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Onitsha Market Literature Collection

Onitsha Market Literature is considered a distinct genre of moralistic novellas or chapbooks, written in English principally by amateur writers from the Igbo-speaking region of Nigeria. The IU African Studies Onitsha Market Literature Collection consists of nearly 200 of the titles sold in the famous Onitsha Market in Eastern Nigeria during the mid-20th century.

The index is searchable by title, and most items can be consulted in the African Studies Collection office in the Herman B Wells Library, Room E660. Instructors should contact the librarian about using the titles in their instruction.

Abiakam, J. 49 wise sayings, 72 idioms, 33 riddles and jokes, 44 questions & answers, list of ranks in the armed forces and some speeches of world leaders, past and present. Onitsha, Nigeria: J.C.Brothers Bookshop.

Abiakam, j. the game of love. onitsha, nigeria: j.c. brothers bookshop., abiakam, j. how to speak in public and make good introductions. onitsha, nigeria: j.c. brothers bookshop., abiakam, j. how to speak to girls and win their love. onitsha, nigeria: j.c. brothers bookshop., abiakam, j. how to write important letters, applications, agreements and love letters. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., adenuga, 'wale. my daughter wants a job. ibadan: nathasons printers, 1967., adikaibe, donatus a. beware of expensive ladies, learn speeches and toasts for all occasion, and general instructions for boys and girls. onitsha, nigeria: dona and bros. bookshop., ajoku, ugochukwu eman. the chains of love. onitsha, nigeria: gebo brothers., akpan, n.u. ini abasi and the sacred ram. london: longmans, green and co. ltd., 1966., albert, miller o. rosemary and the taxi driver. onitsha : chinyelu printing press., albert, miller o. saturday night disappointment. onitsha : chinyelu printing press., anedoh, josephat u. nigeria native stories. 2nd ed. onitsha : highbred maxwell, 1964., anene, mallam b.i. hausa made easy in ibo and english languages. onitsha : all star press., anorue, j.c. the complete story and trial of adolf hitler. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., anorue, j.c. how to become rich and avoid poverty. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., anorue, j.c. how to know proverbs and many things (questions and answers). onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., anorue, j.c., abdullahim ibrahim and raimi salami. how to study english, ibo, hausa and yoruba languages. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., anyichie, j.a. okeke. adventures of the four stars. onitsha : highbred maxwell., aririguzo, cyril n. miss appolo's pride leads her to be unmarried "pride goeth before a fall." onitsha : aririguzo & sons, n.d., aririguzo, cyril nwakuna. miss comfort's heart cries for tony's love. onitsha : aririguzo & sons, n.d., aririguzo, c.n. steps for the freedom of nigeria. onitsha : cyril n. aririguzo, n.d., aroye, momoh and d. wac aliche. the lady who robbed her mother to defend husband. onitsha : atlantic printers, n.d., asani, olusola. the future of nigerian girls a true and plain vision. ibadan: b.p.p., asani, olusola. life, devil and money. ebute-metta, nigeria: owotutu printing press., asani, olusola. love letters and how to write them. ibadan: metropolitan office, 1959., asani, olusola. the secrets of ladies. ibadan: b.p.p., asani, olusola. western ladies and car free lifts lead to the production of fatherless children. ibadan: b.p.p., azikiwe, nnamdi. respect for human dignity: an inaugural address by his excellency dr. nnamdi azikiwe, p.c. governor-general nd commander-in chief, federation of nigeria 16 november, 1960. onitsha : chike mbadugha, 1960., azikiwe, nnamdi. suppression of the press in british west africa. onitsha : african book company, ltd., azubuike, eusebius. how to make meetings. onitsha : highbred maxwell., balogun, kolawole. the crowning of the elephant. oshogbo, nigeria: tanimehin-ola printing press., bediako, k.a. the downfall of kwame nkrumah. accra: k.a. bediako., blay, j. benibengor. be content with your lot. aboso, ghana: benibengor book agency., boahemaa, beatrice yaa. my runaway husband. accra: facts and fiction agency., chiazor, banjamin o. how to be the friend of girls. onitsha : highbred maxwell., eze, c.n. learn to speak 360 interesting proverbs and know your true brother. onitsha : highbred maxwell., eze, charles n. little john in the love adventure. onitsha : lawrence n. igwebuike., eze, s. how to know when a girl loves you or hates you ; by s. eze, enlarged and corrected by j.c. anorue. