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CULTURAL ASTRONOMY IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

A PROJECT WORK SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR

THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS IN LITERARY ARTS

BY

URAMA, EVELYN NWACHUKWU REG. NO.: PG/MA/05/39999

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

SEPTEMBER, 2008

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CERTIFICATION

I, Urama, Evelyn N., a postgraduate student of the Department of English and

Literary Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka, has satisfactorily completed the

requirement for the award of the degree Master of Arts (Comparative Literature) in

English

This work is original, and has not been submitted in part or full for any degree

of this or any other university

--------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- Prof. Damian Ugwutikiri Opata Dr. Samuel M. Onuigbo Supervisor Head of Department

------------------------------------------------- External Examiner

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DEDICATION

To My Beautiful Family

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

‘There is as much delight in acknowledging a good deed as in doing it’. Thus in view

of the assistance I received and in a manner of appreciation, I would like to express my

indebtedness to my sweet husband (Dr. Johnson Urama) for his unfailing love, prayers, help,

encouragement and financial support throughout the stages of this programme and this work.

I also express my profound gratitude to the entire academic staff of the Department of

English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka for their individual assistance

through their rich lectures which armed me with the tools for the exercise, particularly my

able Project Supervisor, Prof. Damian Ugwutikiri Opata, who saw me through the exercise

by his scholarly disposition to all my questions and by his constructive criticism and

suggestions which went a long way in giving this work its present appearance of perfectness.

I am also grateful to my children for their help and encouragement, and also to my

friends, Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship International brethren, My Precious Sisters at

Iheaka Girls’ Secondary School, Iheaka and relatives who remembered me always in their

prayers during the research.

Finally, I glorify God Almighty for his guidance and protection throughout the time

of this programme

Thank you all.

Urama, E.N.

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ABSTRACT

The sun, Moon and Stars are always available in the sky for man. Man curiosity to

know his environment extended to the exploration of these sky entities. In many communities

in Africa, the general life of the people is determined by some mystical symbolism

understood and used by them. These mystical symbolisms have information on the solar and

astral system buried in them. The practice of relating the heavenly bodies and events on earth

and the tradition that has thus been generated is therefore put on the context of African

literatures based on a general belief that movements and changes in the heavens are

significant to humanity. In this research, we explore and analyse the beliefs, astronomical

knowledge and theories of some traditional African people. We also explore how cultural

astronomy in African works of art have gone a long way to define African creative literature.

This manifests in circular forms of thought in traditional African artistic expressions such as

the architecture, ornaments, ritual dances etc This research work therefore reveals that

cultural astronomy in represented is African literature in such a way that it enhances the

aesthetic beauty of the literary works.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page … … … … … … … … … … i

Certification … … … … … … … … … … ii

Dedication … … … … … … … … … … iii

Acknowledgement … … … … … … … … … iv

Abstract … … … … … … … … … … v

Table of Contents … … … … … … … … … vi

CHAPTER ONE: CULTURAL ASTRONOMY IN AFRICA

1.1 Basic Concepts of Astronomy … … … … … … 1

1.2 Cultural Astronomy … … … … … … … … 1

1.3 The Beliefs, Culture and Astronomical Knowledge and Theories

of Some Communities in Africa … … … … … … 2

CHAPTER TWO: REPRESENTATION OF SKY ENTITIES IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

2.1 Representation of the Sun in African Literature … … … … 7

2.2 Representation of the Moon in African Literature … … … … 11

2.3 Representation of the Stars in African Literature … … … … 16

CHAPTER THREE: DEIFICATION OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS IN SELECTED

TEXTS

3.1 Deification of the Sun, Moon and Stars … … … … … … 20

3.2 Gender of the Sun and Moon … … … … … … … 25

3.3 Social Values of the Sun, Moon and Stars in Africa … … … … 26

3.4 The Notion of the Good and Evil Moon … … … … … 33

CHAPTER FOUR: LITERARY EVALUATION OF THE REPRESENTATION OF

THE SUN, MOON AND STARS IN THE SELECTED TEXTS 34

CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION … … … 47

REFERENCES … … … … … … … … … 48

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CHAPTER ONE

CULTURE AND ASTRONOMY IN AFRICA

1.1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF ASTRONOMY

A definition of astronomy and cultural astronomy is particularly important for a better

understanding of this work, ‘Cultural Astronomy in African Literature’. Astronomy is

intimately connected to our ideas of ourselves, our purpose and place in the universe. Celebre

and Sariano (7) stress that it is a science that has a universal appeal because it encompasses

all fields of human interest and endeavour. It is more than the science of the stars. Nicholas

Campion (2) argues that currently it is fuelling myths, beliefs and ideologies as much as at

any time in its history. Therefore astronomy as the word applies is the scientific study of the

celestial (heavenly) bodies, and this, to many uneducated majority, is believed to have started

with the age of formal learning which came with the Europeans. But history holds it that

before the period of colonialism, Africans had practiced astronomy in a well defined manner,

that they had studied the celestial bodies for direction and guidance for the purpose of social,

cultural, economic and religious beliefs. Johnson Urama in his article Astronomy and

Culture in Nigeria points out that astronomy arose independently in many parts of the world

out of a practical human need of calendar, telling time and direction finding and ‘astronomy

is a vital part of the culture of mankind’ (Urama 235).

1.1.1 Cultural Astronomy

In an article, ‘Introduction: Cultural Astronomy’, Nicholas Campion believes that

cultural astronomy has been said to be the use of astronomical knowledge, beliefs or theories

to inspire, inform or influence social forms and ideologies of any aspect of human behaviour

(Campion xv). Urama (235) is also of the opinion that cultural astronomy can be seen in the

interpretation of the worldview, cosmology and creation myths, indigenous lore of celestial

bodies, calendars, cycles, seasons and festivals because it focuses on the many ways people

and cultures interact with celestial bodies. One may ask, what do people see when they look

at the night sky? The answer is as much a cultural as an astronomical one. This implies that

‘the study of cultural astronomies is concerned with diversities of the way in which cultures,

both ancient and modern, perceive celestial objects and integrate them into their view of the

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world. C. Ruggles & N. Saunders in Astronomy and Culture argue that a society’s view of

and belief about the celestial sphere are inextricably linked to the realm of politics,

economics, religion and ideology. In this case, cultural astronomy is but part of the wider

endeavour of investigating and interpreting human culture (Ruggles and Saunders 1).

1.3 THE BELIEF, CULTURE, ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE AND THEORIES

OF SOME COMMUNITIES OF AFRICA

Culture is the totality of what is learnt by an individual as a member of a society. That

is to say that the totality of all the values, laws, conventions, customs and traditions by which

a society is governed or recognized or known is culture. No society can exist without culture.

Human nature is filled with traditions and superstitions connected with the cosmos, therefore,

astronomy has its origin in all human traits and curiosity. Felix Chami stresses that the sun

and moon have been used by Africans to regulate their monthly and annual activities

sometimes more unconsciously than consciously (Chami129). Astronomical knowledge is

therefore passed on as word of mouth in symbolic stories and records of astronomy appear in

oral tradition as well as written literary works of Africa. Much astronomical knowledge of

African people has been incorporated into their art and architecture. Some early cultures of

the people of Africa tried to make sense of what they saw in the sky, and these cosmological

ideas are grounded in myths of the people. These astronomical observations were used by

ancient people of Africa to reinforce their religious beliefs and they are also linked with

ancient culture of the people. They are developed out of the people’s desire to have concrete

manifestation of their gods and religious beliefs.

In Northern Africa, sky watching plays a major role in agricultural and ceremonial

lives of the people. Pyramids built in Egypt are built in such a way that the people will not

find it difficult to watch the sky. The Egyptians are using the knowledge of astronomical

events like the appearance of Sirius star to time their farming season because they start

farming when the Nile is at its peak in order to enhance easy irrigation. Men gifted in

mysticism also see astronomical insights as extremely important success variable in their act

and Egypt is known for mysticism. The appearance of the new moons is also of great

importance to them as they use them to know when to perform certain sacrifices.

John Fix supports this by saying that “the Egyptians developed and used astronomy

entirely for practical purposes, such as developing a calendar to be used for predicting the

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Nile flood and in building temples and monuments”; that some temples in Egypt are also

aligned with respect to the rising point of bright stars. For instance J.D. Fix in his Astronomy

Journey to the Cosmos Frontier points out the temple of Amun-Ra at Karmak was aligned

with respect to the rising or setting of the sun at the time of summer solstice He also argues

that “it is possible that much of what we usually consider Greek astronomy was based on

much earlier work done in Egypt” (Fix 26). Ka’ba, the cubic structure in Mecca is a central focus in Islam. There is the Qur’anic

injunction for Muslims to face Ka’ba while offering their prayers. Qibla (direction to Mecca)

therefore became important for the erection of religious structures of traditional Islamic

cities. M. E. Bonine shows that in most cases a mosque is a rectangular building which has

one of its walls facing in the direction of Mecca. This wall is the qibla wall that contains the

mihrab or prayer-niche that indicates this sacred direction for prayer (Bonine 145-146). He

also stresses on the relationship between the qibla and urban structure of several principal

Tunisian cities, indicating that astronomical phenomena are significant on the Islamic

settlement orientation. The same thing is applicable to other Islamic African nations or

communities. Their hour and manner of prayers are portrayed in their literary works. During

the Islamic Middle Ages various Muslim scholars devised diagrams of the world divided into

various sectors about Ka’ba. Each sector is identified with specific rising or setting of

prominent stars or star groups (e.g. the Pleiades) or in terms of the sunrise or sunset at the

solstices. The earliest mosque in Egypt, the Mosque of Amr in Fustat (the predecessor

settlement south of the future Cairo), for instance, was built facing the winter sunrise (King

315 - 328).

In almost all Igbo areas of Nigeria in West Africa, the Supreme Being “Chukwu” is

commonly identified with the sun “Anyanwu”. In Igbo cosmology the Supreme Being is

often described as “Anyanwu Eze Chukwu Okike” which when translated is the Sun, the Lord,

the Creator. The Igbo people identifying the sun with their creator, therefore depicts that

their lives are centered on the moon, the sun and stars. Even though there were no watches or

clocks in the olden days as we have today, the rising and setting of the sun was used to

predict the morning and evening. Also the position of the shadow cast on the people in the

sun was used to predict the time. In Nsukka, a town in Enugu State Nigeria which is a typical

Igbo setting almost every household has a shrine of anyanwu in its compound as a round

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pottery dish sunk into the ground bottom upwards at the base of an ogbu tree. This shrine is

where they worship the sun god Anyanwu and it is called onu anyanwu. Urama (235) in

supports this argues that there can be little doubt that this pottery dish there is used as

representing the disk of the sun and offerings at the shrine are made at sunrise and at sunset

to the sun god. Baths Chukwuezi also stresses that the sun is seen as the harbinger of the day

and night. It regulates when to work and when to rest and sleep. The sun he also says is

revered and respected. The sun is feared and regarded as harsh yet the sun is the giver of life

and strength (Chukwuezi 213-214).

In Igbo traditional societies, people after the day’s activities gather according to their

peer groups to enjoy the full moon and to tell stories. The moon is therefore an important

object in Igbo oral literary tradition. The Igbos also use uli sacred writings. These writings

are mystical symbols and these mystical symbols are used to adorn the walls of houses in the

form of the moon, the sun and the stars. They also have mystical symbolism understood and

used by ‘dibias’ – traditional medicine men who have specific role to play using

astronomical insights because they are gifted in mysticism. The sittings of the moon or rather

the positions of the moon in the sky; are also used in Igbo society as signs to predict the

future.

