History of the literatures of the African Islamic peoples Prof. Mohammed Abbassa University of Mostaganem, Algeria Abstract: African peoples before Islam knew literature and art, but it was oral and most of it was lost due to lack of writing down. African literature was written in different languages, local, Arabic and European. As for the literature written in local African languages, it is little compared to other languages. Among the East African languages: the Amharic language in Ethiopia, which knew poetry before the fourteenth century AD, while the Swahili language in Kenya and its neighboring countries saw poetry appear in the eighteenth century AD, and after that poetry appeared in Somalia in the Somali language. As for West Africa, poetry appeared in the Hausa language in Nigeria and its neighboring countries in the seventeenth century AD, and at a later period Nigerian poets composed in the Yoruba language. As for the poems in Senegal, Mali, and some states of West Sudan, which were recited in local languages, they remained mostly oral, linked to tales and myths. The Hausa, Swahili, and Amharic languages knew the alphabet, including the Arabic script, before the arrival of European colonialism to the continent. What has reached us is predominantly religious, educational, and Sufi poetry. This research is among the lectures we delivered to Master's students in Comparative and World Literature.

Keywords: African literature, African peoples, Swahili, Hausa, West Sudan.