S5 E9: The month of heroines: FEMICRITURE, a home for African female writers.

My African Cliches (English)

FOR AFRICAN FEMALE WRITERS

My African cliche of the day is a Bantu saying which says I quote: "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu",which means in French: "A human is human because of other humans".It essentially means that Our humanity depends on the humanity of our fellow humans. No individual, no group can be human all alone. We rise together above the animal, or not at all. This saying is one of the favorites of an African writer, a great African intellectual, Prof Chinua Achebe, who left us almost 7 years ago. He is considered in the English-speaking world as the father of the African novel. He was convinced that the mission of the African intellectuals is to rehabilitate the image of Africa, tarnished by colonization and the stereotypes which a certain colonial literature carried for decades. And since it is impossible to talk about him in a few seconds, an entire episode will be devoted to him soon, but in the meantime, only one word is needed: THANKS Professor Achebe.