Literature from Asia
and Africa
Asia
largest continent in the world.
presents wide range of diversified philosophies, religions, cultures, and
traditions.
composed of different religions and philosophies with Islam as dominating
followed by Hinduism.
experienced colonization and slavery
Other religions and philosophies:
Christianity
Buddhism
Confucianism
Taoism
Judaism
Africa
experienced colonization and slavery
oldest
continent and civilization in the world that
produces like gold and diamond.
the
land of the oldest, the wisest, and the strongest
people in the world.
Contemporary Afro-Asian literature deals with
colonial modernity and philosophies, new sense of
nationalism and patriotism, equality and justice, and
diversity and identity.
Can bear a child
Do the household chores
Able to vote and run positions in the
government
Taking care of the children
Who is Anamika?
Anamika is an award-winning and
contemporary Indian poet, essayist, and fiction
writer.
She is also a social worker and a professor at
the Department of English at Satyawati
College, University od Delhi.
Her collections of poetry, novels, and literary
criticism are mostly on socio-politics and
feminism.
She lives and works in New Delhi.
She has won several awards such as:
Bharat Bhushan Award for Poetry (1996)
Girija Mathur Samman (1998)
Sahityakar Samman (1998)
Parampara Samman (2001)
Sahityasetu Samman (2004)
Kedar Samman (2007)
Currently she is a University Grants Commission
Fellow at Teen Murti Bhavan, working on the
dissertation, “Mothering a Nation: The Proto-
Feminist Rearing of Icons Born in the early
Twentieth Century.”
Roles of the women in the 21st Century
Feminist movement addresses social, cultural,
and political challenges of women with regard to
gender inequalities.
It
promote equal rights and privileges between
men and women.
Promote respect, acceptance, and
empowerment for any person of any gender and
any preferences.
Salt
Anamika
Salt is earth’s sorrow and its taste.
Earth’s three-fourths is brackish water,
And men’s heart a salt mountain.
Weak is salt’s heart,
Very quickly it melts.
It sinks in shame
When plates are flung
Due to salt’s varied strength.
There stands –
a government building –
like a salt shaker –
shakes with much sophistication, sprinkles
salt in my wound.
Women are the salt of the earth,
they have all the salt in the mould of their face.
Ask those women how heavy it feels –
their saline faces?
All those determined to pay the salt’s price,
all those who couldn’t betray their masters
have annoyed the seven seas and
the revolutionaries.
Gandhi knew the salt’s worth
as the girl-guava-sellers.
Whether or not something
stays in the world,
there shall be salt.
God’s tears and man’s sweat –
this is salt
that balance the earth.