The African novel in English

by M. Keith Booker

African novels are not easy reading. The African novel differs from European and American novels in its social and historical background and in its aesthetics. African novelists make important use of formal strategies and techniques that are derived from African cultural traditions. They also make extensive use of imported European forms. As Booker explains, the African novel is a hybrid of African and imported Western literary conventions. Proper appreciation of the hybridity of African novels is one of the most important and daunting tasks facing Western readers who must resist the temptation to read African literature either according to strictly Western criteria or as exotic specimens of cultural otherness. American and European students reading African novels often have to completely overhaul lifelong habits of reading. They must keep in mind certain basic issues if they are to read African novels effectively. Postcolonial African literature reacts against decades of European colo