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop (good-way press., ezek, kingsley charles. how to avoid mistakes and live a good life: a moral instructions on don'ts in public meetings, social gatherings and functions for boys and girls, workers and traders. onitsha : appolos brothers press., eze, kingsley. our interesting ibo native laws and customs. osha, nigeria: edwin madumelu., eze, k.c. teach yourself how to study and write important love letters. osha, nigeria: prince madumelu., eze, k.c. the way and how to conduct meetings. onitsha : gebo & brothers., eze, k.c. why modern boys and girls are careless. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., ezuma, ben. phs.ds on parade and been-tos symposium. onitsha : etudo limited, 1965., gebo & brother, o. ekpenyong, oluya and gebo. the four main languages of nigeria: hausa, ibo, yoruba and efik languages. onitsha : gebo brothers., how to write all kinds of letters and compositions / compiled by many authors. onitsha : highbred maxwell., iguh, thomas. agnes in the game of love. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., iguh, thomas. alice in the romance of love. onitsha : appolos brothers., iguh, thomas. the disappointed lover. onitsha : a.n. onwudiwe, ; obtainable from gebo brothers bookshop., iguh, thomas orlando. dr. nkrumah in the struggle for freedom. onitsha : highbred maxwell., iguh, thomas orlando. dr. okpara (the power) in political storm. onitsha : highbred maxwell., iguh, thomas. dr. zik in the battle for freedom. third ed. onitsha: a. onwudiwe & sons, 1966., iguh, thomas. the last days of lumumba. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., iguh, thomas o. love at first hate at last. onitsha : gebo brothers., iguh, thomas. l90000,000,000 man still says no money. onitsha : highbred maxwell., iguh, thomas. the sorrows of love. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., iguh, thomas. the struggles and trial of jomo kenyatta. onitsha : appolos bros., iguh, thomas o. tshombe of katanga. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., ikeobi, i.o. the mole concept. benin city: ethiope publishing house., j.c. brothers. the family birth recorder for keeping particulars of new born babies from birth to school age. onitsha : j.c. brothers., kamula, sigis. the surprise packet. port harcourt: v.c. okeanu., 'larewaju, olumuyiwa ola. the life history of koforun romance experience: formula "a" and "b". ibadan: rasaki o. asani., the life and work of dr. zik in nigeria republic. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., macdonald, ayo. the joy of life and its merriments. onitsha : eastern niger printing press., macdonald, ayo. the labour of man. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., madu, n.o. miss rosy in the romance of true love. onitsha : a. onwudiwe and sons., madumere, adele. love is infallible. port harcourt, nigeria: continental printing press., madumere, adele. the way to make friends with girls. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., the master of life. no condition is permanent. onitsha : njoku & sons book-shop., the master of life. no condition is permanent / revised and enlarged by the master of life. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., maxwell, highbred. forget me not: determination is the secret key to success. onitsha : highbred maxwell., maxwell, highbred. the gentle giant "alakuku." onitsha : students own book-shop., maxwell, highbred. guides for engagement. onitsha : highbred maxwell students own bookshop., maxwell, highbred. our modern ladies characters towards boys. onitsha : highbred maxwell., maxwell, highbred. public opinion on lovers. onitsha : highbred maxwell., maxwell, highbred. wonders shall never end. onitsha : highbred maxwell., mbah, a.n. how to avoid dangerous ladies and modern harlots. onitsha : appolos bros. press ltd., metoh, p.l. a short history of cameroon. onitsha : providence printing press., ngoh, john e.a. florence in the river of temptation. onitsha : century printing press., njoku, n.o. & co. the complete letter-writing made easy for ladies and gentlemen. s.l.: njoku & sons bookshop., njoku, nathan. beware of women: why women are not trusted. onitsha: high ranking printing press., njoku, nathan o. a guide to marriage. onitsha : njoku & sons bookshop., njoku. how to marry a good girl and live in peace with her. onitsha : chinyelu printing press., njoku, n. o. life turns man up and down, money and girls turn man up and down. onitsha : survival bookshop., njoku, n.o. why boys and girls of nowadays don't marry in time. onitsha : njoku & sons bookshop., nkwoh, marius. cocktail ladies (in the series: facing the facts around us.) freeman's press, nnadozie, j.o. beware of harlots and many friends, the world is hard. onitsha : j.c. nnadozie., nnadozie, j.o. what women are thinking about men. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., nnani, f.c. never lose hope. onitsha : varsity bookshop., nsofor, tony emeka. adventure on the niger. onitsha : university publishing co, nwachukwu, shakespeare c.n. the last days of kwame nkrumah. onitsha : n.a.b., nwachukwu, shakespeare c.n. the tragedy of civilian major. onitsha : nwachukwu-africana books., nwakama, j.i. feed your enemy. includes idiok, mrs. r. temptation. ibadan, nigeria: daystar press., nwosu, cletus gibson. miss cordelia in the romance of destiny. port harcourt, nigeria: vincent okeanu., obiaga, c.c. boys and girls of nowadays (jerry and obiageli in love). onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., obioha, raphael i.m. beauty is a trouble. onitsha, nigeria ; highbred maxwell., obioha, r.i.m. between love and obedience. onitsha : gebo & brothers., obioha, r.i.m. a book for nigerian bachelors guide. onitsha : gebo & brothers., obioha, r.i.m. how to write better business letters, good english applications, telegrams and important invitations. onitsha : highbred maxwell., obioha, r.i.m. the important book for nigerian bachelors. onitsha : gebo & brothers., obioha, r.i.m. sylvanus olympio. onitsha : r.i.m. obioha, atlantic printers., odili, frank e. what is life onitsha : n.njoku & sons., ogali, ogali a. veronica my daughter. osha, nigeria: appolos brothers press., ogu, h.o. rose only loved my money. aba, nigeria: the treasure press., ohaejesi, chioi m. how to write love letters and win girls' love: 95 love letters and how to compose them. onitsha : m.c. ohaejesi and brothers., ohaejesi, michael n. good manners speeches, etiquette, and good characters for best living. onitsha : m.n. ohaejesi and brothers., ohaejesi, michael n. the sweetness and kingdom of love, a most exciting exposition of live and general love. onitsha : michael ohaejesi and brothers., oji, gordian, r.a. salami and mallam b. umoru. learn to speak english, hausa, ibo and yoruba languages. onitsha : gebo & brothers., okeke, alex obiorah. i'll rather break my sword and die. onitsha : highbred maxwell., okenwa, m. boy's life of zik, the president of nigeria republic. onitsha : gebo & brothers., okonkwo, r. the game of love. onitsha : popular printing press., okonkwo, r. how to make friends with girls. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., okonkwo, r. man works hard for money. s.l.: j.c. anorue., okonkwo, r. never trust all that love you. fourth ed. onitsha : popular printing press., okonkwo, r. never trust all that love you. fifth ed. orlu, nigeria: friends printing press., okonkwo, r. never trust all that love you. sixth ed., enlarged. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop (good-way press)., okonkwo, r. never trust all that loves you. sixth ed., enlarged. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop (good-way printing press)., okonkwo, r. no money, much expenses, enemies and bad friends kill a man. onitsha : new era printers. n.d., okonkwo, r. why boys never trust money monger girls. onitsha : all star printers., okonkwo, s. the life of an applicant and many things. onitsha : j.o. nnadozie., olajide, j. olu. yours for ever: the tragedy of two lovers. ibadan: sunny olu brothers., olarewaju, olumuyiwa ola. how to write love letters. oshogbo, nigeria: onward commercial press., okonkwo, r. ibo made easy in english language. book two. onitsha : j.c. brothers., olisa, okenwa. how lumumba suffered in life and died in katanga. onitsha : okenwa's