One of the remarkable but unacknowledged trends in the evolution of African literature in the last fifty years has been the significant presence of African poetry anthologies which contain poems by poets from almost every country on the African continent. There is no doubt that the tradition of anthologizing has contributed a great deal to the robust presence and entrenchment of African poetry. Reading through some of the anthologies often gives the reader a broad and even holistic view of the tenor and significant tropes of African poetry as well as the sociohistorical underpinning sustaining them. An evaluation of the anthologies leaves the reader with a robust understanding of what constitutes and inspired the continent’s poetic imagination. Nevertheless, in spite of the significant even indispensable role of the anthologies in the growth and study of African poetry, they are hardly ever acknowledged in the critical discourse on African literature. Rather what scholars of African poetry have done over the years is the study of the poets and their works without giving a thought to the bigger platform created by the anthologies as an affirmation of their poetic relevance. In truth, some of the very prominent and authoritative anthologies validate a poet’s relevance or otherwise. Hence, the presence of a poet’s work on their pages is an attestation to his or her relevance.

English Studies Journal, Anthologies, Mapping, New African Poetry, West African Verse, Gladys Casely-Hayford, Africa’s Poetic Imagination.