Awards showcase Nigerian authors
Man Booker International Prize winner Chinua Achebe pioneered Nigeria's literary contributions.
from the June 14, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
A literary legacy despite a colonial history
A major component of Achebe's literary achievement is his celebration of Nigeria's pre-colonial history and his examination of colonialism's effects on indigenous African cultures. Taken as a whole, critics say, Achebe's literary oeuvre, comprised of novels, poems, essays, and literary criticism, takes a critical stance against colonial influence.
"I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past – with all its imperfections – was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them," Achebe wrote in his 1965 essay "The Novelist as Teacher."
Nigeria's literary prominence is particularly remarkable given that, until 19th century missionaries arrived with their Bible and pens, there were no indigenous written languages. Despite the lack of a written tradition, Nigeria's pre-colonial societies – like the Igbo Achebe chronicled in "Things Fall Apart" – cultivated a rich tradition of oral storytelling that predates the written word. Southern Nigerian cultures have their own distinct and elaborate creation myths, sometimes hundreds of gods with their own characters, skills, and weakness.
The religion, language, and education that the missionaries brought with them spread swiftly through southern Nigeria, and even before independence from Britain in 1960, writers like Achebe had appropriated the English novel and boldly made it their own.
"Nigeria is a vibrant country – and it's also very big," says Nigerian author and publisher Adewale Maja-Pearce by way of explanation. With some 140 million people, an estimated one in five sub-Saharan Africans is Nigerian.
Nigeria's literary brain drain
Nigerian authors are also living, writing, and getting published overseas. Many writers in Nigeria see the exodus as a worrying trend.
"It is not sustainable," said Maja-Pearce, also a founder of Nigerian independent publishing house, The New Gong. "All of these writers live and work abroad. I wish we could focus more on home-grown talent."
Young Nigerian novelist Ms. Adichie, for example, has lived and studied in the US for much of the last 10 years, though both her published novels to date have been set in Nigeria. But even she has told reporters that her next project will tackle the Nigerian diaspora experience.
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