publications., olisa, okenwa. how to live bachelor's life and girl's life without much mistakes. onitsha : new era printers., olisah, okenwa. how to live better life and help yourself. onitsha : okenwa publications., olisah, okenwa. how to write good letters and applications. onitsha : highbred maxwell., olisah, okenwa. the life in the prison yard. onitsha : general printing press., olisah, okenwa. the life story and death of mr. lumumba. onitsha : all star printers., olisah, okenwa. the life story and death of mr. lumumba. onitsha : chinyelu printing press., olisah, okenwa. man has no rest in his life. s.l.: b.c. okara & sons., olisa, okenwa. money hard to get but easy to spend. s.l.: j.c. anorue, 1970, olisa, okenwa. my wife: about husband and wife who hate themselves. onitsha : highbred maxwell., olisah, okenwa. trust no-body in time because human being is trickish and difficult. onitsha : new era printers., olisah, okenwa. the way to get money. onitsha : highbred maxwell., olisah, sunday okenwa. drunkards believe bar as heaven. onitsha : chinyelu printing press., olusola. how to conduct social gatherings: a boon to all boys and girls. ibadan: merryfield (nigeria) company., olusola. "innocent grace" and her 23 husbands. ibadan: merryfield (nigeria) company., olushola. the secrets of ladies. ibadan, nigeria: merryfield nigeria company., onwudiegwu, j. kenddys. the bitterness of love. onitsha : gebo & brothers., onwudiegwu, j. kenddys. the miracles of love. onitsha : gebo & brothers., onwuka, wilfred. the life story and death of john kennedy. onitsha : j.c. brothers bookshop., onwuka, wilfred. the life history and last journey of president john kennedy. onitsha : all star printers., onwuka, wilfred. the way to write love letters and make good friendship with girls. nnewi, nigeria: all star printers, 1972., orizu, okwudili. to rule is a trouble. book 1. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons, 1960., orji, gordian. how to learn proverbs and important things. onitsha : gebo & brothers., osuji, lemmy. lemmy way riddles & jokes. sixth ed. onitsha : freedom press., rajih, s.a. the complete story of nigeria civil war for unity (1966-70) and current affairs. western state of nigeria: s.a. rajih, 1971., raphael, raja. how to start life and end it well. onitsha : new era press., raphael, raja. modern hand book in business. onitsha : trinity printing press., raphael, raja. the right way to approach ladies and get them in love. onitsha : appolos bros. press., raphael, raja. trial of awolowo and 23 others together with his appeal. onitsha : new era printers., shola. the future of nigerian girls: a true and plain vision about nigeria girls. ebute-metta: owotutu printing press., shola. love letters and how to write them. ibadan: merryfield (nigeria) commpany., shola. 100 riddles and wise sayings for party occassions and enjoyments. ibadan: merryfield company., sowande, fela. ifa. oja, nigeria: forward press., speedy eric. the art of love in real sense. onitsha : a onwudiwe & sons., speedy eric. how to write love letters toasts and business letters. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., speedy eric. how to write successful letters and applications. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., speedy eric. mabel the sweet honey that poored away. onitsha : a onwudiwe & sons., stephen, felix n. how to get a lady in love. onitsha : njoku & sons., stephen, f.n. lack of money is not lack of sense. onitsha : chinyelu., the strong man of the pen. how to know who loves you and hates you: man is an untrustworthy being. onitsha : appolos bros. press., the strongs man of pen. life turns man up and down. onitsha : njoku & sons bookshop., tamaklo, c. cakpo. a reminder. third ed. ho, ghana: e.p. church press, 1971., ude, a.o. the nigerian bachelor's guide. onitsha : udes's publishing company., uta, ezekiel and aaron u. agunweze. landlords and tenants. onitsha : popular press, 1964., uwanaka, charles u. good citizens good country. lagos: charles u. uwanaka, 1964., what condition is permanent no condition. onitsha : ob[t]ainable from gebo brothers (uralla-orlu : b.i. nnaji & sons press), young dynamic author. a dictionary of current affairs and army take over. onitsha : a. onwudiwe & sons., young dynamic author. the history of the african leaders. s.l.: s.n..