The Igbo week is a time period of four days. These days are Eke, Oye, Afor and

Nkwo. The week is called ‘Izu’ or ‘Nkwizu’. Seven of these Igbo week make the Igbo

calendar month which is a lunar month of twenty-eight days. This Igbo calendar is even

named after the moon – onwa. J.A. Ume stresses that “during this period of twenty-eight

days, the moon comes out and shines for 14 days and goes in for 14 days” and that “The four

phases of the moon are of great importance to Igbo Dibia’s works particularly the new moon

(onwa ofuu) and the full moon (onwa kpolu oku). Certain sacrifices or ogwu are made when

the moon is waning, some when it is waxing and some when the moon has gone in (i.e.,

moonless nights or period)”. (Ume 43)

The moon also influences various activities of the Igbo people as the various phases

of the moon have different significance. All the Igbo calendar months have activities ascribed

to them. For instance, the third month is the period of planting though if the rain comes early,

planting could start in the second month (Chukwuezi 213).

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These celestial entities – the sun, moon and stars are in the sky or heaven which is

called ‘Igwe’ in Igbo language. There is one Igbo adage which says that ‘Igwe ka ala’

literally transmitted as heaven is higher than the earth. This saying clearly places the heaven

high in Igbo custom Heavenly entities are also placed high in Igbo customs and so they are

revered and respected.

The stars which are called kpakpando in Igbo language are also admired by the

people. Shooting stars have social significance for the Igbo. They believe that when a

shooting star appears in the sky an important person – probably a king is dead or about to die.

It is also believed that shooting stars are associated with good omens, that is, something good

is about to happen (Chukwuezi 214).

The Yorubas who are the people that inhabit the western part of Nigeria also have

much astronomical knowledge and some of these learning are incorporated into their art and

architecture. They have the belief that the whole people of Yoruba originated from the sun

god (Abanuka 81). A good number of their myths and folklores are about the sun, moon and

the stars. The traditional Yoruba society’s culture is rooted in myths, therefore, the moon, sun

and stars as natural phenomena are very important to the Yoruba society because their myths

are deeply rooted in much sacrifice to the Yoruba gods. The phase of the moon, the rising

and setting of the sun and the appearance of certain stars determine the kind of sacrifices to

be made and when they will be made.

As different cultures have different interpretations of some behaviours of the moon,

sun and stars, the people of East Africa also rely on the sky entities for ordering events of

their lives. In the eastern part of Tanzania inhabited by the Wahehe of the mountains who

speak the dialects of Kisungwa, Kikami, Kiyenga and Kihafiwa, the occupations of the

inhabitants are mainly peasant farming, animal husbandry and hunting, and so the people

examine the sky and the ways they visualize the sky are shown through their beliefs and

astronomical practices. This is seen in their lores of celestial bodies and seasons. Sun

watching plays a major role in their agricultural and ceremonial life. There are also specific

stars that are believed to direct the hunters in the forest.

Chami (129) presents the Eastern and Southern Africa cultural lives: they have a

widespread painting/engraving of sun/moon discs. He points out that the Muslim

communities of the Swahili people of Tanzania are known to have used celestial bodies as

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calendar for religious, sailing and other economic purposes. The Mwaka Kogwa festival, he

also says, heralding the beginning of the New Year, is one of the activities related to the

calendar. He also highlights that the Chaga of Kilimanjaro hold their sun-god Iruwa as the

highest god – Mungu: That the Bible has been directly translated into Kichaga language

among the Lutherans and the translation of ‘God’ in Bible as Iruwa – the sun-god of Chaga

people is because the sun is believed to have ruled and created the world and the moon has

always been viewed as the sun’s concert.

From the beliefs, cultural astronomical knowledge and theories of some African

communities that are discussed it is obvious that man’s curiosity to know about his

environment extended to the heavenly bodies – the sun, moon and the stars. Therefore

African communities just like the whole face of the universe experience astronomical

practices in different ways and forms. Most of these ethno-astronomical views are revealed in

the folklore, ancient architecture, religious practices, traditional poetry and art works of

different ethnic groups. This antiquity determines the special place which astronomy has

occupied in the history of human culture. Astronomical science therefore is seen having

originated in a much earlier period of human history than other natural sciences and these

archeo-astronomical practices serve as basis for the modern astronomy.

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CHAPTER TWO

REPRESENTAION OF SKY ENTITIES IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

All great literatures give a true or a believable picture of life and events of a particular

time and in a particular place. Some African writers have reflected astronomical practices of

their times and places in their works of art, and since writers are very sensitive about the

conditions around them, we look into their works to find such practices and beliefs.

In African traditional imagination, power is an aspect of beauty. It is the expression of

vitality mixed with mystery (Obiechina 47). The sky entities manifest natural and

supernatural power and the feeling this power inspires is reverence and fear. The sun, the

moon and the stars are therefore perceived in their powerful, vital, beneficial or harmful

aspects. Many creative expressions in Africa depict these sky entities; how they are

represented in African literature reveals that cosmic nature is so intimately integrated into the

lives and experiences of Africans; and the conscious and sub-conscious levels of their mind

are saturated with it.

2.1 Representation of the Sun in African Literature:

The ancient Egyptian literature just like other ancient literatures is primarily religious

in orientation. The ancient cultures saw the world as permeated by the sacred (Westling et al.

73). The literary remains of the religious hymns of Egypt depict the Egyptian sun god Aton

(or Aten) as the sole deity of Egyptian religion. This is reflected in Hymn to the sun by the

Pharaoh Akhenaton (c. 1375 BCE). This poem reflects Akhenaton’s radical effort to make

Aton the sole deity by saying that it is the god of creation. When the earth is full of darkness

as if in death, it is the sun that created the world after his desire - all mankind, cattle, wild

beast, creeping and flying animals. ‘The world came into being by the hand of this sun god

according as he makes them all’ (Westling et al. 73) When thou settest in the western horizon

The land in darkness as if in death (lines 1-2) How manifold it is What thou has made! It is hidden from the face of man

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Thou sole god, without they like, Thou didst create the world after their desire, Whilst thou went alone: All mankind, cattle and wild beast, Whatever goes by foot upon the earth. Whatever flies on high wings (20-30) The world came onto being by thy hand, According as thou make them all (29-30)

(From Hymn to the Sun Translated by John Wilson)

Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah depicts the sun as a god or deity too. Ikem

Oshodi, one of the major characters in the novel, composed a hymn to the sun to celebrate his

victory over a taxi driver. He beats the taxi driver in the game of maneuvering for space by

motorists during a severe traffic jam. Ikem is a journalist. He is invited by his friend Chris

Oriko to cover a goodwill delegation from ‘Abazon’ at the Reception Room of the

Presidential Palace. The traffic jam on the road made him to be late for several hours. Taxi

drivers always win whenever there is such traffic jam in overtaking private drivers because

‘owner driver will sooner concede his place than risk a dent on his smooth precious

carapace’. (29) Ikem broke the jinx for the first time in traffic history of the land in winning

the taxi driver and that night he composed his hymn to the sun. In the hymn, the sun is

severely conceptualized as ‘Great carrier of sacrifice to the Almighty: Single Eye of God’,

‘Wide - eyed insomanic’, ‘Undying Eye of God’, ‘One – wall – neighbour to blindness’ and

Great Messenger of the Creator. (30). Damian Opata in his article Cultural Astronomy in the

Lore and Literature of Africa points out that these appellations stand in sharp contrast to the

role of the sun in the unfolding crisis and dictatorship in Kagan, the fictional country in

which the novel is set (Opata 221).

Achebe expresses the suffering of the people of Abazon caused by the sun. The sun

has breathed fire and the citizens of Abazon ‘have been slowly steamed into well-done

mutton since February’ (27) because of the delay of the first rainfall. This intense sun

continued up to April which is supposed to be the time for rains. Opata in Delay and Justice

in the Lore and Literature of Igbo Extraction also stresses that in ‘the hymn to the sun’

composed by Ikem that ‘it would appear that the sun is being chided for not doing what he

should be doing and for apparently appearing to have taken sides with the dictatorship’.

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There is a direct accusation leveled against the sun for seemingly taking sides with the

dictator’. This is because Achebe links the havoc caused by the sun with the recklessness and

mindlessness of the dictatorial regime under review in the novel (Opata 28).

The effect of the sun on activities in this novel Anthills of the Savannah is traumatic

and a lot of damages are brought to the people. The trees had become hydra-headed bronze statues so ancient that only blunt

residual features remained on their faces, like anthills surviving to tell the new grass of the savannah about last years brush fires. Household animals were dead. First the pig fried in their own fat; and then the sheep and goats and cattle choked by their swollen tongues (31)

In the end even the clouds were subdued though they had held out longest. Their

bedraggled bands rushed their last pathetic resources from place to place in a brave but confused effort to halt the monumental fountains of the sun’s incendiary hosts. For this affronts the sun wreaked a terrible vengeance on them cremating their ashes to the four winds. Except that the winds had themselves fled long ago. So the clouds desecrated motes hung suspended in a mist across the whole face of the sky, and gave the sun’s light glancing off their back the merciless tint of bronze. Their dishonored shades sometimes would stir in futile insurrection at the spirit hour of noon starting a sudden furious whirling of ash and dust, only to be quickly subdued again. In the last desperate acts of the Earth would now ignite himself and send up a shield of billowing over her head. It was pitiful and misguided of the heat of the brush fires merely added to the fire of the sun. And soon anyhow, there was no fodder light to burn (32)

This terrible effect of the sun to the citizens of Abazon is not what Ikem can phantom the

reason why it is so. The people do not know the crime they have committed that they are

treated as such by ‘the Great Carrier of the Sacrifice to the Almighty’ (The sun). No one could say why the Great Carrier of sacrifice to the Almighty was doing

this to the world (32)

In the Hymn to the sun Ikem composed, ‘the sun is almost being reprimanded for abandoning

the people’ and there ‘is a direct address and challenge to the sun, a challenge arising from a

trauma in the life of the people, leading them to doubting the enormity of whatever

unforgivable crime (Opata 221).

In contrast to the terrible part the sun plays to the damage of the whole creation in

Anthills of the Savannah; man, animals, trees, grasses, birds, clouds, etc, the sun is also seen

as giving inspiration to people. Ikem Oshodi composed this ‘Hymn to the Sun’ because he

sees his victory as the work of the sun. Ikem heaved a very deep sigh and then, gallant in victory, pronounced it to the work of the sun (30)

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Therefore the hymn to the sun reveals the great powers of the sun. In traditional imagination

the sun is not always conceived of as beneficent but it is full of threatening possibilities.

‘In Dennis Brutus’ poem The Sun on This Rubble, reminds us of the former apartheid

South Africa. The sun piercing its rays on the heap of earth after rain gives an impression of

a respite to the blacks. Nwachukwu-Agbada et al. (212) point out that ‘during apartheid era

in South Africa the brutalization of the blacks was a common feature and any little relaxation

of the ‘pass laws’ and other suffocating policies was seen by the people as a needed respite

which offered them some hope of a better and improved future’. The sudden rays of the sun

in the midst of the rubble are appreciated. The rays of the sun have the capacity of injecting

new life and vigour to the crunched bodies and spirit of the people. The sun rays therefore

become invigorating forces that strengthens the oppressed blacks.

The Sun on this Rubble The sun on this rubble after rain Bruised though we must be Some easement we require Unarguably, though we argue against desire 5 Under jackboots our bones and spirits crunch forced into sweat-tear-sodden slush now glow-hipped by this sudden touch Sun-striped perhaps, our bones may latter sing or spell out some malignant nemesis 10 Sharpevilled to spearpoints for revenging but now our pride-dumped mouth are wide in worldless supplications are grateful for the least relief from pain like this sun on this debris after rain

The sun rays become an invigorating force that strengthens the oppressed blacks to the extent

that the once suppressed voices of the people are regaining their power of speech (lines 7-9).

The first line of the poem indicates the coming of the new reality, ‘The sun on the rubble

after rain’. The poet compares the new reality which is the glimmer of hope to the shining

sun on debris – the last line of the poem. The sun shining on the debris after rain symbolizes

the arrival of the new dawn and they (the blacks in South Africa) ‘are grateful for the least

relief from pain’. This repetition is also meant to serve as the reassurance of the reality of the

relief in the pains of the people. The sun is like a glimmer of hope after many years of

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suffering. This new experience that has come with the rising of the sun depicts that the

shining such is esteemed highly in African culture.

