Storytellers & Tales
These are traditional stories about gods, heroes, or how the world began.
The foreign practice of taking political control of a territory and exploiting it economically.
Colonialism
The genre of literature that focuses on personal stories of being held captive and then finding freedom.
Slave Narrative
The quality of being completely true to the customs and values passed down from one's ancestors.
Tradition
The emotional feeling the reader gets while reading a story.
Mood
The name for stories passed down through spoken word instead of writing.
Oral Tradition
The period when countries gained their freedom and had to deal with the problems left behind by foreign rule.
Post-Colonial
The main problem or struggle that a character faces in a story.
Conflict
The goal of a character who is fighting to prove who they are or where they belong.
Identity
The author's underlying attitude toward the subject matter or the characters.
Tone
A character, often a small animal like a spider, who wins by being clever and sneaky.
Trickster
The policy of strict racial separation and oppression that was enforced in South Africa.
Apartheid
A term for when writers put songs, proverbs, or call-and-response into their written stories.
Oral Style or Orature
The state of being free from foreign political control.
Independence
When the main character or narrator speaks directly to the reader using "I" or "We."
First-Person (or Narration)
A short, wise saying that gives advice or a moral lesson.
Proverbs
The term for when two different ways of life like how African and European violently meet and oppose each other in a story.
Cultural Clash
The literary device where an author makes fun of or ridicules bad politicians or societal flaws.
Satire
The state of feeling like an outsider or that you don't belong, often felt by educated Africans who returned home from Europe.
Alienation
A term describing a character who acts as the primary opponent to the hero or protagonist.
Antagonist
A type of storyteller who sings histories and poems while playing a stringed instrument.
Griot
The main difference between the Village (tradition) and this setting (corruption) in many African novels.
City
A powerful literary technique where one thing in the story (like a river or a gun) stands for a much bigger idea (like freedom or danger).
Symbolism
The loss of hope or belief that things will get better in the newly independent nations, a common theme.
Disillusionment
The author's reason for writing the piece: to teach, to entertain, or to persuade.
Purpose