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<abbink@fsw.LeidenUniv.nl>
Dear H-Africa readers,
I cast serious doubt upon the competition "AFRICA'S 100
BEST BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY" when major traditions
of literary production are left aside. The choice of
languages in which work appeared is seriously skewed,
calling into question the entire effort. To mention
just one instance: Amharic, in Ethiopia. This should of
course have been included. A language area of about 25
million first-language speakers and many millions of
secondary speakers, and a literate tradition since many
centuries. I will not speak about the amazingly rich
and complicated 'qené' poetry tradition of Ethiopia,
but the Amharic novel since the early 20th century have
yielded masterpieces, such as 'Love until Death' by
Haddis Alemayehu, 'Defiance' by Abbie Gubegna, 'Oromai'
by Be'alu Girma, etc. It is incomprehensible to exclude
Amharic, but explained perhaps because of the modest
profile that Ethiopia takes on the international scene
and the fact of it not having been colonized by Western
powers and thus being kept a bit out of the limelight.
So let's just do the whole thing over again, or make it
"The best 110 African books of the 20th century", which
gives some room for extra inclusion. In addition, one
should perhaps also think of another competition:
masterpieces of what I would call 'orature': oral
traditions!
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