In Birago Diop’s poem Omen, the sun is also portrayed as a source of protection in all

stages of human life.

‘Omen’ by Birago Diop

A naked sun - a yellow sun A sun all naked at early dawn Pours waves of gold over the bank of the river of yellow A naked sun – a white sun A sun all naked, and white Pour waves of silver Over the river of white A naked sun – a red sun A sun all naked and red Pours waves of red blood

Over the river of red K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent’s A Selection of African Poetry (33) argue that this poem is

typical of Birago Diop, who is preoccupied in many of his poems with that aspect of African

culture which emphasizes the importance of and the guiding spirit of our ancestors. This

creative work is influenced by Diop’s experiences, his early life at Dakar in Senegal through

his life in France where he studied veterinary Science. The colours of the sun symbolize

stages of his life: the dawn of his life – his childhood symbolized by ‘a yellow sun’, his youth

by ‘a white sun’ and his old age by ‘a red sun’. He strongly believes in the protection given

him by the spirit of his ancestors against all ills. No matter the colour of the river, it blends

with the colour of the naked sun; signifying that the spirits of his ancestors are always

available to protect and inspire him. The sun portrayed to be ‘a naked sun’ shows that there is

no hidden agenda of the ancestral heritage of the Africans. Africans are therefore encouraged

to remember their roots. It is only by maintaining close relationship with our ancestors that

will make us to learn this wisdom and secure our protection in all stages of our lives. His

using the sun as a symbol of our ancestors depicts the position of the sun in African

traditional belief and culture

2.2 The Representation of the Moon in African Literature

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In African tradition, some historic annual, biannual and perennial events are not

randomly fixed by mortal men; rather some signs in the sky believed to be messages from the

gods are used to avoid the wrath of the gods and other calamities. Such festival like New

Yam festival, Cult or Masquerade initiation, burial and funeral ceremonies, offering of

sacrifices to mention but four are therefore programmed pending on astronomical

observations. Opata (226) confirms this thus: The timing of events is so important to traditional peoples and things could go

wrong both in the physical and spirit when things do not take place the time they are supposed to take place.

These astronomical signs include the appearing of the new moon, sunrise or sunset and the

appearance of specific stars. The respective significance of these signs is to the knowledge of

the high/chief priests who order the annunciation of dates to various activities.

In Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, it is believed by the people of Umuaro that the

relationship they have with their religious and agricultural existence is designed by the gods.

Ezeulu, the protagonist of the novel and the chief priest of Ulu is the custodian of the

timetable of the events of the people. This timetable of events depends on the moon. His hut

is therefore built differently from other men’s hut so that it would be easier for him to do his

sky watching. His obi was built differently from other men’s hut. There was the usual, long threshold in front but also a shorter one on the right as you entered. The eaves on this additional entrance were cut back so that sitting on the floor Ezeulu could watch that part of the sky where the moon had its door. (1)

On sighting the moon, he announces it by beating the metal gong, then women and children

follow suit giving out shouts of joy welcoming the moon. The sky entities are approached

within African tradition with a mixture of feelings; as shown in welcoming of the new moon

by the people in Ezeulu’s compound: The little children in Ezeulu’s compound joined the rest in welcoming the moon

Obiageli’s tiny voice stood out like a small ogene among drums and flutes. The chief priest could also make out the voice of his youngest son, Nwafo. The women too were in the open talking

‘Moon’ said the senior wife Matefi, ‘May your face meeting mine bring good fortune’.

‘Where is it’ asked Ugoye, the younger wife. ‘I don’t see it or am I blind?’ ‘Don’t you beyond the top of the ukwa tree? Not there. Follow my finger’. ‘Oho, I see it. Moon, may your face meeting mine bring good fortune. But how

is it sitting I don’t like its posture’. ‘Why?’ asked Matefi ‘I think it sits awkwardly - like an evil moon’.

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‘No’, said Matefi. ‘A bad moon does not leave anyone in doubt. Like the one under which Okuata died. Its legs were up in the air’. (2)

The people utter their wishes to the moon for protection: ‘Moon may your face meeting mine

bring good fortune’. This reflects the religious importance of the moon in Igbo society. The

Chief Priest of Ulu then enters his barn, take one yam from the bambo platform built

specially for the twelve sacred yams, roasts one and eats it with no palm oil and also alone

not giving anybody. These are for him to order the annunciation of dates of the community’s

festivals which is the significance of the moon to the community. Ezeulu as the Chief Priest

is only a messenger for the god – Ulu and he is supposed to be very careful to avoid the

wrath of the gods. The counting of the moon is therefore not just done in Igbo society to

fulfill all righteousness; rather it is an important timing event which is to be taken serious by

both the living and the dead.

In order to maintain the accuracy of the timing, Ezeulu watches the sky for many

nights to see the moon on the first day of its appearance in the sky. This shows how he is

dedicated to the gods and his people. It is the culture of the people to strive never to offend

the gods. This was the third nightfall since he began to look for signs of the new moon. He knew it would come today but he always began his watch three days early because he must not take a risk. In this season of the year his task was not too difficult, he did not have to peer and search the sky as he might do when the rain comes. The new moon sometimes hid itself for four days behind the rain cloud so that when it finally comes out it was already half grown. And while it played its game the Chief Priest sat up every evening waiting. (1)

During the rainy season it is always a difficult task for Ezeulu to watch the appearance of the

new moon as the clouds cover the sky but duty calls for it. As his duty is for his people and

the gods he patiently keeps watching and waiting every evening until it appears.

Ezeulu in observing the moon and obeying the gods becomes a powerful person in

Umuaro - the powers invested upon him by the gods. If he refuses to announce the new moon

and to name the days of the festivals, there will be no planting and reaping in his community.

He cannot do it. No Chief Priest had ever refused. Whenever Ezeulu considered the immensity of his power over the years and the crops and, therefore, over the people he wondered if it was real. It was true he named the day for the feast of the Pumpkin Leaves and for the New Yam Feast; but he did not choose it. He was merely a watchman. His power was no more than the powers of a child over a goat that was said to be his. As long as the goat was alive it could be his; he would find it food and take care of it. But the day it was slaughtered he would know soon enough who the real owner was. No! the

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Chief Priest of Ulu was more than that, must be more than that. If he should refuse the day there would be no festival – no planting and no reaping. But could he refuse? No Chief Priest had ever refused. So it could not be done. He would not dare . . . (3).

Ezeulu in the bid to obey the god Ulu and serve his people refuses to accept to be the

Warrant Chief Captain Winterbottom offered him at Okperi. His refusal provoked the anger

of the Captain Winterbottom, the colonial administrator and he was detained for thirty-two

days ‘until he learns to cooperate with the Administration’ (197). This leads to delay of

announcing the New Yam festival because Ezeulu was not at Umuaro to eat two of his sacred

yams. Nobody is qualified to do his job. Nwafor, his youngest son even felt the job of his

father, the Chief Priest of Ulu, as he (Nwafor) sights the moon when his father was at Okperi

but could not help the situation. This delay caused lots of havoc to the religious and

agricultural lives of the people and even led to the tragic end of the novel. The sky entities

are therefore so overpowering and are intimately connected with basic survival of the

traditional society. Therefore, the disasters which fall upon the rural communities through not

observing the rules of following the sky entities or nature is not romantic or one of aesthetic

enjoyment but a reality.

In Gabriel Okara’s Moon in the Bucket, the moon is used as a symbol of peace and

concord. Okara was born in the in Nembe in the Rivers States of Nigeria. He witnessed the

Nigerian Biafra Civil war and this influenced his war poems. Through many of his poems, he

reflects on the uncertainties and the frustration of human life. His war poems show his deep

concern for the violence and ravages of war and the destruction of human life. Ordinarily

Okara is a peaceful and quiet man and so the war sharpened his longing for harmony and his

hatred for division that plague human relationships (Senanu and Vincent 1976). This poem

Moon in the bucket is a plea for sanity, truth and love.

Moon in the bucket Look! Look out there In the bucket 5 with water unclean

Look! A luminous plate is floating – The moon dancing to the gentle night wind Look all you who shout across the wall 10 With a million hates look at the wall It is peace unsoiled by the murk and dirt of this bucket war

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‘A luminous plate’ emits bright light. A full moon looks like a flat, round plate especially

when it is reflected in water. He pleads that the people should please look at this moon. The

people who ‘shout across the wall’ should look out for this moon in the bucket with dirty

water. ‘The wall’ here is not a physical wall, but a barrier of hatred and discord which people

have erected between themselves and across which they cannot reach out to others (line 9).

Although the water is dirty, it still reflects the moon. (Lines 11-12) Okara therefore in uses

the moon as a symbol of peace to reflect generally the culture of his people; their high esteem

for the moon.

The moon is also represented in African Literature as a means of idiomatic expression

of terrible happenings. This is clearly seen ‘in the Structural Role of Moon’ in The Poor

Christ of Bomba. The third part of this novel by Mongo Beti examines the structural role of

the moon – the full moon in September.

In the narrators (Denis’s) speech that portrays the colonial missionaries and their role

in the colonizing process, he uses the full moon to describe the ironic contradictions in the

image of the Father Drumont, the parish priest of Bomba. Beti presents the image of the

priest as that of a bullying, choleric, insensitive and ignorant individual. He labours under the

arrogant assumption that what he is propagating is superior to anything the native

Camerounians have or know. He lacks Christian charity in his dealings with the parishioners

and his attitude is one of disgust and contempt for the people he is supposed to be saving

from darkness and damnation. Beti therefore presents colonialism as a master – slave

relationship, as a system that is physically, socially and spiritually oppressive of a particular

group of people it pretends to be saving. In order to ridicule the white man’s bastardization of

African systems and the white man’s equation of his technological superiority over the black

man in every other aspect of life, including religion and social organisation, Beti uses Denis’

expression of the full moon that is swollen and pregnant to portray the level of failure of the

Parish Priest in all his seen ‘hard works’ in Bomba (the sixa is used as example). It (the sexual harassments, abuses, and the diseases contacted from these actions) reminds me of the appearance of the full moon in September, when my mother was. Still alive and I was very young. She said to me: ‘look at the moon. Isn’t it larger than all other moons? As if it were swollen? Well, that’s because it’s with child! It’s carrying the baby which it bears every year, just at this season: the rains. . . And in fact, the appearance of the moon provoked a series of rains which didn’t stop till near Christmas. Just like that accursed tour, which has brought on a

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whole series of catastrophes? But I know so little of this new kind of season that I wonder not only when it will finish, but whether it will ever finish. If only he’d had the excellent notion of letting his Vicar go, perhaps we’d have avoided the whole business? (167).

The moon looking as if it is swollen because it is with child depicts the way the sky

entities are used in African tradition as idiomatic expressions. When a moon is said to be

pregnant it only means that terrible things are going to happen. It is used in the context

because The Poor Christ of Bomba examines the roles of religion in colonialism; the colonial

masters’ religious operation brings more harm than good to the people of Bomba. The moon

used in this expression is likened to the accursed tour of Father Drumont and his cook

Zacharia which brought out to everybody’s knowledge a whole series of catastrophes in the

sixa. The presentations are steeped in irony as Beti seeks to invalidate the assumption of

superiority in everything which colonialists used as a justification of their graven trampling

on other people’s customs and beliefs.

2.3 The Representation of the Stars in African Literature

The stars just as the sun and the moon are also represented in African Literature. In

Peter Abraham’s Mine Boy, Xuma the main protagonist of the novel is introduced to the city

with its excitements and heart-aches. Emmanuel Obiechina’s ‘Peter Abraham’s Mine Boy’ in

Okike Educational Supplement argues that Xuma is in love with Eliza while Eliza is in love

with an ideal because she is more deeply committed to her dreams for refined and

comfortable life such as is guaranteed only to the whites under the apartheid system (33).

