SOURCE: A review of African Writing Today, in Modern Language Journal, Vol. LI, No. 6, October, 1967, pp. 366-67.

In the following review, Harries questions the stated purpose of Mphahlele's African Writing Today, but praises the anthology as a good introduction to African writing.

This anthology of writings [African Writing Today,] from English, French and Portuguese, all in English, by Africans excludes the work of white African writers like Paton and Gordimer. This limitation is expressly intended to reflect the fact that, according to the editor, himself an established author, “Black Africa is becoming more and more aware of itself.”

This is something of a cliché that does not have to be examined too closely, but it is a way of saying that in the modern world Africans are becoming increasingly aware of their common identity as black Africans and that the writings in this anthology are intended to prove...