Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Producing Print
- Part II Readers and Audiences
- Part III New Genres
- Chapter 11 Linguistic Cohabitation and the Equivalences of Print
- Chapter 12 Autoethnographic Expression and the Politics of Educational Adaptation
- Chapter 13 Satirical Street Literature
- Chapter 14 Pioneers of the Popular
- Chapter 15 Orthographic Arguments
- Chapter 16 ‘Usefully Unofficial’ Reading
- Part IV Worlds of Print
- Index
- References
Chapter 16 - ‘Usefully Unofficial’ Reading
Onitsha Market Literature and Anglophone Print Cultures in Colonial Nigeria
from Part III - New Genres
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2025
Book contents
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- African Literature in Transition
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Producing Print
- Part II Readers and Audiences
- Part III New Genres
- Chapter 11 Linguistic Cohabitation and the Equivalences of Print
- Chapter 12 Autoethnographic Expression and the Politics of Educational Adaptation
- Chapter 13 Satirical Street Literature
- Chapter 14 Pioneers of the Popular
- Chapter 15 Orthographic Arguments
- Chapter 16 ‘Usefully Unofficial’ Reading
- Part IV Worlds of Print
- Index
- References
Summary
Focusing on the proliferation of independent African-owned presses in eastern Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s, this chapter discusses the popular pamphlets known as Onitsha market literature. The chapter asks how the upsurge in local publishing shaped readers’ ideas about literary languages and contributed to authors’ social prestige as intellectuals. The chapter describes the practicalities of pamphlet production, as well as the ways pamphleteers offered fresh conceptualisations of literary inspiration outside dominant western frameworks for works of the imagination.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- African Literature in TransitionPrint Cultures and African Literature, 1860–1960, pp. 313 - 332Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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