Xuma’s love for Eliza is full of pains. Maisy, another woman, is in love with Xuma. So

where Eliza causes Xuma pains; Maisy constantly brings him comfort. One night, Xuma

goes to a street corner outside Leah’s house to think over his love problem. This is a night of

conflicting emotions for him. The conflict is between his love for Eliza and his realization

that Maisy is the more stable of the two women. The situation is so because the ways of the

city are strange. Things are not the same as it is in the North where he comes from. He

decides to stare at the Milky Way. The object of his thought suddenly changes to the stars.

He sees his dead mother as one of the stars that fill the sky. The ways of the city are truly strange, He decided as he stared at the Milky Way The old folk said that those who died became stars. He wondered if his mother was a star and whether she was up there and whether she could see him.

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‘Mother. Mother, are you there among the stars? And can you see me?’ He chuckled to himself, Fool! to be talking at the stars. It reminded him of his dog who always bayed at the moon. As if the moon cared (53)

Even though Xuma sees himself as a fool to be talking to the stars, this passage brings out

clearly the belief of his people that dead people become stars. He only sees himself as a fool

because his mother will not come out physically to relieve him from his traumatic strange

experiences in the city. It can also mean that his mother who has joined his ancestors has

also ceased to care for the living. Their ancestors as stars are there in the sky while they are

suffering all these humiliations from the whites. There is more joy in the rural life but he is

now far from this joy. One thing that is pointed out here is that Africans believe that their

ancestors appear and shine as stars in the sky and they drive joy watching the sky to see these

stars. The stars are his people’s source of stability and emotional anchor. The more reason

why Xuma stares to the sky is because he wants a moment of real enjoyment which he

believes the stars will offer him. These stars will give him not only inspiration but also

solutions to his problems.

Also in Titus Chukwuemeka Nwosu’s Star dust, he uses ‘dust-laden star’ as a symbol

of Nat his friend. This brings out clearly the belief of Igbo people that dead heroes are seen

as stars.

Star dust (for Nat)

Harvest is no blessing When death is the crop; He was both the crop and the harvest The plough-man and the ploughshare That cut and was cut both ways! Full armed warrior hammered out of steel; Muscled eye of the embattle bread. Now no more shall your sun

10 Belch out fire – bolt Nor mortar music mob your ears Nor your amour out shine others! Dust-laden star that gripped A blazing torch in both hands

15 Whose steel-thews could Smother the midday heat: Lion with blood-light hazel eyes Throttled by forest of fate.

As you go laurel denied 20 Your voice crushed like a wayside rose

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screams to admit Chimney-pity and window- feeling. How the ululations of those cruel hours Have so hastily passed

25 Like April showers! What noble sieve the human memory! O graveless one that must cling To the harshest wings of irony Forgive me forgive us

30 These impenitent lapses … No the gods are not angry, we are; For these dark rain-clouds That now hang over our eyes Will eat through to our hearts

35 And make a bitter cold of lasting sorrow. The title of this poem can be taken to mean the remains of a star after it has burnt itself out.

The implication of this title is death. This poem is an elegy bewailing the death of a

courageous and noble friend who died suddenly in an air-raid during the Nigerian civil war.

The poet adopts three-part movement of traditional dirge in this poem. The first part sings the

praise of his friend through striking metaphors of his marital and moral courage which he

says that only fate could have ended his life so abruptly. The second part is the poet’s

laments of the ill luck that has overtaken his friend in that his friends are not able to accord

him full burial rites. The third part which ends the poem is a statement of lingering sorrow

his friend’s death causes. Dust – laden star that gripped A blazing torch in both hands (lines 13 – 14)

This can be seen as play on the title of the poem or a variation of it (Senanu and Vincent

1996). A ‘dust-laden star’ means a star that is covered by dust which hides its brightness and

light. Senanu and Vincent (1976) also stresses that Nat actually died on the road in Aba. His

car which contains explosives was sprayed with gunfire and he died in the instant explosion

that followed. It is because the Igbos see their dead people as stars that this title ‘Star dust’ is

used. The remains of Nat can only be likened to the remains of a star after it has burnt itself.

In some part of Igbo society, when a titled man dies, the high priest and other titled members

of his age grade watch for a special star which will appear in the honour of the exist of the

great man for his burial and the man will be buried with his face facing the east from which

the star rises.

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We find out that many literary works of art in different parts of Africa have discussed

astronomical practices as part of the culture of Africans in their philosophical contexts. These

types of astronomical practices fall into what is learned in astronomy as ethnoastronomy

which is part of cultural astronomy. Analyzing these beliefs, events and astronomical

practices in different parts of Africa as they are recorded or represented in African literature,

it is a very clear fact that some of these ancient astronomical practices are still practices in

African societies till date.

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CHAPTER THREE

DEIFICATION OF THE SUN, MOON AND STARS IN SELECTED TEXTS

It is believed by the people of traditional African Societies that in the ancient time,

the sun, moon and stars in the sky had a relationship with their existence as designed by the

gods. This affected their behaviours and cultural practices to a great extent. This is clearly

seen in their worship of these sky entities. Therefore worship of the sky entities is rampant in

traditional African Societies.

Damian Opata points out that the most widely noted worship of the sun is the worship

of Aten – the Egyptian sun god (219). He also stresses on the worship of the sun in Igbo

society. Many homes in contemporary Igbo society, he says, still have the Onu Anyanwu –

the shrine dedicated to the sun (219 – 220). In Nsukka area, almost every household in the

olden days had a shrine to Anyanwu in the compound consisting of round pottery dish sunk

into the ground bottom upwards at the base of ogbu tree. Urama (235) argues that there can

be little doubt that this pottery dish is used to represent the sun’s disc. He also points out that

in some cases the Anyanwu (sun-god) shrine is a mound of sand. The mound of sand, just

like the pottery dish, may be a representation of the sun disc.

In Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, through the ‘Hymn to the Sun’

composed by Ikem Oshodi, he expresses clearly the worship of the sun in Igbo society and

the reasons for the deification of the sun. The Hymn to the sun reveals that the sun has great

powers. The sun is the messenger of God. The people of Abazon offer their prayers and

sacrifices to him (the Great Messenger of the Creator) to take to God so that God will send

down rain to them. Therefore the sun is portrayed as the messenger of God; accorded a deific

status (Opata 222). These prayers and sacrifices are offered to the sun not because the sun is

the Almighty God rather he is a messenger that will take the offerings to the Almighty God,

the Creator. This clearly proves that the Igbo people see their shrines as the way to the

Almighty God just as Christians see Jesus Christ as the way to the Almighty God. This is the

more reason why Okonkwo in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart cannot phantom why the

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European missionaries will promote their way of worshipping God and destroy the traditional

African way of worshipping God.

In Birago Diop’s ‘Omen’ the phases of the sun are used to represent the stages of life

of the poet. A yellow sun represented by the early dawn symbolizes the childhood life of the

poet, a white sun represented by the waves of silver symbolizes the youthful life of the poet

and a red sun represented by red blood symbolizes the old age life of the poet. The sun in this

poem ‘Omen’ represents the guiding spirit of the ancestors of the poet. It emphasizes the

ability of the ancestral spirits in guiding and protecting their people in all stages of human

life, therefore this poem can be seen as a song sang to the praise of the ancestors. This

implies that it is a kind of worship to the ancestors through the sun-god.

One can also see that the phases of the sun – from sunrise to sunset are important in

traditional religion. Some temples are aligned with respect to the rising point of the sky

entities which is a very important phenomenon in traditional African religion. A typical

example is the temple of Amun-Ra at Karmak (Egypt) which was aligned with respect to the

rising or setting of the sun at the time of summer solstice (Fix 26). In Ancient Egypt, most

Egyptian literature is written in verse, and like other ancient literature it is primarily religious

in orientation. One of the remains of religious hymns among Egyptian literary works known

as the Hymn to the sun by the Pharaoh Akhenaton (c. 1375 BC), depicts the sole Egyptian

deity as the sun-god Alon (or Aten). Pharaoh Akhenaton also expresses the reason for the

deification of the sun. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun-god and took it as their sole

god because without the sun, there would be no creation and the world would die in perpetual

darkness. They believed that everything is made to flourish because of this powerful sun-god

through whom the eyes of men were fixed on beauty until the sun sets and all work was laid

aside. When thou set test in the Western horizon, The land is in darkness as if in death Men sleep in a room with heads wrapped up And no eye sees another. (lines 1 – 4) At daybreak, when thou risest on the horizon, When thou shinest as the sun disk by day, Thou drivest away darkness and givest thy rays; Then the two lands are in daily festivity: Men awake and stand upon their feet, For thou hast raised them up. They wash their bodies and take their clothing, Their arms raised in praise at thy appearing.

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And all the world, they do their work … (lines 11 – 19) The world came in to being by thy hand, According as thou didst make them all. When thou hast risen they live, When thou set test them they die. Thou art lifetime they own self, For we live only through thee. Eyes are fixed on beauty until thou set test, All work is laid aside when thou set test in the west. But when thou risest again, Then everything is made to flourish … (From Hymn to the Sun) Translated by John A. Wilson

This Pharoah Aklenaton’s Hymn to the Sun clearly depicts the purpose of the Egyptians’

worship of the sun-god. This Egyptian Sun-god that is taken as their sole god may even be

the reason why the Logogram which is a type of Egyptian writing system is filled with (o)

(sun, light) and time (or ). These Egyptian Writing System known as the hierographic script

was more than just a writing system, because the Egyptians thought of it as the ‘divine word’

closely related to art. Both the words and art were considered sacred and magical (Westling

et al, 74)

In traditional African society the moon is also enshrined and as such a lot of sacrifices

are made to the moon. Also, strict observance of the appearances and disappearances of the

moon are important to the African people’s lives as far as other forms of sacrifices are

concerned. Opata (224) in support of the worship of the moon in African society stresses that

the moon, like the sun is sometimes deified. This is because the moon is seen as benevolent

as the sun. In Igbo society the worship of the moon is a common phenomenon. People pay

libation to the moon on its mere appearance (appearance of the new moon). Some just utter

their wishes to the moon for protection. A good example of this is seen in Chinua Achebe’s

Arrow of God where the new moon is welcomed by the people in Ezeulu’s compound.

Moon may your face meeting mine bring good fortune (2)

Ume (177-178) in support of this says that when a new moon is sighted the prayer is: Onwa Ihu mu na gi Olili olili Onunu onunu

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Literally, Moon Your face and Mine Banquets Carousals

He stresses that what the prayer is saying is that now the new moon and I have seen face to

face, happiness, merriment, success and joy would be our blessings.

Everybody in Igbo traditional society worships the moon indirectly by uttering these

wishes for protection. This is because the moon shines for everybody. It does not

discriminate. Both the young and the old enjoy the entertainment done under full moon

(Moon shine) called egwu onwa. It is also because of the benevolent nature of the moon in

Igbo society that people take the name of the moon as their title names – Onwa (Moon),

Onwa na awalu ora (the moon that shines for all) etc. In Nsukka area of Enugu State,

Nigeria, masquerading is a very important phenomenon used to depict how rich a family or

kindred is during festive seasons. Any village or kindred that feels that their own masquerade

is the most gorgeous and costly decorated calls it ‘Onwa adighi abua n’Igwe’ which means

that there is only one moon in the sky. This simply depicts that there is no other masquerade

that can be compared with theirs. This therefore reflects that the moon is highly esteemed in

Igbo society and as such worshipped in diverse ways.

