Bards and Tyrants. Essays in Contemporary African Writing

Bards and Tyrants is a collection of essays and book review presentations in literary journals and publisher forums within and outside Nigeria in the last decade by Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic, Chin Ce. In his preface to the volume Ce admits of the inscription of Africa "in two opposing and irremediable directions by her bards and petty tyrants." While one involves "a visionary literati that seek to elevate the potentials of their educational and cultural inheritance" the other embraces "the politics of tyrannosaurs" who hasten to drag the continent to "a state of complete and total degeneracy." For him it is the frightening prospect of this latter possibility that all partakers in contemporary African writing should and must confront. Thus from the journalistic criticism of the Nigerian state to more scholarly essays which evaluate some critical aspects and visions of African writers and critics like Achebe, Ngugi, Soyinka, Nwoga, Chinweizu, Emenyonu, Nnolim and several new poetry, prose and critical voices from around the continent, Chin Ce's arguments for new critical directions in modern African writing reveal some bold, and often sardonic, insights which press us to discern the truth of the argument and the familiarity of his proposition.