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

Putting novels, plays, verse, essays and so on into literary categories is an important but not very impressive exercise. It matters because the written word is so huge, various, and surprising that some sort of mark is needed for tourists--and we are all tourists. But one category that does not work is that of "black African literature." Africa is too rich and too varous for that box to hold very much...