Onitsha Market Literature Guide: Home

• Pamphlets, Anthologies & Microform
• Related Works
• Further Reading
• Other NYPL Resources
• Journal Articles
• Other Institutions

Introduction

Welcome to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture  Onitsha Market Literature Guide. This guide is designed to assist researchers with identifying pamphlets sold in the Onitsha Market, located in Onitsha, Nigeria, during the mid-twentieth century. Collectively, these writings have become known as "Onitsha Market literature". The Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division has a significant collection of these titles available in print and microform. The guide also includes publications written about Onitsha Market literature as well as a selection of journal articles. Resources at additional  New York Public Library  locations and other institutions are also highlighted. 

From the Collection

Message to Researchers

The Onitsha Market Literature Guide is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all titles, but represents holdings that are currently available at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as identified in the New York Public Library's catalog . This guide may be updated as new information becomes available.  

• Next: Pamphlets, Anthologies & Microform >>
• Last Updated: Jan 6, 2023 1:51 PM
• URL: https://libguides.nypl.org/onitsha_market_literature

Postcolonial Literatures in the Local Literary Marketplace pp 81–140 Cite as

Nigeria: Nigerian Literature and/as the Market

• Jenni Ramone 4  
• First Online: 07 August 2020

256 Accesses

Part of the book series: New Comparisons in World Literature ((NCWL))

This chapter argues that the Nigerian market, a place for meeting, negotiation, reflection, and trade, is also central to the meaning of reading and the contingent position of the Nigerian author within their local literary marketplace. The chapter asks what reading means in Nigerian literature noting the significance of education and the market, in Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel , Chinua Achebe’s No Longer At Ease , Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Chihundu Onuzo’s Welcome to Lagos , Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to you by Chance , Chris Abani’s Graceland , and Ben Okri’s The Famished Road and Dangerous Love . Onitsha Market Literature illustrates the central position of the market in Nigerian literature and literary culture.

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Abani, Chris. 2005. Graceland . New York: Picador.

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———. 1996. Dangerous Love . London: Phoenix House.

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Ramone, J. (2020). Nigeria: Nigerian Literature and/as the Market. In: Postcolonial Literatures in the Local Literary Marketplace. New Comparisons in World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56934-9_3

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Explore African Literature

Literary Things Invented by African Writers | Onitsha Market Pamphlets

by Ainehi Edoro

June 22, 2015

The sonnet may not have been invented in Africa, but our poets write beautiful sonnets everyday. Novels may not have been invented in Africa, but our novels are some of the most beautiful ever written. 

We do have inventions of our own, though. African writers have always played with form and style and content in a bid to create new ways of writing and new objects for the literary market.

Here is the fourth post in a series showcasing literary forms that emerged out of the African context—literary inventions that could not have appeared anywhere else.

It all started in the 1960s  in Onitsha, a city built around a large market in the Igbo-speaking part of Nigeria.

While Wole Soyinka and Achebe were busy impressing the world with fancy stories about Lagos aristocrats, traders, schoolboys, shopkeepers, and owners of print shops were churning out racy stories about pretty girls lurking in seedy bars. Lurid tales of man-eating girls on the prowl for naive bachelors offered cheap thrills and escape to city dwellers.

Like notorious Nollywood marketers of today, these writers were in it solely for the money. Their goal was to satisfy the popular craving for dark and sensational tales inspired by the crowded confusion of everyday city life.

The stories are written in non-standard English, peppered with pidgin-English words and a good bit of spelling mistakes. The text and accompanying illustrations were set on cheap paper using old, sloppy printers. Still, people couldn’t get enough.

Melodramatic tales of sex and femme fatales are common with titles such as Beautiful Maria in the act of true love     and  They died in the game of love . My favorite is  Miss Cordelia in the Romance of Destiny: the Most Sensational Love Intricacy That Has Ever Happened in West Africa.

In They Died in the Game of Love , Kate and Tony (misspelled as Cathe and Thony) do the unthinkable. They have sexual intercourse. Kate’s abortion leads not only to her death but also to her mother’s death. After Kate’s death, Tony meets Agnes who also dies from attempted abortion, but this time in the hut of a witch doctor.  The lesson? Sex or what the author calls “corner-corner love” kills.

The sex scenes are not x-rated or even graphic, but they are lurid enough to have titillated the largely male audience of these stories and afford them a voyeuristic access to the bodies of women they had no chance of having.

Onitsha pamphlets were very much in sync with other pop-cultural phenomena of the 60s. High-life, the classic pop music of the times found its way into these stories. The same people grooving to Cardinal Red Lawson or Celestine Ukwu were the ones writing these tales.

Hi-life music featured in these stories as the height of carefree fun and helped the authors mark out bars or wherever high-life music was played as spaces of debauchery where naive bachelors lost their souls and their fortunes to bad girls.

Sadly, these writings did not make it through the Nigerian civil war. In the post-war Onitsha, a few people tried to resurrect the pamphlet, but they’d had ceased to be a thing.

But while they lasted, there were indeed stories by the city for the city.

Click HERE to download digital versions of the stories for free.

******************

Image by via Magic Transistor

Read other posts in the series.

Literary Things Invented by African Writers | Fagunwa’s Phantasia Novels

Literary Things Invented by African Writers | Wole Soyinka’s Prisonettes

• african literary inventions
• African literature
• onitsha market literature

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COMMENTS ( 5 ) -

Eddie Hewitt June 26, 2015 03:44

Thank you for the link. I will happily check this out.

