DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2014.v02i01.005

Pages: 24-28

An essential ingredient is missing in “Art for Art’s sake”. That vacuum or leakage is the functionality of the art. Art cannot solely be for its own purpose because it is a social creation. A given human society gives birth to its creation and production to reflect on human living conditions, actions, inactions and experiences among other things. For Africa and its people functional art is the ultimate. An art which does not only inject its aesthetic values but also teaches moral, transmits cultural values, improves vocabulary pool and heals broken hearts with a view to developing human society is the kind of creativity/art favorable to African sphere and we think the entire world in this century, where cultural matters generate serious hot debates. In this study, we attempt to validate that African literature contains archetypal motif of traitor- ship during the colonial period and after it. To illustrate our position and demonstrate that there is connection between literature and society; our platform is the writings of Sembène Ousmane. Our interest is in Religions Manifestations in Les bouts de bois de Dieu, Le Mandat, and Guelwaar. Rooted on Sociological Criticism as its theoretical framework, the paper concludes that African literature is a panacea to developments of human consciousness and consequent societal advancement.