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Recommended Databases
Aluka World Heritage Sites: Africa This link opens in a new window
The resource is made up of more than 86,000 objects in 30 subcollections which link visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Contains almost 1,000 full-text journals spanning multiple disciplines. Some journals go to back to the mid-1800's. There is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issues and the issues available in JSTOR.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Find up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on nearly 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association, the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s and contains over 2.2 million citations from more than 4,400 journals & series and 1,000 book publishers. The indexed materials coverage is international and includes almost 60 titles from J-STOR’s language and literature collection as well as links to full text.
World News Archive - African Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Part of the World Newspaper Archive, more than 70 newspapers published between 1800 and 1922 in Sub-Saharan Africa offer an unrivaled viewpoint into a time of drastic change. A wide range of colonial era viewpoints is chronicled in titles from Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and other locales.
History Books
Nigeria by Ph.D., Toyin Falola; Olusegun Obasa; Bukola A. Oyeniyi
Written by leading experts in African studies, this broad introduction to Nigeria follows the history of the republic from the early period to the present day. As Africa's most populated country and major world exporter of oil, Nigeria is a nation with considerable international importance_a role that is hampered by its economic underdevelopment and political instability. This book examines all major aspects of Nigeria's geography, politics, and culture, addressing the area's current attempts at building a strong nation, developing a robust economy, and stabilizing its domestic affairs. Perfect for students of African history, geography, anthropology, and political science, this guidebook provides an overview and history of Nigeria from the early period to contemporary times. Chapters focus on each region in the country; the government, economy and culture of Nigeria; the challenges and problems Nigerians face since the country's independence; and topics affecting everyday life, including music, food, etiquette, gender roles, and marriage. Supports the National Standards of Geography through the inclusion of Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography topics Contains facts and figures, a chart of holidays, and a list of country-related organizations that promote further research opportunities for students Offers sidebars with interesting facts and profiles of key players in Nigerian history, culture, and politics Includes an annotated bibliography to direct readers toward additional resources for further research
ISBN: 9781598849684
Publication Date: 2015-02-24
The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics by A. Carl LeVan (Editor); Patrick Ukata (Editor)
The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics offers a comprehensive analysis of Nigeria's very rich history and ever changing politics to its readers. It provides a deep understanding of Nigeria's socio-political evolution and experience by covering broad range of political issues and historicaleras.The volume encompasses 44 chapters organized thematically into essays covering history, political institutions, civil society, economic and social policy, identity and insecurity, and Nigeria in a globalized world. By identifying many of the classic debates in Nigerian politics, the chapters serveas an authoritative introduction to Africa's most populous country. The chapters are interdisciplinary, introducing readers to classic debates and key research on Nigeria, as well as new methodologies, new data, and a compelling corpus of research questions for the next generation of researchers andreaders interested in Africa.
ISBN: 9780198804307
Publication Date: 2018-12-18
Textbook Resources
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
From the award-winning, bestselling author; We Should All Be Feminists and Half of a Yellow Sun--the story of two Nigerians making their way in the U.S. and the UK, raising universal questions of race, belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for identity and a home. Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion--for each other and for their homeland.
ISBN: 9780307455925
Publication Date: 2014-03-04
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Now optioned as a TV series for HBO, with executive producer George R. R. Martin! An award-winning literary author enters the world of magical realism with her World Fantasy Award-winning novel of a remarkable woman in post-apocalyptic Africa. In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different--special--she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language. It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. She is Ewu--a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by her community. But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her. Desperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love, and the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.
ISBN: 9780756407285
Publication Date: 2014-02-04
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
"If you've ever wondered if love can conquer all, read [this] stunning coming-of-age debut." --Marie Claire ANew York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR *BuzzFeed * Bustle * Shelf Awareness * Publishers Lunch "[This] love story has hypnotic power."--The New Yorker Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does. Born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls. But when their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this part of herself--and there is a cost to living inside a lie. Inspired by Nigeria's folktales and its war, Chinelo Okparanta shows us, in "graceful and precise" prose (New York Times Book Review), how the struggles and divisions of a nation are inscribed on the souls of its citizens. "Powerful and heartbreaking,Under the Udala Trees is a deeply moving commentary on identity, prejudice, and forbidden love" (BuzzFeed). "An important and timely read, imbued with both political ferocity and mythic beauty."--Bustle "A real talent. [Under the Udala Trees is] the kind of book that should have come with a cold compress kit. It's sad and sensual and full of heat." -- John Freeman,Electric Literature "Demands not just to be read, but felt." -- Edwidge Danticat
ISBN: 9780544811799
Publication Date: 2016-09-20
Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso
Winner of the South African Literary Award First Time Author Prize Shortlisted for the Etisalat Prize for Literature Featured in the New York Times' "Globetrotting" sneak preview of books coming out in 2019 from around the world One of "Seven new and noteworthy fiction titles about South Africa"The Globe and Mail Wandering in Cape Town, Leke stalks people, steals small objects, and visits doctors and healers in search of a cure. But he isn't sure what ails him--loneliness, or the family curse. Abandoned by his birth mother, losing his adoptive mother to cancer, and failing to connect with his distant adoptive father, Leke--a troubled young man living in Cape Town--has developed some odd and possibly destructive habits: he stalks strangers, steals small objects, and visits doctors and healers in search of friendship. Through a series of letters written to him from prison by his Nigerian father, a man he has never met, Leke learns about the family curse--a curse which his father hadunsuccessfully tried to remove. Leke's search to break the curse leads him to strange places. Yewande Omotoso is an architect with a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Her debut novelBom Boy was published in South Africa by Modjaji Books in 2011 and was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Fiction Prize.The Woman Next Door (Chatto and Windus, 2016), Omotoso's second novel, was published to critical acclaim. She lives in Johannesburg.
