The Undergraduate's Companion to African Writers and their Web Sites

Citation

McIlwaine, J. (2007), "The Undergraduate's Companion to African Writers and their Web Sites", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 248-249. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710736055

This is the sixth volume in the publisher's heterogeneous series joining titles on Women poets, and English Renaissance writers, and addressed to undergraduates in the US. The author, African studies bibliographer at Ohio State University, has selected sources for some 300 writers, over 200 of them living, from both North and Sub‐Saharan Africa. Selection we are told was based on two criteria: that material on the author existed “in an easily available reference work” and that there was “some information of research value on free Web sites” (fee‐based online services are excluded). Arrangement is alphabetical by author's name, with listings of “Web Sites”, “Biographies and Criticism” and “Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Handbooks”, the entries for the last two categories being all printed sources.

A large number of the web sites listed are those created by North American academics, no doubt to be used in conjunction with their courses. Others are hosted by organizations such as the British Council and by newspapers, or are “literary sections” of much larger websites covering counties and regions. Virtually all are recorded as having been checked as recently as July 2005, but of course the casualty rate is going to be high, and no indication is given as to whether the publisher intends to provide regular updates.

Many of the sites have no annotations, but a few have comments on the nature of the content and the navigability. A list at the beginning of the volume gives more detailed descriptions of 23 “frequently cited web sites”, those that are both wide‐ranging in coverage and thought likely to be more permanent that some of their fellows. The content of the sites ranges from biographical notes and criticism to bibliographies and extracts from the author's writings. A list of 49 “frequently cited references” for printed sources, includes mostly dictionaries of literary biography. It is surprising that Killam and Rowe's Companion to African Literatures (Oxford, 1999) is not included among these. Sources cited are overwhelmingly in English with a handful of French items.

A list of “authors by nationality” reveals coverage of writers from 39 African countries, dominated as one would expect by South Africa with 73 entries, and Nigeria with 45. Perhaps unexpected is the inclusion of Albert Camus as an African writer (born in Algeria). Wasteful, in a volume where all the entries are alphabetical by author, is an “Alphabetical list of authors” at the beginning of the volume, and an index at the end which repeats this, adding only more detail on forenames.

The emphasis on web sites and on coverage in widely available general reference sources means that most of the material recorded should be accessible to users outside the main intended North American audience. As a point of access to basic printed sources about major African writers, it offers a brief and easily used guide which can be supplemented by more detailed bibliographies such as those by Bernt Lindfors; while its listing of websites adds a potentially useful new dimension.