Oral traditionStory-telling itself began beside the fire. Though no one sat down to analyse them, these
tales told aloud probably had three main intentions: to preserve local history, to
emphasise correct behaviour, and to entertain. Here were the stories of Anansi the story-
spinning spider, the half godlike Mantis of the Bushmen, the unhurried and wise
Tortoise, imperious Lion, and mischievous Hare ‘the patiently tolerated, fiercely hated,
yet beloved vagabond of all the peoples of Africa’ (Savory 1990:14). Crossing the Atlantic
with the slave trade and finding new life as Brer Rabbit (in the Uncle Remus stories), the
trickster Hare was one of Africa’s early literary exports.
The first indigenous publishing for children was ardently didactic. This gave rise to the
bitter joke: ‘When the missionaries came, we had the land and they had the Bible. They
then taught us to close our eyes in prayer. When we finally opened our eyes, we found
that they had the land and we had the Bible.’ So early literature for African children was
confined to moralistic primers with a few safe folk-tales with a strong (inserted) moral
flavour. Christian missionaries to ‘darkest Africa’ were frequently appalled at the
approval of deceit and the casual cruelty of the folklore they encountered. In making the
first written versions of African stories, these pious authors frequently reshaped the
story to provide more suitable morals. Yet the stories were thus preserved, and (though
the original tales were not specifically for young listeners) African children’s literature
had been launched.
An unknown worldThe English-speaking colonisers brought with them, naturally, English education.
‘Fiction was intended to aid Christianisation and the teaching of literacy’ (Schmidt 1981:
23). Into the missionary school came the ‘English reader’ book preaching the benefits of
European lifestyle and values. All were written and published overseas. The situation is
little changed today. As recently as 1988, Gloria Dillsworth (1988: 19) could write of the
book scene in Sierra Leone: ‘A wide range of fiction can be found in the children’s library
and the most popular authors are Enid Blyton, Susan Coolidge, Louisa May Alcott,
Richmal Crompton, Franklyn W.Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Capt. W.E.Johns’. Then she does
mention two Sierra Leonean authors, Clifford Fyle and Thomas Decker, but adds ‘There
are only a few children’s books written by Sierra Leoneans and those which are in print
can be found in the children’s library though not in adequate numbers.’
The great age of the English adventure book resulted in a fictionalised picture of
Africa. Such titles as R.M.Ballantyne’s The Settler and the Savage (1877) indicate clearly
the British-based bias. A few authors wrote from a brief acquaintance of Africa—like Sir
Henry Rider Haggard, whose King Solomon’s Mines (1885) was partly inspired by his
visit to the Sudwala caves in South Africa— but many created a stereotyped Africa in
which the residents were ‘sometimes described as hideously scarified, naked,
superstitious, bloodthirsty, and un-changing in their ways, and are called vagabonds,
rascals, pagans, cannibals, ignorant brutes and “niggers”’ (Schmidt 1981b: 64). Better
informed writers, perhaps after a tour of duty in Colonial Africa, created kinder images of
the inhabitants either as noble savages or dutiful servants.
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