‘Looting killed’ the audience: Africanlanguage writing, performance, publishing and the audience

Abstract

This article examines the role played by African-language writing, performance and publishing, including critical practice, in the demise of the indigenous audience in African-language literary practice. Using implicit materialism the argument is premised on the developments wrought by the era of Modernism that has lead to a univocal writing of world history, and the era of Postmodernism that has ushered in the era of a multivocal writing of world history. The transition from oral literature to written literature will also be used to advance the argument about the subsequent exclusion of the indigenous African- language audience from literary practice. This exclusion is considered to have a direct bearing on the under-development of African societies. Finally, possible solutions will be sought by revisiting some of the causes that characterize the African language problem as a medium of communication and research.