RESSOURCES DE L’ORALITE DANS ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGE D’AHMADOU KOUROUMA ET THINGS FALL APART DE CHINUA ACHEBE
RESSOURCES DE L’ORALITE DANS ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGE D’AHMADOU KOUROUMA ET THINGS FALL APART DE CHINUA ACHEBE
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Date
2008-06
Authors
EKEH, CHIDINMA URSULLA
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Abstract
This is a critical survey of African oral literature in Allah n’est pas obligé by Ahmadou
Kourouma and Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. It tries among other things
to examine and show the existence of the elements of oral literature in the said novels.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah n’est pas
obligé (2000), are novels from two different periods: the former, a colonial novel and the
latter, a post-colonial novel. These novels are endowed with rich cultural African
heritages. A good number of critics have made several references to the igbonisation of
English language by Chinua Achebe and the malinkenisation of the French language by
Ahmadou Kourouma in these novels. None has dared to compare the two creative works,
as we have attempted in this study, bearing in mind that one of the authors is an
anglophone writer and the other, a francophone writer. Our investigations could not have
claimed to be exhaustive. We are limiting our study to some aspects of oral literature
found in the novels, for example, myths and legends, folklores, songs and drums,
superstitions, and finally, proverbs, which constitute a major theme among others in the
novels. Both Achebe and Kourouma are talking about destructions and wars in their
books, using their maternal languages and the elements of oral literature, to show the
decolonisation of African literature, in other words, the africanisation of the language of
African literature. By so doing, they give value to some of our ancient beliefs and
practices. Some of the instruments of decolonisation used by some writers are translation,
the advocacy for unity and the use of local languages. This study shows that the
development of oral literature promotes modern African literature. If African literature
has attained a high standard today, it is thanks to the role and functions of oral literature
in written African literature. A comparative analysis of Allah n’est pas obligé and Things
Fall Apart shows that Ahmadou Kourouma and Chinua Achebe made use of some
elements of oral literature in both novels. Our research shows that whereas myths and
legends, superstitions and proverbs are found in both Allah n’est pas obligé and Things
Fall Apart, folklores, songs and drums feature only in Things Fall Apart. We went ahead
to show the number of proverbs found in the novels, using these to analyse the frequency
of the proverbs in the two novels. Allah n’est pas obligé is more voluminous and has
more proverbs but our results show that, if Achebe had as many pages as Kourouma, he
would probably have featured more proverbs in his work, Things Fall Apart. We came to
the conclusion that the authors of the two novels, Allah n’est pas obligé and Things Fall
Apart use the resources of oral literature as an instrument of decolonisation or
africanisation of African literature. This study portrays ancient values and promotes
African culture and languages. It is a modest attempt aimed at encouraging other
researchers to carry out a wider research on this topic
Description
THESIS SUBMITTED TO POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL, AHMADU BELLO
UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE
DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS (FRENCH) WITH SPECIALIZATION IN
AFRICAN LITERATURE
DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
JUNE 2008
Keywords
RESSOURCES,, DE L’ORALITE,, DANS ALLAH,, N’EST PAS OBLIGE,, D’AHMADOU,, KOUROUMA,, FALL,, APART,, CHINUA,, ACHEBE