Redefining African Literature: The Language Dilemma 1. Introduction Over the decades the question of language choice in Africa literature has caused significant debates in the literary circles within and outside the African continent. This discourse started in 1963 through the publication of an article entitled "The Dead End of African Literature" by Obiajunwa Wali after the first African conference of African Writers of English Expression heldin Makerere University College, Kampala, Uganda in 1962. In his article he postulates that unless African writers write in African languages then they will be pursuing a dead end. That their acceptance and continued use of English and French as the medium of African writing has no chance of advancing the African agenda. He foresaw that if no literature is produced in African languages then they face extinction. He says: The purpose of this article is not to discredit these writers, who have achieved much within an extremely difficult and illogical situation. It is to point out that the 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. In other words, until these writers and their Western midwives accept the fact that any true African literature must be written in African languages, they are merely pursuing a dead end, which can only lead to sterility, uncreativity, and frustration. He asserts the African agenda and indeed the whole process of writing about Africa and African concerns and experiences can only be achieved through the use of African languages. This assertion led to contentions debates and discourses on the choice of language for what to be termed as African literature. Some of the questions raised being what is African Literature? Does the medium of writing tag literature as either European or African? Can a writer use a foreign language to express the African agenda? Most importantly was the issue of extinction of African languages since most of the literary outputs were being written in European languages. This paper attempts to examine various scholars and their views on the issue of language choice for the African writer and later derive a conclusion on what is the future of African literature written in foreign languages against a backdrop of growth of African Literature and the contentious issue of death of African languages.

ABSTRACT Short story writing is a literary art whose creativity heavily depends upon the interplay between the writer and his influence upon the reader. There are four modes of discourse employed in creative writing: exposition, description, narration and persuasion. Exposition is concerned with the layout, style and organisation of events and the actors within them. It is the immediate revelation to the readers of the setting and other background information that is necessary for understanding the plot. Description employs the use of language terms in ‘graphical’ or picturesque representation of something or someone through detailed characterisation of colour, motion, sound, taste, smell and touch. Narration is the telling of a story in fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama. Persuasion is a form of argumentation where the language employed is intended to convince, principally through appeals to reason or to emotion. This study is focalized on the mode of persuasion with the rhetorical and classical theories as the point of reference. The Greek philosopher Aristotle upheld the view that narration, whose essential purpose is to become persuasive, could only enjoy viability if it possessed the following appeals: ethos, logos, pathos and kairos. This study was a confirmation of Aristotle’s contention across first language and second language English readers; this was underscored by an annexed anthology within the study, depicting divergent fictional settings and all emanating from the same writer, to which reading subjects from these variegated contexts were exposed. Thereafter comprehensive questionnaire covering various dimensions of ethos, logos, pathos and kairos was used to elicit the reader responses in regard to their appreciation and understanding of story. The study is useful not only in cementing the classical tradition, but also as an indication that even in modern rhetoric, logos and kairos must be regarded as basic in any communication while ethos and pathos are mainly appellative, although of relative importance.

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