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later, and after the introduction of Western
education, Aliyu dan Sidi utilized the oral
literary tradition to write poetic protests
against the missionaries. By the 1930s,
novels had begun to appear in Nigeria.
Many of these novels, for instance
Mohammed Bello’s Gandoki (1930) and
Pita Mwana’s Omenuko (1935) were faithful
reproductions of oral tradition, and highly
fantastical, non-realistic novels.
The late 1940s up till the early 1960s
introduced new aesthetics to Nigerian
literature. With the founding of the Premier
University at Ibadan, young scholars
began to prefer realist fiction, owing to the
western tradition they were being exposed
to at University. Some of these scholars
– Cyprian Ekwensi, Christopher Okigbo,
Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, for example –
would become prominent Nigerian authors
with world-class reputations. Achebe’s
landmark book, Things Fall Apart, changed
the landscape of African literature, and is
today the most po-pular book outside of
the continent. Soyinka, his contemporary,
became a global literary and cultural icon
after winning the Nobel Prize in 1986, the
first African to do so. These two land-marks,
Achebe’s 1958 novel and Soyinka’s 1986
Nobel Prize, are in many ways the keystones
of contemporary Nigerian literature.
Achebe resolutely began to ask hard
questions, taking a swipe at colonialism in
his work, revealing the urgency with which
writers needed to reclaim and understand
their (sometimes over-glorified) precolonial
past. Soyinka’s writing, for its part,
evolved into a body of work that addressed
questions of social dignity and cultural
value. In setting the background for their
work, the West African Society had noted in
a 1948 manifesto:
“No people can achieve greatness without
a literature of their own. Their thoughts,
their aspirations and achievements, their
history, their art and culture-patterns, in
fact, their whole story, must be recorded in
a way that they feel to be their own and that
the world may recognize as distinctive. The
African theme calls for African writers.”
The world, having been opened up
to Nigerians, welcomed diverse
interpretations of, in this case, the
Nigerian theme. Through the 1970s until
the 1980s, in the wake of the Cold War,
second generation Nigerian authors – Niyi
Osundare, Festus Iyayi, Odia Ofeimun, Femi
Osofi-san, Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa,
etc. – became aware of global concerns,
overlaying their writing with ideologies
they found appealing. That these writers
became aware of global trends is perhaps
attributable to the availability of personal
technology, and the media. Television revolutionized
how information was shared,
perceived and interpreted, and raised new
themes for contemplation. This was a time
when the shift from oral literature to the
written form solidified, and writers like
Osundare conceived new styles that are
reminiscent of the traditional oral literary
form, but still achieved the needs of written
literature. In an article, Osofisan, quoting
Omotoso, expressed the mood of the
writers of this era:
“We have finally passed from an oral
society through the society of rumour
to that of the printed word. Today, those
who complain, complain against word as
written, not as narrated or as rumoured.
They complain that they have been done
in by the printed word and herein lies the
transition that this article cele-brates…
Today, international and national publishing
houses sell the printed word to a society
agape with awe. We have finally arrived.
Congratulations.”
However, this would prove to be only a
preamble. Another revolution in sharing,
percep-tion and interpretation began
when, following the downturn of the
Nigerian publishing industry for almost
two decades, the advent of the internet
sparked a renewal. Indeed the central
questions now revolve around where world
literature is heading in the new global
village, and how it will get there. There are
two essential premises that could shape
possible answers.
The first is the idea that, as with everything
in this age, Nigerian literature has
welcomed collaboration. It is now easier,
compared with the 90s and the preceding
decades, to share what is written, and
receive (most times) an instantaneous
response. With email and social media
appli-cations like Skype, Facebook, Twitter,
Wordpress, Blogspot, Yahoo Groups,
Amazon, etc., wri-ters can interact easily
– as constructively as their egos will allow
– around their work. Writers make friends
with readers, and receive feedback about
works in progress; publishers can spot raw
talent, and readers have become a part of a
literary ecosystem that overcomes location.
While the definition of Nigerian writers
seem presently divided into two camps -
those in the Diaspora, who do not live in
Nigeria, and those at home - the internet
and its social network has created free
movement of ideas between the two, and
created a seamless national literature for
the global community to savour.
Even more, this participatory element
leads to a greater involvement of Nigerian
literature (its writers and therefore its
readers) with the narratives that call for
attention in the world on a daily basis.
Never before have Nigerian writers been
as exposed as they now are to the frenzy
of the world. The question of global
security, for instance, will have individual
significance for a Nigerian writer who
watches YouTube videos of terror in Syria
and finds that a similar situation might
develop if Boko Haram is left unchecked.
However, one must not be mistaken: the
future of Nigerian literature is not on the
inter-net. The internet is only generating
a collaborative energy, in a society where
the traditional pu-blishing platform is
finding its feet. Perhaps we can conclude
that Nigeria’s literary destiny is headed
where it has always been headed – the
commitment by writers to produce work
that is truly representative of the dilemmas
that confront Africans, as evolving as those
complexities are.
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