ISBN: 9781946395108
Publication Date: 2019-02-26
Journals
African American Review
"Journal presenting essays on African American literature and culture. Contains interviews, poems, fiction, and book reviews."
Black American Literature Forum
"Publishes essays on African American literature, art and culture. Contains interviews, fiction and poems."
Research in African Literatures
"A quarterly journal devoted to worldwide African literary studies. Publishes research in English in the oral and written literatures of Africa, and also information about African publishing, announcements of interest to Africanists, and literary notes and queries. Includes reviews and review essays of current books and a forum for discussion of issues raised."
Literary Criticism Books
Narrating the New African Diaspora by Maximilian Feldner
This book provides the first comprehensive survey and collection of Nigerian diaspora literature, offering readings of novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta, Helon Habila, Helen Oyeyemi, Taiye Selasi, Chika Unigwe, Chris Abani, and Ike Oguine. As members of the new African diaspora, their literature captures experiences of recent Nigerian migration to the United States and the United Kingdom. Examining representative novels, such as Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, Habila's Waiting for an Angel, Abani's GraceLand, and Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl, the book discusses these novels' literary and narrative methods and provides detailed analyses of two of the most common themes: depictions of migratory experiences and representations of Nigeria. Placing the novels in their relevant historical, sociological, philosophical, and theoretical contexts, Narrating the New African Diaspora presents an insightful study of current anglophone Nigerian narrative literature.
ISBN: 9783030057428
Publication Date: 2019-02-05
Bearing Witness by Wendy Griswold
Greed, frustrated love, traffic jams, infertility, politics, polygamy. These--together with depictions of traditional village life and the impact of colonialism made familiar to Western readers through Chinua Achebe's writing--are the stuff of Nigerian fiction. Bearing Witness examines this varied content and the determined people who, against all odds, write, publish, sell, and read novels in Africa's most populous nation. Drawing on interviews with Nigeria's writers, publishers, booksellers, and readers, surveys, and a careful reading of close to 500 Nigerian novels--from lightweight romances to literary masterpieces--Wendy Griswold explores how global cultural flows and local conflicts meet in the production and reception of fiction. She argues that Nigerian readers and writers form a reading class that unabashedly believes in progress, rationality, and the slow-but-inevitable rise of a reading culture. But they do so within a society that does not support their assumptions and does not trust literature, making them modernists in a country that is simultaneously premodern and postmodern. Without privacy, reliable electricity, political freedom, or even social toleration of bookworms, these Nigerians write and read political satires, formula romances, war stories, complex gender fiction, blood-and-sex crime capers, nostalgic portraits of village life, and profound explorations of how decent people get by amid urban chaos. Bearing Witness is an inventive and moving work of cultural sociology that may be the most comprehensive sociological analysis of a literary system ever written.
ISBN: 9780691186306
Publication Date: 2018-06-05
Naturalizing Africa by Cajetan Iheka
The problem of environmental degradation on the African continent is a severe one. In this book, Cajetan Iheka analyzes how African literary texts have engaged with pressing ecological problems in Africa, including the Niger Delta oil pollution in Nigeria, ecologies of war in Somalia, and animal abuses. Analyzing narratives by important African writers such as Amos Tutuola, Wangari Maathai, J. M. Coetzee, Bessie Head, and Ben Okri, Iheka challenges the tendency to focus primarily on humans in the conceptualization of environmental problems, and instead focuses on how African literature demonstrates the interconnection and 'proximity' of human and nonhuman beings. Through this, Iheka ultimately proposes a revision of the idea of agency based on human intentionality in African literary studies and postcolonialism: that texts yoke the exploitation of Africans to the despoliation of the environment, and they recommend responsibility toward human and nonhuman beings as crucial for ecological sustainability and addressing climate change.
ISBN: 9781316648643
Publication Date: 2019-05-30
The Cambridge Companion to the Postcolonial Novel by Ato Quayson (Editor)
The Cambridge Companion to the Postcolonial Novel provides an engaging account of the postcolonial novel, from Joseph Conrad to Jean Rhys. Reflecting the development of postcolonial literary studies into a significant and intellectually vibrant field, this Companion explores genres and theoretical movements such as magical realism, crime fiction, ecocriticism, and gender and sexuality. Written by a host of leading scholars in the field, this book offers insight into the representative movements, cultural settings, and critical reception that define the postcolonial novel. Covering subjects from disability and diaspora to the sublime and the city, this Companion reveals the myriad traditions that have shaped the postcolonial literary landscape, and will serve as a valuable resource to students and established scholars alike.
ISBN: 9781107588059
Publication Date: 2015-12-01
Language and the Construction of Multiple Identities in the Nigerian Novel by ISBN: 9781920033293Publication Date: 2018-12-28
Nature, Environment, and Activism in Nigerian Literature by ISBN: 9780367436056Publication Date: 2020-03-24