Ainehi Edoro June 25, 2015 20:56

@Eddie: Kansas University has a massive archive of these pamphlets. Some are also available online. Follow this link: http://onitsha.diglib.ku.edu/

Ainehi Edoro June 25, 2015 20:54

@Ayo: You're spot on. Life in the city was moving at such dizzying speed, and these kinds of stories was one way to make sense of things.

Ayo Inika June 23, 2015 04:07

I only became aware of this genre a few years ago, and I think it faithfully captures the consternation over the yielding of traditional structures to the pressures of modernization - an anxiety which was country wide. Thanks for this.

Eddie Hewitt June 22, 2015 15:49

This is a terrific series on African literary inventions. I had wondered when the next one was coming. This is a captivating genre, sensual too, and as so often with the subjects you write about, I want to find out more.

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The Onitsha Market Literature Phenomenon

Onitsha market literature , 20th-century genre of sentimental, moralistic novellas and pamphlets produced by a semiliterate school of writers (students, fledgling journalists, and taxi drivers) and sold at the bustling Onitsha market in eastern Nigeria . Among the most prolific of the writers were Felix N. Stephen, Speedy Eric, Thomas O. Iguh, and O. Olisah, the latter two having also written chapbook plays about prominent literary figures.

The Onitsha writings have two distinct characteristics: a fascination with westernized urban life and the desire to warn the newly arrived against the corruption and dangers that accompany it. Typical titles are “Rose Only Loved My Money,” “Drunkards Believe Bar as Heaven,” “Why Some Rich Men Have No Trust in Some Girls,” and “How to Get a Lady in Love.” Sentimental novelettes, political tracts, and “how to” guides on writing love letters, handling money, and attaining prosperity all have achieved great commercial success, and booksellers hawk these cheap, locally produced pamphlets (which are printed on handpresses) at Onitsha alongside farmers and fishermen, cattlemen from the north, and cocoa merchants from the west.

Although the Onitsha pamphlets are of little literary value, they serve the dual educational function of improving the English of their broad, semiliterate audience and of addressing themselves to the immediate problem of how to live in a big city and how to reconcile rural values with a confusing cluster of new temptations and styles of living. Unfortunately, traditional mores are often only halfheartedly upheld, and the old folk back in the village often become symbols of outdated ideas and are laughed at for their illiterate pidgin English. Thus, the dangerous city is secretly the object of great admiration for most Onitsha writers, and no sense of nostalgia over a lost African past such as is found in Nigeria’s top literary figures has its place in their market literature .

As a literary phenomenon the Nigerian chapbooks, similar in many ways to the chapbooks of 17th- and 18th-century England, are important for the close relationship of writer and audience without reference to an outside world, and this subliterary genre seems likely to persist alongside the mainstream of Nigerian literature.

Onitsha gave us  Onitsha Market Literature, inexpensive booklets and  pamphlets published by local presses which  covered issues on love, sex, marriage, and money, as well as local history, folktales and proverbs. These were stories about the “masses”, usually written by them and Emmanuel Obiechina, who wrote extensively about this literature, notes that  the most devoted readers were “grammar and elementary school boys and girls, lower-level office workers and journalists, primary school teachers, traders, mechanics, taxi-drivers, farmers and the new literates”.

With titles like Miss Cordelia in the Romance of Destiny , Miss Rosy in the Romance of True Love ,  No Condition is Permanent , Why Boys Never Trust Money Monger Girls , Boys and Girls of Nowadays , The Way to Make Friends with Girls , Money Hard to Get but Easy to Spend  and Drunkards Believe Bar is Heaven  the pamphlets were trying to  reflect the broad experiences of Nigeria’s emerging urban working class at that time.   Sadly, it did not survive past the Nigerian civil war.

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Review EXPLORING AND BIBLIOGRAPHING THE NIGERIAN ONITSHA MARKET LITERATURE AS POPULAR FICTION

The lack of local literature bedevilled African and Nigerian literatures for a long time. This contributed in no small measure to a few critics averring that Africa and Nigeria lack literature of any major type especially of the traditional form. The twentieth century Onitsha Market Literature in Nigeria which came in pamphlets, novellas, and chap-books is just an example to disprove this assertion. Within this traditional but regional literature is a compilation of oral literary sourced works and documented solutions to modern life issues. It is a potpourri of life experiences of Nigerians within the colonial and post-colonial life. This paper, through pedagogical and bibliographical modes, situates the development and effect of this onerous popular fictional phenomenon as a relevant precursor to the origin and development of not only present day Nigerian Literature but also to a large extent, to the Anglophone West African Literature.