The hymns of some African peoples are very important because they are elaborate

praises of their gods. Some of these hymns are on the moon. This praise may be represented

by emphasis on prayer, supplication or consideration of the relations of man to god(s). This is

true in many hymns of the moon. Ruth Finnegan’s Oral literature in Africa discusses many

of these hymns. She points out that each poem or hymn of the Bushmen of Southern Africa

opens with an invocation to the moon, sun or stars. This is then followed by a prayer for life

(that is, a prayer for food), made more intense by the repetition and parallelism of the

expression (180). Examples are ‘Ho Moon Lying There’ and ‘Young Moon’ by D.F. Bleek

and Bleek and Lloyd respectively. Ho Moon lying there, Let me early to-morrow see an ostrich, As the ostrich sits on the eggs, Let me whisk out the yolk With a gemsbok tail hair (brush) Which sits together upon a little stick Upon which the gemsbok tail sits. (D.F Bleek, 306)

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Young Moon! Hail, Young Moon! Hail, hail, Young Moon! Young Moon! Speak to me! Hail, hail, Young Moon! Tell me of something. Hail, hail! When the sun rises, Thou must speak to me, That I may eat something. Thou must speak to me about a little thing, That I may eat. Hail, hail Young Moon! (Bleek and Lloyd 415)

In these examples, the praise worship of the moon is often marked by a mixture of

mild imprecation and pleading. The hymns therefore emphasize on praying and the demand

for daily needs. This shows that there are constant and continual difficulties and scarcities of

food in the Bushman life. That is why the topics of their invocations are the day-to-day

material needs with which they are preoccupied (Finnegan 108). The prayers and worship are

made to the sky entities which are worshipped as gods in African societies.

In traditional African societies there was this obstinate and rigid belief that when

somebody dies, he will go back to where he came from. There was persistence in upholding

the fact that there is relationship between the life of man on the earth and the gods of the sun,

moon and stars. This is even the basis for the belief that when a person dies, he will be seen

as a star. In African traditional society the stars are worshipped as they are seen as the

ancestral spirits. Some traditional medicine men, witchdoctors and diviners name many stars

and star patterns in the night sky to fit their duties of communicating with the gods. In doing

so they pour libation and offer sacrifices to these stars. These sacrifices at times come in

form of praise worship which is usually hymns or incantation to the stars. In Nsukka area of

Igbo land, the variety of cultures and ancient skylore contain these hymns to the star but this

has largely remained undocumented.

Ume (177) observed well when he wrote that there is a very dangerous ritual which

may result in the death of the Ozo titled nobility which is performed by the head of Ozo titled

nobility at the dead of the night. The head of Ozo titled nobility therefore hires the services of

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at least one very powerful Dibia to ensure safe performance during and after the ritual. These

rituals are made to the stars because dead fulfilled people are believed to go back to the stars

(where they came from) after death in Igbo societies. Therefore, there are special prayers to

the requisite stars, planets, satellites and other heavenly bodies for the success of the ritual by

the head of Ozo titled nobility. This is called isepu okpa n egwu/n’otu egwu (removing the

legs of the dead from the dance groups to which he/she belonged otherwise his/her ghost may

surface in broad daylight to participate in such dances when on) (Ume 177). This clearly

portrays that the worship of the stars is not usually done by everybody in the society like the

worship of the sun and moon.

3.2 Gender of the Sun and Moon

Different communities in Africa have their own notion on the gender of the sky

entities. In traditional African society the sun is mostly referred to as the male and the moon

as the female. In some cultures they are seen as husband and wife. In Pharaoh Akhenaton’s

Hymn to the sun, the sun is depicted as male. When thou set test in the western horizon, The land is in darkness as if in death. Men sleep in a room with heads wrapped up, And no eye sees another Though all their goods under their heads be stolen, Yet would they not perceive it Every lion comes forth from his den, And all creeping things sting. Darkness is a shroud and the earth is still, For he who made them rests in his horizon. (Lines 1-10)

The sun is referred to as ‘he’ in line 10 of the poem.

In Birago Diop’s poem Viaticum which is a ritual, there is in it the frequent use of the

symbolic and magical number three, the split of blood of animals and the invocation of the

moon and the earth. This ritual prepares the poet for the journey through life and assures him

of the protection of the spirit of his ancestors against all ills. Lines 28-30 of the poem depict

the importance of the moon in sacrifices or rituals. In line 30 the moon is referred as ‘she’.

Senanu and Vincent (37) argue that “by the same token the sun is referred to as he”. And I raised my three fingers towards the Moon Towards the full Moon, the full, naked Moon When she was at the bottom of the biggest jug (lines 28-30)

In some traditional African cultures the sun is the female and the moon is seen as

male. In A.J.N. Tremeane’s Hausa Superstitions and Customs, one of the Hausa folklores has

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it that the moon and the sun were friendly until the sun gave birth. The sun called the moon

and asked him to hold her daughter while she went and washed herself. The moon took the

sun’s daughter, but was not able to hold it for it burnt him and he let it go and it fell to the

earth – that is why men feel hot on earth. When the sun returned, she asked the moon where

her daughter was and the moon replied, ‘Your daughter was burning me so l let her go, and

she fell to earth’. Because of that the sun pursued the moon. When the sun caught him the

people took their drums and asked the sun to spare the moon. This time the sun caught the

moon is the eclipse and that is why people beat their drums during eclipse begging the sun to

spare the moon. In this folklore the sun is referred to as female - ‘She’, while the moon is

referred to as the male – ‘he’.

In one of the folklores, both the sun and the moon are female; both having stars as

children. Each agreed to eat up her children, the sun’s stars perished but the moon hid hers.

When the sun found out this, she chased the moon to kill her. The chase is still going on, the

sun sometimes biting the moon (eclipse). The sun still eats her own children (at dawn, when

they fade) but the moon brings hers out only at night, when the sun is far away (Tremearne

116).

3.3 Social Values of the Sun, Moon and Stars in African Societies

These celestial objects are thought to be gods who ultimately affect the people’s life.

The sun, moon and stars are personalized as gods. Through the worship of these entities,

African people believe that they are communicating with the Almighty Creator. This is

portrayed in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah where Ikem Oshodi composed a hymn to the

sun and in Pharaoh Akhenaton’s Hymn to the Sun which is one of the literary remains in

Egyptian religious hymn.

Due to the fact that African people didn’t have clock, they took time to study the

position of the sky entities to interpret the time – the day, night, calendars for agricultural

seasons, festive seasons etc. In addition to most important task of the ancient astronomical

practice of people knowing the day and the night through the larger light of the sun and the

lesser lights of the moon and the stars, African people make a simple calendar and time table

in which some observable events occur in nature, such as the disappearance of birds, animals

on the landscape for a period and suddenly, of their reappearance again on the surface of the

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earth. Also telling of specific times of the specific activities like the dawn, time of meals,

midday, late evening, midnight is done using the influence of these sky entities.

In Camara Laye’s A Dream of Africa, the position of the sun in the sky is used to tell

the time of lunch. This is portrayed in the tales of the witch doctor to Fatoman and Marie. In

the witch doctor’s tale, the Chief Imam, Imam Moussa, confronts his three sons when they

are taking their lunch to know his true son as directed by the Almighty God. He is able to

find out that his youngest son is his only true son. The next day, when the sun stood up at its zenith, shooting down its hot spears of light, and when the children gathered round the rice-bowl, Imam Moussa burst into the room and unsheathing his saber, threw it into the air and caught it again, shouting; “Make haste! … The good Lord, stands in need of your souls. And I desire to see your blood flow. I must sacrifice you this instant!” (92)

The sun is also used in Asare Konadu’s A Woman in her Prime to show that African

people have specific times for burial. The burial of Yaw Boakye is done when the sun is

setting. This is because Brenhoma people believe that the shadow of the coffin falling across

a person draws him closer to his own death. The sun was setting; its red glow would soon deepen and persist for considerable length of time before darkness finally closed in. No shadows are cast at the time of sunset glow; therefore no one needs fear that the coffin’s shadow will fall across him to drive him closer to his own death. The time for burying Yaw Boakye had come. As if this was what she had been waiting to do all day, Pokuwaa arose to watch the coffin onto the shoulder of the bearers. (72)

The sun is also used to show the time one will embark on a journey and be able to

come back on time depending on the distance of the journey. Konadu expresses this as he

writes about Pokuwaa’s visit to Tano’s shrine for divination for her to get pregnant. Time at Brenhoma was counted by the sun and now although the sun was still behind the clouds, very soon it would break out and the shadows could lengthen. (1) Pokuwaa was now getting impatient. She looked at the rising sun in the crimson sky, and knew that if she was to get to Tano’s house in time she would have to hurry. (5)

The time African people go to work in their farms and the time to close for the day’s

work are also known through observing the positions of the sun. Peter Abraham in his Mine

Boy depicts this when he says: …they went into the fields to look after their crops. And when the sun was going down they came back and looked for their beer but their beer was gone. And they looked for Custom but he had gone too. (11)

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The sun is therefore of great relevance in African society. In some African societies

people are named after it. For instance, people have continued to assume socially titled

names like Anyanwu na awara oha (the person that shines his/her light on everybody like the

sun does). The rising and setting points of the sun are relevant to the alignment of temples

and monuments too, for instance, the temple of Amen-Ra at Karmak Egypt. The positions of

the sun are also depicted in Birago Diop’s poem Omen. The poem which emphasizes the

protection given to the poet by the spirit of his ancestors expresses the ever presence of the

ancestral spirit represented by the naked yellow sun at sunrise, the naked white sun when the

sun is at its zenith and the naked red sun at sunset. This clearly portrays that the positions of

the sun are relevant in traditional ancestral worship in Ghana.

As keeping accurate time of specific events is very important in African tradition,

Opata (226) stresses that ‘this abiding concern with keeping time to endure the adequacy of

events which take place in time form the opening of Arrow of God’. Yearly events like seed

time (planting) and harvest are commonly associated with religious festivals. Ezeulu as the

custodian of the time-table of the event of the communities of Umuaro depends on the

observation of the moon for the announcement of the Festival of The First Pumpkin Leaves

and The New Yam Festival. The Festival of the First Pumpkin Leaves is for purification of

the six villages of Umuaro before they put their crops into the ground (64) while the New

Yam Festival is to mark the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. (201) The New

Yam Feast is also for the harvesting of crops (yam). That is why, when the invitation of

Ezeulu to Okperi and his detention caused the delay in announcing the day of the New yam

Feast, ten men of high title from the six villages of Umuaro were sent to him to ask him to

eat the remaining two sacred yams and announce the day of the next harvest. One out of the

ten delegates who went to Ezeulu while addressing Ezeulu said: Yes, we are Umuaro. Therefore listen to what I am going to say. Umuaro is now asking you to go and eat those remaining yams today and name the day of the next harvest. Do you hear me well? I said go and eat those yams today, not tomorrow; and if Ulu says we have committed an abomination let it be on the heads of the ten of us here (208)

The man spoke with this high tone to Ezeulu because even if other men from Umuaro will

harvest and eat yams in secret, the titled men are bound to wait till the day of the New Yam

Festival before they can taste new yam. The delay in the announcement of the festival

therefore put them in a traumatic situation.

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It is not only that the appearance of the moon is celebrated in African tradition;

people also gather under full moon to tell moonlight stories (Egwu Onwa). This is where

children are told stories about their ancestors, the moon, stars, sun, plants, animals etc. in

form of fictions. Traditional African poets (bards) also perform while the audience watches

under full moon. This is useful just as any form of literature in that it offers delight and so

relieves people of various pressures and tensions both physically and mentally.

As the traditional artists perform or narrators narrate their stories, the audience

frequently laugh, exclaim, make comments and do various things to participate fully in the

narrative experience. Isidore Okpewho in his African Oral Literature: Backgrounds,

Character, and Continuity, portrayed one such occasions of a scene of narrative session in a

typical Nigerian setting. He quotes Owomoyola (264 – 265) thus: … After the evening meal, the members of the family gather on a porch and if there is moonlight, the younger members gather in the courtyard to play games like hide and seek. On the porch, the entertainment begins with riddles. What dines with an oba (paramount chief of a community) and leaves him to clear the dishes? A fly. What passes before the oba’s palace without making obeisance? Rain flood. On its way to Oyo its face is towards Oyo, on its way from Oyo its face is still towards Oyo, What is it? A double-faced drum After a few riddle, the tale begin. (107 – 108).

