What has reached us is predominantly religious and educational poetry, so the period of determining the origin of Sub-Saharan African poetry in its original languages remains largely relative.

2 - African Languages: a) East African Languages: The Ge'ez language in Ethiopia is one of the oldest written African languages. Its origins trace back to Himyaritic Arabic in Yemen. It is written from right to left with special characters and is the language of the Ethiopian Church, in addition to Amharic, which is close to it and is the official language in Ethiopia. The oldest recorded texts in Ge'ez date back to the 3rd century AD, and the Holy Book was translated into it in the 5th century AD. As for Amharic, some poems and songs dating back to the 14th century AD have been immortalized, but the written Amharic texts are recent.

As for Swahili (1), it is the language of the people of the coasts and eastern islands between Kenya and Tanzania. It includes vocabulary from Arabic and is written in its letters. The oldest records in it also date back to the 17th century AD and include some Islamic religious texts and narrative poems inspired by Arabic and Persian literature. The history and heritage of the region were documented in the Swahili language before the Western colonization of the continent.

Swahili is the language of the East African countries where Islam is prevalent, namely Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, southern Somalia, eastern Congo, northern Mozambique, northern Zambia, northern Malawi, and the Comoros Islands. These East African peoples did not know written literature before the advent of Islam. Literature initially emerged inspired by Islamic Arabic literature and written in Arabic script.

b) West African Languages: The inhabitants of this region speak several languages, including Hausa, in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and some areas of Cameroon and Ghana (2). Also, the Arabic language, which is spoken by Islamic circles in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad.