Obi Wali Quotes

1932–1973 Nigeria

Obi Wali (27 February 1932 – 26 April 1993) was a Nigerian literary scholar, writer, politician, and minority-rights activist. He is best known for his influential essay The Dead End of African Literature? (1963), which argued that African literature should be written in African languages rather than European languages.

Nigeria
Authors

Random Obi Wali quote

4 quotes

"An African writer who thinks and feels in his own language must write in that language."

"The whole uncritical acceptance of English and French as the inevitable medium for educated African writing is misdirected, and has no chance of advancing African literature and culture."

"Until these writers and their Western midwives accept the fact that any true African literature must be written in African languages, they would merely be pursuing a dead end, which can only lead to sterility, uncreativity and frustration."

"Perhaps the most important achievement of the last Conference of African Writers of English Expression held in Makerere College, Kampala, in June 1962, is that African literature as now defined and understood leads nowhere."

Obi Wali opening his essay The Dead End of African Literature (1963)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Obi Wali (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.