In traditional African society, sacrifices are often done at night when the moon is

bright because mysterious powers over the fortunes of men are attributed to the moon.

Fairies, for instance in most folk cultures are believed to appear when the moon is full and

bright (Senanu & Vincent 37). Fairies are such spirits like the mermaids which are called

Ogbanje spirits by the Igbos or Abiku spirits by the Yoruba people of Nigeria. This is

depicted in Birago Diop’s Viaticum which is a ritual where the symbolic and magical number

three in the split blood of animals and invocation of the moon and earth are used. With her three fingers red with blood, with dog’s blood. with bull’s blood. with goat’s blood. Mother has touched me three times. She touched my forehead with her thumb, with her forefinger my left breast and my navel with her middle finger. I have held out my fingers red with blood. with dog’s blood. with bull’s blood. with goat’s blood. I have my three fingers to the winds

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the north wind, the east wind, the south wind, the west wind; and I have raised my three fingers towards the Moon towards the full Moon, the full naked Moon. (Lines 13 – 29)

In some African cultures dances are done under full moon. Sometimes these dances

are for entertainment, burial rites or fetish rites done annually to ward off the year and

welcome the New Year. These fetish rites are mostly done in Ghana. In Elechi Amadi’s The

Concubine, a dance was held in the village arena in honour of Emenike one month after his

death. One evening, about one month after Emenike’s death, an oduma dance was held in the village arena. The night was clear as it had rained heavily the previous day. The moon was full. The shadows of the shade tress were almost as sharply defined as on a bright sunny day. (26) The song composed in Emenike’s honour was sung with unavoidable melancholy. The tune was charming but the words were sad. Even Wakiri’s usually clear voice was tremulous as he sang the first stanza. Do you know that Emenike is dead? Eh – Eh – Eh, We fear bug wide world; Eh – Eh – Eh, Do not plan for the morrow, Eh – Eh – Eh, The instrument took over for only a short time and few people danced. (28)

In Asare Konadu’s A Woman in her Prime, a night vigil was held by the people of Brenhoma

at the end of every year to ward off the year under full moon. People come to the vigil with

specific purposes – The drummers to show their excellence in drumming, lovers to have

quality time together, bachelors and spinsters to look for life partners. They also come to

make New Year resolutions. Pokuwaa, who had been dozing, woke up to the sound of loud applauses in the village hailing the drums ‘So it is vigil night’ she said waking her husband. Awake and drawing his attention to the clapping of hands in the distance ‘Ah the fetish rites” Kwadwo announced. It was moonlight outside. They lit the lamp that had gone out. (47) ‘It appears that everyone comes to the vigil with a purpose’, said Pokuwaa. ‘For the drummers it is always a chance to drum as if to burst their drums’. “And the lovers come to whisper sweetness out of their hearts. Look at them; … They will make bold resolutions for the coming year, and then we’ll see after that’. ‘There are also those whose hands are still empty, looking for someone’.

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Isn’t it the only night in the year when they can stay out a whole night without getting queried. You just look at the moon. Who wouldn’t feel lively on such a beautiful night’. (49 – 50)

After this night vigil in Brenhoma under the full moon, the following morning is

declared a fasting day. The people of the community gather to pray to their gods in the New

Year to bless, protect and provide for them. The next morning is the prayers. She (Pokuwaa) thought of the prayers that would be said in the morning, especially the prayer of sprinkling the ritual yam ‘The year has come round, great Odomankoma Never can we thank you enough for your deeds and blessing for us Tano Kofi and all the seventy-seven gods of Brenhoma Come now eat from our hands and bless your people, Let all who are ill get well, Let all who are barren bear children Let all who are impotent find remedy Don’t let them go blind or paralysed We all beseech happiness. Let us have it. (55 – 56)

The morning that follows the vigil night under full moon in Brenhoma is also a day of

mourning. They mourn their dead ones and ancestors. Adults and children participate in the

mourning. There is weeping session. Nobody cooks that day. The mourning involves singing

dirges and drumming. After the general mourning, people go to weep their personal dead. When morning came, Brenhoma turned to wailing. Pokuwaa, wearing her best kuntunkuni joined the people for the general mourning for the ancestors. Pokuwaa mourned her own father, her mother spent nearly all day by her side, bound to her in one bound of weeping and fasting. (54)

African people also assume socially titled names like Onwa (The Moon), Onwa na

etiri oha – the person that shines his/her light on people like the moon does.

The stars are highly relevant in African tradition. Shooting stars have social

significance for the Igbo. Chukwuezi (214) points out that ‘the Igbo believe that when a

shooting star appears in the sky, it means an important person is dead or about to die’. He

also stresses that ‘among some Igbo people, shooting stars are associated with good omens,

that is, something good is about to happen’.

In Michael Echeruo’s Mortality, which is a slim volume of poems, one sees basically

a philosophical exploration of man in his relationship to God. The stars are among the vivid

effective and sharp symbols he used in the poem. Donatus Nwoga’s Literature and Modern

West African Culture argues that through the use of the stars in ‘Man and God

Distinguished’, Echeruo recalls the Magi to whom the appearance of the star gave the good

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tidings of the birth of Christ. (125) This vividly brings out the relevance of the stars in

African tradition as associated with good omens. Echeruo expresses in the poem that in a

perilous night, it is only the appearance of the stars in the sky that brings good tidings to men.

For Echeruo, even though man may be fasting, praying and offering sacrifices only the

whiteness of stars brings hope of salvation to man. Man sees the stars

and turns aside suspicious of such tidings on a perilous night. Man turns his face from the terrors of incense Afterwards, Man dies Sheets with the whiteness of stars and incense and oil and dirt and tongue knowing no spices, no salt. And the cold angel caresses the God!

The relevance of the stars is also portrayed in the way African traditional rulers sew

the image of stars on their crowns, fans and staff of authority. The stars on their crowns, fans

and staff of authority vividly depict that these traditional leaders are expected to shine as

stars; therefore they are to render selfless services to their subjects as they represent

custodians of culture. In Zulu Sofola’s Wedlock of the Gods, Ogwoma and Uloko, the two

lovers who are deprived of wedlock on earth, believe that they will have their own wedlock

as gods. This simply means that as both of them die, nobody will separate them again as

lovers, their love, impossible on earth, will then live for ever and the stars shall crown their

heads. This clearly portrays that African people even believe that when they die they will

wear crowns decorated with stars as their rewards from the gods for life well lived here on

earth. This is seen when Uloko drinks the same poison that Ogwoma had taken, goes to her

corpse and speaks directly to it and dies. Your love will now come with me Ours is the wedlock of the gods. Together we shall forever be lightning and thunder – inseparable! Our love shall live forever; Your light to keep it aglow, My thunder to demolish all obstacles. We shall leave this cursed place; We shall ride on the cotton of the heavens; We shall ride on where there is peace! The rain shall cool our sweats and pains; The sun shall dry our tears; The stars shall crown our heads;

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The night shall hide and protect us. Over and round we shall together roam; Beautifying as we impress (56)

3.4 The Notions of the Good and Evil Moon

African people take time to observe a new moon to determine whether it foretells

good or bad t them. Opata (227) argues that this is known in Igbo land through ‘the way the

Moon is staying/showing itself’. In Achebe’s Arrow of God, the way the Igbo people

welcome the new Moon is depicted by what happened in Ezeulu’s compound. Both adults

and children rejoice and sing over the appearance of the new Moon. Opata (227) also points

out that ‘the adults represented by Matefi, Ezeulu’s senior wife and Ugoye, his younger wife,

are concerned with understanding the nature of the new Moon’. Ugoye did not see the new

Moon at the same time with others. When she is finally shown the Moon beyond the ukwa

tree, she begins the probing: ‘Oho, I see it. Moon, may your face meeting mine bring good fortune. But how is it sitting? I don’t like its posture’. ‘Why?’ asked Matefi. ‘I think it sits awkwardly – like an evil moon’. ‘No’, said Matefi. ‘A bad moon does not leave anyone in doubt. Like the one under which Okuata died. Their legs were up in the air’. (2)

This clearly depicts that the Igbo believe that when the moon sits awkwardly in the sky, it

means that a lot of people will die that month or that one prominent person is going to die.

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CHAPTER FOUR

LITERARY EVALUATION OF THE REPRESENTATION OF SKY

ENTITIES IN THE SELECTED AFRICAN LITERARY TEXTS

A lot of elements used in the interpretation and appreciation of the representation of

these sky entities in Africa literary works enhance the better understanding of these works.

These elements include diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language in form of symbol and

metaphor, the sound effect words - rhyme, assonance and alliteration, their rhythm and the

structure or formal pattern of the organization of these selected texts.

i. Diction and Syntax

Authors of these selected works represent of the sky entities using ‘the best words in

the best order.’ To know what the work means is necessary in interpreting any work of art

but it is more important to understand what the words imply or suggest, Thus the denotation

or dictionary meaning of the words of the authors used are important but the connotation

which far outstrips the dictionary meaning of the words is more important in evaluating the

representation of the sun, moon and stars in the selected texts. This is because creative

writers often hint indirectly at more than their words directly state.

Syntax is an important element in literary evaluation because the arrangement of

words in a sentence, phrase or clause conveys meaning and feeling. The author’s

arrangement of words guides the readers’ mind in the production of thought just as it is an

element of the tone and guide to the author’s imaginative mind. As we keep exploring into

the language of the texts, the contribution we make to the meaning of the sentences of the

texts will re-interpret the meaning of the whole texts because of the ambiguity of language.

That is to say that we break the texts, compare them with other texts as the languages used

speak in the texts.

In Pharaoh Akhenaton’s Hymn to the Sun which highlights the importance of the sun

because the sun is said to give energy which is life and without light there is nothing.

Akhenaton presents the sun as the origin of light. It gives its light through the void. The first

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day illumination passed through the sun and came to the earth, the sun created man after its

desire, after its yearning. The concept of God is given to the sun. The world came into being by thy hand, According as thou make them all. (lines 29-30)

The sun is presented as the creator. The representation of the sun through this diction of

Akhenaton not only enhances both the physical and spiritual beauty of the literary work but

expresses a form of legend or myth on the theory of cosmogony which is the origin of

creation and evolution of the universe.This calls for comparism and universalism in

literature.

In Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, the sun is both personified and deified. The

language used to present the sun in the hymn is to portray the effect of the activities of the

sun on the novel as both disastrous to both earthly and sky entities. The sun is presented in

such a way that it has dual imaginative qualities in both a soft symbolic and ritualistic

language and also a harsh traumatic language. The same sun Ikem Oshodi composed a hymn

to celebrate the strength he drew from it to win the driving contest is also presented as having

breathed fire and the citizens of Abazon - ‘has been slowly steamed into well-done

mutton…’ (27) The same sun that is presented as ‘Great Messenger of the Creator’, Great

Carrier of the Sacrifice to the Almighty’ is also presented in a way that its effect on activities

of the novel is traumatic and has brought a lot of damages to the people. The language of

Achebe in this novel therefore calls for a lot of intellectual thinking and adds to aesthetic

beauty of the text.

In Dennis Brutus’ The Sun on This Rubble, the rays of the sun bring light and hope to

the people of the former apartheid South African. The rays of the sun give an impression of a

respite to the maltreated blacks. The language of this poem reveals the hope of these black

South Africans that they will one day be relieved of their suffering

In Birago Diop’s Omen, he uses the language so well that the colour of the river

blends with the naked sun showing that there is a sort of agreement between the sun and the

environment. The sun is a source of inspiration to the author. This is portrayed by the

language of the poem. This is possible because in the literary sense, literature is language

applied to creativity. The language used here speaks to the reader.

