A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

John Willett, journalist and assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement (1960-67) in London, writes about the literature coming out of Africa, claiming that Africa is "making history quicker than she is making literature, and in some ways it is an embarrassing experience." The Times Literary Supplement was/is based in the U.K. and was well-known for its critique of writers internationally, claiming to "scrutinize and dissect" the writings of said international writers. Willett alludes to the idea that Africa was lacking literary activity, favoriting the white voices of European writers through his assertion that white writers were excluded from consideration at the conference, which was the "Conference of African Writers of English Expression" at Makerere College in 1962. The conference was attended by many prominent African writers, such as Christopher Okigbo, in which the topics of what constitutes African literature, are writings reflecting African experience, and whether African literature had been written in African languages were discussed and critiqued by writers including Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Ngugi wa Thiong'o who were famously in attendance.

The conference was met with a lot of controversy, as highlighted by Willett in his article, in which many African writers refused to acknowledge non-African languages as being African literature. For Willett, this is what constitutes his disapproval of African literature and African history, assuming that these African writers who wish to oppose the colonial rule that had governed their societies are not following the "guidelines" set out by European expectations of literature. Willett makes the case for this by suggesting that African writers should acknowledge white audiences in making their writings accessible, but he also hints that African writers should be thankful for the British publishing industry. Ezekiel Mphahlele, South African writer, artist, and activist who was also in attendance at the conference, had stated that "a writer should not fear to do violence to standard English if he feels it cumbersome." In response to this, Willett says, in reference to Mphahlele's question of who these African writers were writing for, an African audience or a "world-wide one using English,"

"This question is largely of publishing facilities, and it is not irrelevant that of the twenty-seven books (by participants and others) listed in the bibliography at the end twenty were published by British firms."

Here, it is quite evident that Willett is willing to support the European standards of literature and language as contributions to African writing.

Willett seemingly refuses to acknowledge any non-English African literature, upholding the Western view on African literature as inferior and unsuccessful if it is inaccessible to the "world-wide" audience using English. For Willett, a dichotomy is being placed in regards to African literature; it is either favoring the Western aesthetics or to be judged and deemed in the state of infancy when it comes to African literature. When Willett touches on Christopher Okigbo, he does so in the words of Ulli Beier, German editor, writer and scholar, where Willet praises Beier's critique of the field of African literature (specifically Nigerian literature). He says that Beier had confined himself to the works of Christopher Okigbo, J.P. Clark, and Dennis Brutus, but then suggest that Beier "had not seen more than six or seven poems by such other promising writers as Wole Soyinka and Gabriel Okara," in which it is unknown if Beier had actually made this statement or not. In many ways, Willett is pushing for Beier to disregard emerging African writers, distinguishing them as incapable of producing extraordinary work to catch the Western eye as other writers may have already done. Willett says, "We are certainly far from being able to speak of African literature as a whole," which is far from what the conference entailed. The conference had consisted of many African men and women who were bound to create "within the next decade a corpus of writing which is today seriously read and critically valued in many parts of the world," as stated by Chinua Achebe in James Currey's Leeds African Studies Bulletin.

Achebe's prediction and aspirations for African literature proved accurate while Willett's pessimism of the field unfounded, since within the decade came an outpour of African literature, which included the emergence of African writers such as Dennis Brutus, Kofi Awoonor, Okot B'tek, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, and Mongo Beti, among many others. There was also the Heinemann Book Series, which sought to ensure a voice to major African writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, as well as other prominent African writers. Within the decade, the Heinemann Book Series had published over 120 works by African writers alone.

When it comes to Christopher Okigbo's work in regards to Willet's claims that African literature is far away from being discussed, it can be concluded that Willet had not given a nod to Okigbo's poetry and protest, his writings on African culture and sympathy for the political aspirations of the African writers emerging in and out of independence. He had made the declared assumption that African literature was at a crossroads; either immersing itself in European aesthetics or failing to achieve literary excellence out of the country as a whole. He calls the efforts of the conference that many of these phenomenal and legendary writers had attended as "very scattered," which fails to recognize that the conference was not concerned with favoring European standards and expectations. Okigbo was a published author of three volumes of poetry, even as his life was cut short after dying in the Biafran war. He had written Heavensgate (1962), Limits (1964), and Silences (1965), and as stated by the Encyclopedia Britannica, had poems that appeared posthumously in 1971 "under the title Labyrinths, with Path of Thunder." To claim that this Nigerian poet, and many others, were scattered and incapable of being discussed, fails to recognize the African culture that Okigbo and his contemporaries alluded to in their works. Okigbo is one of the most anthologized African poets, was an editor of Transition, an African literary magazine, awarded for his works, and dedicated to establishing a publishing company in Enugu.

As Willett settles with the assumed lack of consideration for white audiences and writers, writers like Okigbo oppose Willet's assertions, giving voice to emerging writers their contemporaries for decades to come. There are no "scattered patches of literary activity" as Willett states; there is the opposition of colonial standards that African writers fought for (such as the conference), dismantling the cycle of oppression that had been placed upon them.

Zainab Saleh is a first-year M.A. student in Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. March 18, 2020.