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The Desert Shore: Literatures of the Sahel

Christopher Wise, editor
The Desert Shore: Literatures of the Sahel
ISBN: 978-0-89410-867-9
$57.00
ISBN: 978-1-62637-331-0
$57.00
2001/278 pages/LC: 00-045984

"Provides insight into the nature of sahelian culture as a whole.... Provides the foundation for future discussions of literary developments.... This volume informs our understanding of a new chapter in African literature."—Beverly B. Mack, African Studies Review

"The Desert Shore succeeds ... in bringing to the fore a literature which has long been underrated."—Jamal En-nehas, World Literature Today

DESCRIPTION

Though Sahelian culture likely dates back more than five thousand years—encompassing Africa's greatest empires—the Sahel remains little known in the English-speaking world. Redressing this situation, The Desert Shore offers a rich sampling of the contemporary literatures of the region, along with contextualizing chapters by critics from Africa, Europe, and North America.

The authors not only demonstrate the resilience and cultural wealth of modern Sahelian society, but also provide startling insights into its distinct perspectives on writing, literature, and language itself. They reveal Sahelian literatures to be a body of work that challenges Western scholars to reexamine many of their deepest presuppositions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher Wise is associate professor English at Western Washington University. He is editor of Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer, Islamic Militant.

CONTENTS

  • Introduction: The Land of the Blood-Boiling Sun—Christopher Wise and Joseph Paré.
  • LITERATURE AND "SAHELITY".
  • The Origins of the Fulani—al-Hajj Sékou Tall.
  • The World Beyond the Word: Pacéré's Theory of Talking Drums—Christopher Wise.
  • Saglego, or Drum Poem (for the Sahel)—Titinga Frédéric Pacéré.
  • Bendrology in Question—Albert Ouedraogo.
  • Animism, Syncretism, and Hardness: The Epic of Askia Mohammed—Sean Kilpatrick.
  • RACE, POLITICS, AND WRITING IN THE SAHEL ZONE.
  • Tuareg (Tamazight) Literature and Resistance: The Case of Hawad—Georg M. Gugelberger.
  • Anarchy's Delirious Trek: A Tuareg Epic—Hawad.
  • The Black and the White: Race and Oral Poetry in Mauritania—Lisa McNee.
  • Literature as a Form of Intellectual Ascent: The Writings of Patrick G. Ilboudo—Salaka Sanou.
  • Norbert Zongo: The Committed Writer—Michel Tinguiri.
  • The Mobutuization of Burkina Faso—Norbert Zongo.
  • RETHINKING SAHELIAN TRAVEL WRITING.
  • Writing Timbuktu: Park's Hat, Laing's Hand—Christopher Wise.
  • The Bello-Clapperton Exchange: The Sokoto Jihad and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade—Paul E. Lovejoy.
  • Wanderings: Bamako, Moscow, Delhi—al Hajj Sékou Tall.
  • CONCLUSION.
  • Reflections in Conclusion: Bridging the Shore—Christopher Wise.
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