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From the first appearance of the form in Nigeria, in the early work of Amos Tutuola, it is already possible to say that the Nigerian novel is traditional, in that it has sought consciously to meet the requirements of the art. It comes of age, that is, at the time it first begins calling forth critical efforts at interpretation and understanding by taking place in a form which is also traditionally very important for a literary culture, the form of the heroic narrative, in Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. On the one hand, it is as if the tradition wishes to leave no one in doubt that it is literary; on the other, the movement from fantasy to the heroic is a kind of sign-signal that this is indeed a tradition.

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The following essay considers the shifting attitudes towards the use of the English Language in Nigerian prose fiction, placing particular emphasis upon the Nigerian novel. Because of its long history of British and European contact, and because of its large concentration of canonical and well-read Anglophone authors, Nigeria has been selected for specific consideration. During the discussion below, however, examples have been drawn from other West-African and sub-Saharan African countries, when pertinent. In the following, the varying historical positions that have been assumed within Nigeria (and, more broadly, by those of Nigerian descent) regarding English use in indigenous fiction will be diachronically, or historically, considered, one the one hand. On the other, the varying and varied theoretical stances that have been adopted on this issue will be synchronically considered in order to conduct a comprehensive examination of this vexed subject, which is both historically rooted in imperialism and colonialism, and very much alive in contemporary theoretical debate. In so doing, this article will return to, and perhaps challenge, the notion that English is a somehow “foreign” language in Nigeria, as intellectuals such as Chinua Achebe and J.O Ekpenyong, discussed below, have also suggested.

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Since the early years of British contact with Nigeria, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, Nigerian literature has been reflecting on the changing persona of the British in the country through its frequent inclusion and handling of British characters. This chapter considers ten novels published between 1933 and 2006, to track changes in Nigerian writers’ perception of Britishness, from the prejudiced or accommodating colonial administrators and district officers of Omenuko to the city girl’s husband of People in the City, from the young female teachers of Emecheta’s school to the arrogant university professors sketched by Ike and the lonely journalist that dominates Adichie’s second novel. Focusing on the last of these novels, the study will then reveal a significant shift in the presentation of British attitudes and interests, with the central character of Richard Churchill, the young journalist from Shropshire, standing out as very different from his compatriots. He desired to see the country, and his move away from the partying Lagos to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka gradually leads to his transformation as he falls in love, learns Igbo and chooses to stay in Igboland through the war years. He ends up writing an essay to denounce the British stand on the civil war – The World Was Silent When we Died, embedded in the novel. This latest write-up, while echoing Achebe’s district officer’s monograph on The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger, stands in sharp contrast with it, as its author now takes sides with the embattled Biafrans

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This paper attempts to trace the various vicissitudes of the evolution and development of African Literature: from oral literature, through pre-colonial literature, colonial literature, to post-colonial literature. African literature is defined as ‘literature of and from Africa’. However, though cursory reference is made to non-English African literatures as well, the focus of this paper is literature of English ‘black Africa’. A special page is devoted to African-American literature because of its unique historical position in the development of African literature. The foundations of modern African literature as an intellectual ‘school’ are traced back to the middle of the 18th century. Modern African literature emerged as a resistance platform, an instrument of struggle against oppression and exploitation. Unfortunately, more than a couple of centuries on, African literature is still faced with formidable challenges, including lack of freedom of expression imposed by political authoritarianism and socio-cultural reactionarism. Even though a great deal of achievement has been recorded since its inception in the 18th century, African literature still has a long way to go in the struggle to fulfill its mission to foster socio-political justice and true liberty for the common people of Africa.

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An African popular literature: a study of Onitsha market pamphlets

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• Foreword Chinua Achebe
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Literature for the masses
• 3. Passport to the happy life
• 4. Romantic love: its sources for West Africa
• 5. Daughters and fathers
• 5. The love of love
• 7. The reign of Shakespeare: style
• 8. The newspaper and the cinema
• 9. Religion and morals
• 10. Conclusion
• A bibliography of the pamphlet literature
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

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They died in the game of love

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Umunnah, Cyril, “They died in the game of love,” KU Libraries Exhibits , accessed April 6, 2024, https://exhibits.lib.ku.edu/items/show/6880 .