Not including Egypt (which is about 3% of Africa)Someone tell me about African Literature before the year1700.

Question

Thanks...

i understand "oral traditions," but i really want to find SPECIFIC examples of non-oral tradition, in Africa, within the last 400 years or so, especially in Northern Africa. I basically want to find out WHEN the oral ceased and the literature was written down. And where can i find those stories? THANKS

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition:

Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. An example that combined aspects of oral literature and oral history, before eventually being set down in writing, is the Homeric epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In a general sense, "oral tradition" refers to the transmission of cultural material through vocal utterance, and was long held to be a key descriptor of folklore (a criterion no longer rigidly held by all folklorists). As an academic discipline, it refers both to a method and the objects studied.

i understand "oral traditions," but i really want to find SPECIFIC examples of non-oral tradition, in Africa, within the last 400 years or so, especially in Northern Africa. I basically want to find out WHEN the oral ceased and the literature was written down. And where can i find those stories? THANKS

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition:

Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. An example that combined aspects of oral literature and oral history, before eventually being set down in writing, is the Homeric epic poetry of the Iliad and the Odyssey. In a general sense, "oral tradition" refers to the transmission of cultural material through vocal utterance, and was long held to be a key descriptor of folklore (a criterion no longer rigidly held by all folklorists). As an academic discipline, it refers both to a method and the objects studied.

Answer 1

African culture, a "tribal culture", much like the Native American culture, emphasized the oral tradition. History was passed down through generations by griots or "storytellers" who memorized and repeated the history over and over again until the next griot took over. No one language was spoken and Africa is still a continent of many dialects. It's not difficult to understand that there was no one language to "write down."

Answer 2

It is difficult to find because there was no documentation and no good searching of old works.