Condition: Acceptable. Please see the images for more details.
Blurb: A nearly 50 year old collection of texts.
The task of recording oral compositions before they are lost to memory, and of providing a basis for future literary studies of Africa, is a specially urgent one for scholars of the present generation, for African literature which has appeared in print is only a tiny fragment of the whole.
This library offers a selection of African poetry and prose chosen irrespective of time and place of composition. Each volume from a particular people introduces the society in which the works have been created, and describes their literary and linguistic characteristics. Annotated translations, often with the complete text facing in the original language, enable readers to compare varied expressions of African thought and imagination.
Compositions in local languages will thus find their place in the literary heritage of the whole continent, and the styles of African authors, many of them unfamiliar, may make their impact on the world of literature as those of India and China have done for many years.
A list of titles is printed on the back flap of this dust wrapper.