Black novelists, poets and playwrights have a long history of reclaiming narratives, the theme of this year’s Black History Month. Novelist Ben Okri looks at where this tradition has come from – and where it’s going next

To define a people’s past is to influence their future. The past is what constitutes the bulk of a people’s identity. It is therefore not surprising that one of the biggest trends in contemporary literature centres on the theme of identity. Can there be anything more intolerable than to be told you have no history to speak of and no civilisation, and then to have a new language and civilisation imposed on you? These are the conditions that led to the literary revolt in the literatures of Black people.

Black writers have a long history of “reclaiming narratives”, the theme of this year’s Black History Month in the UK. The narratives of ex-slaves in Britain were the first attempts at a reclamation of their dignity. Chinua Achebe’s celebrated novel, Things Fall Apart, was one of the first major modern acts of a reclamation of a people’s soul. It was inspired by novels of empire which showed Africans in a degrading light. African literature of the 20th century was born of a need to counter the lies told about Africa. It was at first essentially a literature of revolt, reclamation, and restitution.