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The language Achebe uses to represent the appearance of the moon in Arrow of God

and Ezeulu sky watching to see the appearance of the moon portrays the aspect of Ezeulu’s

character as a rational being. Ezeulu thinks of the immensity of his power as he watches the

sky for the appearance of the moon. He ponders in his mind that if he should refuse to name

the days of the festivals – the Feast of the Pumpkin Leaves and the New Yam Feast – there

will be no planting and harvesting. When he concludes that he would not dare to refuse

because it could not be done he was angry as if though his enemy had spoken it. If he should refuse to name the day there would be no festival – no planting and no reaping. So it could not be done. He would not dare. Ezeulu was stung to anger by this as though his enemy had spoken it. (3)

The language speaks in the text because if rationality is the guiding principle of man, man

should take risk and face the consequences of his action. Ezeulu does not think of taking the

responsibility of his rationality. He knows that there is the possibility of failure but he is not

thinking that that will happen to him. It is like saying to himself ‘failure is not my portion’.

That is the more reason why he sees the delay in the proclamation of the New Yam Festival

when he returns as a free man to Umuaro as an opportunity or an arena to experiment the

potency of his power over his people. Ezeulu fails to understand that it is true that man is a

rational being but if we are going to be rational, we have to think of success or failure. The

tragedy of the novel depends on this Ezeulu’s failure to understand that Ulu might not be

seeing things with the same eyes he a mortal being sees with. The choice of the authors

words depict this clearly.

It is also through Achebe’s choice of words that Ezeulu is presented as a powerful

person in Umuaro through his observing the moon and obeying the gods. Ezeulu is tragically

doomed to fall due to his obstinate nature and taste for power. In order to exercise his power

so that ‘his enemies’ will know that he has the final say in naming the New Yam Feast, he

refused to eat the remaining two sacrificial yams even when the people that asked for the

creation of Ulu needed a change. He took the position of the gods instead of the messenger of

the gods and the tragedy of the novel actually centres here.

In Gabriel Okara’s Moon in the Bucket, his choice of words makes the beginning of

the poem striking and arresting. This leads to the difference between the first and the second

verses of the poem. Verse one of the poem demonstrates the poet’s keen sense of

observation. His descriptive ability is portrayed in verse two where ‘the moon, dancing to the

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gentle wind’ is described. Okara insists on the minute details of his inscription because he is

committed to his art and is sensitive to human suffering.

In The Poor Christ of Bomba, Mongo Beti’s choice of words in expressing the full

moon that is swollen and pregnant portrays the level of failure of Father Drumont in all his

seen ‘hard works’ in Bomba.

The language Peter Abraham uses to present the stars in his Mine Boy portrays his

worries that his ancestors have ceased to care for them – the living. Their ancestors as stars

are there in the sky watching them while they are suffering all the humiliation from the

whites. His choice of words enhances the aesthetic beauty of the text.

The language of Chukwuemeka Nwosu used in Star Dust adds to the aesthetic beauty

of the poem as an elegy bewailing the death of a courageous and noble friend who died

suddenly in a civil war. He uses lamenting and wailing words that arouse the imaginative

power of the mind.

ii. Imagery

Literature is grounded in concrete and specific details that stimulate our senses. It is

through these stimulation of our senses that we perceive the world. Such details which trigger

our memories, simulate our feelings and command our response are used in the

representation of the sky entities – the sun, moon and stars in the selected texts. These

specific details appear in literature and they are called images.

In Pharaoh Akhenaton’s Hymn to the Sun, the visual images of darkness and light are

used to give the concept of God to the Sun. Illumination passes through the sun to the earth

which is full of darkness and creation starts. The sun which is the origin of light gives its

light through the void. The sun goes on to create man and all other things after its desire and

yearning. The son is personified as having hands. The images here reveal that the sun did

some work with its hand in creation. The world came into being by thy hand, According as thou make them all. (lines 29-30)

In Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, he describes the traumatic effect of the sun on

activities and lives of the people of Abazon. The effect of the sun causes a lot of damages to

the people. Through visual (something seen) aural (something heard) tactile (something felt)

and gustatory (something tasted) images, he describes the people’s view of havoc caused by

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the effect of the sun to the whole creation. Achebe plays with his readers’ imagination as he

‘juggles’ with the images to portray the terrible part the sun plays to the damage of the whole

creation – man, animals, trees, grasses, birds, clouds etc. Some of these images are ‘breathed

fire’, ‘slowly steamed’, ‘well – done mutton’, ‘hydra – headed bronze’, ‘anthills’, ‘fried in

their own fats’, ‘choked by their swollen tongues’, ‘bedraggled bands’, ‘pathetic resources’,

‘dishonoured shades’, ‘furious whirling of ash and dust’, ignite himself’, ‘brush fire’, etc.

The sun is personified in that he carries the sacrifices of the people to the Almighty God just

as a person does. The sun is thus represented as the messenger of God but the people are

worried because the sun with such great powers seems not to be concerned with the traumatic

conditions of the people caused by the dictatorial leadership.

Ikem Oshodi, one of the major characters in the novel, also composed a hymn to the

sun to celebrate his victory over a taxi driver. The image of the sun here reveals the sun as

the muse. Ikem is empowered by the sun to win in the contest so the sun through its great

powers is also an inspirer. His inspiration to compose the sun therefore comes from the sun. Ikem heaved a very sigh and the gallant in victory, pronounced it to the work of the sun (30)

Therefore Achebe uses both harsh imagery and soft imagery of the activities of the

sun for the concrete representation of a sense of impression, feeling and idea on the text.

These images work together to convey feelings and ideas in Anthills of the Savannah and

they therefore form patterns of related details that convey ideas or feelings beyond what the

images literally describe. Thus they are metaphorical or symbolic.

In Dennis Brutus’ The Sun on This Rubble, the poet makes use of compound words

like ‘sweat-tear- soddon’, ‘glow hipped’, ‘sun-tripped’, ‘pride-dumbed’ to denote the level of

violence and brutality associated with the maltreatment of the blacks in South Africa but the

rays of the sun give the impression that there is hope even if it is temporary. The poet

chooses his words in such a way that the poem that started with a statement ended with the

same conclusion ‘The sun on this rubble after rain’ and ‘–like this sun on the debris after

rain’ which denote hope and relief to the people. These words evoke pity and in spite of the

condition of the people, the arrival of the sun heralds joy and excitement.

The poem is filled with images of brutality and violence. The use of words like

‘Bruised’, ‘Jackboots’, ‘Sharpvilled’, ‘pain’, etc give an image of suffering. The pain and

agony of the people can be felt under the crunching weight of the jackboots but the suffering

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the people go through is such that any slight relief is acknowleged. The image ‘glow-hipped’

which the poet employs to convey the impression of the people highlights the new experience

that has come with the rising of the sun. Their new experience is something they had looked

forward to’ (Nwachukwu-Agbada et al. 214). These images vividly point to the picture of the

image the poet wants to convey, which is the action of the oppressor and the reaction of the

oppressed to their condition.

In Birago Diop’s Omen, the poet makes use of visual imagery of colour to give the

impression that the spirits of his ancestors lead him in all stages of his life. The poem is filled

with the images of harmony. These can be seen in the use of words like ‘naked sun’, ‘yellow

sun’, ‘white sun’, ‘red sun’, ‘waves of gold’, ‘waves of silver’, ‘wave of red blood’, ‘river of

yellow’, ‘river of white’, ‘river of red’. These images reveal the sun as a guide, an inspirer, a

deity, an instructor, protector and a benefactor. This is what the spirits of the poet’s ancestors

do to him through all stages of his life.

Achebe in Arrow of God makes use of the images of the appearance of the moon to

portray Ezeulu as a tragic character. The moon which Ezeulu is busy watching opens up the

novel and it is the same moon which Ezeulu neglects its significance that ends him up a

lunatic. Ezeulu exercised the power he was thinking about when he was watching the sky for

the appearance of the moon by refusing to eat the remaining two sacrificial yams. When the

consequences for this his action came he became lunatic. He lost his son and at the same time

his people sought solace in the ‘Son’ – the Christians’ God. Achebe exposes Ezeulu’s

obstinate nature and thirst for power while he sky-watches for the appearance of the moon.

This is where the tragedy of the novel actually centres because Ezeulu’s obstinacy blinds him

to the realization that since Ulu whom he represents is the creation of the community, its

legitimacy depends on its capacity to protect and solve the community’s problem. Once it

ceases to do this, it loses its existence as a god. Achebe also represents the adults in Arrow of

God as being more concerned with understanding the nature of the new moon. In expressing

this he employs such images like the moon sitting down, its having legs, face, having a

posture and being able to bring good fortune. Thus the moon is personified and deified. ‘Oho, I see it. Moon, may your face meeting mine bring good fortune. But how is it sitting? I don’t like its posture’. ‘Why?’ asked Matefi. ‘I think it sits awkwardly – like an evil moon’.

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‘No’, said Matefi. ‘A bad moon does not leave anyone in doubt. Like the one under which Okuata died. Their legs were up in the air’. (2)

Gabriel Okara makes use of images of illumination of the moon as a symbol of peace

and concord after violence, destruction of human life and ravages of war. This can be seen in

the use of words like ‘luminous plate’, ‘dancing moon’, ‘peace unsoiled’, etc. A full moon

looks like a flat, round plate especially when it is reflected in water. A luminous plate is a

plate that emits bright light. All the people who shout across the wall – not a physical wall,

but a barrier of hatred and discord which people have erected between themselves and across

which they cannot reach out to others because of war – are to look at this dancing moon and

have peace. The words like ‘rusty bucket’ and ‘water unclean’ that the poet also uses in verse

one of the poem gives the impression that although the water is dirty, it still reflects the

moon. These words are images used to sharpen the poet’s longing for harmony and his hatred

for the division that plague human relationships.

Mongo Beti uses the imagery of a full moon swollen and pregnant to invalidate the

assumption of superiority in everything which colonists used as a justification of their graven

trampling on other people’s customs and beliefs. The moon is said to be pregnant only when

terrible things are happening or going to happen. These images reveal the moon as a female.

They also help in personifying it in that she has a womb, can carry and give birth to children.

All these are to clearly express the terrible act of the people at Sixa.

Peter Abraham uses the imagery of the stars present in the sky to portray his people’s

sky-watching as a source of stability and emotional anchor. Xuma stares at the sky because

he wants a moment of real enjoyment. The stars will give him not only inspiration but also

solutions to his problems. That is the more reason he asks ‘Mother, Mother, are you there

among the stars? And can you see me?’ The stars here are personified. They are presented as

having eyes like people and can also see. Xuma wants the ancestors to look down and see

their suffering and humiliation from the whites and come to their rescue.

Chukwuemeka Nwosu in his Star Dust makes use of images of death like ‘dust –

laden star’. This means the remains of a star after it has burnt itself out. The implication is

therefore death. He also makes use of the word ‘belch’ - Now no more shall your sun Belch out fire-bolt

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Belch means to emit noisily. Nwosu’s friend Nat is metaphorically likened to the sun

showing what a terror he was in his lifetime but he was choked to death by overwhelming

forces of fate – ‘throttled by forest of fate’.

iii. Metaphor and Symbol

A metaphor compares between unlike things but with no explicit verbal clue while a

symbol is any object or action that represents something beyond itself.

Pharaoh Akhenaton’s Hymn to the Sun is metaphorical and symbolic because the

concept of God is given to the sun – The sun created man and other things after its desire.

In Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, he depicts the effects of the sun on the

activities of the people by metaphorically and symbolically making allusion to Anthills.

