African Literature and the American University.

While African literature appears to be firmly established in American colleges and universities, its expansion, and in some cases its continuance, is threatened by two factors: racialism and departmental conservatism. As demands for courses in black literature can be met by an increased supply of scholars in Afro-American literature, fewer schools see a need for anyone to teach African literature. This is made easier by the convenience of the racial label "black literature" which is used ambiguously to cover all the literature of black peoples, including African, Afro-American, and Caribbean, thus hiding cultural distinctions behind political desires. Since the parameters of a traditional department are threatened by courses such as African literature, such courses will be tolerated only as long as political necessities force departments to offer them--or until these departments come to realize a humanistic necessity. Scholars have themselves all too long ignored these problems. The formation of an association of those interested in the field will serve not only as a symbol of commitment to the discipline, but also as an effective means of pooling and channeling energies toward defining long-term aims and defending the necessity of research and teaching in African literature. (Author)