Remembering ‘African Writers Series’

This is not a eulogy, just in case it begins to sound like one. Why? Books hardly (or never) die and authors live forever in the sanctuary of their words. The death of both may only mean a total disappearance of the works off the face of the earth. This is probably not the case […]

This is not a eulogy, just in case it begins to sound like one. Why? Books hardly (or never) die and authors live forever in the sanctuary of their words. The death of both may only mean a total disappearance of the works off the face of the earth. This is probably not the case with the African Writers Series (AWS). But the fact that we need to remember the AWS is perhaps an indication it is slipping into the past.  
Founded in 1962 and published by Heinemann, the series was a voice for many African writers. It provided young Africans with a fresh perspective of Africa seen through the eyes of Africans, as against what European literature – suspected to be bias – offered. Just over a year after Nigeria gained independence in 1960, its creation could not have come at a more favourable time to its writers.
Through AWS, a number of works soon hit the market. There was Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ in 1962, ‘A Man of the People,’ (1966), ‘No Longer at Ease,’ (1963), ‘Arrow of God,’ (1966), ‘Girls At War,’ (1972), ‘Beware and Soul Brother: Poems,’ (1970). Wole Soyinka’s ‘Poems of Black Africa,’ (1975) and ‘The Interpreters.’ Cyprian Ekwensi’s ‘Burning Grass: a story of the Fulani of Northern Nigeria,’ (1962), ‘People of the City,’ (1963), ‘Lokotown and other stories,’ (1966), ‘Restless City and Christmas Gold,’ (1975) and ‘Jagua Nana,’ (1975). Elechi Amadi’s ‘Estrangement,’ (1986), ‘The Great Ponds,’ (1969), ‘The Concubine,’ (1966).
Beyond Nigeria, Ngugi wa Thiong’o – a Kenyan writer – had works under AWS, such as, ‘Petals of Blood,’ published in 1977, ‘The Black Hermit,’ (1968), ‘A Grain of Wheat,’ (1967) and ‘The River Between,’ (1965). Although the focus was on publishing works of authors from the West African region, the scope soon expanded to include works from other regions, thus, the emergence of writers under the series like Ngugi wa Thiong’o from Kenya, Nadine Gordimer and Nelson Mandela from South Africa among others.
The marketing website of AWS says: “This online edition includes over 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose, including works by Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Steve Biko, Buchi Emecheta, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Doris Lessing, Nelson Mandela, Dambudzo Marechera, Christopher Okigbo, Okot p’Bitek and Tayeb Salih.” Not a single mention of a new generation author. For example, ‘The Labyrinths’ by Christopher Okigbo, reprinted in 2011, was first published in 1971.
Perhaps this is why, in March this year, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) released a selected authors list for the ‘Nigerian Writers Series,’ showing how a continuation of the impact of the series – and a contemporary one for that matter – is strongly desired. New names and new titles made the list. These include Elias Ozikpu’s ‘Souza Boy,’ Hannah Onoguwe’s ‘Cupid’s Catapult,’ Hillary C. Anugba’s ‘Burning Savannah,’ Habib Yaqoob’s ‘The Oath,’ Ayodele Arowosegbe’s ‘Crimson Clouds,’ Isaac Ogezi’s ‘The Threshing Floor,’ Pever X’s ‘Cat Eyes,’ Julius Bokoru’s ‘Memoir: The Angel That Was Always There,’ Nnenna Ihebom’s ‘Patriots and Sinners.’
“We modelled the series after the African Writers Series in order to discover younger voices who would write according to the dictates of their conscience and not to that of the West and also to bring out the short comings of the country,” Abdullahi Denja, ANA vice president, says about Nigerian Writers Series.
However, today, the AWS appears to remain relevant to higher learning in Nigeria. In Ramat Polytechnic, Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘No Longer At Ease,’ and J.P. Clark’s collection of poems, still feature in the department of Language and Liberal Studies’ curriculum, a lecturer, Mrs. Laura John intimates.
Although the series does not boast of new talent and more recent books, its impact is still felt in the academia. Mrs. John, who acknowledged writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zainab Alkali, explains that: “New generation writers write mostly for entertainment and not for educational purposes.”
Mrs. Mary Yilzim started her teaching career in primary school in 1967 and later became a secondary school teacher of Literature in English and English Language at Federal Government Girls’ College, Bauchi, from 1981, and only recently retired. She views the AWS to be of two kinds – Those written for financial gain and the ones targeted at impacting the lives of students. She narrated how they once discovered that the manner of words used in a particular book were not appropriate for young minds which led to its withdrawal from the school’s curriculum. But she also remembers titles from the series which had tremendous impact, such as Isidore Okpewho’s ‘The Victims.’ “The African Writers Series are still used in federal and private schools, but I don’t know if it is so for the states,” she says.