Bitek

Ugandan poet, novelist, and social anthropologist who wrote three verse collections: Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, and Two Songs.
Song of Lawino, a long poem, deals with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernized.

Nadine Gordimer

South African writer and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Gordimer wrote "The Conservationist", a novel that critiques South Africa through the character study of a successful industrial executive.

Jacques Rabemananjara

Malagasy playwright and poet who wrote "Les dieux malgaches", the first modern Malagasy play in French.
The play deals with the pre-colonial past and the coup that unseated King Radama II in 1863.

Es'kia Mphahlele

Author of the South African classic autobiography "Down Second Avenue", which explores the growth of a young man into adulthood with penetrating social criticism of institutionalized racial segregation.

Thomas Mofolo

Greatest writer from the Sotho people in Africa, who created the first Western-style novels in the Basotho language.
Mofolo's novel "Chaka" is a classic historical novel about the rise and fall of the Zulu king Shaka.

Examples of African Literature in the 21st Century

"My Black is Beautiful (Woman)" and "My Black is Beautiful (Man)" by Naomi Johnson (2012)
"A Private Experience" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009)
"Inscape" by Yaa Gyasi (2015)
"War for God" by Zaynab Quadri (2016)

Test your knowledge of prominent African writers, including Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, and their contributions to modern African literature.

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