Opata (28) argues that ‘this depiction of the sun in a strategic way enables the author to link

the havoc by the sun with the recklessness and mindlessness of the dictatorial regime under

review in the novel’

Dennis Brutus uses ‘jackboots’ to symbolize oppression, pain, and agony of the

people – ‘under jackboots our bones and spirit crunch’. ‘Glow-hipped’ is another metaphor

he employs to convey the impression that the rising of the sun gives a new experience to the

people – the respite. Something they had looked forward to. ‘Glow-hipped’ is therefore the

poets attempt to make an impression of the sun shining upon the partly muddy, partly watery

surface of the rubble to which oppressed man has been reduced. The sun therefore

symbolizing nature’s periodic blessing, offers the hope of temporal respite to oppressed man.

Birago Diop’s Omen is symbolical because the sun represents the poet’s ancestral and

guiding spirit. The spirits of his ancestors are his protector, inspirer, teacher and guide from

his childhood through his youth and his old age.

Ezeulu as a powerful man and the custodian of the timetable of events of the people

of Umuaro lies on the use of the symbolism of the moon. His failure lies on the use of the

symbolism of the moon as he took the position of the gods instead of the messenger of the

gods due to his quest and thirst for power. He refuses to eat the remaining two sacrificial

yams to show himself more powerful than his rival and ‘enemies’ instead of enquiring from

the god Ulu on what to do. This symbolism of the moon points to the artistic depth and

richness of the novel.

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The use of the moon as a symbol of peace and concord in Okara’s Moon in the bucket

gives the impression that there are uncertainties and frustrations of human life whenever

there is no peace.

Chukuemeka Nwosu sings the praise of his friend Nat in the Star dust through

striking metaphors that record Nat’s mental and moral courage. He also makes use of the

metaphors to indicate that only fate could have ended Nat’s life so abruptly. The poems

elegance is achieved through the artistic use of words ‘dust-laden star’ metaphorically to

express the variation of the title or as a play on it.

iv. Simile

The accursed tour of Father Drumont and his cook Zachariah which brought out a

whole series ofcatastrophes in the sixa is likened to the swollen and pregnant moon carrying

the baby it bears every year – the rain. Mongo Beti uses this simile ironically to contradict

the image of Father Drumont, the parish priest of Bomba. He labours under the arrogant

assumption that what he is propagating is superior to anything the native Camerounians have

or know but the young girls he is training to give to their husbands as virgins and good house

wives are initiated into prostitution instead.

The poet in The Sun on This Rubble concludes it with a simile ‘like’. The essence of

this is to show the new experience of the people which is like the shining sun on debris.

When this happens the burden is reduced. The sun is therefore like a glimmer of hope after

many years of suffering.

v. Alliteration and Assonance

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words

while assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. This is mostly seen in the poems. These

forms of sound-play sweeten the sound and highlight the radical shift of action and feeling of

the texts.

For instance in Pharaoh Akhenaton’s Hymn to the sun, this repetition adds to the

aesthetic beauty of the poem. Whatever goes by foot upon the earth Whatever flies on high wings (29 - 28)

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In the ‘Hymn to the Sun’ composed by Ikem Oshodi, Achehe expresses the great

powers of the sun by employing a lot of repetitions. Words like ‘Great Carrier of Sacrifice to

the Almighty’, ‘Great Messenger of the creator’, ‘Single Eye of God’, Wide-eyed’, ‘Undying

of God’, ‘Eye of God’, are repeated in the hymn to highlight the sun’s great powers.

In Dennis Brutus, The Sun on This Rubble, the last line is a rephrase of the first line

and both depict the author’s expression of desire for respite from the pain. This repetition is

meant to serve as reassurance of the reality of the relief from the pain of the people The sun on this rubble after rain (line 1) like this sun on debris after rain (line 14)

The consonant repetition of ‘we’ in the poem shows that the poem is not talking about a

single person but a group of people including the poet himself who is suffering under

apartheid.

Many other alliterating words in the poem like:- ‘sweat-tear-sodden slush’ ‘sun-

stripped … sing’ ‘Sharpvilled … spear points sharpen the state of affairs of things in the

place (South Africa) being talked about.

vi. Rhythm

This refers to the regular recurrence of the accent or stress in a poem or song.

Therefore it is the pulse or beat we feel in a phrase of music or line of poetry.

The presentation of these sky entities in African literature enhances both the physical

and spiritual beauty of these literary works. The representation of these sky entities in special

rhythm also gives the reader or audience a kind of emotional and spiritual satisfaction. The

authors of the selected prose employ also some kind of songs, tales and hymns in the

presentation of the sky entities and through the rhythm of songs the imaginative power of

mind is aroused. Almost all the selected poems are songs. The mode of expression or

presentation of some of the music is not only meant to entertain the audience or the reader but

to capture a spiritual or mental or emotional situation. The mystical rhythm of the music that

accomplishes the presentation of these sky entities in the selected works calls for the readers

or the audience going into critical thinking as they go into the passages of the texts. This

portrays the powerful link of artistic power with the mind and this gives inspiration depending

absolutely on the mind of the readers or audience. The effects of this mystical music or dances

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are fully realized in oral presentations and that is why African writers bring in a form of

orality in their written literary works for the aesthetic beauty of the work.

In Birago Diop’s poem Omen, the rhythmical effects work together with other

devices of sound, structure and diction. This rhythm is what the expression of meaning relies

upon because it conveys feeling to the reader.

‘Omen’ by Birago Diop

A naked sun - a yellow sun A sun all naked at early dawn Pours waves of gold over the bank of the river of yellow A naked sun – a white sun A sun all naked, and white Pour waves of silver Over the river of white A naked sun – a red sun A sun all naked and red Pours waves of red blood

Over the river of red

In Bleek and Lloyds’ Young Moon for instance, the rhythm of the praise worship of

the moon is often marked by a mixture of mild imprecation and pleading. The rhythmical

pattern conveys vividly the poet’s feeling as he prays to the moon to provide his food. Young Moon! Hail, Young Moon! Hail, hail, Young Moon! Young Moon! Speak to me! Hail, hail, Young Moon! Tell me of something. Hail, hail! When the sun rises, Thou must speak to me, That I may eat something. Thou must speak to me about a little thing, That I may eat. Hail, hail Young Moon! (Bleek and Lloyd 415)

These literary devices the authors of the selected texts under study used in

representing the sky entities in their works enrich the texuality of the texts. These literary

devices help readers to interpret the texts. They also encourage them to go back over a line or

even a page they had missed or misread to recover essential pieces of memory. They help the

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readers to understand the imaginative powers of the mind. The more people understand that

beyond the lines and pages of a literary work a bigger story is unfolding, the more productive

critics become. Therefore these literary devices make the selected texts good literary texts

because they offer reading enjoyment as well as critical appreciation to the reader. For

instance, these literary devices help Dennis Brutus in conveying the sense of torture in the

Sun on This Rubble and in expressing the vision of hope and relief from pain. They help

Achebe to portray Ezeulu’s as a spoilt priest who confuses his religious role with his secular

being. He failed in his religious duty (refuses to eat the two remaining sacrificial yams) just

to retaliate for being told to fight the Captain Winterbottom alone because his people see him

as the friend of the white man. They also help in conveying the temptation of Ezeulu from

the start of the novel to test the limits of his power and in revealing the defeat embodied in

defeat of Ezeulu and his god by ‘his enemies’. These literary devices help in the development

of Ezeulu as a tragic character whose fate is that of ‘the night mask caught broad by daylight’

(Emenyeonu 63).

The literary devices also enhance the themes depicted in the texts. As the theme is a

story’s idea or point (formulated or generalized), readers extract it from the details of

character and actions that compose the story as well as from the particulars of a story’s

language. In Pharaoh Akhenaton’s Hymn to the sun, the literary devices the poet employs in

personifying and deification of the sun reveal that the sun is the creator. The poetic language

Achebe uses to express the hymn Ikem Oshodi composed to the sun and portray the effect of

the activities of the sun reveals that the sun has great powers. This is what enables Achebe to

link the havoc caused by the sun with the recklessness and mindlessness of the dictatorial

regime under review in the novel. These literary devices also help Dennis Brutus talk of

oppression and torture, racial prejudice and impermanence in the Sun on This Rubble. The

black people of South Africa are oppressed and segregated from their white counterparts, the

black population is seen being subjected to all kinds of discrimination and violence because

they are considered as inferior and the poet seems to be saying that nothing is permanent.

Through these literary devices it is vividly portrayed that Birago Diop describes his ancestral

and guiding spirits that protects and inspires him through out the stages of his life.

It is through the literary devises which Achebe employs that Arrow of God is said to

be a novel not only about culture-conflict but also about major and minor unremitting and

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built-in jealousies and envy. These jealousies and envy lead to disquiet in the entire narrative

- ‘a disquiet that leads to irreconcilable differences which in turn lead to fragmentation and

tragedy’ (Nnolim 20). The literary devices Okara employs in Moon in the bucket help in the

demonstration of the poet’s keen sense of observation and descriptive ability and enhance the

theme of his longing for harmony among a people under the violence and destruction of

human life in a war. Also the literary devices Mongo Beti employs in The Poor Christ of

Bomba depict the novel as describing the colonial masters ‘hard works’ as a total failure.

They help in revealing that the European culture is not superior to African culture.

From this evaluation, it is seen that the sun, moon and stars are always there available

in the sky for man. As man looks up in the sky he sees nothing but the cloud, the sun, the

moon and the stars. He therefore extends his exploration of his environment to them. The

availability of these sky entities and their positive and negative effects conduce to their being

represented in literature. Images of illumination of these sky entities are dominant during the

representation of these sky entities in the selected texts because light denotes life,

clarification, enlightenment, elucidation, empowerment, penetration, insight, revelation,

exposition, inspiration, relief, etc. Chinua Achebe, Pharaoh Akhlenaton, Birago Diop deal

with a creative exploration of the possibilities of the Sun as a deity. Dennis Brutus describes

the positive effect of the rays of the sun. Achehe, Bleek and Lloyds’ explore the possibilities

of the Moon as a god also while Gabriel Okara describes it as a symbol of peace and

harmony. Peter Abraham and Chukwuemeka Nwosu explore the Stars as a god or deity too.

These African creative writers and many others explore the representation of the sky entities

in their literary works yet ‘the Sun, the Moon and the Stars continue to remain a mystery’

(Opata 217). The representation of the sky entities in literature therefore calls for more

research work

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CHAPTER FIVE

RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

Hakeem M. Oluseyi and Johnson Urama posit that ‘like ancient people everywhere

Africans wondered at the sky and struggled to make sense of it’ (Oluseyi and Urama 252).

This research work portrays the various socio-cultural practices associated with the heavenly

bodies such as the Sun, Moon and the Stars among the people of Africa which influence their

worldviews. Africans literary works discussed in this work reveal Africans rich relationship

with the sky entities. It is therefore observed that through this research work, we are able to

provide better insight into the field of Cultural Astronomy as embodied in folklores, myths,

ancient architectures, religion, rituals and sacrifices represented in African literature. This

research work is therefore used to create awareness which is intended for the interest of many

more researchers in representation of the sky entities in literature. Most of the ethnic groups

of African society have astronomy-rich cultures and it is hoped that more analyses would be

carried out in African literature to consolidate this exploration of how these sky entities are

represented. Chukwuezi (215) in support of this posits that ‘there is more to be explored in

cultural astronomy to understand the various intricate relationships between human and the

universe. This relationship cannot be explored better without referring to literature.

This research work also clearly depicts that even modern astronomers depend on this

knowledge of cultural astronomy used in art in the study of the stars. Art is life and the ways

of life of people are seen in their works of art. Cultural astronomical practices as they are

portrayed in African literature prove that they are needed to re-interpret what modern

astronomy is. The representation of cultural astronomical practices in African literature also

presents ‘Cultural Astronomy’ as an interdisplinary or multi-displinary research field that

would provide for collaborative works by astronomers/astrophysicists, anthropologists,

archaeologists, religionists, literary scholars and other humanistic scholars. The cultural

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astronomical practices and the sky entities as they are represented in African literature are

need to be studied. Students and Researchers would also be challenged to analyse African

literatures like songs, chants or poems, novels and plays to portray a culturally relevant

situation.

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