Maya Angelou (1928-2014) had a broad and distinguished career both inside and outside the literary realm. She is most famous for her work as a poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She also worked in entertainment as a singer, a dancer, an actor, and a director. Her poetry was inspired and informed by her life and work, and this personal connection made her poems profound and powerful. Over the course of a career spanning the 1960s to her death in 2014, she captured, provoked, inspired, and ultimately transformed American people and culture.

Internet: <poetryfoundation.org> (adapted).

Four types of English exist in Africa, identifiable in terms of history, functions, and linguistic characteristics. West African Pidgin English has a history going back to the 15th century,400 years before formal colonization. Creole varieties of English have a history going back to repatriation of enslaved people from the Caribbean and the United States of America in the 19th century. Second language varieties, which are the most widespread on the continent, are prototypically associated with British colonization and its education systems. L1 (first language) English occurred mostly in Southern and East Africa and is best represented in South Africa. The latter shows significant similarities with the other major Southern Hemisphere varieties of English, spoken in Australia and New Zealand.

African Englishes From a Sociolinguistic Perspective.

Internet: <oxfordre.com> (adapted).