Okafor, Dubem, ed. 2001. Meditations on African Literature.

Okafor, Dubem, ed. 2001. MEDITATIONS ON AFRICAN LITERATURE. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 193 pp. $65.95.

Essentially a festschrift to honor Emmanuel Obiechina, a great scholar of African literature, Meditations on African Literature is a collection of thirteen essays, all quite good and some exceptional, reflecting on the current state of African literature. Dubem Okafor has brought together a first-rate team of scholars, including Michael Echeruo, Romanus Egudu, Biodun Jeyifo, Bernth Lindfors, Wole Ogundele, Isidore Okpewho, and others who stand with Obiechina in the forefront of African literary studies. Some of the articles deal with individual authors, such as Chinua Achebe and Grace Ogot; some deal with approaches to African literature (e.g., historical and ethnographic); but most deal with broad theoretical concerns, such as the construction of an African literary canon, or the ongoing question of what language an African writer should write in.

This is a …