African Writers of Today; 6; David Rubadiri
- Series
- African Writers of Today
- Episode Number
- 6
- Episode
- David Rubadiri
- Producing Organization
- National Educational Television and Radio Center
- Transcription Center, London
- Contributing Organization
- Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/75-29b5mp9x
- NOLA Code
- AFWT
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- Description
- Episode Description
- This last program in the series takes place in Blantyre, Nyasaland, where featured guest David Rubadiri sits on the lawn of his home at Soche Hill College with his interviewers, Lewis Nkosi, series host, and Kenyan poet Joseph Kariuki. Against a background of quiet countryside the three writers discuss Mr. Rubadiri's position as a poet and educator in a country about to declare its independence, his personal struggle as a creative writer, and the state of contemporary African literature in general. Their conversation opens with the observation that he hard-driving, dedicated Rubadiri is typical of the spirit of a growing continent. This spirit is manifested as well, says Rubadiri, in the cultural interchange so common within Africa these days. He points out that he left Nyasaland to receive a college education in Uganda (at Makerere University) and that at the present time, in order to fill a significant gap, a team of Nigerian lawyers has come to Nyasaland. So it is that educated Africans are contributing to continental rather than just national needs within Africa. Rubadiri approaches the question of his own development as a poet and teacher by reading a poem - "The Tide that from the West Washes Africa to the Bones" - which he wrote while a university student. At the time he felt himself in emotional and intellectual conflict with the values of the European Christianity which had so dominated his thinking. As one who developed outside traditional African village life, uprooted as a child to grow up in missions governed by white men, the poet claims he is still trying to "reground" himself. But his personal conflict is, he says, being mitigated by his identification with the growth of Nyasaland. As his country takes the final steps toward attaining independence he is stimulated and elated by "trying to play the little part I can in contributing toward the reconstruction of my country." At this printing, Mr. Rubadiri is said to be the likely choice for the post of Nyasaland's first ambassador to the United States. As his country becomes a true African nation, he feels himself beginning to develop roots, to feel human "as opposed to the young student who had to live between two worlds." Has a poet place in a developing nation, or is his pursuit a "luxury," asks Kariuki. Far from being a luxury, replies Rubadiri, the "only thing that Africa has got to boast about and one which I think can contribute toward humanity is the spiritual force we still retain. " It is not skyscrapers that will ever distinguish the African, the poet feels, but rather his power as a creative human being. Where other cultures have had their senses of values stripped away by rapid economic growth, Africa can still flourish as a spiritual force in the modern world. Rubadiri's interviewers ask him to what extent does he fell African literature is actually African. The poet replies that the forms are European and the result of European influence, but the wellspring of most African literature is the native oral tradition which is always lurking in the writer's subconscious. As to what forms will emerge from the African writers of the next twenty years, it is impossible to project - and that, according to Rubadiri, is the exciting part of it. But a hint of something new is already present in the works, for example, of Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist. There is also a great wealth of ides to be gleaned from the free spirit of the African outdoor village theater. Nkosi asks about the teaching of African literature in the schools. How is it to be selected? Is there a danger that in their zeal to teach African literature teachers "might tend to invent African literature where it doesn't really exist?" Rubadiri answers by saying that he is opening a new secondary school and will be experimenting with its syllabus. Thus the books his students read will be a matter of his own judgment. In this case - during this period when an African literature is in its infancy and few standards exist - the burden of selection will be up to the individual teacher. For the purposes of pedagogy, Rubadiri feels that any African poem, good or bad, is useful because for the African student it is common recognizable ground. Having established the idea of poetry and the student' s critical sense through familiar African works, the teacher can then brand off into well-known foreign classics. The program ends with a classroom scene in which David Rubadiri clad in his academic robe, introduces his students as a poem by Roy Campbell. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Series Description
- That Africa is a simmering continent is no surprise to anyone these days. The number of African nations which have, during the past few years, stood up to declare their independence and their desire to be counted in international trade circles and forums of political arbitration in an unprecedented phenomenon in history. And, as part of the continent's adolescence in its rapid evolution into modernity, there are the current touchy events in the east African countries of Zanzibar, Tanganyika, Kenya, and Uganda; the continued racial suppression in South Africa; and the recent wooing your of Chou En-lai. These are political situations and economic situations - and, in these areas, the American public is reasonably well informed. But a simmering continent is not all politics and it's not all economics. There is an emerging culture as well, and, in this case, a body of literature which demands to be called "African." For all of the information that comes to the United States from the African continent, so little is known about their writers. Who are they? What are their backgrounds? What are their reactions to the cultural revolution which surrounds them? For whom are they writing? Are they turning to the forms of the tribal oral traditions or are they rejecting them? How do the individual writers react to the philosophy of "Negritude?" What is the influence of current European literature and of the literature of the American Negro on their works? And what is the reciprocal influence of African novels, stories, plays and poems on the literature of these other cultures. In African Writers of Today, National Educational Television is giving US audiences an opportunity to find out about the contemporary literature of Africa and to meet some of the most significant African figures in the literary world. Devoted primarily to interviews with the writers themselves, the 6 half-hour episodes were filmed in Ghana, Nyasaland, The Cameroon Republic, Nigeria, Senegal, England, and France, the home settings of the featured personalities. African Writers of Today is a 1964 production of National Educational Television in collaboration with the Transcription Center, London. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Description
- On this program, Mr. Nkosi looks into the literature of French Africa and the concept which is almost entirely the province of the French African writer Negritude, the idea of a unique African collective personality. Before going to French Africa, Nkosi first takes the viewer into a classroom in Nyasaland where the teacher-port David Rubadiri is discussing Wole Soyinkas poem, Telephone Conversation, a poem about segregation in London rooming houses.
- Broadcast Date
- 1964-00-00
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Talk Show
- Topics
- Literature
- Race and Ethnicity
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Credits
-
-
Guest: Rubadiri, David
Guest: Kariuki, Joseph
Host: Nkosi, Lewis
Producer: Dor, Henry A.
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
Producing Organization: Transcription Center, London
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_1719 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:28:46?
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1833886-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
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- Citations
- Chicago: “African Writers of Today; 6; David Rubadiri,” 1964-00-00, Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 29, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-29b5mp9x.
- MLA: “African Writers of Today; 6; David Rubadiri.” 1964-00-00. Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 29, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-29b5mp9x>.
- APA: African Writers of Today; 6; David Rubadiri. Boston, MA: Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-29b5mp9x